FIRST OF ALL...

I say this is Mitzi Magee's family because the idea of a MITZI MAGEE: VAMPIRE POODLE series was born here, inspired by our dog Pete, who isn't even part poodle, and we intend to post about family doings. When there are two married writers in a family, family doings can be a little unusual. Bruce and I will both be posting here (and perhaps Pete; we don't know if he can type yet) and we'll try to keep you abreast of projects, passions, and pains...

 

                                                               With love and humor,

                                                                April Campbell Jones

The Novels of Bruce Jones

The Bouncing of Bruce Jones

The Creation of Mitzi Magee

THREE AT ONCE!

I've been editing today. This is how Bruce and I work together right now, at least on the Mitzi Magee novels: we plot the chapters together, he writes in his study, I edit and rewrite in mine. We've written three Mitzi Magee novels this way in the last several months, and if you're wondering what happened to the first one, MITZI MAGEE: VAMPIRE POODLE, it disappeared from Amazon because I pulled it so that I could release it together with its two sequels, MITZI MAGEE: BLOOD SECRET and MITZI MAGEE: A NIP IN TIME this month. I'll be posting all three covers and links to the books when that happens. Not to worry.

How, you may ask, do you work with your husband every day without wanting to kill him?

I don't. The fact of the matter is, I do want to kill him about half the time. The other half I'm laughing at the insanity that turns up on the pages he's written, characters and events I could never have anticipated. The guy's got talent, I'll grant him that. It's great that we're finally sharing credit on something we've worked on together; we've been partners for thirty years and you won't see my name on most of the stuff we've turned out. Take for example the DC graphic novel: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS DARKLY, drawn by Sam Kieth (and I don't care what they're calling it in print, because I named it in the first place!) Apparently it showed up on the New York Times bestseller list at number two for graphic novels and although I believe Sam knew it at the time, I pretty much came up with that particular Batman story on my own, since I'm a big fan of Alice and Wonderland and the whole schmeer and I thought it might be fun to get poor Batman in over his head. But the cover says: by Bruce Jones and Sam Kieth. Well. Of course. Bruce was the one under exclusive contract to DC at the time it was written. Let's forget the fact that we've been working together since the Ka-zar days, which Brent Anderson, the artist on Ka-zar the Savage, kindly told the world in an interview a few years back.  Without a doubt, as he's shown through his comics, his many published novels, and his screenplays, Bruce Jones is one of the most talented and unique writers out there.

I wouldn't be working with him if he weren't. Despite the fact I'm wild for the man personally.

But it's nice to see my name on MITZI. Actually makes me feel like a real writer...

 

 

 

MITZI MAGEE IS HERE!

SHE’S HOT! SHE’S FAST! SHE’S SEXY! AND SHE’S SPAYED!
When small town reporter Ed Magee wrote his latest small town story for his small town newspaper he knew he was onto something big! Maybe the biggest story of his life! But even Ed didn’t know he’d just written a life-altering article, even Ed wasn’t prepared for the reaction from his small town boss and editor-- who read the piece, smiled up at Ed, patted him on the back, and fired him immediately! 

BUT WHEN THINGS GET TOUGH—THE TOUGH GET GOING!
And Ed went straight to the top! The top of Topeka Blvd to Elsie’s Bar, and trusted friend and ally Jack Daniels! He was dead drunk in fifteen minutes! Yet no amount of alcohol could blur the vision of loveliness sitting down on the stool beside him…the soft, raven hair, the luscious red lips, grab-me dress and hypnotic eyes… that beckoned and teased a mesmerized Ed with bold and provocative promises! How could he know this dark witch was drawing him into a forbidden world of sinister pleasure and unearthly desires, a vortex of unearthly sensations more outrageously voluptuous than his wildest dreams! How could he possibly know this shadowy seductress would vanish in a huff and stick him with the tab?

THAT’S WHEN THINGS GET REALLY HOT!
Beaten? Down trodden? Fired from his job and jilted at the bar? Maybe. But that didn’t mean Ed Magee wasn’t suicidal. He trudged back to his little two room dump to lick his wounds…never dreaming, never conceiving, that someone would be there waiting to lick them for him. Waiting to lick him all over! The raven-haired seductress from the bar? No. The pert young secretary from his ex-job? No. The middle-aged landlord with the mustache and the tattoo on her left arm? No. She would come later at the first of the month. What awaited Ed now in his humble, rent-tardy bungalow was the last person on this Earth Ed Magee expected to see: his old boss and editor from the small town paper!

BACK ON TOP!
Ed had barely gotten the top back on the can of month-old Spam when he saw the figure waiting quietly on his living room couch. What was his old newspaper boss doing here--having just fired him an hour earlier? More importantly, how had he gotten in through the locked door? More importantly than that, what was he doing wearing Ed’s own suit? Even still more importantly why were his ex-bosses’ eyes glowing red now like a bat’s and when had he acquired those shiny white fangs? And why was he leaping across the room now to bury those fangs in Ed’s throat? All the while muttering about how vampires were taking over the town…in fact, the whole world! And would Ed be interesting in joining the movement? And would there be medical benefits, Ed wonders, if you’re already dead? And would the stacked brunette at the bar be there? And whose poodle just crashed through the living room window behind Ed’s ex-boss…and why did it have fiery red eyes and glistening fangs too! And who’s going to pay for that window when the landlord shows?

THE CURSE
Ed cursed himself for not paying the cable bill and keeping up with CNN--clearly there was a lot more going on in the world than he was privy to. But in the next few seconds, Ed Magee, ex-newspaper reporter and sometimes moderate-to-heavy drinker, would discover not only just how nightmarishly unbelievable the world had become, how there was a war going on that would put every person on Earth in peril, but that to fight that war--even without a job---he’d not only have to put his very soul at peril, but somehow afford a dog license!

CAN YOUR NERVES STAND THE STRAIN?
Can any sane person remain sane under the ceaseless horror awaiting him in the nerve-shattering pages of this novel? Only to realize he’s been totally ripped off because the real answers don’t come until well into the series’ third book! Only you, and millions like you—no, billions like you--can know the answers to these questions…questions that demand yet more answers that in return require yet more questions!

WILL IT GO ROUND IN CIRCLES?

I spent most of this Saturday editing a massive horror novel my brilliantly talented husband has written, thus bringing up the subject of professional jealousy in our household. And I'd say it was rampant.

 

I've been Bruce's first editor from the time we met. He, on the other hand, seldom reads anything I have written. By myself, that is. Often we write together, which means mainly we plot together and he does the actual writing, though not always. 

 

Frankly, I hate to write. I just happen to love what I have written, and often it comes out of the blue anyway and it's like reading it for the first time. The advantage to being Bruce's first editor is that I get to read his stuff before anyone else does. The disadvantage is, when I'm editing Bruce's book, I'm not writing my own.

 

You'd think that professional jealousy would not rear its ugly head between two people as crazy about each other as we are, but it's plagued us from the beginning. We often had to work in different fields just to avoid it. And when we do work together, there's always the question of who wrote what and which one of us came up with what idea. It gets pretty ridiculous sometimes, since Bruce has no memory for that sort of thing at all and I remember every little detail. 

 

Our writing is actually nothing alike, though I can do a pretty fair imitation of Bruce's style and have on occasion. But we both grew up on sci-fi and mystery stories, Shirley Jackson, and Alfred Hitchcock films, so we have a lot in common as far as our pop culture vocabulary goes. Nowdays it's easy to tell the books we own apart; Bruce likes to read male writers and fiction, and I'll read anything except a romance novel.

 

I've always been Bruce's biggest fan. I've often wished he were mine. That spot is taken by my daughter Akisha, an enormous April booster and someone who has read my screenplays and attempts at novels over the years. As it is she and I often have exactly the same book, we like the same things as far as reading goes, and I trust her implicitly.

 

Bruce still doesn't read my writing, exactly the way Richard Matthews in my book, LIE LIKE A WOMAN, does not read the novels Bree, his wife, writes. You could say it was art imitating life...

 

LIE LIKE A WOMAN: A Bree and Richard Matthews mystery