Edward Yatscoff launches his latest crime novel, Services Rendered.

 

Welcome to fellow BWL Publishing author, Edward Yatscoff!

Edward Yatscoff was born in Welland, Ontario.  After living in Australia and backpacking around the world, he met his wife Gloria on a freighter in the South China Sea.  They married and moved to Beaumont, Alberta.  After 32 years with Edmonton Fire Rescue he retired as a station captain and is the first author to write Canadian firefighter novels.  He swam with a marlin in Honduras, climbed the Great Wall of China, tried to smuggle a Playboy magazine into the USSR, was accused of throwing eggs at an Aussie PM, and survived the 1979 revolution in Grenada during the honeymoon.  He continues to travel, write, and enjoy the outdoors.

His website is http://www.yatscoffbooks.com

What is your latest release?

My latest novel is SERVICES RENDERED a hard-boiled crime novel released last October. It doesn’t pull any punches and has plenty pf crime. Think of Home Depot meet Somali gangbangers.

SERVICES RENDERED: Got a bully in your neighborhood? A troublesome squatter you can’t evict? When the courts or police can’t, or won’t help, well…good luck. Or you can hire Ritchie and Arlan, ex-cop and ex-con. Their trade is home renovations, but their side job is just what you’re looking for. They're the good kinda bad; angels to some, devils to others. But when they stumble on the real bad--a dangerous city gang--there's no one to call when they run out of options.

What are you working on now?

I am almost finished a first draft of THE NIKE BIRDS. It is about an abduction of two students in the Colombian jungle and the search for them. Murder, soldiers, cops, some Colombian politics, and snakes

Was there a person who encouraged you to write?

No one encouraged me to write. When I began writing I told people I was writing a book and they nodded politely. I once visited an elementary school for a career day and wore my firefighter uniform. The kids said they didn’t know a firefighter could read or write! Not sure if that’s a stereotype. But what challenged me to write was reading tame and dull stories my son used to bring home from school. I knew I could do better and since then wrote 6 MG and YA novels, all action with elements of crime. My writers group has given me encouragement, suggestions, and great critiquing. Submitting to them every month keeps me going as I enjoy discovering what I am doing wrong and also doing right.

What would you say are your strengths as an author?

My writers group tells me my strengths are action scenes, dialogue, and imaging. I have a tough time describing women’s clothes which evokes a few laughs in the group. I don’t like writing too much background as it bogs me down and my novels are long enough already. It feels like filler when I get too deep and I know readers will skim, like I do when I read too much of it. I do read a lot: 30 to 40 books per year, every year.

How often do you write, and do you write using a strict routine?

No routine. My work stews in my brain before I write each chapter. Every day I am either editing my work, critiquing my writers group submissions, or laying down a few more pages of a project. Once I sit to write something new the creative process kicks in and I can usually breeze through to write a chapter. I think of my project before I fall asleep, too. My old website had almost all my short stories and travel articles posted, some which won competitions. I’ve started to post them on Vocalmedia.com and might make a few pennies if people read them.

Five years from now, where do you see yourself as a writer?

In five years I hope to have novel #14 finished. THE NIKE BIRDS will give me 13 and it’s a bit worrisome as usually, by the time a first draft is done, I’m already thinking about another project.

I am really going to push the NBs novel to big agents and publishers because the early reviews on the first draft are very good. My historical fiction THE RUMRUNNER’S BOY took me to Toronto for the Crime Writers of Canada competition gala. Unfortunately I came second…to Lynwood Barclay, a huge bestseller! I met a few people at the gala (includi9ng Barclay) who have seen the NBs, as well as an LA crime writer (we swap beta reads) and the reviews are very good. If the first draft is as good as they say, I think a good sculpting should make it outstanding. But hey, I thought I’d have a bestseller by now, too.  I’m having fun writing it. My trips to Amazonia and various jungle parks in Latin America have inspired me for the story. I spent a good chunk of winter in Panama and those big boats going past my balcony I think may have planted a seed. 

 

TEETH OF THE COCODRILO  

4 STAR reviews: "A punch of an adventure novel!" – Christina Hoag, author of Skin of Tattoos

“Aaron Landers is in paradise - problem is, it’s going to get him killed.  Ever wondered what it would be like to have the Mexican mafia, police, and drug smugglers looking for you – and wanting you dead?.” – Jeff Buick, bestselling author.

“Entertaining, heart-pounding, and realistic!” -Laurie Stevens bestselling author

“Exotic crime under Mexican palms. Intrigue, obsession, hot romance, international crime, and murder set along the beautiful Mayan Riviera. Fate plays its hand to bind ex-firefighter Aaron Landers and Mexican state police Commandant Luis Gutierrez, when he saves the lives of Luis' sons in Cancun. Aaron falls hard for the alluring Maria Vasquez who comes with a vengeful, estranged husband and a sordid past with Luis. Opportunity arrives in easy money scams for Aaron and the Commandant, but the small crimes escalate out of control and explode into murder and revenge.”  https://books2read.com/u/bxQ81e

Link for FINAL RESPONSE

 https://books2read.com/b/Final-Response       Facebook page:  E.R. Yatscoff author