Chris Orcutt

CHRIS ORCUTT is an American novelist and fiction writer with over 30 years' writing experience and more than a dozen books in his oeuvre. Since 2015, Chris been working exclusively on his magnum opus. Bodaciously True & Totally Awesome: The Legendary Adventures of Avery “Ace” Craig is a 9-episode novel about teens in the 1980s. It’s about ’80s teens, but for adults (in other words, it’s decidedly not YA literature), and he’s applied this epic storytelling approach to the least examined, most misunderstood, most marginalized narrative space in American literature: the lives and inner worlds of teenagers.

Twitter Facebook Website

3,697 Days (and Counting)

For over ten years, or 3,697 days to be exact, I’ve been work­ing on a nov­el about teens in the 1980s. The nov­el even­tu­al­ly became…

Continue Reading

Climbers on Mt. Everest at the base of the Hillary Step.

It Always Seems Impossible Until It’s Done

Greet­ings, Dear Read­er. I’m dic­tat­ing this blog entry while walk­ing on my tread­mill, so please excuse me if I ram­ble or my “smart” phone sub­sti­tutes…

Continue Reading

Another Draft Bites the Dust

A month ago, I fin­ished the third draft of what I’m call­ing my “teen epic.” Between Decem­ber 2023 and the end of April 2024, I…

Continue Reading

The Nuclear Submarine U.S.S. Bodacious Resurfaces After Six Months of “Deep and Silent”

About five months ago, I bought a count­down clock that sits direct­ly below my com­put­er mon­i­tor, and for 157 days it’s been tick­ing down. It’s…

Continue Reading

The Social Distancing Champion Thrives in the Pandemic

I have a T‑shirt with a quote by F. Scott Fitzger­ald on it. The quote reads, “You don’t write because you want to say some­thing.…

Continue Reading

"Hard Times" by Hubert von Herkomer.

Hard(ish) Times

Back in March, I wrote a cheeky blog entry about how COVID-19 wouldn’t change my work as a writer a sin­gle bit. Turns out, I…

Continue Reading

The Inspiration of New Places and New Spaces for a Novelist

For a nov­el­ist, some­times a minus­cule change in rou­tine, place or liv­ing sit­u­a­tion can pro­duce a mas­sive shift in per­spec­tive that opens the flood­gates of…

Continue Reading

Spark Joy: In Which a Novelist Applies the Ideas of KonMari to His Entire Life

Inspired by my orga­niz­ing genius wife, I recent­ly watched the pro­gram Tidy­ing Up with Japan­ese orga­ni­za­tion guru Marie Kon­do. In the pro­gram and in her…

Continue Reading

Backstory: The Story Behind The Perfect Triple Threat

The idea for The Per­fect Triple Threat, a col­lec­tion of three Dako­ta Stevens mys­tery novel­las, didn’t come to me all at once. Rather, the book…

Continue Reading

Backstory: The Story Behind A Truth Stranger Than Fiction

WARNING: This entry con­tains spoil­ers about the nov­el A Truth Stranger Than Fic­tion. Con­tin­ue read­ing at your own risk! Most of my mys­tery nov­els, and…

Continue Reading

Chris Orcutt’s Favorite Short Stories

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the back­sto­ry of my short sto­ry col­lec­tion The Man, The Myth, The Leg­end, explain­ing what was hap­pen­ing in my…

Continue Reading

Backstory: The Story Behind Chris Orcutt’s The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Between 2010 and 2011, I wrote over thir­ty short sto­ries, many of which appeared in The Man, The Myth, The Leg­end or as chap­ters of…

Continue Reading

On the Virtues of Being Able to Write Anywhere

Com­pared to oth­er nov­el­ists I know or have read about, I’m some­thing of an anom­aly: I’m a nov­el­ist who can write just about any­where. While…

Continue Reading

Backstory: The Story Behind the Second Dakota Stevens mystery, The Rich Are Different — Part 2

Last week, in Part 1 of the sto­ry behind The Rich Are Dif­fer­ent, I described my expe­ri­ences dur­ing 9/11 in Man­hat­tan and the months fol­low­ing, and…

Continue Reading

Backstory: The Story Behind the Second Dakota Stevens mystery, The Rich Are Different — Part 1

The nov­el that became The Rich Are Dif­fer­ent was writ­ten dur­ing the win­ter of 2001-02, over a year before I even con­ceived of the Dako­ta…

Continue Reading

Writing in Asian Restaurants

I’m writ­ing this blog entry in one of my favorite Asian restau­rants: Momi­ji in Rhinebeck, NY. I’m not exact­ly sure why, but I’ve been writ­ing…

Continue Reading

Backstory: The Story Behind the First Dakota Stevens Mystery, A Real Piece of Work

A Real Piece of Work and the entire Dako­ta Stevens Mys­tery Series might nev­er have hap­pened were it not for a bad office chair. Dur­ing…

Continue Reading

FREE Giveaway! — A Sneak-Preview of the Prequel to The Dakota Stevens Mystery Series

The sto­ry of how Dako­ta Stevens and Svet­lana Krüsh met and became an inves­tiga­tive team is one that has haunt­ed me for 15 years—ever since…

Continue Reading

My Prodigiously Convoluted Yet Miraculously Productive Low-Tech Writing Process — Part 2 — With a Few Modest Writing Secrets

In the first install­ment of this piece, I described the first half of my writ­ing process: Writ­ing the first draft in long­hand or on a…

Continue Reading

My Prodigiously Convoluted Yet Miraculously Productive Low-Tech Writing Process — Part 1

I’m writ­ing this blog entry on my lat­est piece of low-tech equip­ment, an Olivet­ti Let­tera 32 type­writer. All told, I now have six type­writ­ers: •…

Continue Reading

Backstory: The Story Behind Perpetuating Trouble

The open­ing sen­tence of Per­pet­u­at­ing Trou­ble is absolute­ly true: “I was told to write this book by a pair of alien girls.” That inci­dent with…

Continue Reading

Do Less, Achieve More

In recent weeks, there has been a lot of pos­i­tive activ­i­ty regard­ing my lat­est book, my mem­oir of the writ­ing life, Per­pet­u­at­ing Trou­ble. But what…

Continue Reading

Being a Novelist Isn’t a Job, It’s a Lifestyle

Back in Decem­ber, after hav­ing com­plet­ed the first draft of a 550,000-word, 1,600-page nov­el, I took a near­ly month-long vaca­tion (my first in years). For…

Continue Reading

Perpetuating Trouble: I’m Livin’ the Dream! Or Am I?

I’m pleased to announce the release of my per­son­al mem­oir about the writ­ing life, Per­pet­u­at­ing Trou­ble. I’ve been work­ing on this book on and off since…

Continue Reading

WANTED: A 21st Century Author Promoter

I love writ­ing. I love sit­ting down with half a dozen fresh Black­wing 602 pen­cils, sharp­en­ing them to a razor edge and fill­ing up pages…

Continue Reading

Print book cover for THE RONALD AND OTHER PLAYS.

The Ronald And Other Plays: A Political Satire of How Trump Won the Presidency

Today I’m pleased to announce the release of The Ronald And Oth­er Plays, a col­lec­tion that includes five short plays and my first full-length play, The Ronald.…

Continue Reading

The Writer with the Master Number Clears the Deck

Two years ago, when I released the 3rd Dako­ta Stevens install­ment, I read one of those rare books that gave me a much-need­ed kick in…

Continue Reading

Chris Orcutt walking in Vermont's Green Mountains, photo by Chris Orcutt

Only Have Time for Essentials

“At 46 one must be a miser; only have time for essen­tials.” — Vir­ginia Woolf, diary, 3/22/1928 I stum­bled upon this quo­ta­tion ear­li­er this week.…

Continue Reading

Chris signing a copy of 100 MILES for a reader at the Junior League of Poughkeepsie Authors' Luncheon.

A Lovely Authors’ Luncheon with the Junior League of Poughkeepsie

Today I attend­ed an Authors’ Lun­cheon host­ed by the Junior League of Pough­keep­sie. The lun­cheon was a ben­e­fit to raise mon­ey for a JLP–Dutchess Com­mu­ni­ty…

Continue Reading

A REAL PIECE OF WORK — NOW ONLY 99¢!

Today I decid­ed to price A Real Piece of Work, the 1st nov­el in my crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed Dako­ta Stevens Mys­tery Series, at just 99¢. This…

Continue Reading

Orcutt Books Holiday Sale!

Since Octo­ber, I’ve been back at work on a few new projects, includ­ing new Dako­ta Stevens adven­tures, and to cel­e­brate how well the writ­ing has…

Continue Reading

“Almost Nailed It!” — My Appearance on Coast to Coast AM

It was long. At 2 hours on the phone, it was by far the longest inter­view I’ve ever done. But it was worth it. To…

Continue Reading

A Helium‑3 and Oil Timeline: Is There a Conspiracy Between the U.S. Government and the Fossil Fuels Industry?

While doing research for my book A Truth Stranger Than Fic­tion, I found a lot of mate­r­i­al on helium‑3 and oil, some of which sug­gest­ed…

Continue Reading

Photo by DAVID ILIFF

Dakota & Svetlana ARE Going to be a TV Series

I HAVE DECIDED that the adven­tures of Dako­ta & Svet­lana are going to be a tele­vi­sion series.     As I helped a friend with…

Continue Reading

Why I’m Selling My Books Everywhere Now, Instead of Just on Amazon

Between Jan­u­ary 2012 and this month (over 3 years), I sold my nov­els on Ama­zon exclu­sive­ly. I did this under their KDP “Select” (Kin­dle Direct…

Continue Reading

Paying Attention as a Fiction Writer

I have been writ­ing fic­tion since I was 13 years old, when I first read Ian Fleming’s Goldfin­ger and was swept away not only by the…

Continue Reading

A California Drive-Time Interview with Phil Cowan

I just enjoyed a ter­rif­ic 15-minute inter­view with radio talk show host Phil Cow­an of KTKZ AM 1380, Sacra­men­to, Cal­i­for­nia. Before the live inter­view, I…

Continue Reading

Write to Support Your Writing: A Guest Spot on The Author Biz

Whether you’re an aspir­ing author or a work­ing jour­ney­man writer, Steve Camp­bel­l’s pod­cast The Author Biz is worth your time and atten­tion. And I’m not say­ing…

Continue Reading

Why I Write a PI Series

I was­n’t going to write the lat­est Dako­ta Stevens mys­tery. Back in June of last year, at a read­ing I gave from my then-new pas­toral nov­el…

Continue Reading

The Night Before the Night Before Christmas

’Twas the night before the night before Christ­mas, And all through this writer’s head, Not a bad thought was stir­ring, not even dread. The writer…

Continue Reading

Kirkus Reviews Gives 100 Miles a Rave

More than any­thing, we writ­ers want readers—particularly dis­cern­ing read­ers and critics—to get our work. We want read­ers to see the par­al­lels to oth­er lit­er­a­ture and to…

Continue Reading

Me and My Montblanc

This is the very short sto­ry of a man and his pen. Around 1988, when I went to col­lege to study phi­los­o­phy, my for­ward-think­ing uncle,…

Continue Reading

To All So-Called Authors: Stop Doing This; You Look Like Idiots

Maybe I should­n’t be giv­ing away my writ­ing secrets. Maybe I should be like Ernest Hem­ing­way, who, with the excep­tion of a cou­ple of Paris…

Continue Reading

A Successful Interview with Pam Stack on Authors on the Air

This evening, I did my first-ever LIVE radio inter­view, and I’m very pleased with how it turned out. Host Pam Stack asked me some thought-pro­­vok­ing…

Continue Reading

A Written Interview with Authors in the Spotlight with Lucie Dunn

In my blog post yes­ter­day, I men­tioned my upcom­ing inter­net radio inter­view with Pam Stack, host of Authors on the Air, on Wed., April 30…

Continue Reading

My Upcoming Interview with Authors on the Air Host Pam Stack

On Wednes­day, April 30 at 8:00 p.m. EST, I’m being inter­viewed LIVE on Authors on the Air with host Pam Stack. Besides my new nov­el, One…

Continue Reading

ONE HUNDRED MILES FROM MANHATTAN — A Novel by Chris Orcutt — Now Available!

Please for­give the cum­ber­some title of this piece. I’m still sick and a lit­tle deliri­ous, but I don’t want to put off my read­ers any…

Continue Reading

One Hundred Miles from Manhattan—A Modern Novel by Chris Orcutt

Recent­ly I com­plet­ed work on a book that began as a col­lec­tion of sto­ries, and which end­ed up being what I term a “mod­ern nov­el.”…

Continue Reading

My Radio Interview on “Murders, Mysteries and Mayhem”

Today my inter­view on the Mur­ders, Mys­ter­ies and May­hem pro­gram (part of the Authors on the Air Glob­al Radio Net­work) aired, and it was a…

Continue Reading

One of the Best Indie Books of 2013—THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND

IndieRead­er, the trust­ed and infor­ma­tive web-zine about all things indie pub­lish­ing, has includ­ed my book of short sto­ries, The Man, The Myth, The Leg­end, on their…

Continue Reading

Chris Orcutt & Dakota Stevens Hit the Airwaves

Today, I’m in my first-ever radio inter­view. I haven’t heard the com­plet­ed, edit­ed ver­sion yet, so you can bet I’m going to tune in to…

Continue Reading

"Rejection": A collage by Chris Blanc.

Crossing the Rubicon: Replying to a Rejection from a Literary Journal

Today I did the unthink­able. In the lit­er­ary world, what I did is tan­ta­mount to cross­ing the Rubi­con. It’s some­thing that, in 20 years of…

Continue Reading

Storytime: Chris Orcutt Reads “The Magnificent Murphy,” His Homage to The Great Gatsby

Recent­ly I did a radio inter­view with Stephen Camp­bell, the ter­rif­ic host of “Mur­ders, Mys­ter­ies and May­hem” on the Authors on the Air Glob­al Radio…

Continue Reading

The Adventure of the Sherlock Holmes Aficionado

Thanks to the thou­sands of read­ers of my Dako­ta Stevens mys­ter­ies, in the past 18 months I’ve been able to ful­fill two life­long dreams. The…

Continue Reading

Everything That’s Wrong With Ebooks

So I was brows­ing Kin­dle books on Ama­zon ear­li­er today and came upon one that thor­ough­ly pissed me off. Tru­ly, this book rep­re­sents every­thing that’s…

Continue Reading

Orcutt Books Back on KDP Select

This is just a quick entry to let read­ers know that my books—The Man, The Myth, The Leg­end; The Rich Are Dif­fer­ent; and A Real Piece of…

Continue Reading

THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND is Now Available!

After sev­er­al months of get­ting the words right, work­ing with my cov­er design­er and ebook for­mat­ter, and ensur­ing that the book I ask read­ers to…

Continue Reading

Publishing Your Ebook: Don’t Go It Alone

A year ago, when I pub­lished A Real Piece of Work, I did it the hard way. I for­mat­ted and con­vert­ed the book myself. Although I…

Continue Reading