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 of a notebook with the words of a new novel. I love sitting in front of my Royal Quiet Deluxe typewriter and banging out pages. I love typing those pages … Read more

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. The collection is available now as a Kindle ebook, and will be published as a print paperback within a week or two. * Summary of The Ronald “Fabulously Caucasian” billionaire … Read more

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 price will remain in effect for the foreseeable future. I’m hoping that avid mystery readers, reluctant to pay full price for the first novel in a series, will find the … Read more

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 Publishing Select) program because I was convinced of the rumors: that if your books were in Select (making them ineligible to be sold on any other platforms), they would get … Read more

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 One Hundred Miles from Manhattan, an audience member asked me whether I would be writing another Dakota Stevens novel. I had written the first draft of what became A Truth … Read more

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 Review interviews in which he gave cryptic answers to questions about writing craft, was selfish with his knowledge throughout his life and shared very little of it. But there’s something that … Read more

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 questions and gave me the opportunity to give detailed answers. There was also a wonderful, unexpected call-in—my friend and colleague Hillary Leftwich, who praised my new novel, One Hundred Miles … Read more

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 longer. I also wanted the title of this to be easily noticed by search engines and such.   This is just a short announcement to let you know that, after … Read more

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 list of the Best Indie Books of 2013. (Mine is near the end.) Back in July, IndieReader (IR) gave the collection a 5-star review and the distinction of being one of their … Read more

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 hear how I did. If you’re interested in hearing about the Dakota Stevens Mystery Series, my fiction, and writing in general, tune in today (Thursday, Dec. 19) at 6:30 pm … Read more

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 Network. The interview went very well, and it is slated to be available as a podcast sometime in the next few weeks. I will of course post an update about … Read more