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Broos

Broos

About Me

I'm a third-generation Angeleno, but I spent most of my adult life in San Francisco, San Jose and Santa Cruz. I like museums of any stripe, particularly maritime and local history museums. I also love used bookstores. I'm fond of sailing, too. I used to like saltwater fishing, but now I think it's pretty hard on the fish. But, then, eating the fish is even harder on them.A few years ago I signed a three-book deal with McBooks Press in New York to write a trio of sea adventure novels. The first, NO QUARTER , was released in April 2006. The second, THE WAR OF KNIVES , began shipping in March 2007, with the third, PETER WICKED, to follow in April 2008. The series is told from the first person, which is unusual in the genre, and is set in the U.S. Navy, which also is unusual but not as rare as I'd thought before I began.

My Interests

Old movies (Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, James Cagney, Fred Astair, Katharine Hepburn, William Powell, Myrna Loy). American literature (Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Booth Tarkington, Washington Irving). Acoustic music. Painting, particularly 18th-century portraiture and 19th-century landscapes.

I'd like to meet:

I'm always interested in meeting other writers, particularly novelists, and fans of historical fiction.

Music:

Folk, Celtic, old-time country string bands, singer-songwriters like Gillian Welch and Richard Thompson, early Van Morrison, Tom Waits, Beatles, Emmy Lou Harris, and late 18th-century classical. The Black Eyed Peas crack me up.

Movies:

Screwball comedies, musicals, and pretty much anything that Howard Hawks, Sam Fuller, Sam Peckinpah, or John Huston was involved in. I also like documentaries and old cartoons, particularly by Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, and the Fleischer brothers.

Television:

Lost. Yeah, I know, I'm way behind on this. I didn't watch TV for about five years and just got back.

Books:

Roughing It by Mark Twain, The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, Double Indemnity by James Cain, The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre by B. Traven.

Heroes:

The little guy, trying his damndest to do the right thing at all times, and the U.S. Marines.

My Blog

Interview in QUARTERDECK

George Jepson over at Quarterdeck, a newsletter dedicated to fiction set in the age of sail, interviewed me for the April issue. The editor calls The War of Knives a "brilliant sequel." (Note that it ...
Posted by Broos on Fri, 06 Apr 2007 09:19:00 PST

NO QUARTER released in trade paperback

McBooks just released No Quarter, book one in the Matty Graves series of sea adventures, in trade paperback. The cover is slightly reworked from the hardcover edition. I dunno why they've eliminated r...
Posted by Broos on Thu, 15 Mar 2007 02:37:00 PST

THE WAR OF KNIVES released in hardback

McBooks Press just sent me a case of author's copies of The War of Knives, book two in my series of American naval adventures. The cover looks good in real life. I do believe it'd stand out from acros...
Posted by Broos on Thu, 15 Mar 2007 02:32:00 PST

NO QUARTER earns back my advance

Just got a letter and a check from my agent saying that No Quarter, volume one in the Matty Graves series, earned back its advance. That's gotta be a good thing. If I can get about 500 more novels in ...
Posted by Broos on Mon, 12 Mar 2007 12:33:00 PST

Review in Publishers Weekly

Someone at Publishers Weekly was kind enough to write a positive review of The War of Knives, the sequel to No Quarter. The War of Knives is due out around April 25, and No Quarter is due out in trade...
Posted by Broos on Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:40:00 PST

At the hitching post

Yup. Never thought I'd fall in love again, much less tie the knot. But the Jool and I were out in Santa Fe for Christmas and it seemed like the thing to do. Here are a couple of photographs. Scroll do...
Posted by Broos on Thu, 18 Jan 2007 01:09:00 PST

I'm big down under . . .

Erm, in the sense that Kiwis love me. The Greater Aukland (New Zealand) library system has five copies of No Quarter, three of which are checked out. God love New Zealanders. I've never met one yet wh...
Posted by Broos on Mon, 03 Jul 2006 11:09:00 PST

From the sailing blog dude

Don Campbell (no relation) at Sailing Navies 1650-1850 has some nice things to say about No Quarter. If anybody knows how to become a member of the discussion board, let me know. I followed the instru...
Posted by Broos on Mon, 26 Jun 2006 10:06:00 PST

From the critics

This was posted at Barnes & Noble's website.From Christine Sanderson at VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates magazine):In 1799, seventeen-year-old Matty Graves, a midshipman in the United States Navy, began...
Posted by Broos on Fri, 23 Jun 2006 01:33:00 PST

Good news for cheapskates

All ya cheap bastids . . . erm, I mean all you loyal but frugal readers will be glad to know that NO QUARTER has been picked up by the L.A. Public Library for the June buy-list. There's one copy being...
Posted by Broos on Wed, 21 Jun 2006 08:49:00 PST