3 Picks with Armand Rosamilia

This week, 3 Picks features the author of many horror, contemporary and crime thrillers, Armand Rosamilia. Armand is a Jersey Boy now living in Jacksonville, Florida. He's best known for his Dying Days zombie series, Belford Stories contemporary fiction series and Dirty Deeds crime thriller and mystery series.

I'm Frank J. Edler, author of various horror comedies and voracious reader. I'm a big fan of Florida crime fiction writer, Tim Dorsey. Tim Dorsey is best known for his Serge Storm series of crime caper books. The series numbers more than twenty books and counting. There are many great books in the series and all of them are laugh-out-loud funny. You don't even need to read the series in order to enjoy the books. '

I can't get enough of them. And that's why I'm asking Armand for his 3 Picks for books as good as Tim Dorsey's Serge Storm books.

Here's his picks.

Pick 1: Michael Wiley's Daniel Turner Mysteries trilogy, set in Jacksonville FL. Very gritty and noir. Great storyteller, and Michael is also a great guy.


Pick 2: Dawn Lee McKenna's Forgotten Coast Florida Suspense Series. Currently 10 books. Also a Florida series, and her characters are amazing. I could read 200 pages of them interacting and be happy. An actual plotline is a bonus.


Pick 3: Wayne Stinnett's Caribbean Adventure Series. Currently 20 books and... starts off in Florida. You sense a theme? Another author who creates amazing characters I can never get enough of.

Thanks Armand. They all sound like great reads! Not just great crime picks, great Florida crime picks! Bonus! You can find out more about Armand Rosamilia's crime fiction and more at ArmandRosamilia.com 

What are your 3 Picks for Florida Crime Thrillers? Let me know in the comments.

A Different Kind of Book Signing.

On November 11, 2016 I unleashed Death upon a brewery in Middlesex, New Jersey. That's right, I used my first book signing event as the premier of my new novella, DEATH GETS A BOOK! The good folks at Demented Brewing played host to myself and fellow writer, Chuck Buda for the evening, giving us some space in their gorgeous brewery to sign some books for the patrons and friends and family who came out for what felt like the social event of the season.

Books, Beer & Blood. 

The road to Demented started back in April 2016. Author Armand Rosamilia traveled back to his home state of New Jersey from his current home in Jacksonville, Florida. Armand was traveling the north east with his wife to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. He used the opportunity to release a book of short stories he'd written around his hometown of Belford, NJ. As luck would have it, one of his old friends now runs a brewery in his hometown called Belford Brewery. What better way to release a book about Belford that to do a book signing/release party in a brewery in Belford! It was a win-win for Rosamilia and it also got my wheels turning.

Local breweries are opening up all over New Jersey and across the country. If it worked for Armand, could it work for me? I'm far less established as an author and I didn't have any books centered around a local town with an operating brewery. I seemed like a great idea but I didn't see how I could make it work for me.

That changed on my trick to Williamsburg, Virginia. It was there, at the Scares That Care Charity Convention, that I met fellow author and fellow New Jerseyite, Chuck Buda. Chuck was a new writer and giant fan of Armand Rosamilia's work. Chuck was also a fan of the SHOCKER series I co-wrote with Armand. I spent a lot of time that weekend hanging with Chuck and we became fast friends. He is a great guy who has been bitten hard by the writing bug. He has a drive to succeed with his writing and he also uses Armand as a mentor like I do.

L to R: Chuck Buda, Jay Wilburn, Armand Rosamilia, Frank J. Edler

It wasn't after we got back to New Jersey that Chuck reached out to me and pitched me a wild idea.

"Let's do a book signing at Vintage Vinyl!" he proclaimed.

Of course I said yes. I'm adventurous and I'm willing to try anything to get the books out in front of people. But I was confused about the venue he was proposing. Vintage Vinyl is a local legend of a store. It is basically a record store that specializes in collectible, import and bootleg type music. They draw big name musicians to do appearances there from time to time. But writers? It was a cool idea but I wasn't sure they would go for it. I suggested other avenues we could also try. Local bookstores, libraries.... breweries?

Chuck agreed to expand our horizons and options. We compiled a list of places and reached out to all of them. The most interested and receptive bite came from Demented Brewing in Middlesex, New Jersey. Chuck and I met with the manager soon after. The place was perfect to host a horror book signing. As their name suggests, the place has a horror look and feel. There is a giant hand painted mural of hell. Everything is plain and brick trimmed in black and red. Their logo is a demon head and their beers are named after demons and horror inspired themes. They were all too happy to extend an invitation to us to have our signing.

We invited all of our friend and family to join us on November 11th at Demented. We stressed coming out to hang out with us and have a few drinks and a good time. We kinda pitched the books on a secondary basis. Ya know, like, while you're here enjoying a beer check out these books we have here on the table type of thing. Plus of course, we hoped to draw the attention of Demented's regular patrons as well.

It paid off. We packed in the brewery. We sold a bunch of books. And most important, we all had a great night!

Frank and Chuck with author Tim Meyer

So I can say will a full degree of confidence, look out for me at a local Jersey brewery near you! Chuck and I are already planning another signing at Demented in April and we are canvassing the state's other breweries to see where else we can set up shop and throw back a few with our friends, family and fans. I hope you'll come out and continue the trend.


Additionally, I'd like to officially announce that Chuck Buda and I will be selling our words at Scares That Care 2017 in Williamsburg, VA and we are working on a few other Jersey area conventions as well.

See you on the road in 2017!


*I did an audio recounting of the signing at Demented with Chuck Buda and Armand Rosamilia on the Mando Method Podcast. You can LISTEN HERE.*

Drawing Inspiration

I want to talk a little bit about somewhere very special I've been drawing inspiration from. Author Armand Rosamilia started a campaign to collect new books from authors and publishers to ship over to the brave men and women defending our country in Kuwait and Afghanistan. The drive is called Authors Supporting Our Troops 2014 and Rosamilia's efforts have harvested over 1700 books from over 200 authors thus far. If you are a writer or a publisher I implore you to join and participate in this worthwhile cause.

I, myself, do not have a book to donate to the cause. I have four short stories published in four different books, but none that I can call my own just yet. Part of the kick in the ass I've got to change that is inspired directly from the ASOT 2014 event. Armand Rosamilia has been posting tons of pictures daily of myriad books spanning all genres and interests. It is awe inspiring to see the generous outpouring from the writing community. But there is another inspiration there as I see the books stacking up and the list of contributors getting longer and longer, these are people who buckled down and got it done.

So everyday I see a handful more pictures of books sent in for our service men and women to read somewhere in the desert a world away. A little opportunity for a piece of home and a moment to escape the realities they face. I am driven to write my own book that, hopefully, if there is another book drive next year, I too will be able to donate to and join in this always inspiring writing community.

As for the writing update: I continue to tap away at the prologue. I actually started a new prologue entirely. The first stab was a straight forward narrative that just felt full of useless detail and was not really going anywhere. Today I started anew writing what amounts to a television news report of the scene. I can better visualize the scene playing out this way and the words are flowing more freely. So I feel justified in the early start now as I've taken one step forward and two steps back. I'm sure there will be more of that to come.

Your story reveal today is the short description:

" In Hell, The Devil makes the best brats. His demonic minions can't get enough of them. That is until Otto Van Der Noodle, the Brat King of Miliwaukee is cast into Hades Pit."

FJE