YOU ARE A WRITER

If you write, you’re a writer. Own it! Never call yourself aspiring.

KING OF ASHES by S A Cosby (review)

Shawn Cosby is the master of Southern Crime Fiction. Additionally, his grasp of the perils of family dynamics played out over generations and tangled up amongst loyalty and betrayal like kudzu vines, could be taught as case studies in a psychology course.

In KING OF ASHES, Roman Curruthers, an Atlanta financial wizard, thinks he's escaped his dying hometown of Jefferson Run. But like Michael Corleone in The Godfather, just when he thinks he is out, he gets pulled back in. When his father ends up in a coma after a suspicious auto accident, Roman comes home to help his younger sister at the family's crematorium. Things deteriorate when he learns his addict younger brother, Dante, is in debt to local gangsters after losing a load of drugs he was trying to sell. Roman hopes his talent at making quick big bucks for his clients will be enough to placate the thugs as he tries to get his brother out of debt while also dealing with the surfacing of secrets of how and why his mother disappeared.

As with many of Cosby's stories, there are no true innocents. Instead of good and evil, like the ashes of the crematorium, everything is gray and gritty. There will be a sort of justice. However, it will be bitter and costly. King of Ashes cements S.A. Cosby as one of the best crime writers of his generation.

The Latest Installment of A DEATH AT THE WALDORF is live

Latest Achille Poirot installment:

In the latest chapter of, A DEATH AT THE WALDORF, Achille Poirot, visits the murder scene and begins his investigation.

Catch up with all of the latest intrigue at my Substack. It’s under the Paid Subscription area. For the price of a cup of coffee per month, you can access the whole serialized novel and be transported to 1930s NYC.

My other Substack stories and ramblings can be accessed for free. Help support a struggling writer. Thank you!

https://jamesjensen2.substack.com/p/a-death-at-the-waldorf-dad

WRITING IS EXERCISE

Every morning, I get up at 4:45 am to exercise. No, really. I take the dog out to pee. I make a cup of coffee, and I sit down at my writing desk to exercise for the next hour.

That’s right. WRITING IS EXERCISE!

Just as with sports like baseball, tennis, or swimming, repetition of an activity makes you better. With each session, your skills sharpen, your reflexes quicken, and your endurance increases. You get better because you’re improving your body.

Every writing session, I’m learning something new about myself as a writer as I learn more about my writing. Years have been spent, sweating over verb usage, POV, punctuation, and endless trips online for synonyms, spell checks, and word origins.

The result is that my writing muscles grow stronger with every session. I’m a much stronger storyteller than I was five years ago. I can dash out a flash fiction in a morning, a short story in a week, and a novel….well that still takes time. A novel is a marathon. However, I don’t get winded during those 90k runs anymore. I set the pace and keep on trucking.

Lastly, to stretch the writing as exercise metaphor a bit further, after each writing session, I feel better. I might be tired. But it’s a good tired. And like physical exercise, if I miss a session, I feel guilty. If I decide to sleep in instead of get up to write, I’m grumpy all day. Only sitting down to write again brings me that writer’s high back.

So, I invite all writers out there to join me tomorrow morning for an hour of exercise. Try it for a week. Let me know how you feel.

A DEATH AT THE WALDORF is now live.

The first chapter of my mystery novel, A DEATH AT THE WALDORF: an Achille Poirot Mystery, is now live on Substack.

#writing #mystery #detective #ArtDeco

#NYC

https://jamesjensen2.substack.com/p/a-death-at-the-waldorf

Serialized Novel Available To My Substack Subscribers

Starting Sunday (6/29/25), I will be posting chapters of my mystery novel, “A Death at the Waldorf: an Achille Poirot Mystery”, for my paid subscribers on my Substack. Each week, a new chapter will be uploaded.

Mentioned in the Agatha Christie novel, The Big Four, the character of Achille Poirot was the twin brother of the famous detective, Hercule Poirot. Although Hercule later said it was actually himself in a disguise, I have created a world where this fabulous twin actually exists.

Come with me to New York City in the 1930s. We’ll dine at the newly opened Waldorf Astoria as well as the soul food kitchens of Hell’s Kitchen. There will be glamour and intrigue. However, there will also be murder.

Please consider subscribing. It starts pretty cheap at $5/month. You’ll be buying a writer a cup of coffee and providing invaluable encouragement. For my free subscribers, don’t fret. There will still be plenty of free content in my Writer’s Ramblings.

https://substack.com/@jamesjensen2

FOLLOW ME ON SUBSTACK

Up until now, my blog content has been posted here on my website and pushed out through my social media accounts. However, there seems to be little traction in that model. So, I’ve started posting to Substack and am enjoying that platform. Granted, it’s growing slowly. However, it’s still growing, and that’s what’s important.

So, since you’ve stumbled across this site, please take a moment to check out my Substack: https://substack.com/@jamesjensen2

There is a free subscription and a modest paid subscription available. The paid one will have exclusive content like a serialized novel.

I’ll still be posting here. However, most of the content here will be from that platform. I hope you take a chance and check it out.

Thanks for reading.

ACHILLE POIROT: MY 1ST NOVEL THAT NEVER WAS

I once read a book called, The Big Four. On an Agatha Christie binge, I came across this lesser known title of hers and was immediately intrigued. It wasn’t the story so much that intrigued me, it was the introduction of the twin brother of her famous detective, Hercule Poirot.

Hercule Poirot was my favorite Agatha Christie creation. Admittedly, my introduction was through the portrayal of the detective by the wonderful actor, David Suchet. He brought a charm and elegance to the character that caused me to seek out all of the Poirot adventures as well as delve into the collection of Christie’s journals.

So, when I came across the introduction of Achille Poirot in The Big Four, not only was I pleasantly surprised by the idea of a twin brother to my favorite detective, I was inspired. In the story, Hercule eventually explains away the reality of his twin brother by stating it was actually himself all along, cleverly disguised by removing his famous mustache and adding a scar to his lip. This little subplot in Christie’s book started a debate among Poirot fans as to the validity of Achille’s identity that continues to this day.

For me, that did not matter. I took the idea of Achille existing as a twin brother as canon for the Poirot saga. And so, I sat down and wrote my first novel. Placing Achille Poirot in 1930s New York, I set him up as an art dealer, living in the newly opened Waldorf Astoria Hotel. In my story, Hercule insisted that Achille move across the ocean, so as to avoid being placed in danger due to the many enemies that Hercule had accumulated during his cases. Of course, being a Poirot, Achille is soon drawn into his own intrigue and cases in the City That Never Sleeps.

That novel, A Death at the Waldorf, landed me my first agent and my first disappointment. Although Achille Poirot was a minor character who was dismissed by its author as being a figment of Hercule’s imagination, it was still a part of a copyrighted book. So, I needed permission from the Agatha Christie estate to use him. My agent at the time found interest in one of the Big Five publishing houses. However, she said that I need to contact the estate to get permission. Only later, when I had a new agent, did I realize that my agent should have been handling such negotiations.

Against all odds, I actually got through to the correct people to talk to at the Christie folks. Even Christie’s grandson, Mathew Prichard was consulted about my proposal. However, two things were working against me. First, I was an unknown author with no publishing credits to my name. Second, the estate was working on a new series of Poirot books with the writer, Sophie Hannah. So, with a combination of factors working against me, A Death at the Waldorf died.

It was all a good learning experience. And eventually, it led me to create my own detective story which landed me my present agent. I’ll let you know how that goes. In the meantime, I’ve been thinking of serializing A Death at the Waldorf on Substack. Would you be interested?

Have you found the right words?

1.5 Million Views?!

14 years ago, I read the Hungry Caterpillar to kids at my bookstore. I was just told that video has passed 1.5 million views. That’s crazy.

https://youtu.be/EGc9bRxVvIk?feature=shared