About the Book:
Title:
Bigfoot Blues
Author: Ricardo Sanchez
Publisher: Carina Press
Pages: 251
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Format: Kindle
Author: Ricardo Sanchez
Publisher: Carina Press
Pages: 251
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Format: Kindle
She eloped
with Bigfoot. Or maybe Bigfoot kidnapped her. Either way, I've been hired to
uncover the truth behind Cindy Funk's disappearance. Me? I'm Floyd, and I'm a
PI living my life as Elvis would have wanted. Not just in sequined jumpsuits.
With character.
Cindy's trail
leads me to River City , Oregon
I've handled
my fair share of crazy, but River
City
Read more
about Floyd's adventures in Elvis Sightings, available now!
For More Information
- Bigfoot Blues is
available at Amazon.
- Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
- Discuss this book at PUYB
Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.
- Read excerpt here.
It was ten past two on a
Wednesday and I was sitting behind my desk in the office I share with Franklin,
a chiropractor. His wife had sent me looking for him almost four years ago, but
she was such a harridan that once I’d found him, I couldn’t bring myself to
turn over his location. He’d let me use his place as an office, rent-free, ever
since.
I checked my watch
again.
Wanda was flying back
to Kresge today. I resented being dragged away from her, even for just an hour,
but the man on the phone had insisted. It had been more than a month since my
last case, so while Wanda packed, I came into the office to meet Peter Funk.
And he was late.
The clock hit 2:15. I
was about to leave when a very lost-looking man in his fifties opened the door.
“You must be Floyd,” he
said, taking off his well-worn Caterpillar cap. His bald head had the baked
look of someone who spent a lot of time under the hot Idaho sun. “Your Elvis
outfit kinda gives it away,” he added.
“You’re Mr. Funk?”
He smiled weakly and
bobbed his head up and down in the affirmative.
I pointed him to a seat
and sat back down at my desk.
“So what can I do for
you?” I asked.
Funk looked down at the
cap in his hands and worried at a loose thread with his callused fingers.
“I need you to find my
daughter,” he said and looked up at me. “You’ve got to help me. I don’t know
who else to turn to.”
“I’d be happy to help,
Mr. Funk, but with missing children you’re much better off going to the
police.”
Funk stood up and
slapped his hat against his thigh. A small cloud of dirt erupted from the dull
blue denim of his pants.
“Oh, the cops won’t
help me. Cindy’s eighteen. They said they can’t go looking for her if she’s
just run off,” he said. “Besides…”
“Besides what, Mr.
Funk?”
He took his seat again
before finally blurting out, “She ran off to elope with Bigfoot.”
Ricardo Sanchez is a writer, toy buff, and lifelong comic
book fan.
Elvis Sightings, the first novel in his Elvis Sightings Mysteries series, was released in September , 2014. Bigfoot Blues, the follow up, was released in May, 2015.
Elvis Sightings, the first novel in his Elvis Sightings Mysteries series, was released in September , 2014. Bigfoot Blues, the follow up, was released in May, 2015.
Ricardo has written several books for DC Comics, including Batman:
Legends of the Dark Knight, Teen Titans Go! and Resident Evil among
many others. His original project, A Hero’s Death, was a successful
Kickstarter released in May, 2015.
In addition to writing, Ricardo is an Emmy award winning video and animation producer. When he’s not writing, Ricardo maintains a vintage toy blog, drives 70's muscle cars, and shops year round for Halloween decorations for his home in
For
More Information
- Visit Ricardo Sanchez’s website.
- Connect with Ricardo on Facebook and Twitter.
- Find out more about
Ricardo at Goodreads.
Interview:
Where are you from?
I’m originally fromIdaho Colombia South
America and Fort
Lauderdale , Florida
Tell us your latest news?
Bigfoot Blues, the second book in my Elvis Sightings Mysteries series just came out. The series is about a private detective who is a Lifestyle Elvis – he lives his life the way he thinks Elvis would want him to. It’s both a positive and negative force in his life. Whenever he’s in doubt, he just asks himself what would Elvis do? But since he also wears sequined jumpsuits, he often ends up getting unusual cases. In this novel, he’s been asked to find a young woman who has “eloped with bigfoot.” His search leads him to a several more cases, including the search for a piece of missing crypto-taxidermy (creating creatures that never existed from the parts of ones that do) and helping the local PD hunt down a cougar. Or maybe it’s a chupacabra. Nobody’s really sure.
When and why did you begin writing?
I was seven. I’d just seen Star Wars and absolutely loved it, so I started writing my own fan fiction for me and my friends. Then I just started making up sci-fi stories that all my toys could participate in. I kept at it off an on my whole life, but until about ten years ago I mostly focused on journalism. But I’d always wanted to work in fiction and finally decided to make the commitment. Elvis Sightings was the first novel to come out of that, which, obviously, led to me writing Bigfoot Blues as well.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I’m not sure if I even consider myself a writer now. When I think writer, the names Asimov, Christie andChandler
What inspired you to write your first book?
There wasn’t any one specific thing. I’ve wanted to write since I was a kid. The idea for my first book started out as an idea for a screenplay back in college. It burbled around in my subconscious for an embarrassingly long time, then one day I just decided it was time to start putting down words. Story telling is a compulsion for me.
Do you have a specific writing style?
I would say no, but people I trust say that I do. I am, according to them, sardonic and amusing and dialog driven. My two novels are first person detective stories, and they feature a character who can kindly be described as off beat. So at least when it comes to my fiction, my compatriots may be right. When I’m writing, my characters speak through me. I suspect that the writing style in my Elvis Sightings novels is primarily a result of the characters in the books.
How did you come up with the title?
For both Elvis Sightings and Bigfoot Blues the titles practically leapt off the page and slapped me, they were so obvious. The first book sees the protagonist searching for Elvis in a town where “dead” celebrities are sighted with regularity. And in Bigfoot Blues, the quest for Bigfoot is a tale of woe for my poor detective. So I don’t think any other title would work for either of the books.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
There is, sort of. And I’ll cite an Elvis quote that I use as the credo of Lifestyle Elvises everywhere, “Do what’s right for you so long as it don’t hurt no one.” My characters are all living out that idea.
How much of the book is realistic?
That all depends on what you believe is real. Do you think Elvis might still be alive and well? Do you believe in aliens? What about the chupacabra? Or bigfoot? If you answered yes to any of these questions, the books are very realistic. Having said that, I think the best answer to the question is that the books are are rooted in a realistic world and I’m not taking too many liberties.
Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
A few of the scenes in the book are pulled from things that have happened to me or people I know, but they tend to be incidental details, not the events that shape the major plot lines. Maybe if I write 100 books I’ll reach a point where everything in the book is made up from scratch, but for now, most of what I write has scenes that germinated from real life events. I also tend to use a lot of names from people in my fairly large extended family. It’s a way to convince them to buy the book, to see if they made it in, but it also helps me think of the characters in more concrete terms as they will often embody some trait that is shared with their name sake.
What books have most influenced your life most?
The Hobbit probably had more impact on me than anything I’ve read since (that was at age 7 as well.) It radically opened my mind to other forms of fiction – I’d been pretty much reading fairly simple stories until then. It also set me on a collision path with the fantasy genre, then science fiction, which led to the pulp sci-fi early in the genre’s development, through which I found pulp crime, noir, manor house mysteries, and so on. It’s a winding path, but it all starts with the Hobbit.
If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
Oddly enough, it would probably be Isaac Asimov. Ostensibly, he’s a sci-fi writer, but his sci-fi stories are often also parables, mysteries, westerns in space, character pieces – pretty much every type of story you can imagine. And he wrote everything from limericks to short stories and series long epics.
What book are you reading now?
I’m reading through Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan books. I’d read his Mars and Venus books, but never the ones that made him famous. I happened to be in an antique store than had some prints of the books from the 60s, starting with the first one, so I bought them and I’m working my way through.
Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?
There is actually. I don’t read a whole lot of fiction any more – mostly just when I’m on vacation. I tend to read non-fiction for research. But I met Kelly Jensen, a fellow author who is published by Carina Press (the publisher of Elvis Sightings and Bigfoot Blues) and we traded some tweets and then swapped books. She writes Male/Male romance, albeit with a bit of a sci-fi flair. I have read very little romance, and didn’t particularly enjoy it, and never read any M/M romance before, but I thought, what the hell, why not? And started in on her book. To my delight, I ended up quite enjoying it. I probably won’t go out of my way to read more romance or M/M romance, but as a story teller, I really like Kelly’s work.
What are your current projects?
I have two things I’m in the process of finishing up. The first is an illustrated book of zombie themed poetry. It’s a mix of humorous things like limericks and alphabets, with more serious forms like epics and haikus. I write (mostly bad) poetry as a writing exercise to limber up my brain. Or to get to sleep. And on a lark I started writing about zombies and for the first time, my poetry wasn’t totally unreadable. There are a few really bad poems I wrote in college on my website if you want examples of unreadable. I showed the zombie poems around a bit and the response was good enough that I decided to make a book of it. The second project is a zombie novel. Yeah, I know the genre is done to death and I’m late to the party. But my brain was in zombie mode. It’s about a different kind of zombie. He has thoughts and feelings, just like you and me, and he longs for the simple things. A roof over his head. A meal in his belly. A shoulder to lean on. All of which are tough to get when you can’t get a job or a social security number and you routinely loose chunks of tissue. So he gets by doing things the living aren’t too keen on. But things are looking up for him! He’s got a great new gig with a chemical company (who’s staff seems to carry a lot of weaponry…) and a necrophiliac girlfriend with a terrible personality, but she doesn’t mind his smell. It’s called Odd Jobs for the Undead.
Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members?
My friends. They were beta testers, proof readers and cheerleaders. They introduced me to agents, kicked me in the ass when I wasn’t writing and were relentlessly encouraging. I would never have published a thing without them.
What would you like my readers to know?
I’m originally from
Tell us your latest news?
Bigfoot Blues, the second book in my Elvis Sightings Mysteries series just came out. The series is about a private detective who is a Lifestyle Elvis – he lives his life the way he thinks Elvis would want him to. It’s both a positive and negative force in his life. Whenever he’s in doubt, he just asks himself what would Elvis do? But since he also wears sequined jumpsuits, he often ends up getting unusual cases. In this novel, he’s been asked to find a young woman who has “eloped with bigfoot.” His search leads him to a several more cases, including the search for a piece of missing crypto-taxidermy (creating creatures that never existed from the parts of ones that do) and helping the local PD hunt down a cougar. Or maybe it’s a chupacabra. Nobody’s really sure.
When and why did you begin writing?
I was seven. I’d just seen Star Wars and absolutely loved it, so I started writing my own fan fiction for me and my friends. Then I just started making up sci-fi stories that all my toys could participate in. I kept at it off an on my whole life, but until about ten years ago I mostly focused on journalism. But I’d always wanted to work in fiction and finally decided to make the commitment. Elvis Sightings was the first novel to come out of that, which, obviously, led to me writing Bigfoot Blues as well.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I’m not sure if I even consider myself a writer now. When I think writer, the names Asimov, Christie and
What inspired you to write your first book?
There wasn’t any one specific thing. I’ve wanted to write since I was a kid. The idea for my first book started out as an idea for a screenplay back in college. It burbled around in my subconscious for an embarrassingly long time, then one day I just decided it was time to start putting down words. Story telling is a compulsion for me.
Do you have a specific writing style?
I would say no, but people I trust say that I do. I am, according to them, sardonic and amusing and dialog driven. My two novels are first person detective stories, and they feature a character who can kindly be described as off beat. So at least when it comes to my fiction, my compatriots may be right. When I’m writing, my characters speak through me. I suspect that the writing style in my Elvis Sightings novels is primarily a result of the characters in the books.
How did you come up with the title?
For both Elvis Sightings and Bigfoot Blues the titles practically leapt off the page and slapped me, they were so obvious. The first book sees the protagonist searching for Elvis in a town where “dead” celebrities are sighted with regularity. And in Bigfoot Blues, the quest for Bigfoot is a tale of woe for my poor detective. So I don’t think any other title would work for either of the books.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
There is, sort of. And I’ll cite an Elvis quote that I use as the credo of Lifestyle Elvises everywhere, “Do what’s right for you so long as it don’t hurt no one.” My characters are all living out that idea.
How much of the book is realistic?
That all depends on what you believe is real. Do you think Elvis might still be alive and well? Do you believe in aliens? What about the chupacabra? Or bigfoot? If you answered yes to any of these questions, the books are very realistic. Having said that, I think the best answer to the question is that the books are are rooted in a realistic world and I’m not taking too many liberties.
Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
A few of the scenes in the book are pulled from things that have happened to me or people I know, but they tend to be incidental details, not the events that shape the major plot lines. Maybe if I write 100 books I’ll reach a point where everything in the book is made up from scratch, but for now, most of what I write has scenes that germinated from real life events. I also tend to use a lot of names from people in my fairly large extended family. It’s a way to convince them to buy the book, to see if they made it in, but it also helps me think of the characters in more concrete terms as they will often embody some trait that is shared with their name sake.
What books have most influenced your life most?
The Hobbit probably had more impact on me than anything I’ve read since (that was at age 7 as well.) It radically opened my mind to other forms of fiction – I’d been pretty much reading fairly simple stories until then. It also set me on a collision path with the fantasy genre, then science fiction, which led to the pulp sci-fi early in the genre’s development, through which I found pulp crime, noir, manor house mysteries, and so on. It’s a winding path, but it all starts with the Hobbit.
If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
Oddly enough, it would probably be Isaac Asimov. Ostensibly, he’s a sci-fi writer, but his sci-fi stories are often also parables, mysteries, westerns in space, character pieces – pretty much every type of story you can imagine. And he wrote everything from limericks to short stories and series long epics.
What book are you reading now?
I’m reading through Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan books. I’d read his Mars and Venus books, but never the ones that made him famous. I happened to be in an antique store than had some prints of the books from the 60s, starting with the first one, so I bought them and I’m working my way through.
Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?
There is actually. I don’t read a whole lot of fiction any more – mostly just when I’m on vacation. I tend to read non-fiction for research. But I met Kelly Jensen, a fellow author who is published by Carina Press (the publisher of Elvis Sightings and Bigfoot Blues) and we traded some tweets and then swapped books. She writes Male/Male romance, albeit with a bit of a sci-fi flair. I have read very little romance, and didn’t particularly enjoy it, and never read any M/M romance before, but I thought, what the hell, why not? And started in on her book. To my delight, I ended up quite enjoying it. I probably won’t go out of my way to read more romance or M/M romance, but as a story teller, I really like Kelly’s work.
What are your current projects?
I have two things I’m in the process of finishing up. The first is an illustrated book of zombie themed poetry. It’s a mix of humorous things like limericks and alphabets, with more serious forms like epics and haikus. I write (mostly bad) poetry as a writing exercise to limber up my brain. Or to get to sleep. And on a lark I started writing about zombies and for the first time, my poetry wasn’t totally unreadable. There are a few really bad poems I wrote in college on my website if you want examples of unreadable. I showed the zombie poems around a bit and the response was good enough that I decided to make a book of it. The second project is a zombie novel. Yeah, I know the genre is done to death and I’m late to the party. But my brain was in zombie mode. It’s about a different kind of zombie. He has thoughts and feelings, just like you and me, and he longs for the simple things. A roof over his head. A meal in his belly. A shoulder to lean on. All of which are tough to get when you can’t get a job or a social security number and you routinely loose chunks of tissue. So he gets by doing things the living aren’t too keen on. But things are looking up for him! He’s got a great new gig with a chemical company (who’s staff seems to carry a lot of weaponry…) and a necrophiliac girlfriend with a terrible personality, but she doesn’t mind his smell. It’s called Odd Jobs for the Undead.
Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members?
My friends. They were beta testers, proof readers and cheerleaders. They introduced me to agents, kicked me in the ass when I wasn’t writing and were relentlessly encouraging. I would never have published a thing without them.
What would you like my readers to know?
Thank you for reading this! There are a lot of writers
(there, I’ll call myself one!) out there who would love to have your attention
for a few minutes. I really appreciate you taking some time to spend with me.
And, if you want to spend more, you can find me on twitter @rickzilla or on
facebook at WriterRicardoSanchez or on my blog http://www.ricardo-sanchez.com.
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