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Dan Lord is a forty-year-old private detective with a law degree working the blurred line between right and wrong in the Nation’s Capital. As a self-employed solutions broker and legal consultant, he works for a very select clientele. He doesn’t advertise and only takes cases on referral. But when two people close to him are murdered, Dan’s work becomes very personal.
With the assistance of a newly hired female intern, extracting clues from a ladder of acquaintances, Dan bounds through both the underbelly and elite of society, each step bringing more questions and yet ultimately taking him closer to the answer he seeks. A bail bondsman, a recluse hacker, a court clerk, a university student, an old-school barber, a high-class madam, an intelligence officer, a medical doctor, and a police detective are among the list of people Dan must cajole for help. His quest will lead him to discover things he never wanted to know, and put him in the position to reveal things that important people would prefer remain unrevealed.
Tense, ingenious, and filled with the unforgettable characters, Favors and Lies is Mark Gilleo’s most thrilling novel yet.
Buy on Amazon | Website
Editing
By Mark Gilleo
I once had a book signing where members of the audience were interested in the editing process for a novel. When someone from the audience asked how many drafts it takes to produce a finished manuscript, I answered “more than ten”, which was an honest answer for me. As the gasps of the small crowd subsided, I realized many people may have misconceptions with regard to the editing process for fiction.
I think that most readers envision the final editing process, where the book goes to the publisher and it is edited by a professional, as the main editing endeavour. I wish it were that simple, and perhaps for perennial NYT bestsellers, it may very well be that simple. But for me, editing a book begins almost as soon as I start writing. And while I find writing an enjoyable drudgery, editing is not my favorite task. That said, I do find that editing can be a tolerable break from the writing process, without completely disengaging from the work at hand.
With Favors and Lies, there were a handful of chapters that I revisited so many times I was no longer able to see errors on the page. That is the point in the writing process where I need help from other people. I usually accomplish this by printing out several copies of a manuscript and passing them around. While I wait for the initial feedback on the manuscript, I usually start kicking around ideas for my next book.
Once I get the first “public” draft of the manuscript back, I make the necessary changes and then let the manuscript sit for several weeks. After several weeks I will make one last attempt at reading and editing the manuscript before I pass it to the publisher. Later, when the publisher and editor are done with the book, I will receive the manuscript back for another read and more corrections. I wrote Favors and Lies over the course of eighteen months. Of that time, half of my effort was spent on editing. I think it was worth it.
About the author:
Mark Gilleo is the author of three award-winning novels. His books have won both the National Indie Excellence Award and the Readers’ Favorite Award. His two most recent novels were finalists in the 2014 International Book Awards. His latest novel, Favors and Lies, was named Runner-Up for fiction in both the 2014 San Francisco Book Festival and the 2014 New York Book Festival. Mark has a graduate degree in international business from the University of South Carolina and an undergraduate degree in business from George Mason University. He enjoys traveling, hiking and biking. He speaks Japanese. A fourth-generation Washingtonian, he currently resides in the DC area. Follow the author on Twitter | Goodreads
