So I moved away from Pittsburgh. I’m now living outside Savannah, Georgia, I’ve got a new job (writing isn’t my full-time gig), and I’m loving all of it. Well, not all of it. The actual act of packing up and moving is so awful that my wife and I are cured of any urges to do so after each move and that inoculation lasts about a decade. But after a month in the south, the dust is settling and we are down to only about 3,000 unpacked boxes that are now in my garage since they don’t have basements in houses build near sea level. Which is fine, since I don’t exactly have to brush snow off the car in the morning before my gorgeous commute past the Golden Isles. Yes I’ll pay for this in August when the humidity makes me feel like I’m swimming through the air, but let me have this moment.
Savannah, Georgia
The fact is, I’ve come to learn I don’t do well with stagnation. In both my real work life and with writing fiction, I need to have the ability to construct new projects and try out new paths. Hence, not only have I been focusing on a new career path, but I’ve turned to short fiction for the time being.
Don’t worry (at least I hope you were a little worried), I’m still scheduled to have novels out in October 2018 (Record Scratch) and October 2019 (something I better write soon). But for the time being, I’ve got a short story titled State of Decline in Down and Out: The Magazine and a story titled The Copy Man in The Night of the Flood (March 2018). I hope you’ll check these out and enjoy my extremely brief intermission from full-length novels. However, if you are really more of a novel person, the audio version Bolt Action Remedy is scheduled to be ready by the end of 2017.
Thanks to all of you for sticking with me during a major transition. All of the positive feedback I’ve received over the past few years has helped keep the fire burning even when real life gets in the way of fiction. It may take me a while to get up to full speed, but I have a feeling this move is going to have a positive effect on my writing. But even if it doesn’t, I don’t have to brush snow off the car.
J.J. Hensley is the author of RESOLVE, a Thriller Award finalist which is set against the backdrop of the Pittsburgh Marathon, Measure Twice, Chalk’s Outline, and other works. Hensley is a former police officer and former Special Agent with the U.S. Secret Service.
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BOLT ACTION REMEDY
Former Pittsburgh narcotics detective Trevor Galloway has been hired to look into the year-old homicide of a prominent businessman who was gunned down on his estate in Central Pennsylvania. When Galloway arrives, he determines the murder could have only been committed by someone extremely skilled in two areas: Skiing and shooting. He believes the assailant should not be too difficult to identify given the great amount of skill and athleticism needed to pull off the attack. When he discovers the victim’s property is next door to a biathlon training camp, the situation becomes significantly more complicated.
Galloway makes plenty of enemies as he sifts through stories about lucrative land deals, possible drug connections, and uncovers evidence suggesting the homicide may have been elaborate suicide. As he attempts to navigate through an unfamiliar rural landscape, he does his best not to succumb to an old drug addiction, or become confused by one of his occasional hallucinations. Oh, and a Pittsburgh drug gang enforcer known as The Lithuanian—if he’s even real—is tracking Galloway and wants to take his eyes. Galloway would rather keep those.
In Bolt Action Remedy, the typically quiet streets of Washaway Township, Pennsylvania become the epicenter of a mystery involving elite athletes and old grudges. For Galloway, the problems keep piling up and somebody out there believes problems should be dealt with by employing the most permanent of remedies.
AVAILABLE NOW!
Cyprus Keller wants a future.
Jackson Channing has a past.
Robert Chalk has a rifle and a mission. Kill Cyprus Keller and anyone who gets in his way.
An addict is killing Pittsburgh city officials, but Homicide Detective Jackson Channing has his own addiction.
Also:
In the Pittsburgh Marathon, more than 18,000 people will participate. 4,500 people will attempt to cover the full 26.2 miles. Over 200 of the participants will quit, realizing it just wasn’t their day. More than 100 will get injured and require medical treatment. One man is going to be murdered. When Dr. Cyprus Keller lines up to start the race, he knows a man is going to die for one simple reason. He’s going to kill him.
And look for my short story FOUR DAYS FOREVER in the LEGACY anthology
Yinz to Y'all 
Welcome to Savannah! You will grow to love the heat over the cold… I promise 😉
Thanks!!