Jack the System

After graduating from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Seth Harwood did what many of his fellow apprentices dream, or rather have nightmares, about doing: He wrote genre fiction. And he still didn’t get published. That’s not a knock: Who gets published? But Harwood, who moved to S.F. in 2005 and set his hard-boiled crime novel in the city, didn’t quit. He didn’t give up. Like his hero, Jack Palms, he stashed the money in the trunk, put the gun in his hand, and risked everything to get cocaine for the Czechs, figuratively. He made a podcast. It worked! People downloaded thousands of episodes of Harwood reading his book, and publishers, who really only like to publicize pre-publicized people, jumped. Jack Wakes Up, picked up by Breakneck Books in early 2008 and re-released by a Random House imprint this month, features lot of driving around town (Van Ness comes up a lot), shooting in clubs (seems like City Nights, but what do we know), and the problems inherent in getting large amounts of cocaine to crazy-but-lovable ex-KGB Czechs. Fun stuff. There’s a little Chinatown, a little SOMA, and enough Fisherman’s Wharf to bring in the national audience. And once you’re done, you’ve got two more Jack Palms books ready for download.
Thu., May 21, 7 p.m., 2009