O'Neil De Noux
Encyclopedia
O’Neil De Noux is a prolific US novelist and short story writer. Although most of De Noux’s fiction falls under the mystery genre, critics describe his work as character-driven crime fiction. He has published stories in many disciplines beyond the mystery, including children’s fiction, mainstream fiction, science-fiction, fantasy, horror, western, literary, religious, romance, humor and erotica.
He is a 2007 Shamus Award
Winner for BEST SHORT STORY and a 2009 Derringer
Winner for BEST NOVELETTE. In 2009, De Noux tapped his history background to pen a 320,000 word historical epic set during The Battle of New Orleans and received an Artist Services Career Advancement Award for 2009-2010 from the Louisiana Division of the Arts for his work on this book, Battle Kiss (2012).
A working friendship with western writer John Edward Ames
and encouragement from friend George Alec Effinger
and mentor Harlan Ellison
, helped De Noux become a critically acclaimed mystery writer and instructor of writing classes at several universities. De Noux has influenced a number of published writers at the beginning of their careers. De Noux’s police procedural novels and mystery stories have been lauded for their hyper-realism
, sharp dialogue and strong use of setting, primarily New Orleans. He has also carved a niche with his genre-blending fiction, mixing erotica with mysteries, science-fiction and humor.
De Noux was born on State Street in New Orleans, LA, to a mother of Sicilian
descent and father of French
descent. Educated in Catholic schools like St. Mary of the Angels, Holy Rosary and Our Lady of Prompt Succor, De Noux was brought up Catholic
. His father, O’Neil P. De Noux, Sr. (1928-1997) was in the U.S. Army. Consequently, the De Noux family traveled extensively. An army-brat, De Noux lived in Oklahoma, Kansas, Mississippi and Italy before his father retired and returned to New Orleans in 1966.
While in Italy
, De Noux began his life-long love of books and movies. Reading a book a week from the army post library, he saw just about every Hollywood movie produced between 1960 to 1963 at the post theatre. The only exceptions were Hitchcock’s Psycho
and the James Bond
movies, which his father deemed inappropriate for a pre-teen. He was able to see Psycho at age thirteen, which drew him to greatly admire, and later closely study, the works of Alfred Hitchcock. As a youngster, De Noux’s favorite writings were Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey and the We Were There series of young-adult novels, his favorite We Were There At The Normandy Invasion by Clayton Knight, before moving on to the Horatio Hornblower novels of C. S. Forester.
On November 22, 1963, while home from school with a fake headache, De Noux watched the TV coverage of the assassination of his hero, President John F. Kennedy, an event which changed his life dramatically. Awakening to the dramatic social changes occurring in the south in the 1960s, De Noux grew to admire Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy.
visited the De Noux home with telling effects as his father, set to retire in 1965, volunteered for service in Vietnam. A criminal investigator for the C.I.D., O’Neil, Sr. was promoted to provost marshal first sergeant of the First Infantry Division and followed his combat tours in World War II and Korea (where he received three purple heart medals) with a tour in Vietnam. Shot outside Saigon by a Viet Cong sniper
, O’Neil, Sr. suffered bruised ribs but no gunshot wound when his bullet-proof vest stopped the bullet. Learning he would not receive a fourth purple heart because he did not shed blood for his country in this shooting, O’Neil, Sr. threw away the flak-vest, declaring, “Next time I get shot, I’m getting a purple heart.”
His father retired from the U.S. Army and brought the family to live in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, where De Noux returned to Catholic School at Archbishop Rummel High, where he graduated in 1968. Upon earning a gold certificate as a top English student, De Noux, a faithful Marvel Comics
fan, listed Stan Lee
as his favorite author (to the chagrin of the Christian Brothers). While at Archbishop Rummel, De Noux added H. G. Wells
, George Orwell
, J. D. Salinger
, F. Scott Fitzgerald
and Ernest Hemingway
to his list of favorites (after Stan Lee). Reading Ray Bradbury’s The Martain Chronicles drew De Noux to science-fiction and inspired him to begin writing. During the next few years De Noux penned twenty of the worst science-fiction stories ever written. He still has the stories and goes back to them to remind himself just how badly he could write.
De Noux’s father, a strong influence in his life, rose through the ranks of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office to command the Crime Scene Division. Upon graduating from high school, De Noux joined the sheriff’s office as a police cadet, attending Loyola University New Orleans
where he studied criminology.
in Vietnam. While awaiting shipment to Southeast Asia, angry at being a second-generation to serve in Vietnam, De Noux was shocked when his shipment was cancelled as the gradual reduction in forces began. From California’s Fort MacArthur
, De Noux was stationed at the U.S. Army Aviation Center, Fort Rucker
, AL.
His army MOS was Photographer: Combat Still. De Noux took run-of-the-mill army pictures while expressing himself creatively with black-and-white still-life photos, winning several Best Photo Awards. In later years De Noux’s photos adorn the covers of several fiction magazines, as well as the covers of many of his books and short stories. While at ‘Mother Rucker’ De Noux earned a Bachelor’s Degree in European History from Troy University
.
With his father a war hero, De Noux felt he’d succeeded in his military service when he was signing out of the army and met his company commander for the first time. His captain declared, “What have we here, a new man?” To which De Noux responded no, he was leaving the army. “How long have you been in my company?” asked the captain to which De Noux advised eighteen months. An article in Stars-And-Stripes topped De Noux’s military career as it explained how he managed three years of military service without anyone noticing he was there. This followed De Noux’s earlier election as Senior Most Likely to Remain Anonymous at Archbishop Rummel. By this time, De Noux’s affection for science fiction
drew him to “New Wave
” authors Roger Zelazny
, Samuel R. Delany
, James Sallis
, and Harlan Ellison
, his new favorite writer. He read everything available by Ellison and renewed his pursuit of writing science-fiction with the same results – bad stories, badly written.
analyst for the Regional Organized Crime Information Center in suburban New Orleans. While working the nightshift
, De Noux abandoned his dream of becoming a successful science-fiction writer. He turned to mysteries and began working on what became a five hundred page, single-spaced manuscript, a disjointed series of stories featuring his first literary creation. Instead of following other New Orleans writers who focused on characters with French surnames, De Noux tapped his mother’s side of the family to create his Sicilian-American cop hero, NOPD Patrolman Dino LaStanza. The manuscript depicted the escapades of a patrolman with no central plot. Too episodic, the only encouragement De Noux received from editors was praise for the realistic dialogue and strong use of setting.
From 1977 to 1980, De Noux was a uniformed patrol
officer for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, the most rewarding working experience of his life. When promoted to the Homicide Division, De Noux found his calling and finally discovered what he should write about. An exceptional career as a homicide
detective
followed in which De Noux solved every murder where he was lead investigator (fifteen) and assisted in over fifty other homicide investigations. In 1980 De Noux completed the Homicide Investigation curriculum at The Southern Police Institute of the University of Louisville
.
Earning seven commendations, De Noux was named Homicide Detective of the Year in 1981. Shortly after, he was transferred from Homicide, banished to a quiet police district when a new sheriff was elected. Offered a lucrative position as chief investigator at a private investigative firm, De Noux worked as a P.I. for the next six years. Freed from working double shifts with the sheriff’s office, De Noux sat down to pen a homicide novel in 1986.
With the release of Grim Reaper, De Noux met George Alec Effinger
, a talented science-fiction writer living in near obscurity in the French Quarter. Effinger’s first book in his Budayeen Series, When Gravity Fails, was just released. A strong friendship developed as Effinger encouraged, then taught De Noux how to write short stories. When Effinger introduced De Noux to his literary idol, Harlan Ellison, De Noux found his mentor. Ellison, the award-winning grand master of speculative fiction took De Noux under wing and remains a strong influence in his writings. In an article about writing, voracious reader De Noux stated, “I read all the time. Then I go back and read Ellison to cleanse my palate, like good wine.”
Effinger also introduced De Noux to another of his “New Wave” heroes, James Sallis
, who had just begun writing his New Orleans mystery series of Lew Griffin novels. Sallis later penned the introduction to De Noux’s collection New Orleans Confidential.
Shortly after accepting De Noux’s story “The Desire Streetcar” in 1991, for their Pulphouse: Fiction Spotlight, the legendary publishing house, Pulphouse Publishing
(Eugene, Oregon
), offered De Noux a job where he trained as an editor. De Noux became the founding editor of two short-lived fiction magazines, Mystery Street and New Orleans Stories. He also succeeded in selling his first science-fiction short story.
Returning to New Orleans in 1992, De Noux began a long association with Louisiana colleges, teaching writing classes (creative writing, short story writing, mystery writing and science-fiction writing) at Tulane University
(1993-1997), the University of New Orleans
(1998-2005), and Delgado Community College
(2004-2005). In 1993, De Noux’s non-fiction book Specific Intent, a lead title from Pinnacle Books, became a main selection of the Doubleday Book Club. This true-crime book detailed the intricate police investigation of a murder case which shocked south Louisiana. By the end of the Twentieth Century, De Noux had sold nearly two hundred short stories and had written articles for The Writer Magazine, The Times-Picayune newspaper, Gambit Weekly and Police Magazine.
In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina
devastated New Orleans, severely damaging De Noux’s home, he relocated with his wife (Debra Gray De Noux, editor of the anthology Erotic New Orleans) to Southwest Louisiana
. Taken in by generous patrons of the arts, Anne and Dr. Lee J. Monlezun, De Noux taught mystery writing at McNeese State University
, Lake Charles, LA, in 2006. Nearly a year to the day after Hurricane Katrina
, De Noux resettled across Lake Pontchartain from New Orleans in St. Tammany Parish. The economic crunch in which he found himself after the hurricane also necessitated his returning to law enforcement, and he was able to get hired as an investigator for Southeastern Louisiana University's
campus police force.
In March 2006, his short story collection, New Orleans Confidential, featuring N.O. Private Eye Lucien Caye, was published by PointBLANK Press (Holicong, PA). This collection of 1940s noir stories received rave reviews. From Publisher’s Weekly — “an engaging, fast-paced collection of stories featuring private eye and womanizer extraordinaire Lucien Caye as he tracks philandering husbands, possible murderers and missing cats … these stories-abounding with ample bosoms and willing women-are fun, and the author knows his stuff when it comes to the Big Easy.”
Cementing his niche in genre-blending, De Noux’s collection of erotic detective stories, New Orleans Irresistible, was published by EAA Signature Series Books in May 2006. One story in the collection, Death on Denial, previously published in the critically acclaimed anthology, Flesh & Blood: Guilty as Sin, edited by Max Allan Collins and Jeff Gelb (Mysterious Press) had been chosen for the Best American Mystery Stories 2003 Collection (Houghton Mifflin).
De Noux is also the creator of two additional recurring characters, 1890s New Orleans Police Detective Jacques Dugas and contemporary NOPD Homicide Detective John Raven Beau. These characters, along with Dino LaStanza and Lucien Caye, have appeared in dozens of magazines and anthologies, including top mystery magazines such as Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock and Crimewave (UK). Beau, half-Cajun and half-Sioux, is prominently mentioned on several Native-American Detective web sites.
Now in the 21st Century, De Noux lists his literary influences as (alphabetically): John Edward Ames, Max Allan Collins, Bernard Cornwell, George Alec Effinger, Harlan Ellison, Ken Follett, Allan Guthrie, Thomas Harris, Greg Iles, Alexander Kent, Elmore Leonard, C. L. Moore, Jeff Shaara, James Sallis and Kate Wilhelm. He has also developed a particular affinity for mystery writers Frederic Brown, Howard Browne, David Dodge, Loren Estleman, Channing Hayden, David Hewson, Robert S. Levinson, Wade Miller, Marcia Muller, Max Phillips, Bill Pronzini, Kent Westmoreland, Harry Whittington, Charles Willeford, Charles Williams and Dave Zeltserman.
De Noux married Debra Gray De Noux in 1992. They have collaborated on a number of short stories and she is the model for many of the covers of De Noux's books and stories. He has two children from a previous marriage. Extremely proud and protective of his children, De Noux describes them as his greatest collaborative effort.
Shamus Award Winner!
The Private Eye Writers of America awarded its prestigious Shamus Award for BEST SHORT STORY 2007 to The Heart Has Reasons by O'Neil De Noux (the cover story of the September 2006 Issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine). The Shamus Award is given annually to recognize outstanding achievement in private eye fiction. The 26th Annual Shamus Awards were announced at Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in Anchorage, Alaska, on September 28, 2007. The Heart Has Reasons features De Noux’s private eye Lucien Caye.
Derringer Award Winner!
The Short Mystery Fiction Society awarded their 2009 Derringer Awards for best short mystery fiction on May 1, 2009. Too Wise by O'Neil De Noux (from the November 2008 Issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine) won BEST NOVELETTE (stories between 8,001 and 17,500 words). Too Wise is a Lucien Caye private eye mystery. The Derringer Awards are given annually to recognize excellence in the short mystery fiction form. Another De Noux story, The Bonnie and Clyde Caper featuring John Raven Beau was nominated in the Derringer Best Long Story category.
Recognizing the future of publishing, De Noux made a move to eBooks and print-on-demand books in 2010. The long-awaited erotic-thriller, Mafia Aphrodite (sold to Orion in 2006 but abandoned when the NEON line of books was canceled) was published by British publisher Xcite Books. A sexy caper novel, Slick Time, was published by Big Kiss Productions, followed by New Orleans Myteries, New Orleans Nocturnal, the novel John Raven Beau & a second edition of New Orleans Confidential (includes the two award-winning private-eye stories, The Heart Has Reasons and Too Wise). Taking control of his career, De Noux and wife Debra (now his business manager) lay out the books, create the covers and control the pricing of the books. Additionally, De Noux began selling previously published and unpublished short stories on Amazon KINDLE directly to the public as eBooks via his web site - http://oneildenoux.net
He is a 2007 Shamus Award
Shamus Award
The Shamus Award is awarded by the Private Eye Writers of America for the best detective fiction genre novels and short stories of the year....
Winner for BEST SHORT STORY and a 2009 Derringer
Derringer Award
The Derringer Award is the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s annual award honoring excellence in Short Mystery Fiction. The awards were created in 1997 and named derringer after the palm-sized handgun, chosen as a metaphor for a short Mystery or Crime story....
Winner for BEST NOVELETTE. In 2009, De Noux tapped his history background to pen a 320,000 word historical epic set during The Battle of New Orleans and received an Artist Services Career Advancement Award for 2009-2010 from the Louisiana Division of the Arts for his work on this book, Battle Kiss (2012).
A working friendship with western writer John Edward Ames
John Edward Ames
John Edward Ames is an American writer of novels and short stories from Toledo, Ohio. A critically acclaimed writer of western fiction, Ames began his career writing for pulp magazines before penning horror novels and stories...
and encouragement from friend George Alec Effinger
George Alec Effinger
George Alec Effinger was an American science fiction author, born in 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio.-Writing career:...
and mentor Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
, helped De Noux become a critically acclaimed mystery writer and instructor of writing classes at several universities. De Noux has influenced a number of published writers at the beginning of their careers. De Noux’s police procedural novels and mystery stories have been lauded for their hyper-realism
Realism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
, sharp dialogue and strong use of setting, primarily New Orleans. He has also carved a niche with his genre-blending fiction, mixing erotica with mysteries, science-fiction and humor.
Early life
http://www.oneildenoux.netDe Noux was born on State Street in New Orleans, LA, to a mother of Sicilian
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
descent and father of French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
descent. Educated in Catholic schools like St. Mary of the Angels, Holy Rosary and Our Lady of Prompt Succor, De Noux was brought up Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
. His father, O’Neil P. De Noux, Sr. (1928-1997) was in the U.S. Army. Consequently, the De Noux family traveled extensively. An army-brat, De Noux lived in Oklahoma, Kansas, Mississippi and Italy before his father retired and returned to New Orleans in 1966.
While in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, De Noux began his life-long love of books and movies. Reading a book a week from the army post library, he saw just about every Hollywood movie produced between 1960 to 1963 at the post theatre. The only exceptions were Hitchcock’s Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
and the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
movies, which his father deemed inappropriate for a pre-teen. He was able to see Psycho at age thirteen, which drew him to greatly admire, and later closely study, the works of Alfred Hitchcock. As a youngster, De Noux’s favorite writings were Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey and the We Were There series of young-adult novels, his favorite We Were There At The Normandy Invasion by Clayton Knight, before moving on to the Horatio Hornblower novels of C. S. Forester.
On November 22, 1963, while home from school with a fake headache, De Noux watched the TV coverage of the assassination of his hero, President John F. Kennedy, an event which changed his life dramatically. Awakening to the dramatic social changes occurring in the south in the 1960s, De Noux grew to admire Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy.
Influence of his father
The trauma of VietnamVietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
visited the De Noux home with telling effects as his father, set to retire in 1965, volunteered for service in Vietnam. A criminal investigator for the C.I.D., O’Neil, Sr. was promoted to provost marshal first sergeant of the First Infantry Division and followed his combat tours in World War II and Korea (where he received three purple heart medals) with a tour in Vietnam. Shot outside Saigon by a Viet Cong sniper
Sniper
A sniper is a marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....
, O’Neil, Sr. suffered bruised ribs but no gunshot wound when his bullet-proof vest stopped the bullet. Learning he would not receive a fourth purple heart because he did not shed blood for his country in this shooting, O’Neil, Sr. threw away the flak-vest, declaring, “Next time I get shot, I’m getting a purple heart.”
His father retired from the U.S. Army and brought the family to live in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, where De Noux returned to Catholic School at Archbishop Rummel High, where he graduated in 1968. Upon earning a gold certificate as a top English student, De Noux, a faithful Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
fan, listed Stan Lee
Stan Lee
Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....
as his favorite author (to the chagrin of the Christian Brothers). While at Archbishop Rummel, De Noux added H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
, George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
, J. D. Salinger
J. D. Salinger
Jerome David Salinger was an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature. His last original published work was in 1965; he gave his last interview in 1980....
, F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
and Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
to his list of favorites (after Stan Lee). Reading Ray Bradbury’s The Martain Chronicles drew De Noux to science-fiction and inspired him to begin writing. During the next few years De Noux penned twenty of the worst science-fiction stories ever written. He still has the stories and goes back to them to remind himself just how badly he could write.
De Noux’s father, a strong influence in his life, rose through the ranks of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office to command the Crime Scene Division. Upon graduating from high school, De Noux joined the sheriff’s office as a police cadet, attending Loyola University New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans is a private, co-educational and Jesuit university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name of the Jesuit patron, Saint Ignatius of Loyola...
where he studied criminology.
Military service
Leaving the sheriff’s office in 1970 to join the F.B.I. as a clerk, De Noux was promptly drafted into the U.S. Army for serviceMilitary service
Military service, in its simplest sense, is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, whether as a chosen job or as a result of an involuntary draft . Some nations require a specific amount of military service from every citizen...
in Vietnam. While awaiting shipment to Southeast Asia, angry at being a second-generation to serve in Vietnam, De Noux was shocked when his shipment was cancelled as the gradual reduction in forces began. From California’s Fort MacArthur
Fort MacArthur
Fort MacArthur is a former United States Army installation in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California . The fort is named in honor of Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur...
, De Noux was stationed at the U.S. Army Aviation Center, Fort Rucker
Fort Rucker
Fort Rucker is a U.S. Army post located mostly in Dale County, Alabama, United States. It was named for a Civil War officer, Confederate General Edmund Rucker. The post is the primary flight training base for Army Aviation and is home to the United States Army Aviation Center of Excellence and...
, AL.
His army MOS was Photographer: Combat Still. De Noux took run-of-the-mill army pictures while expressing himself creatively with black-and-white still-life photos, winning several Best Photo Awards. In later years De Noux’s photos adorn the covers of several fiction magazines, as well as the covers of many of his books and short stories. While at ‘Mother Rucker’ De Noux earned a Bachelor’s Degree in European History from Troy University
Troy University
Troy University is a public university that is located in Troy, Alabama, United States. It was originally founded in 1887 as Troy Normal School. Its main campus enrollment is 7,194 students. The total enrollment of all Troy University campuses is 29,689...
.
With his father a war hero, De Noux felt he’d succeeded in his military service when he was signing out of the army and met his company commander for the first time. His captain declared, “What have we here, a new man?” To which De Noux responded no, he was leaving the army. “How long have you been in my company?” asked the captain to which De Noux advised eighteen months. An article in Stars-And-Stripes topped De Noux’s military career as it explained how he managed three years of military service without anyone noticing he was there. This followed De Noux’s earlier election as Senior Most Likely to Remain Anonymous at Archbishop Rummel. By this time, De Noux’s affection for science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
drew him to “New Wave
New Wave (science fiction)
New Wave is a term applied to science fiction produced in the 1960s and 1970s and characterized by a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content, a "literary" or artistic sensibility, and a focus on "soft" as opposed to hard science. The term "New Wave" is borrowed from the French...
” authors Roger Zelazny
Roger Zelazny
Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for his The Chronicles of Amber series...
, Samuel R. Delany
Samuel R. Delany
Samuel Ray Delany, Jr., also known as "Chip" is an American author, professor and literary critic. His work includes a number of novels, many in the science fiction genre, as well as memoir, criticism, and essays on sexuality and society.His science fiction novels include Babel-17, The Einstein...
, James Sallis
James Sallis
James Sallis is an American crime writer, poet and musician, best known for his series of novels featuring the character Lew Griffin and set in New Orleans, and for his 2005 novel Drive, which was adapted into a 2011 film of the same name.He is the brother of philosopher John Sallis...
, and Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
, his new favorite writer. He read everything available by Ellison and renewed his pursuit of writing science-fiction with the same results – bad stories, badly written.
Police career
For the next three years, De Noux served as criminal intelligenceCriminal intelligence
Criminal Intelligence is information compiled, analyzed, and/or disseminated in an effort to anticipate, prevent, or monitor criminal activity....
analyst for the Regional Organized Crime Information Center in suburban New Orleans. While working the nightshift
Nightshift
"Nightshift" is a 1985 hit song by the Commodores and title track from the album of the same name. The song was a tribute to Jackie Wilson and Marvin Gaye, two famous R&B musicians who had died in 1984....
, De Noux abandoned his dream of becoming a successful science-fiction writer. He turned to mysteries and began working on what became a five hundred page, single-spaced manuscript, a disjointed series of stories featuring his first literary creation. Instead of following other New Orleans writers who focused on characters with French surnames, De Noux tapped his mother’s side of the family to create his Sicilian-American cop hero, NOPD Patrolman Dino LaStanza. The manuscript depicted the escapades of a patrolman with no central plot. Too episodic, the only encouragement De Noux received from editors was praise for the realistic dialogue and strong use of setting.
From 1977 to 1980, De Noux was a uniformed patrol
Patrol
A patrol is commonly a group of personnel, such as police officers or soldiers, that are assigned to monitor a specific geographic area.- Military :...
officer for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, the most rewarding working experience of his life. When promoted to the Homicide Division, De Noux found his calling and finally discovered what he should write about. An exceptional career as a homicide
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
followed in which De Noux solved every murder where he was lead investigator (fifteen) and assisted in over fifty other homicide investigations. In 1980 De Noux completed the Homicide Investigation curriculum at The Southern Police Institute of the University of Louisville
University of Louisville
The University of Louisville is a public university in Louisville, Kentucky. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of the first universities chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General...
.
Earning seven commendations, De Noux was named Homicide Detective of the Year in 1981. Shortly after, he was transferred from Homicide, banished to a quiet police district when a new sheriff was elected. Offered a lucrative position as chief investigator at a private investigative firm, De Noux worked as a P.I. for the next six years. Freed from working double shifts with the sheriff’s office, De Noux sat down to pen a homicide novel in 1986.
Author career
Turning Patrolman LaStanza into a homicide detective, De Noux completed Grim Reaper, which was immediately purchased by Zebra Books. Four subsequent LaStanza novels followed, The Big Kiss, Blue Orleans, Crescent City Kills and The Big Show. Lauded for their hyper-realistic portrayal of police homicide work, the LaStanza Series received critical acclaim for its sharp dialogue and fast-pacing. In 1999, a short story collection, LaStanza: New Orleans Police Stories (Pontalba Press), received an “A” book-review rating from Entertainment Weekly magazine. De Noux adapted one of the LaStanza stories “Waiting for Alaina” into a screenplay, which was filmed in New Orleans and broadcast on local TV in 2001.With the release of Grim Reaper, De Noux met George Alec Effinger
George Alec Effinger
George Alec Effinger was an American science fiction author, born in 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio.-Writing career:...
, a talented science-fiction writer living in near obscurity in the French Quarter. Effinger’s first book in his Budayeen Series, When Gravity Fails, was just released. A strong friendship developed as Effinger encouraged, then taught De Noux how to write short stories. When Effinger introduced De Noux to his literary idol, Harlan Ellison, De Noux found his mentor. Ellison, the award-winning grand master of speculative fiction took De Noux under wing and remains a strong influence in his writings. In an article about writing, voracious reader De Noux stated, “I read all the time. Then I go back and read Ellison to cleanse my palate, like good wine.”
Effinger also introduced De Noux to another of his “New Wave” heroes, James Sallis
James Sallis
James Sallis is an American crime writer, poet and musician, best known for his series of novels featuring the character Lew Griffin and set in New Orleans, and for his 2005 novel Drive, which was adapted into a 2011 film of the same name.He is the brother of philosopher John Sallis...
, who had just begun writing his New Orleans mystery series of Lew Griffin novels. Sallis later penned the introduction to De Noux’s collection New Orleans Confidential.
Shortly after accepting De Noux’s story “The Desire Streetcar” in 1991, for their Pulphouse: Fiction Spotlight, the legendary publishing house, Pulphouse Publishing
Pulphouse Publishing
Pulphouse Publishing was an American small press publisher based in Eugene, Oregon and specializing in science fiction and fantasy. It was founded by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch in 1988. The press was active until 1996...
(Eugene, Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
), offered De Noux a job where he trained as an editor. De Noux became the founding editor of two short-lived fiction magazines, Mystery Street and New Orleans Stories. He also succeeded in selling his first science-fiction short story.
Returning to New Orleans in 1992, De Noux began a long association with Louisiana colleges, teaching writing classes (creative writing, short story writing, mystery writing and science-fiction writing) at Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
(1993-1997), the University of New Orleans
University of New Orleans
The University of New Orleans, often referred to locally as UNO, is a medium-sized public urban university located on the New Orleans Lakefront within New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. It is a member of the LSU System and the Urban 13 association. Currently UNO is without a proper chancellor...
(1998-2005), and Delgado Community College
Delgado Community College
Delgado Community College ' is a Louisiana public community college with campuses throughout the New Orleans metropolitan area, the East and West Banks of New Orleans, the East Bank of Jefferson Parish and on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain in Covington and Slidell in St. Tammany Parish...
(2004-2005). In 1993, De Noux’s non-fiction book Specific Intent, a lead title from Pinnacle Books, became a main selection of the Doubleday Book Club. This true-crime book detailed the intricate police investigation of a murder case which shocked south Louisiana. By the end of the Twentieth Century, De Noux had sold nearly two hundred short stories and had written articles for The Writer Magazine, The Times-Picayune newspaper, Gambit Weekly and Police Magazine.
In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
devastated New Orleans, severely damaging De Noux’s home, he relocated with his wife (Debra Gray De Noux, editor of the anthology Erotic New Orleans) to Southwest Louisiana
Southwest Louisiana
Southwest Louisiana is a five-parish area intersecting the Acadiana and Central Louisiana regions in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is composed of the following parishes : Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Jefferson Davis...
. Taken in by generous patrons of the arts, Anne and Dr. Lee J. Monlezun, De Noux taught mystery writing at McNeese State University
McNeese State University
McNeese State University is a public university located in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in the United States. Founded in 1939 as a junior college, McNeese experienced growth due to economic activity in the region. It adopted its present name in 1970....
, Lake Charles, LA, in 2006. Nearly a year to the day after Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
, De Noux resettled across Lake Pontchartain from New Orleans in St. Tammany Parish. The economic crunch in which he found himself after the hurricane also necessitated his returning to law enforcement, and he was able to get hired as an investigator for Southeastern Louisiana University's
Southeastern Louisiana University
Southeastern Louisiana University is a state-funded public university in Hammond, Louisiana, United States. It was founded in 1925 by Linus A. Sims, the principal of Hammond High School, as Hammond Junior College, located in a wing of the high school building. Sims succeeded in getting the campus...
campus police force.
In March 2006, his short story collection, New Orleans Confidential, featuring N.O. Private Eye Lucien Caye, was published by PointBLANK Press (Holicong, PA). This collection of 1940s noir stories received rave reviews. From Publisher’s Weekly — “an engaging, fast-paced collection of stories featuring private eye and womanizer extraordinaire Lucien Caye as he tracks philandering husbands, possible murderers and missing cats … these stories-abounding with ample bosoms and willing women-are fun, and the author knows his stuff when it comes to the Big Easy.”
Cementing his niche in genre-blending, De Noux’s collection of erotic detective stories, New Orleans Irresistible, was published by EAA Signature Series Books in May 2006. One story in the collection, Death on Denial, previously published in the critically acclaimed anthology, Flesh & Blood: Guilty as Sin, edited by Max Allan Collins and Jeff Gelb (Mysterious Press) had been chosen for the Best American Mystery Stories 2003 Collection (Houghton Mifflin).
De Noux is also the creator of two additional recurring characters, 1890s New Orleans Police Detective Jacques Dugas and contemporary NOPD Homicide Detective John Raven Beau. These characters, along with Dino LaStanza and Lucien Caye, have appeared in dozens of magazines and anthologies, including top mystery magazines such as Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock and Crimewave (UK). Beau, half-Cajun and half-Sioux, is prominently mentioned on several Native-American Detective web sites.
Now in the 21st Century, De Noux lists his literary influences as (alphabetically): John Edward Ames, Max Allan Collins, Bernard Cornwell, George Alec Effinger, Harlan Ellison, Ken Follett, Allan Guthrie, Thomas Harris, Greg Iles, Alexander Kent, Elmore Leonard, C. L. Moore, Jeff Shaara, James Sallis and Kate Wilhelm. He has also developed a particular affinity for mystery writers Frederic Brown, Howard Browne, David Dodge, Loren Estleman, Channing Hayden, David Hewson, Robert S. Levinson, Wade Miller, Marcia Muller, Max Phillips, Bill Pronzini, Kent Westmoreland, Harry Whittington, Charles Willeford, Charles Williams and Dave Zeltserman.
De Noux married Debra Gray De Noux in 1992. They have collaborated on a number of short stories and she is the model for many of the covers of De Noux's books and stories. He has two children from a previous marriage. Extremely proud and protective of his children, De Noux describes them as his greatest collaborative effort.
Shamus Award Winner!
The Private Eye Writers of America awarded its prestigious Shamus Award for BEST SHORT STORY 2007 to The Heart Has Reasons by O'Neil De Noux (the cover story of the September 2006 Issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine). The Shamus Award is given annually to recognize outstanding achievement in private eye fiction. The 26th Annual Shamus Awards were announced at Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in Anchorage, Alaska, on September 28, 2007. The Heart Has Reasons features De Noux’s private eye Lucien Caye.
Derringer Award Winner!
The Short Mystery Fiction Society awarded their 2009 Derringer Awards for best short mystery fiction on May 1, 2009. Too Wise by O'Neil De Noux (from the November 2008 Issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine) won BEST NOVELETTE (stories between 8,001 and 17,500 words). Too Wise is a Lucien Caye private eye mystery. The Derringer Awards are given annually to recognize excellence in the short mystery fiction form. Another De Noux story, The Bonnie and Clyde Caper featuring John Raven Beau was nominated in the Derringer Best Long Story category.
Recognizing the future of publishing, De Noux made a move to eBooks and print-on-demand books in 2010. The long-awaited erotic-thriller, Mafia Aphrodite (sold to Orion in 2006 but abandoned when the NEON line of books was canceled) was published by British publisher Xcite Books. A sexy caper novel, Slick Time, was published by Big Kiss Productions, followed by New Orleans Myteries, New Orleans Nocturnal, the novel John Raven Beau & a second edition of New Orleans Confidential (includes the two award-winning private-eye stories, The Heart Has Reasons and Too Wise). Taking control of his career, De Noux and wife Debra (now his business manager) lay out the books, create the covers and control the pricing of the books. Additionally, De Noux began selling previously published and unpublished short stories on Amazon KINDLE directly to the public as eBooks via his web site - http://oneildenoux.net
Novels
- Grim Reaper (1988)
- The Big Kiss (1990)
- Blue Orleans (1991)
- Crescent City Kills (1992)
- The Big Show (1998)
- Mafia Aphrodite (2010)
- Slick Time (2010)
- John Raven Beau (2011)
- Battle Kiss (2012)
Short Story Collections
- A Century of New Orleans Mysteries (1999)
- LaStanza: New Orleans Police Stories (1999)
- Hollow Point & The Mystery of Rochelle Marais (2000)
- New Orleans Confidential (2006 and Second Edition 2010)
- New Orleans Irresistible (2006 and Second Edition 2011)
- New Orleans Mysteries (2009) a KINDLE book from Amazon.com. CreateSpace Edition (2010)
- New Orleans Nocturnal (2010)
- New Orleans Prime Evil (2011)
Collaborations
- Building Believable Characters – Contributing Writer (1996)
- American Casanova – The New Adventures of the Legendary Lover – Contributor (2006)
Non-fiction books
- Specific Intent (1993)
- A Short Guide to Writing and Selling Fiction (2010)
Selected Short Stories
- The Desire Streetcar
- The Man with Moon Hands
- Slimy Things Did Crawl With Legs Upon The Slimy Sea
- The Murders Along the Rue Frenchmen
- The Purloined Woman
- The Gold Bug of Jean Lafitte
- A Hot and Copper Sky
- Whispers in Walled Tombs
- Fais Do Do
- Murder at Suicide Oak
- St. Expedite
- Friscoville
- Murder Most Sweet
- Her Windblown Skirt
- The Purple Side of Blue
- Lair of the Red Witch
- Tyrannous and Strong
- The Naked Lady of Whispering Gulch
- Love and Murder
- Upon a Painted Ocean
- The Iberville Mistress
- A Gathering at Lake St. Catherine
- Expect Consequences
- Don’t Make Me Take Off My Sunglasses
- General Order No. 28
- Tracks of Shining White
- Cruelty the Human Heart
- The Gorilla Murders
- The Silence of the Sea
- Guilty of Dust and Sin
- The Human Dress
- It Rumbled
- Christmas Weather
- Kissable Cleavage
- Maria's Hand
- Unicorns on Octavion
- The Heart Has Reasons - 2007 SHAMUS Award Winner for BEST SHORT STORY
- When the Levees Break
- Down on the Pontchartrain
- Ankle Biters of Old Arizona; or, Attack of the Wild Chihuahuas
- The Bonnie and Clyde Caper
- Too Wise - 2009 DERRINGER Award Winner for BEST NOVELETTE
- Murder Intermezzo
- No. 40 Basin Street
- Pretty Rita
- The Raven and The Wolf
- They Called Her The Gungirl
- Sniffing Out a Killer
- Tenderless Night
- K Love
- Misprison of Felony
- She Gleeked Me
- Five Days Left