“I’m still proud of that book. It convinced me I could write a book. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for that book.”
That book, My Darkest Prayer, Shawn “S.A.” Cosby’s first thriller, was published in 2019 by a small Maryland publisher and few noticed. It got some nice reviews, but every book signing was sparsely attended. Not unusual for a first-time crime novelist.
Cosby, as every fan of crime fiction now knows, then went on to blow up the genre. His next two books, Blacktop Wasteland, and especially Razorblade Tears, rocketed up the best seller lists with movie rights in the wings, changing forever Cosby’s relatively quiet life in rural Gloucester, Virginia along the Chesapeake Bay.
His parents separated when he was a kid, and he grew up with his uncles—his mother’s brothers—as father figures. He was seventeen before he bought his first pair of name-brand shoes. He was poor and wanted to tell stories about Black life in rural Virginia—from love to anguish, the good and the bad, and every inelegant topic in between.
“That’s one of the reasons I wrote Razorblade Tears. I wanted to address the issues of gays in the Black community,” he says.
As a teen, Cosby read two to three books a week. Later, as an adult, their volume grew so big, he finally gave in and bought a Kindle to save space. He’d gone to college to become an English teacher but dropped out after two years when his mother became ill.
He kept up his studies by reading books on writing and took various craft courses. He especially enjoyed reading Williams Goldman’s Adventures in the Screen Trade, with its famous line, “Nobody knows anything…” about the motion picture business.
Four crime writers he loved and studied to sharpen his craft included Megan Abbott, Jennifer Hillier, William Boyle, and Kellye Garrett.
“I thought I could do this,” Cosby says. “I had just written short stories and self-published a fantasy novel…I firmly believe you can be taught how to be an author, but you have to be born a writer.”
“I’ve always had this intense imagination…I wanted to write a detective novel, and for years I struggled how to write one.”
To support himself while he wrote, he managed a hardware store and helped at his wife’s funeral home transporting bodies at all hours of the day.
“What I thought would happen, even when Blacktop sold, I’ll be able to write, maybe not full time, but a few books every couple of years. I never thought I would be a full-time writer.”
Cosby didn’t have an agent when he participated in a reading at the Wonderland Ballroom in Washington, D.C. Austin Camacho, editorial director for Intrigue Publishing, a small indie publisher in Maryland, caught his act and asked to read his manuscript. Camacho loved it and told Cosby he wanted to publish him.
The first printing of My Darkest Prayer was 1,500 copies. “It didn’t blow the world up,” Cosby says. “I got some nice reviews and got noticed by other writers and fans.”
My Darkest Prayer follows the story of a local minister with grand ambitions who is found dead and the local police who are doing little to find his killer. Nathan Waymaker, a former Marine and sheriff’s deputy who has a reputation for getting things done, is asked by parishioners to investigate. What appears to be an easy payday turns into a maze of small town corruption, wannabe gangsters, porn stars, vicious crime lords and dirty police officers.
“Ultimately, it’s a love letter to the town I came from. A lot of still waters run deep in small towns,” Cosby says.
“I was really happy people liked the book and I did some sparsely attended book signings. Austin and Denise (Camacho’s wife and president of Intrigue Publishing) were so supportive of everything…They were super supportive of me trying to spread my wings.”
“I wanted to make it into a series. Then Blacktop blew up.”
But we get ahead of ourselves.
After My Darkest Prayer was accepted by Intrigue Publishing, Cosby considered attending his first Bouchercon mystery writers conference in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was 2018 and he was forty-five years old.
“I wasn’t going to go. I didn’t have a lot of money,” he says. But his wife, Kimberly, persuaded him to attend and took money out of their savings and bought him a ticket.
“You’ve got to go where the people are,” she told him.
Cosby is known for his powerful, raw dialogue. While he is writing, Kimberly reads all of it out loud to him to assure he has captured it correctly. “She has good instincts,” he says. “I call her my beta listener.”
When he arrived at Bouchercon, his friend, Eryk Pruitt, asked him to sit on a writer’s panel on southern crime fiction, which he was moderating. “You bring a unique perspective,” he told him. Cosby didn’t want to do it. “I already told them you’re on the panel.”
Literary agent Josh Getzler, of Hannigan, Salky, Getzler, was in the audience, and liked what he heard. Getzler caught up with Cosby after the session. “I like the way you talk about fiction,” he said. “Do you have anything you’re working on?”
That might have been the most important question Getzler ever asked. Cosby was working on Blacktop Wasteland. “I wanted that to be a little different, a little more intense,” Cosby says.
Getzler quickly signed him in December 2018 and sold Wasteland to Flatiron Books the following February. Five publishers expressed interest and the novel was sold at auction. It was released in July 2020 and was lauded by the likes of crime luminaries Lee Child, Dennis Lehane, Walter Mosley, and Attica Locke, which helped create good buzz.
Six months after publication of Blacktop Wasteland the following year, his first royalty check arrived. It was more money than he’d earned in the previous five years. “It changed my life…I’ve been able to help family and friends. I come from a very poor background.”
Blacktop Wasteland didn’t initially hit the best seller lists but sold steadily until it became a phenomenon. His third crime novel, Razorblade Tears, didn’t suffer from such a fate. It debuted at number ten on the New York Times bestseller list.
By now, sales of his first novel, My Darkest Prayer, began to follow his bestsellers—so much so, that Flatiron bought the rights from the Camachos and is reissuing it (in December 2022).
“I can see how much I’ve grown as a writer. My flaws are on full display. I’m not ashamed by anything there.”
Cosby is extremely grateful to the Camachos for giving him his start. “They were so happy for me. Even today they are super supportive.”
“I didn’t really understand how deeply people identified with my books,” Cosby says. Unlike in the past, his book signings are well attended. “Some are giddy to meet you or in tears for how the book affected them.”
And thanks to his success, which was a long time coming, yet happened almost overnight, “Now we’re able to take vacations and take time off. At the end of the day, I’m just thrilled I can tell stories.”
And so are his readers.
___________________________________
My Darkest Prayer
___________________________________
I want to be a writer: Age 13
Decided to write a novel: Age 37
Experience: A hardware store manager who wrote short stories
Agents Contacted: None
Publisher Rejections: 68
Agent: None
Editor: Austin Camacho
Publisher: Intrigue Publishing
Inspiration: Walter Mosley, Dennis Lehane, Chester Himes
Website: None
Advice to Writers: Don’t give up but develop a thick skin.
Like this? Read the chapters on Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Tess Gerritsen, Steve Berry, David Morrell, Gayle Lynds, Scott Turow, Lawrence Block, Randy Wayne White, Walter Mosley, Tom Straw. Michael Koryta, Harlan Coben, Jenny Milchman, James Grady, David Corbett. Robert Dugoni, David Baldacci, Steven James, Laura Lippman, Karen Dionne, and Jon Land.
