pattinase

Sunday Night Humor

2012-01-29T19:16:00.000-05:00

Arsenic and Old Lace

Satruday Night Music: Rosemary Clooney

2012-01-28T19:19:00.000-05:00

THE SUMMING UP, FRIDAY, January 20, 2012

2012-01-27T22:07:00.000-05:00

THE SUMMING UP, FRIDAY, January 20, 2012

Sergio Angelini A CLUBBABLE WOMAN (1970) by Reginald Hill

Yvette Banek Hag's Nook (1933) by John Dickson Carr

Brian Busby A Bullet for My Lady by Bernard Mara [pseud. Brian Moore]

Bill Crider Destinies Edited by Jim Baen

Martin Edwards The Bleston Mystery by Robert Milward Kennedy (Milward Kennedy and A.G. Macdonell)

Jerry House The Angry Planet (1945) and The Red Journey Back (1954, also published as SOS from Mars) by John Keir Cross

Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen Consequences of Sin by Clare Langley-Hawthorne

Cullen Gallagher Whisper His Sin by Vin Packer

Ed Gorman: A House In Naples by Peter Rabe

Randy Johnson See Them Die by Ed McBain

George Kelley TAMA OF THE LIGHT COUNTRY & TAMA, PRINCESS OF MERCURY By Ray Cummings

Margot Kinberg Bad Move by Linwood Barclay

Rob Kitchin The Dead Detective by William Heffernan

B.V. Lawson The Grey Flannel Shroud by Henry Slesar

Evan Lewis: Spartan Planet by A. Bertram Chandler

Steve Lewis hosting Marcia Muller: Paint the Town Black by David Alexander

Brian Lindenmuth: Tarantula by Thierry Jonquet

Todd Mason: Bob Shaw: MESSAGES FOUND IN AN OXYGEN BOTTLE and Terry Carr: BETWEEN TWO WORLDS http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2012/01/ffb-bob-shaw-messages-found-in-oxygen.html

J.F. Norris: Do Not Disturb by Helen McCloy

Eric Peterson: Zeppelins West By Joe R. Landsale

Thomas Pluck: Fast One by Paul Cain

David Rachels: Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy

James Reasoner: The Bamboo Bomb by James Dark (J.E. MacDonnell)

Karyn Reeves: Loving by Henry Green http://apenguinaweek.blogspot.com/2012/01/penguin-no-958-loving-by-henry-green.html

Richard Robinson: Toujours Provence by Peter Mayle

Gerard Saylor: Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Ron Scheer: William Lacey Amy, The Blue Wolf

Kerrie Smith COLOUR SCHEME, Ngaio Marsh

Kevin Tipple: The Maya Stone Murders by M. K. Shuman

TomCat: Manly Wade Wellman's Find My Killer

Thanks to Todd!!!!

Re: Our Radio Discussion of a Few Days Past

2012-01-27T18:42:00.010-05:00

The Internet Archive http://archive.org is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. It is a huge resource of OTR (Old Time Radio) & other materials. You'll find Westerns, Mysteries, & Lux Radio Theatre recordings to name a few. All able to be downloaded or listened to from the site. It's worth listening top & viewing

F. Thorsen
owner, Chronicles of Crime, your mystery bookshop, Victoria, BC, Canada

Thanks so much to F. Thorsen for this valuable information!

The link doesn't work but if you put www.archive.org in google, you should find it.

Friday's Forgotten Books, January 27, 2012

2012-01-27T08:00:00.008-05:00

My review of TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY is up at Crimespree Cinema.

Since I can't turn my head, the SUMMING UP will come as permitted.

Ed Gorman is the author of the Sam McCann mysteries as well as those about political consultant, Dev Conrad. He also edits anthologies and writes westerns. You can find him here.

Ed Gorman: A House In Naples by Peter Rabe

Whenever I read Peter Rabe at his best--or hell, even when he's mediocore--I realize how bogus a lot of hardboiled fiction is. Raymond Chandler likely learned about crime from the pulps and B-movies. As did many pulp writers.

Today we tart things up in a way previous hardboiled writers didn't and that gives it a semblance of reality anyway. Or we parody it and that makes us feel superior to it. Nothing wrong with these approaches, either. They're entertaining, amusing, fun.

Maybe it was because Rabe approached his writing as mainstream instead of genre. While he honors the tropes set down by W.R. Burnett and his imitators Rabe's crime novels are idiosyncratic, sometimes to a fault. In a few books he wanders, gets lost, and it's always because he wants to tell us something fascinating but not germane to the story. I actually enjoy his side trips but they do damage a couple of his books.

A House in Naples is about two people who are pretty much despicable, deserters at the end of the big war who run a black market operation. They aren't much better morally than Graham Greene's Harry Lime. Charley and Joe they are, friends in greed. They are living in Naples and living well. But Charley doesn't have his papers and could get extradited. Uncle Sam is not looking favorably on deserters these days.

As the book opens Charley is wounded and recognized for who and what he is. He ends stealing the papers from a dying drunk and then ends up dragging the body into the Tiber to cover his tracks. But by this time his wound has taken his toll. He is barely concious when he looks up and sees a beautiful girl staring down at him from the bridge above. He falls in love. Rabe gives this unlikely moment an ethereal power that few others could have pulled off. You buy it.

The book is a fast, sure read and the ending is a shocker. But the characters and Rabe's observations on post-war Europe are the source of the book's rich bleakness. The bleakness is very much like the realist filmmakers who appeared in Italy right after the war.

Rabe uses The Girl to contrast Charley and Joe. In some respects she's almost a religious figure, a woman who can evoke good or evil in everyone she meets. She evokes what's in you already.

For some reason A House in Naples isn't mentioned as often as Rabe's other most successful novels. But its harsh poetry and exciting action will keep it in memory long after you're

Serge Angellini
Yvette Banek
Brian Busby
Bill Crider
Martin Edwards
Jerry House
Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen
Cullen Gallagher
Randy Johnson
George Kelley
Margot Kinberg
Rob Kitchin
B.V. Lawson
Evan Lewis
Steve Lewis/Marcia Muller
Brian Lindenmuth
Todd Mason
J.F. Norris
Eric Peterson
Thomas Pluck
David Rachels
James Reasoner
Richard Robinson
Gerard Saylor
Ron Scheer
Kerrie Smith
Kevin Tipple
TomCat

My Life at the Theater-THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE

2012-01-26T17:27:00.003-05:00

We saw this one in London in 1995. This was not the playbill.

It starred Miriam Margoyles as Sister George, a beloved soap opera character who is about to meet her end. She is also losing her young lover (Serena Evans). The play was written by Frank Marcus and he writes in the bill of the difficulty in mounting a play about lesbians on its first run in the sixties. The word lesbians was never mentioned.

This was not meant to be a tragedy though. It was a black comedy about the irony of a beloved soap opera character being a monster in real life. Sister George is offered a voice over of a cow in recompense. A bit mean that. There is also a film version of this story.

My memory of it is vague--as is so often the case.

Did John Boy Walton Influence Your Desire to Write?

2012-01-26T07:58:00.000-05:00

Here is a great interview about the pervasive influence of THE WALTONS on American culture. Nigel Bird's brother made this radio show in the UK.

I doubt I missed an episode of THE WALTONS when it first played. One reason was it was one of the few shows that took the desire to be a writer (or a musician, or a doctor, or a aviator) seriously.

The show managed to be authentic without being sentimental to me. Nostalgic yes, but not saccharine. It did deal with issues of the time and often in subtle ways. Family values yes, but not inhumane attitudes to others. It was tolerant of others as Elizabeth tells us in this interview.

Closing the Book, Then Opening it Again

2012-01-25T15:28:00.003-05:00

I just finished MEMORY by Donald Westlake for our FFB Westlake Day and I felt like reading it again. Anything I pick up next can never measure up.

Boy, did he ever get it right from first word to last. What was the last book you felt like doing that with? A book where you wanted to experience those words again immediately?

Nostalgia Index

2012-01-25T07:22:00.001-05:00

If 10 indicates you are consumed with memories of the past, and zero represents the past is dead to you, where would you put yourself on the scale and what in particular ties you to the past? Or doesn't.

I'd say 6.5. And it would be memories of old movies, books and TV shows rather than people or places.

Phil picks 3. I'd better not leave the room.

Tuesday Night Music: Tears for Fears

2012-01-24T17:00:00.000-05:00

Classic Connivers

2012-01-24T14:32:00.000-05:00

In Downton Abbey, O'Brien and Thomas conspire and connive to turn various characters against each other. I both love and loathe connivers. In life, they make me nervous, of course, but in a rather tepid episode of DA, they liven things up. Of course, they always stand in the way of true love.

In Julius Caesar, Cassius convinces Brutus to participate in a conspiracy. I think there are probably connivers in most of Shakespeare's plays.

In crime fiction, are there any famous connivers? Surely there must be.

Forgotten Movies: Will Penny

2012-01-24T07:27:00.003-05:00

Will Penny (Charleston Heston) plays a man hired to police another man's land. Joan Hackett plays a woman squatting in the cabin he's provided with. Great cast, great scenery in a classic Western. Loved Hackett. She died too young.

Sorry to be brief, but still wrestling with this cold. For more forgotten movies, check with Todd Mason.

On the Radio

2012-01-23T18:04:00.000-05:00

Ron Scheer suggested that I ask if anyone remembers listening to westerns on the radio. I might expand that a bit to ask if anyone remembers listening to any dramas on the radios. I don't although I have heard an excerpt here on there. Anyone remember radio dramas?

HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS BOOK: Craig McDonald

2012-01-23T08:39:00.003-05:00

El Gavilan: How I Came To Write This Book

By Craig McDonald

My first four novels were historical thrillers. They feature a 20^th Century author and globetrotter named Hector Lassiter. The Lassiter books span many decades and continents.

My new novel, El Gavilan, is more contemporary and hits closer to home: it’s set, more or less, in the central Ohio town where I grew up.

In the 1990s, the Buckeye State began to undergo a sea change triggered by waves of illegal immigration.

The America southwest grabs all the national media attention with its insanely over-the-top cartel violence, self-appointed “Minute Men” roaming the desert with guns and calls for construction of Berlin-reminiscent, soaring border walls.

Fact is, exploitation of illegal workers, human trafficking and all the strife spinning out of the Mexican methamphetamine trade know no boundaries.

As a county sheriff declares to El Gavilan’s presumptive hero, small town police chief Tell Lyon, in a very real sense, “The border is now everywhere.”

As a central Ohio journalist, I saw communities changing as native Ohioans and assimilation-resistant undocumented workers and their families grudgingly struggled to strike some kind of live-and-let-live balance, mostly unsuccessfully.

I experienced this nexus of intimations:

An illegal cockfighting ring was broken up a few miles from my hometown.

In that same Westside enclave, a former blue-collar neighborhood of GM factory workers, nearly all of the signage was suddenly of a decidedly Spanish bent. The local library was scrambling to accommodate a growing population of English-As-Second-Language patrons.

On the opposite side of a looming overpass, an apartment complex became a target of arson. It proved to be a racially motivated firebombing. Lives were lost in that fire…mostly those of children.

The fallout came in many dark flavors and it came down hard. The residents of the complex, recent immigrants to Columbus, had no English. First-responders spoke no Spanish. The controversy spinning out of that case drew national attention.

A few counties away, word came of a sheriff who chose to use his slice of post-9-11, Homeland Security grants not to update radio equipment or to obtain bomb-sniffing dogs as so many others were doing.

This lawman instead bought up billboard space and posted warning messages directed at illegal immigrants. He sent bills to the federal government demanding reimbursement of jail costs his department sustained resulting from the feds’ failure to exercise adequate border enforcement.

All of these developments conspired to inspire El Gavilan. They also suggested the character of conservative hardliner and Horton County Sheriff Able Hawk.

My notion was to take a damaged Border Patrol agent, a man literally running from borderland grief and bloody cartel violence—a grieving recent widower—and drop him into this maelstrom…to confront him with Hawk.

Tell Lyon accepts the appointment to the position of small town police chief expecting to have a kind of Mayberry-like ride. Tell arrives in New Austin, Ohio, expecting to sort out nothing more serious than some drunk and disorderly hi-jinks…family dramas and little traumas of shoplifting and teens using fake I.D.s to try and buy cigarettes or the like.

It’s a miscalculation Tell comes to rue. He lands in town just in time for the murder of a local Latino woman—a brutal crime that triggers a firestorm of unexpected menace and threatens to trigger a race war.

It’s a cliché to say some novels read as if they were ripped from the headlines.

Clichés become clichés, as journalist-turned-author Ian Fleming once observed, because they’re typically so curiously valid.

In the case of El Gavilan, the novel is indeed ripped from the headlines, but they were headlines I sometimes wrote.

Craig McDonald is a novelist and journalist whose first novel, Head Games, set along the Mexican borderlands, was a finalist for numerous literary awards in the United States and France. His new novel, El Gavilan, is available from Tyrus Books. Visit his website at craigmcdonaldbooks.com

Sunday Night Humor: Seinfeld

2012-01-22T18:27:00.000-05:00

Are You the Best Judge of Your Writing?

2012-01-22T11:11:00.000-05:00

I' m not . Some of the stories I thought were winners, took time to place. And others, ones I thought were weak, did not.

Some of the stories I got the most positive feedback about, I almost didn't send out.

For instance THE PERFECT DAY, which several people cited as a favorite story of last year recently seemed too tame to count as a crime story.

I wondered if people would have the patience to spend the day with this family. If they could wait around to see what the problem was.

Does this happen to you? Are you a good judge of your own work? If you had to name the best thing you've written, would the rest of us agree?

Saturday Night Music: Kalena Kai

2012-01-21T19:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Anniversary to the World's Best Husband

2012-01-21T07:00:00.004-05:00

Forty-five years ago, a nineteen year old girl and a twenty-two year old boy got married. Our courtship was short and we really didn't know each other the way couples today seem to after prolonged relationships. He was beginning graduate school and in those days, that was a good reason to get married--so we wouldn't be separated. We both like to read, see movies. That seemed like enough at nineteen.

Phil has never said a mean word to me. Not once. I have never gone to bed angry, sad or worried about anything to do with him. He has been my biggest bolster, my best friend. When people comment on the success of our marriage, it is truly because of Phil, the biggest blessing in my life. I am just the free rider on this journey.

The Summing Up, January 20, 2012 followed by Music to Rest To;Erik Satie

2012-01-20T18:29:00.003-05:00

The Summing Up, Friday, January 20, 2012

Patti Abbott, The Tree of Hands, Ruth Rendell
Serge Angellini, Fallen Angel, Howard Fast
Yvette Banek, The Case of the Constant Suicides, John Dickson Carr
Brian Busby, Masters of Time. E. Van Vogt
Bill Crider, Somewhere a Voice, Eric Frank Russell
Scott Cupp, The Coachman Rat, David Henry Wilson
Martin Edwards, Dorothy and Agatha, Gaylord Larson
Cullen Gallagher, Wake Up, Little Suzie, Ed Gorman
Ed Gorman, American Cinema, Andrew Sarris
Jerry House, The Marcot Deep and Other Stories, Arthur Conan Doyle
Randy Johnson, Queens Full, Ellery Queen
George Kelley, Almuric, Robert E. Howard
Margot Kinberg, Garnethill, Denise Mina
Rob Kitchin, Storm Front, Jim Butcher
K.A. Laity, If You Want to Write, Brenda Uelang
B.V. Lawson, She Shall Have Murder, Delano Ames
Evan Lewis, The Three Musketeers (2006) Alexander Dumas
Steve Lewis, Bad Man's Reutrn, William Colt MacDonald
Todd Mason, Dr. Holmes' Murder Castle, Rober Bloch
J.F. Norris, Benefit Performance, Richard Sale
Eric Peterson, The List of 7, Mark Frost
David Rachels, The Tease, Gil Brewer
James Reasoner, The Time Traders, Andre Norton
Richard Robinson, A Year in Provence, Peter Mayle
Gerard Saylor, Fallen, T. Jefferson Parker
Ron Scheer, Told in the Hills, Marah Ellis Ryan
Kerrie Smith, A Box of Tricks, Simon Brett
Kevin Tipple. Barry Ergang, Drum Beat-Dominique, Stephen Marlowe
TomCat, Murder on the Way, Theodore Roscoe

Friday's Forgotten Books, Friday, January 20, 2012

2012-01-20T09:00:00.040-05:00

Due to a nasty cold, it may be a day or so before I get the SUMMING UP, up.

My review of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO appears in Crimespree Cinema.

Ed Gorman is the author of the Sam McCann series of mysteries. You can find him here.

The American Cinema by Andrew Sarris

Ed here: I'm going through some health problems which is why I haven't been posting the last few nights. I'm feeling better but the issues haven't been resolved as yet.

Forgotten Books: The American Cinema by Andrew Sarris

There was a time in my life, college age and maybe a decade after, when I took Andrews Sarris' opinions of American films and American filmmakers pretty much as gospel. Times and people change. I bought a copy in a dime bin and looked through it and realized that it is in fact a rather pedantic and downright goofy survey of American films.

Sarris sensibly enough divides his opinions into chapters with headings such as Pantheon Directors, The Far Side of Paradise and Less Than Meets The Eye and so on. Hard to disagree with his Pantheon which includes Keaton, Chaplin, Ford, Ophuls and so on. With one exception that is. He includes Fritz Lang in the Pantheon and then in Less Than Meets The Eye dumps on Billy Wilder. What? There are few directors who have captured their AMERICAN time better than Wilder. The Lost Weekend, Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Ace In The Hole, The Seven Year Itch, Some Like It Hot,The Apartment...I take nothing away from Lang, though his self-mythologizing got tiresome. He is certainly a major director. But as far as serious accomplishments go...Lang but not Wilder in this so-called Pantheon?

He also dumps on, among others, Robert Aldrich, Robert Wise, Nicholas Ray, Preston Sturges and Anthony Mann--good sometimes but not good enough for the Pantheon. Really? Preston Sturges not as "good" as Ernest Lubitsch? Not even Sturges would have claimed he was. And Wilder doesn't belong even on this list?

Sarris is at his most readable when he deals with directors he considers sub-human. Peckinpah, Roger Corman, Curtis Harrington and Ida Lupino. He has cordial fun with them and sees merit in their assumed irrelevance.

But unfortunately then it's back to the pot shots. Under the Heading "Strained Seriousness" we have...Stanley Kubrick? Really Stanley Kubrick?

Be warned: You'll neeed a lot of Prozac for this one. And your dental bill will shoot up because of all your teeth gnashing.'

In 1985, Ruth Rendell was nominated twice for best novel of the year by the MWA. The Edgar went to THE SUSPECT by L.R. Wright, but the two Rendell books must be a record. Was anyone else every nominated twice for best book in the same year? The two books were AN UNKINDNESS OF RAVENS and THE TREE OF HANDS. In those days, I read every Rendell as it came out (library copies though).

In THE TREE OF HANDS, a young, divorced mother loses her two-year old child to a sudden illness. Her mother, a victim of some sort of mental illness, finds a replacement: a child abused by his own mother. At first, the young mother thinks the child must be returned but when she finds burns and other signs of abuse, she goes along with it and bonds with the child. This is page turner by any standard. Rendell was so brilliant, especially early on and especially with her standalones.

Sergei Angellini
Yvette Banek
Brian Busby
Bill Crider
Scott Cupp
Martin Edwards
Cullen Gallagher
Jerry House
Randy Johnson
George Kelley
Margot Kinberg
Rob Kitchin
K.A. Laity
B.V. Lawson
Evan Lewis
Steve Lewis
Todd Mason
J.F. Norris
Eric Peterson
David Rachels
James Reasoner
Richard Robinson
Gerard Saylor
Ron Scheer
Kerrie Smith
Kevin Tipple/Barry Ergang
TomCat

My Life at the Theater: Sideman

2012-01-19T18:34:00.000-05:00

I saw SIDEMAN twice. The first time was in New York at the John Golden Theater in 1999 with Andrew McCarthy, Michael O'Keefe and Kevin Geer. It concerns the life of a jazz trumpet player, but one who never achieved stardom. It also concerned his failures as a a husband and father.

It was on Broadway for almost two years.

I saw in again in 2006 at the Hilberry Theater in Detroit.

I can't remember being that taken with it the first time, but we probably had season tickets at the Hilberry that year.

Brought Up on Tales

2012-01-19T00:00:00.000-05:00

Bill Crider said the other day that he was brought up on tales of the Alamo. Were you brought up on tales? Was there a lot of oral story telling in your home? There was almost none in mine. My parents were not story tellers--even their own stories.

I wonder if story-telling is a Southern thing. Or a ethnic thing. Or a family thing.

My German-Scots-Irish, Pennsylvania background elicited very few stories.

If your family were story tellers, what kind of story did they tell? Family ones? Ones about the area you lived in? Historical stories? I am envious. Tell me your story.

Chuck Sent Us this One:Those Old Westerns

2012-01-18T19:14:00.001-05:00

http://oldfortyfives.com/thoseoldwesterns.htm

Tuesday Night Music: Wilco

2012-01-17T19:25:00.000-05:00

Retail v. Online

2012-01-17T15:00:00.002-05:00

We had two things to buy: a pair of dress slacks for Phil; a moisturizer for me. Several shopping trips did not yield these items. The cosmetic counter at Macy's was always undermanned; the rows of black dress slacks spread throughout the store. His size never seemed to turn up.

I hate cosmetic stores because someone grabs you and before you know it the moisturizer has turned into a bunch of stuff or you're sitting in chair like the prize pig at the county fair.

And who wants to go into store after store looking for black dress pants.

Yesterday, I went online and in ten minutes ordered both items at a lesser price, with no shipping costs or tax. They had Phil's exact size; the cosmetic company threw in a gift for my $35 purchase.

Now how can brick and mortar compete with this? I hate this. I hate that online retailers are get such a break. But dang where is the upside of brick and mortar.

Would like to remind everyone of Gerald So's 5-2 Poetry Weekly where I read a very fine sestina by Kiberly Potevin this week.

Forgotten Movies: LORD LOVE A DUCK

2012-01-17T07:00:00.000-05:00

This is one of those crazy movies from the mid-sixties that didn't make much sense but featured Tuesday Weld, who was always fun to watch and lots of music and mid- sixties stuff. This was the sixties that was all fun and games--not the real sixties that came right after.

Roddy McDowell is playing a high school student even though the actor was then in his mid-thirties. The cast is just crazy with Lola Albright, Ruth Gordan and so on. The plot is basically that Roddy is a magician and can get pretty Tuesday whatever her heart desires.

If you want a snapshot of that era, you could do worse than this because it's pretty snappy all told For more movie reviews, see Todd Mason.

My Favorite TV Western

2012-01-16T19:17:00.003-05:00

Although some on the list came and went in a flash or might not be true westerns, Wikipedia lists 180 since the fifties.

Henchmen

2012-01-16T08:00:00.001-05:00

Butch with his henchman, Worm in OUR GANG. Or THE LITTLE RASCALS.

Who are some of the best henchmen in movies? Certain actors specialized in playing the muscle. But sometimes it's a pathway to something better. For instance, Arnold S. played a henchman in Altman's THE LONG GOODBYE. And Martin Landau specialized in them early on (North by Northwest and many TV shows)

Who else? Did Bogart begin as a henchman? Here are some of the best.

Who did you like most as the muscle?

Sunday Night Humor; THE COSBY SHOW

2012-01-15T18:30:00.002-05:00

Writers

2012-01-15T13:37:00.001-05:00

I was reading some Lorrie Moore stories today and it occurred to me that I would have to name her as one of my biggest influences in learning (if I did) how to write a short story. There are many others, of course, but she's a definite mentor, or inspiration might be a better term. I see things in her writing, I tried to carry into mine.

Who are your greatest short story writing influences? Who did you read and admire before picking up a pen? Who made you think you could do it? Who were you in sync with in terms of style, character and plot?

Saturday Night Music: Patti Smith

2012-01-14T19:41:00.003-05:00

Anders Engwall sends us this from Sweden (via you tube). Thanks!

My review of MI-GHOST PROCOL in on Crimespree Cinema.

Your Favorite Spy Novel

2012-01-14T09:00:00.001-05:00

We just saw TINKER, TAILOR. SOLDIER, SPY, which we loved. It was so well done-from the smallest detail on up. The grimy, cheesy sixties- seventies never looked worse. But they make a swell setting for a spy drama.

What is your favorite spy novel? Or a few of them.

The Summing Up, Friday, January 13, 2012

2012-01-13T18:22:00.009-05:00

Young Adult is reviewed on Crimespree Cinema.

I feel like there are lots of typos here. I will be back at nine to correct. Someone once told me not to learn to type too well or I would be consigned to a life of typing for men.
I was anyway but wish my fingers could keep up with my brain. Adios, amigos. Off to see TTSS.

The Summing Up, Friday, January 13, 2012

Patti Abbott, Devil in a Blue Dress, Walter Mosley
Sergio Angelini, The Origin of Evil, Ellery Queen
Yvette Banek, Bodies in a Bookshop, R. T. Campbell
Joe Barone, Back Story, Robert P. Parker
Brian Busby, Mr. Gumble Sits Up, Douglas Durkin
Bill Crider, The Vortex Blister, ed. Sam Moskowitz
Scott Cupp, Abadazad: The Road to Inconceivable, J.A. Di Matteis & Mike Plong
Martin Edwards, End Game, Richard F. Stewart
Ed Gorman, How Like an Angel, Margaret Millar
Randy Johnson, Mountain Man, Robert E. Howard
George Kelley, The Swordsman of Mars and Outlaw of Mars, Otis Adelbert Kline
Margot Kinberg, The Deep Blue Goodbye, John D. MacDonald
Rob Kitchin, In a Lonely Place, Dorothy Hughes
B.V. Lawson, Spence at Marlky Manor, Michael Allen
Evan Lewis, The Crooking FInger, Clive F. Adams
Steve Lewis, Mourn the Hangman, Harry Whittington
Todd Mason, PITFCS: The Proceedings of the Institute for 21st Century Studies, Theodore R. Cogswell,
Terrie Moran, Separate Cases, Robert Randisi
J.F. Norris, The Mummy Case Murder, Dermot Morrah
Eric Peterson, Shoot, Douglas Fairbarn
J. Kingston Pierce, The Commissioner, Richard Dougherty
David Rachels, The Diamond Bikini, Charles Williams
James Reasoner, Rapture Alley, Whit Harrison (Harry Whittington)
Gerard Saylor, The Yiddish Policeman's Union, Michael Chabon
Ron Scheer, Babe Murphy, Patience Stapleton
Kerrie Smith, Murder at the Savoy, Sjowall and Wahloo
Kevin Tipple Dance on His Grave, Sylvia Dickens Smith
TomCat, Footprints, Kay Cleaver Strahan

Friday's Forgotten Books, Friday, January 13, 2012

2012-01-13T08:46:00.041-05:00

February 17 is going to be DONALD WESTLAKE DAY in honor of his last book, THE COMEDY IS FINISHED debuting from Hard Case Crime. If anyone who doesn't usually do a review on Fridays would like to join in, just let me know. It would be fun to have as many of his books reviewed as possible.

I do urge anyone who loves the short story to join us in trying to read 365 short stories this year. You can find the site here.

Ed Gorman is the author of the Dev Conrad series and the Sam McCain series, both thoroughly enjoyable. You can find him here.

How Like an Angel by Margaret Millar

I've always held the opinion that some writers are just too good for the mass market. This is a true of a number of literary writers but it's also true of at least one writer of crime fiction, the late Margret Millar. For all her many deserved awards, she never became the enormous commercial success she deserved to be.

For me she's the single most elegant stylist who ever shaped a mystery story. You revel in her sentences. She used wit and dark humor in the direst of novels long before it was fashionable in the genre. And she was a better (and much fairer) bamboozler than Agatha Christie.

I recently reread her How Like and Angel and its richness, its darkness, its perverse wit make me repeat what I've said many times before--if this isn't the perfect mystery novel, it comes damned close.

The story, complex as it becomes, is simple in its set-up. Private eye Joe Quinn, having gambled away all his money, begins hitchiking from Reno to Caifornia. Along the way he sees the Tower, the symbol of a religious cult that eventually offers him not only shelter but a chance to put his skills to use. Sister Blessing asks him to find a man named Patrick O'Gorman. The man is dead. Which makes Quinn suspicious of why they want him located.

Among its many pleasures is the way this novel, published in the early sixties, anticipates some of the fringe cults that would grow out of the flower power days. There's more than a touch of ole Charlie Manson in the Tower.

I've always argued that the traditional mystery can be used for purposes other than simply whodunit. Here Millar gives us a great novel of character, a wry and not unkind look at people drawn to cults and a dark stunning story of forged lives.

Patti Abbott-DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS, Walter Mosley

Sometimes I think we are too cavalier at FFB about remembering books that became classics of a sort but are still growing old. I am embarrassed to say that the first crime fiction book I read featuring a black detective was DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS by Walter Mosley. I have read several more of his books, but this one will stay with me because it introduced such a great character and his sidekick and also the novelty of bringing the story forward by leaps and bounds with each new book. He is also a terrific writer who deserves more acclaim.

Devil in a Blue Dress appeared in 1990. The story begins with Easy Rawlins, our future detective, out-of-work and unable to pay his mortgage. He's offered a job finding a young woman named Daphne Monet, a white woman known to frequent African-American bars.

Nothing is what it initially seems and with the help of his friend, Mouse, Easy navigates some dangerous terrain. He is the perfect character, easy to like but suitably flawed.

Although I know Chester Himes wrote well before Mosley, this was my first experience with a black detective and Mosley was, and is, so skilled at capturing the times, the people, and serving up a darn good plot.

Yvette Banek
Joe Barone
Brian Busby
Bill Crider
Scott Cupp
Martin Edwards
Randy Johnson
George Kelley
Margot Kinberg
Rob Kitchin
B.V. Lawson
Evan Lewis
Steve Lewis
Todd Mason
Terrie Moran
J.F. Norris
Eric Peterson
J. Kingston Pierce
David Rachels
James Reasoner
Gerard Saylor
Ron Scheer
Kerrie Smith
Kevin Tipple
Tipping My Fedora
TomCat

My Life at the Theater: World of Wonders

2012-01-12T19:00:00.000-05:00

Every year at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford Ontario, they perform one play (at least) from a Canadian writer.

Robertson Davies, although he looks like a nineteenth century writer in this picture, only died a few years ago. He is perhaps, with the exception of Munro, Atwood and Richler, my favorite Canadian writer. His work is both humorous and erudite. He was a master at large casts and large plots-perhaps a bit like Dickens.

In 1992, the playwright Elliott Hayes developed Davies' Deptford Trilogy for the stage. It was not a very successful production. Davies' work is so laden with characters and events and locales that cramming them into a two-hour play was probably impossible. And the stage at the Avon Theater, before the reconstruction above, did not do it any favors. We also had bad seats.

But despite these caveats, I wouldn't have missed it for the world because parts of it still remain with me two decades later. I highly recommend the trilogy if you want to read Davies. But any of his many books will be a treat.

Flash Mobs

2012-01-12T08:29:00.000-05:00

I am sad that flash mobs disappeared before I got to be in one. Or even got to see one in person. It really appealed to me on every level: spectacle, surprise, dancing. What more could you want?

I also wanted to say "you go, girl" once before it became passe. Didn't happen.

Don't you hate it when something goes away that quickly. Were zoot suits a one-week wonder? I know Nehru Jackets were.

What fad really spoke to you despite its quick demise?

Surprise-- I Wrote a Mini-Romance for Texas Gardener

2012-01-11T18:09:00.002-05:00

http://www.texasgardener.com/Newsletters/120111/

Thanks to Michael Bracken for letting me come out of the shed.

Your New Library

2012-01-11T09:05:00.002-05:00

If at this point, you lost your personal library due to fire, flood, divorce, would you replace most of it in print books?

Or would you probably depend on ebooks for most of your reading?

What would be one or two books you would definitely still need to see on a shelf?

Tuesday Night Music: Immigrant from THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

2012-01-10T20:00:00.000-05:00

For Those Who Say Kids Don't Read

2012-01-10T14:44:00.002-05:00

http://aroundthemodernlibrary.wordpress.com/

I'll be following her. And isn't it a shame, her local and school library didn't own THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. I bet mine doesn't either. YES IT DOES.

Books

2012-01-10T13:45:00.002-05:00

This is everywhere on facebook but for those who manage to steer clear of it, please watch.

It is gorgeous.

Forgotten Movies (or TV shows this week)

2012-01-10T08:07:00.001-05:00

Slings and Arrows was a Canadian series which ran on Sundance here from 2003-06. It deals with three seasons of plays and the players at a Shakespearean Festival (New Burbage standing in for Stratford, Ontario). Each season's main production's central quandary is mirrored by the actors in real life. Season One did the Scottish play; Season two, Hamlet and Three, King Lear. Humor is the main ingredient and a spot-on look at the acting life also. And the economics of putting on a show.

I saved the third season as long as I could because the actor playing Lear was an actor we saw play Lear some years ago (William Hutt). Sometimes holding onto something is good. Same reason I still have the last season of Deadwood to watch. Anyone else do that?

For more forgotten movies, check out Todd Mason.

Fully Realized Characters

2012-01-09T12:00:00.000-05:00

Tucson

I have been giving this a lot of thought lately. What writers have been most successful in creating fully realized characters. People who could walk off a page. Ones you come to understand over the course of a book.

And in one book, not a series, which is easier to do, of course.

Memorable characters for me seem to share a common trait: stubbornness. Three recent women who leaped off the page were Mattie Ross in TRUE GRIT; Ree Dolly in WINTER'S BONE and Jane Eyre. All three are negotiating the world at a young age and have to be smart, cagey and determined to survive. They have a mission more important than finding a man or a career. Theirs are life and death issues.

What characters are memorable for you? Who walks off the pages of a book and into your memory?

SHEILA JORDAN 2012 NEA JAZZ MASTER At 83

2012-01-09T08:00:00.003-05:00

At 83, Sheila Jordan will receive the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award on Tuesday in New York. The $25,000 prize is America's highest honor in jazz. It also represents a acknowledgement from the musical establishment after a lifetime in the shadows, where she overcame an impoverished childhood, bigotry, addiction and the vagaries of the jazz life, while willing herself into greatness. Born and raised in Detroit, she spent years suffering verbal abuse for being a white girl in bands with black jazz musicians.

Hurray for Sheila Jordan-still singing today.

Who is your favorite female jazz singer?

Sunday Night Humor: Stacy and Gavin

2012-01-08T19:00:00.001-05:00

LAMBS OF GOD at Spinetingler. Thanks!

Better Than the Book (or the first adaptation)

2012-01-08T08:17:00.000-05:00

Tucson-back after a fabulous week in Tucson. Barely got my horrible computer to check the weather. Sorry if something got overlooked because I know I missed several emails with the computer which shall not be named.

I just saw the Fincher/English adaptation of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO and found it superior to both the book and the first movie.

They cut a lot of boring economic stuff that preceded the real story and got rid of a worthless romance among other things. Fincher did a brilliant job of making every scene zing. He really knows what matters and how to make it matter to you.

But the real key for me was I could pay attention to faces and action and not the sub-titles beneath them. I kid myself sometimes when I say that sub-titles don't bother me because in a thriller, they do. I think they were a real hindrance in the Swedish version of this, for instance.

Here is a list of someone's idea of 50 films that were better than the book, and I would include this one. What is your favorite example?

Saturday Night Music; The Highwaymen

2012-01-07T18:20:00.000-05:00

How I Came to Continue a Series: Heath Lowrance

2012-01-07T09:00:00.001-05:00

Taking Up the Reins on Someone Else’s Character, Heath Lowrance

Last year, David Cranmer, writer and editor of Beat to a Pulp, donned a disguise, strapped on a six-gun, and became Edward A. Grainger. As Grainger, he wrote a whole slew of fantastic Western action stories, and then gathered them all up into two volumes, THE ADVENTURES OF CASH LARAMIE AND GIDEON MILES, volumes One and Two. Critics and readers ate them up, and for good reason. They were remarkably well-written, full of Western bravado, heart, and keen insight into the human condition. In short, everything you’d want from a good Western story.

Like everyone else, I was quite smitten with Grainger’s work. It was all very far removed from what I did myself, but I never thought of that as relevant. Genre fiction is a big enough territory to play host to all sorts of stories, and all sorts of perspectives.

Toward the end of the year, I did a Western story myself, sort of, called “That Damned Coyote Hill”, a sort of pulp-Western-horror crossbreed that read nothing like a Grainger story. But it lead to an amazing opportunity: the chance to dabble in Grainger’s world.

Grainger put his character Gideon Miles on the table for me, and I snatched it up without a second thought.

Between Cash and Gideon, Gideon was the one I most favored. And I thought that, as well-developed as Cash was, Gideon was still a bit of an enigma. A black U.S. Marshall in the 1880’s, stoic and dedicated, nursing his own private hurts. That’s a lot to work with.

The hardest part, for me, was adapting myself to writing about someone who was actually heroic. That’s something I’d never attempted. In my work, heroes are a rare breed, and even Hawthorne, the protagonist of “That Damned Coyote Hill”, is not a hero in the strictest sense—he’s a raw, violent force of nature who has no problem with shooting an unarmed villain in cold blood. Gideon Miles, however, is an entirely different breed; he’s a man driven by his personal values and dedication to his job. A decent, compassionate lawman who’s characteristics are even more remarkable considering what he has to deal with on a daily basis.

So I wrote a one-page character study of him first, outlining all the things about Gideon I thought were relevant. His decency and compassion, his stoicism, his commitment, his repressed anger. Sent it off to David/Edward, who assured me that I had nailed the character pretty well.

And so I was off. I wrote “Miles to Little Ridge”, a fast-moving actioner that finds our hero (yes, hero… weird, huh?) on the trail of a wanted man who might be innocent, and at odds with a pair of hardcases to boot. I enjoyed the hell out of writing it, and got to actually experience the thrill of writing about an actual good guy for a change.

The reception to “Miles to Little Ridge” was a positive one, which surprised me, frankly, considering that Grainger’s characters have inspired so much love from readers. I was half-convinced that no one would accept them from anyone but Grainger. But I did his readers a disservice there. They read the story with open minds, enjoyed it, and now… my own little contribution to the ongoing legends of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles is canonical. No lie, that feels pretty damn good.

Other writers are going to be tackling Grainger’s characters in this coming year, so we have a lot to look forward to. And odds are, I’ll pen another Gideon Miles story at some point.

Thanks, David, for letting me play in your sandbox.

Friday's Forgotten Book, January 6, 2012

2012-01-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

Todd will have the links at http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com

In the air, so can't make any changes. See you here next week. Patti

My Life at the Theater-Black and Blue

2012-01-05T20:00:00.002-05:00

This was the thrilling blues review of 1990 with Ruth Brown, Linda Hopkins, Carrie Smith and a bunch of great hoofers including the young Savion Glover. It played at the Minskoff Theater and it was a total treat.

The production was conceived and directed by Claudio Segovia and Hector Orezzoli. The original production debuted in Paris.

Top Movies of 2011

2012-01-05T09:00:00.003-05:00

Kawasaki’s Rose (directed by Jan Hrebejk) A renowned psychiatrist is chosen to receive a significant Czech medal for his exemplary life. However, his son-in-law discovers that he once collaborated with state security agencies, informing on a former friend of his wife and bearing responsibility for the latter's forced emigration.
Of God and Men (directed by Xavier Beauvois,) a group of French Trappist monks, assigned to a station in Algeria, must decide whether to stay or go when they are threatened by terrorists.
Poetry (directed by Chang Long Lee) Jeong-Lu Yun stars as a woman who discovers she has Alzheimers at the same moment she discovers her grandson has committed a heinous crime. Her enrollment in a poetry class brings her a momentary peace.
Incendies (directed by Denis Villeneuve) a brother and sister, now living in Montreal, follow the wishes of their deceased mother, and travel to the Middle East to discover what secrets her past held.
Blue Valentine (directed by Derek Cianfrance) Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams star in the saddest love story of the last decade. This film is helped immensely by the caliber of acting and the director’s unwillingness to tack on a happy ending.
Take Shelter (directed by Jeff Nichols) Michael Shannon plays a man wrestling with an apocalyptic vision that is either precognizant or the onset of mental illness. An amazing performance and Nichols nails the small town and its residents.
The Artist (directed by Michael Hazanavicius )Jean Dijardin stars as a silent movie star who can’t make the transition to talkies despite the love of a good woman. Silent, black and white, and haunting with a mesmerizing performance.
Drive (directed by Nicholas Refri) Ryan Gosling stars as the unnamed wheelman, whose hole becomes deeper after a heist gone wrong.
Even the Rain (directed by Icíar Bollaín)A film crew, making a movie about Columbus, becomes embroiled in local politics and inadvertently commit the same atrocities the movie purports to critique.
The Guard (directed by John Michael McDonough) One of the few good comedies I saw this year (although second place would go to THE TRIP). Brendan Gleeson, a small-town cop and Don Cheedle, an FBI agent, knock heads as they try to make sense of some goings-on in a small Irish town.
Moneyball (directed by Bennett Hill) Brad Pitt does an outstanding job of playing Billy Beane, a baseball general manager who comes up with a new way of looking at baseball stats.
Margin Call (directed by J.C. Chandor) a team of good actors actually make sense and art of the factors leading to the collapse of 2008.
Source Code (directed by Duncan Jones) Jake Gyllenhal is our hero in a story of a man on a train who gets to repeat the last eight minutes before a crash until he gets it right.

Best Actor: Brad Pitt for both Moneyball and Tree of Life.

Best Actress, Jeong-Lu Yun for Poetry

Most movies on this list have a crime in it despite its best intentions. Perhaps all good movies do.

The Book Review Club

2012-01-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

Patrick Dewitt has fashioned a very satisfying western with the story of two brothers who have carved out lives as henchman for the mysterious Commodore. Their current assignment is to take care of a Mr. Warm, a gold miner in California.

On the way from Oregon to Sacramento to fulfill their assignment, they meet lots of colorful characters and Eli especially begins to question their mission in life.

THE SISTER BROTHERS updates the classic western by adding a lot of humor that is not at the expense of a good tale. All the expected elements are here but tweaked a bit. The writing is excellent and the early blood-letting gives way to a more mature appreciation of a life examined. Highly recommended.

Links to more reviews can be found at Barrie Summy's blog.

FORGOTTEN MOVIES: Bigger Than Life

2012-01-03T09:00:00.000-05:00

Nicholas Ray directed this film about a school teacher whose life is saved by the miraculous use of cortisone. The miracle turns sour however when he become psychotic.

This is a terrific performance by James Mason in quite a shocking story. Barbara Rush plays his patient and resourceful wife. Walter Matthau, his friend.

Sunday Night Laughs: Absolutely Fabulous

2012-01-01T19:00:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

Saturday Night Music: Jevetta Steele

2011-12-31T17:52:00.000-05:00

Friday Forgotten Books, December 30, 2011

2011-12-30T08:32:00.001-05:00

Todd will have the links right here

My Life at the Theater-I AM MY OWN WIFE

2011-12-29T18:57:00.004-05:00

We saw this in 2003 at the Lyceum Theater in NY. It was a one-man show starring Jefferson Mays in a play written by Doug Wright. Wright based it on his own conversations with German transvestite, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf.

It tells the story of an antique dealer, transvestite living in Eastern Germany under the Communist occupation and the dreaded Stasi and her difficulties with this situation. Mays played forty roles in the production and played them well.

One- person plays are not my favorite theater experience (although Ellen Burstyn) playing Shirley Valentine was an exception.

Mays was very very good though and the play was good enough that I bought the script. It won the Tony for best play and the Pulitizer Prize in 2004,

Ten Things I'd Like to See Retired in 2012

2011-12-29T13:00:00.002-05:00

1. The Kardashians-even though I am not quite sure who or what they are.
2. Any play or musical with the word "Nun" in it. (Nothing against a serious look at a nun, just these insipid shows).
3. Al Sharpton as a TV host
4. Netflix
5. GOP debates
6. Discussion over whether Zooey Deschanel or James Franco are cute or annoying. I vote ANNOYING.
7. Attempts by Amazon to take over the world.
8. Real Housewives from anywhere
9. Man v. Food and Dinners, Drive-in and Dives. (Sorry, Phil)
10. The one-percent.

Adding: British royalty and the New York Times insistence on only showing high-priced fashions, homes, food, marriages. Do they think only the wealthy peruse their pages? I may be just getting started.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? WHAT HAVE YOU HAD ENOUGH OF?

HOW I CAME TO WRITE ALL THIS STUFF: Eric Beetner

2011-12-29T07:40:00.001-05:00

HOW I CAME TO WRITE . . . ALL THIS STUFF

by Eric Beetner

I’ve been told to slow down. I’m not good at it though. See, 2011 turned out to be a prolific year for me. Most years are, you’d just never know it because all the pages in the world, if they are left on my computer – who cares? This year saw several releases and for that I’m grateful and proud.

I should note that it seemed as if all year Patti and I were stalking each other. By the time we finally got our ever-so-brief face time at Bouchercon we’d already been between the covers of several anthologies with a few more still to go.

D*cked, Off The Record, Grimm Tales, Pulp Ink. I have been lucky enough to be invited into all these stellar anthologies alongside Patti and several other top writers I am honored to share a table of contents with. The scariest part of an anthology is wondering what the other writers are going to surround you with, and if your own story will be up to snuff. I had nothing to fear in any of these collections. Every one is a top notch collection.

Pulp Ink has some of the flat-out hardest core crime stories all year. Appropriate since the inspiration was a Tarantino movie. I was beyond thrilled when Nigel Bird handed me the title “Zed’s dead, baby”, and I’m pleased with the story that came from that prompt.

D*cked is the craziest anthology I’ve ever seen and it prompted me to write the craziest story I’ve ever written – one narrated by Dick Cheney’s heart. In an election year the world needs to know about this book.

Off The Record took dozens of classic songs and re-imagined them as crime tales and then gave away all the profits to children’s reading charities. How could I go wrong with California Dreamin’? Of course, my dream is a dark one, despite all the sunshine.

Grimm Tales has been in the works for a while now so no one can accuse us of jumping on the bandwagon of reinventing Grimm Bros. fairy tales in a new genre. The results here are outstanding. My take on Cinderella is one I’ll not be reading to my kids any time soon.

I also had two novellas published this year. Dig Two Graves puts me alongside Patti again in the Snubnose Press stable of writers. With the high bar raised by Monkey Justice and Keith Rawson’s The Chaos We Know, my sordid revenge tale slipped behind the velvet rope and took up residence aside some serious talent.

Dig Two Graves had been sitting around for a while and when Snubnose announced they were throwing their hat in the ring I couldn’t resist sending this nasty little adventure their way. So far the response has been great. My Mother had to stop reading only two pages in. Score one for me, I guess. I warned her.

Split Decision is my entry into the Fight Card series of novellas set in the 1950s. The series is loosely tied together but each is a standalone book written by a different author under the blanket pseudonym Jack Tunney. The two that came before, Felony Fists and The Cutman, were great so I knew I had to be on my game when they invited me to pen an original story. The slate of entries for 2012 is already mighty impressive and I look forward to lining up these books on my shelf as they come in. (Yep, they do have print versions available, with alternate covers and our own names on them too)

So, yeah, a big year. That’s not even mentioning the three novels I completed that still await discovery. So will I slow down in 2012? Doubt it. I’ve been taking a break in December to handle publicity of the books and to sell our house and move. But, the ideas are piling up and I’m getting antsy. I only hope I can have another great year of generous editors, gracious writers and kind readers like I had in 2011.

Timeless Movies

2011-12-28T07:00:00.001-05:00

A lot of movies only seem good at the time--or for the first time. Which ones hold up best for you?

Here is my list.

DOUBLE INDEMNITY
GOODFELLAS
CASABLANCA
BRINGING UP BABY
REAR WINDOW, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, VERTIGO
A CHRISTMAS STORY
GROUNDHOG DAY
SOME LIKE IT HOT
MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS
RIO BRAVO
HIS GIRL FRIDAY

Tuesday Night Music: Mumford and Sons

2011-12-27T19:54:00.000-05:00

Forgotten Movies: Whistle Down the Wind, 1961

2011-12-27T07:40:00.001-05:00

Written by Mary Hayley Bell, Hayley's mother, WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND tells the story of some English schoolchildren who take care of a man they believe is Jesus-Alan Bates plays the man on the run from the law. The music is a knockout, as are the gorgeous setting. I barely remember thi one but I was such a big Mills fan, it sticks a bit.

For more forgotten movies, check out Todd Mason.

Postman Always Rings Twice-best cover?

2011-12-26T09:00:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

to all my online friends, you mean so much to me.

Christmas Eve Music

2011-12-24T21:00:00.000-05:00

Friday Night Music: Etta James

2011-12-23T22:18:00.000-05:00

Friday's Forgotten Book, December 23, 2011

2011-12-23T09:06:00.000-05:00

Todd will have the links right here.

My Life at the Theater-RUMORS

2011-12-22T19:01:00.001-05:00

Saw this in 1989 at the Broadhurst Theater on Broadway. It starred Christine Baranski, Ron Leibman, Larry Linville, Jessica Walter, Mark Nelson and others in a laugh-filled farce. The play was by Neil Simon and it was directed by Gene Saks. I can't tell you much more than that there was a lot of doors opening and closing.

Baranski was amazing.

I bet Jeff saw this one too.

Like Crazy

2011-12-22T07:10:00.000-05:00

There are so few good love stories, I could not resist writing about this one. It may be gone from the theaters now, but the DVD is surely on its way. Too late to post it on Crimespree Cinema so here it is.

A British student ignores her student visa regulations when she falls in love with an American student one summer, and this precipitates a world of trouble for them both.

They can't seem to find long-term happiness with each other or with anyone else. They are locked in that summer romance, can't see past it.

There is scarcely a false note in this sad little Valentine. Every character is shown to their best advantage, including the parents and other lovers. How often does this happen?

Starring Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlie Bewley, Alex Kingston and Oliver Muirhead.

Directed by Drake Doremus, who seems to have come out of nowhere to do this great little movie.

What love story do you find satisfying? Movie or book or TV?

Jerry Lewis

2011-12-21T14:30:00.001-05:00

I have never been a big Jerry Lewis fan, but after watching the doc this week, I almost get it based on this one clip. But still remain clueless about why false teeth and bad haircuts are funny.

What about you?

HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS BOOK: Mike Dennis

2011-12-21T07:00:00.002-05:00

HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS BOOK

by Mike Dennis

THE GHOSTS OF HAVANA

I've said before that I can't make up stories, despite having written four published novels, numerous short stories, and a few more novels that will, thankfully, never see the light of day. What I do is start with some flimsy thread, like a central character, or a setting, or even a couple of lines from a song. From that, the central character develops a little, then takes me wherever he wants to go. I only tag along to chronicle the journey.

The Ghosts Of Havana was particularly a difficult experience. All I had was an opening line, which I lifted from one of my bottom-drawer novels. I liked it, and because it conveyed a certain tension right away, I ran with it, thinking it could eventually become a coherent novel.

About a hundred pages in, however, the ice curtain fell. The whole book froze in place, and I couldn't go anywhere with it. The story came grinding to a halt and the characters, who normally tell me what to do, took an extended vacation.

See, this is what happens when I'm forced to make up a story. Day after day, I returned to the computer and day after day, the word count was the same: zero. I liked what there was of the story so far, but I needed help and plenty of it.

Well, since I had ripped off the opening line from an earlier novel, I started rummaging around in that drawer among other discarded novels for an idea, a notion, anything.

It wasn't long before I found my salvation.

About fifteen years ago, I'd started a novel about a man who grew up with a terrible family secret, one his mother only told him about very generally, with no details at all. The secret was contained in a mysterious box his mother had squirreled away, and when she died, he learned of its contents. Right about that time, he realized people were trying to kill him. That's about as far as I'd gotten with that book when I permanently set it aside.

But wait! The idea of a lethal family secret hidden away in a box … could it possibly fit into my current novel, the one that would become The Ghosts Of Havana? I made a couple of minor changes and grafted that idea onto the novel for a perfect fit. From there, I sailed to the ending.

Another novel completed where I didn't have to make up the story.

Dolly again "Shine"

2011-12-20T20:09:00.001-05:00

Thanks, Loren.

Tuesday Night Music: Dolly Parton

2011-12-20T19:03:00.000-05:00

How I Came to Edit This Book: John Kenyon

2011-12-20T14:00:00.001-05:00

HOW I CAME TO EDIT THIS BOOK

So, I had an idea about this time last year as I was reading some fairy tales to my then-3 year old: what if you took the premise of a fairy tale and recast it as crime fiction? It wouldn't take much; these tales, particularly in their true Grimm-fueled depravity, are quite dark. I was reading "Puss in Boots" and immediately began to think of a plot that would pull the story into the present.

But how to explain this premise? If I submitted the story to a publication, would it require a long set up? If not, without that context, would it work? I decided that the best bet would be to surround it with like-minded stories. Thus, a idea was hatched. I got on my blog, Things I'd Rather Be Doing, and issued a challenge to writers to pen a story that updates a fairy tale as a crime fiction story.

The response was fantastic, and I ended up with 16 great stories (with my own humble contribution making it 17 total). I posted the links, people read the stories and liked them and then, well, that was it.

But the stories wouldn't go away. I kept going back to them, thinking there should be a more permanent way to present these. I had just read the collection Discount Noir and Terminal Damage, anthologies with a similar genesis, and realized what I had was an ebook just waiting to be published.

I contacted the folks behind Discount Noir, Untreed Reads, and made my pitch. They were enthusiastic about the project, and we then spent the last several months working on it -- editing the stories with the writers, lining up the wonderful Ken Bruen to write an introduction, working with Untreed on the presentation and design and more.

In the meantime, popular culture seemed to catch up with what I conceived while reading to my son that day. There was a film retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood," and at least two television shows, including the NBC show, "Grimm." The world, it seems, is ready for this.

The result is GRIMM TALES, what on the surface is a collection of crime fiction stories from the likes of Nigel Bird, Patricia Abbott, Eric Beetner and others, but which is actually much more -- a way to tap into the innocence of another time... and then sully it, and evidence that a great story has resonance no matter the context.

Forgotten Movies: I WANT TO LIVE

2011-12-20T08:00:00.003-05:00

I WANT TO LIVE is a 1958 film directed by Robert Wise and starring Susan Hayward, in an Oscar performance, as Barbara Graham, a prostitute convicted of murder and awaiting execution. Susan Hayward seems to be largely forgotten today but in the late fifties and early sixties, she was quite a hot commodity. I haven't seen this in years but it was mesmerizing in my youth. For more forgotten movies check with Todd Mason.

Grimm Tales

2011-12-20T06:38:00.003-05:00

Just in time for the holidays, GRIMM TALES is available at UNTREED READS today. Thanks to John Kenyon, its editor, for all the hard work.

A discount on DISCOUNT NOIR awaits those who purchase it.

Monday Night Music: Ray and Betty

2011-12-19T19:00:00.000-05:00

My 5 Favorite (Non-Crime) Books Read in 2011

2011-12-19T07:43:00.007-05:00

I feel awkward about mentioning crime fiction titles so these will have to do.

What were some of the books you most enjoyed in 2011?

Sunday Night Laughs: One Foot in the Grave

2011-12-18T19:00:00.000-05:00

HUGO

2011-12-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

As a movie lover, many of my favorite movies are about movie- making, and HUGO, Scorcese's holiday treat could not be lovelier, especially its scenes in a train station in Paris. It is ultimately not for children so much as for people who love movies. It was a bit too long, a bit too ponderous, and perhaps the actor playing Hugo was a bit miscast, but it certainly deserved an audience larger than the ten people in mine. I think it has been lost among the many more child holiday-appropriate movies. I urge anyone who loves movies to give it a try--and in 3D at a big screen theater.

What is your favorite movie about movies? Hard to beat CINEMA PARADISO, isn't it?

Obsessions

2011-12-17T07:52:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of people that spend their lives writing/talking/thinking about another person. This is especially true of scholars. Norman Sherry has spend his life writing about Graham Greene for instance. Similarly there are people who are obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lyndon Baines Johnson (Caro), John Adams (McCullough). And on and on. Countless scholars have studied every move Shakespeare made.

What person could inspire that devotion in you? Who's interesting enough to write books about in your opinion.

Who comes closest to being your obsession?

THE SUMMING UP, Friday, December 16, 2011

2011-12-16T18:02:00.001-05:00

Santa has a new elf.

THE DESCENDANTS is on Crimespree Cinema.

THE SUMMING UP, Friday, December 16, 2011 (abbreviated version because I have to clean).

Abbott, Spies, Frayn
Angelini, Fletch, Mcdonald
Banek, An English Murder, Hare
Busby, THE WORK OF PAMELA FRY
Crider, Ghostly Gaslight, ed, Moskowitz and Newton
Cupp, The Peculiar Exploits of Brigadier Feellowes, Lanier
Eagleton, By Reason of Insanity, Stevens
Edwards, Careless Corpse, King
Gallaher, The Twisted Ones, Meeker
Gorman, The Killer, Miller
House, Good and Dead, Langton
Johnson, A Murder Before Eden, Pratt
Kelley, Secret Notebooks of Agatha Christie, ed. Curran
Lawson, CHRISTMAS ANTHOLOGIES, various
Levin, The New Centurions, Wambaugh
Lewis, The Simon Bolivar Grimes Collection, Price
Lewis/Hubbin, Jackpot, Pronzini
Mason, Comix and the Black Castle; Dying of Fright, Daniels
Norris, The Third Lady, Natsuki
Rachels, Scorpion Reef, Williams
Reasoner, Invasion of the Crimson Death Cult, Steele (David)
Saylor, Death of a Dude, Stout
Scheer, The Heart of the Desert, Morrow
Smith, The Under Dog, Christie
Tipple/Ergang, The Floating Lady Murder, Stashower
TomCat, various holiday mysteries

'

A Book That Meant a Lot to You

2011-12-16T09:53:00.001-05:00

First a question, men out there: do you put on a sport's coat to go to the dentist if you are not going to work before or after your visit?

Laurie Colwin's HAPPY ALL THE TIME is one of those books you force on other people. She also wrote some great books about cooking and several other novels. When she died suddenly of a heart attack at an early age (48) , it made the book seem even more special.

What book means a lot to you? Not necessarily the best book you ever read, but the one that spoke to you long ago and still does.

Friday's Forgotten Books, December 16, 2011

2011-12-16T09:00:00.005-05:00

Todd Mason will collect links for the next three weeks. But if you need a break, please take one.

Ed Gorman can be found here.
Check out Ed's latest release: BAD MOON RISING.

Forgotten Books: The Killer by Wade Miller

Wade Miller was of course Bob Wade and Bill Miller. They collaborated on a few dozen novels until Miller died of a heart attack in the office they shared. He was forty-one.

Much of their best work was done for Gold Medal. The Killer is a fine example. A rich man named Stennis owns a number of banks. His son works in one of them. During a robbery his son is killed. Stennis hires a big game hunter named Farrow to find the notorious bank robber Clel Bocock and his gang. When Farrow locates them he is to call Stennis who wants to be there to watch them die. Farrow is a unique character and not just because of the big game angle. He's middle-aged and feeling it, something rare in that era of crime fiction.

The search for Stennis--and the love story that involves Bocock's wife--takes Farrow from the swamps to Iowa (including, yes, Cedar Rapids) to Wisconsin to Colorado. The place description is extraordinary. Probably too much for today's readers but the Miller books are filled with strong cunning writing. Same for twists and turns. For the length of the first act you can never be sure who anybody is. They're all traveling under assumed names and with shadowy motives. The only thing that binds them is Clel Bocock.

For anybody who thinks that Gold Medals were largely routine crime stories, this is the novel you should pick up. Stark House published this a few years back (still available) along with Devil On Two Sticks, one of the most original mob novels I've ever read. There's also an excellent David Laurence Wilson introduction on the careers of the two writers.

Wade Miller got lost in the shuffle of bringing back the writers of the fifties and sixties. This book, so strong on character and place and plot turns, will demonstrate why more of their books should be in print.

Patti Abbott, SPIES, Michael Frayn (this review appeared first in 2009)

An elderly man returns to the scene of his childhood and remembers the games he played with a friend during the World War II. This book follows HEADLONG by Frayn, a brilliant novel about art forgery and the delicious play COPENHAGEN. I have a weakness for books where children get it all wrong, perhaps because I always did. And this book concerns two boys, overly caught up in the war, and inventing a role for one's mother during wartime England-spying on her and coming to the wrong conclusions. One boy convinces the other that his mother is a German spy and they are both to ready to accept this, following her, taking notes, making this pursuit their preoccupation. The plot eventually turns everything they believe on its ear. Frayn perfectly captures the voice of children of that time: their ability to focus on behavior that is perhaps lost to modern kids. I wonder if kids today would bother to put down their cellphones and Ipods. I also wonder if adults have lost their allure. It did remind me of THE GO-BETWEEN, another wonderful British book by L.P. Hartley. You can't go wrong with either of these choices.

Sergio Angelini
Yvette Banek
Brian Busby
Bill Crider
Scott Cupp
Chad Eagleton
Martin Edwards
Cullen Gallagher
Jerry House
Randy Johnson
George Kelley
B.V. Lawson
Doug Levin
Evan Lewis
Steve Lewis/Allen J. Hubbin
Todd Mason
J.F. Norris
Richard Pangburn
David Rachels
James Reasoner
Gerard Saylor
Ron Scheer
Kerrie Smith
Kevin Tipple
TomCat

My Life at the Theater-THE SECRET GARDEN

2011-12-15T19:05:00.000-05:00

I saw this at the St. James Theater in 1991. Phil wasn't wild about seeing it to put it lightly. But in 1991, he was working on a book where all the papers were at the NYPL so we saw a lot of plays.

What I remember most about this production was its lushness. The book and lyrics were from Marsha Norman (what happened to her?) and the music was from Lucy Simon, based, of course, on the story by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Daisy Eagan (who won a Tony) seemed to be a break out star in the lead. Mandy Patinkin was also in the production along with Rebecaa Luker, Alison Fraser (nominated for awards for her work here).

It was on Broadway for almost two years.

THE GIRL BY THE LAKE/DON'T LOOK BACK

2011-12-15T14:44:00.001-05:00

Every once in a while, a movie does justice to a book and this is a great example. Karen Fossum's Oslo thriller DON'T LOOK BACK gets an A+ treatment at the hands of the Italians. Pristine, perfect, thrilling. Toni Servillo is dignity itself amongst the mountains and lakes and murder in northern Italy. Even the music was right.

HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS BOOK: Travis Erwin

2011-12-15T06:18:00.000-05:00

THE FEEDSTORE CHRONICLES, Travis Erwin

A series of accidents.

Or fate.

You could call the birth of THE FEEDSTORE CHRONICLES either one I suppose

The journey began in the early spring of 1989 when I landed a job I’d never considered applying for. My decision to hire on at that dusty Texas feed store was made on an impulse. Of course I had no idea my new boss was the world’s most morally bankrupt man, nor did I realize working for him would change my life, both then and now.

Flash forward nearly two decades, to February of 2007. I’d been writing with middling success for nearly a decade when I found myself at a weeklong writing workshop out in Tucson, Arizona. The workshop was an intense series of exercises as well as pitches to various agents and editors. To unwind each night we writers would gather in one of the cabins and imbibe in copious amounts of adult beverages while bullshitting. Given my Texas roots I probably did more than my fair share of that bullshitting, but for once that proved to be a good thing.

At the exit meeting, the editor who’d organized the workshop sat down with each writer, and explained what he viewed as our strengths and weaknesses. His words to me went something like this … “Travis you’re a good writer, but a better storyteller. At night when everyone was sitting around with a beer in their hand, you were the voice they wanted to hear. But you think too much about the words you put on paper. Go home. Write something not as a writer but as a storyteller. Pretend you’re sitting on a barstool and telling a tale to a half-drunk stranger perched beside you.”

If I wasn’t an eternal optimist, I might have taken the editors comments as to mean only the inebriated found my stories captivating. Instead, I went home and did two things. One, I started a blog because an agent had told me I needed to develop a web presence, and two, I began writing a short story in the style the editor suggested.

That short story turned into a piece called Plundered Booty which appeared in the Deadly By The Dozen anthology published earlier this year. But this post is about THE FEEDSTORE CHRONICLES so let me focus back on it.

Finding it difficult to create fresh blog content on a daily basis, I soon began to rely upon my repertoire of stories from my own life, including my days at the feed store working for that incredulous boss. My blog series THE FEEDSTORE CHRONICLES sort of took off. For twelve Sundays in a row I ran pieces about those days and I saw my blog readership double, then triple during that time span.

Now I may not be the sharpest rowel on the spur, but it didn’t take me long to realize I needed to turn the collection of humorous vignettes in a full-out, coming-of-age comedy. The task proved harder that I imagined as I had to focus on my own shortcomings as well as the crazy behavior of my boss but in the end I discovered more about the person I am than I ever thought I would going in.

Funny thing is that feed store job; the one I never aimed to get in the first place, has had a hand in every facet of my life. Including the fact I can now call myself a published author.

Amazon link http://www.amazon.com/dp/1934606324
B&N http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-feedstore-chronicles-travis-erwin/1106978917

Halle Ephron-THE END OF EVERYTHING

2011-12-14T20:00:00.001-05:00

I try not to do this too much but this one got to me. I hope you'll excuse me.

PULP MODERN ISSUE TWO

2011-12-14T16:00:00.003-05:00

Issue two of the critically acclaimed pulp fiction journal. This issue includes stories by PATTI ABBOTT, STEVEN AXELROD, STEPHEN G. EONNAU, MATTHEW C. FUNK, JC HEMPHILL, JEROME K. JEROME, DAVID JAMES KEATON, JOHN KENYON, CHRIS LA TRAY, MICHAEL MORECI, LELAND NEVILLE, WILLIAM DYLAN POWELL, JEREMY SHANE, and JACK WEBSTER. Once again, the journal is edited by ALEC CIZAK and features stunning cover art by JEREMY SELZER.

Now available at CREATE SPACE. Coming later to AMAZON and other sites.

All I Want for Christmas.

2011-12-14T07:41:00.001-05:00

The buy-American theme fits in perfectly with buying books, doesn't it? Even many foreign books have a US. publisher or distributor.

So what three books would you like to receive?

I am hoping for the Diane Keaton autobiography, the Pauline Kael biography and 11/22/63.

Tuesday Night Music: Ben E. King

2011-12-13T20:35:00.000-05:00

Writing Question

2011-12-13T14:00:00.003-05:00

Christmas at Santa's Workship at the Edsel Ford House in Michigan. Their daughter's playhouse is big enough to live in save for the low ceilings which my son managed to bump his head on three times.

Does this happen to you, writer friends? It only happens to me when I try to take a real story and fictionalize it.

I have a story I'm working on now that can be a flash piece if I stick to the facts; it can be a 2000 word story if I give them more nuance and texture; it can be a 4000 word story if I fill in the background more. And, of course, it can be a novel if I wanted to torture myself for a year again.

Flash pieces have become more attractive of late since there are more outlets for them.

Now it probably should be a novel, but I am not going there. So how do you know what length is right for a story? Especially if it's based on real events and could be as long as you liked.

Do you always know how long a story will be when you start to write it?

Tuesday's Forgotten Movies,THE KNACK-And How to Get It.

2011-12-13T06:58:00.002-05:00

In my continuing attempts to resurrect public memory of Rita Tushingham's fabulous films of the sixties, here is THE KNACK from 1965 (Dir: Richard Lester). It concerns a young man's irresistible charms and whether such a skill can be passed on. Rita plays Nancy, a waif on her own in mod London who meets up with the boys.
This was Tushingham's area of expertise, playing waifs. Not classically pretty, she used her ability to play spunky yet innocent girls to great avail.

For more forgotten films, please consult Todd Mason at Sweet Freedom.

GREAT BOOK TITLES

2011-12-12T16:00:00.002-05:00

Isn't this the greatest facade for a library in the world?
Kansas City, Missouri.

I am often so taken with a book title, I have to at least give the book a shot.

This one is on reserve at my library right now: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

The cover only bolsters my idea I will love it.

What are some of your favorite book titles?

HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS STORY: Lois Karlin

2011-12-12T07:00:00.005-05:00

And come one,
come all, to the Partners & Crime bookstore for a
launch party on Thursday, December 15th, at 7pm.

How I Came to Write This Story: Lois Karlin, “The Understudy”*

When the call went out for submissions to the NY/Tri-State
chapter’s Sisters in Crime anthology, the guidelines inspired
a foray into New York neighborhoods off the tourist track.
I knew right away I wanted my story set in and around the
Bowery during the still-seedy late ’70’s. I could relate to
the era, and I wanted a noir tale that would capture the
neighborhood’s flavor before it was entirely snuffed out by
gentrification.

I was fortunate to have a neighbor who had worked in a firehouse in the Lower
East Side near Alphabet City. The firehouse was right across the street from a
favorite drug spot for junkies - true story - where smack sold at a premium because
resuscitation was available. I left Carl’s house with stories about the city on fire,
layouts of
tenements and lofts, and notes on heroin addicts and
Wall Street junkies, gangs, skid row, and flophouses.

I’d already begun writing about a nineteen year old living by
her wits, who’d wandered to the neighborhood in order to
squat in an abandoned tenement building.

Then Carl mentioned a couple of suburban college
girls who had tried to make it among the druggies and street
people, living rent-free next to the bricked up building where
junkies lined up for each new batch of heroin.

The two girls, crushed by the reality of a life they’d
romanticized, inspired my protagonist’s look-alike friend
from a wealthy family in Greenwich, CT. They survived. For awhile. I didn’t know
where the story was going. When those girls got lost in the world of smack it
was a surprise to me. When they switched places the story led to the Bowery,
and to doom. For a glimpse of that slice of life I thank Carl and the internet.

Thank you, Patti, for the chance to talk about The Understudy and the SinC anthology. You can read a snippet
of each story, and a word about the authors and book availability, at Murder
New York Style: Fresh Slices. http://www.murdernystyle.com/.

Sunday Night Laughs" All in the Family

2011-12-11T19:00:00.000-05:00

Saturday Night Music: The Drifters

2011-12-10T20:29:00.000-05:00

Your Favorite Biopic

2011-12-10T08:00:00.001-05:00

And it was not J. Edgar.

And I am certain I have asked this before but with new ones on Hoover, Thatcher and Monroe, it comes to mind.

MY LEFT FOOT with the fabulous, and too seldom seen, Daniel Day Lewis who stars as Christy Brown, a spastic quadriplegic born to a large, poor Irish family. His mother recognizes the intelligence in her son who everyone else regards as a vegetable. Eventually, Christy matures into a cantankerous writer who uses his only functional limb, his left foot, to write with. I had read him before seeing the movie but this one blew me away.

Biopics about rising over adversity win me over. And the authentic feel of every scene did too.

What's your favorite?

THE SUMMING UP, Friday December, 9, 2011

2011-12-09T18:16:00.003-05:00

My review of J. Edgar is at Crimespree Cinema.

The Summing Up, Friday, December 9, 2011

Patti Abbott, The Kitchen and The Cook, Nicholas Freeling
Yvette Banek, How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher, Simon Barnes
Joe Barone, A Pinch of Snuff, Reginald Hill
Brian Busby, Touchable, Les Scott and Robert W. Tracy
Bill Crider, A Memory of Murder, Ray Bradbury
Scott Cupp, Passion Play, Sean Stewart
Martin Edwards, Bennett,, Desmond Cory
Cullen Gallagher, Dark Intruder, Vin Packer
Ed Gorman, Fake I.D., Jason Starr
Glenn Harper, An Irish Solution, Cormac Miller
Jerry House, A Fifth of Bruen, Ken Bruen
Randy Johnson, The Shell Scott Sampler, Richard S. Prather
George Kelley, Galactic Courier, A. Bertram Chandler
Margot Kinberg, Simisola, Ruth Rendell
Rob Kitchin, Death and the Penquin, Andrei Kurkov
K.A. Laity, Young Men in Spats, P.G. Wodehouse
B.V. Lawson, Murder Before Mittens, John Reeves
Evan Lewis, So Dark for April, John Evans
Steve Lewis/Richard and Karen La Porte, The Chicano War, William Campbell Gault
Doug Levin, Shadow of a Broken Man, George C. Chesbro
Todd Mason, Dancing Naked: The Unexpurgated William Tenn V. 3 by Philip Klass. edit by L. Mann
J.F. Norris, Dead Man's Watch, G.D.H. and M. Cole
Juri Nummelin, The Interrogation, Thomas H. Cook
Richard Pangburn, Jerusalem In,, Martha Grimes
Eric Peterson, License Renewed, John Gardner
James Reasoner, Slaves of the Scorpion, Brant House (G.T. Fleming Roberts)
Gerard Saylor, Die Trying, Lee Child
Ron Scheer, Hands Up, Frederick Niven
Kerrie Smith, Roseanna, Maj Sjowal and Per Wahloo
Kevin Tipple, Nights of the Red Moon, Milton Burton
TomCat, The 4th Bomb, John Rhode
James Winter, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne