Help A Fellow Book Lover and a Nice Person Too

http://www.indiegogo.com/feeding-kate

This is a website that is raising money for jaw surgery for Sabrina Ogden, a terrifically nice person whose health care policy will not pay for the procedure. This is not elective surgery to anyone other than cost-cutting health care systems. This is necessary, indeed critical. Sabrina is a great friend to the crime fiction community. You are not helping a stranger but someone who shares your interests.

In return for your $5.00 you will get a volume of short stories by many of Sabrina's friends--all writers. Plus you will have the pleasure of helping a dear young woman out.

HERE'S HER OWN STORY. THEN TELL ME WHY WE DON'T NEED OBAMACARE

Tuesday's Forgotten Movies: Ruby in Paradise

Kind of an amazing debut in 1993 for Ashley Judd and one of those summer indie movies which makes things bearable. I was reminded of this little gem by Elizabeth Olsen's debut this year. Victor Nunez directed and seems to have fallen into obscurity. Sad.

You can get the idea of what the plot was about from the clip. Can men leave Ruby alone long enough for her to survive?

Some women are just too pretty for this world. I really admire movies that attempt to delineate a life. So rare. The little Florida souvenir shop really caught my fancy. How many of those have I visited over the years, bringing home little souvenirs of the trip? Too many.

Monday Movie Music: John Barry

Tell Me Why

you read the last book you finished.

With me it was GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn and I read it because the reviews were terrific and I liked her first book.

Good reviews may be the number one reason, I chose a book or movie.

Why did you choose the last book you read? Reviews, you liked other books by the author, it sounded good on the jacket, the topic interested you, the setting, a friend recommended it, FFB?

What was the book and why did you read it?

How I Came to Write This Story: Eric Beetner

How I Came To Write That Story (and design that cover)

By Eric Beetner

The original Pulp Ink anthology is a stellar collection and one I'm proud to be a part of. I lucked out when then inspiration from Pulp Fiction I was given turned out to be, Zed's Dead, Baby. How could I go wrong?

When Chris Rhatigan and Nigel Bird announced they were doing another Pulp Ink, and the proceeds were going to charity, I jumped at the chance. Chris and Nigel wanted to open the gates of crime fiction a little this time out. They wanted horror too, or crime and horror mixed. This was an exciting prospect for me. I grew up a horror movie buff. In high school my walls were covered - to the point where not single inch of the most boring tan walls in the world were visible. Really. Ask my Dad.

So blending two of my greatest loves into one story? I ran with it.

My story, One-Armed Bandit starts out as a crime tale. A man has been caught stealing from the boss and he is about to pay the price for it. Turns out he wasn't stealing only money, but a little between the sheets time with the boss man's wife.

In the second half of the story, it turns horror. A severed arm becomes re-animated to exact revenge. You might recognize the image of a disembodied arm from the cover at of Pulp Ink 2. This is no accident.

As art director for Snubnose Press, I have been designing book covers for a majority of Snubnose releases. But I'm not so vain as to assume anyone would want my own story to be representative of the collection. I feel it is important to note that the idea for using the severed arm on the cover art was Chris and Nigel's idea. We had already toyed with the dirty typewriter and the grimy background, but when I added the bloody arm scrawling the title across the page, well, Pulp Ink 2 quickly became one of my favorite book covers I've designed. It's the kind of image I would have hung on my wall in those younger days.

And inside, it gets even better. I don't know what kind of mojo those two guys have, but they have pulled together another outstanding anthology and another one I am so proud to be associated with. For the proceeds to go to charity is icing on the blood-frosted cake.

I'm very glad readers have the option to get PI2 as a print book as well as an ebook. The cover art will live on my shelf as a source of pride as much as the story inside.

Sunday Night Poetry" William Wordsworth

Thrillers

Thrillerfest, huh.

In 2010, NPR listeners picked SILENCE OF THE LAMB as their favorite thriller. Here is the long list.

What makes a thriller a thriller?

I don't read a ton of what I believe are thrillers, but I remember enjoying COMA a lot. What about you? What are they and which ones do you like?

Saturday Night Music: Miles Davis

I will never get tired of this one.

How I Came to Write This Story: Andrez Bergen

PULP INK 2: LAZARUS SLEPT

Just so we’re straight, Roy Scherer is me.

Well, he’s a smidgeon me. The guy is far more gung-ho and proactive in diabolical situations, ones in which I’d probably curl up in a corner and cry. We share a certain amount of cynicism, though he takes his to extremes, and I like to think I’m a lot nicer than Roy. I hope I am, anyway.

Where we meet is in a lack of love for zombies.

I don’t know what it is, but I never had a soft-spot for brain-eating fiends lurching about above ground. When it came to horror, I much prefer my terrifying aliens—The Thing from Another World still gets to me—and vampires, so long as these babies are free of the vices of Anne Rice and Stephenie Meyer.

Which is one of the reasons that I approached the genre when Nigel and Chris invited me to pen my first published “horror” story for Pulp Ink 2.

At the time I was researching the great Peter Lorre, partly an idea I had for a character that is part homage in my upcoming novel One Hundred Years of Vicissitude, and otherwise because Lorre reminds me of a Polish mate of mine, Mateusz Sikora, an artist with whom I started a record label years ago.

Lorre, for me, is one of the highlights in John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon, and he rocks his brief scenes in Casablanca.

Anyway, wasn’t I talking up zombies?

In retrospect, the yarn is a bit of a cop out. The solitary zombie in my Pulp Ink 2 story ends up not being a zombie at all, but someone suffering from Lazarus syndrome—actually a real enigma; look it up on Wikipedia.

For the story I decided to conjure up two new characters, the hardbitten, grouchy Roy Scherer I’ve already mentioned, and his younger, bookish-yet-dizzy partner in supermundane investigations, Suzie Miller.

They came out of some recess of my brain that’d lapped up odd-couple interaction from the likes of, well, The Odd Couple, along with the ‘70s Rock Hudson vehicle McMillan & Wife, and more obvious recent telly offerings Moonlighting and Remington Steele. I’d be remiss to add that The Thin Man is vaguely in there as well.

Obviously Roy and Suzie clicked for me—straight after the Pulp Ink 2 story, I wrote two others featuring the bickering, constantly irritated duo. I’m thinking more.

So, anyway, I hope you find the time to check out this inaugural piece. There are far better stories by the other writers like Patti Abbott, Eric Beetner, Heath Lowrance, Matthew C. Funk, Richard Godwin, Christopher Black, James Everington, Julia Madeleine, Katherine Tomlinson, R. Thomas Brown, and Court Merrigan.

And what a dark, pulpish, occasionally fun romp it all is.

Andrez Bergen

Beautiful Women of the Silver Screen

The Summing Up, Friday, July 13, 2012

If you want to see a really dark movie, try Elena. My review of it is here.

The Summing Up, Friday, July 13, 2012

Patti Abbott, Brazzaville, William Boyd
Sergio Angelini, He Who Hesitates, Ed McBain
Yvette Banek, The Winds of Change, Martha Grimes
Joe Barone, Painted Ladies, Robert B. Parker
Brian Busby The Body on Mount Royal, David Montrose
Bill Crider, Dolls Are Murder, ed. Harold Q Masur
Scott Cupp, Ghost Seas, Steven Utley
Martin Edwards, Mystery at Lynden Sands, J. J. Connington
Kurt Evans, Carteret's Cure, Richard Keverne
Ed Gorman, Rendezvous in Black, Cornell Woolrich
Jerry House, The Ancient Track, H.P. Lovecraft
Randy Johnson, The Wrong Case, James Crumley
Nick Jones, The Boys from Brazil, Ira Levin
George Kelley, Tales from Super Science Fiction, ed. Robert Silverberg
B.V. Lawson, A Crime Remembered, Jeffrey Ashford
Evan Lewis, Death for Two, Carroll John Daly
Steve Lewis, Murder Comes First, Richard and Frances Lockridge
Todd Mason, The Unknown, Ed. D.R. Bensen
Terrie Moran, Green Darkness, Anya Seton
Steven Nester, Billy Phelan's Greatest Game, William Kennedy
John F. Norris, Ghost Wanted, Finlay McDermid
Juri Nummelin, Put Out That Star, Harry Carmichael
James Reasoner, The Golden Hooligan, Thomas B. Dewey
Richard Robinson, Where There's a Will, Rex Stout
Gerard Saylor, The Case of the Not-So-Nice-Nurse, Mabel Maney
Ron Scheer, The Settler, Herman Whitaker
Michael Slind, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, Kate Summerscale
Kerrie Smith, Service of All the Dead, Colin Dexter
Kevin Tipple, Sara's Search, Jan Christensen
TomCat, Dragonfly, Bill Pronzini and Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie
Prashant Trikkanad, Run, Mann, Run, James Keenan

Friday's Forgotten Books, July 13, 2012

Next week we look at the work of Georges Simenon. Other reviews are also
welcome. Happy to post any where necessary.






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

Rendezvous In Black by Cornell Woolrich

This is one of Woolrich's famous "Black" books and black it is. Bleak as David Goodis gets his protagonists usually attempt to make some kind of connection to another human being. Not with with Woolrich.

I'm not going to describe the set-up here because laid it flat it is so outlandish you might think twice about reading the book. But Cornell Woolrich was nothing if not shrewd. By the time you figure out what's going on you've had a chance to prepare yourself. You've been putting it all together piece by piece so when the picture is complete you just nod and accept it.

And anyway as with most Woolrich books and stories the set-up doesn't matter all that much anyway. What makes Woolrich Woolrich is how his protagonists respond to the set-up. This novel is built on a series of richly detailed character studies of several men who have begun dying in ways that would be ironic even to them if they could step back and see it with any objectivity.

Woolrich is often compared to Poe and while I think that's fair--they are both masters of claustrophobia and obsession--I think in all Woolrich's real literary father was Guy de Mauppassant. Woolrich has de Mauppassant's fascination with society high and low for one thing, and a sly ear and eye for realistic daily life. There is a lot of Edward Hopper in Woolrich's word paintings of the Thirties and Forties. I'm not sure that Poe an equivalent interest in his own time.

This is my favorite Woolrich novel which is to say that he has told a story of such cleverness and nihilistic power you see why Woolrich is so revered. This is one of those books, one of those books that crush, and linger on long after you finish it.

Brazzaville Beach, William Boyd

I read this in 1991 and starred it in my log. I have only a slim memory of it so most of this comes courtesy of other reviewers. I did love it at the time but couldn't make time to reread it. Still, it's a book and an author worth reading. THE ICE CREAM WARS is another Boyd book enjoyed at the time.

Hope Clearwater is an ecologist working in Africa. She lives alone in a beach house , trying to patch together her shattered life. She came to Africa to participate in primate research and to heal the deep wounds of her marriage to a brilliant English mathematician who went mad; but she soon found herself plunged into another crisis, one that threatened not only her career but also her life. In a book packed with scientific and mathematical metaphors, Boyd explores how people create, defend, ignore, or subvert the belief systems that govern their lives. If on one level this is an intellectual thriller, on another it is very much an exciting and riveting adventure story, and on yet another a subtle examination of the power grid of personal relationships.

Sergio Angelini
Yvette Banek
Joe Barone
Brian Busby
Bill Crider
Scott Cupp
Martin Edwards
Kurt Evans
Jerry House
Randy Johnson
Nick Jones
George Kelley
B.V. Lawson
Evan Lewis
Steve Lewis
Todd Mason
Terrie Moran
Steven Nester
John F. Norris
Juri Nummelin
James Reasoner
Richard Robinson
Gerard Saylor
Ron Scheer
Michael Slind
Kerrie Smith
Kevin Tipple
TomCat and TomCat
Prashant Trikkanad

My Life at the Theater: Boeing. Boeing

I saw this frothy play at the Meadowbrook Theater in Rochester, MI. in January 2010. It was lighter than air but enjoyable telling the story of an airline pilot with a stewardess (as they were then called) in every city. Originally a movie in the sixties, it wore its age pretty well.

Megan Talks About Mentors at Jungle Red

http://www.jungleredwriters.com/

Your Top Ten

Your Top Ten Books

I ran across this site yesterday and it is fun to read top ten lists.

What are some of the top ten books you'd put on a list? This is is my list today. It would be different tomorrow.


General

1. Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates
2. The Stories of Alice Munro
3. A Fan's Notes, Frederick Exley
4. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth
6. The Good Soldier, Ford Maddox Ford
7. A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O'Connor
8. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Raymond Carver
9. Last Night at the Lobster, Stewart O'Nan
10. True Grit, Charles Portis

Crime

Top Ten List of Crime Fiction

1. Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2. The Postman Always Rings Twice, James Cain
3. The Friends of Eddie Coyle, George V. Higgins
4. The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
5. Beast in View, Margaret Millar
6. When the Sacred Ginmill Closes, Lawrence Block
7. New Hope for the Dead, Charles Willeford
8. Winter's Bone, Daniel Woodrell
9. The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler
10. In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

How I Came to Write This Story: Katherine Tomlinson

All proceeds from PULP INK 2 go to a British charity for children.

How I Came to Write this Story: Thicker Than Water from Pulp Ink 2

About two years ago, when I was putting together the last issue of Dark Valentine Magazine, I ran across an arresting illustration by a Russian artist named Alena Lazereva—a mermaid tied to an anchor; a painting she called “Doomed.” It was one of those moments where a story just popped into my head fully formed—a tale of a young sailor whose life becomes an Ahab-like vengeance quest after a mermaid’s song lures his ship too close to rocks and he alone survives the subsequent shipwreck.

I liked the story but felt like the idea of the painting—you can’t drown a mermaid but you can starve her to death—deserved a darker and more modern story.

When Pulp Ink 2 was announced and the call for submissions was for stories blending noir with horror, I had another one of those “gift” moments. I saw a man floating in a shipping crate filled with water, a man who hadn’t drowned but had starved to death.

From there I started mapping out a story where such a thing would be plausible, setting “Thicker than Water” in the paranormal Los Angeles that’s the setting for my L.A. Nocturne tales. What I came up with was a story of a “surf war” between rival “shoals” of gangster mer-men.

Then I started fleshing out the details.

I looked up names that meant “fish” for my characters. I gave “The Carp,” the godfather of a local shoal of criminal mer-men, some great cryptic Japanese sayings for him to use in conversation. (“The jellyfish never dances with the shrimp,” was my favorite.)

I had a really, really good time splashing around in this particular setting.

In fact, I had so much fun with my world-building that editors Nigel Bird and Chris Rhatigan had to rein me in a couple of times. (They’re great editors, by the way, and every single suggestion they made improved the story.)

I wrote the first draft in one sitting and then went back and played with it for the better part of two weeks. I often use twist endings, but this story ends with a pun and I wasn’t sure if that was going to work tonally. I took it out and put it back in a couple of times. But at the end I thought—your character is part human and part shark and all crass; he’d say what he says. So I left it in. And Nigel and Chris left it in.

And that’s how I came to write the story. A picture was worth a thousand words.

Tuesday Night Music: Wes Montgomery

Ideas???

After finishing three stories recently, I have zero ideas for the next one. Does this ever happen to you, writers? Do you ever sit down without the foggiest idea of what you are going to write? Does it ever turn out well?

(P.S. I think this is an angry birds mask. You don't like to ask)

Forgotten TV: Mr. Novak

Teachers once occupied a loftier status than they do today and Mr. Novak (James Franciscus) was one of my favorites on this series that ran from 1963-65. He was an English teacher and Dean Jaffe, the principal. (And later Burgess Meredith)

The show took on pretty heavy topics over its two years.

A schoolteacher would only play as a comedy today. Room 222 was a similarly fine show from that era.

And believe it or not, George C. Scott played a social worker a few years earlier.

Teachers, social workers, firemen, cops, nurses, these are/were our heroes.

Movie Theme Music