Saturday Night Music: Jevetta Steele

Friday Forgotten Books, December 30, 2011

Todd will have the links right here

My Life at the Theater-I AM MY OWN WIFE

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

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

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

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

Forgotten Movies: Whistle Down the Wind, 1961

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?

Merry Christmas!

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

Christmas Eve Music

Friday Night Music: Etta James

Friday's Forgotten Book, December 23, 2011

Todd will have the links right here.

My Life at the Theater-RUMORS

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

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

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

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"

Thanks, Loren.

Tuesday Night Music: Dolly Parton

How I Came to Edit This Book: John Kenyon

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.

JK