Skeleton Sculptures

I will desist from writing a travel narrative after this, but I found the celebration of the Day of the Dead at my daugher's agency Union Settlement in East Harlem so interesting I had to share. These little babies, and they are tiny, are sculpted from sugar and last indefinitely. The celebration also included a mariachi band, an altar with a skeleton, flowers, candles and incense, dancers. poetry and speeches. Whole families turned out to participate. If I had kept up my Spanish, I could have followed it more closely.

On a darker note, I'm supposed to be writing five things for the Pitch workshop I am attending on Monday night. 1)Why did I write the book? 2)What's the book about? 3)Who's the audience 4 How does it stand out from other books? 5)Three important things to convey to an agent about it. All of the advice is about how to not be too smartass or gliv or immodest. Is that the way people are because my impulse is to put my head down on the desk and sigh. Why the hell did I write this book?

Storyglossia

"Stranded on Third" is a non-crime story. I think it's funny but who knows. Here's the link and hey, I'm in NY looking out at 29th street. http://www.storyglossia.com/24/cover.html

New York, New York

Off to New York to 1) see our darling daughter and her husband 2) attend Backspace Agent Conference 3) find a museum we've never been to 4) go to the Statue of Liberty with my brother and his wife who've never been there 4) go to a cute town upstate (Cold Spring?) 5) see a few plays 6) try to write story about Australia for crimespace contest 7) go to the Strand Bookstore 8) see the Jeremy Blake exhibit at the Feigen gallery 9) have lunch with two special friends 10) have two dinners with a few more special friends.
My husband will look at the Jack Kerouac papers at the NYPL for a book on writers on the road.

Anyone have something else that's fun? Any restaurants? Anyone free for lunch?

400 Year Old Clam Found

I had no idea clams lived this long. I would have guessed they lived a matter of a season or two with the way they give clamming licenses out at Wellfleet. I just listened to the story on NPR where the scientist said they had to kill it to determine the age. "There's lot more around up in Greenland," he explained when the host queried their actions.
And sure, you bloody scientists will kill them all too--a contest to find the oldest will ensue. Why do we need to know a clam's age? If it isn't polite to ask about age, where's the good manners in killing them to determine it.
How would the marine biologist like it if we cut him up to count his rings?
ET-phone home.

La Doulos by Jean Pierre Melville

There are some films widely praised that certain viewers just don't get and this was one of those for me. I liked the cinematography, the lighting, the music, the acting and the first and last ten minutes. Both scenes were shocking and imaginative, if a trifle Shakespearian.
But in between was a complex plot that had to be explained to the audience in its entirety near the end. The explanation of what actually transpired took at least 10 minutes of film time. It seemed like a ham-handed technique. I think in the best films the audience comes to understand what happened on their own.
I also thought the film worked best from the POV of the original protagonist but somewhere the POV shifed to Belmondo's, and it lost its tightness for me. What happened often seemed arbitrary and even after the explication, I said, "huh?"
Is there a film that others revere that leaves you cold? This is my pick. Good looks only go so far.

Goodbye Columbus

I don't "do" audio books too often. Too hard to stop a DVD in its tracks. And they seem longer on tape than on the page.
But if I'm cleaning my entire house or taking a long trip, I find one to listen to.
If there's one story or movie that takes me back to my youth, it's this one.
The movie came out when I was twenty and encapsulates my youth.
I wasn't Jewish or rich (like Brenda Potemkin) but I was the same age, from the same geographic area, and part of the same time. And although Ali McGraw and Richard Benjamin were not great actors, they did nail these roles.
Now here was a movie that did credit to the book. You can actually read or listen to it and remember scenes from the movie that played out exactly like the book.
What film most perfectly encapsulates your youth? And please don't say The Wedding Crashers. Pretend you're older than that. Also what films are most faithful to the book?
I am so hoping the forthcoming Revolutionary Road will be one of them. We Don't Live Here Anymore did Andre Dubus proud last year and Little Children was another. But it's rare.

Die a Little To Become a Film

I try not to mention my family too often, but I had to put this on here just to have a record of it for myself. Pretty damned cool if the writers don't strike before the screenplay is finished. Go Megan.

Jessica Biel set to Die a Little
Hottie du jour Jessica Biel is preparing to star in the thriller Die a Little, based on Megan Abbott's acclaimed 2006 novel about a schoolteacher whose life is thrown out of whack when her detective brother falls for a mysterious woman. Although the book is set in the 1950s, the movie will take place in the present. Biel, who optioned the book and will serve as a producer on the film, will play the femme fatale, not the bookworm. (Hollywood Reporter)

Criminalistics

It's finally occured to me that I am not taking advantage of working at a university to supplement my woefully inadequate knowledge of police investigatory work on crimes so I've signed up for a class next semester.

Winter Term 2008
CRJ 5150 Criminalistics
Course Description: Application of the physical and biological sciences to criminal investigation; ballistics, fingerprints, DNA, trace evidence, drugs, arson and explosives, questioned documents, introduction to forensic anthropology, courtroom testimony, ethics.

I hope this is the best one for a crime fiction writer. I am totally geeked about being back in a classroom after ten years. I emailed the guy and he's willing to have me in there with all the cops. Even suggested an anthropology course to go with it.

Any other suggestions on how to get up to snuff? I don't think I'll ever write stories heavy on these aspects of crime, but damn it would be nice to have some understanding of it. I just wish I had taken my friend Maria up on her suggestion that I visit a mortuary before writing my novel.

The Almost Moon

I haven't read this book. I read The Lovely Bones and thought it to be a very good first novel: well-written and a great concept, maybe less than fully successful perhaps, but certainly a fine first novel.
Sebold's second novel, The Almost Moon, is now being subjected to reviews that seem to foam at the mouth in their effort to savage this book. Several, and no need to say which ones, are so negative that as a reader I cringed when reading them. There is no reason to write reviews that personally attack the author's motives. No reason to get such pleasure out of the task. You can taste the blood they draw.
Yet the The Almost Moon is #40 on Amazon right now. Most people don't read reviews for better or worse, it seems.
I think of David Montgomery who has said on his blog that he usually refrains from reviewing books he really doesn't care for. Is this the proper tact to take? Do reviewers owe their audience a scathing review of a book if it deserves it, or is it more about taking revenge on a writer who was too successful their first time out of the gate? What are the duties of a reviewer? Of course, they must sometimes write poor reviews but they shouldn't be so hateful. Or should they?

The Good Blog

I read somewhere that the most widely read and influential blogs are ones that get written five days a week. This is kind of an odd thing because few single -person blogs could be very good that often. I mean how often do you have anything pithy to say. On the other hand, perhaps people get addicted to a voice, or an ongoing situation, or a political opinion or the idea they are participating in a blogger's life. Especially if it's a writer they read, an actor they enjoy, a pundit they admire.
Some blogs invite the sharing of stories like Laura Lippman's The Memory Project.
The blogs I like most are single-person blogs with varied subject matter. Or ones that are so honest they blow you off the page. Or ones where the writer is so nice, you want to spend time with him/her. Or ones that do a great job in reviewing books and movies. Or ones that serve as the town crier for the business.
One thing I dislike about multi-person blogs is that I often think it's Suzie when its Bob. So please follow the British model and say "Suzie here" right off the bat. Don't make me scroll down the side bar and figure out what day it is.
What do you like most in a blog? Do you think "more" is better.

It's been a good run but

television and me might be finished. I watch two or three episodes of a show, quickly see where it's going, and get bored. This wasn't as likely to happen when each episode of a series was self-contained. But now with these arcs, boy it gets tiring once you see where you're headed. Those Darlings on Dirty Sexy Money are tedious. How many scenes of them frolicking and being thoughtless do we need? And since they've assigned characteristics to characters, wow, do they drive it home. Does Sharon Gless have to smoke and whine in every frame of Burn Notice?Chuck, are we going to watch the same dynamic play out each week? He flashes through his computer chip of a brain, spots the enemy and the stalwart three go after him. Those are three shows I'm done with.
Pushing Daisies, cute as all get out. Right? But the two leads are immediately in love--BORING. And the cursed voice-over--which doomed Earl for me---is driving me mad. A little of that guy's voice goes a long way. It's too soothing. Reminds me of a voice-over from a children's movie. This one I may try once more because it does have terrific visuals. And that Chuck is so pretty. We sure are loaded with Chucks right now. Two at movies and two on TV. The Curse of the Chucks.
So I'm left with Mad Men, 30 Rock and The Office. And Mad Men's last episode is tonight. My tv past has had its ups and downs, but it's all down now. At least until The Wire.

How Do You Get Ideas for Stories?

And often, I can't tell you. But this week, the birth of one was easy to track because I was so concerned that I had shut off the part of my brain that's receptive to new ideas as I tried to finish my novel.
I was in Canada and reading The Globe and Mail. There was a very long story on a young sheriff who was killed when he answered a call on a noisy houseparty. I read it thoroughly, but there was very little about a crime in it. Mostly it dealt with the town's sorrow over a man with an eight month old child dying in a remote part of Canada.

Flash forward two days, and I'm back in Detroit on a bus and a woman across from me is reading Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. I wondered what kind of story would this woman like? She was in her sixties, no makeup, plain clothes, but enthralled by that magazine and suddenly the entire story took hold of me. She'd like a story about a young police officer who died needlessly. In my story, he won't be the same guy at all. Already I know he won't be a father and it'll happen in Michigan, where I'm on firmer ground.

Now this is not saying the story will work, or that it will be good or that it will find a home, but it will get written. I'm mostly glad that my brain is listening again.

Can you usually track where your story ideas come from?

How do you know if it's a series or standalone

I wrote the novel thinking it would be a standalone and wrote the protagonist darker than most series characters (okay, Dexter is pretty dark). But now new ideas are bubbling up in my brain. New places she could go, things that could happen. Hey, and I got to like some of her pals. Maybe this always happens after the completion of a novel. Maybe even in lit fiction, the characters continue to act out in the writer's head and it doesn't mean they need another novel. Putting THE END at the end, doesn't necessarily mean the end. How do you know if it isn't the typical detective solving the crime?

"Place" in fiction

When reader 3 read my WIP, the first non-family member to read it, she red-circled a few parts where I actually described Detroit in more than a sentence or two. Described the politics or level of decay or why there is no shopping in the city or what the public transporation is like. There were only descriptions of a few sentences in each case, but for her it brought the story to a halt. She asked me if I couldn't get the information into a conversation or put it in in some less static way. Or get rid of it and assume if the reader wanted to know about Detroit he'd read another kind of book. I understand her point and in a short story I'd never do this, but I wonder when this sort of thinking took hold. Years ago, we were very willing to allow writers to describe the setting. Now it's all dialogue and short punchy paragraphs in between. I know your thoughts about backstory, but what about setting? Don't a few grafs here and there help you understand the setting? Isn't forcing it into a converstion just as annoying because how often do people actually talk about it in a crime fiction novel? Any examples of writer's who write about their city/town well without being didactic or boring?

Say Something Nice About Detroit Day

We're in Canada (more about that later) and we did what we always do at conferences, looked for a movie theater to escape that awkward opening night cocktail party. We found one nearby and saw Across the Universe, which we loved. I don't understand why the reviews have been so harsh. It was much like Hair but with better music.
Our one bad moment was when the 1967 riots were depicted and although there were riots everything in 1967, they flash to Detroit for a few seconds and the hoots came. Poor Detroit is where a movie always goes to show decay, crime and trouble.
So say something nice about Detroit today. I'll start.
Detroit has two of the most progressive senators: Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin

He Sure Can Cook

I have the world's best husband and anyone who knows him will agree. Last night, a Monday night, I came home to grilled veal chops with rosemary, grilled pears, a baked sweet potato squash with cherries, brown sugar, and pecans, and a salad of yellow tomatoes, avocado and leaf lettuce. People, this is a Monday night! Every night is like this and it's why I've gained 25 pounds since he took over the cooking. He's also the gardener and we have the nicest garden you could imagine. Leaving aside his domestic accomplishments, he's good at everthing else too. The author of 14 books, for one thing, but he still reads everything I write as soon as I hand it to him. It's not his birthday until next week, but happy birthday Phil. How did I choose so well at 18? To the man who has never given me one moment of pain in forty years!

Only two years into this crime

writing gig and I find myself going to esoteric ways of killing people off. No kidding. My last two victims died by having things dropped on them: first a mirror and then a school bus. What's your favorite way to knock someone off? Who's used a good method lately? Does a humourous means of death ruin a good story cause I might hoist that school bus back up. It seems pretty strange already.

Five Days

Five Days was a pretty impressive HBO series that started last Monday. If you have HBO, try the second episode this week.
Other new TV shows, I've stuck with through two episodes are Chuck and Dirty, Sexy Money. Pushing Daisies was charming but it might turn too treacly quickly.
On the movie front, we very much liked Eastern Promises despite a few plot "huhs." The Jane Austen Book Club was pretty good too. (Look, guys, we only get a movie like this twice a year). Yes it was improbable that all the men would turn out to like Jane too and return to their wives, but you never know. Didn't much care for Manufactured Landscapes, a doc. about what industrialization, urbanization and globalization is doing to China. I got the point in fifteen minutes.

To google or not to google

John Rickards is deploring the use of the word "google" in current fiction on his blog Empire of Dirt (http://www.johnrickards.com/). I see some of his points, but I think "google" is not really interchangeable with the term "doing research" because it is so specific to a particular means of researching. When used in a story, it conveys a definite image of someone going to a computer and quickly or not so quickly searching for something. It's so descriptive of the age we live in it must be used to describe this action. In my WIP, a character with no research skills at all is able to find someone quickly by goggling her name. It wouldn't have worked as a plot device without that specific means of research. What do you think? Is the term so specific to this time, it will eventually seem archaic? Is it overused already in novels?

Yesterday's Laughter But a Dim Memory

as I begin compiling a list of agents to query. It seems likely I will be doing this for the rest of 2007. It is shocking how many agencies are closed to even query letters unless you are personally recommended by a current client. One agency virtually threatened legal action should you try to contact them in any way.
Recently universities hiring new professors have begun streamlining their process, making what they require more standardized. But it seems like agents stubbornly insist on individualizing their requirements. There is hardly one name on my list that asks for the same set of things. Google an agent and it takes many tries to actually get the information you need, too
This is why I gave up last year. I only had 12 letters in me then. I am going to New York in three weeks for three weeks, I will do it till then at least. Maybe I can knock at doors while I'm there. I think John Boy Walton did this on The Waltons.
If anyone knows of an agent who's open to a new client, let me know. It's a 72, 000 wrd ms. Suspense.

Big Bang Theory

I am going to go way out on a limb here, risking your disdain, and say I think this is one of the funniest TV shows I've seen in a long time. It's opposite Chuck, which I DVR, and K-ville so it has some tough competition.
Big Bang Theory is filmed in the most conventional way, but the writing is not conventional and the acting is great too. It follows the current trend by being about geeks but it actually writes the lines geeks would say and gives them a personality beyond that. The four guys are physicists, Superman fans, neat freaks, etc. and their interaction with the girl next door are truly funny. (Last night they broke into her apartment and organized it for her.)
Speaking of DVRing, it doesn't pay to watch any hour show now. The commercials take up twenty minutes of each sixty and come close to destroying some narratives. Rescue Me, having a bad season this summer, was made worse by these constant interruptions. The better the show, the more intrusive the commercials.
So go to CBS and watch Big Bang Theory online. I bet you laugh too.

Stress

What do you do to relieve stress? I'm wired in such a way that I am always a bit anxious. Circumstances in the last few years have made that stress worse. Sleep is a real issue. I saw an an in Newsweek last week for a $300 gadget called the Stresseraser that sounded promising. So I high-tailed it to Sharper Image to buy Stresseraser. The gadget is based on biofeedback--the notion thaat you can learn to control your breathing and thus feel more relaxed. The problem is you have to watch the little peaks and valleys and get scored on them. Does this sound like something that would reduce stress, getting scored on how stressful your breathing is? Watching the scratchy climb, the precipitous fall. I would have to use this machine all day to get a satisfactory score. No in fact, the longer I use it the worse my score would be.
Next I'm trying Respirate which gives you musical cues rather than pictures. After that it's a hammer to the head.

Dear Mysta

We like to go antiquing now and then and I am always drawn to the dealers who keep postcards. Not for the side with the destination, but for the occasional note on the back. Funny how often there is no note though. Purchased in lieu of a photograph, I guess. But anyway, the ones that are written out are often interesting and generate story ideas for me. This week, I ran across a bunch from WW II. I guess the caught my attention because of the Ken Burns show. How sad to read these letters home from air, army and naval bases where men were being rushed through training to go to war.
Usually I prefer vacation communications though. Like this one I bought years ago dated 1912 and sent from Atlantic City to Brooklyn.
Dear Mysta.
I'm still intact. It's cold but fine, Yours, LC
Do you ever use things like this to generate stories?

Kevin at 10 months

We'd both forgotten just how busy at 10 month old is. Over a period of several hours yesterday and the day before, he never stopped moving. It's part of the code, I guess, to want to move and climb every minute. I actually heard Issac Asimov discuss it once in terms of eventually getting off this planet when we need to.
Whereas Kevin used to like to sit in laps and be read to, now he wants to throw the book and crawl after it. I was a mother a 22 and a good thing because it much harder for my son and his wife in the mid-thirties.
Hey parents of young children out there. Did you ten month olds never stop moving or do we have to worry about those alphabet prognoses?

Demolition

I have a new story at Demolition for those who aren't sick of me. The stories were accepted over many months. Little did I know they'd all come out in a week or two.


http://www.demolitionmag.com/abbottcareful.htm

The Cart Before the Horse

I woke up in a cold sweat last night and I'm on record from the outset that it's the cart before the horse kind of thing. Hell, the horse hasn't even come out of the barn yet. Maybe there is no horse in the barn at all. You get the drift.
This is what I fear: all the stuff that happens after you publish a book: the looking in bookstores that don't carry it; the checking of library sites to see if they have it and if they do have it, is anyone reading it, the bad reviews, the no reviews, the readings or no readings, the obsessiveness you must cultivate to succeed. Can I become this person? The one that drives around the country pushing his book so his publisher will take the next one? Can I make publicizing my book my life.
I have a good friend going through this now with a collection of terrific stories. Should she go into bookstores and ask them to order her book? Should she call and try to set up readings where no one is likely to turn up? How many calls should she make to newspapers? (Why does our local newspaper give no help to local writers?) Should she order a copy every week or so on Amazon to keep her numbers from going too high. Should she even watch those numbers at all or is it likely to make you crazy.
Sometimes writing short stories seems very safe. Maybe only a few people read them, but you're spared a lot of pain. I could just quietly file the novel away. I won't but it's a thought.

When One Man Dies

There are people you now get to know through the Internet in this strange new world we inhabit. There are voices that attract you more than others, ones that seem to jump off the blog.
Dave White has such a voice and although I've only read one short story by him, I know I'm going to like his first novel. His exuberance, naturalness, niceness has to permeate the pages. I know it will be steeped in those traits.
So give it a try with me. I'm betting we'll all love it.
(The appeal of a blog voice recently worked for me with reading Steven Torres' Concrete Maze. I knew I would like that book too. And I did. )

Shred of Evidence

I have a story up at Shred of Evidence:
www.shredofevidence.com/
(Thanks, Megan)

And I also took second place in the "Skeletons in the Closet" contest at Mysterical E.
http://www.mystericale.com/index.php?issue=current_
issue&body=file&file=winners_page.htm
Sorry to be about me, me, me today. Tomorrow we can talk about you.

One other things, do the checkers at Trader Joe's in your neck of the woods seem cult-like or is it just mine? (cult-like in a good way)

King Kong: A Fist Full of Quarters

Okay, I told you I see everything and we were the only two people in the audience at the 4:30 show yesterday for this one. But Christopher Guest could not have written a better script. It was one of the funniest movies I've seen this year. The matchup of the arrogant, probably cheating Donkey Kong master of 1982, Billy Mitchell, with the sad sack, neglectful father of 2006, Steve Wiebe, was a classic. Did you know men are still playing these dinosaur games, still struggling to break records set 25 years ago? If it comes you way, give it a try. I guarantee you'll laugh and you'll cry for poor Steve Wiebe. The desire for excellence has no limits. And only men apparently seek excellence in video games. (Okay there was one woman playing)/
(This setup is made for a crime story).

Circling My Mother

In reading this fine book, I am again struck by how the generation of women who came of age in the 1920s through the 1940s seemed to be much more glamorous than the women who followed them. My mother's bureau drawers and closet were filled with mysterious objects, some never identified to my satisfaction. She had a scent, a regimen for getting ready to go out. She wore heels, dresses, hats--things foreign to me then and, even more, now.
Perhaps my generation gave up such things in exchange for other goals. Or possibly we have an aura of our own, but I strongly doubt that my daughter was ever caught up with her mother's mystery. My bureau drawers were dull--no undergarments not easily explained, no regime, no hats or heels, few dresses. In fact, I know she wasn't because she writes of women of earlier generations.
You can see some of this played out on Mad Men. People who weren't alive then believe the show to be an exaggeration. But it really isn't much of one.
This is the kind of post that get no response, but was your mother glamorous? Did feminism erase glamour? Did the sixties make me unwilling to spend much time on such things? Do I regret that I never learned to walk in heels or apply eyeliner with any skill? Maybe.

Two Weeks to Liftoff

I'm about two-three weeks from the start of trying to find an agent, writing the dreaded query letter, shaping the winning synopsis. If anyone has a word of advice, a website they find valuable, a book that helped them, any of that I'd be eternally grateful to hear about it before I make an unecessary mistake. It's a 70,000 word psychological suspense novel with a female protagonist set in Detroit. Thanks. I'm shaking in my shoes.

Death at a Funeral

I've seen this movie twice now, don't ask why. Everyone we know assumes that we will see any movie out and they are usually right. But I saw this movie alone in Chicago a few weeks ago. There was a movie theater across the street from our hotel and I couldn't resist seeing something while my husband presented his paper. Three people were in the theater. None of them laughed much and I didn't either. The movie seemed obvious, trite, jejune. I gave it a 5.
Saturday night I saw it again. The theater was packed with guffawing people and suddenly it all seemed quite funny. What seemed obvious three weeks ago now seemed charming, a shared experience. The people we were with, Scottish, were quite enthralled. I enjoyed their enjoyment.
Am I driven by my peers of the moment, or is a comedy especially dependent on the audience? Have you had this experience? Have you changed your opinion of a movie based on the place, people, time you saw it? Am I a sheep, led by the masses? This time I'd give it a 7. That must mean I'm 20% influenced by those around me. Don't do the math.

Has This Happened to You?

Reader # 1 looked at draft#2 and said, I'm 95% there. What's still missing is the protagonist's soul lay bare. Okay, they're my words, but that's what she meant. In a short story, there is no time for this but it's essential in a novel unless I want my protagonist to seem like a sociopath, which doesn't make sense in light of her actions. She's dark but not that dark.
I am finding this very difficult to do. Do your characters ever elude you to the very end of the book (story)? Do you feel you know them but can't quite find a way to imbed this information artfully? First reader says to write (by hand) a monologue where she tells me about herself, all walls down. Ask her questions and write her response.
How do you get the inside out with your writing or is it only me who finds this difficult?

Pulp Pusher

I have a new story at pulppusher. It's the tale of a overly protective father. Hope you like it.

http://www.pulppusher.com/pattiabbott(pt1)/

Michigan: A Midwest Mystery

Can someone tell me why a state that's elected two Democratic Senators, a Democratic Governor and voted blue in the last four presidential elections is in a permanent tax revolt? It started in the seventies and has had the state by the throat ever since. In a time of a failing automoile business, and thus falling state revenues, the legislature continues to get rid of things like the business tax and will not raise other taxes to cover the shortfall. An entertainement tax, which few would have even noticed, was gunned down a few months ago by these maniacs. We are about to go down in flames here. These idiots talk about cutting fat; the only fat is on us and so is the joke.

The Cringe Factor

In my reading group last night, the discussion of On Chesil Beach kept returning to how much the book made each woman cringe.
I think McEwan was doing this on purpose. By dwelling so emphatically on a wedding night disaster, he was forcing the reader to experience his characters' shame and horror. He did this through some very specific and relentlessly fulsome details.
Making a reader or viewer cringe drives something home. And I am thinking here of the TV show The Office, where Michael's antics often produce a cringe. A few nights ago, in his workshop on diversity Michael managed to offend everyone in the room. All in the Family did it well too.
I'm sure other books and movies do it too. I don't think I could write it though. Fail to pull it off and the writer looks like a racist instead of someone holding racism up for our ridicule.
Who else does it well?

"What's Left Behind"

is a story of mine in the new Mouth Full of Bullets (http://www.mouthfullofbullets.com/)
B.J. Bourg is trying something new this month. He's going to a print journal for all the new stories. I applaud his chutzpah in a time when most print journals disappear after one or two issues. So if you want to read this exciting story about an aged couple who find a fun way to entertain themselves in their retirement in Mississippi, you'll have to buy the issue for $6.

Speaking of which...With the exception of the eclectic The Spinetingler, it seems like all the other crimes zines have a definite preference for really hard-boiled stories. I sometime write stories like that but at other times I write stories that are not so...tough. I wish someone would come along and start a zine for the other sort of stories. Not necessarily cozies, but for stories where heads don't have to fly across the room.

Goal for the fall: learn the names of all the characters on The Office. I realized last night I still don't know the name of the older, thin, white man who lurks in the corners. And I'm also not sure of the older woman (not Phyllis) who appears less often. I am worried that these names are coming more slowly because 1) I am too old now to learn 12 new names 2) because they look like real people and not movie stars so I find them difficult to sort out. Either way, it sucks.

In Celebration of The New TV season

Shows you wish you'd watched but didn't : Heroes, Friday Night Lights, The Shield, Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars, Smallville

Shows you wish you hadn't watched but did: Desperate Housewives

Show you wish you'd stayed with: Deadwood, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Rome

Shows you're glad you ditched: John from Cincinnatti, Nip-Tuck, 24, Prison Break, Studio 64 on the Sunset Strip

Shows you got just right : The Sopranos, The Wire. Big Love, The Brotherhood, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Office, Life on Mars

Shows good for an occasional viewing but you'd never tape: Monk, The Closer, Damages, House

Shows that shouldnt have been cancelled but were: Arrested Deveopment, Freaks and Geeks, My So-Called Life, Firefly, Sports Night and a whole slew probably I never even got around to sampling

Shows that jumped the shark this year: Rescue Me, Entourage, 24, My Name is Earl

Shows too soon to tell: Burn Notice, Mad Men, Thirty Rock, Flight of the Conchords

Just Tell Me What's Wrong With It?

Maybe I'm the only one who has stories like this. Stories that I like, like even like more than stories that have been published. And yet, they sit on my hard drive, gathering dust. With me, they tend to be humorous stories. Or stories I like to think of as humorous. Do you have stories like this? Stories where you can't pinpoint the problem? Stories that you send out over and over.

But once in a while, someone finally gets it. That happened to me this week with a story I really liked but sent to about 15-20 literary outlets over the last two years. This week Storyglossia took it and the editor's comment was, "Boy, you really understood irony here." So finally, someone's head and mine were in the same place. Or maybe we're both a little off.

I still have at least a dozen stories nobody ever got. Maybe I need to send them out again. Maybe my sense of humor has come into vogue finally.

Jumping the Shark: Can You Turn it Around?

As many have pointed out, a number of TV shows have jumped the shark this season. I am thinking of Entourage and Rescue Me to name two. Nip-Tuck jumped last year in perhaps the Evil Knivel of all jumps.
Once the shark is jumped, do shows ever recover their mojo? I think Saturday Night Live had several recoveries but only by hiring new casts and writers. There are also shows that had so-so years amid better ones. Certainly Dallas had a novel way of wiping out a disastrous storyline.
But I can't really think of a good show that deteriorated and then returned to its full glory. Can you?
Interesting to see if 24 can pull it off next season.

I Wake Up Screaming

afraid that I have wasted a lot of time writing a novel that won't be published when I could have been writing short stories that usually do get published. It's a chance that should only be taken while young perhaps. I mean how much time do I have to screw around with this idea--that this novel will ever see light.

As I do the second draft, I'm trying even more to force all internal thoughts into external conversations and action. Since I am reading old books at the same time, this seems crazy. The characters in Willeford and the other mid century writers let you roam around in their characters head for half the book. I like being in their heads. It's easy to follow the action from there. You know what's up with them. But I know this won't work in this style of book--which I now define as a psycho-noir suspense novel.
I wonder if some of this problem with internal thought relates to the disdain for Freudian thinking. Action not rumination is what counts.
Three people have read this book and one of them says it's too rough (my mother), one says not rough enough (my husband) and one says it's okay on the roughness quotient at least (daughter). I guess I should discount my mother . But how rough is too rough when the roughness comes from your protagonist.

Anyway. I do wake up screaming.

Pick-Up by Charles Willeford

When was the last time you read a book so compelling you couldn't put it down? What was it?

For me, it was this novel. It takes a long time in Pick-Up for the reader to understand the protagonist and what he's all about. Why he's in the fix he's in. Maybe you won't understand the full story until the last line. And yet, Willeford is able to tell his story lucidly, making even the most mundane details riveting.

This is basically a story about two drunks. Why does it work so well? Better for me even than Kennedy's drunks in Albany. Because the characters are interesting, the narrative pull inescapable, the writing excellent.

Even when the plot turns a bit unlikely in the last third--the characters remain true to themselves, so you go along with it.

What turned you on this much?

My Kind of Town

Three days in Chicago to attend the American Political Science Association with my husband. Have you ever had dinner with eight political theorists? How many political theorists does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer: An infinite number because none of them would ever notice they were sitting in the dark.
And yes, Chicago is the most fantastic US city.
But that's not what this is about. This is about ineptitude. In four days, I never got my laptop functional because suddenly the piece that allows me to add on a keyboard and a mouse and a flash drive would not fit into any port. And still won't.
Also my new cellphone kept sending me messages to set up my voice mail and telling me to hit the pound key, which I did. Then it advised me to seek advice on what the pound key was. Isn't this the pound key ######.
Then four of us went to Oak Park and were give ipods to do an audio tour of Frank Lloyd Wright land and the snotty tech guy warned us that people like us (read old) liked to hit just any old button and if we did hit any old button he couldn't be responsible if we had to listen to the tape in Japanese. So keep your fingers away from this button, you old f****.
Every day I get just a little further behind in the tech war. Skip one step, let one thing pass you buy and you're dead. Of course, you are anyway.

We Love Detroit

I was worried the film maker would run out of footage in this 2 1/2 minute film but he

didn't. Celebrate Detroit with me. You gotta

love a city that spends half of that time showing you its sports venues. Pity the Detroit Pistons, housed in the burbs.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yruPu5uxjEc

Some Tips from a Master

Hat tip to Rap Sheet who brought this to my attention.
A lot of this has been said before, but one thing stood out. Mosley suggests that on completion of your work, you tape the whole thing and then listen to it. He claims it will point out a myriad of problems. Has anyone done this? Was it helpful? I don't want to spend the 10 or more hours this would take if it isn't. Also how many people write three hours a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year? He also totes this as necessary.
I'm not the kind of writer that needs to be inspired but this does seem out of reach for anyone who isn't living off of their royalty checks and advances. But maybe most writers do this. What is your usual schedule?

Explication in Crime Fiction

I really liked I Married a Dead Man a lot. But it was guilty of something I have been trying to steer away from in my writing: the use of lot of explication to move the story along. Now it would be hard to avoid it in the Woorlrich novel. This woman is isolated for very unusual reasons and the only way the story can move forward is by Woolrich puttting the reader inside her head.

If this is the case, is explication permissable or should the author still find ways to convey information through dialogue and action?

My Reader #1 felt that was the main flaw with the first chapter of my novel--too much explication and I can easily omit a lot of it. By why did it work in I Married a Dead Man?

Is explication a dated technique in the novel?

Since there is so little traffic here, I guess I'll put this on crimespace too.

The Page Turner

The Page Turner was one of the creepiest movies I've seen in a long time. Directed by Deni Dercourt, it's the story of a child protege who's inadvertently put off stride at an examination. Unable to go on with music after this, she shuts her piano lid and puts away eveything related to music.

Years later, she takes her revenge on the woman who inadvertently caused her disgrace in the most subtle and unexpected ways. (It's like early Chabrol.) The two actresses, Deborah Francois and Catherine Frot are brilliant. Isn't it terrific when you can evoke an atmosphere that is terrifying without a single weapon on display. (Well, there's one but it's within keeping with the milieu) Highly recommended.

Away From It

Steve Allan mentioned his computer had a meltdown, which brought this to mind.

For years, when my husband was writing and I was not, I looked forward to any trip that would take him away from his typewriter (at the time) and let him focus on me (or the kids back then). Now both of us have trouble letting the work go for any extended time. Occasionally I take a laptop along but it usually doesn't work out very well. I can't get the proper focus or mood when I'm looking at a new horizon.

How do you feel about extended periods of time (say, more than a day or two) away from your writing? Does it make you worry that will never be able to work your way back into the story? Do you worry that the "voice" will be lost? Or are we just obsessives at my house?

Working in Detroit

I work at a university where I sometimes advise students. Today a new graduate student, fresh from Pakistan, asked me if I thought it was safe for him to walk to the Welcome Center (a ten minute walk on a college campus). Pakistan! Isn't the place where Obama wants to sent the military to hunt down terrorists? Where would you feel more safe? Detroit or Pakistan?

Thank You, Graham Powell

Do we thank Graham enough for keeping this whole thing flying. Other writers I know bemoan the fact that we have such a terrific way to get our blog read on crimespot. Weeks go by and they never get a comment and often give up blogging. Our ease in communicating here is amazing. And that wouldn't be true without Graham. Thank you so much.

Happy Birthday, Megan

Black Snake Moan

Someone recommended this on their blog recently. Then a friend seconded that review. I was initially put off by the woman in chains poster and the sadistic looking trailers. Boy, am I glad I saw it despite my misgivings. It was a good movie--plot, acting, cinematography, music. It reminded me of a Daniel Woodrell novel. The ending was perfect if enigmatic. Highly recommended. And I didn't know Samuel Jackson was such a great singer. Soundtracks seem to be getting better and better.

On Writing

When I was seven I developed a terrible case of insomnia. It got so bad that my parents eventually took me to the school counselor (I doubt she had any real training as a psychologist) and she told me to make up stories to tell myself and that would help me go to sleep. This worked on and off over the years. When I reached my late forties, I realized I had a thousand stories in my head and maybe I could write some of them down. So I took some classes, some workshops and eventually was able to publish some of them.
I still have a million stories in my head. My husband only has to say something like, "My father made us all get up at seven and watch a dog on the Today Show who was supposed to be able to talk" and I'm off. I can hardly wait to begin that story and find out what happened. That's why I love writing flash pieces and very short stories. You can be onto the next one in a week or two.
Is your head filled with stories? How did it begin for you?

Rescue Me (and I mean it)

I know I should never have liked this show. It's clearly misogynistic. The main character has committed some questionable acts over its run, I admit it. My son and daugher-in-law took it off their rotation when Tommy raped his wife last year. But I've always liked Tommy's bad boy antics, thinking at heart, he's a good soul and that hasn't really changed. And I guess I'm not as easily offended by fiction.
What has changed for me is that it's become BORING. The story arc is more of a circle and we come back to the same set of issues over and over. Every sexual encounter is the same. The woman is predatory and Tommy is taken aback by her ardor. He never has to do more than lie there with his mouth open, uttering half-sentences of surprise. Tommy is heroic, Mike is slow-witted and maybe gay, Frank can't commit, Lou is funny, Janet is the world's biggest pain in the ass...tell me something new.
Come to think of it, every woman on Rescue Me is the same--irrational, crazed, predatory.

Maybe I should stop watching it. Maybe women are treated better
on Entourage, or The Sopranos, The Sopranos, Big Love, The Shield, or Mad Men. See what I mean. Oh for the days of Cagney and Lacey.

Laurel Hill Cemetery

My brother reminded me that I had been to Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philly in 2003 and he had the pictures to prove it. I do remember now eating a cheesesteak at a place near there. All of my memories of Philly revolve around cheesesteaks, the Schuykill Expressway and the Jersey Shore. Can anyone tell me why Laurel Hill is relevant to NoirCon? Was Goodis buried there?

These are my great grandparents. Thomas Morrison's father, a Welsh miner, died of black lung disease and Tom was sent to Girard College in Philly, which took in orphan children in the 19th century and gave them a fine education although their mothers had to relinguish custody.

Tom's mother was a lacemaker from Ireland. A sad story, yes, but Tom went on to Temple Law School and became the City Comptroller of Philadelphia before his death.

Thanks, Jeff for reminding me.

Halo for Satan

Anyone know anything about this guy? When my local used bookstore didn't have Goodis, they sold me this. What do you think? Imagine four warehouse floors of books and not one Goodis (or any other other mid-century noir writers.

Now That I Can Dance

Most of the time when I think about Detroit, I worry. I worry that the city will never find its way out of the morass that it sank into around 1967. I worry that Detroit will never head any list for more than its crimes and unemployment. I feel bad that it seems to be as racist as it was in 1967. I wish the Detroit Free Press was the newspaper it was thirty years ago. . I wish the car companies were doing better even though I drive a Subaru. I wish that the Detroit incinerator was not huffing its toxic air in my direction 24 hours a day.
But once in a while I feel good about Detroit. I feel good we have two Democratic Senators and a Democratic Governor, and that two of them are women. I feel good that we have three good sports teams. I feel good that we have a major symphony orchestra and a first-class art museum. I'm happy I can see indy and foreign films at four venues. We have every kind of ethnic restaurant you could name within an hour of the city. I am happy we have Aunt Agatha's Bookstore an hour away.
But today, I felt especially good as I watched thirty or so young people put on a sensational musical review for 1200 people. This was the sixth and last performance and I am so glad I caught it. The Mosaic Theater is a ray of hope for young people here, offering them the sort of opportunities that Motown purported to offer and didn't fifty years ago.
"Now That I Can Dance" was the story of the Marvelettes and Motown, one of Detroit's greatest contributions to popular culture. If any of those thirty twenty-somethings couldn't sing or dance I didn't hear or see it. And how nice to be in a multi-racial, multi-age, multi-ethnic audience in the newly restored DIA auditorium. We rocked baby, we rocked and we sailed home on a cloud of optimism.

What do you recommend?

Help me fill in some holes in my reading. What are your choices for the best Cornell Woolrich, Jim Thompson, David Goodis and Charles Willeford? Guide my reading for the months leading up to Noircon. A native Philadelphian, I have to go. Thanks.

Sex

Sometimes when I read a sex scene in a novel, I begin to think "ah, that's what sex is like for that writer." That's what he/she thinks is kinky or hot or repressed or whatever. It's my telescope at their window.
Does a depiction of sex reveal a lot about a writer or is it just as imagined as a description of anything else? Or is it perhaps based on what the writer has read in other books? Somehow I feel like a writer brings his own experience with him/her here more with sex scenes than with other issues.
My "issue" here is that I just wrote a novel about a woman obsessed with sex and yet there is very little description of such sex. I know David from my writing group is going to nail me for this as soon as he reads it. Writing about sex seems too revelatory to me. You can't help but think "oh, does she really think she invented that. Does she really think no one does that every Tuesday night."
I'd rather just shut the door like they did in movies of the forties and fifites. You know what's going on behind the door, right? I don't need to tell you.

"My Hero"

For all you Superman fans, here's a flash fiction piece on D.Z. Allen's Muzzleflash.
Flashes are so much darn fun to write. http://www.muzzleflashfiction.net/

Hey, Bryon, how about another challenge? How about one about murders taking place on planes, trains and buses?

Mourning Might Becomes Electra But Not Me

I'm in mourning for those halcyon days when I could rush to the wp each monring and find out what'd happened to my protagonist overnight. What surprises she had in store for me, what strange and dark passages she'd taken while I slept.
Though I can still spend time with her, still wonder at her seductive ways and dark charms, there's never the rush of feeling, the wonder of what might occur. I have to maintain a blueprint by now, have to stick to the plan, the plot. There's no freedom in my fingers.
As much as I resisted writing a novel, I found much to love in it.
Will I ever find another love like my first one? Will anyone else ever allow me such entry into their soul? How do you let go? Please advise.
(For those who wonder, I have not gone off the pier. I just miss my summer mission).

Television

Hey, don't go away when you see that word because it's my contention that television--the non network variety--is the new film. The kind of films that Bergman and Antonioni made are more likely to be found on series tv. At least if you're talking about depth of character and atmosphere.

I see a lot of movies, at the theater and at home, and nothing lately compares to The Wire, The Sopranos, Big Love, Rescue Me, The Shield, Deadwood, Life on Mars and more recently Mad Men.

Burn Notice, Entourage and The Closer also merit the occasional glance. Television--the non network kind--has finally seen its strength--it can give the viewer a deeper, longer view into its subject. It can be just as sophisticated as film.

Mad Men, in its first two episodes, has more to say about how women were treated circa 1960 than any movie of recent years. I remember being considered fair game for the men in my Bell Telephone Company office and that was a decade later. It's also amusing and sad to see aerosol sprays come onto the market pitched as wonder products, knowing what we know now. Not to even mention, decisions made by these ad men on how to sell cigarettes after the surgeon general's first warning.

My Netflix envelopes are sitting on the coffee table for weeks now. Maybe I'll watch them when the network shows return in a month. Maybe...

Nana blogday

Although in a sense this entry is about communication.
Yesterday Kevin learned how to clap his hands and yell "yea" at the same time. We all did it with him a hundred times. And then he discovered if he did it first, we would do it back. Communication. It was like the scene in The Miracleworker when Annie gets Helen to understand the sign for water.
Think of the complex action Kevin has learned. He can bring his hands together, he can yell the same sound each time. He do it in response or do it to evoke a response. He can reproduce the same action.
I had my children at age 22 & 23 and this sort of revelation escaped me. I was just looking for the big moves. We only had Dr. Spock to guide us. Glad I'm old enough now to appreciate the small ones now. Yeah, Kevin.

The Last Ten Pages

are upon me and I find I am very reluctant to wrap it up. In fact, I am actively avoiding it by constantly rewriting other sections of the novel.
I've come up with these reasons for my procrastination.

1) I've been in this woman's head for six months now and I don't want to let her go.
2) I fear the real work now begins in trying to find an agent, a publisher.
3) I am worried that the most important part in a crime novel, the ending, is not good enough. That the reader will be disappointed.
4) I have an alternate ending that I don't think is right for the character but is probably more splashy, more dark.
5) I'm not sure if I should leave the door open for a future novel with this character.
6) My daughter will read this now and I don't want to disappoint her. I mean, my God, would you want your writer-daughter to be disappointed that you, in fact, are not such a good writer after all.
7) I know there are things that will need to be changed, but this is a very tight book and that will be difficult.
8) I have to let my writing groups read this now and they will have lots of ideas that may make me lose confidence.
9) I think my character has changed over the course of 65,000 words. I know people change, but I am not sure I didn't soften her up unintentionally. Maybe I need to go back and darken her up.
10. I'm plain scared about what will happen next.

Do you share these sort of thoughts at the end of a project?

Reading Groups

Do you find it difficult to read an assigned book? This is my dilemma in my reading group. Usually I can blame it on the length of the book and the fact that the women tend to choose didactic books month after month. This seems to be true of most books groups. Examples: Snowflower and the Secret Fan, Nickel and Dimed, The Red Tent, Reading Lolita in Tehran, Arc of Justice. But even when I choose the book myself or even when someone chooses something I would probably like under other circumstances, I am resistant to reading it. Why? does it harken back to my misadventures as a student? Is this true for anyone else?
This month we are reading The Good German. I'm on page 72 in a 500 pages book with a few days go. Does anyone have crib notes I can use? And the movie supposedly stinks so I can't do a Leave to Beaver stunt like that.

Hairspray and the Modern Zoo

Two issues here. First, I loved Hairspray. Yes, the film traded camp for sincerity, but I adored the naive optimism that every issue could be resolved by a realization that "isms" were ruining the world.
There were a few slow spots but damn, I was tapping my feet to the songs, even if they were unmemorable. What saved the film was the idea that we were worth saving, that the U.S. was, at heart, the Great Society.
When did it all go wrong?
Also did Amanda Byrnes (or whatever) have her skin tinted so as not to appear too white for a black man? She sure was a strange color.

And what is it with modern zoos? I love the naturalistic settings but where were the animals? All of them were submerged in protective coloring. My grandson was only arrested by the motion of butterflies. Everything else was invisible. Maybe we need to paint the rocks turquoise and pink.
So odd to hear the children asking, "Mommy, where are the lions, polar bear, etc? I'm glad to see the cages gone but still... You people with children: explain.

Tomorrow I get to see Tribe and Mrs. Tribe. I am excited!!!!!!!!!

This is what happens

when you go on a vacation. You begin to rethink aspects of your novel. And suddenly it occurs to you, you should have written it in the first person. How could you have made that mistake?

Or what were you thinking setting up that plot device where the explanation of what happened will be longer than what happened? Or the whole thing is really cheesy and you should stick with the shorts. Does this happen to you? Or is it just me?

Congrats to My Darling Daughter

Who is nominated for an Anthony Award for Best Short Story for "Policy" in Damn Near Dead. "Policy" became the PBO Queenpin in 2007. Duane's Damn Near Dead is the Little Engine That Could. He put together one swell book.
And congrats to all the other nominees as well. Love the number of women nominated this year. It will be darn near impossible to award Best Novel to a man with five women up there.

The Tragedy Grows

I need to talk about this with someone. I guess it's you. The husband of the beautiful woman whose picture is a few entries below (who died last week) has now disappeared. His wallet, keys and clothes were found on a beach. He is 35 years old and was on his way to her Memorial Service in Michigan. He is also an artist and writer. How can their families bear this? Suicide is contageous, I've heard. After a long relationship, it's hard to contemplate life without a loved one.

Jeffrey Eugenides' book The Virgin Suicides (to my mind, his better book) was based on a rash of suicides in this community in the 1980s. So called motivational speakers were brought it. We begged our children not to look on suicide as either romantic or a solution. It finally ended but that was a dreadful year. This one is shaping up to be horrific too.

Name your best trait.

My writing group had a picnic on Sunday and someone whipped out a game with all kinds of difficult questions to answer. We're not into answering personal questions. Especially my husband who still hasn't told me where he grew up (only kidding, sort of). The most difficult question for both of us was--"what is your best trait?" No one else seemed to find this difficult to answer and one fellow admitted it was his superior intellect, but my husband and I were caught up. Speechless. Maybe it's the age we grew up in where admitting you had any good qualities was verboten.

Tell me your best trait and I'll tell you mine. Or I'll tell you what I said eventually. My husband never did name one so we named it for his. "Focus"

Private Fears

I saw this film last night and boy, this poster is sure misleading. There were a few comic moments but other than, pure misery. Nicely filmed though. It's from a play by Alan Ayckbourn and it feels English not French. The characters are too repressed to be French.

Speaking of private fears, do you ever worry that you are picking up the voice of a writer you are reading as you write? Or, if not the voice, the style. I think the voice is consistent in my so-called novel, but I have to say, reading Miami Purity the last few days, with Hendricks' riveting voice, was probably a mistake.

One thing is sure, her protagonist could take mine in any kind of contest you name. And I don't have the guts to name some of them.
Probably most of your guys too. Made me realize my girl isn't so dark after all.

I have 60,000 K and I guess I can begin to wind down. What do you think? Is 65 K enough?

Conversations

What is your preference/thoughts on when a long conversation takes place in a novel. A conversation where necessary information is given. Like a police interview or the protagonist explaining the action to her boyfriend. Do you prefer almost no interruptions? By this I mean things like:
She got up and cleared the table as she listened. He cleared his throat and continued. The phone rang but she didn't bother to answer it. They both listened to the sink dripping in the other room.
Obviously in a long conversation, there needs to be some of this. But do you think it should be kept to a minimum or do you find long conversations tedious and need breaks.
Thanks for the help.

Do you ever mistrust

writing that comes too fast. If you're flying down that white space, do you wonder if it could be any good? Do you force yourselfl to step back from it? Maybe you go and scrub the toilet or call your mother. Later, can you tell the difference between what came easy and what came hard?

RIP, beautiful, beautiful girl. You were the most talented and lovely girl in the world. We are so sad you couldn't stay a little longer. We are weeping for your loss.

Ken Bruen on the Craig Ferguson Show

I just watched Ken Bruen on the Craig Ferguson show. I find it utterly appalling that following two comedians, Ken Bruen was still expected to provide humor. He was charming, of course. But why wasn't he allowed to talk about his book or what it is to be a writer? Why did half the sequence center on a unzipped fly? Clearly Ken had been prompted to stick to humorous anecdotes.

British Television has shows that discuss books. Other than the Cspan show that deals mostly with political fare, we have nothing. Why does every American talk show have to be interchangeable in terms of guests and format? When cable came along, the promise was there would be outlets for serious talk about cultural fare? Bah!
Far superior was Ken's appearance on Sunday Morning last year. Maybe people watching TV early Sunday morning instead of very late on Monday night have more patience.

Fingers v. The Beat That My Heart Skipped

Sometimes there's a problem when you watch the original movie several years after you see the remake. In this case,

the problem was I couldn't remember the subplot with Jim Brown as being in The Beat That My Heart Skipped.

I also remember The Beat as being a lot more a straight-forward crime film and less about seventies angst. Am I wrong? I also don't remember laughing so much. I thought the original was hilarious at points. Harvey seemed like he had been overly influenced by Taxi Driver. And Tisa Farrow overly influenced by Mia's acting style..
Now I liked both versions, but the The Beat blew me away. Fingers didn't although it might have thirty years ago. Can any of the film buff reading this comment on it. How about it Todd?

Is it me or if The Flight of the Conchords the same episode every week? Oh, HBO, what have you done? John from Cincinnati and now this?
Does Jim Winter know this guy?

Johnny Jinx

For baseball fans or Detroit Tiger fans.

http://flashpanalley.wordpress.com/2007/07/06/johnny-jinx-by-patricia-abbott/

The Snakecharmer

was accepted at Pulppusher. I am thrilled. It never gets old, does it?

I do miss writing short stories even though I am at page 190 in the novel. Sandra Scoppettone's blog today pretty much sent me to the liquor cabinet. So I am going to keep my hand in with the shorts because success with a novel seems iffy at best.

My friend at Detroit Police Hdqts suggested I watch a show on A & E called First 48 Hours, where they follow police investigating crimes early on. It was utterly depressing and I don't know how they do it. The teenagers that committed one of the crimes seemed completely apathetic that they had shot a fifteen year old girl who had nothing to do with any of it. All of the people seemed catatonic for that matter. Funny how few of them asked for an attorney. Wouldn't you do that first thing? Apparently not according to my son, the ADA. Most people think bing questioned is not the same as being suspected.

I really, really recommend The Dead Girl. The acting is sublime. Brittany Murphy, Toni Collette, Giovanni Ribisi and lots of others. Nice to see Mary Beth Hurt after so long.

There's Nobody to Like

is a criticism I'm seeing in critiques of noir lately. Well, isn't that essentially noir? Isn't it about the failure of everyman in society? Who did you like in Double Indemnity or The Postman Always Rings Twice or in lots of the classic noir. The most we can/should feel is a fleeting sypathy for a chump or innocent caught up in it. But not really even them because they will also give in to it.
If the prose is crisp, if the style interesting, if the people behave in the way noir people should, isn't this enough? I'm not talking about hyper-violence here, just the conventions of noir.

Real Place Names

What are your theories on using real place names in your writing? I know the use of real products, stores, etc. became know as KMart realism back in the seventies, but doesn't a judicious use of real placenames give authenticity to the work. Probably anything with a negative spin should be ficticiously named but what about restuarants, stores, theaters which make the story a Detroit story. And what about now-dead public officials? Can I critique them without inviting a law suit? What do you think?

You Kill Me

Except it didn't. I fully expected to like this movie, much like I enjoyed Sexy Beast a few years ago. The elements were in place-good cast, quirky protagonist, a bit of gunplay, Buffalo in winter and yet it didn't work for us. Too much of its time was spent in AA meetings and how many times have we been there? That might have even been okay if they had a new take on it but they didn't. We needed more or less humor, more or less violence, more or less pathos. And Ben was as flat as a well-you know what. I don't know if the accent made him seem flat or if he was playing it like that.

And can you just stroll into a funeral home and start prepping corpses? And what was Tea Leoni's backstory. Seemed like that had been cut. Ah well, I've seen four good movies this summer: Waitress, Once, Away from Her and After the Wedding. How much can I expect? It is summer, right?

A Priest Walks Into the Room

And what do you do with him. No kidding, this happens to me a lot in this novel. Do you trust this sort of occurence in your writing? Does it usually work out? So far he's a hectoring sort of guy and he might be dragging the book down in his need to discuss priests with AIDs. What do you think? Does my subconscious know best? Or when your conscious mind has to deal with the fancies of your subconscious, does it make mistakes?



Watched Thunderfoot and Lightfoot last night and I didn't quite get it. It was so meandering and it seemed like CE had phoned his part in. Jeff was good and I liked the George Kennedy performance but it was awfully lethargic. Again, perhaps the post 9/11 world has spoiled movies like this for me. I wonder if I had seen in ten years ago if I would have thought differently.

Is it ever too early to be a baseball fan?

The TC stands for Traverse City. Don't think my grandson is brave. He never saw what was behind him. Sunburn was amazingly subtle.

We don't know who won the game but it won't be his last. Next on my son's schedule is the Grand Rapids team and Lansing. Kevin better like baseball or he will have a difficult row to hoe.

Is there a prize for the most games attended by a six-month old?

Attention all writers

Do I need to solve all murders that occur in my novel in an meaningful way? What if I am just throwing it out there and it doesn't actually figure into the eventual ending? I mean, I can come up withy a tepid solution but I hate to spend a lot of time in being clever if it doesn't actually matter. What is your preference as a reader or writer?

1408

In general, I am not a horror movie fan and 1408 left me somewhat cold except for the very fine performance of John Cusak, who seems able to take on the "everyman" role better than anyone. "Everyman" but with a small questionmark. I don't want to give much of the plot away, but it is one of those horror films that put you inside the horror early on and you never can escape.
I prefer those movies that allow retreats when you/protagonist gets to mull over the circumstances and investigate them.

What are you five favorite horror films? Mine are 1) The Shining (although it breaks my rule) 2) The Exorcist 3) Jaws 4)Don't Look Now 5)Alien

I could think of many more but in general, it's not my favorite genre because of the startling factor in most of them.