Saturday, November 17, 2012
Wanna Win a Book?
Wearing Three Hats ~ LIVIA J. WASHBURN - Petticoats & Pistols at Petticoats & Pistols: I would love to hear thoughts about this holiday anthology and one reader who comments will be randomly selected to win a trade paperback of SIX-GUNS AND SLAY BELLS: A CREEPY COWBOY CHRISTMAS. Good luck!
Friday, November 16, 2012
Martin Fay, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Martin Fay, a classically trained violinist who helped revive traditional Irish music as a founding member of the Chieftains, died on Wednesday in Dublin. He was 76.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Forgotten Books: The Comeback -- Dan J. Marlowe
The Comeback has an evocative title if you're familiar with Marlowe's situation. The protagonist is Lefty Halliday, an ageing pitcher with arm problems. Because of a lucky accident, the problems seem eased, maybe even gone. But are they?
The story's told in Marlowe's vigorous style, and the similarity the pitcher's story to his is obvious. Marlowe's able to write again, but can he sustain it? Can he go the full nine innings?
I enjoy having little curiosities like this in my accumulation, and if I run across any other books in this series by Marlowe, I'll pick them up. Richard Laymon also wrote some. They're cheap enough on the 'net if you're interested.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
Wind River: Ransom Valley: James Reasoner, L. J. Washburn, Livia J. Washburn: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: The Wyoming Territory town of Wind River has gotten so peaceful that some people think it's downright civilized. But they don't know that a gang of vicious outlaws is planning a military-style raid on the settlement that will clean out the bank and the other businesses. Anyone who gets in their way will be cut down in a hail of bullets.
Through a twist of fate, a beautiful young woman finds herself taken prisoner by the outlaws, and it's up to Marshal Cole Tyler and Texas cowboy Lon Rogers to pursue the desperadoes and rescue Brenda Durand . . . if they don't wind up on the receiving end of some outlaw lead first!
RANSOM VALLEY is a brand-new 42,000 word novel from award-winning authors James Reasoner and L.J. Washburn. It's the first new entry in more than a decade in the bestselling Wind River series and is filled with the same blend of action, humor, drama, and compelling characters as the first six novels. If you haven't paid a visit to Wind River yet, now's the time!
Through a twist of fate, a beautiful young woman finds herself taken prisoner by the outlaws, and it's up to Marshal Cole Tyler and Texas cowboy Lon Rogers to pursue the desperadoes and rescue Brenda Durand . . . if they don't wind up on the receiving end of some outlaw lead first! RANSOM VALLEY is a brand-new 42,000 word novel from award-winning authors James Reasoner and L.J. Washburn. It's the first new entry in more than a decade in the bestselling Wind River series and is filled with the same blend of action, humor, drama, and compelling characters as the first six novels. If you haven't paid a visit to Wind River yet, now's the time!
Want a Free Review Copy?
Bloggers and reviewers: Want a free review copy of the latest Rancho Diablo book? All you have to do is get in touch with Mel Odom (mel@melodom.net) and find out how to get one.
Wedding Cake Killer -- Livia Washburn
The wedding goes off without a hitch, and things look fine for the happy couple. Fine, that is, until Roy is murdered and Eve is accused of killing him. Phyllis, who's getting quite a reputation as a crime-solver (she's thought of as the Miss Marple of Weatherford, Texas) is going to have to find the real killer, because it's pretty obvious to the police that Eve is the guilty one. Revelations about Eve's past, things unknown even to her best friends, don't help at all. And then there are the revelations about Roy's past. Talk about secrets -- there are plenty of them. And then there's the DA who has it in for Phyllis.
None of that stops Phyllis, however, even though she winds up getting arrested herself (I'm not giving away any secrets; we learn this at the very beginning).
Crime-solving, humor, good writing, and twenty-one recipes. Something for everybody. Check it out.
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
ToxiCity (Georgia Davis Prequel): Libby Fischer Hellmann: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Ten years before EASY INNOCENCE, PI Georgia Davis was a police officer on the force in a Chicago suburb. And while homicides are rare on the North Shore, three bodies turn up in quick succession—all of them dumped in waste disposal dumpsters or landfills. The investigations into the murders test the mettle and professionalism of a combined police task force. Along the way, they also test the strength of Georgia’s relationship with one of the detectives working the case. While Georgia, her detective boyfriend Matt, and his sometime partner John Stone pit their skills against those of an inventive killer, the daughter of a real estate mogul-- who just happens to have her eye on Matt -- complicates matters. A dark police procedural and thriller, TOXICITY is a prequel to the Georgia Davis PI series (EASY INNOCENCE and DOUBLEBACK).
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
NBC 6 South Florida: A man was arrested for cutting almost all of his girlfriend's nose off after she refused to have sex with him, Fort Lauderdale Police said.
How Do You Choose a Bank?
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
The Hold Up (Rancho Diablo): Colby Jackson, Mel Odom: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: When Randy Post, a young cowboy riding for the Rancho Diablo brand, gets accused of murdering a saloon girl, Sam Blaylock saddles up to get to the bottom of the matter before they fit him for a hangman's noose. Sam doesn't know that the murder has set off a chain of events that will end up with him swapping lead with a murderous gang of robbers eyeing one of the banks in Shooter's Cross. In the past, Marshal Everett Tolliver and Sam Blaylock haven't seen exactly eye-to-eye on things involving the ranch hands. Tolliver intends to hold the peace in town no matter what the cost. But he's going to need help if he's going to find out who murdered Jessie Holden in cold blood.
Even after they've set there differences aside for the time being, Sam and Tolliver still have to put their lives at risk to hold the line in Shooter's Cross in a gundown on Main Street that will become a legend.
The Petraeus Affair -- Retro Movie Casting
If I were directing The Petraeus Affair back around 1959, I'd make it as a military farce. Here's who I'd pick as my stars:
General David Petraeus: Cary Grant
Holly Petraeus: Kim Hunter
Paula Broadwell: Esther Williams (not a runner, but a swimmer's just as good, and we could have bathing suits)
General John Allen: Tony Curtis
Jill Kelley: Janet Leigh (looks great in a black wig)
Shirtless FBI Agent: Clint Walker (I think his Cheyenne contract called for him to remove his shirt at least once per episode)
Other suggestions?
Other suggestions?
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Kevin O’Donnell, Jr., R. I. P.
In Memoriam: Kevin O’Donnell, Jr., 1950-2012.: As the author of ten published novels and over seventy published short stories and articles, Kevin O’Donnell, Jr. won literary awards and had a devoted following of readers.
Link via Boing Boing.
Link via Boing Boing.
About Time
Norman 'Chubby' Chaney of 'Little Rascals' and 'Our Gang' gets a headstone, 76 years later
Hat tip to Doc Quatermass
Hat tip to Doc Quatermass
Gunshots in Another Room: The Forgotten Life of Dan J. Marlowe -- Charles Kelly
Dan J. Marlowe is in the top rank of Gold Medal novelists in my book, right up there with Jim Thompson, Charles Wiliams, John D. MacDonald, Harry Whittington, and Elliott Chaze. I was able to help Marlowe out a bit long years ago when he was looking for copies of his out-of-print novels, and I had a couple of short letters from him. I knew a little about his life, but I'm always interested in learning more about my favorite writers. So naturally I was glad when I discovered that Charles Kelly, a novelist and former reporter, had put his investigative skills to work and written a biography.It turns out that Marlowe was quite a character, even more interesting than I'd thought. I knew a bit about his amnesia, but now I know the whole story, or as much of it as we're ever likely to learn. I knew about his association with writer and former bank robber Al Nussbaum, but Kelly gives much more information. In fact, there's a great deal of material here on Nussbaum, and even some stuff about Nussbaum's associates. If Marlowe was quite a character, you can double that for Nussbaum. Or triple it. There's a good bit here about Marlowe's collaborations, particularly with William Odell. All of this was entirely new to me.
Marlowe was a hard-nosed professional, a working writer in every sense of the term. I would've thought that his "Operation" series would have made him rich. It didn't, and that's a real shame. I never knew why the series ended, either, but not I have a much better idea.
If you have any interest in Marlowe or in writers' lives, you should enjoy this book. It's well-written, and it's a fascinating story. Highly recommended.
Here's some more good news. Next year Stark House will reissue two of Marlowe's best novels, The Name of the Game is Death and One Endless Hour in one volume with an intro by Kelley. This one's a must-have.
New Fightcard Novel Now Available
Irish Dukes (Fight Card): Jack Tunney, Paul Bishop, Mel Odom, Mike Faricy: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Dublin, Ireland 1951 After winning his latest bout in Berlin, US Army boxing champ Sergeant Kevin Crowley is on military leave in Ireland. Raised in St. Vincent's Asylum For Boys in Chicago, he has finally returned to the place of his birth, where he is sure he will find the family he never knew and lay claim to his dream of a royal fortune.
What Crowley actually finds is the fight of his life... A near destitute grandmother, crippling debt left by a father he never knew, a feisty redhead with hatred in her heart, a villainous landlord and his gang who'll stop at nothing to settle a score going back a generation...
Kevin Crowlwy has never backed down in the ring or out... The treasures and truth awaiting him in Dublin are not what he first imagined. But with his past, his family, and his future at stake, Crowley will put up his dukes and fight like never before...
James Bond: Ranking 23 Movies
James Bond: Ranking 23 Movies
Includes this outrageous blasphemy: Unfortunately, whenever Denise Richards appears as nuclear physicist Dr. Christmas Jones — she recites her lines as if she learned them phonetically — the movie pretty much melts down.
Includes this outrageous blasphemy: Unfortunately, whenever Denise Richards appears as nuclear physicist Dr. Christmas Jones — she recites her lines as if she learned them phonetically — the movie pretty much melts down.
I Can't Even Remember Why I Came into this Room
Think You Have a Good Memory?: Ellison "can remember the birth year and death year of any famous person in history."
Literary Bond Superior to Movie Version
Literary Bond Superior to Movie Version: Compare Ian Fleming’s fictional creation in his novels to what we see on the screen and the differences start piling up. It's the books, not the films, that should be the standard Bond, writes Allen Barra.
‘Horror fan’ David Lynch, aged 11, meets Vincent Price
Cinephilia & Beyond: ‘Horror fan’ David Lynch, aged 11, meets Vincent Price.
Uh-Oh
Express.co.uk: ICONIC space villain Darth Vader is to be brought back from the dead for a new trilogy of Star Wars films.
Overlooked Movies: The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters
The boys don't really meed any monsters here. They just want to use the vacant lot next door to the Gravesend house for baseball. Meanwhile, the Gravesends, a couple of whom want to transplant a human brain into either a gorilla or a robot, are looking for a prospective donor. The donor brain will have to be very small. Tiny. If you've seen any of these movies, you'd think that any of the Bowery Boys would meet the requirement, but of them all, Satch is of course the best choice. Hilarity ensues.
If you've never seen one of this series, you should give one a shot just to see what you've been missing.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Get Your Copy Now! (Also Available in Trade Paperback Format)
Wolf Creek; Kiowa Vengeance: Western Fictioneers, Ford Fargo, Jackson Lowry, Bill Crider, Troy D. Smith, Kerry Newcomb, Robert J. Randisi, Frank Roderus: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Welcome to Wolf Creek. Here you will find many of your favorite authors, working together as Ford Fargo to weave a complex and textured series of Old West adventures like no one has ever seen. Each author writes from the perspective of his or her own unique character, blended together into a single novel. In our latest adventure, Wolf Creek is threatened by marauding Kiowa warriors who seek to avenge the deaths of their comrades at the hands of buffalo hunters. While the town fortifies itself, and a cavalry detachment looks for the raiders, the stage from Wichita is attacked –leaving a handful of Wolf Creek citizens alone and on foot in hostile territory… About the author: Beneath the mask, Ford Fargo is not one but a posse of America's leading western authors who have pooled their talents to create a series of rip-snortin', old fashioned sagebrush sagas. Saddle up. Read ‘em Cowboy! These are the legends of Wolf Creek. Appearing as Ford Fargo in this installment: Bill Crider Jackson Lowry Kerry Newcomb Troy D. Smith Frank Roderus Robert J. Randisi
Valerie Eliot, R. I. P.
Mail Online: Valerie Eliot, the widow of T.S. Eliot and zealous guardian of the poet's literary legacy for almost half a century, has died. She was 86.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
Mail Online: Woman 'knocked out 10-year-old sister after whipping her with extension cord... in fight over CHEETOS'
Sunday, November 11, 2012
God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut
God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut - Neatorama: Did you know today would have been Kurt Vonnegut’s 90th birthday? In memory of one of the greatest writers of the last century, here is a look back at the author’s incredible life.
Veterans Day - November 11
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