Saturday, November 30, 2013
Pimpage: An Occasional Feature in Which I call Attention to Books of Interest
Amazon.com: Livin' on Jacks and Queens eBook: Johnny D. Boggs, Phil Dunlap, Randy Lee Eickhoff, Jerry Guin, Christine Matthews, Matthew P. Mayo, Rod Miller, Nik Morton, John Nesbitt, Robert J. Randisi: Kindle Store The brainchild of Amazon Kindle bestselling western writers Mike Stotter and Ben Bridges, PICCADILLY PUBLISHING is dedicated to issuing classic fiction from Yesterday and Today! LIVIN’ ON JACKS AND QUEENS
Legendary western writer and noted anthologist Robert J. Randisi offers up a winning hand with fourteen never-before-published tales of the Old West, each revolving around the central theme of gambling. Among the stories you can expect to be dealt here are:
Jacks or Better by Johnny Boggs
A Cold Deck by Phil Dunlap
The Reckoning by Randy Lee Eickhoff
It Takes a Gambler by Jerry Guin
Odds on a Lawman by Christine Matthews
Pay the Ferryman by Matthew P. Mayo
White Face, Red Blood by Rod Miller
Hazard by Nik Morton
Acey Deucy by John Nesbitt
The Mark of an Imposter: An Evelyn Page/Calvin Carter Adventure by Scott Parker
Horseshoe and Pistols by Robert J. Randisi
Too Many Aces by Charlie Steel
Missouri Boat Race by Chuck Tyrell
The Legend of ‘Blind Ned’ Baldwin by Lori Van Pelt
Uh-Oh
Latest trailer for new Tarzan reveals it's really a sci-fi flick about aliens
Trailer at the link. This is a joke, right? Right?
Trailer at the link. This is a joke, right? Right?
Top 10 film noir
Top 10 film noir: Guns, dames and hats: you can't have a film noir without them, can you? Take a look at the Guardian and Observer critics list of the best 10 noirs and you'll realise things aren't that simple …
Friday, November 29, 2013
STARK HOUSE HOLIDAY SALE
STARK HOUSE HOLIDAY SALE
Here's
the skinny: last year, we offered a buy 2, get 1 free sale--this year
we're making it better and simpler: all back list titles 40%off, now
through December 13th.
That gives you TWO WEEKS to figure out what you
need to fill out your Stark House collection or to gift buy for your
family and friends. And to sweeten the pot we'll even put into effect
the "Holiday shipping rate": $2.75 for the first book, a mere .50 per
each additional. Lovingly packaged in genuine corrugated cardboard. Way
more holiday than a padded envelope. Billing will be through PayPal,
just like we do with regular Crime Club shipments.
Just send an e-mail with your want list or any questions and we'll get you taken care of....
Here's Your Black Friday Deal -- Only 99 Cents!
Amazon.com: Too Late to Die - A Dan Rhodes Mystery (Dan Rhodes Mysteries) eBook: Bill Crider: Kindle Store Everyone knew her. A lot of them like her. One of them killed her. Jeanne Clinton was a pretty and well-liked woman—though in her younger days she'd been known to be a bit wild. But she married an older man and settled down to a quiet, respectable life. Now she is dead, brutally murdered in her home.
Dan Rhodes, the thoughtful, hard-working sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas, has enough to worry about already: a rash of burglaries in town and an election coming up against a hot-shot opponent. Now he's got to find a killer among the residents of his little town—a wily killer, bound and determined not to be caught.
The deeper Rhodes digs into the hearts and minds of his neighbors, the more secrets he turned up...and the more violence he encounters. But Rhodes doesn't give up easily. And neither does the killer.
Jane Kean, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Jane Kean, a diverse performer who got her start in musical theater but was best known for playing Trixie alongside Jackie Gleason on a television revival of “The Honeymooners,” died on Tuesday. She was 90.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee. . .
Two men arrested over Walmart stabbing: Sheriff Brian Hieatt tells WVVA it happened in the Walmart parking lot. He says two men, 61-year-old Ronnie Sharp of Russell County and 35-year-old Christopher Jackson of Jewell Ridge in Tazewell County, were arguing over a parking space.
Forgotten Books: Skylar -- Gregory Mcdonald
In Skylar, it's Skylar's cousin Jonathan who's the fish out of water as he visits in Tennessee. In this book the situation is reversed as Skylar goes to Boston to attend college. He spends his first few days there with Jonathan's family.
Sure enough, Skylar doesn't fit in. He's still irresistible to women (which proves to be a big problem for him). He doesn't like the city, and nobody understands him, and by that I mean his personality or his accent. Sure enough, there's a crime. His aunt's valuable jewelry disappears, and of course Skylar is the main suspect. Then there's a murder, and this is where the novel takes the really dark turn that I mentioned that I recall as being characteristic of nearly all the books I've read by Macdonald. There are several dark turns in this one, in fact.
The mystery elements of the plot are very much not the main concern in the book, however. This is a novel of manners as much as anything, and it has its amusing moments. Everything is tied up at the end, and maybe there would've been more had Mcdonald lived to write them. I don't think it's any great loss that he didn't. For me his best work remains the first two books in the Fletch series, with a couple of the Flynn books coming close. What the Skylar books do have, however, is the crisp prose smart dialogue that Mcdonald did so well, and for that reason alone I enjoyed them.
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Dino Update
And of course Fossilized Feces WBAGNFARB.
Fossilized feces shows some dinosaurs gathered in ‘poop groups,’ like elephants or camels
Fossilized feces shows some dinosaurs gathered in ‘poop groups,’ like elephants or camels
Pimpage: An Occasional Feature in Which I call Attention to Books of Interest
The Phantom Ranger and the Skateboard Gang: James Reasoner, Livia Reasoner: 9781494248932: Amazon.com: Books Codi Jackson and her father have been forced to move again. Codi’s getting used to being the “new girl” in her fifth grade class—but that doesn’t mean she has to like it. Can’t life just be normal? With her mother out of the picture and her father working odd shifts as a police officer, friends are important—as long as they’re not the wrong kind. When Codi and a classmate, Keith Wright, are assigned to work on a history project, Codi has to make some hard decisions about her popularity in her new school. But everything changes when Codi picks up an old Texas Rangers badge that belonged to one of her ancestors and he appears right before her eyes! Her great-great-great-grandfather says he’s come to help her, but how? And how is she going to explain the ghost of her long-ago Gramps to her history project partner and her father?
Pop-ups & Movable Books
Gator Update (Adrenaline Junkie Edition)
NZ Herald News: Zip-lining over a lagoon filled with alligators won't be everyone's cup of tea, but adrenaline junkies are embracing this unusual US attraction.
Tony Musante, R. I. P.
Tony Musante, Actor Known for Role in ‘Toma,’ Dies at 77: Tony Musante, a rugged-looking American actor who was seen on television, in films and on stage in the United States and Europe for over 50 years but who was probably best known for a TV series he left after one season, died on Tuesday in Manhattan. He was 77.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Pimpage: An Occasional Feature in Which I call Attention to Books of Interest
Amazon.com: Fight Card Sherlock Holmes eBook: Jack Tunney, Andrew Salmon, Paul Bishop: Kindle Store London, England, 1884 ... What happened when Sherlock Holmes stepped into the exhibition ring against retiring prize fighter McMurdo four years before The Sign of Four? What incident was Holmes recalling between Mr. Mathews and himself in the waiting room at Charing-Cross in The Adventure of the Empty House? Sherlockians have wanted to know for decades. The answers can be found in Fight Card Sherlock Holmes: Work Capitol ... Victorian Slang for a crime punishable by death, Work Capitol finds the world's most famous consulting detective – accompanied by the ever stalwart Dr. Watson – chasing a diabolical murderer through the dark, illicit, world of Victorian bare-knuckle boxing. To solve the case, Holmes must take a desperate chance, toeing the scratch line opposite London’s most dangerous pugilist – Ezekiel Tanner ...
Sometimes the simplest crimes hide the darkest secrets ... And this time, Holmes and Watson know brawn will count as much as brains ...
Happy Hanukkah!
Hanukkah - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Hanukkah (/ˈhɑːnəkə/ hah-nə-kə; Hebrew: חֲנֻכָּה, Tiberian: Ḥănukkāh, usually spelled חנוכה, pronounced /χanuˈka/ in Modern Hebrew; a transliteration also romanized as Chanukah, Chanukkah or [Chanuˈkah]), also known as the Festival of Lights and Feast of Dedication, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire of the 2nd century BCE. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Pimpage: An Occasional Feature in Which I call Attention to Books of Interest
Amazon.com: The Rising Dead (Dead Man #21) eBook: Stella Green, Lee Goldberg, William Rabkin: Kindle Store: A pivotal novel in the Dead Man series... Matt Cahill was an ordinary man leading a simple life until a shocking accident changed everything. Now he can see a nightmarish netherworld that exists within our own.
Now he's on a dangerous quest for the answers to who he is and what he has become…and engaged in an epic battle to save us, and his soul, from the clutches of pure evil. In the blasted hell of the Arizona desert, Matt hitches a ride with a young couple who meets a terrible fate that he's powerless to stop. The bloody encounter leads him to a mysterious stranger with a terrifying history…who may know the reason for Matt's resurrection and hold the key to finally ending his lonely quest. But first they must survive in an unforgiving wasteland to do battle with a gang of heavily armed smugglers who trade in human flesh.
Oregon Trail Endangered
Oregon Trail Endangered: On the trail of the top 10 most endangered sites found along the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon.
6 Ways Charles Schulz Really Was Charlie Brown
6 Ways Charles Schulz Really Was Charlie Brown: In honor of what would have been Charles Schulz’s 91st birthday, let’s celebrate the man and his creation by considering how similar Schulz was to good old Chuck.
Overlooked Movies: My Favorite Brunette
This is a rerun of a post from 1-23-08. I've been thinking about this movie lately, so I thought I'd reprint this just for fun.
The set-up is classic noir: the tough guy convicted of murder is in his cell at San Quentin, awaiting his execution. The reporters crowd around the cell, and as the tough guy begins to tell his tale, we fade into the flashback. The difference is that this time the tough guy is Bob Hope.
Hope plays Ronnie Jackson, a baby photographer who shares an office suite with Sam McCloud, private-eye. Hope wants to be a p.i., too. "All it took was brains, courage, and a gun. And I had the gun."
McCloud leaves town, and Hope is in his office when Dorothy Lamour walks in. Thinking he's McCloud, she asks him to find her missing husband. Hope goes along, playing his usual tough-talking sniveling coward as the plot rollicks along with characters like Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney, Jr., having a swell time parodying their usual roles. There are a couple of nice cameos, too.
The one-liners and in-jokes come thick and fast, but the sad thing (to me) is that it's hard to imagine anybody under 60 getting even half of them. I mean, does anyone but me remember who James C. Petrillo was? Last year when I subjected my daughter to one of Hope's radio shows, I asked her if she thought it was funny. She said it was sad. When I asked why, she said, "It's sad that anybody ever thought that was funny." So once again my geezerdom is confirmed. Stay off my damn lawn!
But I digress. Being an Old Guy, I got a kick out of seeing this again, and it was well worth the buck I spent at Wal-Mart on the DVD, which was of surprisingly good quality for something so cheap. Check it out.
Update: Now you can watch the whole movie online for free. Here's the YouTube link.
Monday, November 25, 2013
Archaeology Update
Yahoo News: The discovery of an previously unknown wooden structure at the Buddha's birthplace suggests the sage might have lived in the 6th century BC, two centuries earlier than thought, archeologists said Monday.
Croc Update (Tears Edition)
Here's the origin story, with a great illustration.
Crocodile's Tears (A South African Tale): In the old days, when the animals could talk, Crocodile was king of the water creatures. One year, there was a drought, and the water in the river ran dry. Crocodile sent Otter to scout for a new home, and two days later, he returned to say there was a deeper river on the far side of the farmer's fields. . . .
Crocodile's Tears (A South African Tale): In the old days, when the animals could talk, Crocodile was king of the water creatures. One year, there was a drought, and the water in the river ran dry. Crocodile sent Otter to scout for a new home, and two days later, he returned to say there was a deeper river on the far side of the farmer's fields. . . .
Sunday, November 24, 2013
A Few Stats as of 8:00 P. M. Get Yours for 99 Cents!
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Westerns
- #1 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Westerns
- #10 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
Excellent series, highly recommended. Glad to see that it's being brought back via eBook.
Amazon.com: No Human Involved eBook: Barbara Seranella: Kindle Store: A former junkie-turned-auto mechanic, Miranda “Munch” Mancini just wants to make an honest living. But nothing in life is easy, and Munch’s hopes for a new life are dashed when her abusive father turns up murdered, and Munch is the main suspect. Staying clean is one thing, but staying off Detective Mace St. John’s radar, especially when a series of gruesome murders all point to Munch as the culprit, may prove impossible. Her only hope is to cut a deal with the detective, putting her own life on the line to catch a killer. But trust doesn’t come easily for ex-junkies, or for cops. The impulse to betray this precarious alliance may be too strong for either to resist – and may get both of them killed.
Pimpage: An Occasional Feature in Which I call Attention to Books of Interest
Amazon.com: The Quotient of Murder (Professor Sophie Knowles) eBook: Ada Madison: Kindle Store Dr. Sophie Knowles loves using puzzles to make math fun for students. But when winter seizes Henley College, she must thaw out a cold case to track down a killer—her most difficult puzzle yet . . . Winter Intersession is in full swing, and campus is buzzing over the concert celebrating the bell tower’s reopening. The building has been shuttered for twenty-five years, and Sophie’s shocked to learn why—a student leapt from it to her death. But she’s even more troubled by the secrecy surrounding the case. After Sophie performs some quick calculations, she’s left with a nagging question: Was it really suicide?
When one of Sophie’s favorite students, a performer in the concert, is brutally beaten and left in a coma, Sophie’s mind kicks into overdrive. The horrific incidents seem too coincidental to be unrelated, but can Sophie put together the pieces from a twenty-five-year-old murder before any other students get hurt?
Western Fictioneers: Sunday Short Story
Western Fictioneers: Sunday Short Story: My Take on
Short Stories
by Jacquie Rogers
Louis D. Rubin Jr., R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Louis D. Rubin Jr., whose wide-ranging career as a man of letters — he was a teacher, novelist, essayist, editor and publisher, among other things — was devoted to the practice and promotion of American Southern writing, died on Nov. 16 in Pittsboro, N.C. He was 89.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
The Last Encore
The Last Encore: What would rock and roll legends who died too young look like now? Meet the grateful dead. Literally.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee. . .
Country Singer, Arab Native Wayne Mills Dies After Nashville Shooting: They said the two were inside the bar and a struggle ensued after Mills reportedly lit a cigarette in the non-smoking section.
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