Mail Online: The last surviving member of the real von Trapp family that inspired The Sound of Music has died.
Maria Franziska, one of seven brothers and sisters from the famous family, passed away in her sleep aged 99 at home in Vermont, America.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Do You Have Your Copy?
My book is being featured on Saturday February 22nd 2014 at eBookSoda, a new
readers' site where they'll send you ebook recommendations tailored to your
taste. www.ebooksoda.com.
Otherworldly Books
AbeBooks: Otherworldly Books: Can’t afford to get away at all, let alone to another planet? Pick up a book. One of the best things about reading is the reader can experience strange and wonderful times, places and situations without leaving the comfort of their easy chair. In fiction, people and scenarios are invented, but some authors take escapism a step further and create entire cities, planets and universes. A creative and skilled writer can build geography, languages, races of people, musical instruments, regional cuisine, traditions and more, unlike anything we see in reality, and the detail can be impressive.
Friday, February 21, 2014
Garrick Utley, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Garrick Utley, a former anchor for NBC News who for many years was one of a rare breed in television news reporting, a full-time foreign correspondent, died Thursday night at his home in Manhattan. He was 74.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Incredible, Amazing, Insane Revelation about True Detective
How's that for a headline? I've been taking lessons from Buzzfeed and Cracked. Anyway, I started reading Nic Pizzolatto's Galveston last night, and I learned a couple of things in the first 50 pages or so. (1) The main character's name is Roy Cady. (2) He makes little soldiers out of beer cans. Get it? Roy Cady? R. C. Same initials as Rust Cohle in True Detective, and he makes little guys out of beer cans! So Cohle is really Cady. Well, except that the ages don't match up. We Internet theorists don't let a little thing like that bother us.
Top Suspense Writers Tell You How It's Done
If you missed last night's discussion of what suspense is and how to create it in fiction, you can watch Libby Hellman, Paul Levine, and Lee Goldberg tell you all about it at this link.
Happy Anniversary to the Thin Mints Melee!
On February 21, 2011, I saw this article and posted it on the blog. The next time I saw something about a ridiculous fight, I put up the heading "First It Was the Thin Mints Melee." And the rest is history.
FFB: Find Eileen Hardin -- Alive! -- Andrew Frazer
Duncan Pride is a p.i. who's called back to the college where only a few years earlier he was a football hero. (He played pro ball for one game, but when he refused to shave points for a gambler, the gambler had him beaten and his legs broken -- end of pro career.) The call comes from his former sweetheart, now married to his former college coach, whose daughter by his first wife has gone missing.
There's nothing new here. Powerful forces don't want the girl found. Pride isn't going to stop looking. He gets beaten up. Several times. There are some things in the book that current readers might find bothersome, but I can't talk about the main one since it's central to the plot. Aside from that, though, this is a slick, well-written yarn with several very good set pieces (one in a deserted oyster cannery and another in an airport).
This book came out while Marlowe was in the midst of writing his Chester Drum series for Gold Medal. I like the Drum books, and this one is in the same class. Check it out if you're a fan of the old-fashioned kind of p.i. novel.
Stephen Marlowe and me at the signing table at the Monterey Bouchercon.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Here's the Plot for Your Next Amnesia Thriller
NY Daily News: Kwame Seku claims he’s the former Winston Bright, a Verizon worker missing for 20 years. Wife Leslie Bright, who’s been getting widow benefits from Verizon — which Seku wants — says he just walked away: ‘He hasn’t come back to me as his wife or to have a relationship with his children … I will go at him for back child support, cat support, everything!’ (Italics mine.)
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
This Story Might Not Be About What You Think It Is
The Raw Story: Following her arrest, Forshey told investigators that, “She only thinks what she did was wrong because she is in trouble for it. Otherwise, she does not see anything wrong with exposing a child to urine.”
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Free for Kindle For a Limited Time
Amazon.com: Killing Time eBook: Jack Giles: Kindle Store: Friday The Thirteenth. Close to midnight.
The Government Agent Willard Dull is reading a book at the hotel bar when a man in black comes in.
As the stranger retired to his room, Dull took a look at the register.
The man had signed himself as 'Death' from 'Hell'.
Before midnight chimed, two men were dead, both killed by the man in black.
Dull suddenly realises that all his plans to trap a gang of payroll robbers are about to fall apart — unless he can stop Death from reaping a grim harvest…
Robert Conley, R. I. P.
The Cherokee One Feather: Noted Native American scholar and author Robert J. Conley, the Sequoyah Distinguished Professor of Cherokee Studies at Western Carolina University, died Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014, at Harris Regional Hospital after a period of declining health. Conley, 73, a registered tribal member of the Cherokee Nation, was appointed to the WCU professorship in July 2008.
Mavis Gallant, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Mavis Gallant, an acclaimed short-story writer who was abandoned as a child and later left Canada for Europe, where she made her name writing about the dislocated and the dispossessed, died on Tuesday at her home in Paris. She was 91.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Mary Grace Canfield, R. I. P.
NY Daily News: Mary Grace Canfield, a veteran character actress who played handywoman Ralph Monroe on the television show "Green Acres," has died. She was 89.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Christopher Malcolm, R. I. P.
Blastr: Former Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back actor Christopher Malcolm, best remembered as a pilot with the rebellion, has passed away at the age of 67.
For sci-fi fans, the actor was probably best known for playing the character Zev Senesca in the Star Wars sequel Empire Strikes Back. If you need a refresher: Senesca flew as Rogue Two during the Battle of Hoth. Along with his Star Wars role, Malcolm also showed up in a few more sci-fi classics.
For sci-fi fans, the actor was probably best known for playing the character Zev Senesca in the Star Wars sequel Empire Strikes Back. If you need a refresher: Senesca flew as Rogue Two during the Battle of Hoth. Along with his Star Wars role, Malcolm also showed up in a few more sci-fi classics.
Bob Casale, R. I. P.
Devo's Bob Casale dead of heart failure, brother says: "As an original member of Devo, Bob Casale was there in the trenches with me from the beginning," his brother and band mate Gerald Casale said in a Facebook posting. "He was my level-headed brother, a solid performer and talented audio engineer, always giving more than he got."
Amnesty Works
BBC News: A children's book borrowed from a library 63 years ago has been returned during an eight-day fines amnesty.
Paul Colby, R. I. P.
NY Daily News: PAUL COLBY, the longtime owner of Greenwich Village’s folk music club The Bitter End, has died, the venue posted on Facebook. He was 96.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
2013 Tiptree Award Winner Announced
Welcome to the Website of the James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award Council: N.A. Sulway’s imaginative and highly original novel tells the story of Rupetta, an artificial intelligence created 400 years ago from cloth, leather, and metal, brought to life by the touch of her creator’s hand on her clockwork heart. Although Rupetta is a constructed being, she is not a robot. Her consciousness is neither digital nor mechanical. Nor is she an android, a creature that is, etymologically, male. (The word is not gyndroid). Rupetta’s power does not come from her brain, but from her heart. Sulway has placed her construct not in the future, but the past, and made her female, created with traditionally feminine technology: sewing and weaving. Rupetta is a woman, made by a woman in the image of a woman, and the world changes to accommodate her existence.
Hat tip to Todd Mason.
Hat tip to Todd Mason.
Movie Theaters I Remember
Since I've been waxing nostalgic about movies I attended with my parents, I might as well tell you a little something about the movie theaters in my hometown when I was a kid. The Mexia Theatre (that's the way it was usually spelled in the ads) is the one pictured on the left. It was built around 1948 and was a wonder in our little town, being air-conditioned, unlike the older theaters, which weren't. They were also about half the size of this one. Maybe less than that. Shoeboxes. Two of them, the Palace and the National were downtown, such as the downtown was, about four square blocks at best. The third theater, the Liberty, was across the tracks. I wasn't allowed to go to that one. There were some movies there I wanted to see from time to time, though probably not The Last of the Warrens with Bob Steele, which is what was playing there on this date in 1947 (year chosen at random).The Palace was the theater where all the kids went on Saturday afternoons for the double-features of B-westerns: Alan "Rocky" Lane, Don "Red" Barry, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Charles Starrett (the Durango Kid), Rex Allen, Jimmy Wakely, Tex Ritter, Monte Hale, and many others. This was also where we saw the Tarzan movies, Bomba the Jungle Boy, Abbott and Costello, the Bowery Boys, and lots of others. Along with the movie we got a newsreel, lots of previews, a cartoon, and a serial. Back in 1947 on this date the featured movie was Out California Way, with Monte Hale. The bottom of the double bill was Don't Gamble with Strangers, starring Warren Douglas.
The National was the theater where they showed the classier movies, like How Green Was my Valley and The Red Badge of Courage. Showing there on this date in 1947, for example, was Of Human Bondage, starring Eleanor Parker, Alexis Smith, and Paul Henreid. I wasn't in attendance.
The Palace closed when the Mexia opened. The National closed a year or so afterward, as did the Liberty.
I went to many, many movies in the Mexia Theatre. The photo is of the last picture show. The theater closed after the final showing of The Golden Child, which means there hasn't been an operating movie theater in town for almost 30 years. The building and the marquee are still there, though. The building is now a church, or it was the last time I was in town. Seems appropriate to me.
Overlooked Movies: The Prize
Last week I wrote about I movie that I went to with my father. This week I'll mention one I went to with my mother. The year was 1963, my first year of teaching, and I was visiting at home on the weekend. I'm a sucker for books about writers. This was during the phase when I was reading almost nothing but spy novels, so Irving Wallace's The Prize was naturally irresistible to me. I can't remember much about the book other than that I enjoyed it and that I wanted to see the movie version. So on Sunday afternoon before I left to return to the town where I was teaching, my mother said she'd go with me to see the movie.We both liked it a lot. It's the kind of thing that was once described as "hitchcockian," and the screenplay was in fact written by the same man who wrote North by Northwest. Instead of Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, there were Paul Newman and Elke Sommer. Not a bad pair. Newman has fun playing an American writer who's won the Nobel Prize. He's a drunk and a handful, so he's assigned a keeper -- Ms. Sommer, who's a real beauty. Edward G. Robinson plays the prize-winner in physics, and there's something very strange about him. The second time he meets Newman, he doesn't appear to know who he is or ever to have seen him before. Newman knows something's wrong, so he investigates. Romance, suspense, and hilarity ensue. It was the height of the Cold War, so naturally the Reds are involved. Just watch the trailer embedded below, and you'll pretty much have the whole movie.
I wouldn't mind seeing The Prize again, just to see if it's as much fun as I remember it was. For that matter, I wouldn't even mind reading the book again. I probably won't, and I suspect that Irving Wallace, a huge bestseller when this movie was made, is pretty much a forgotten writer today. Or maybe not. I see that several of his books on Kindle are available for free (today, at least; I'm writing this well in advance of its publication). The Prize isn't one of the freebies, though. Drat.
Update: They're no longer free. Double drat.
Monday, February 17, 2014
Now Available as an E-Book!
Amazon.com: Murder Most Fowl (Dan Rhodes Mysteries) eBook: Bill Crider: Kindle Store Following Booked for a Hanging, Anthony Award-winner Bill Crider brings back his amiable, computer-phobic sheriff Dan Rhodes to investigate a murder that may or may not be related to a recent wave of emu-rustling. For an officer of the law, Blacklin County, Texas, used to be pretty peaceful, but now, what with the emu-rustling, cockfights, and protests at the new Wal-Mart store — not to mention murder — Sheriff Dan Rhodes has his hands full. Hit hard by the collapse of his little hardware store, Elijah ("Lige") Ward has taken to chaining himself to the Wal-Mart doors and generally making a nuisance of himself. And when Lige's dead body turns up, floating down a river in a portable toilet, Rhodes finds he has quite a case to investigate. What was the connection between Lige and chickens? Lige and the Palm Club? And was he involved in the area's emu thefts? It seems that raising emus ("taste like steak, not chicken") is a booming business, so much so that emu ("calmer than ostriches and more resistant to disease") are being stolen left, right, and center by would-be emu ranchers with little respect for the law. From theft to murder, the local crime spree seems unstoppable. But with a little help from the computer foisted on him by aging deputies Hack and Lawton, plus some good old-fashioned detective work, Rhodes just may be able to straighten out his county.And for those who have Nooks, it's here.
Finally Available as an E-Book!
Amazon.com: Winning Can Be Murder (Dan Rhodes Mysteries) eBook: Bill Crider: Kindle Store: It's been a while since Sheriff Dan Rhodes's football days, but things haven't really changed, at least not with state playoffs coming up and excitement for the local high school team heating up to a fever pitch. But then coach Brady Meredith is found shot to death in his car, and his murder leads to troublesome rumors concerning illegal betting, black market steroids and the sheriff's old nemesis, a biker named Rapper, who has reappeared in Blacklin County. Too many coincidences for Rhodes's comfort. Especially when another corpse makes it a second down for a killer determined to lead Sheriff Rhodes into a game of sudden death.Also here if you have a Nook.
It's Presidents’ Day!
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Free for Kindle For a Limited Time
Amazon.com: Star Soldiers eBook: Andre Norton: Kindle Store Andre Norton-Grand Mistress of science fiction-presents a grand tapestry of the far-flung interstellar future, in which the first starships from Earth have burst out into the universe . . . only to run straight into the restraining grasp of the stagnant alien federation known as Central Control.Only as interstellar mercenaries can humans go to the stars; the aliens who already dominate the galaxy allow no other recourse. But when Swordsman Third Class Kana Karr and his comrades-in-arms are betrayed and abandoned on a hostile world by their alien masters, the warriors from Earth begin a desperate but glorious march across a planet whose every sword is against them. Their actions may doom humanity's future . . . or lead the way to an empire of their own!
Four thousand years later, galactic civilization is collapsing, and the underfunded crew of an exploration starship is forced to set down on an uncharted planet: a mysterious, abandoned world that is achingly beautiful-and hauntingly familiar. Ranger Sergeant Kartr, telepath and stellar Patrolman, searches with his crewmates for the source of a beacon which may mean escape for them all. What he finds is far stranger: the first clue to what may become the greatest revelation in galactic history!
The defining events of future historyas only Andre Norton could tell them!
Paris Hilton Update
Mail Online: 'I feel like a princess!' Paris Hilton celebrates her birthday early in a tiara and bright pink gown with thigh high slit
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
ABBA Update
Mail Online: 'We only wore those ridiculous outfits to avoid tax': Forty years after Waterloo, Abba reveal story of their success in their own words and unseen pictures
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
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