Saturday, May 03, 2014
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Efrem Zimbalist Jr., R. I. P.
Houston Chronicle: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Efrem Zimbalist Jr., the son of famous musical parents who established his own lasting celebrity in two of television's most popular series, "77 Sunset Strip" and "The F.B.I.," died Friday at age 95.
Uh-Oh
Green Acres Feature Film And Broadway Play: Green Acres, the popular 1960s sitcom that starred Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as displaced New Yorkers who try to make a go of it on a farm in the Midwest, is being made into a feature film and is being developed and shopped as a stage play for Broadway.
Friday, May 02, 2014
Brock Brower, R. I. P.
The Washington Post: Brock Brower, a magazine journalist best known for his profiles of White House occupants and aspirants of the 1960s and 1970s, and who had second, third and fourth careers as a novelist, a TV writer, and a speechwriter for the U.S. attorney general, died April 16 in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 82.
Larry Ramos, R. I. P.
Larry Ramos of the Association (1942 - 2014): Hilario "Larry" Ramos, whose career took him from the New Christy Minstrels to the Association, died on Wednesday from metastatic melanoma at the age of 72.
The Heyday of A&C Black
Wodehouse to Who’s Who: The Heyday of A&C Black: Let’s step back in time to the early years of the 20th century. Edward VII is on the throne and a British publisher is producing books with beautifully illustrated boards. That publisher is A&C Black and its books would not look out of place on the set of Downton Abbey.
FFB: The Fugitive Stars -- Daniel Ransom
Okay, I'll say right at the start that I have no idea what the title means. Sounds good, but I don't see any connection to the story. But, hey. I don't care.This is one of those books that I've had for years and had been planning to read for a long time. Somehow it got stuck back behind some other DAW books and forgotten. When I came across it recently, I decided it was past time to read it.
Daniel Ransom is probably best known for his horror novels written for Zebra books back in the Good Old Days, but he also wrote SF for DAW Books (I'll eventually get around to Zone Soldiers). And you probably know already that Ransom is a pen name used by Ed Gorman. Gorman says that this particular book could not have been written without extensive help from Larry Segriff.
I don't know what Segriff's contributions were, but Gorman's style is almost immediately recognizable in The Fugitive Stars. There's an underlying tone of melancholy leavened with humor that seems typical of a lot of his work to me. Ransom says that the book owes debts to a lot of old B&W movies from directors Don Siegel, Jack Arnold, and Val Lewton. SF fans will notice debts to writers like Robert A. Heinlein and Alfred Bester.
Michael Raines is a telepath who's losing his powers. Once a part of an experimental government program, Raines is now on his own, lonely and getting older. A mysterious woman leaves a package at his door, and the action begins. It doesn't let up.
It seems that some astronauts visiting a comet in the year 2011 (the book was published in 1995) have been possessed by an alien something, and now the alien something has begun taking over others. It's up to Raines and the wife of one of the astronauts to stop it and save the world.
The things that happen are like the the things that happen in the old B&W movies, and it doesn't do to think about them too much. Just go along for the ride and imagine the story unfolding in a theater on a Saturday afternoon in 1957. Give it a try, and you'll see what I mean.
Thursday, May 01, 2014
The Edgar Winners Are . . .
May 1, 2014, New York, NY: Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce the winners of the 2014 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2013. The Edgar® Awards were presented to the winners at our 68th Gala Banquet, May 1, 2014 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.
BEST NOVEL
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)
BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews (Simon & Schuster - Scribner)
BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood (Penguin Group USA - Penguin Books)
BEST FACT CRIME
The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War by Daniel Stashower (Minotaur Books)
BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
America is Elsewhere: The Noir Tradition in the Age of Consumer Culture by Erik Dussere (Oxford University Press)
BEST SHORT STORY
"The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository” – Bibliomysteries by John Connolly (Mysterious Bookshop)
BEST JUVENILE
One Came Home by Amy Timberlake (Random House Children’s Books – Alfred A. Knopf BFYR)
BEST YOUNG ADULT
Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY
“Episode 1” – The Fall, Teleplay by Allan Cubitt (Netflix)
ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD
"The Wentworth Letter" – Criminal Element’s Malfeasance Occasional By Jeff Soloway (St. Martin’s Press)
GRAND MASTERS
Robert Crais
Carolyn Hart
RAVEN AWARD
Aunt Agatha’s Bookstore, Ann Arbor, Michigan
* * * * * *
THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
(Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, April 30, 2014)
Cover of Snow by Jenny Milchman (Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine Books)
BEST NOVEL
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)
BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews (Simon & Schuster - Scribner)
BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood (Penguin Group USA - Penguin Books)
BEST FACT CRIME
The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War by Daniel Stashower (Minotaur Books)
BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
America is Elsewhere: The Noir Tradition in the Age of Consumer Culture by Erik Dussere (Oxford University Press)
BEST SHORT STORY
"The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository” – Bibliomysteries by John Connolly (Mysterious Bookshop)
BEST JUVENILE
One Came Home by Amy Timberlake (Random House Children’s Books – Alfred A. Knopf BFYR)
BEST YOUNG ADULT
Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY
“Episode 1” – The Fall, Teleplay by Allan Cubitt (Netflix)
ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD
"The Wentworth Letter" – Criminal Element’s Malfeasance Occasional By Jeff Soloway (St. Martin’s Press)
GRAND MASTERS
Robert Crais
Carolyn Hart
RAVEN AWARD
Aunt Agatha’s Bookstore, Ann Arbor, Michigan
* * * * * *
THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
(Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, April 30, 2014)
Cover of Snow by Jenny Milchman (Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine Books)
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Al Feldstein, R. I. P.
ABC News: Al Feldstein, whose 28 years at the helm of Mad magazine transformed the satirical publication into a pop culture institution, has died. He was 88.
Sharknado Update
Syfy Orders Third 'Sharknado': The kitschy telepic, which took Twitter by storm in 2014, recently filmed a sequel in New York and will bow on the network on July 30. Such is the confidence in Sharknado: The Second One, the follow-up is being eyed for summer 2015.
Bob Hoskins, R. I. P.
ABC News: British actor Bob Hoskins, whose varied career ranged from noir drama "Mona Lisa" to animated fantasy "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" has died aged 71.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Update from Bob Randisi
Crimeculture Launches a New Series
And the first contributor is someone we're all familiar with. So check out A Night for Screaming
Don't Mess with Willie
'Master' Willie Nelson gets 5th-degree black belt: The country music icon who turns 81 this week received his fifth-degree black belt in the martial art of Gong Kwon Yu Sul on Monday night, parking his tour bus outside the Austin studio of his instructor who began teaching him two decades ago.
The Ten Weirdest Terms That Use "Texas" on the Urban Dictionary
The Ten Weirdest Terms That Use "Texas" on the Urban Dictionary
Unfortunately spread out over numerous pages to get more clicks for the advertisers.
Unfortunately spread out over numerous pages to get more clicks for the advertisers.
Overlooked Movies: Swamp Thing
I could tell you that Swamp Thing is a wonderful movie, one that the whole family will enjoy. But that would be Wrong. That would be A Lie. Probably only a few people, of whom I am one, would enjoy this, mainly because I can't resist swamp movies. And Adrienne Barbeau.You might already the story. A sane scientist (Ray Wise) is trying to combine plant and animal cells to end world hunger. Barbeau is a government agent (hey, if Denise Richards can be a nuclear physicist, Barbeau can be a government agent) sent to the swamps to investigate. Louis Jourdan is the villain with his own private army, and he's of course bent on world domination, which he'll achieve if he gets Wise's formula. But accidents will happen: Wise spills the formula, there's a small explosion, and Wise, engulfed by flames, runs out of the lab and jumps into the waters of the swamp, where he becomes the Swamp Thing (Dick Durock in a rubber suit).
Barbeau escapes with the notebooks containing the formula, and Jourdan's not-so-well-regulated militia hunts her down. They catch her, and the Swamp Thing rescues her. This happens several times. Finally, Jourdan decides that the only way to catch Swamp Thing is to use the formula on himself, which leads to the climactic battle between one guy in a bad rubber suit and another guy in a worse rubber suit. Guess who wins.
The crappy quality of the trailer posted below doesn't reflect the actual movie very well. If you watch it, I hope you get a better print. Barbeau is good, and Jourdan is tops as the villain. The movie's worth watching just for those two, and it's good cheesy fun if you're in the right mood.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Watch the Skies!
Runaway beer blimp loose over New Brunswick
Hat tip to Art Scott, who says that Runaway Beer Blimp WBAGNFARB.
Hat tip to Art Scott, who says that Runaway Beer Blimp WBAGNFARB.
You Just Never Know . . .
. . . what you'll step on when you get out of your car at the Dairy Queen in Alvin, Texas.
King of the Weeds -- Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins
There's a lot going on in the story, which is a sequel to Black Alley (you don't have to have read that book to know what's going on, though). A man (Rudy Olaf, known in prison as the King of the Weeds) whom Hammer and Pat Chambers nabbed 40 years previously is about to be released because he's now thought to be innocent of the string of murders for which he was sent up. He's going to get a big sum of money from the city in recompense, and Chambers' career will be ruined into the bargain. Also, someone's after nearly $90 billion (yes, that's billion) that's buried in an undisclosed location up in the Adirondacks. As it happens, Hammer knows exactly where the money is because it was buried by an old army buddy who confided the location to Hammer. If you've read any crime fiction at all, you won't be surprised when Hammer's hunch that the two things are related turns out to be correct.
Fans will be happy to discover that Hammer hasn't mellowed a bit with age, not that anyone would ever have expected such a thing. He's as tough and resourceful as always, and so is Velda, for that matter.
There's an explosive climactic scene, and a quieter concluding one, with another of those great endings that have always been a Hammer hallmark. Hammer tells a character that he understands irony and goes on to prove it with a snapper of a closer.
This is another big winner for the Spillane/Collins team. Check it out.
A Brand-New Interview With Me for You to Listen To
Episode Five-Bill Crider | Spreaker - Be Heard: In this episode, I talk with Bill Crider, author of numerous books including the Sheriff Dan Rhodes Mystery Series.
Best sci-fi and fantasy novels of all time
Best sci-fi and fantasy novels of all time - Telegraph: The Telegraph presents the best books from the science fiction and fantasy genres
Link via SF Signal.
Link via SF Signal.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
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