Saturday, February 14, 2015
New AHMM Podcast
PodOmatic | Best Free Podcasts: Eve Fisher reads her story "Drifts" from the January/February 2006 issue of AHMM. Recorded live at Bouchercon 2014 in Long Beach.
The Thousand-Year Rose
The Thousand-Year Rose: More of a out-of-control tree than the lilting flower the name might suggest, the Rose of Hildesheim, otherwise known as the Thousand-Year Rose, is thought to be the oldest living rose on the planet, and it looks to continue to be for the foreseeable future since not even bombs can stop it.
Friday, February 13, 2015
Gary Owens, R. I. P.
Variety: Radio, TV and voiceover performer Gary Owens died on Feb. 12 at his home in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Owens, who was 80, had been a diabetic since the age of 8. Owens was probably best known as the announcer on NBC’s “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” (1968-73), with his trademark hand-over-the-ear announcing style. On the show, John Wayne once imitated Owens announcing. The phrase Gary created on his KMPC radio show, “Beautiful downtown Burbank,” later became a nightly catchphrase on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show.”
Owens, who was 80, had been a diabetic since the age of 8. Owens was probably best known as the announcer on NBC’s “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” (1968-73), with his trademark hand-over-the-ear announcing style. On the show, John Wayne once imitated Owens announcing. The phrase Gary created on his KMPC radio show, “Beautiful downtown Burbank,” later became a nightly catchphrase on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show.”
David Carr, R. I. P.
AOL.com: NEW YORK (AP) - Media columnist David Carr, who wrote the Media Equation column for The New York Times and penned a memoir about his fight with drug addiction, collapsed at his office and died on Thursday. He was 58.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Forgotten Books: The Complete Mother Goose
James Reasoner's post last week about his first favorite book threw me into a veritable frenzy of nostalgia, so naturally I had to have a look at my first favorite book. There's a lot of it left, although the covers are missing. The cheap paper is crumbling and chipping, and quite a few of the pages are gone. Some of the remaining pages are decorated with crayon art by anonymous artists, probably me or my sister or brother. What matters though is that I still have what's left of it. The first page of the remainder of the book is one of the concluding pages of what I'm sure was my favorite poem in the book, "Who Killed Cock Robin?" Even as a little tyke, I was a crime fiction fan.
As you can see, at some point in the book's history my other wrote an little inscription on it. She told me that the book was a present for my first birthday. She also said that I was a huge fan of the rhymes that the book is filled with (it's well over 300 pages long). She told me that when my father came home from work in the afternoons, I'd grab up the book and toddle to him as fast as I could, saying "'ead Mama Goose. 'ead Mama Goose." Is it any wonder that I wound up as I did? I wouldn't have it any other way.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
New Story at Beat to a Pulp
TheHardSideOfHeartbreak: THE HARD SIDE OF HEARTBREAK -- a Joe Hannibal Story -- Wayne D. Dundee
Who Says Hollywood Is Out of Ideas?
'Saw' Writers Hired to Tackle New 'Halloween' Horror Movie: Sources say it’s not a remake, not a reboot, and not a reimagining. One source said the project is a “recalibration.”
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Bob Simon, R. I. P.
NY Daily News: “60 Minutes” correspondent Bob Simon was killed in a car crash on the West Side Highway in Manhattan on Wednesday night, sources said.
The 73-year-old reporter was a passenger in a livery cab traveling south on 12th Ave. at W. 30 St. when it rear-ended a Mercedes-Benz driven by a 23-year-old man and then slammed into a median around 6:45 p.m., a police source said.
The 73-year-old reporter was a passenger in a livery cab traveling south on 12th Ave. at W. 30 St. when it rear-ended a Mercedes-Benz driven by a 23-year-old man and then slammed into a median around 6:45 p.m., a police source said.
Nostalgia Corner
The recent Brian Williams kerfuffle had me thinking about false memories. I have no idea if Williams' memory is a false one or if he just made stuff up. However, I do know that I have plenty of false memories. For example, there's the story about the snake on the porch. I have a vivid memory of this event. We lived in the country for the first four or five years of my life, and after my sister, Francelle, was born, my mother would sometimes put her in a playpen on the front porch if the weather was good. Sometimes she'd put me in there, too, to keep Francelle company. One day when we were out there, a big snake crawled up on the porch and slithered toward the playpen. I started yelling, and my mother came to see what was wrong. She saw the snake, snatched us out of the playpen, and took us inside, where she telephoned for help.
The call went to the Farrar Lumber Company, where her father was the manager. As it happened, my other grandfather was there, too, and he's the one who came out to the house and got rid of the snake by chopping its head off with a hoe. It flopped around a while after the head was removed, which impressed me a lot.
The snake was a harmless one, supposedly, but my mother was of the opinion that there was no such thing as a harmless snake. I've been of the same opinion ever since, myself. This event traumatized me. I can still remember exactly where the playpen sat, and I can see that black snake slithering across the porch toward us. It's as real as the keyboard I'm typing on right now.
Except that my mother told me it never happened, or at least not like I think it did. According to her version of the story, I was in town with my grandfather, and I came back to the house with him when she called for help. Only my sister was in the playpen, and I was miles away.
Francelle was too young to remember any of this, and my mother was the only other witness. I'm sure she was right about it, but that's not the way I remember it. No matter what, I'll always think I was there, staring into that serpent's beady little eyes and watching its tongue flicker in and out of its mouth.
The call went to the Farrar Lumber Company, where her father was the manager. As it happened, my other grandfather was there, too, and he's the one who came out to the house and got rid of the snake by chopping its head off with a hoe. It flopped around a while after the head was removed, which impressed me a lot.
The snake was a harmless one, supposedly, but my mother was of the opinion that there was no such thing as a harmless snake. I've been of the same opinion ever since, myself. This event traumatized me. I can still remember exactly where the playpen sat, and I can see that black snake slithering across the porch toward us. It's as real as the keyboard I'm typing on right now.
Except that my mother told me it never happened, or at least not like I think it did. According to her version of the story, I was in town with my grandfather, and I came back to the house with him when she called for help. Only my sister was in the playpen, and I was miles away.
Francelle was too young to remember any of this, and my mother was the only other witness. I'm sure she was right about it, but that's not the way I remember it. No matter what, I'll always think I was there, staring into that serpent's beady little eyes and watching its tongue flicker in and out of its mouth.
Storme Warning -- W. L. Ripley
Brash Books isn't just bringing back out-of-print books. In some cases it's bringing back a series and also publishing new books in the series. That's the case with W. L. Ripley's books about Wyatt Storme, former wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, now retired and living in his homes in either Colorado or the Ozarks, depending on his mood. He likes isolation and doesn't suffer fools gladly. That's why it's a real problem for him when a movie company wants to shoot on his property. Storme is even less happy to be providing protection for one of the movie's stars, Cameron Fogarty. Throw into the mix a vengeful ex-con who's out to get Storme, and complications ensue.Storme is an engaging first-person narrator*, a wise-ass, and a guy more than capable of backing up anything he says. Just in case he needs any help, however, there's his psycho sidekick, Chick Easton, who's even tougher than Storme, and more damaged, too.
The narrative is speedy and twisty, the snappy patter is always amusing, and the conclusion is satisfactory. If you like being reminded a bit of Spenser or Travis McGee, you'll get a real kick out of this one and the other books in the series. Check 'em out.
*There's some third-person narration thrown in, too, but not too much, and Ripley handles it well.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee
And of course Texas Leads the Way: Houston Press: Watch out. In Deer Park, Walmart patrons solve arguments in front of the $2.99 baby wipes the same way billy goats resolve their differences.
See the video at the link. Bad language involved.
See the video at the link. Bad language involved.
The Trap of Solid Gold: "Half-Past Eternity"
The Trap of Solid Gold: "Half-Past Eternity": It’s one of [John D.] MacDonald’s more delightful stories, in that it is barely science fiction for much of its early pages, and the subject matter of the plot straddles several different story types and works on several different levels: it’s a crime story, a sports story, a business story and a science fiction story.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
10 Wildly Successful Books Authors Wish They Hadn't Written
It's a misleading headline, but it's kind of an interesting list, anyway.
10 Wildly Successful Books Authors Wish They Hadn't Written
10 Wildly Successful Books Authors Wish They Hadn't Written
Overlooked TV: Cool and Lam
Scroll down and you'll see the pilot episode for a proposed 1958 TV series based on the Cool & Lam novels by A. A. Fair (Erle Stanley Gardner, who introduces the pilot). I watched it yesterday, and it seems pretty true to the books as I remember them, but I haven't read one lately. Bertha's a little less acerbic, maybe.Billy Pearson plays Lam, and Benay Venuta plays Cool. Not exactly household names. Pearson had only a few small roles, two of them as a jockey. Venuta was in a few more things, but not many, and not in major roles. Too bad the pilot didn't go to series. They'd have been better known if it had.
Hat tip to Bill Page, who linked this on his Facebook page.
Monday, February 09, 2015
Melanie Tem, R. I. P.
Locus Online News: Author Melanie Tem, 65, died February 9, 2015 of cancer.
Tem’s debut novel Prodigal (1991) was the winner of a Bram Stoker Award, and in 1992 she won the Icarus award for most promising newcomer, presented by the British Fantasy Society. Novella “The Man on the Ceiling” (2000), co-written with her husband Steve Rasnic Tem, won a World Fantasy Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and an International Horror Guild Award. They expanded it into a novel in 2008, and in that form it was a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award. They also collaborated on novel Daughters (2001), numerous works of short fiction, and multimedia collection Imagination Box(2001), a Bram Stoker Award winner and International Horror Guild Award finalist.
Sunday, February 08, 2015
Here's the Plot for Your Next Marriage Made in Heaven Comedy
New York Post: [Charles] Manson’s engagement to a woman 53 years his junior was part of a wild scheme of hers to profit by putting his body on public display after his death, says the author of an upcoming book.
Dean Smith, R. I. P.
ESPN: Dean Smith, the coaching innovator who won two national championships at North Carolina, an Olympic gold medal in 1976 and induction into basketball's Hall of Fame more than a decade before he left the bench, has died. He was 83.
Billy Casper, R. I. P.
ESPN: SAN DIEGO -- Billy Casper, one of the most prolific winners on the PGA Tour who was overshadowed at the height of his career by the "Big Three," died Saturday at his home in Utah. He was 83.
Joe Mauldin, R. I. P.
Buddy Holly bassist Joe Mauldin dies: Joe B. Mauldin, the bassist for Buddy Holly's Crickets died Saturday morning in Nashville. He was 74.
Free for Kindle for One Day Only
Amazon.com: The Unburied Dead (DS Thomas Hutton 1) eBook: Douglas Lindsay: Kindle Store Amazon.com: The Unburied Dead (DS Thomas Hutton 1) eBook: Douglas Lindsay: Kindle Store: A psychopath walks the streets of Glasgow, selecting his first victim. He sees his ex-girlfriend everywhere, and he will have her back. When a woman is savagely murdered, her body stabbed over a hundred times, the police know from the nature of the crime that the killer will strike again. DCI Bloonsbury, the once-feted detective, is put in charge of the investigation, but as the killer begins to hit much closer to home and an old police conspiracy starts to unravel, Bloonsbury slides further into morose alcoholic depression.
In the middle of it all is Detective Sergeant Thomas Hutton, juggling divorce, deception, alcohol, murdered colleagues, and Dylan. He could use a break but the dead will not rest and the past will not be buried until he can catch the latest serial killer to haunt the streets of his city.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee
CBS New York: A Staten Island mother stood accused Friday of threatening to blow up her daughter’s school after her daughter failed an exam.
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