Mystery novels had misleading covers, too, if not quite as misleading as the SF covers I've put up. I wonder of Sayers would get the point.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Strong Poison
Mystery novels had misleading covers, too, if not quite as misleading as the SF covers I've put up. I wonder of Sayers would get the point.
Vic Mizzy, R. I. P.
Vic Mizzy, who wrote 'Addams Family' theme, dies - Yahoo! News: "Vic Mizzy, a songwriter who composed the catchy themes for the 1960s sit-coms 'The Addams Family' and 'Green Acres,' has died. He was 93.
Mizzy died Saturday at his home in Bel Air, his manager Jonathan Wolfson said. He said he didn't know the cause of death.
He wrote songs that were recorded by Dean Martin, Doris Day, Perry Como and Billie Holiday in the '40s and '50s. His hits included 'Pretty Kitty Blue Eyes,' 'My Dreams are Getting Better All the Time,' and 'With a Hey and a Hi and a Ho-Ho-Ho.'"
Mizzy died Saturday at his home in Bel Air, his manager Jonathan Wolfson said. He said he didn't know the cause of death.
He wrote songs that were recorded by Dean Martin, Doris Day, Perry Como and Billie Holiday in the '40s and '50s. His hits included 'Pretty Kitty Blue Eyes,' 'My Dreams are Getting Better All the Time,' and 'With a Hey and a Hi and a Ho-Ho-Ho.'"
Monday, October 19, 2009
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
Father opens fire after son’s drumming | WOAI.COM: San Antonio News: "A man is in custody after shooting his son over some drums. San Antonio police tell News 4 WOAI the 80-year-old man and his 50-year-old son live in a home on Naylor St., south of Downtown.
Around 1 a.m. Friday, the father reportedly got so upset with his son for playing the drums that he fired one shot through the bedroom door."
Thanks to Jeff Meyerson for the link.
Around 1 a.m. Friday, the father reportedly got so upset with his son for playing the drums that he fired one shot through the bedroom door."
Thanks to Jeff Meyerson for the link.
If This Had Been Texas Chili Sauce, the Guy Would Get the Chair
German police investigate kebab sauce after attack - Yahoo! News: "German police are investigating a chilli sauce to determine whether it was so spicy that it was capable of causing grievous bodily harm when used in an attack.
Police took a sample of the sauce from a kebab stand in Bremen's central train station after a kebab salesman threw it into the eyes of a customer during a fight over napkins."
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Police took a sample of the sauce from a kebab stand in Bremen's central train station after a kebab salesman threw it into the eyes of a customer during a fight over napkins."
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
This is Hilarious
Shouts & Murmurs: Subject: Our Marketing Plan : The New Yorker: "Hi, Ellis—
Let me introduce myself. My name is Gineen Klein, and I’ve been brought on as an intern to replace the promotion department here at Propensity Books. First, let me say that I absolutely love “Clancy the Doofus Beagle: A Love Story” and have some excellent ideas for promotion."
Read it all at the link.
Let me introduce myself. My name is Gineen Klein, and I’ve been brought on as an intern to replace the promotion department here at Propensity Books. First, let me say that I absolutely love “Clancy the Doofus Beagle: A Love Story” and have some excellent ideas for promotion."
Read it all at the link.
Back Home Again (and Not In Indiana)
Judy and I hit the ground in Houston about three hours ago, and now we're trying to do some catching up with all the laundry, all the mail, all the books, and, well, you know. We had a great time, and though we didn't know for sure we'd get to make the trip until a day or so before, we're both glad we did. Things went just fine. I didn't have my little video camera, but apparently I didn't need it, since Jim Winter had one and posted some videos at The Rap Sheet. Next time, I'll be sure to take mine.
The weather in Indianapolis wasn't anything the tourist bureau would like to discuss, I'm sure. Wet, cold, and windy most of the time, so we pretty much stayed inside the hotel except for venturing out to eat. Often at the Weber Grill.
We've made our reservations for San Francisco in 2010. See you there!
The weather in Indianapolis wasn't anything the tourist bureau would like to discuss, I'm sure. Wet, cold, and windy most of the time, so we pretty much stayed inside the hotel except for venturing out to eat. Often at the Weber Grill.
We've made our reservations for San Francisco in 2010. See you there!
The TOON Treasury of Classic Children's Comics -- Edited by Art Spiegleman & Françoise Mouly
FTC Disclaimer: Although I'm a powerful and respected blogger, no one sent me this book to review. So I had to buy it with my own money. But because I'm a rich mystery writer, I could afford it. I'm glad I could because it's a wonderful book, full of full-size reproductions of some of the most famous comics by some of the most famous artists and writers from about 1940 to the early '60s.I was a kid in the late '40s, and once I discovered comic books (we all called them funny books), I was hooked. I was such an addict that my aunt once gave me a small can of dimes for my birthday. She taped a little note to the can that said, "Strictly for funny books." I can still see that note as plain as day. And here's a little confession: All funny books were the same to me. Sure, I liked some better than others, but I read anything I could get my hands on. Superheroes, funny animals, it didn't matter. Give me a comic book, and I was happy. So I'm familiar with a lot of the characters in these pages. The Fox and the Crow. Little Lulu. Captain Marvel. Donald Duck. Uncle Scrooge. Uncle Wiggly. When I was a kid, I didn't know or care about the artists' names, but now I recognize nearly all of them. Walt Kelly. Harvey Kurtzman. Basil Wolverton. Carl Barks. Over 350 colorful pages! What more can I say? I love this book.
The Vampire Affair -- Livia Reasoner
Dear Blog Readers (and Mr. FTC Guy): I got this book for free. Also, I've known the author for many years. True, I've seen her only once, but she's married to James Reasoner, whom I've known and seen a lot more more often and whom I consider a friend. So now you know.As you can plainly see by the cover to the left there, this is supposedly a romance novel in the Silhouette Nocturne series. Vampires, as anyone can tell you are a hot item these days in romance. But I'll bet this book isn't what you're thinking it is. The vampires here aren't the romantic leads. They're the bad guys. The very bad guys.
Maybe you've read John Steakley's Vampire$. Or seen the John Carpenter movie based on it. Bad-ass vampire hunters after bad-ass vampires, right? Okay, now imagine that as a romance novel. You say you can't? Well, Livia Reasoner pulls it off. Lots of action, big explosions, plenty of vampire killing, and, of course romance. I don't know if there are sequels in the Nocturne line, but there's plenty of room for one, and I hope it gets written. I'll read it even if I don't get a free copy.
The Mating Cry
Another interesting marketing ploy. I don't know what Galaxy prize this novel won, but this doesn't look a lot like a typical science fiction cover. In case you can't read the cut-line at the top, it says, "I've come to pay my debt -- in the way I discovered men prefer."
Sunday, October 18, 2009
I Want to Believe!
John Strausbaugh: Fortress Moon: "I agree that the Apollo moon landings were a hoax. But not the way the Moon Hoax people think they were. The hoax is not that we ever landed on the moon. The hoax is that we ever stopped going.
We all know that the NASA space program was a civilian figleaf (and only nominally civilian at that) for a parallel black ops military space program. While NASA has been distracting us with Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and shuttle missions, secret military missions have been going up and back the whole time. While NASA had the whole world gazing at the Sea of Tranquility, the military's astronauts were landing over on the far side, digging in, fortifying it."
We all know that the NASA space program was a civilian figleaf (and only nominally civilian at that) for a parallel black ops military space program. While NASA has been distracting us with Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and shuttle missions, secret military missions have been going up and back the whole time. While NASA had the whole world gazing at the Sea of Tranquility, the military's astronauts were landing over on the far side, digging in, fortifying it."
Anna Nicole Smith Update
Anna Nicole's last days: Drinking from baby bottle - CNN.com: "For the first time, many of the tragic details of Smith's final hours are being revealed in court. The first witnesses took the stand this week in Los Angeles to determine whether Howard K. Stern, 40, Khristine Eroshevich, 61, and Sandeep Kapoor, 41, should stand trial on felony charges of conspiring to give dangerous drugs to an addict through fraudulent means, such as by using fake names.
Powerful, tragic testimony
The hearing, which follows a two-year investigation into Smith's death, began with a bang. Maurice Brighthaupt, Smith's security guard, described watching Smith slurp from a baby bottle of the powerful sedative chloral hydrate -- cited by a coroner as a primary cause of Smith's fatal overdose -- as if it were a Pepsi."
Powerful, tragic testimony
The hearing, which follows a two-year investigation into Smith's death, began with a bang. Maurice Brighthaupt, Smith's security guard, described watching Smith slurp from a baby bottle of the powerful sedative chloral hydrate -- cited by a coroner as a primary cause of Smith's fatal overdose -- as if it were a Pepsi."
Hard Case Crime Update from Charles Ardai
In the 1940s and 50s, one of the most popular private eyes toiling in the pages of hardboiled crime novels was Michael Shayne. The creation of Brett Halliday (real name: Davis Dresser), Shayne appeared in more than 50 novels, a dozen movies, a radio drama, a TV series, comic books, and more. He even had a magazine named after him -- MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE -- which was published for 30 years. When Shane Black, the creator of the "Lethal Weapon" movies, wrote the script for the first movie he directed himself, "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" (starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Val Kilmer...it's a very good movie, one you should see if you haven't already), it was two of Halliday's Mike Shayne novels that inspired him.
Strangely, though, the Shayne novels have all been out of print for many years. And next year we're going to correct that when we bring out a new edition of MURDER IS MY BUSINESS -- featuring a brand new cover painting by Brett Halliday's long-time illustrator, the legendary Robert McGinnis.
Want to see it? It's up, along with a sample chapter from the book, at www.HardCaseCrime.com. (Just look for "MURDER IS MY BUSINESS" in our list of titles.) It's a gorgeous piece of art and we're thrilled to be reuniting this classic author/artist team for the first time in decades.
In other news, Max Allan Collins' new novel about the hitman Quarry, QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE, is about to hit bookstores everywhere. It's part of the same series as THE LAST QUARRY and THE FIRST QUARRY, but you don't have to have read those to enjoy this one. (It's not a continuing story. In fact, the first book is set last, the second is set first, and the new one...well, the new one is set in the middle.) Everyone who's read this book has raved about it, and I think you're going to like it, too.
And a month from now we have our big December titles on the way: our new edition of Arthur Conan Doyle's final Sherlock Holmes novel, THE VALLEY OF FEAR, and burlesque star Jonny Porkpie's first novel, THE CORPSE WORE PASTIES. You can already pre-order those online, or from your favorite local bookstore.
And speaking of THE CORPSE WORE PASTIES...how would you enjoy seeing the author, the book's two cover models, and a bevy of other burlesque performers in a live stage show based on the book? Well, if you're going to be in New York City on Saturday, November 21 or Saturday, November 28 (the Saturdays on either end of the book's publication date), you can. The show is called "LURID PULP," and it tells the story of how the burlesque world reacts when they discover that Jonny Porkpie has written a novel featuring thinly veiled portraits of some of the field's most famous performers. I'll give you a hint: Porkpie ends up murdered. And it's up to his partner in crime-solving, the gorgeous Nasty Canasta, to uncover the killer! (And I do mean "uncover.")
The show will be performed for two nights only -- 11/21 and 11/28 -- at the Bleecker Street Theater (45 Bleecker Street in New York), at 8PM. Copies of the book will be available there, too, and of course the cast and author will be there and glad to sign your copy if you want (some of his co-stars might as well). We'd love it if you'd come. To buy tickets, go to http://www.pinchbottom.com/tickets/luridpulp. It's just $20 for the show, $25 if you want a copy of the book thrown in as well -- a better deal can't be had anywhere on Broadway.
So: a new Mike Shayne edition with a new McGinnis cover painting, a new Quarry novel, and a live burlesque show in tribute to a Hard Case Crime novel -- what could be better?
Enjoy 'em all,
Charles
--------
Charles Ardai
Editor, Hard Case Crime
P.S. Many thanks to all of you who participated in our Twitter contest, and congratulations to the winners of advance copies of QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE (Brandon, Cheryl, Marty, Bill, Andrew, Cherie, Julia, Ward, Rob, Matt, Chad and Stephen) and THE CORPSE WORE PASTIES (Mary, Sean, Andrew, Vince, Kristopher, Donna, Matthew, Ty, Adrian, William, David, and Taylor).
Strangely, though, the Shayne novels have all been out of print for many years. And next year we're going to correct that when we bring out a new edition of MURDER IS MY BUSINESS -- featuring a brand new cover painting by Brett Halliday's long-time illustrator, the legendary Robert McGinnis.
Want to see it? It's up, along with a sample chapter from the book, at www.HardCaseCrime.com. (Just look for "MURDER IS MY BUSINESS" in our list of titles.) It's a gorgeous piece of art and we're thrilled to be reuniting this classic author/artist team for the first time in decades.
In other news, Max Allan Collins' new novel about the hitman Quarry, QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE, is about to hit bookstores everywhere. It's part of the same series as THE LAST QUARRY and THE FIRST QUARRY, but you don't have to have read those to enjoy this one. (It's not a continuing story. In fact, the first book is set last, the second is set first, and the new one...well, the new one is set in the middle.) Everyone who's read this book has raved about it, and I think you're going to like it, too.
And a month from now we have our big December titles on the way: our new edition of Arthur Conan Doyle's final Sherlock Holmes novel, THE VALLEY OF FEAR, and burlesque star Jonny Porkpie's first novel, THE CORPSE WORE PASTIES. You can already pre-order those online, or from your favorite local bookstore.
And speaking of THE CORPSE WORE PASTIES...how would you enjoy seeing the author, the book's two cover models, and a bevy of other burlesque performers in a live stage show based on the book? Well, if you're going to be in New York City on Saturday, November 21 or Saturday, November 28 (the Saturdays on either end of the book's publication date), you can. The show is called "LURID PULP," and it tells the story of how the burlesque world reacts when they discover that Jonny Porkpie has written a novel featuring thinly veiled portraits of some of the field's most famous performers. I'll give you a hint: Porkpie ends up murdered. And it's up to his partner in crime-solving, the gorgeous Nasty Canasta, to uncover the killer! (And I do mean "uncover.")
The show will be performed for two nights only -- 11/21 and 11/28 -- at the Bleecker Street Theater (45 Bleecker Street in New York), at 8PM. Copies of the book will be available there, too, and of course the cast and author will be there and glad to sign your copy if you want (some of his co-stars might as well). We'd love it if you'd come. To buy tickets, go to http://www.pinchbottom.com/tickets/luridpulp. It's just $20 for the show, $25 if you want a copy of the book thrown in as well -- a better deal can't be had anywhere on Broadway.
So: a new Mike Shayne edition with a new McGinnis cover painting, a new Quarry novel, and a live burlesque show in tribute to a Hard Case Crime novel -- what could be better?
Enjoy 'em all,
Charles
--------
Charles Ardai
Editor, Hard Case Crime
P.S. Many thanks to all of you who participated in our Twitter contest, and congratulations to the winners of advance copies of QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE (Brandon, Cheryl, Marty, Bill, Andrew, Cherie, Julia, Ward, Rob, Matt, Chad and Stephen) and THE CORPSE WORE PASTIES (Mary, Sean, Andrew, Vince, Kristopher, Donna, Matthew, Ty, Adrian, William, David, and Taylor).
Atlantis Found?
Lost Greek city that may have inspired Atlantis myth gives up secrets | Science | The Guardian: "The secrets of a lost city that may have inspired one of the world's most enduring myths – the fable of Atlantis – have been brought to light from beneath the waters off southern Greece.
Explored by an Anglo-Greek team of archaeologists and marine geologists and known as Pavlopetri, the sunken settlement dates back some 5,000 years to the time of Homer's heroes and in terms of size and wealth of detail is unprecedented, experts say."
Explored by an Anglo-Greek team of archaeologists and marine geologists and known as Pavlopetri, the sunken settlement dates back some 5,000 years to the time of Homer's heroes and in terms of size and wealth of detail is unprecedented, experts say."
Odd John
One of my personal favorite "strategically placed tree branches" covers. You have to wonder what readers attracted by the cover thought of the contents. Olaf Stapledon's prose isn't the kind usually found in a Beacon book, even one published as a Galaxy Novel.
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