New Joe Hannibal Story at BEAT to a PULP

BEAT to a PULP :: Apache Fog (a Joe Hannibal story) :: Wayne D. Dundee

Spinetingler Awards Update

2010 Spinetingler Award Best Novel: Legend WINNER | Spinetingler: "Spinetingler would like to congratulate all of the nominees and thank all of the voters. Just a reminder that a summary post with all of the winners will available this evening.

With 631 votes cast in this category the winner of the 2010 Spinetingler Award for the Best Novel: Legend is…

The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly"

Spinetingler would like to congratulate all of the nominees and thank all of the voters. Just a reminder that a summary post with all of the winners will available this evening.

With 642 votes cast in this category the winner of the 2010 Spinetingler Award for the Best Novel: New Voice is…

The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville

Spinetingler would like to congratulate all of the nominees and thank all of the voters. Just a reminder that a summary post with all of the winners will available this evening.

With 530 votes cast in this category the winner of the 2010 Spinetingler Award for the Best Novel: Rising Star is…

50 Grand by Adrian McKinty

Spinetingler Awards Update

2010 Spinetingler Award Best Short Story on the Web WINNER | Spinetingler: "Spinetingler would like to congratulate all of the nominees and thank all of the voters. Just a reminder that a summary post with all of the winners will available this evening.

With 532 votes cast in this category the winner of the 2010 Spinetingler Award for the Best Short Story on the Web is…

"Insatiable" by Hillary Davidson from Beat to a Pulp

Spinetingler Awards Update

2010 Spinetingler Award Best Cover WINNER | Spinetingler: "Spinetingler would like to congratulate all of the nominees and thank all of the voters. Just a reminder that a summary post with all of the winners will available this evening.

With 806 votes cast in this category the winner of the 2010 Spinetingler Award for the Best Cover is…

Finch written by Jeff VanderMeer. Cover Illustrated and designed by John Coulthart"

Podcast Interview with Michael Bracken

Podcast interview with mystery and short story writer Michael Bracken: "The 22nd episode of the Reading and Writing podcast features an interview with Michael Bracken, author of 11 books, including the novel All White Girls, and 1,200 shorter works."

Bracken's one of the busiest short story writers around. Check it out.

Spinetingler Awards Update

Special Services to the Industry and Community - Bookgasm

Best Reviewer - Lesa Holstine

Guest Blogger Jeffrey A. Cohen

The Killing of Mindi Quintana, by Jeffrey A. Cohen—An excerpt

The following is an excerpt from my new Philadelphia-set legal thriller, The Killing of Mindi Quintana. The scene takes place after Mindi’s murder, at the tail end of reporter Manny Sykes’s jailhouse interview with Freddy Builder, the accused. The crime was brutal, sensational and newsworthy. Media coverage of Freddy, a formerly obscure department store manager, is captivating the city. And Freddy is blossoming in the light and heat of public fascination. A new celebrity murderer is taking the stage—and rising to his role.

Excerpted from Chapter 16:

Freddy moved so that his back was against the cool wall again. He relaxed against it, enjoying the contrast to the overly heated cell while he listened to himself answer the reporter’s question, and his next and next, until he was sure the sun must be up though it was dim as ever where they were.

He sensed the reactions his answers engendered and knew they didn’t depend on Sykes’s belief in their truthfulness. In fact, Freddy was sure that much of what he said Sykes didn’t believe at all. Freddy didn’t need him to.

Because despite the dispassionate questioning, the crime Sykes had already written about was the alleged passionate one of a lover, a roar of revenge against beauty’s rejection, the explosion of an artist in corporate-American bondage. The buds of it all were in his stories so far. They were there in his hinting that Mindi was promiscuous. In his repetitious allusion to her father’s criminality. In the unquestioning acceptance of Freddy as blossoming writer. In his rendering of Chanet’s and the sympathetic credence given Freddy’s hatred of the store.

“To feel that much!” seemed to seep from the pauses in Freddy’s reconstructions, as Manny pointed and Freddy watered the buds. “Enough to kill her!” It obviously fascinated him. It fascinated them both.

And Manny would have had to admit, had he been privy to Freddy’s thinking, that he did see his stories in epic terms, and that when he didn’t, he figured out how to. It was how he made sense of things, how he knew he’d gotten them right. It was when the elements fell into place, and he knew he’d seen all the way through. It was how he had gained a readership and professional acclaim. How he got to the truth, since all truth was epic.

For both of them now, as they talked through the night, the antihero emerged further and was a type of tragic hero nonetheless. The type Manny appreciated and wrote about, and the type, without realizing it before, Freddy had known how to be.

He remembered thinking in the store that when he made it into gear he would know what to do. That he would be witty for reporters, pensive when appropriate, insightful always, and clever sometimes—and he was. That when people cared what he thought, he would think great things—and it was true. That when they came to him, he would know what to say—and he did. That when there was no question of his stature, they would admire his work. And he was sure now they would. He would be accepted as a writer now. He was sure of it.

Two weeks ago, Manfred R. Sykes would have sneered at a man forced to live his life in a department store. Now he was squinting in the dark hoping Freddy wouldn’t throw him out.

© Jeffrey A. Cohen 2010

For more information or to contact Jeffrey A. Cohen, author of The Killing of Mindi Quintana:

Website: www.JeffreyACohenBooks.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/JeffreyACohen

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeffacohen

Linked-In: www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreyacohen

2010 Spinetingler Award Best Mystery/Crime Fiction Press, Publisher or Imprint

2010 Spinetingler Award Best Mystery/Crime Fiction Press, Publisher or Imprint WINNER | Spinetingler: "Spinetingler would like to congratulate all of the nominees and thank all of the voters. Just a reminder that a summary post with all of the winners will available this evening.

With 516 votes cast in this category the winner of the 2010 Spinetingler Award for the Best Mystery/Crime Fiction Press, Publisher or Imprint is…

Busted Flush Press"

The Lineup 4 Now Accepting Submissions

If You Want to Know About My Life...: The Lineup 4 (2011) Submissions Open: "The general submission period for The Lineup 4 opens today and runs through July 31, 2010. We are open to poems 50 lines or less. Keep in mind that our chapbook pages are 6x9 inches with 1-inch margins all around."

Details at the link.

Derringer Award Winners

Short Mystery Fiction Society: 2010 SMFS Derringer Award Winners

Nominees and winners listed at the link.

YES They Can

High School Graduation: YES Prep Sends Every Senior To College - KIAH: "YES Prep Public Schools celebrated a momentous occasion Friday, graduating 100 percent of its seniors. Not only that, but for the 10th year in a row every single one of them is accepted to a four-year college or university.

For that reason, YES Prep doesn't just call it graduation, the school calls it college signing day.

However, this achievement isn't because the school is flooded with top performing public school students with private school money. YES Prep is a free public school. Ninety percent of the kids are first generation college bound students and 86 percent of them are low-income. Furthermore, most students enter the YES system at least one grade level behind in math and English skills."

Today's Western Movie Poster

Worst Movie Remakes?

Are these worst movie remakes of all time? - CNN.com

I kind of liked one of these.

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

Houston police beat Chinese diplomat - Washington Times: "China said Friday that a Chinese diplomat in the U.S. was beaten and injured by Houston police and urged an investigation to ensure diplomatic practices are not violated."

The 10 Most Expensive Poetry Books Ever Sold by AbeBooks

The Most Precious Poetry: "Even during national poetry month, we all to often hear there is little demand for poetry from today’s readers. But in the world of rare books, poets are revered by bibliophiles and collectors, and AbeBooks regularly sells examples of their finest work for four-figure prices. T.S. Eliot, Wilfred Owen, Charles Bukowski, Robert Frost and many other famous poetic names from the 20th century are in steady demand, while Robert Burns, William Blake, Lord Bryon, John Keats and William Wordsworth ensure 19th century poetry is not forgotten. And then there is Shakespeare and the two Johns – Milton and Donne.

From haikus to epics, from limericks to sonnets, from strict rhyme schemes to free verse, poetry is a vast genre covering countless subjects. Dip into the world of collectible poetry and also discover the 10 most expensive poetry books ever sold by AbeBooks."

Westworld

Here's the Plot of Your Next Robert Ludlum Rip-Off

Los Angeles police hunting mystery man likened to Jason Bourne | Herald Sun: "LOS Angeles police are hunting a mystery man who fled as they raided his apartment, leaving behind piles of bogus cash, high-tech counterfeiting equipment and weapons.

The Los Angeles Times quoted police officers as saying that the 33-year-old suspect escaped from his high-rise apartment via a back window in a scene reminiscent of the Bourne Identity action films.

'He escaped like Jason Bourne,' Los Angeles Police Department deputy chief Mike Downing of the Counter-Terrorism Bureau, told the Times.

After being given the slip, detectives discovered stacks of counterfeit $US100 bills totaling $US15,000, sophisticated counterfeiting equipment, a camera tripod and a cache of weapons including an AK-47 assault rifle."

Set the DVR

'Swamp Men' wrangle gators, hogs on new TV show: "Ed Woods says even a dead alligator can be dangerous.

Woods, park director at Billie Swamp Safari in the Everglades, says he was barefoot when he stepped on a dead gator and got an infection that put him in the hospital.

But the gators he deals with in National Geographic's new 'Swamp Men' series are very much alive.

One that is 6 feet long has to be removed from the park's airboat dock in the first episode.

In the second episode, Woods and his crew chase after a 9-foot rogue crocodile, nicknamed 'Houdini' because he has eluded them for 12 years."

Happy Birthday, Willie Nelson!

Willie Nelson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 30, 1933) is an American country singer-songwriter, author, poet, actor and activist. He reached his greatest fame during the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, and remains iconic, especially in American popular culture."

Guest Post Tomorrow

Tomorrow I'll have a guest post from Jeff Cohen, who's doing a blog tour to promote his new novel. He'll provide us with an excerpt and a little info about the book. I quite enjoyed Cohen's As Dog is My Witness, and I'm sure the new one is good, too.