I was at a Half Price today and found a Dan Roman private eye novel by Edward Mathis. After reading a few pages I bought both the Mathis novels there.
Mathis was the real thing--a fine writer with a slant and style all his own. He brought us a dusty tapped-out Texas I'd never encountered before.If he reminded me of anybody it was the proletariat novelists of the Forties and Fifties such as Harvey Swados and Clancy Sigal.
I'm looking forward to rereading him. He was a serious contender for the big prize.
Here are some comments from Kevin Burton Smith's excellent profile of him on Thrilling Detective:
Dan Roman
Created by Edward Mathis (1927-1988)
"... life was nothing more than a complicated mosaic of personal triumphs and tragedies, of chance encounters and random couplings and... we no more controlled our fate than the rabbit ruled the hound. The road was already there, the course charted; about the best we could do was give it a nudge once in a while, try our best to keep from crossing the center line."
(Dark Streaks)
Texas private eye DAN ROMAN was a little bit country, and a little bit Lew Archer, although he tends to lean toward the shitkicker side, referred to at one point as "mean enough to bite and tough enough to hold on." Still, he can also display plenty of compassion when the occasion warrants it.
Middle-aged, Dan favors cowboy boots, pickup trucks and deer hunting (although he no longer enjoys it quite as much as he used to). Besides his hunting rifles he owns a Smith and Wesson .38 airweight and a small .22 automatic.He also likes to read, smoke, and enjoy an occasional Jack Daniels or Scotch. He also drinks a lot of beer , particularly Miller, although he claims he doesn't really like it all that much since, as he declares in Dark Streets and Empty Places, "it all tastes like bear piss anyway."
Hmmm... maybe he should switch brands...
There's a dark quality to the series, helped along considerably by the ongoing tragedy that seems to follow Dan along. An only child, he was born to strict religious parents who weren't particularly loving. So perhaps it's no surprise that he spent a lot of time with the cowboys on the working ranch he grew up on rather than his own parents. Still, he spent the summer he turned fourteen (the "best summer of his life") helping his father build a hunting cabin. It was then he discovered that his father was a secret drinker -- a secret that was revealed to one and all a few years later, during Dan's last year of high school, when his mother passed away and his father hit the bottle hard.
for the rest go here http://www.thrillingdetective.com/eyes/roman.html
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
John D. MacDonald
John D. MacDonald Biography
Schaffner Press: Upcoming Releases Archives: "BLOODSHOT RAINBOW: The Life and Work of John D. MacDonald
James Walling
Fall '09
Trade Paperback
The Bunyburst and Bill Crider ran a piece on this forthcoming biography. I'm extremely happy with the news.
By coincidence I took the John D. MacDonald Reader with me to chemo this afternoon. The Reader was the only paperback we published during my tenure as the editor of Mystery Scene. The occasion was the sudden and shocking death of John D.following heart surgery. Shocking because the the word from the hospital was that everything was fine. But then he got an infection and died.
The Reader consists of writers such as Don Westlake, Larry Block, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Harlan Ellison, Charles Willeford, Max Collins, Jon Breen and many others writing about how much John D. had influenced them. Dorothy MacDonald, John D.'s wife, wrote me a long letter about how much the Reader had meant to her. Dorothy was gravely ill as well and died soon after. (John was a supporter of the magazine--he always subscribed and twice he included one hundred dollar checks in addition to his subscription. And he insisted on subscribing even after the donations.)
Yesterday I was cleaning out a shelf I rarely look at and came across two copies of the Reader. I didn't get a chance to read it in any depth so I took it along with me this afternoon. I was moved reading what everybody said about him. The affection and respect they had for him was honest and emotional. A friend had died. A good friend.
I've been reading John D . most of the week. I always go back to him because every time I read him I learn something about my craft. I mean that literally. Even in the least of his novels you'll find a set-up or a fresh way of doing something familiar that makes you better. Just about everybody who praised him in the Reader made the same point.
I hope this biography is formidable and I hope it brings John the new readers and respect he deserves.
Schaffner Press: Upcoming Releases Archives: "BLOODSHOT RAINBOW: The Life and Work of John D. MacDonald
James Walling
Fall '09
Trade Paperback
The Bunyburst and Bill Crider ran a piece on this forthcoming biography. I'm extremely happy with the news.
By coincidence I took the John D. MacDonald Reader with me to chemo this afternoon. The Reader was the only paperback we published during my tenure as the editor of Mystery Scene. The occasion was the sudden and shocking death of John D.following heart surgery. Shocking because the the word from the hospital was that everything was fine. But then he got an infection and died.
The Reader consists of writers such as Don Westlake, Larry Block, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Harlan Ellison, Charles Willeford, Max Collins, Jon Breen and many others writing about how much John D. had influenced them. Dorothy MacDonald, John D.'s wife, wrote me a long letter about how much the Reader had meant to her. Dorothy was gravely ill as well and died soon after. (John was a supporter of the magazine--he always subscribed and twice he included one hundred dollar checks in addition to his subscription. And he insisted on subscribing even after the donations.)
Yesterday I was cleaning out a shelf I rarely look at and came across two copies of the Reader. I didn't get a chance to read it in any depth so I took it along with me this afternoon. I was moved reading what everybody said about him. The affection and respect they had for him was honest and emotional. A friend had died. A good friend.
I've been reading John D . most of the week. I always go back to him because every time I read him I learn something about my craft. I mean that literally. Even in the least of his novels you'll find a set-up or a fresh way of doing something familiar that makes you better. Just about everybody who praised him in the Reader made the same point.
I hope this biography is formidable and I hope it brings John the new readers and respect he deserves.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Crime Club
On Mystery*File tonight there's a review of a novel by Amber Dean. Who? Yes, Amber Dean. I've written before about my sentimental attachment to Doubleday's old Crime Club line which lasted from the Thirties into the Nineties.
Ellen Nehr compiled a history of Club novels, all of them from 1928-1991. Most of the names and novels perished with their times. I came to them in the early Fifties when I was twelve and tired of The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. I wasn't old enough to understand everything I read in them but within the confines of rather predictable conventional mysteries many of them were pleasant reads.
And three or four times a year there'd be stand-outs. I liked many of the Brits, especially. Seance On A Wet Afternoon was a Crime Club as were both of Dolores Hitchens' exemplary private eye novels. Of course there were always books that baffled--why in God's name was this published? And the same with covers. As the line lost library subscribers Club covers began to resemble the 70s and 80s Doubleday Science Fiction line. You prayed for blindness.
But I'm glad Mystery*File keeps reviewing some of those old ones. They played a vital if usually unremarkable role in mystery history.
Ellen Nehr compiled a history of Club novels, all of them from 1928-1991. Most of the names and novels perished with their times. I came to them in the early Fifties when I was twelve and tired of The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. I wasn't old enough to understand everything I read in them but within the confines of rather predictable conventional mysteries many of them were pleasant reads.
And three or four times a year there'd be stand-outs. I liked many of the Brits, especially. Seance On A Wet Afternoon was a Crime Club as were both of Dolores Hitchens' exemplary private eye novels. Of course there were always books that baffled--why in God's name was this published? And the same with covers. As the line lost library subscribers Club covers began to resemble the 70s and 80s Doubleday Science Fiction line. You prayed for blindness.
But I'm glad Mystery*File keeps reviewing some of those old ones. They played a vital if usually unremarkable role in mystery history.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Another great moment in publishing
Day after day we hear about publishing houses letting employees go. Day after day we hear about how bad the holiday season was for books. Day after day we hear how the publishing industry just has to get smarter. Ladies and gentlemen I give you from The Huffington Post:
Dating A Banker Anonymous: Wall Street Wives And Girlfriends Seek Comfort In Support Group And Blog
The Huffington Post | January 28, 2009 09:05 AM
And now Fashionista reports that the DABA Girls Dawn Spinner, Laney Crowell, and Megan Petrus ARE GETTING A BOOK DEAL (Capital letters mine-Ed)
***
The New York Times reports on women who have been hit hard by the economic crisis: the wives and girlfriends of bankers. Clinginess, cooking at home, canceled credit cards... these are just a few of the unfortunate consequences, these women report.
For Christine Cameron, the recession became real when the financial analyst she had been dating for about a year would get drunk and disappear while they were out together, then accuse her the next day of being the one who had absconded.
Dawn Spinner Davis, 26, a beauty writer, said the downward-trending graphs began to make sense when the man she married on Nov. 1, a 28-year-old private wealth manager, stopped playing golf, once his passion. "One of his best friends told me that my job is now to keep him calm and keep him from dying at the age of 35," Ms. Davis said. "It's not what I signed up for."
The women have banded together to start an unofficial support group called Dating A Banker Anonymous, which meets once or twice a week in New York for brunch or drinks.
They also update the Dating A Banker Anonymous blog, which states their mission thusly:
Are you or someone you love dating a banker? If so, we are here to support you through these difficult times. Dating A Banker Anonymous (DABA) is a safe place where women can come together - free from the scrutiny of feminists- and share their tearful tales of how the mortgage meltdown has affected their relationships. DABA Girls was started by two best friends whose relationships tanked with the economy. Not knowing what else to do, we did what frustrated but articulate girls have done since the beginning of time - we started a blog. So if your monthly Bergdorf's allowance has been halved and bottle service has all but disappeared from your life, lighten your heart with laughter and email your stories to dabagirls@gmail.com. Warning all stories sent will be infused with our own special brand of DABA Girl humor.
stumble digg reddit del.ico.us mixx.com
Dating A Banker Anonymous: Wall Street Wives And Girlfriends Seek Comfort In Support Group And Blog
The Huffington Post | January 28, 2009 09:05 AM
And now Fashionista reports that the DABA Girls Dawn Spinner, Laney Crowell, and Megan Petrus ARE GETTING A BOOK DEAL (Capital letters mine-Ed)
***
The New York Times reports on women who have been hit hard by the economic crisis: the wives and girlfriends of bankers. Clinginess, cooking at home, canceled credit cards... these are just a few of the unfortunate consequences, these women report.
For Christine Cameron, the recession became real when the financial analyst she had been dating for about a year would get drunk and disappear while they were out together, then accuse her the next day of being the one who had absconded.
Dawn Spinner Davis, 26, a beauty writer, said the downward-trending graphs began to make sense when the man she married on Nov. 1, a 28-year-old private wealth manager, stopped playing golf, once his passion. "One of his best friends told me that my job is now to keep him calm and keep him from dying at the age of 35," Ms. Davis said. "It's not what I signed up for."
The women have banded together to start an unofficial support group called Dating A Banker Anonymous, which meets once or twice a week in New York for brunch or drinks.
They also update the Dating A Banker Anonymous blog, which states their mission thusly:
Are you or someone you love dating a banker? If so, we are here to support you through these difficult times. Dating A Banker Anonymous (DABA) is a safe place where women can come together - free from the scrutiny of feminists- and share their tearful tales of how the mortgage meltdown has affected their relationships. DABA Girls was started by two best friends whose relationships tanked with the economy. Not knowing what else to do, we did what frustrated but articulate girls have done since the beginning of time - we started a blog. So if your monthly Bergdorf's allowance has been halved and bottle service has all but disappeared from your life, lighten your heart with laughter and email your stories to dabagirls@gmail.com. Warning all stories sent will be infused with our own special brand of DABA Girl humor.
stumble digg reddit del.ico.us mixx.com
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
John Updike; Trophy Wives
I started reading John Updike early on in the Sixties. I've managed to keep his first two collections all this time. I've always thought of him as a kind of Rembrandt of prose, bold portraits subtly nuanced. He was one of those writers you could read for the simple pleasure of enjoying language yet he was never pretentious or overwrought. My biggest thrill with Updike was reading Rabbit, Run for the first time. For a proper New Englander like Updike Rabbit was a punch in the face. I sensed it also freed him. When you look at the variety of subjects he dealt with in his later career you can look back and see that Rabbit opened the door. By chance two weeks ago Carol read one of his recent stories and passed it on to me. What a fine writer and, I suspect, fine man he was.
--------
I received four off-line e mails from friends of mine, all female, about my comments on The Real Housewives of Orange County last night. I was aware that what I said was sexist and shallow but that seemed to me--and still seems to me--appropriate given the subject matter. These women are under the impression that they're trophy wives. I'm sure there's romantic love involved but there's also the cool hard taint of a business deal. All I was saying was that if I had a million dollars and wanted to buy me a trophy wife I'd go to a different car lot from the ones where these were found.
--------
I received four off-line e mails from friends of mine, all female, about my comments on The Real Housewives of Orange County last night. I was aware that what I said was sexist and shallow but that seemed to me--and still seems to me--appropriate given the subject matter. These women are under the impression that they're trophy wives. I'm sure there's romantic love involved but there's also the cool hard taint of a business deal. All I was saying was that if I had a million dollars and wanted to buy me a trophy wife I'd go to a different car lot from the ones where these were found.
Monday, January 26, 2009
TV Stuff
This is for Bill Crider.
Even when I'm on the exercise bike and watching tv I can't handle those entertainment news shows. I look for mindless stuff but not THAT mindless. I did however catch forty seconds or so of a Paris Hilton "interview" in which she was asked if she presently had a boyfriend. Her reply (verbatim): "Not right now. I've decided to focus on myself for awhile!"
The Office
Several of the tv blogs I read have dumped on the last two episodes of The Office and I have to agree. Part of my irritation comes from the fact that they set up this battle between Dwight and Andy for the cold witchy heart of Angela in this season's first episode and the following episode doesn't even refer to it. I know they want to keep the suspense going but I don't think it's kosher to do it by avoiding the subject entirely. And the Steve Carrell storylines the last two times out have been miserable.
The Real Housewives of Orange County
So there I was on my exercise bike...I started watching an episode after a long abscence. I know this will sound sexist but so be it. These are greedy women. All but one of them has made the point that they wanted rich husbands who who pamper them and that's what they got. However if I was a rich husband and was forking over the kind of dough these babes are spending...I would want a much higher caliber of greedy woman. The two newbies are good looking in a beauty paegent way but the regulars have had so much plastic surgery (which they talk about frequently) that you wonder what they looked like to start with. The husbands (who put up with amazing bullshit) have paid for new cars but gotten used cars for their dollars. I'd push for a Porsche. They've settled for a Kia.
The show has also taken a nasty turn. The best looking of the newbies is mucho younger than her fiance who is likely dying of cancer. In the episode I saw she goes to a party with the other housewives and gets loaded and flirts with a young man all the ladies say is "hot." If this kid is hot Dick Cheney is a hunk. Anyway, she is encouraged to get drunk by the other newbie who hates her apparently because she's jealous of all the attention the other one gets. There's a sad creepy call from her to the dude'ss hospital bed. The guy's having massive chemo infusions. He is depressed and barely able to speak. I think this was put in to show (as she insists) that she really cares about the guy. And maybe she does but man she keeps telling the other housewives "not to judge me" and while I agree that they've been pretty hostile to her getting smashed at a party isn't a good way to present yourself to the camera. I felt a little sorry for her. She's not very bright and she likes to party and in her way she probably does care about the guy who could (I think) be her grandfather...but man this whole party number was nasty nasty shit. (The one exception is this former hippie-surfer whom none of the other women like but who seems to be bright and decent and of course you're wondering what the hell she's doing with these ciphers.)
The first two seasons were fun. All these nit-wit money-grabbers wanted was stuff and more stuff. Even the family problems were minor (no heroin as yet). But this isn't fun. I'll be interested in the ratings. You watch these women to feel morally superior to them. You don't watch them to suicidal when the credits come on.
Even when I'm on the exercise bike and watching tv I can't handle those entertainment news shows. I look for mindless stuff but not THAT mindless. I did however catch forty seconds or so of a Paris Hilton "interview" in which she was asked if she presently had a boyfriend. Her reply (verbatim): "Not right now. I've decided to focus on myself for awhile!"
The Office
Several of the tv blogs I read have dumped on the last two episodes of The Office and I have to agree. Part of my irritation comes from the fact that they set up this battle between Dwight and Andy for the cold witchy heart of Angela in this season's first episode and the following episode doesn't even refer to it. I know they want to keep the suspense going but I don't think it's kosher to do it by avoiding the subject entirely. And the Steve Carrell storylines the last two times out have been miserable.
The Real Housewives of Orange County
So there I was on my exercise bike...I started watching an episode after a long abscence. I know this will sound sexist but so be it. These are greedy women. All but one of them has made the point that they wanted rich husbands who who pamper them and that's what they got. However if I was a rich husband and was forking over the kind of dough these babes are spending...I would want a much higher caliber of greedy woman. The two newbies are good looking in a beauty paegent way but the regulars have had so much plastic surgery (which they talk about frequently) that you wonder what they looked like to start with. The husbands (who put up with amazing bullshit) have paid for new cars but gotten used cars for their dollars. I'd push for a Porsche. They've settled for a Kia.
The show has also taken a nasty turn. The best looking of the newbies is mucho younger than her fiance who is likely dying of cancer. In the episode I saw she goes to a party with the other housewives and gets loaded and flirts with a young man all the ladies say is "hot." If this kid is hot Dick Cheney is a hunk. Anyway, she is encouraged to get drunk by the other newbie who hates her apparently because she's jealous of all the attention the other one gets. There's a sad creepy call from her to the dude'ss hospital bed. The guy's having massive chemo infusions. He is depressed and barely able to speak. I think this was put in to show (as she insists) that she really cares about the guy. And maybe she does but man she keeps telling the other housewives "not to judge me" and while I agree that they've been pretty hostile to her getting smashed at a party isn't a good way to present yourself to the camera. I felt a little sorry for her. She's not very bright and she likes to party and in her way she probably does care about the guy who could (I think) be her grandfather...but man this whole party number was nasty nasty shit. (The one exception is this former hippie-surfer whom none of the other women like but who seems to be bright and decent and of course you're wondering what the hell she's doing with these ciphers.)
The first two seasons were fun. All these nit-wit money-grabbers wanted was stuff and more stuff. Even the family problems were minor (no heroin as yet). But this isn't fun. I'll be interested in the ratings. You watch these women to feel morally superior to them. You don't watch them to suicidal when the credits come on.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Henry Kuttner "debased and perverted hack"
As many of you know, Mike Resnick is a highly acclaimed writer of both science fiction and fantasy. His books and stories are held in great esteem around the world. Mike is also an editor and a sometime historian of the science fiction field. In a long fine piece on the history of science fiction magazines there's a reference to Henry Kuttner. Since we've been discussing HK lately I asked Mike if I could quote that section here.
MIke Resnick:
Back in the Good Old Days of the pulps, more often than not the cover art showed a partially-clad (or, if you prefer, a mostly-unclad) girl, usually at the mercy of aliens who seemed more interested in ripping off the rest of her clothes than doing anything practical, like killing or communicating with her.
The thing is (and I refer you to the two introductory articles in my anthology, Girls For the Slime God), only one magazine actually delivered the salacious stories that went hand- in-glove with those cover illos, and that magazine was Marvel Science Stories. The first issue, back in August of 1938, featured Henry Kuttner's "The Avengers of Space," a rather pedestrian novella to which I suspect he added all the sex scenes to after it had been turned down by the major markets. Then out came issue number two, and there was Kuttner with another novella of the same ilk: "The Time Trap."
What was the result?
Well, there were two results. The first was that Kuttner was labeled a debased and perverted hack, and had to create Lewis Padgett and Lawrence O'Donnell, his two most famous pseudonyms (but far from his only ones) in order to make a living, since it would be a few years before the top editors wanted to buy from Henry Kuttner again.
The second was that the United States government, through its postal branch, gave science fiction its very first official recognition. They explained to the publisher that if the third issue of Marvel was as sexy as the first two, they were shutting him down and sending him to jail.
And with that, Marvel Science Stories became the most sedate and—let's be honest—dull science fiction magazine on the market. It died not too long thereafter, the first prozine to be slain by the government.
Ed here: As pulp readers know Leo Margulies rescued his stable of magazines by adding "Spicy" to the titles. Spicy Western! Spicy Romance! Spicy Detective! I'd never heard of anybody trying that with sf. HK was one enterprising guy.
MIke Resnick:
Back in the Good Old Days of the pulps, more often than not the cover art showed a partially-clad (or, if you prefer, a mostly-unclad) girl, usually at the mercy of aliens who seemed more interested in ripping off the rest of her clothes than doing anything practical, like killing or communicating with her.
The thing is (and I refer you to the two introductory articles in my anthology, Girls For the Slime God), only one magazine actually delivered the salacious stories that went hand- in-glove with those cover illos, and that magazine was Marvel Science Stories. The first issue, back in August of 1938, featured Henry Kuttner's "The Avengers of Space," a rather pedestrian novella to which I suspect he added all the sex scenes to after it had been turned down by the major markets. Then out came issue number two, and there was Kuttner with another novella of the same ilk: "The Time Trap."
What was the result?
Well, there were two results. The first was that Kuttner was labeled a debased and perverted hack, and had to create Lewis Padgett and Lawrence O'Donnell, his two most famous pseudonyms (but far from his only ones) in order to make a living, since it would be a few years before the top editors wanted to buy from Henry Kuttner again.
The second was that the United States government, through its postal branch, gave science fiction its very first official recognition. They explained to the publisher that if the third issue of Marvel was as sexy as the first two, they were shutting him down and sending him to jail.
And with that, Marvel Science Stories became the most sedate and—let's be honest—dull science fiction magazine on the market. It died not too long thereafter, the first prozine to be slain by the government.
Ed here: As pulp readers know Leo Margulies rescued his stable of magazines by adding "Spicy" to the titles. Spicy Western! Spicy Romance! Spicy Detective! I'd never heard of anybody trying that with sf. HK was one enterprising guy.
Perspective--dammit
From Galleycat:
Publishers Assess the Damage from November
Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau issued its retail figures for November 2008, including a 13 percent decline in bookstore sales compared to the year before. Now the Association of American Publishers has released its numbers for the month, reporting a 14.4 percent decline—and, when all the revenue for the first eleven months of the year is tallied, it's down 4.4 percent from the year before.
Nearly every category experienced severe declines; children's and YA hardcovers were one of the few categories to improve, showing a 14.3 percent from November 2007, but the year-to-date sales are still down 20.6 percent. Oh, and e-book business more than doubled for the month, and is up nearly 64 percent for the year—but you could take e-book sales for all of 2008, quintuple them, and you still wouldn't have as much money as publishers report in sales for even a lousy month like November.
Publishers Assess the Damage from November
Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau issued its retail figures for November 2008, including a 13 percent decline in bookstore sales compared to the year before. Now the Association of American Publishers has released its numbers for the month, reporting a 14.4 percent decline—and, when all the revenue for the first eleven months of the year is tallied, it's down 4.4 percent from the year before.
Nearly every category experienced severe declines; children's and YA hardcovers were one of the few categories to improve, showing a 14.3 percent from November 2007, but the year-to-date sales are still down 20.6 percent. Oh, and e-book business more than doubled for the month, and is up nearly 64 percent for the year—but you could take e-book sales for all of 2008, quintuple them, and you still wouldn't have as much money as publishers report in sales for even a lousy month like November.
Friday, January 23, 2009
your money and mine
This is from my favorite political website Talking Points Memo and head dude Josh Marshall is my favorite political writer. You want to know where your TARP money is going?
John Thain's Top Ten Greatest Moments
By Zachary Roth - January 23, 2009, 2:55PM
If there's one corporate honcho who's emerging as the poster boy for all the varied Wall Street sins that the financial crisis has exposed -- not just greed, but callousness, obliviousness and general incompetence -- its Merrill Lynch's former CEO John Thain.
Over the last few days, the revelations about Thain's mismanagement of Merrill have been coming thick and fast -- culminating with his ouster yesterday as an executive at Bank of America, which bought Merrill at the height of the financial crisis last September.
Thain, a top John McCain backer who was tipped as a candidate for a White House post had the Arizona senator won the presidency -- has amassed quite a record in his short time at Merrill. Lavish personal spending, absentee leadership, bonuses for billions in losses -- it's almost been too much to keep track of.
So we've created a handy rundown of Thain's top 10 greatest moments over the last turbulent year. (You might also want to check out our Merrill Lynch timeline to brush up on how Thain's missteps fit in with the larger story of his firm's collapse.)
In rough chronological order, here are John Thain's top 10 greatest moments:
1. The Great Redecoration
Thain pays $1.2 million last year -- well after Merrill's huge losses on mortgage assets are known -- to refurbish his office suite. That includes $800,000 to interior designer Michael S. Smith, who's also redecorating the White House for the Obama family. (More Smith clients: Steven Spielberg, Michelle Pfieffer, and Cindy Crawford.)
Other expenses from the big redecorating project, all signed off on by Thain personally:
Area Rug: $87,784
Mahogany Pedestal Table: $25,713
19th Century Credenza: $68,179
Pendant Light Furniture: $19,751
4 Pairs of Curtains: $28,091
Pair of Guest Chairs: $87,784
George IV Chair: $18,468
6 Wall Sconces: $2,741
Parchment Waste Can: $1,405
Roman Shade Fabric: $10,967
Roman Shades: $7,315
Coffee Table: $5,852
Commode on Legs: $35,115
At this time, reports CNBC's Charlie Gasparino on The Daily Beast, Thain is "preaching the virtues of cost control, telling employees to reduce expenses including car services, entertainment and travel".
2. The Unfortunate Chair Incident
During a summer 2008 meeting with his top financial officer, Thain, angry about Merrill's huge mortgage-asset-related losses, hurls a chair against the wall, shattering a nearby glass panel.
3. Just Can't Quit Those Mortgage Assets
Even after Thain has been forced to beg Bank of America to save his desperate firm, his traders, thinking the market has "bottomed out", keep trading risky mortgage securities. Those, of course, are the very assets that had helped bring on the massive losses, mostly incurred before Thain's tenure, that made the Bank of America deal necessary.
4. The Bonus Fiasco
In October, Thain suggests he should receive a $30-$40 million bonus. By December, he compromises: $10 million. After a blizzard of public criticism, including from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, he drops his request for any bonus. Later, he denies having asked for one at all.
5. The In-Retrosepct-Ill-Advised Ski Trip
In mid December, Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis learns that Merrill's fourth quarter losses will be much larger than expected. Lewis gets the bad news not from Thain himself, but from the transition team handling the merger -- perhaps because, after the losses surface, Thain takes off for his ski house in Vail. (A "person familiar with the matter" tells the Journal, hilariously, that Thain was "working and available" while in Vail.)
6. The Failure To Impress The New Boss
Asked by Lewis about the new losses, which will officially come to $15.3 billion, Thain "didn't really have a good grasp of what was going on,", one source tells the Wall Street Journal. Ultimately, the federal government will in January give Bank of American $20 billion -- on top of the bailout funds it had already gotten -- to help it absorb the Merrill losses.
7. The Troubling Lack Of Candor
Under Thain, Merrill appears not have been as forthcoming as it might have been with its new owner about the state of its books. A Bank of America spokesman tells the Journal today: "Their fourth quarter was way beyond anything they said would happen." Even worse, Thain may also have been less than straight with Merrill itself. He doesn't fully inform his own board that, thanks to Merrill's losses, the federal government might need to step in to ensure the B of A deal goes through, according to complaints from board members.
8. The Other Bonus Fiasco
Merrill, with Thain still in charge, accelerates its yearly bonus payments, doling out an estimated $3-4 billion in bonuses before January 1, 2009, when Bank of America will take control. Some at B of A believe the expedited schedule is designed to avoid giving B of A a chance to cut those payments. New York AG Cuomo is now reportedly investigating.
9. The In-Retrospect-Ill-Advised Planned Trip to Davos
Thain plans a trip to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum next week -- even though Bank of America has discouraged the idea.
10. The Final Act
Thain pays $483,320 for 84,600 shares of Bank of America. The following day, he's fired.
Well, at least now he can make it to Davos.
Fro heavens sake, the damn Parchment waste can is...not kidding...MADE IN FRANCE! An American made one not good enough?
French fries were bad enough, now the taxpayer is funding fancy French waste baskets for filthy rich financiers who are robbing the US Treasury!
Posted by NobleCommentDecider in reply to a comment from Mark Regan
January 23, 2009 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
But... we must generously compensate such remarkable individuals or they won't take the critical positions of power in our free market economy and the USA will turn into a socialist country like Germany, Japan, or G-d forbid Canada!
I am sure with a mind like his Thain will be scooped up by a great institution like the American Enterprise Institute or the CATO foundation.
Posted by NobleCommentDecider
January 23, 2009 4:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or, NobleCD, join that honorable (not)news source, Faux Mews.
A serious question: why are these characters not having to repay what they've stolen. I think of myself as an honorable person but I don't know how honorable I'd stay if I was sent into a bank and told to take anything I could over a pretty much unlimited time period.
Posted by soupson52
January 23, 2009 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Listen the thing that is revolting is that he is not alone with his attitude and viewpoint how the world is designed for their benefit---to an extravagance end. It is no different than the attitude that royal families had in 18th and 19th Centuries where some literally lost their heads and others were revolted against.
I know I was an senior executive search professional in the private equity and investment bank market until it began to seek safe harbor in late 2006.
This is a generation that never "earned" it like the famous EF Hutton slogan, they merely mined their incomes on the backs of other people's money.
I am glad Cuomo did not get picked in the Senate so he can get an urgency of now going after the WS Banks.
Posted by RWN
January 23, 2009 5:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Too bad about his bonus, man. That's $10 million that isn't going to get to trickle down to the rest of us.
You take a wad like that and go on a spree at Walmart and they'll have to hire a few more baggers, who then get to buy groceries. Before you know it this economy is moving again.
Posted by arbalest
January 23, 2009 5:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
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AIG Arlen Specter Bailout Barack Obama Barbara Boxer Bernard Madoff Chuck Schumer David Addington David Iglesias Defense Contractors Defense Department Dick Cheney Eric Holder FBI George Bush Guantanamo House Judiciary Iraq JAG John Conyers John Murtha John Thain John Yoo Joseph Bruno Justice Department Pat Leahy Securities and Exchange Commission The Daily Muck Torture Treasury Department Trooper-Gate U.S. Attorneys Valerie Plame Wall Street Wiretapping
All Topics »
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“I now fear for my life!” Shocking video of ex-“W” psychotherapist surfaces. View.
Special WWN report on psycho-political tell-all, The President’s Therapist. View.
John Thain's Top Ten Greatest Moments
By Zachary Roth - January 23, 2009, 2:55PM
If there's one corporate honcho who's emerging as the poster boy for all the varied Wall Street sins that the financial crisis has exposed -- not just greed, but callousness, obliviousness and general incompetence -- its Merrill Lynch's former CEO John Thain.
Over the last few days, the revelations about Thain's mismanagement of Merrill have been coming thick and fast -- culminating with his ouster yesterday as an executive at Bank of America, which bought Merrill at the height of the financial crisis last September.
Thain, a top John McCain backer who was tipped as a candidate for a White House post had the Arizona senator won the presidency -- has amassed quite a record in his short time at Merrill. Lavish personal spending, absentee leadership, bonuses for billions in losses -- it's almost been too much to keep track of.
So we've created a handy rundown of Thain's top 10 greatest moments over the last turbulent year. (You might also want to check out our Merrill Lynch timeline to brush up on how Thain's missteps fit in with the larger story of his firm's collapse.)
In rough chronological order, here are John Thain's top 10 greatest moments:
1. The Great Redecoration
Thain pays $1.2 million last year -- well after Merrill's huge losses on mortgage assets are known -- to refurbish his office suite. That includes $800,000 to interior designer Michael S. Smith, who's also redecorating the White House for the Obama family. (More Smith clients: Steven Spielberg, Michelle Pfieffer, and Cindy Crawford.)
Other expenses from the big redecorating project, all signed off on by Thain personally:
Area Rug: $87,784
Mahogany Pedestal Table: $25,713
19th Century Credenza: $68,179
Pendant Light Furniture: $19,751
4 Pairs of Curtains: $28,091
Pair of Guest Chairs: $87,784
George IV Chair: $18,468
6 Wall Sconces: $2,741
Parchment Waste Can: $1,405
Roman Shade Fabric: $10,967
Roman Shades: $7,315
Coffee Table: $5,852
Commode on Legs: $35,115
At this time, reports CNBC's Charlie Gasparino on The Daily Beast, Thain is "preaching the virtues of cost control, telling employees to reduce expenses including car services, entertainment and travel".
2. The Unfortunate Chair Incident
During a summer 2008 meeting with his top financial officer, Thain, angry about Merrill's huge mortgage-asset-related losses, hurls a chair against the wall, shattering a nearby glass panel.
3. Just Can't Quit Those Mortgage Assets
Even after Thain has been forced to beg Bank of America to save his desperate firm, his traders, thinking the market has "bottomed out", keep trading risky mortgage securities. Those, of course, are the very assets that had helped bring on the massive losses, mostly incurred before Thain's tenure, that made the Bank of America deal necessary.
4. The Bonus Fiasco
In October, Thain suggests he should receive a $30-$40 million bonus. By December, he compromises: $10 million. After a blizzard of public criticism, including from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, he drops his request for any bonus. Later, he denies having asked for one at all.
5. The In-Retrosepct-Ill-Advised Ski Trip
In mid December, Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis learns that Merrill's fourth quarter losses will be much larger than expected. Lewis gets the bad news not from Thain himself, but from the transition team handling the merger -- perhaps because, after the losses surface, Thain takes off for his ski house in Vail. (A "person familiar with the matter" tells the Journal, hilariously, that Thain was "working and available" while in Vail.)
6. The Failure To Impress The New Boss
Asked by Lewis about the new losses, which will officially come to $15.3 billion, Thain "didn't really have a good grasp of what was going on,", one source tells the Wall Street Journal. Ultimately, the federal government will in January give Bank of American $20 billion -- on top of the bailout funds it had already gotten -- to help it absorb the Merrill losses.
7. The Troubling Lack Of Candor
Under Thain, Merrill appears not have been as forthcoming as it might have been with its new owner about the state of its books. A Bank of America spokesman tells the Journal today: "Their fourth quarter was way beyond anything they said would happen." Even worse, Thain may also have been less than straight with Merrill itself. He doesn't fully inform his own board that, thanks to Merrill's losses, the federal government might need to step in to ensure the B of A deal goes through, according to complaints from board members.
8. The Other Bonus Fiasco
Merrill, with Thain still in charge, accelerates its yearly bonus payments, doling out an estimated $3-4 billion in bonuses before January 1, 2009, when Bank of America will take control. Some at B of A believe the expedited schedule is designed to avoid giving B of A a chance to cut those payments. New York AG Cuomo is now reportedly investigating.
9. The In-Retrospect-Ill-Advised Planned Trip to Davos
Thain plans a trip to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum next week -- even though Bank of America has discouraged the idea.
10. The Final Act
Thain pays $483,320 for 84,600 shares of Bank of America. The following day, he's fired.
Well, at least now he can make it to Davos.
Fro heavens sake, the damn Parchment waste can is...not kidding...MADE IN FRANCE! An American made one not good enough?
French fries were bad enough, now the taxpayer is funding fancy French waste baskets for filthy rich financiers who are robbing the US Treasury!
Posted by NobleCommentDecider in reply to a comment from Mark Regan
January 23, 2009 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
But... we must generously compensate such remarkable individuals or they won't take the critical positions of power in our free market economy and the USA will turn into a socialist country like Germany, Japan, or G-d forbid Canada!
I am sure with a mind like his Thain will be scooped up by a great institution like the American Enterprise Institute or the CATO foundation.
Posted by NobleCommentDecider
January 23, 2009 4:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or, NobleCD, join that honorable (not)news source, Faux Mews.
A serious question: why are these characters not having to repay what they've stolen. I think of myself as an honorable person but I don't know how honorable I'd stay if I was sent into a bank and told to take anything I could over a pretty much unlimited time period.
Posted by soupson52
January 23, 2009 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Listen the thing that is revolting is that he is not alone with his attitude and viewpoint how the world is designed for their benefit---to an extravagance end. It is no different than the attitude that royal families had in 18th and 19th Centuries where some literally lost their heads and others were revolted against.
I know I was an senior executive search professional in the private equity and investment bank market until it began to seek safe harbor in late 2006.
This is a generation that never "earned" it like the famous EF Hutton slogan, they merely mined their incomes on the backs of other people's money.
I am glad Cuomo did not get picked in the Senate so he can get an urgency of now going after the WS Banks.
Posted by RWN
January 23, 2009 5:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Too bad about his bonus, man. That's $10 million that isn't going to get to trickle down to the rest of us.
You take a wad like that and go on a spree at Walmart and they'll have to hire a few more baggers, who then get to buy groceries. Before you know it this economy is moving again.
Posted by arbalest
January 23, 2009 5:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Leave a comment
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Comments (You may use HTML tags for style) Comment Policy
AIG Arlen Specter Bailout Barack Obama Barbara Boxer Bernard Madoff Chuck Schumer David Addington David Iglesias Defense Contractors Defense Department Dick Cheney Eric Holder FBI George Bush Guantanamo House Judiciary Iraq JAG John Conyers John Murtha John Thain John Yoo Joseph Bruno Justice Department Pat Leahy Securities and Exchange Commission The Daily Muck Torture Treasury Department Trooper-Gate U.S. Attorneys Valerie Plame Wall Street Wiretapping
All Topics »
Swing Issues? Hillary Comes Out Swinging
by Desidero
1 comment, 8 recommends
One degree of Kevin Bacon
by debbiedoesnothing
10 comments, 6 recommends
On Domestic Spying
by codeman463
26 comments, 5 recommends
Take note, Maureen Dowd: A new juicy sexual-political rumor has gone mainstream
by truthseeker77
11 comments, 2 recommends
Obama and responsibility
by John Henninger 1
2 comments, 2 recommends
The People That Spy
by Viper 123
1 comment, 2 recommends
We Need to Take Care of the Overpaid Part of "Overpaid and Incompetent" Too
by Matthew Saroff
1 comment, 2 recommends
Wired: Obama Sides with Bush in Spy Case
by peaceMF
6 comments, 1 recommend
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by John Henninger 1
1 comment, no recommends
Locals get ready for Obama inauguration and beyond
by dubman
no comments, no recommends
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Blasting His Way To Fame!After dazzling the world with the Beijing Olympics fireworks, artist Cai Guo-Qiang needs quiet time.
WASHINGTON WATCH REPORTAs Obama era opens, President’s Therapist confesses secret intervention to treat George W. Bush. Read.
“I now fear for my life!” Shocking video of ex-“W” psychotherapist surfaces. View.
Special WWN report on psycho-political tell-all, The President’s Therapist. View.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Manuscript website
Lots of questions here: How much are the writers being paid? Are agents called in to negotiate? Will this become a standard part (numerous variations) for the new publishing paradigm? It's interesting to say the least. This is from Galleycat
Posted by JasonB | 01:23 PM | The Revolving Door | Email this post | 0 Comments
HarperCollins Signs Three Books from Manuscript Website
Harper Collins just purchased three books straight from their online manuscript site, authonomy.com. The books were Miranda Dickinson's romantic book Coffee at Kowalski's, Steven Dunne's detective story The Reaper, and Lynne Barrett-Lee's real life story, Never Say Die. All three authors sold world rights as well.
The bustling social networking site counts 100,000 users worldwide who have uploaded 2000 manuscripts. On average, community members spend about 20 minutes reading and critiquing stories when they log on to the site.
for the rest go here
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/
Posted by JasonB | 01:23 PM | The Revolving Door | Email this post | 0 Comments
HarperCollins Signs Three Books from Manuscript Website
Harper Collins just purchased three books straight from their online manuscript site, authonomy.com. The books were Miranda Dickinson's romantic book Coffee at Kowalski's, Steven Dunne's detective story The Reaper, and Lynne Barrett-Lee's real life story, Never Say Die. All three authors sold world rights as well.
The bustling social networking site counts 100,000 users worldwide who have uploaded 2000 manuscripts. On average, community members spend about 20 minutes reading and critiquing stories when they log on to the site.
for the rest go here
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Juno goes to Pocket Books
Congratulations to my friend Paula Guran:
(from Locus today)
Juno becomes imprint of Pocket - posted at 1/20/2009 08:51:00 PM PT
Wildside Press fantasy imprint, Juno Books, is to become an imprint of Simon & Schuster/Pocket in a new co-publishing deal.
Juno Books editor Paula Guran said: "I'm tremendously excited about the opportunity to help take Juno to the next level through our association with Pocket Books. Both Juno and fantasy readers in general will gain immensely by sales and marketing reach of Pocket Books and Simon & Schuster, while still getting the best of our editorial sensibility."
Pocket Books senior editor Jennifer Heddle will work in concert with Juno Books editor Paula Guran.
(from Locus today)
Juno becomes imprint of Pocket - posted at 1/20/2009 08:51:00 PM PT
Wildside Press fantasy imprint, Juno Books, is to become an imprint of Simon & Schuster/Pocket in a new co-publishing deal.
Juno Books editor Paula Guran said: "I'm tremendously excited about the opportunity to help take Juno to the next level through our association with Pocket Books. Both Juno and fantasy readers in general will gain immensely by sales and marketing reach of Pocket Books and Simon & Schuster, while still getting the best of our editorial sensibility."
Pocket Books senior editor Jennifer Heddle will work in concert with Juno Books editor Paula Guran.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Cinema Retro#13
From the saucy front cover photo of Janet Leigh to the gritty back cover promo sheet for a spaghetti western the new issue of Cinema Retro is packed with goodies.
The first thing I read was the interview with Karen Black. Her career took a mysterious nose dive back in the Eighties. She explains why in a long intelligent piece that will continue in issue #14.
I next turned to The Espionage Movies of Alistair Maclean. I was a big fan of his early books. Here Dean Brierly makes the case that the super-hits based on Macleans war novels made the espionage films seem lesser. I agree with Brierly's excellent defense of films such as The Satan Bug and The Secret Ways. Strong films.
Roger Moore's career is celebrated; Ernest Borgnine is interviewed; and the making of Hammer's Devil-Ship Pirates is chronicled. And the article on Bruce Lee recalls the man's career in fascinating detail. And there's much much more.
The magazine is filled with great color photographs and sidebars loaded with information. Do yourself a favor and subscribe.
The first thing I read was the interview with Karen Black. Her career took a mysterious nose dive back in the Eighties. She explains why in a long intelligent piece that will continue in issue #14.
I next turned to The Espionage Movies of Alistair Maclean. I was a big fan of his early books. Here Dean Brierly makes the case that the super-hits based on Macleans war novels made the espionage films seem lesser. I agree with Brierly's excellent defense of films such as The Satan Bug and The Secret Ways. Strong films.
Roger Moore's career is celebrated; Ernest Borgnine is interviewed; and the making of Hammer's Devil-Ship Pirates is chronicled. And the article on Bruce Lee recalls the man's career in fascinating detail. And there's much much more.
The magazine is filled with great color photographs and sidebars loaded with information. Do yourself a favor and subscribe.
Monday, January 19, 2009
The Dark World
If you were a science fiction reader in the Forties or Fifties you were likely a faithful reader of Henry Kuttner under his own or numerous pen-names. On my Kuttner shelf I have fine novels written in the sf, fantasy, mystery and adventure genres. He did it all and did it well.
He died in 1958 of a heart attack. He was forty-two years old. His wife Catherine (C.L.) Moore said that he'd had a premonition of his death the night before. He left behind enough wordage to do three writers proud. Yes, a lot of it was hackwork but the good stuff was great stuff.
He influenced many writers of future generations. Philip K. Dick was his most notable disciple. Roger Zelanzy credited Kuttner as the inspiration for his Amber series. If you doubt Zelanzy's shout out all you have to do is pick up the fine new trade paperback reprint from Planet Stories, The Dark World. You will soon see the seeds for Amber in it.
Richard Matheson dedicated I Am Legend to him. Kuttner wrote the last six hundred words of Ray Bradbury's first professionally published story. Bill Gault always talked about what a gentle, funny man he was--an exemplary writer to all the others.
The Dark World is a vital, mysterious adventure that takes place after a man of earth is transported to a world where he trusts nobody, a world Kuttner filled with a variety of creatures as colorful as any in H. Rider Haggard or early Edgar Rice Burroughs.
In all his best work there is an overriding psychological element in Kuttner's protagonists. Circumstances have given them a noirish desperation and that is evident here where Edward Bond spends much of the book confused and doubting everyone--and everything--around him. If this sounds familiar, read your Phillip K. Dick.
This is one of Kuttner's finest novels and one published as by Keith Hammond. When you look back on his career you see that a good share of his best work was published under pen-names, usually because he had two or three other stories in the same issue. I still remember Anthony's Boucher's moving tribute to him in an issue of Venture SF. I'd read so much of his work that I literally felt as if a good friend of mine had died.
He died in 1958 of a heart attack. He was forty-two years old. His wife Catherine (C.L.) Moore said that he'd had a premonition of his death the night before. He left behind enough wordage to do three writers proud. Yes, a lot of it was hackwork but the good stuff was great stuff.
He influenced many writers of future generations. Philip K. Dick was his most notable disciple. Roger Zelanzy credited Kuttner as the inspiration for his Amber series. If you doubt Zelanzy's shout out all you have to do is pick up the fine new trade paperback reprint from Planet Stories, The Dark World. You will soon see the seeds for Amber in it.
Richard Matheson dedicated I Am Legend to him. Kuttner wrote the last six hundred words of Ray Bradbury's first professionally published story. Bill Gault always talked about what a gentle, funny man he was--an exemplary writer to all the others.
The Dark World is a vital, mysterious adventure that takes place after a man of earth is transported to a world where he trusts nobody, a world Kuttner filled with a variety of creatures as colorful as any in H. Rider Haggard or early Edgar Rice Burroughs.
In all his best work there is an overriding psychological element in Kuttner's protagonists. Circumstances have given them a noirish desperation and that is evident here where Edward Bond spends much of the book confused and doubting everyone--and everything--around him. If this sounds familiar, read your Phillip K. Dick.
This is one of Kuttner's finest novels and one published as by Keith Hammond. When you look back on his career you see that a good share of his best work was published under pen-names, usually because he had two or three other stories in the same issue. I still remember Anthony's Boucher's moving tribute to him in an issue of Venture SF. I'd read so much of his work that I literally felt as if a good friend of mine had died.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Pro-file: Tom Piccirilli
This is a good time for Tom Piccirilli. The International Thriller Writers gave him the award for The Midnight Road and now his novel The Cold Spot had been nominated for an Edgar (best paperback). Tom is well on his way to well-deserved major stardom.
1 Tell us about your current novel.
THE COLDEST MILE hits bookstores in four weeks. It's the follow-up to THE COLD SPOT and continues on with the dubious adventures of my getaway driver Chase and his stone cold killer grandfather Jonah. In this one, Chase gets on the wrong side of the mob while hunting his grandfather for their inevitable showdown. When they do meet face to face, the situation is much different than Chase expects. Hopefully I've managed to amp up the noir atmosphere even more than it was in TCS.
2. Can you give us a sense of what you're working on now?
A novel called THE UNDERNEATH, which is a sort of crime novel-suspense hybrid, about a young thief from a family of thieves who returns home after several years away to meet with his brother who's on death row. The brother murdered a number of folks in a meth-fueled rage, and though he admits to the charges, he swears that he didn't kill one person attributed to him. So off goes the brother on a strange investigation that takes though an underworld he's familiar with and straight world he's not, where every brick he turns over brings another secret to the light of day, including several involving his own family.
3. What is the greatest pleasure of a writing career?
The satisfaction of having created something that is wholly my own and yet somehow manages to be a part of the overwhelming grandness of literature. Most of us get into this racket because literature itself has had such a profound effect on us. It's given us a kind of love, entertainment, excitement, joy, enlightenment, fulfillment that only books can give us. And becoming a writer is joining with that, becoming a part of it, and passing it on to other readers. I don't know, it's the kind of thing that bibliophiles will understand, and anyone who doesn't read simply won't.
4. The greatest DIS-pleasure?
No real security. No health insurance, no 401k, no pension. Living check to check, hand to mouth, and always the possibility that your best work is behind you. And if you're a lazy , then the sedentary life just cranks up the potential for weight gain and heart trouble and all those similar health concerns. But as soon as I finish this double cheeseburger I intend to lose 120 lbs, train intensively for 18 months, and enter the Iron Man competition.
5. If you have one piece of advice for the publishing world, what is it?
Treat every book as a potential bestseller. Give them all your very best where encouragement, publicity, are concerned, because you never know just what will catch fire with a little push. On any bestseller list there's at least a handful of books that appear to be uncommercial in the extreme. Julia Leigh's DISQUIET is a kind of surreal literary novella, and it's up there. Roberto Bolano's 2666 is a five-book monolith by a dead Chilean writer, and it's up there. You just never know what the public might pick up on, so allow even the most uncommercial work to have a chance, because it might just pay off.
6. Are there two or three forgotten mystery writers you'd like to see inprint again?
Hard Case Crime has done a wonderful job of bringing back some of my faves, but at a last looksee the likes of Fredric Brown, Bruno Fischer, and Peter Rabe were still mostly out of print. Or at least not as widely available as they should be. I'd love to see those guys back on the shelves, right up front with the bestsellers. Any fan of noir/hardboiled fiction will go apeshit for them.
7. Tell us about selling your first novel. Most writers never forget that
moment.
It was a trip. Even though I have a total love-hate relationship with my first novel (because it blows, don't read it, don't hunt for it, don't torment me with it at conventions) it was the one that carried me into the game. I made every mistake I could with it, both in the writing and in the submitting, but somehow it got picked up by Pocket Books. Jesus, I sent three chapters in over the transom when all I had were the three damn chapters. How stupid. But I was a kid, and the fates shined down on me.
8. What do you consider the highlight of your career thus far?
I just got an Edgar nod this week. That's pretty close to the top. Other highlights usually involve my literary heroes. Exchanging letters and email with great folks like Dean Koontz, Donald Westlake, Chuck Palahniuk, James Rollins, Stewart O'Nan, Ken Bruen, and Richard Matheson. It's a validation of the work and, as I mentioned, since we're all here because we're fans, it just tickles me to no end. The friends and fans you make are really what count most.
9. How about the low point?
Oh Christ. If I start thinking about them all I'll spiral into a fit of depression and it'll take me a month to climb out of the ditch. But losing contracts, getting dumped by publishers, having books I slaved over get dumped by publishers without any distribution or fanfare or reviews, years going by without seeing my books on the shelves, getting ripped off on royalties. It's so easy to feel like a complete failure in this game, no matter how many accolades or sales you may have racked up. There's always a boot on your back. It's hard to fight and it's hard to ignore, but if you don't make some kind of peace with it, it'll drive you right into the ground.
10. Which book or short story would you recommend to readers unfamiliar with your work?
I'd say folks can either start with THE MIDNIGHT ROAD or THE COLD SPOT. They're two of my most recent titles and pretty much show where my head, heart, and art are at the moment.
www.thecoldspot.blogspot.com
1 Tell us about your current novel.
THE COLDEST MILE hits bookstores in four weeks. It's the follow-up to THE COLD SPOT and continues on with the dubious adventures of my getaway driver Chase and his stone cold killer grandfather Jonah. In this one, Chase gets on the wrong side of the mob while hunting his grandfather for their inevitable showdown. When they do meet face to face, the situation is much different than Chase expects. Hopefully I've managed to amp up the noir atmosphere even more than it was in TCS.
2. Can you give us a sense of what you're working on now?
A novel called THE UNDERNEATH, which is a sort of crime novel-suspense hybrid, about a young thief from a family of thieves who returns home after several years away to meet with his brother who's on death row. The brother murdered a number of folks in a meth-fueled rage, and though he admits to the charges, he swears that he didn't kill one person attributed to him. So off goes the brother on a strange investigation that takes though an underworld he's familiar with and straight world he's not, where every brick he turns over brings another secret to the light of day, including several involving his own family.
3. What is the greatest pleasure of a writing career?
The satisfaction of having created something that is wholly my own and yet somehow manages to be a part of the overwhelming grandness of literature. Most of us get into this racket because literature itself has had such a profound effect on us. It's given us a kind of love, entertainment, excitement, joy, enlightenment, fulfillment that only books can give us. And becoming a writer is joining with that, becoming a part of it, and passing it on to other readers. I don't know, it's the kind of thing that bibliophiles will understand, and anyone who doesn't read simply won't.
4. The greatest DIS-pleasure?
No real security. No health insurance, no 401k, no pension. Living check to check, hand to mouth, and always the possibility that your best work is behind you. And if you're a lazy , then the sedentary life just cranks up the potential for weight gain and heart trouble and all those similar health concerns. But as soon as I finish this double cheeseburger I intend to lose 120 lbs, train intensively for 18 months, and enter the Iron Man competition.
5. If you have one piece of advice for the publishing world, what is it?
Treat every book as a potential bestseller. Give them all your very best where encouragement, publicity, are concerned, because you never know just what will catch fire with a little push. On any bestseller list there's at least a handful of books that appear to be uncommercial in the extreme. Julia Leigh's DISQUIET is a kind of surreal literary novella, and it's up there. Roberto Bolano's 2666 is a five-book monolith by a dead Chilean writer, and it's up there. You just never know what the public might pick up on, so allow even the most uncommercial work to have a chance, because it might just pay off.
6. Are there two or three forgotten mystery writers you'd like to see inprint again?
Hard Case Crime has done a wonderful job of bringing back some of my faves, but at a last looksee the likes of Fredric Brown, Bruno Fischer, and Peter Rabe were still mostly out of print. Or at least not as widely available as they should be. I'd love to see those guys back on the shelves, right up front with the bestsellers. Any fan of noir/hardboiled fiction will go apeshit for them.
7. Tell us about selling your first novel. Most writers never forget that
moment.
It was a trip. Even though I have a total love-hate relationship with my first novel (because it blows, don't read it, don't hunt for it, don't torment me with it at conventions) it was the one that carried me into the game. I made every mistake I could with it, both in the writing and in the submitting, but somehow it got picked up by Pocket Books. Jesus, I sent three chapters in over the transom when all I had were the three damn chapters. How stupid. But I was a kid, and the fates shined down on me.
8. What do you consider the highlight of your career thus far?
I just got an Edgar nod this week. That's pretty close to the top. Other highlights usually involve my literary heroes. Exchanging letters and email with great folks like Dean Koontz, Donald Westlake, Chuck Palahniuk, James Rollins, Stewart O'Nan, Ken Bruen, and Richard Matheson. It's a validation of the work and, as I mentioned, since we're all here because we're fans, it just tickles me to no end. The friends and fans you make are really what count most.
9. How about the low point?
Oh Christ. If I start thinking about them all I'll spiral into a fit of depression and it'll take me a month to climb out of the ditch. But losing contracts, getting dumped by publishers, having books I slaved over get dumped by publishers without any distribution or fanfare or reviews, years going by without seeing my books on the shelves, getting ripped off on royalties. It's so easy to feel like a complete failure in this game, no matter how many accolades or sales you may have racked up. There's always a boot on your back. It's hard to fight and it's hard to ignore, but if you don't make some kind of peace with it, it'll drive you right into the ground.
10. Which book or short story would you recommend to readers unfamiliar with your work?
I'd say folks can either start with THE MIDNIGHT ROAD or THE COLD SPOT. They're two of my most recent titles and pretty much show where my head, heart, and art are at the moment.
www.thecoldspot.blogspot.com
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Christine
It's impossible to call any book by Stephen King forgotten but by now some of the novels he wrote early on are less discussed than they once were.
Christine, as I'm sure most of you know from book and movie, concerns a 1958 Plymouth Fury with psychopathic soul. In a variety of ways it kills people. Now for those of you who don't like horror I suppose the premise is off-putting. A killer car? I spent a good part of my misspent youth in auto repair garages, going to drag races and dreaming of a chopped and channeled `53 Olds convertible I once saw. White leather interior. I genuflected when it passed by. Because I didn't know jack about cars I had to content myself watching the people who turned their machines into personalities as real--hell, more real--than some of the kids hanging around them. Believe me for kids crazy about cars Christine is a very clever metaphor.
To me this book is one of King's richest in terms of its humanity. As a novel about high school outsiders it's flawless; as a story about losers becoming just as nasty as the winners they hate it works well as a cautionary tale; and as a portrait of a small town and its people that rivals the masters King obviously read as a youth--Thornton Wilder, James T. Farrell, James Jones and John Farris and his Harrison High.
One chapter alone illustrates what I'm saying. Dennis, the frequent narrator of this story, tries to trace the history of the car (I'm declining a spoiler) and so he goes to visit the brother of the dead man who originally bought it. I don't want to push literary references here but the chapter reminded me of Lord Jim and how the story is told in retrospect and dialogue. The brother relates in fascinating fashion the entire life stories of three people, birth to death. And it's as exciting as any action scene.
King gives us true lives, joys, sorrows, fears as they are lived out over many decades. As I was rereading this the past few days I realized that this I what I miss in so much contemporary fiction, the reality and beauty of the everyday as lived by most of us. There is a moment when he crushes us with the brother's tale and we're left with a mixture of awe and dread in equal parts. ASnd there are many moments in Christine that are its equal.
King has in recent years been accepted by the literary establishment as a peer. But those of us who read him from the git-go knew that long ago.
Christine, as I'm sure most of you know from book and movie, concerns a 1958 Plymouth Fury with psychopathic soul. In a variety of ways it kills people. Now for those of you who don't like horror I suppose the premise is off-putting. A killer car? I spent a good part of my misspent youth in auto repair garages, going to drag races and dreaming of a chopped and channeled `53 Olds convertible I once saw. White leather interior. I genuflected when it passed by. Because I didn't know jack about cars I had to content myself watching the people who turned their machines into personalities as real--hell, more real--than some of the kids hanging around them. Believe me for kids crazy about cars Christine is a very clever metaphor.
To me this book is one of King's richest in terms of its humanity. As a novel about high school outsiders it's flawless; as a story about losers becoming just as nasty as the winners they hate it works well as a cautionary tale; and as a portrait of a small town and its people that rivals the masters King obviously read as a youth--Thornton Wilder, James T. Farrell, James Jones and John Farris and his Harrison High.
One chapter alone illustrates what I'm saying. Dennis, the frequent narrator of this story, tries to trace the history of the car (I'm declining a spoiler) and so he goes to visit the brother of the dead man who originally bought it. I don't want to push literary references here but the chapter reminded me of Lord Jim and how the story is told in retrospect and dialogue. The brother relates in fascinating fashion the entire life stories of three people, birth to death. And it's as exciting as any action scene.
King gives us true lives, joys, sorrows, fears as they are lived out over many decades. As I was rereading this the past few days I realized that this I what I miss in so much contemporary fiction, the reality and beauty of the everyday as lived by most of us. There is a moment when he crushes us with the brother's tale and we're left with a mixture of awe and dread in equal parts. ASnd there are many moments in Christine that are its equal.
King has in recent years been accepted by the literary establishment as a peer. But those of us who read him from the git-go knew that long ago.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Stuff
A shout out to Patti Abbott for her Forgotten Books Friday. One of the real pleasures of the week.
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Congratulations to the Edgar nominees. Tom Piccirilli's fine novel The Cold Spot was nominated for best paperback. I just wish excellent Dave Zeltserman's Small Crimes had also been nominated. And our Five Star book by Tom Epperson was nominated for best first novel.
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For all seven hundred and forty three of you who wrote to tell me that my "girl friend" link the other night was a porn scam...ok ok to quote PeeWee Herman. But I still don't know how they make any money on this.
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A great night for tv last night. With My Friend Earl we got to see Jaimie Pressly in a yoga contortion (walking with her legs over her shoulders) singing These Boots Are Made for Walking; Dwight and Andy both dumping Angela at the same time (stay tuned); and at least four members of the 30 Rock cast vomiting. You never saw this kind of stuff on Father Knows Best.
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Congratulations to the Edgar nominees. Tom Piccirilli's fine novel The Cold Spot was nominated for best paperback. I just wish excellent Dave Zeltserman's Small Crimes had also been nominated. And our Five Star book by Tom Epperson was nominated for best first novel.
-
For all seven hundred and forty three of you who wrote to tell me that my "girl friend" link the other night was a porn scam...ok ok to quote PeeWee Herman. But I still don't know how they make any money on this.
-
A great night for tv last night. With My Friend Earl we got to see Jaimie Pressly in a yoga contortion (walking with her legs over her shoulders) singing These Boots Are Made for Walking; Dwight and Andy both dumping Angela at the same time (stay tuned); and at least four members of the 30 Rock cast vomiting. You never saw this kind of stuff on Father Knows Best.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
The show must go on
I was at the doctor's today (flu) so I had my choice of reading Parents magazine or watching TV (I forgot to bring a book). The people ahead of me had apparently decided on one of those showbiz shows. I used to be under the impression that most of the jackasses in our country were in Washington. I forgot that the entertainment reporters in Hwood have a legion of jackasses all their own.
Poor Patrick Swayze. Terrible enough that he's dying, he has to do it in public. I remember when Raymond Carver was passing, he put out all these false press releases about how well he was doing just so the press would leave him alone ("I'm runnin thirty miles a day and my wife tells me I'm a regular demon in the sack!"). They bought his act. His death was a real surprise even though with his type of lung cancer there was no hope and they should have known better (or hell maybe they were just giving him a break).
This show today played a clip from when Barbara Walters interviewed Swazye two weeks ago. Now maybe because I'm in a similar predicament I'm biased here but when she asked him "Are you scared?" I immediately thought that this was one of the dumbest questions ever asked. Right up there when reporters shove a microphone in the face of a man who's entire family has just been burned alive in a housefire: "How do you feel?"
Is he scared? Yeah, he's dying. I've met a hundred people in chemo over the years and I never met one who wasn't scared. Again, maybe this is me. Maybe if I didn't have my own health problems the question wouldn't seem so stupid. Walters has never been what you'd call an intellectual giant but even by her standards he question struck me as dumb in the extreme.
Then they had this guy on who works on Swayze's new series. "We're all trying to get him to quit smoking." Now this is well-intentioned I know but it's also amusing (at least to me). Barring a miracle (and I mean a miracle) Swayze won't be here a lot longer. He's tough and admirable and fighting the good fight but pancreatic cancer is a bitch. So let him smoke. I've thought that in my final days I'm going to buy a carton of Luckies and go out French inhaling. Seriosuly. What the hell.
Finally a couple of hacks led with a question or two about the show then went immediately to his health. I don't know how actors get through all these promo interviews anyway. Same questions over and over. But I felt especially sorry for Swyaze because man he looked beat. Gray.
I know this is how the game is played. If I was so offended by it all I could have gone into a different waiting room where there was no tv only even older copies of Parents magazine. But I didn't. I watched. I'm just like all the other vampire hayseeds in Nathaniel West's Day of The Locust, spying on the griefs of the rich and famous. So I'm not claiming any moral superiority here.
It's just...Hell, Patrick, light up a Lucky for me and hang in there, buddy.
Poor Patrick Swayze. Terrible enough that he's dying, he has to do it in public. I remember when Raymond Carver was passing, he put out all these false press releases about how well he was doing just so the press would leave him alone ("I'm runnin thirty miles a day and my wife tells me I'm a regular demon in the sack!"). They bought his act. His death was a real surprise even though with his type of lung cancer there was no hope and they should have known better (or hell maybe they were just giving him a break).
This show today played a clip from when Barbara Walters interviewed Swazye two weeks ago. Now maybe because I'm in a similar predicament I'm biased here but when she asked him "Are you scared?" I immediately thought that this was one of the dumbest questions ever asked. Right up there when reporters shove a microphone in the face of a man who's entire family has just been burned alive in a housefire: "How do you feel?"
Is he scared? Yeah, he's dying. I've met a hundred people in chemo over the years and I never met one who wasn't scared. Again, maybe this is me. Maybe if I didn't have my own health problems the question wouldn't seem so stupid. Walters has never been what you'd call an intellectual giant but even by her standards he question struck me as dumb in the extreme.
Then they had this guy on who works on Swayze's new series. "We're all trying to get him to quit smoking." Now this is well-intentioned I know but it's also amusing (at least to me). Barring a miracle (and I mean a miracle) Swayze won't be here a lot longer. He's tough and admirable and fighting the good fight but pancreatic cancer is a bitch. So let him smoke. I've thought that in my final days I'm going to buy a carton of Luckies and go out French inhaling. Seriosuly. What the hell.
Finally a couple of hacks led with a question or two about the show then went immediately to his health. I don't know how actors get through all these promo interviews anyway. Same questions over and over. But I felt especially sorry for Swyaze because man he looked beat. Gray.
I know this is how the game is played. If I was so offended by it all I could have gone into a different waiting room where there was no tv only even older copies of Parents magazine. But I didn't. I watched. I'm just like all the other vampire hayseeds in Nathaniel West's Day of The Locust, spying on the griefs of the rich and famous. So I'm not claiming any moral superiority here.
It's just...Hell, Patrick, light up a Lucky for me and hang in there, buddy.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Scooping Bill Crider
I ran across this today and was surprised I hadn't seen it on my friend Bill Crider's website. Now I'm not going to provide link information because I don't like what this guy is doing. But given that revenge is a dish best served cold this is one chilly way to get back at the girl who dumped you. This may sound sexist but I'm told that a woman did this to her cheating ex revealing in the pics that he suffered from shrinkage even though he hadn't been in water recently.
"As I was about to walk up to her they both started walking towards the door and left the bar. I followed them from a distance. I saw her get into his car which was parked in a small dark road. I waited for a minute or two but the car didn't move. I walked up to the car and caught them having sex inside. My heart was broken and I immediately broke up with her.
"When we were going out she let me take dirty pics of her with my camera. To get revenge I decided to share those pics with everyone on the internet right here on this site. I'm hoping that lots of people will get to see her pics and know that she is a cheater."
To help me out please take the following link (its your link) and share it with your friends (through instant messenger or email) and the more people that click your link the more pics you'll be able to see. There are 59 pics, each click will reveal an additional pic at the bottom of this page. If 100 people click your link, a dirty video of her will also appear.
UPDATE: I've now gotten eight (eight!) off-line emails demanding that I print the link. I agree with Todd mason, she is indeed a babe. http://ihateliz.com/?id=d51zzouiqbncxj7fwp9ci6ueytndit
"As I was about to walk up to her they both started walking towards the door and left the bar. I followed them from a distance. I saw her get into his car which was parked in a small dark road. I waited for a minute or two but the car didn't move. I walked up to the car and caught them having sex inside. My heart was broken and I immediately broke up with her.
"When we were going out she let me take dirty pics of her with my camera. To get revenge I decided to share those pics with everyone on the internet right here on this site. I'm hoping that lots of people will get to see her pics and know that she is a cheater."
To help me out please take the following link (its your link) and share it with your friends (through instant messenger or email) and the more people that click your link the more pics you'll be able to see. There are 59 pics, each click will reveal an additional pic at the bottom of this page. If 100 people click your link, a dirty video of her will also appear.
UPDATE: I've now gotten eight (eight!) off-line emails demanding that I print the link. I agree with Todd mason, she is indeed a babe. http://ihateliz.com/?id=d51zzouiqbncxj7fwp9ci6ueytndit
Monday, January 12, 2009
Don Westlake by Robert Byrne
A busy portable typewriter falls silent
Don Westlake, author of 100 novels, dies of a heart attack
BY ROBERT BYRNE
(A photo accopmanies the article-I'll try to run it tomorrow night. If somebody will show me how. Here's the cast: Suspects in a Murder Mystery Weekend staged at the Mohonk Mountain House in New York in 1987.¤ Left to right: David Morrell, creator of Rambo, prolific novelist Don Westlake, novelist Justin Scott, Playboy fiction editor Alice Turner, crime writer Chris Newman, writer Robert Byrne (with flask), and Death Wish author Brian Garfield.¤ In front is Caroline Penzler, then wife of Otto Penzler of The Mysterious Press.)
A friend of mine was on his way with his wife to a New Year's Eve dinner. He never made it. He was felled by a heart attack at the age of 75.
Don Westlake was a writing machine, turning out 100 novels under 10 pseudonyms. He's best known for the comic novels written under his own name featuring an unintentionally funny criminal named John Dortmunder and for the hard-boiled Parker crime novels written by "Richard Stark." He also wrote screenplays for one of my favorite fright-flicks, "The Stepfather," and for "The Grifters," for which he was nominated for an Oscar.
In one room of his four-story home on Blecker Street in Manhattan are floor-to-ceiling racks of books. I was amazed when he told me that every one was written by him: he had every edition of his works in hardback and paperback, sometimes multiple copies, as well as copies in scores of foreign languages.
All of his books were written on a small portable typewriter, which went out of production in the early years of his career. To keep it supplied with spare parts, he never
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missed a chance to buy the same model in antique stores and junk shops.
I knew him because we shared a couple of friends, novelist Martin Cruz Smith and mystery writer Joe Gores. Westlake and Gores once published novels that contained an identical chapter, and they did it without their publishers' awareness. That sense of fun made them both wonderful company.
For several years, Westlake wrote scripts for back-to-back "murder mystery weekends" at a rambling old hotel 80 miles north of Manhattan called The Mohonk Mountain House. Amateur actors, most of them writers he knew, put on playlets about a murder. Teams of hotel guests questioned the actors in an attempt to solve the crime. Actors had to stick to facts provided by Westlake and avoid saying anything that contradicted the stories of the other characters.
At the end of the weekend, the teams of sleuths dramatized the crime as they imagined it, and Westlake revealed his own solution. Prizes were given for accuracy and imagination. For the second weekend, the facts were altered enough to provide a new murderer.
In 1987, I was one of the actors. Between the two weekends my wife and I stayed with the Westlakes in Manhattan, it was one of the most enjoyable 10 days of my life. Don and Abby were amusing and upbeat people and perfect hosts. Abby has lost a husband like no other, a man who was loved by his many friends and admired by hundreds of thousands of fans.
The year we were at Mohonk, the murder was set in 1872 at the fictional Western town of Turnip Gulch. (The previous year, the scene was an ocean liner in 1923.) I played a drunken doctor named Homer Payne-Whitney, a good role because whenever I was asked a question that was tricky to answer, I could pretend to be in an alcoholic fog. The guests had been told that my character's parents had been killed by Indians. When I was asked, "What Indians?" I was able to safely answer, "The Cleveland Indians."
During the first weekend, Westlake, playing circuit-court judge Orner E. Plugge, questioned me in court. Before I could divulge crucial information, shots rang out from the balcony -- I was hit! I staggered around, clutching my chest, then dropped to the floor and died after a few violent twitches. It was the pinnacle of my acting career.
While staying with the Westlakes in New York, I heard Don say that he never knew if the dishes in the dishwasher were dirty or clean. Weeks later, I found a magnetic dial in a gift shop with an arrow that pointed to "Clean" or "Dirty" and mailed it to him. He replied that it helped a lot because every morning Abby pinned it to her blouse so he would know how she was feeling.
Byrne is the author of 23 books, including two novels about growing up in Dubuque. His Web site is www.byrne.org, and his e-mail address is bob@byrne.org.
Don Westlake, author of 100 novels, dies of a heart attack
BY ROBERT BYRNE
(A photo accopmanies the article-I'll try to run it tomorrow night. If somebody will show me how. Here's the cast: Suspects in a Murder Mystery Weekend staged at the Mohonk Mountain House in New York in 1987.¤ Left to right: David Morrell, creator of Rambo, prolific novelist Don Westlake, novelist Justin Scott, Playboy fiction editor Alice Turner, crime writer Chris Newman, writer Robert Byrne (with flask), and Death Wish author Brian Garfield.¤ In front is Caroline Penzler, then wife of Otto Penzler of The Mysterious Press.)
A friend of mine was on his way with his wife to a New Year's Eve dinner. He never made it. He was felled by a heart attack at the age of 75.
Don Westlake was a writing machine, turning out 100 novels under 10 pseudonyms. He's best known for the comic novels written under his own name featuring an unintentionally funny criminal named John Dortmunder and for the hard-boiled Parker crime novels written by "Richard Stark." He also wrote screenplays for one of my favorite fright-flicks, "The Stepfather," and for "The Grifters," for which he was nominated for an Oscar.
In one room of his four-story home on Blecker Street in Manhattan are floor-to-ceiling racks of books. I was amazed when he told me that every one was written by him: he had every edition of his works in hardback and paperback, sometimes multiple copies, as well as copies in scores of foreign languages.
All of his books were written on a small portable typewriter, which went out of production in the early years of his career. To keep it supplied with spare parts, he never
Advertisement
missed a chance to buy the same model in antique stores and junk shops.
I knew him because we shared a couple of friends, novelist Martin Cruz Smith and mystery writer Joe Gores. Westlake and Gores once published novels that contained an identical chapter, and they did it without their publishers' awareness. That sense of fun made them both wonderful company.
For several years, Westlake wrote scripts for back-to-back "murder mystery weekends" at a rambling old hotel 80 miles north of Manhattan called The Mohonk Mountain House. Amateur actors, most of them writers he knew, put on playlets about a murder. Teams of hotel guests questioned the actors in an attempt to solve the crime. Actors had to stick to facts provided by Westlake and avoid saying anything that contradicted the stories of the other characters.
At the end of the weekend, the teams of sleuths dramatized the crime as they imagined it, and Westlake revealed his own solution. Prizes were given for accuracy and imagination. For the second weekend, the facts were altered enough to provide a new murderer.
In 1987, I was one of the actors. Between the two weekends my wife and I stayed with the Westlakes in Manhattan, it was one of the most enjoyable 10 days of my life. Don and Abby were amusing and upbeat people and perfect hosts. Abby has lost a husband like no other, a man who was loved by his many friends and admired by hundreds of thousands of fans.
The year we were at Mohonk, the murder was set in 1872 at the fictional Western town of Turnip Gulch. (The previous year, the scene was an ocean liner in 1923.) I played a drunken doctor named Homer Payne-Whitney, a good role because whenever I was asked a question that was tricky to answer, I could pretend to be in an alcoholic fog. The guests had been told that my character's parents had been killed by Indians. When I was asked, "What Indians?" I was able to safely answer, "The Cleveland Indians."
During the first weekend, Westlake, playing circuit-court judge Orner E. Plugge, questioned me in court. Before I could divulge crucial information, shots rang out from the balcony -- I was hit! I staggered around, clutching my chest, then dropped to the floor and died after a few violent twitches. It was the pinnacle of my acting career.
While staying with the Westlakes in New York, I heard Don say that he never knew if the dishes in the dishwasher were dirty or clean. Weeks later, I found a magnetic dial in a gift shop with an arrow that pointed to "Clean" or "Dirty" and mailed it to him. He replied that it helped a lot because every morning Abby pinned it to her blouse so he would know how she was feeling.
Byrne is the author of 23 books, including two novels about growing up in Dubuque. His Web site is www.byrne.org, and his e-mail address is bob@byrne.org.
Don Westlake #3
A bit over seven years ago I had two surgeries for thyroid cancer. I posted some larky comments about it on my blog. A number of people thought I was in denial, thus my humor. I don't think so. I'd been afraid of getting cancer all my life that when I got it I was relieved that it was the kind people survive. 90% survival five years out (the type I had). Five weeks later, due to a strange pain in the right side of my lower,I went back to my oncologist. The next diagnosis wasn't so good. I had mutliple myeloma. Incurable. 70% dead in the first three and a half years. No larky posts about that. Made a living will. Made a deal with Kate Stine for Mystery Scene. Gave away more than 2000 books. Hunkered down. The kindness and concern of people I knew (and many I didn't) was truly moving. A week after my first post on the blog I got a letter from Don Westlake. I figured he'd be sending good wishes. He did. And he accompanied those wishes with a check for a thousand dollars. "Figured you might need this." Turned out we didn't so I sent the check back. But that was Don Westlake.
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