THE BOLERO OF ANDI ROWE by Toni Plummer

Toni Margarita Plummer is a former editor of mine so when I heard that her first collection of short stories had just been published I wanted to take a look. I'm not sure what I expected but what I got is one of the most original and elegantly told collection of literary stories I've read in years.

THE BOLERO OF ANDI ROWE charts the Rowe family and its lives in the San Gabriel Valley. We see three generations and the disparate ways they respond to life in Los Angeles. The images and the feeling of everyday life in the Latino community are presented with powerful simplicity and memorable detail.

I especially liked the stories with the sisters Andi and Olivia. In "Olivia's Roses" we see the difficulty she is having wither boyfriend Anthony, a strange teen the family disapproves of. Especially her grandmother. It is sad, funny, wise and takes us inside the dynamics of a close Latino family.

One of the finest stories, "The Desert in Green," gives us a look at illegal immigration that offers poetry instead of punditry. Plummer's ability to bring characters to ambiguous life--no easy answers here--and to play these lives off against her place descriptions (perfect indelible descriptions of city and countryside alike) make her stories readable again and again.

In "All The Sex is West" Plummer enriches the undertone of sexuality inherent in her tales of Andi and Olivia. Here we have the singles bars scene and the icy temptations of stranger danger. Plummer goes for it here--sex, droll and astute perception, humor, and the foibles of trying to find a friend or a lover in transit, whichever comes first. This one is like a Charlie Parker riff.

Toni Plummer is on her way. These stories will be with me for a long, long time. You know, the way real literature always is.

What happened to John Carpenter?

Ed here: As a John Carpenter fan I was eager to read this. I don't agree with all of it but I think he does try to post a reasonable understanding of Carpenter's virtues and shortcomings.

Horror-meister John Carpenter's mediocre comeback
The director of "Halloween" and "The Thing" is back -- with another middling spookfest. Where did things go wrong?
BY ANDREW O'HEHIR

Much of the coverage of John Carpenter's new film, "The Ward" -- or rather "John Carpenter's The Ward," as some of the P.R. material distressingly insists -- revolves around the idea that the legendary horror-meister gets to take a mulligan on this one. Hell, the guy made "Halloween" and "The Thing" (or so the argument seems to go), and we're grateful to have him back making features after a decade-long hiatus, even if the result is a mediocre mental-hospital shocker starring Amber Heard that feels an awful lot like a low-budget knockoff of Zack Snyder's "Sucker Punch."

I'd be happy to go along with that argument, if it made any sense. Unfortunately, "The Ward" fits entirely too well in Carpenter's oeuvre, which is consistently inconsistent. There's no disputing Carpenter's place in the history of horror movies, or his status as a genuine pioneer of American independent filmmaking. When somebody challenged me, a year or so ago, to one of those Facebook exercises where you name the 10 directors most important to you, right off the top of your head without cogitating or Googling, Carpenter made the list. (Along with Wes Craven and Paul Verhoeven and Michael Haneke and David Cronenberg and Tarkovsky and ... let's not get sidetracked, but it's a cool little self-administered personality test.) And it's not like "The Ward" is unbelievably terrible or anything. Hell, go see it, or better yet watch it on pay-per-view: It's a competent horror flick with creepy wide-screen atmospherics, a decent cast and a thoroughly worn-out premise, better than 75 percent of the genre.

for the rest go here:
http://www.salon.com/books/horror_fiction/index.html?story=/ent/movies/andrew_ohehir/2011/07/05/carpenter

The Seventh Victim

Even if he was overlooked in his lifetime Val Lewton’s horror and dark suspense films are not only remembered today but also celebrated. His movies changed horror fiction from the more obvious monsters teeming on Universal's lot to the subtler and darker insinuations we can still see in the horror films of our own time.

There’s now a collection of Lewton’s finest films available on DVD. In this age of the auteur you might make the assumption that Lewton directed the films but he didn’t. He was the producer.

’I'll let Wikipedia do the heavy lifting here: “In 1942, Lewton was named head of the horror unit at RKO studios, at a salary of US$250 per week. As head of the B-horror unit he would have to follow three rules: each film had to come in under a US$150,000 budget, each film was to run under seventy-five minutes, and Lewton's supervisors would supply the title for each film.

“Lewton's first production was Cat People, released in 1942. The film was directed by Jacques Tourneur, who subsequently also directed I Walked With a Zombie and The Leopard Man for Lewton. Made for US$134,000, the film went on to earn nearly US$4 million, and was the top moneymaker for RKO that year. This success enabled Lewton to make his next films with relatively little studio interference, allowing him to avoid the sensationalist material suggested by the film titles he was given, instead focusing on ominous suggestion and themes of existential ambivalence.

“Lewton always wrote the final draft of the screenplays for his films, but avoided an on-screen co-writing credit except in two cases, The Body Snatcher and Bedlam, for which he used the pseudonym "Carlos Keith", which he had previously used on the novel, Where the Cobra Sings. After Jacques Tourneur left RKO's horror film unit, Lewton gave first directing opportunities to Robert Wise and Mark Robson.”

Lewton was a sophisticated man familiar with all the arts and it was this intelligence that informed his films. I’ve watched most of his movies many times and I never get tired of them. They work as classic dark tales of vengeance and retribution and, most of all, as portals into terrifying worlds we only reluctantly enter. There are always moments in these pictures when Hitchcockian shocks slams us up against the wall (he revere Hitchcock). For me there are more of these shocks in “The Seventh Victim” than in any of the other Lewton films.

Victim is Lewton’s noir. Occasionally his films had lyrical, almost ethereal moments but not here. The plot details the plight of young Mary who is forced to leave an upscale boarding school because her older sister has not been paying her bills. Mary goes to New York in search of her sister Jacqueline who owned a profitable cosmetics company. But when she reaches the company she discovers that her sister has sold it to another woman and had not been heard of in some time. All too soon a shrink who’d been dealing with Mary—a sinister figure in his own right—relates that Jacqueline has taken up with some strange friends.

To say more about the story from this point I'd have to include spoilers. Story and style are one. Most of the city scenes are ominous and are Germanic in their dense shadow and faintly heard sounds. Young Kim Hunter, who went on to many other fine performances but had a troubled passage in Hollywood, is perfect as the wary naïf desperate to connect with her sister. And to protect her. She fears that her sister has been harmed in some way.

With the exception of a dozen scenes or so the tone is grim, even in spots morbid. This is a film about nothing less than death, about the essence and meaning of death itself. In the last few minutes of the picture we’re presented with an image that I remembered exactly from my childhood when I first saw it in a second-run house after the big war. In some ways it’s a bitter and brutal philosophical affirmation of the movie’s theme. This is what you’ll find in the city, it says, in the shadowy towers of privilege; this is extinction.

A number of critics consider this a prequel to "Cat People". Some consider it a sequel to Lewton's "Cat People." The latter makes no sense to me at all. But then we know how critics are, don't we?

Cowboys by Gary Phillips and Brian Hurtt

This is a review from Spinetingler of an excellent graphic novel.

Cowboys by Gary Phillips & Brian Hurtt – review
Posted on June 24, 2011 by Nerd of Noir

Cowboys, the latest graphic novel from Vertigo Crime, opens with two men in a Mexican standoff. There are blood and brains all around them as a shootout has just taken place. Before we learn who survives the showdown we cut back to five weeks previous, find out that the two men are Federal agent Tim Brady and cop Deke Kotto, both of whom are placed undercover at different ends of a massive criminal conspiracy with neither aware of the other’s existence. As their separate investigations heat up and they become recognize of one another merely as their false underworld identities, the reader’s need to know the result of their final confrontation becomes fucking unbearable.

As written by Gary Phillips (The Jook) and drawn by Brian Hurtt (The Sixth Gun), Cowboys is truly a no-bullshit western in the Budd Boetticher/Randolph Scott tradition only set in the modern day. (Oh and if you don’t know about the RANOWN westerns directed by Boetticher and starring Scott, fucking netflix that shit immediately.) Deke and Brady are men of no small flaws personally and professionally, but who will ultimately do the right thing in the end, no matter how violent it may be or costly it is on their lives or soul.

for the rest go here: http://www.spinetinglermag.com/2011/06/24/cowboys-by-gary-phillips-brian-hurtt-review/#more-11194

Voodoo Moon by Ed Gorman now an e-book

Voodoo Moon
$2.99

Ed Gorman
A Robert Payne Profiler Mystery

Booklist:

"Twenty-five years ago, in a small Iowa town, an asylum for the criminally insane burned to the ground, killing inmates and employees. The fire was set by Paul Renard, a sexual psychopath who escaped the blaze and disappeared. Today young Ricky Hennessey faces murder charges in the death of his girlfriend. His defense: Paul Renard did it. Legal investigator Robert Payne joins the case at the request of Tandy West, a cable TV psychic and Payne's former lover. She's doing a piece on the Hennessey case for her show but has begun to question her gift and feels the need for Payne's reality-based investigatory skills. With the assistance of the local police chief, Susan Charles, Payne learns that the past has invaded the future in a most unexpected way."

This eBook is available in MOBI (Kindle) EPUB (Sony / Nook / iPad / Kobo) PDF (Adobe) and PRC (Mobipocket) formats. Please choose your preference from the drop-down menu below before proceeding to checkout.

Add to Cart:

Model: EGorman
300 Units in Stock
Published by: Crossroad Press


BOOKLIST-

"Twenty-five years ago, in a small Iowa town, an asylum for the criminally insane burned to the ground, killing inmates and employees. The fire was set by Paul Renard, a sexual psychopath who escaped the blaze and disappeared. Today young Ricky Hennessey faces murder charges in the death of his girlfriend. His defense: Paul Renard did it. Legal investigator Robert Payne joins the case at the request of Tandy West, a cable TV psychic and Payne's former lover. She's doing a piece on the Hennessey case for her show but has begun to question her gift and feels the need for Payne's reality-based investigatory skills. With the assistance of the local police chief, Susan Charles, Payne learns that the past has invaded the future in a most unexpected way. This fourth installment in the Moon series offers an exciting mix of horror and suspense. Another fine novel from the always reliable, underrated Gorman."

CRESCENT BLUES:

The flawed characters...the increasing sense of danger, the secrets that come slowly to light, combine to produce a first class mystery. And, yes, I am going to go back and read the first three -- I liked the protagonist, thinning hair and all."

“Live fast, fight well and have a beautiful ending.”

“Live fast, fight well and have a beautiful ending.”

Posted by rhsmith on July 1, 2011

Ed here: Here's another piece from TCM's great Movie Morlocks blog. This brought back a lot of memories to me. I was about a year and a half done with drink and drugs and hitting cineplexes and drive-ins heavily to keep myself busy and clean. I'd watch virtually anything except family fare. I liked Star Wars especially because my then seven year old son loved it. But I saw a lot of the knocks-offs too and thought they were a lot more fun,

rhsmith:

Hitting the shelves of your local department/electronics store this summer is the Roger Corman-produced BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980). The DVD/Blu-ray release from Shout! Factory is timed to mark the 30th anniversary of the film’s premiere back in the day when there was only one STAR WARS (1977) sequel. I was nearly 16 in the summer of 1977 and a bit too old for the Skywalker mythos. A generation later, I have little occasion to revisit STAR WARS or its follow-ups but I derive greater enjoyment from the low budget movies that tried, with equal measures of valor and greed, to rip it off. Be it the Kinji Fukasaku’s MESSAGE FROM SPACE (1978), Howard R. Cohen’s SPACE RAIDERS (1983) or Nick Castle’s THE LAST STARFIGHTER (1984), these lean and hungry space operas often made up with sheer personality what they lacked in budgetary girth. Such is the case with BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, which Corman shot in a disused lumber yard in Venice, California, during the rainy winter of 1979-1980. Corman’s most expensive project at that time, BATTLE was entrusted to animator Jimmy T. Murakami, employing a script by future art house director John Sayles, then known primarily for his witty screenplay for Joe Dante’s PIRANHA (1978). An unapologetic mash-up of EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE and both Akira Kurosawa’s SEVEN SAMURAI (1954) and John Sturges’ THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960), BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS finds Shad (Richard Thomas, post-WALTONS and pre- his redefinition as a respected stage actor), the bright-eyed emissary of a planet slated for domination by the merciless interstellar despot Sador (John Saxon), heading out into space to recruit mercenaries to help the people of Akir stave off enslavement.

for the rest go here:
http://moviemorlocks.com/2011/07/01/live-fast-fight-well-and-have-a-beautiful-ending/#more-37857

Kris Rusch: You Are Not Alone - the writing business

The Business Rusch: You Are Not Alone
Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Maybe the stars have aligned poorly. Maybe the various impending international debt crises have us on edge. Or maybe it’s this season’s abundant natural disasters. Or maybe it’s as simple as this: I’ve been blogging so people are writing to me.
But what I’ve seen this past month from established writers is an abundance of despair. I got a sad phone call from a friend, had a lot of sit-down conversations with writers who were ready to give up their dreams, and a nine-page single-spaced e-mail from a hell of a writer of dozens of published books, wondering whether or not to quit altogether.

Books that would have sold five years ago don’t sell now. Series that are growing are getting bounced from their publishers for not growing enough. Agents, unable to sell product, are telling their mystery clients to write romance novels and their romance clients to write thrillers. Other agents are starting backlist e-pub companies and robbing their clients blind. Still other agents are blaming the writers for the fact that nothing is selling well and encouraging them to sign terrible book contracts.

Bookstores don’t carry paper books any longer. New York Times bestsellers can’t find their backlists in stores. American authors with bestselling novels overseas are being told that foreign countries never pay the promised royalties, only advances.
Traditionally published bestselling writers look at their royalty statements, see that their e-books sell only 30 or 100 or 200 copies in six months, and wonder how the hell upstart self-published writers whose books have ugly covers and whose interiors need copy editing manage to sell tens of thousands of e-books each month.

Editors who once had to tiptoe around their biggest authors are telling those writers to change what they write because their sales have decreased, and clearly, their writing has gotten worse over the years. Writers whose rabid fan base numbers 10 or 20 or 50K get told that their books no longer sell to that fan base even though the writer is constantly getting e-mails from that base and is signing brand new books for that base.

for the rest go here:
http://kriswrites.com/2011/06/29/the-business-rusch-you-are-not-alone/

Dave Zeltserman & Julius Katz

Dave Zeltserman:

Are my Julius Katz stories and novel a tribute to the Rex Stout’s terrific Nero Wolfe books, or are they a pastiche? To be honest, I’m not sure myself. I love the Nero Wolfe books, and have read all of them, some of them two or more times. When I set off to write ‘Julius Katz’ for the Black Orchid contest run by Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and the Wolfe Pack, I did so with reverence, first rereading several Nero Wolfe books to make sure I’d get all the elements right that made Nero Wolfe so much fun to read—namely the humor, the relationship between Nero and Archie, the pacing and the structure. With the names that I’ve given my characters I’m also clearly tipping my cap to Rex Stout. Outside of Julius and Archie, my combative homicide detective is named Mark Cramer, Julius’s love interest is named Lily Rosten, the freelance detectives Julius hires are named Tom Durkin, Saul Penzer and Willie Cather, and even a newspaper man named Len Cohen. But just as Julius Katz is clearly a play on Nero Wolfe’s name, it’s also very different just as cats are different than dogs. Yes, Julius and Nero are both brilliant, eccentric and ultimately, lazy detectives who prefer their own pursuits to working, but there the similarities end. There are the superficial difference, such as Nero preferring beer while Julius collects wine, but Julius really shares a lot more DNA with my Pete Mitchel con man (Money Run) than he does with Nero. He’s handsome, athletic, a womanizer (or at least he was before he fell heads over heels for Lily Rosten), and his true passion is gambling. There’s also a bit of larceny in Julius’s makeup. And while my Archie narrates these stories and has every bit the heart and soul of a hardboiled PI as Archie Goodwin does, he’s very different than Goodwin. First off, he’s not human.

While ‘Julius Katz’ didn’t win the Black Orchid contest, it was later picked up by Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and ended up winning the Shamus award. Not bad compensation. Readers’ reaction to ‘Julius Katz’ and ‘Archie’s Been Framed’ (Ellery Queen’s Readers Choice Winner), as well as my first full-length Julius Katz mystery, Julius Katz and Archie, is that they find these stories and the novel entertaining and a lot of fun. Here’s why I think Julius Katz borders more as a tribute than a pastiche—readers unfamiliar with Nero Wolfe enjoy them just as much. Those familiar with Sherlock Holmes find them a fun modernization on those stories, and those unfamiliar with Holmes likewise enjoy them.

I like letting my work speak for itself, so here’s a short excerpt from Julius Katz and Archie:

“I thought your dignity and reputation weren’t for sale?” I asked.
A wry smile pulled up the edges of Julius’s lips. “I don’t believe I ever said anything about my reputation being priceless,” he said.

“Okay, your dignity then.”

More of his wry smile. “Technically, Archie, I don’t believe I as much sold my dignity as bartered it away.”

It was a clever joke, but I wasn’t much up to joking then. More of that excess heat began to burn again in me. “For a lousy bottle of wine! That’s what you did it for!”

“I hardly think you can call a ’78 Montrachet a lousy bottle of wine.” Julius’s smile faded as he sat straighter in his chair and rubbed his thumb along the knuckles of his right hand. With others, Julius kept his emotions and thoughts impenetrable, with me he didn’t bother. Right now he was showing his annoyance, but I didn’t care. “The man is a philistine,” Julius continued. “He was going to mix soda water with a ’78 Montrachet to make a wine spritzer. It would’ve been a crime to let that happen.”

“So you were just saving humanity from an outrage?”

“Precisely.”

“Okay,” I said. “I understand. For a bottle of wine, you’ve agreed to play a stooge.”

Julius stopped rubbing his knuckles. He took in a slow breath and with a forced attempt at humor, said, “And of course, twenty-five thousand dollars.”

“Of course, we can’t forget the twenty-five thousand dollars. So for that money and the Montrachet, you’ll be looking like a dunce to the world.”

“Again, Archie, things are not always what they appear.”

“Yeah, well, as far as the TV and newspaper reporters are going to be concerned, Kenneth J. Kingston will be trumping you at your own game. Should I be ordering you a dunce cap now for the occasion? I might be able to find a good deal.”

Julius slowly began rubbing his knuckles again. “Enough of this, Archie.”

I should’ve taken the hint, but I couldn’t help myself. “Sure, of course,” I said. “I understand. But Boss, should I get a jump on updating your biography to reference that you’re no longer Boston’s most brilliant detective, but have slipped to the second-most? Or should I wait until after Kingston plays you for a chump? Now that I think of it, after that happens I’m not even sure you could legitimately claim that title since probably every other working private investigator in Boston would be able to prove themselves intellectually superior to Kingston, so by the transitive property that would in effect make you Boston’s least brilliant detective. Not as compelling a title for you to hold, but I guess we’ll have to deal with it. If you want I can order stationary now to that effect, or I can wait until—”

I pushed him too far. Julius cut me off, saying, “Goodnight, Archie.” And blast it! My world went black as he turned me off!

Lee Goldberg's funny & wily REMAINDERED story & film

Ed here: REMAINDERED is one of the wiliest short stories I've read in many years. Really laughed my ass off when I read it. The short film based on it is equally excellent. Lee Goldberg at his very best.

REMAINDERED


REMAINDERED is about Kevin Dangler, a once-famous author desperate to regain
his lost glory while traveling the back-roads of middle America, selling
remaindered, fifth-editions of his first book out of the trunk of his car.
Along the way, he meets his biggest fan...who could be his salvation...or a
novel way to die.

The story was an *Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine* Readers Choice Award
finalist and has previously appeared in the anthologies "Three Ways to Die"
and "Top Suspense."

The Kindle and
Nookreleases
contains a link to a free, private, streaming video of the
*Remaindered *short film, written & directed by me, and shot late last year
on location in Kentucky, using entirely local talent. The film is currently
playing the festival circuit and has already been screened as an official
selection of the Beaufort International Film Festival, the Big Island Film
Festival, the Myrtle Beach International Film Festival, The Beverly Hills
Shorts Festival, and the Derby City Film Festival, where one of our stars,
Sebrina Siegel was a finalist for Best Actress.

Loving your dog a little too much-yeach

Ed here: Rick Santorum was right. Folliowng Gay Marrriage in NYC....this was bound to happen.

Eugene Hickman, Florida Grandpa, Accused Of Having Sex With Family Dog
Eugene Hickman was alleged found naked on a bed with a dog by his grandson. Cops arrested him for animal cruelty.


A Florida grandfather was charged with animal cruelty after his grandson allegedly found him naked and trying to have sex with a dog.

Walton County Sheriffs arrested Eugene Hickman, 54, of DeFuniak Springs after his family alerted authorities that Hickman's grandson saw him in the buff on top of a pet three-year-old family bulldog, according to the Northwest Florida Daily News.

The crime report, obtained by AOL Weird News, said that Hickman "by his own admission said he was trying to have sex with the dog, however was unable to insert his penis."

Hickman also allegedly told officers he wouldn't do it again, according to the Daily News.

The pooch was turned over to animal control and was scheduled to be examined by a veterinarian.

Marty Greenberg: Nancy Pickard, Official Obituary

From Nancy Pickard:

Ed, I'm so sad to hear about Marty's passing. I just loved him to pieces. Not that I got to be around him very often or talk to him very much, but I loved him anyway. He was SO GOOD to so many writers, including me. God, the opportunities he gave us! The way he--arm in arm with you--opened up the floodgates to short story publication! It was like a miracle for so many writers.
He just seemed to be the sweetest guy. So kind and courteous, enthusiastic, and full of great ideas. I remember when his little girl was born, and how thrilled he was and we all were for him.

I've thought of you ever since I heard this sad news. What a great team you guys were, and always will be considering how many books you have in print together.

Love,
Nancy

-------------------------------------Marty's official obituary

This comes via Marty's long-time assistant and friend, Larry Segriff.

Dr. Martin H. Greenberg, known throughout the publishing industry for the
scope and scale of the anthologies he produced, passed away on June 25,
2011.
Dr. Greenberg, whose background and training was in political science, and
who worked for many years as a professor at the University of Wisconsin
Green Bay, was a longtime fan of science fiction. He got his start in
publishing when, in the early 1970s, he realized that many great SF stories
demonstrated or dealt with themes, ideas, and issues that correlated to what
he was teaching. In partnership with Pat Warrick, Marty reached out to a
number of authors‹having at the time absolutely no idea how to clear a
permission or what went into the production of an anthology‹and ended up
co-editing his first reprint anthology, Political Science Fiction: An
Introductory Reader (1974).
That anthology became the first of many, and spawned a great career and also
a terrific friendship with Isaac Asimov. As Marty told the story, when
Isaac received his request to reprint ³Evidence² and ³Franchise,² Isaac
responded with a very polite letter saying that he would be happy to allow
the reprint provided that Marty could prove that he was not a certain
individual with a similar name who had a less than savory reputation at the
time. Marty did so, writing back with a letter that began by listing his
genealogy, went through his academic background and how he ended up in Green
Bay, and he signed it, ³Marty the Other.² Isaac responded with a letter
addressed to ³Marty the Other,² and so began both a friendship and a career
that lasted a very long time. Isaac introduced Marty to many aspects of
publishing, and Marty was Isaac¹s best friend for the last twelve years of
Isaac¹s life.
Marty eventually branched out and started creating original anthologies, and
went on to a career that spanned almost four decades and produced over 2,500
books (including nearly a thousand anthologies, many non-fiction works, and
many hundreds of novels in multiple genres). Along the way, he helped
co-found the Sci-Fi Channel and befriended many authors and editors.
It was always a point of personal pride with Marty that, though he never
considered himself a writer, he was always perceived as very author friendly
and he worked hard to give writers the absolute best market he could.
During his career, Marty was awarded lifetime achievement honors in science
fiction, mystery, and horror‹the only person in history to win such awards
in all three genres. Marty won numerous other awards as well, in
essentially every major genre, and was particularly proud of his Guest of
Honor appearances at a number of science fiction, fantasy, and mystery
conventions.
An interviewer once remarked to Marty that he was known in the business as
the ³king of anthologies² and asked Marty how he felt about that. Marty,
true to form, borrowed a line from Mel Brooks and replied, ³It¹s good to be
the king.²
Marty cast a long shadow across the industry, and devoted himself to
establishing and maintaining top quality markets for writers. In the wake
of his departure, his company, Tekno Books, will continue his good work
under the guidance of his wife Rosalind, but there is no doubt that he will
be missed.
Marty was preceded in death by his first wife, Sally. He is survived by his
wife Rosalind, their daughter Madeline, of Seattle, WA, two stepdaughters
from his first wife; Kari Walsh, wife of John Kerkhof, and their daughter
Delenn Kerkhof, of Appleton, WI, and Kate Walsh, wife of Matt Hall, of
Bakersfield, CA.

Martin H. Greenberg has passed

Ed here: Marty died peacefully this afternoon in his sleep at home in Green Bay, Wisconsin. His family was with him.We'll be heading to Green Bay tomorrow for the funeral Monday morning. Here are two e mails I received shortly after I sent out the notice.


-----------------------FROM MAX ALLAN COLLINS

Marty was a fine guy and a great editor, but more than that a real friend.

As Ed knows, I had a disastrous week some years ago -- on the same day, I lost both the DICK TRACY comic strip and had my then-current Nate Heller contract cancelled.

I went to Marty and Ed, and said I needed help. They gave me enough short story assignments to keep me afloat financially for six months, and to just keep me feeling half-way decent about myself as a professional.

That was possibly the nicest thing anybody ever did for me in this business. I owe them both.

Beyond that, Marty was warm, funny and smart. It's always great to work with somebody enthuastic, and Marty always was. I know that Ed has lost a brother, and my condolences go out to him as well as Marty's family.

This business...this world...is suddenly a smaller, shabbier place.

M.A.C.
----------------------FROM RUSSELL DAVIS

There are many people who help us on our journey. Without Marty (and Ed),
I'm not sure mine would have ever gotten started at all. Marty gave so many
people a hand up, a chance, an opportunity. I'm confident that I'm not alone
when I say that he was a genuine prince of a man - and one of the last
remaining princes in the business. I had the honor of giving him one of the
inaugural SFWA Solstice Awards, and he was a dear friend in an industry that
often specializes in grinding people under for a buck.

I know that his passing will impact many people, and his absence will be
felt for many years to come. I miss him already.

Russell

So long Peter Falk

Ed here: Peter Falk was one of those actors who improved everything he was in. Columbo was almost always a hoot. He also did dozens of other tv and film roles I'll always remember. So long.

From Galleycat:

Peter Falk, actor, author and star of Columbo, has passed away. His cigar-smoking TV detective was immortalized in a series of books.

In 2007, the actor published the memoir, Just One More Thing: Stories from my Life. Follow this link to read a free sample of the book. This GalleyCat editor recommends watching Wings of Desire tonight–this gorgeous movie about fallen angels was one of Falk’s most literary films.

Here’s more about his memoir: “Starting in Hartford, where he worked as a management analyst for the Connecticut State Budget Bureau, Falk was no more successful than at an earlier attempt to work with the CIA. He then turned to an old college interest: acting. Falk came to prominence in 1956 in the successful Off-Broadway revival of The Iceman Cometh. Although he worked continuously for the next three years, a theatrical agent advised him not to expect much work in motion pictures because of his glass eye. Surgeons had removed his right eye, along with a malignant tumor, when he was three years old. But in 1958, Falk landed his first movie, Murder Incorporated, and was nominated for an Oscar.”

Die, Lover, Die! Now Available on Kindle and The Nook

Die, Lover, Die! Now Available on Kindle and The Nook

BARNES & NOBLE | Die, Lover, Die! by Dave Zeltserman | NOOK Book (eBook): "Lauren Blaine is on the run...fleeing across the country, pursued by a pack of ruthless, skilled, and psychopathic killers.

That's she's dumped her husband and he hasn't taken it well.

Of course, he might have taken it better if he wasn't a major drug dealer with a gale-force temper... and if she hadn't run off with all of his cash.

Now she's marked-for-death, a moving target for every mercenary, hitman, and sadist in the midwest.

What they don't know is that Lauren is nobody's victim... she's a resourceful, brave, and cunning woman who won't go down without a fight.

This is 10,000 words of non-stop action, violence and sex...a wild ride like nothing else you've read before...from twelve masters of suspense, who teamed up to write this rollicking story 250 rapid-fire words at a time, tag-team style, without an outline, without knowing what was coming next. The result is a pure, literary adrenaline rush."

Forgotten Books: Champagne for One by Rex Stout

"I'll try to be fair to him, and I know there is no law against a man having plucked eyebrows and a thin mustache and long polished nails, and my suspicion that he wore a girdle was merely a suspicion, and if he had married Mrs. Albert Grantham for her money I freely admit that no man married without a reason and with her it would have been next to impossible to think up another one, and I concede that he may have had hidden virtues which I had missed. One thing for sure, if my name were Robert and I had married a woman fifteen years older than me for a certain reason and she was composed entirely of angles, I would not let her call me Robbie."

Part of the reason you read Stout, Rex Stout, is for sentences like that one. Yes the people, especially N. Wolfe are spellblnding and the plots often dazzling but the it's the writing itself that shines through in even the lesser books.

Champagne For One comes later in the Wolfeian series. It is a classic Archie Goodwin set-up. An especially annoying rich woman (the aforementioned Mrs. Albert Grantham) needs a fifth man for a splashy dinner she's having in her mansion. The original man got sick and called Archie to substitute for him. The occasion is a feast for the unwed mothers who graduated from the school the late Mr. Grantham established for such young women. The idea is to keep track of them and see how they're faring in the world and celebrate their worth.

Mind you this is 1958. Unwed mothers were still the province of tabloid headlines and exploitation drive-in films and hammy bestsellers. But Stout, ever Stout, presents us with five young attractive, bright and decent young women. One of them he hopes to see again. The mystery is established after the dinner when the drinks flow freely. One of the young women drinks a glass of champagne and immediately goes into convulsions, poisoned. Archie of course pursues the killer despite the fact that four different parties try to stop him.

Pure pleasure and enjoyment.

Not even Bill Crider has this :) Good Morning C***s

This should be a Bill Crider post but I thought I'd beat him for once with earth shattering news!

Virgin Atlantic Passengers Get a Foul Mouthed Awakening
by AOL Travel Staff Subscribe to AOL Travel Staff's posts
P
Looks like somebody's going to be in trouble after Virgin Atlantic passengers were greeted with a four-letter wakeup call Sunday.

"Get up, you c***s," read the message, sent by airplane crew and likely intended for two sleeping stewards, reports The Sun.

The crew members thought they were sending a private message to the TV screens of empty seats where the stewards were having a nap. Instead, the message was sent to all passengers in premium economy on the flight from Orlando to Glasgow.

According to the paper, passengers "complained the whole way home and some are seeking refunds and compensation."

A spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic spokesman said the incident was being investigated and that appropriate action will be taken as necessary.

It seems that obscenities are not taken lightly in the friendly skies. Just last week a Delta passenger was booted from his flight for using the f-word.

Live At The Heartbreak Lounge-Peter Rabe-Richard Stark

Ed here: I'm not only a fan of Wallace Stroby's fiction I'm a fan of his blog writing as well--Live At The Heartbreak Lounge. Here he notes some similarities between a Richard Stark and a Peter Rabe. But make this blog a regular stop because he reviews not only other Rabes but many other noirs as well. http://wallacestrobycom.blogspot.com/2009/08/black-lizard-lounge-4-out-is-death.html

BTW This is my favorite Daniel Port novel. I told Peter that it had several elements of a western in it. He seemed to like that.

Wallace Stroby:


In THE OUT IS DEATH, Port tries to rescue an old and infirm safecracker named Dalton from the clutches of a brutal young thug named Corday, who wants Dalton to go on one last job for him. It's a generational thing, as it turns out, with old school gangster Port going up against the '50s-style juvenile delinquents of Corday's gang. Doesn't take much to figure out who comes out on top. Suffice it to say that there were five Port novels in all, the last being 1959's TIME ENOUGH TO DIE. Black Lizard reprinted three and most have remained out of print since, though some are now showing up on Kindle.

TOID does bear similarities to Westlake's 1965 Stark novel THE JUGGER, the sixth book in the series, in which Parker travels to Omaha to find out what happened to his contact and go-between, an aging safecracker named Joe Sheer, who's fallen prey to corrupt small-town cops (in that sense, THE JUGGER also owes a debt to Marlowe's THE NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH). In THE JUGGER, though, Sheer is dead before Parker arrives (and Parker was prepared to kill him as a security measure anyway). In TOID, Port comes to Dalton's aid in time to save him from that fate, though he also has selfish reasons for getting involved, including Corday's va-va-voom girlfriend.

The thirty harshet author insults

Ed here: Carol sent me the link to thirty author insults. Here are some samples as well as the link.

10. Henry James on Edgar Allan Poe (1876)

“An enthusiasm for Poe is the mark of a decidedly primitive stage of reflection.”

9. Truman Capote on Jack Kerouac

“That’s not writing, that’s typing.”

8. Elizabeth Bishop on J.D. Salinger

“I HATED [Catcher in the Rye]. It took me days to go through it, gingerly, a page at a time, and blushing with embarrassment for him every ridiculous sentence of the way. How can they let him do it?”

7. D.H. Lawrence on Herman Melville (1923)

“Nobody can be more clownish, more clumsy and sententiously in bad taste, than Herman Melville, even in a great book like ‘Moby Dick’….One wearies of the grand serieux. There’s something false about it. And that’s Melville. Oh dear, when the solemn ass brays! brays! brays!”

6. W. H. Auden on Robert Browning

“I don’t think Robert Browning was very good in bed. His wife probably didn’t care for him very much. He snored and had fantasies about twelve-year-old girls.”

It's here-the new issue of Cinema Retro

The latest issue of Cinema Retro (#20) is now shipping to subscribers all around the world. As we publish in the UK, those subscribers always get their copies first. However, the latest issue just arrived from the other side of the pond and has now been shipped out to all other regions. Readers will have it in their hot little hands very soon.

*Cover story on Candy starring Ewa Aulin as the sexy teen nymph in an all-star fiasco that involved Marlon Brando, Ringo Starr, James Coburn and Walter Matthau. Dean Brierly examines how such a sure-fire project turned into one of the worst movies ever made.

This issue's Film in Focus is Earthquake, the 1974 blockbuster starring Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner and many other familiar faces in one of the most successful films of the genre. Ross Warner reminds why the film remains a guilty pleasure and Thomas Hauerslav of the web site In70mm.com presents a fascinating look at the history of Sensurround, the Oscar-winning sound system that had more than its share of mishaps.

Nick Anez provides analysis of two Fox Westerns from the 1960s: The Comancheros starring John Wayne and Stuart Whitman and Rio Conchos starring Whitman and Richard Boone. Anez examines the startling similarities between the two films and debates if Conchos can truly be regarded as a remake of The Comancheros.

Lee Pfeiffer has a sit-down interview with jazz great Kyle Eastwood and discusses his scoring of films with his father, Clint Eastwood. Kyle also recalls starring with his dad in Honkytonk Man and making a cameo in The Outlaw Josey Wales.
Gary McMahon looks at memorable films that have coped with the restrictions of shooting key sequences in confined places, from the legendary fight aboard the Orient Express in the James Bond classic From Russia With Love to Hitchcock's Lifeboat and Huston's Key Largo.

Cinema Retro music critic Darren Allison provides an in-depth tribute to the recently departed legendary composer John Barry.
Matthew Field concludes his three-part interview with director Lewis Gilbert with discussions of Friends and Educating Rita.
Herbie J. Pilato examines the good, the bad and the ugly among major films based on legendary TV series.
Raymond Benson looks back on his top films of 1979 including Alien and Apocalypse Now.

Cinema Retro honors famed film critic and documentary maker Richard Schickel at a special event held at the Players club in New York City.

Gareth Owen pays tribute to Michael Powell's long-neglected classic Peeping Tom.

Coverage and photos from the new book MGM: Hollywood's Greatest Backlot

plus the usual extensive coverage of the latest movie books, DVDs and soundtracks

Don't delay- if you're not already a subscriber, click here for information about joining the ranks of our supporters from around the globe. Click here to subscribe directly through our Ebay affiliate.
http://www.cinemaretro.com/index.php

ANGEL BABY – Elmer Gantry’s Little Sister

Ed here: I've seen this movie probably three times since 1961 when it first appeared. Caught it originally at a drive-in where I was sober enough (for some reason) to appreciate how loopy it was. This is my kind of guilty pleasure. I know he's tan but I still don't know how George Hamilton ever got work. TCM Movie Morlocks is a site you need to follow.

ANGEL BABY – Elmer Gantry’s Little Sister
Posted by morlockjeff on June 15, 2011

After the critical and boxoffice success of ELMER GANTRY in 1960, another film, much smaller in scale and budget, came along that mirrored the latter film both thematically and in some of the plot details. It might have been merely a coincidence that ANGEL BABY appeared shortly after ELMER GANTRY in 1961 but it certainly beats the Burt Lancaster Oscar winner when it comes to curiosity value. Take, for example, George Hamilton and Mercedes McCambridge as married evangelists, traveling down the backroads and byways of the Deep South. (You heard right – Hamilton and McCambridge are married!!; this odd arrangement is revealed by the screenwriter through an expositional mid-point revelation.) Or consider Salome Jens in her first major screen role as a young mute who miraculously finds her voice at a revivalist tent show and becomes a faith healer herself! Then, there’s the hardcore roadshow veterans, Joan Blondell and Henry Jones, sinners who became believers and occasionally fall off the faith wagon if the temptation to booze overcomes them. And in a small but pivotal role is Burt Reynolds in his movie debut playing a lustful redneck named Hoke Adams. Last but not least, Haskell Wexler is one of the cinematographers. It may not be Academy Award material but it’s a fascinating brew that comes off like an Erskine Caldwell literary adaptation crossed with a sordid B-movie melodrama aimed at the drive-in crowd. Plus it’s got six revival-style musical numbers written by songwriter Wayne Shanklin whose composition “Chanson d’Amour” ended up in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut [1999]. None of these numbers are exactly rave-up toe-tappers but, for the record, they include “Little by Little,” “Rise Up Singing,” “Beulah Land”, “Our Love’s No Ordinary Thing,” “He’s My God, Yet”, and “Jenny Angel.” READ

for the rest go here:

http://moviemorlocks.com/2011/06/15/angel-baby-elmer-gantrys-little-sister/