LET THE OLD DREAMS DIE

In the mood for horror fiction?  Halloween's coming up, so why not?  A new collection that's worth checking out is LET THE OLD DREAMS DIE by Swedish horror writer John Ajvide Lindqvist.  He's the guy who wrote the novel LET THE RIGHT ONE IN.  I never read that, but I did see the movie adaptation, which came out in the US in 2008.  Without question it's one of the most unusual vampire movies of recent years. 

My look at Lindqvist's latest work, a volume of 12 stories, is at Criminal Element, right here: LET THE OLD DREAMS DIE.

 

Bouchercon 2013

It's just about time to head off to Bouchercon 2013 in Albany, NY. I'm looking forward to it.  There'll be plenty of bar hanging at night, I'm sure, and during the day I'll be wandering around from panel to panel. I'll also be on a panel this year. 

Thursday at 4pm, I'll be doing the Film Noir panel along with my friend Wallace Stroby, Paul D. Marks, John Billheimer, and David Rich.  Eric Beetner moderates. Room 1.

Friday at 3 PM, Dennis Tafoya and I will be doing an Authors Panel half hour.  It'll be "Cocktails with Scott and Dennis" for that half hour, the two of us discussing crime writing and drinking, a subject quite appropriate for Bouchercon.  Dennis and I are planning on bringing "materials" that will help lubricate the discussion.  Should be fun, so if you're around, stop by.  We'll be in Room 5.

Let the talking and drinking begin..........

NEVER LET GO

Question: How many films did Peter Sellers play a bad guy in?  I mean, a dead serious villain, not a comical bumbling villain.

Answer: one.  It's the British gangster film NEVER LET GO, from 1960. As a local thug in charge of a car theft and chop shop gang, Sellers is riveting.  The film as a whole is excellent also. I wrote a piece about it for Criminal Element - you can read it here: NEVER LET GO.

 

 



Too Many Netflix Choices

I vaguely remember a George Carlin routine of awhile back where he did a funny riff on how Americans now have too many choices in everything they do and that this is one of the things that causes Americans so many problems.  Yes, George, right you were.

Case in point: Netflix streaming.

It's a wonderful thing, Netflix streaming, but all the choices you have when you go to Netflix to choose something to watch can be a burden.  More often than not, I go to Netflix on a weeknight.  I've had a long and tiring day at work.  Most nights, after the subway ride home, dinner, and putting my 8 year old to bed, I've fueled up with coffee and pushed myself to get some writing done.  Now, let's say, it's about midnight and I have 90 minutes, no more, to spend relaxing and watching something because I have to get up at 6:15 to start the day (shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, bring the kid to school by subway, take the subway to work, etc, etc). So time is precious and I have to make a fast decision on what to watch.  Choose a movie or TV episode of something, stream it, sit back, maybe have a late night drink, enjoy the movie or TV episode, then join my wife in bed (where, like a wise person, she's been sleeping for a couple of hours already).  I can get in my fix of movie/tv episode watching and still bag a good 4 1/2 hours of sleep before work tomorrow. Not bad. 

But here's where the problem starts.  I go to Netflix on my computer and I can't decide what to watch.  I had a particular movie in mind earlier perhaps, when I was wrapping up my writing for the night, but now I'm not sure I want to see that movie.  Maybe I want to see a different movie. Or, no, a different movie than the first different movie I considered.  Or the first episode of TV crime series from Denmark, but if I watch that episode that means I have to commit to the series for the foreseeable future, and do I really want to commit to a series when my viewing time is so limited?  If I commit to a series, I won't be able to see any movies for a week or two.....

I sit there like this dithering, reading the summaries of this movie, that movie, this show, that show, and before I know it, a half hour has gone by, 45 minutes, and it's almost 1 AM.  Now I don't have time for a movie.  I'd be up till 2:30 at least if I watched a film.  Even a TV episode would keep me up till two.  Should I risk it?  Go with 4 hours sleep or less? No, I've disciplined myself to get by on 4 1/2 to 5 hours sleep a night but if I go lower than that, I suffer the next day, feel actual pain in my joints (being 51 has some drawbacks) and have to fight to get through a day at work. Not worth it.  Better not to watch anything.  But I wanted to watch something. Tomorrow.  You'll watch a movie tomorrow.  Just don't spend so much time trying to decide from all the possible movies which specific movie to watch................

And so I go to bed feeling dissatisfied.  I wanted to satiate my movie/TV hunger that night with something, and I did not.  I failed not because of any outside difficulties, but because of my own paralysis in the face of so many choices.

Carlin, you were right............you (as he would say) motherfucker.

"Ghost Negligence" by John Shepphird

My friend John Shepphird, who I met at the 2012 Bouchercon convention in Cleveland, is a pretty accomplished guy.  He's a writer and director of TV films including Jersey Shore Shark Attack and Chupacabra: Dark Seas for SyFy Channel.  He also happens to be nominated this year for the Shamus Award in the Best P.I. Short Story category.  The story is "Ghost Negligence", and it appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, the 2012 July/Aug Double Issue.  The story introduces reformed swindler Jack O'Shea hanging his PI shingle as a deception specialist.  It's the first, I'm sure, in a series.

Even though John seems like quite a straightforward guy to me, his mystery fiction largely centers around "the art of deception" featuring con men (and women) and/or victims of fraud.  Come to think of it, when I see him this year at Bouchercon, I may have to keep a closer eye on what he's doing.  The Shamus winners will be announced at the PWA Banquet at Bouchercon in Albany, New York, on Friday, September 20.
 
Anyway, "Ghost Negligence" is a good story, full of surprises, and worth checking out.  It's available now via an Alfred Hitchock Mystery Mag podcast.  If you have a few minutes, give it a listen.......
 
The story's here:
Ghost Negligence Podcast

 

 

 

 

Noir at the Bar V

A couple of pics from Noir at the Bar V, held a few days ago at Shade Bar in Greenwich Village. 

With Glenn Gray and Todd "Thuglit" Robinson hosting and a bunch of superb writers reading, the night was a blast.

Here's the entire crew: Thomas Pluck, Gerald So, Charlie Stella, Glenn Gray, Suzanne Solomon, Jack Getze, Teel James Glenn, Big Daddy Thug, myself, Bradley Sands.

I heard a wonderful array of styles from all the writers, and it was great to meet a number of new people. The Patron Tequila I spent drinking as the night wore on didn't hurt either.  That's my second Noir at the Bar at Shade in the past 3 months, and both have been the most enjoyable experiences. 

CRIMINAL LOVE AND OTHER STORIES

I decided to give this book a try mainly because I was looking to read some noir stories set in California but not in LA.  I wasn't familiar with Mike Monson's writing but liked the comments I saw about the collection on Amazon.  It's a debut collection, taken from stories Monson has published over the years on various Internet sites, but it has the authority of a writer who's an old pro.  Mike Monson writes in total control of his rough material.  And make no mistake: these stories do not shy away from the bleak, the harsh, and the violent. "Dirty noir" is how the author himself describes what he writes, and it is a perfect way of describing it. At the same time, within the "dirty" tough world he describes, there are subtle variations in tone and mood from story to story. There is also a lot of dark humor and in the two days it took me to read this book, I chuckled quite often. Some of the pieces are slices of terse realism describing lives of economic and sexual desperation that reminded me of Raymond Carver - if Carver wrote noir. And some are very brief, ruminations, observations, that brought to mind Lydia Davis, the master of the flash fiction form. There is also one, "Heritage Classic" that is a beautifully modulated study of male mid-life crisis.  A 50ish year old man buys and starts riding a huge Harley in his effort to feel young again.  Needless to say, bike riding on the road doesn't go as planned. 

To sum it up, I really liked this collection, and I'm looking forward to the novella Mr. Monson says he has coming out later this year. In the meantime, take a trip to Modesto.  Take a trip to a wedge of California that is most certainly not glamorous but is quite intriguing.