Dark Scribe's Black Quill Awards

Dark Scribe announced their annual Black Quill Awards, and for Best Dark Genre Novel of the Year they have:

A DARK MATTER by Peter Straub (Doubleday)
KRAKEN by China Miéville (Del Rey)
SPARROW ROCK by Nate Kenyon (Leisure / Bad Moon Books)
THE CARETAKER OF LORNE FIELD by David Zeltserman (Overlook Hardcover)
THE PASSAGE by Justin Cronin (Ballantine)
UNDER THE DOME by Stephen King (Scribner)

Readers can vote here. Remember, vote and vote often!

Resurrecting the Past

Lawrence Block has written a terrific piece for eFanzines.com - Earl Kemp: eI53 - e*I* Vol. 9 No. 6  about the thought-process behind his decision to release many of his obscure, long out-of-print paperbacks, many written under pen-names, in new, digital editions. He says, in part:

What other titles I decide to reissue will depend at least in part on what kind of money comes in from the ones I’ve already slated for e–publication.  If nobody’s interested in them, why inflict more upon the reading public?  But, if there turns out to be a genuine demand, well, hell, there’s more where those came from.

While I was writing the end notes for a Jill Emerson novel, A Madwoman’s Diary(originally Sensuous), I remembered that I’d based the plot on a case history from one of John Warren Wells’s books.  So I wound up writing at some length about my career as John Warren Wells and his psychosexual reportage.  And it occurred to me for the very first time that I might actually reissue those books as well.  Not all of them, I shouldn’t think, but one or two.  And if people like those—

“Greed is good,” Gordon Gekko famously informed us.  But why go all judgmental?  Greed, I’d say, is beyond good and evil.  It is what it is. 

Which might be said as well for the books I’m bringing back.  And, come to think of it, for their author.

BADGE Gets Permission to Kill

Lee Goldberg here...

David Foster's Permission to Kill blog,  one of my favorites for his reviews of Eurospy books and movies, has given the ebook edition of  THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE a rave. He says, in part:

Apart from being highly entertaining, The Man With the Iron-On Badge is author, Lee Goldberg’s love letter to detective fiction and television shows of the past. And as such, a knowledge of these shows is a boon when reading this book. Don’t get me wrong, the reference aren’t obscure and you don’t have to be a detective story boffin to appreciate the story, but the subtle in-jokes, and allusions to Shaft, Spenser, Shell Scott, Travis McGee, Mannix, Rockford and many others, simply mean that if you are familiar with those characters, then this book offers that extra bit of ‘knowing’ enjoyment.
Ultimately, The Man With the Iron-On Badge delivers exactly what the title and the opening paragraphs promise -- a fast paced, first person thriller about an under achiever who has to strive to be more than he ever thought he could be. More than just a ‘man with an iron-on badge’.

Thank you so much, David!

The Man with the Iron-On Badge is only available in a Kindle Edition , Nook Edition and in multiple formats on Smashwords.

Vigilante Fiction

Lee Goldberg here:

I'm a sucker for unusual reference works about the media, whether its books, movies or TV shows (and you gotta love McFarland for publishing so many of them). Bradley Mengel's "Serial Vigilantes of Paperback Fiction" was a must-have for me, even before I read the rave reviews on Bookgasm and Bill Crider's blog.
I've always loved pulp novels like "The Executioner," "The Penetrator," "The Death Merchant," and "The Destroyer." In fact, I did a scholarly, unpublished examination of the vigilante genre myself many years ago for a UCLA class...and as research for writing my first novel, .357 Vigilante, under the pseudonym "Ian Ludlow" (yes, it's covered in this book, and accurately, too. And notice how similar the cover of his book is to mine).

For me, the best part of Mengel's book is discovering who actually wrote the novels written under "house" names...and learning the inside story on the development of so many obscure pulp series. This book is clearly a labor of love, but it leans more towards scholarly analysis than fannish drool. It's a great book for fans of pulps, rich with details and background information, and offers a historical overview of a genre, and a class of mass market paperbacks, that are all but dead today (except for Gold Eagle's "Executioner" books). Many of these books, and their authors, would have been forgotten if not for this one-of-a-kind reference work, which also offers a glimpse at the influence and workings of book packagers/"creators" in the 60s,70s & 80s.
The only drawback of this book is the steep $45 cover price. To save a few bucks, I bought the Kindle edition, which was also inexcusably pricey at $16, especially since the book doesn't really lend itself to easy reading on an e-reader. Even so, I'm glad I bought it.

A Touch of Death

From Ed Gorman:

I once read an unfavorable review of a Charles Williams novel that said the protagonist was unbelievably naive. How could he not know know that the people he was getting involved with were criminals? Which, to most Williams fans, has to sound unbelievably naive on the part of the reviewer.

In his exceptionally fine piece on the work of Charles Williams, poet, journalist and editor (the Library of America) Geoffrey O'Brien notes that of all the paperback original writers, Williams' protagonists are the ones most predisposed to criminality themselves. If they are naive, it's only in the women they choose to hook up with. And they are rarely naive even about the ladies.

Madelone Butler, in Williams' A Touch of Death (Hardcase, $6.99), is the kind of woman most men would run from. It's too easy to say that Madelone is a deceitful, duplicitous shrew, which she is of course. But that's putting too much on her. She presents Lee Scarborough with the chance of stealing $120,000 in stolen cash or just walking away. Which he could easily do. But--and this is the point many reviewers miss about many of Williams' men--his boys are a lot like his girls, the one difference being that they generally don't betray their partners.

Williams has always been my favorite of the Gold Medal writers. As John D. MacDonald said of him, "Nobody can make violence seem more real." The reason for this is that Williams' men are violent themselves. Not predatory. But certainly tough men, usually from working class backgrounds, who use violence when it becomes necessary. Another point too seldom made about his work. He was the master of the slow-build suspense novel; he clearly enjoyed twisting every aspect of the treachery and surprise that fill his books.

This isn't always true of Williams' work. The sea novels for which he's most famous (the excellent film Dead Calm was based on a Williams novel) are usually told by men who, if not heroic, are not crooked. But I've always preferred the deep South, small-town novels usually set after the big war when our wandering boy meets our wandering girl and together they decide to make a little money.

Line by line I think that Williams is by far the best of all the early Gold Medal folks with the exception of Vin Packer and Malcolm Braly. There's real beauty in his descriptions of nature and a true feel for the hypocrisy of small towns. And there is that great frantic sense of being unfulfilled--of looking for something, a woman, a gig, a place, anything that might offer him peace--that always eludes. Williams is the great melancholic, especially his men whose two dominate emotions seem to be remorse and a paranoid sense of betrayl. 

Hell, yes, they know what they're getting into, his people, and they get into it gladly. As Sartre once said, go figure.

ITW Interview with Harry Shannon

Pain by Harry Shannon

By ITW on October 26, 2010

By Norman L. Rubenstein

If you ask Harry Shannon why he’s done all the many things he’s crammed into his 62 years, the author is likely to just wrinkle his cowboy eyes, shrug and tell you, “I have to give my mind something to eat, or it eats me.”
A recent biography notes Shannon has been an actor, a singer, a songwriter, a music publisher, a music supervisor, a film executive, a mystery, thriller and horror novelist and is now a counselor in private practice. Oh, and that he’s also published around two hundred songs, eight novels, dozens of short stories, two novellas, one movie script and a partridge in a pear tree.
His latest project launches a brand spanking new Dark Regions Press novella series. The book, available in limited edition, trade paperback and e-book format, is called “PAIN” (an acronym for a fictitious disease dubbed Psychogenic Anticholinergic Infectious Neuropathy). It tells the story of one long, long night in the lives of some terrified patients trapped in an isolated mountain ER.
By zombies.
Yes, zombies. No, not quite the brain-munching, shambling George Romeroesque zombies, but something close enough: former humans infected by said imaginary WMD leaking into their little town’s water supply.
Okay, you’ve written horror before, Harry, but why zombies?
“Because they’re fun,” Shannon chuckles. “And because they have long been stand-ins for whatever worries society.”
In addition to the crazed townspeople, the cast of living dead in PAIN has characters including the ER Doc, whose younger wife is cheating on him, and one patient, a fat circus clown with piles. Also aboard are a sex addict nurse, a religious fanatic with a wimp husband who knits, a gay teen, corrupt politicians, the Vice President, some quite shady businessmen and a couple of mercenary soldiers. We’ll let you decide for yourself what the author thinks is worrying folks these days. Oh, and there’s a lot of comic violence.
In his introduction to PAIN, New York Times best-selling and multiple Stoker-Award winning novelist Jonathan Maberry writes:
“PAIN is a zombie novel. Kind of. Not exactly resurrected corpses. Not exactly infected humans. Not exactly anything you’ve seen before. It’s a story about people dealing with a terrible crisis. People under pressure. People who (at the outset) don’t know each other and really don’t know themselves.”
“Sure, and that’s what made me want to write it,” Shannon says. “The story takes place over a few hours on one very spooky evening, and finishes near midnight, which seemed entirely appropriate. The characters are under assault from the first word, and the clock is ticking steadily throughout. It’s a gory, bawdy, black-humored romp. The idea began as a movie script, which was optioned twice, but eventually it made sense to flesh it out in the leaner, meaner novella format, where everything feels so cinematic, compressed and urgent, like almost every moment in this story.”
Discussing PAIN, novelist Maberry, who is also renowned as an expert on the subject of zombies and American culture, goes on to add, “It’s fair to say that Harry Shannon gets the whole zombie thing. He blends a storyteller’s natural gift for creating believable and relatable characters with a trickster’s dark playfulness. We get combat troops, sinister organizations, religious nuts, rebellious teens, heroism, villainy, steamy sex, and a clown with hemorrhoids. And zombies. Lots and lots of zombies. PAIN is a wonderful new addition to the growing library of superb zombie tales.”
High praise indeed, considering the source.
Shannon has written three Mick Callahan mysteries (Memorial Day, Eye of the Burning Man, One of the Wicked) and a thriller called The Pressure of Darkness as well as his four horror books. Is it difficult to switch back and forth, dance from genre to genre?
“Not really, the dark stuff is the dark stuff. As I kid, I loved Robert Heinlein, A.E. Van Vogt, Andre Norton. Short fiction by John Collier, Ambrose Bierce, Saki. I think Bradbury hooked me for good with The Martian Chronicles and the gorgeous Something Wicked This Way Comes, both of which I read in my early teens. Went on to John D. MacDonald, spy novels, Richard Matheson, Stephen King , James Lee Burke, Thomas Harris, Cormac McCarthy. All of them have a taste for the dark side and in some cases, Burke and McCarthy in particular, there is a weird blend of spirituality and existentialism. So it’s a natural transition. Many guys like Ken Bruen, Dave Zeltserman and Tom Piccirilli also have displayed a knack for writing horror.”
What’s next for this versatile author, also a busy counselor? A self-help book in the works? “Not a chance,” Shannon said. “Too much of a busman’s holiday. I’m nearly finished with a new Mick Callahan novel called Running Cold. After that I may try my hand at YA. That’s a real challenge for someone like me. My daughter loved the Hunger Games trilogy, I quite liked it, too. Loads of heart, mature thematically, just no overt violence and sexuality. I want to at least try my hand at it, even if the book ends up being under a pseudonym, or is for my own entertainment.”
Any–excuse us–last words? “We all know the industry is changing, it’s that ancient Chinese curse, we ‘live in interesting times’. Digital downloads virtually destroyed the recording industry I grew up back in the 1960′s and 70′s, and technology is now impacting publishing. But I’m excited about e-books overall, they offer authors a chance to get their backlist into print again, and for new writers to get exposure, but we’re going to go through painful contortions before any of us really understands what the future holds. Only time will tell. As for me, I may be too old to do much about it by then.”
Ha! Judging by the past, not likely.
PAIN was released in both limited edition hardcover and e-book format by Dark Regions Press in October, 2010.
Just in time for Halloween.
http://www.darkregions.com/


Norman L. Rubenstein worked almost twenty-five years as a litigation attorney, before being appointed and serving as a judge for the city of Chicago, where he presided over numerous trials and hearings.
Norm currently resides in the sunny Sonoran Desert near Phoenix, AZ, with his Golden Retriever, Sunny. He is an Active Member of both the Horror Writer’s Association (HWA), and the International Thriller Writer’s, Inc (ITW). Norm has written over one hundred published Horror & Thriller Genre book reviews and is and/or has been a regular reviewer for Horror World, the Pod Of Horror podcast, and both Cemetery Dance and Dark Scribe magazines, and has been a columnist for both Fear Zone and Shroud Magazine.
Norm has had extensive experience working freelance as both a copy editor and Associate Editor for a number of Specialty Presses, including Bloodletting Press, Cargo Cult Press, and Thunderstorm Books, and is currently employed as the Editor for Dark Regions Press.
Norm is proud to be a contributor to the recently released David Morrell and Hank Wagner edited hardcover Anthology, Thrillers: 100 Must Reads, and is currently busy working on two screenplays as well as new novel and short fiction collaborations. Norm’s short story, “The Closet”, co-authored with noted Canadian author Carol Weekes, has been purchased by and will appear in the forthcoming anthology Fear Of The Dark, to be released by Horror Bound Magazine Publications in early 2011.

A Review

Richard Prosch reviews A Time for Hanging, one Bill Crider's books available in several digital formats. Check it out.

Hardboiled vs. Cozy

From Max Allan Collins:

I seem to be one of the few mystery writers who likes Christie as much as Hammett, who likes Stout as much as Spillane. Someone recently was putting down cozies, assuming I’d agree, when I had to say, “Uh – I write a cozy series with my wife.” I find things to like in every variation on the fictional sleuth – for example, Barb and I spend much of our leisure time watching British mysteries. We are currently preparing ourselves for withdrawal pangs over the upcoming departure of John Nettles (Inspector Barnaby) from Midsomer Murders (Nettles is leaving after a record number of episodes, though it’s continuing without him). We recently blew through the wonderful boxed set of Ellery Queen starring Jim Hutton, father of Archie Goodwin, I mean, Tim Hutton.

I don’t understand the hostility between fans of the variations on the detective story – it makes as much sense as the old Marvel Comics/DC Comics rivalry. What I notice most is that people who dislike a writer like Christie or Spillane generally haven’t read them much if at all. Some tried them as kids and had a knee-jerk reaction and never went back and tried again as adults.

The take on Christie is that her characters are cardboard – not true; in fact, the solutions to her mysteries almost always hinge upon psychology. She is also a great dialogue writer – she was, after all, a hugely successful playwright.

Spillane is supposed to be a woman hater, yet his women are remarkably strong with Hammer’s P.I. partner, Velda, a prime, pistol-packing example. The key to enjoying Spillane is understanding that he is not Chandler just as Chandler was not Hammett. Mickey gets dissed over his politics, but there’s nothing really political about that lunatic urban knight Mike Hammer – true, Mickey was a conservative of sorts (as a Jehovah’s Witness, he did not vote), and I am a liberal; but that has had zero impact on the Hammers I’ve co-written.

By the way, if you are unemployed, and you voted for the Republicans – you know, the party that wants to end your unemployment benefits? You are about to get exactly what you deserve.

I read very, very little contemporary crime fiction. I kid on the square that I don’t like to encourage the competition, but the real reasons are (a) my reading time is taken up by research, and (b) the mystery I am “reading” is the one I am writing.

So, instead, Barb and I watch British mysteries on TV, and other mystery series old and new (from Johnny Staccato to Leverage) (Tim Hutton again). And we listen to audio books when we travel. We are heading into our fourth trip through Rex Stout, having listened to Agatha Chritie’s entire body of work twice. If I am doing a Spillane collaboration, I listen to a Spillane audio book.

I can still learn from the classics. I am well aware that some very good people are writing right now. And I do read a handful (chiefly pals like Ed Gorman, John Lutz, Bob Randisi, and a few others). But I doubt anybody’s writing right now who could teach me things I couldn’t learn from Hammett, Chandler, Cain, Spillane, Thompson, Westlake, Stout, Gardner and Christie.

One of these days I am going to discuss the definition of “noir” here. It seems to be a fairly controversial subject. Recently, though, my friend Otto Penzler declared all private eye fiction outside the boundaries of noir. Otto is, of course, one of the most knowledgeable guys in the field. He is also wrong.

Why Did Harry Quit?

Ed Gorman here: I ran across this old post of mine--five years ago--and realized I never did find the answer to my question. Maybe by now somebody knows.

I was looking through a catalog for 50s paperbacks and naturally enough I came across Harry Whittington's name just about everywhere. He wrote for companies large and small, some so small that even today I've never seen one of their books.

This started me thinking of the one mystery about Harry I was never able to clear up even after three somewhat lengthy interviews and a couple of phone conversations. 

The story is familiar to most people who have even a cursory knowledge of his career. One day, after dropping from the heights of Gold Medal and Crest, Harry found himself writing Man From Uncle Books for a flat $1000. But not even this was the bottom because soon enough his agent would tell Harry that Harry just wasn't marketable anymore. Period. 

I asked Harry twice about this and he said that that was just the way it was so he went back to full-time work for the government. I remember that I seemed to surprise him when I asked why he didn't look around for a different agent. But again he just said that that was how things were and so back to full-time jobs.

Harry was a pro's pro. He did it all. I can understand how he stopped hitting the top markets in the mid-60s. The market was changing, his kind of lean, mean sex-and-murder book was no longer in fashion. But Harry could write anything. And all his agent could get was flat-fee work for hire? Harry Whittington?

A few years later, he did contact another agent and was almost immediately back in the saddle with adult westerns nd ultimately, back at Gold Medal/Fawcett, with Southern plantation epics. But I'm sure this agent could have sold him back when his came came to a so-called end.

I've often wondered if that was really all there was to it. That he would give up the fight so easily, take the word of a single agent that he was no longer marketable.

Anybody help me out with this?

Hard Case Crime Update

Hard Case Crime Returns with New Lawrence Block Novel and New Publisher: "The Hard Case Crime series of mystery novels, which was published by Dorchester between 2004 and earlier this year when the series went on hiatus, will resume publication in September 2011 with a new novel by acclaimed mystery writer Lawrence Block, whose new book Getting Off: A Novel of Sex and Violence will be the first hardcover original to be published by Hard Case. The series will also begin a relationship with a new foreign house, the UK-based Titan Publishing, which is distributed by Random House in the US.
[. . . .]
Getting Off will be credited to “Lawrence Block writing as Jill Emerson,” a pseudonym Block last used decades ago. The story follows a female serial killer bent on murdering all the men she has slept with in her life. In its previous incarnation, Hard Case Crime published five novels by Block, all of which were reprints of previously published titles. This is his first new book for the series."

More at the link.

Vampire Crimes now available!

Dave Zeltserman's first original e-book and most noir book to date is now available as Kindle and Nook downloads.

Top Suspense Round Robin Short Story + Contest

The original Top Suspense Group members: Max Allan Collins, Vicki Hendricks, Ed Gorman, Bill Crider, Harry Shannon and myself wrote a short crime story round robin style, and starting Dec 6th I'll start posting the story here.

The rules: no planning, no coordination, no safety nets. Each day one of us wrote up to 250 words of a short story and passed it onto the next writer, with each writer eventually working on two segments. The only leeway was the last writer got to go past the 250 word limit to try to finish up the story, and the only editing done was for consistency errors.

So starting December 6th I'll be posting a story segment each day with the author's name removed. After 12 days the story will be finished (one way or the other). At that point we'll be offering free books to the first 5 people who can match each segment to the author who wrote it!