Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot?

Have you ever killed off a character you loved?

by Paul D. Marks

Well, I've certainly wanted to kill off a lot of 'characters' I've come across in my life, but we're talking fiction here. The answer is yes. Killing off a character that you like is never easy.  We all love killing the bad guys, seeing them get their just desserts. But when you kill off a sympathetic character, a character that you and your readers like and, who is a good guy and good friend to your protagonist, well, that's another story.  But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do for the sake of the plot and the story and a dash of realism.

Gaby, a character in my story Sleepy Lagoon Nocturne, set around the time of the Zoot Suit Riots during World War II, is missing. He's a friend of Bobby's, the story's main character.  And someone who knows Bobby's deepest secrets. But knowing them, he is sympathetic to Bobby and a friend to him.  So when he goes missing, Bobby wants to find out what happened.  And it isn't pretty. And though Gaby meets an untimely end, I liked the character.  So when I wrote The Blues Don't Care, a novel that "stars" Bobby in the main role, I resurrected Gaby to return in that story, which is set previous to the time of Sleepy Lagoon Nocturne. So, sometimes through the magic of fiction you can bring back a character that you like.  (This novel is not yet available.)

My short story Free Fall starts off with the main character, Rick, free falling to his death from a high-rise apartment in L.A.  So I'm not really giving anything away here. This was an interesting experiment for me as both the writer and reader know the main character, the narrator of the story, is dead from the beginning.  As the ground comes screaming towards him and in those few seconds before hitting, we get his story.  Having started this story off knowing my main character was going to die, I didn’t have time to become too attached to him, at least initially.  But, as I wrote his backstory, I started to like him and empathize with him and I think that gave the story a little more depth and interest as we realize all the events that led up to him taking this ultimate final step.

Spoiler Alert – Don't read this graph if you're planning to read White Heat: Probably the most heartrending death of a character both for me and my readers was the death of a dog in this novel. It's ironic because just a week or two before I got this question I read something that said you never kill a dog in a cozy.  Well, this book is about as far from a cozy as you can get.  Still, it was hard on my audience and I got a lot of feedback on that. Some people couldn't even read those parts.  And it was hard for me to kill him off.  But it did make people hate the bad guy even more – after all, who kills a dog?  I don't like the idea of hurting a dog anymore than anyone else.  But you do what works for the plot.  And in this case I thought it would jolt the reader into connecting with the characters in a more real way.  Suddenly the bad guy is really evil and the hero more sympathetic. Is that manipulative – maybe.  But isn't all writing?  Still, it hurt to write those scenes and you just feel it all well up inside you as you write. It was also hard on me because the real-life dog that the dog-character was based on was a dog I'd had as a kid.  Luckily that rascally dog lived to a ripe old age. End of Spoiler.

Killing off the characters in the three cases that I mention above worked for each particular story.  And you do what you have to do to make the story work.  But that doesn't mean you don't regret it sometimes. In one particular screenplay of mine, that was optioned over and over but never produced, I kill off the main character's sidekick buddy.  But I really liked that character and since it hasn't been produced, well, maybe it's not too late to save his ass.

(originally posted on 7 Criminal Minds blog)

D.O.A. -- Ultimate High Concept movie -- film noir

Film Noir Alert: D.O.A., 3:30pm, Pacific Time, Monday, May 05, 2014, Turner Classics.

I think I've said this before but in my opinion this is the ultimate "high concept" story. Murdered man has to find his murderer...before he dies.

With Edmond O'Brien. And Neville Brand, one of the great movie villians. Good movie! Some great L.A. (the Bradbury Building) and San Francisco locations.

Dr. MacDonald: Of course, I'll have to notify the police. This is a case for Homicide.
Frank Bigelow (O'Brien): Homicide?
Dr. MacDonald: I don't think you fully understand, Bigelow. You've been murdered.

A Kiss Before Dying

Film Noir Alert: A Kiss Before Dying, 7:15pm, Pacific Time, Sunday, May 04, 2014; Turner Classic Movies.

W/ Robert Wagner, Joanne Woodward. Remade later with Matt Dillon and Sean Young.
Interesting twist, though it comes early on.

Leo Kingship: What was accomplished by it?
Ellen Kingship: What has to be accomplished by it? Some people do things out of nothing more than sentiment. Softness, you'd probably call it.
Leo Kingship: As opposed to my callousness? My hardness? I think, Ellen, you mistake parading an emotion for feeling one.

PITFALL – The American Dream…Well, maybe not.

"Pitfall," with Dick Powell and Lizabeth Scott (noir icon) and Jane Wyatt (mom on “Father Knows Best”) will be on Turner Classic Movies Monday 9/2/13 at 1:15 Pacific Time. Raymond Burr also shows up as the heavy, no pun intended.

 

"Pitfall" is a pretty good noir film, though I find the ending undermines much of what has come before. Other people see irony there, and there is. That said, I still think it just takes too much of a turn. I'm not being more clear because I don't want to give away spoilers. But all in all, it's a decent noir and worth watching.

THE NEXT BIG THING: BROKEN WINDOWS (P.I. Duke Rogers Series – Book 2)

I was tagged last Wednesday by my friend and fellow mystery-thriller-suspense author, Dave Zeltserman for this.

What is the working title of your next book?

Broken Windows. It's the second installment in the Duke Rogers series that started with White Heat.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

My then-agent wanted me to do a sequel to White Heat. At that time it wasn't a series, I wanted to do something else. But she talked me into it.  As the first book, White Heat, was set in 1992 during the time of the Rodney King riots, I needed to set it around that time.  So it's set a couple years later when Proposition 187, which dealt with illegal immigration, was a big thing in California.  It seemed like a logical progression, as White Heat dealt with racial issues stemming from the Rodney King riots. That said, both novels are noir-thrillers, with some topical overtones.

What genre does your book fall under?

Mystery-thriller. Noir.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

If Nick Nolte were twenty years younger he'd be perfect for Jack.  For Marisol, Penelope Cruz or Salma Hayek.  And for Duke Jeremy Renner.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Investigating the murder of an undocumented Mexican worker, P.I. Duke Rogers finds himself sucked into the political turmoil of 1990s Los Angeles.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I don't like to outline, so my "outlines" are generally screenplays – I write the early draft/s in screenplay format for a variety of reasons, but one is that I can work faster that way.  I'd say the first drafts of the ms to work out the plot and characters took about two months and then I moved onto the prose drafts.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Some readers or critics have compared White Heat to Elmore Leonard, Lawrence Block and Michael Connelly. Chandler and Hammett.  So I guess you could do that for Broken Windows too since it's in the same vein and continues Duke's and Jack's story.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

In the form of a mystery-thriller, White Heat, the first Duke Rogers book, explores racial tensions after the Rodney King trial verdict came in in 1992. I wanted the sequel to deal with another topical subject that could also stand in for today.  California's 1994 Proposition 187 and the "illegal alien" controversy seemed to fit the bill for another thriller that worked on more than simply that level and is certainly a hot topic now.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I like to deal with various issues in my writing.  In White Heat it was racial tensions, which are still evident today.  But sometimes it helps to look at things in the past to get perspective.  In Broken Windows it's the immigration issue.  And I hope, in both, that I tackle it from all sides.  Different characters have varying opinions on the various issues – meanwhile the roller coaster of the plot keeps moving forward.


And now the hand off to Elizabeth Barone, author of Sade on the Wall, Outlaw Love Story and others:

Elizabeth Barone

Look for her post next week and consider trying...her Next Big Thing!

Bogie, Bacall, David Goodis & a Return to ‘Dark Passage’

Technorati Tags: Bogie,Bacall,Humphrey Bogart,Lauren Bacall,Dark Passage,film noir,noir,hardboiled,mystery,fiction,books,movies,Paul D. Marks,Paul Marks,White Heat novel

Dark Passage (1947) with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, screened on Los Angeles station KCET over Labor Day weekend and on Turner Classics on Wednesday of this week. The screenplay, by Delmer Daves (who also directed), is based on a novel by David Goodis. This is a movie that I like to see at least once a year, both for the story and the terrific San Francisco locations, some of which you can still see today.
Vincent Parry, an innocent man, is thrown into San Quentin for the murder of his wife. For a Goodis story it has what might be considered a happy ending. And I think, in this case, the movie improves on the book. It takes what's good about the novel and fleshes it out in ways that work.
Historian and critic Geoffrey O'Brien said "[Goodis] wrote of winos and  barroom piano players and smalltime thieves in a vein of tortured lyricism all his own, whose very excesses seemed uniquely appropriate to the subject matter. As his titles announce—Street of the Lost, Street of No Return, The Wounded and the Slain, Down There—he was the poet of the losers…" *  
It is through the movie version of Dark Passage that I discovered Goodis many years ago. And he is now one of my favorite writers – truly the King of Noir. His stories often deal with people who were once riding high and who've fallen on hard times, to say the least.
Goodis did a stint as a Hollywood screenwriter, eventually leaving Hollywood to return to his native Philadelphia, where he led an "interesting" life to say the least.
If I had to pick a favorite Goodis novel it would be Down There, upon which Truffaut's movie Shoot the Piano Player is based. And I know what I'm going to say is heretical to some, but I like the book a lot more than the movie in a lot of ways and, in fact, I don't like the movie much at all, though it's still worth watching. That said, Dark Passage, both the book and the movie are definitely worth checking out.
 
*Hardboiled America, Lurid Paperbacks and the Masters of Noir; Geoffrey O'Brien; Da Capo Press

G.B. Pool’s Johnny Casino Enters with a Bang!

Today I have a guest blogger, Gayle Bartos-Pool. Her new novel The Johnny Casino Casebook 1: Past Imperfect has just been released. A hot and hard mystery about a P.I. with a past.

A former private detective and once a reporter for a small weekly newspaper, Gayle Bartos-Pool has other published books, including Media Justice, and several short stories in anthologies, LAndmarked for Murder and Little Sisters Volume 1. The former Speakers Bureau Director for Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles, she is also a member of Mystery Writers of America. Her short story appears in the anthology, Dying in a Winter Wonderland, which was voted one of the Top Ten of Softcover Books as selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association (IMBA) of 2008.

Welcome Gayle:

Thanks so much for inviting me to join you on your blog, Paul.

I look forward to your Facebook notices of Noir movies coming on the movie channel. I’m addicted to them, too. Maybe that’s why the main character in my Johnny Casino series is a fan of the genre.

Johnny grew up in a Mob family in New Jersey, so to escape his life he watched old movies on a 13 inch black and white television. Even after he started working for his father, the consigliere for the D’Abruzzo crime family, he still watched those old Noir classics. He took his look from Tyrone Power in the movie Johnny Apollo. That actually isn’t all that odd. Real life gangster “Crazy Joe” Gallo was said to have dressed like George Raft in dark suits, black shirts and white ties because he thought the movie gangster looked cool. And they say movies don’t influence people.

I got that tidbit from the book, Five Families, a terrific read about “the rise and decline and resurgence of America’s most powerful Mafia Empires” by Selwyn Raab. It was a great primer in all things Mafioso. What I didn’t get from that book, I got from a guy whose father was in the Greek Mafia. This guy was a cop. I could see the conflict the former cop had because of his family ties. That was what I tried to put into Johnny Casino’s character.

As I delved into Johnny’s past, I wrote what turned out to be the second story in the first Johnny Casino Casebook. It’s called “The Family Business.” I learned a lot about Johnny from writing that story. It showed me where Johnny came from and why he wanted to get away from that early life.

Another problem came up while writing the first book. My agent wanted Johnny to have a girlfriend. That was another reason I wrote that second story. Johnny likes women, he just can’t trust them. This attitude is very much like the characters in those old Noir movies we love. I prefer either the femme fatal or the lady in distress in most of my stories with Johnny, but he did begin his private detective days working for a woman. And he admires this lady, she just loves somebody else. He did have an affair with a Mafia boss’s wife. Obviously, Johnny likes to live dangerously.

At the beginning of this first book, Johnny Casino states that he is a retired private detective with a past, he just hopes it doesn’t catch up with him. This opens the door for ghosts from his former lives to pop up, both his Mafia past and the time he was a P.I. the first time. I can do stories in flashback when I want to explain how Johnny got to be who he is and I can also have some of those earlier characters appear in the present after Johnny gets back in the detective business.

I basically write The Johnny Casino Casebook stories like a TV series. If you remember the old Magnum, P.I. TV show, they did flashbacks and brought in characters from his past every so often to give the viewer a full spectrum of his life. I do that with Johnny.

The first book in the series is subtitled Past Imperfect. Every story concerns someone with a skeleton or two in his or her closet. One story features a famous Hollywood star and a retired Broadway actress. This particular actress has a deadly secret in her closet and she is being blackmailed. The Hollywood actor wants Johnny to help out, but the actor has a few skeletons in his closet, too.

There is a story about politician with a playmate who has disappeared, and another case where Johnny is asked to return a dead body to the man responsible for the deed. Johnny even helps out the local sheriff whose wife has disappeared. This story takes him across the boarder into Mexico with a redhead you won’t soon forget.

Johnny explains how he met the woman who trained him as a detective in another story. You will see why he likes her so much. And the last story takes Johnny to Miami when his “wife” asks for money to keep her mouth shut. Only thing, Johnny doesn’t have a wife. This tale leaves Johnny with a question: Who the hell am I?

Books two and three are already written, so I know a lot about Johnny Casino. I drop in movie references frequently and Johnny works for various movie stars from time to time. I do change their names, but you might guess who they are. I like these actors too much to associate dead bodies and shenanigans with a real person. It was fun taking their actual time frame and creating a different character around it. I use places where they really lived in some cases and even some of the movies they made, I just changed the titles slightly to keep this fiction. A few come back for guest appearances in other stories later in the series.

Thanks for inviting me to your blog. I hope you enjoy The Johnny Casino Casebook – Past Imperfect. You can find the book on Amazon or link to it through my website: www.gbpool.com.

Thank you, Gayle.   Good luck with the first Johnny Casino and I look forward to the next one!

La Crescenta Library Event – July 2012

Ashley Ream & Paul D. Marks

Join Paul, Sue Ann Jaffarian (author of the Ghost of Granny Apples Mystery series and the Madison Rose Vampire Mystery series, and Michael Mallory (author of The Mural and the Amelia Watson Mystery series) for a panel/discussion on "Things That Go Bump in the Night".

When:  Saturday, July 28, 2012, 2:00 PM

Where: La Crescenta Library

            2809 Foothill Blvd.

            La Crescenta, CA, 91214

WOULD YOU TALK SOMEONE OUT OF BUYING YOUR NOVEL? -- I DID.

I was at the Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles booth at the L.A. Times Book Festival at USC over the weekend, selling my new novel WHITE HEAT, as well as several anthologies in which stories of mine appear.  I've been going for several years, though this is the first time I've had a novel that was all me to sell.  So that was exciting.

And it's always nice to socialize with both the public and my fellow Sisters…and Brothers in Crime.  To see people I haven't seen for awhile and meet new fellow crimesters.

But the main objects are to increase the visibility of Sisters in Crime and, of course, to try to sell books.  So why would I try to talk someone out of buying my new novel that I want as much attention and word of mouth as possible for?

Early in my time at the booth a woman came by and talked to me about the various anthologies and the novel.  We had a nice conversation about the books and other things.  And she seemed interested, but ultimately didn't buy anything.  I didn't think anymore of it.

But awhile later she returned with a young man in tow.  He looked to be about fifteen and it appeared from their conversation that she wanted to buy the novel for him.  I was happy that she'd returned and wanted to buy a book.

However, since the book was clearly for her son I felt like I had to say something about the content.

To give you an idea of what the book is about here's the blurb for it: WHITE HEAT is a mystery-thriller that takes place during the 1992 "Rodney King" riots in Los Angeles.  P.I. Duke Rogers finds himself in a racially charged situation.  The case might have to wait....  The immediate problem: getting out of South Central Los Angeles in one piece – during the 1992 L.A. riots  – and that's just the beginning of his problems.  And while he tries to track down the killer he must also deal with the racism of his partner, Jack, and from the dead woman's brother, Warren.  He must also confront his own possible latent racism – even as he's in an interracial relationship with the murder victim's sister.

On the surface the story is a mystery-thriller.  But it also deals with the harsh realities of race and racism.  And in doing so some of the characters use extremely offensive language, from the F word to various racial epithets.  Reviewer M2 says this of White Heat: "'White Heat' is a tough, tersely-written book featuring tough, complicated, and not always lovable characters who might push many readers to the very edge of their comfort zone. But it's honest and it's real, and it doesn't pander to its audience by providing pat or phony answers to the many complex issues it raises."

And while I want as many readers as possible and want people to enjoy the novel on both the plot and deeper levels, I felt I had to warn the young man's mother about the various intense aspects of the book. The choice was hers and she ultimately chose not to buy it and I lost a sale.

I don't believe in censorship of any kind, but this was, in a sense, self-censorship.  When it came to someone as young as this kid I felt it was my obligation to tell his mother and let her or them make up their minds.  I'm not sorry I told them and maybe someday he will read it.

What would you have done?

RAISING CAIN: CONVERSATIONS WITH JAMES M. CAIN

Andrew McAleer is the publisher of the venerable Crimestalker Casebook mystery magazine. He's also authored three well-received mystery novels, including "Bait and Switch" and "Appearance of Counsel," as well the non-fiction "Mystery Writing in a Nutshell," written with his father Edgar winner John McAleer, and the number one best seller "101 Habits of Highly Successful Novelists: Insider Secrets from Top Writers".

Mr. McAleer, along with Harry Sapienza, has recently ushered a project of his father John McAleer's to fruition: PACKED AND LOADED: CONVERSATIONS WITH JAMES M. CAIN, who as many of you know is the author of "Double Indemnity," "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and "Mildred Pierce," to name just a few.

Not only does Cain discuss his first notions to be a writer, his newspaper days and his Hollywood years. He also reveals his brutally honest thoughts on everyone from Hammett and Chandler to Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Arthur Miller and even Marilyn Monroe. The book is peppered with epigraphs from Elmore Leonard, Sue Grafton, Robert B. Parker and Dennis Lehane among others.

Q: Welcome, Andy. Before we get to PACKED AND LOADED, maybe you can tell us a little bit about yourself and your background? I understand that you're a prosecutor in Massachusetts. It seems that your profession has had a definite impact on your novels, can you expand on that a little?

A: Thanks, Paul. I’ve had I think a fairly interesting legal career so far. Right after law school I started a small law practice in the town I grew up in – Lexington. The only legal books I had were my grandfather’s old law books dating back to the 19 teens and 20s including the Mr. Tutt casebooks by Arthur Train, which I devoured and highly recommend. I did a lot of “country” law – real estate, probate, criminal defense. My first book Appearance of Counsel is about a small-town lawyer and my second and third novels Double Endorsement and Bait and Switch about a PI. I prefer the malice domestic formula used by Rex Stout and many of the Golden Age of mystery greats. My latest novel Fatal Deeds (Cherokee McGhee) will be released in August 2011 and is about a retired sheriff Gus Churchill. He hangs his shingle in Concord, Massachusetts. Working as a prosecutor has really helped round off my writing more from an investigative stand point. How things are done from a tactical questioning point of view and in terms of character development. In Fatal Deeds Gus likes to catch bad guys with brain over brawn and a little country charm. I may be old fashioned, but I like to know who the bad guys and good guys are. I would say my entrepreneurial background and legal background have served me well on what it’s really like to survive as a self-employed PI – keeping the wolf off the door can be as challenging as catching bad guys.

Q: You also taught at Boston College. I'm sure that's also had some effect on your writing.

A: I think everyone should teach. It keeps you young and in touch and you definitely learn more from your students than you could ever teach them.

Q: And the third corner of your tri-corner hat is that you're a Sergeant in the Army National Guard. Are you with the JAG? Has your army duty come into play in your writing? And do you plan to do a novel that might specifically revolve around that?

A: Actually I’m with the Military History Detachment now. Like my character Gus Churchill I love local history – I mean . . . I have to, right. . . ? I’ve lived in Lexington all my life just a mile from the Battle Green where the “Shot heard ’round the world” was fired. I enjoyed writing my non-fiction works Mystery Writing in a Nutshell and the 101 Habits of Highly Successful Novelists, so I hope someday to produce a non-fiction book worthy of the men and women who make it all possible for us to write our tales.

Q: I understand that shortly before his death in 1977, James M. Cain commissioned your father, Dr. McAleer, to write his biography? That's a pretty interesting story in itself. Can you tell us a little more about how that came about?

A: Sure. My father was writing Rex Stout’s biography at the time when he and Cain somehow made contact. They began a correspondence where my father would send him questionnaires and Cain would respond. Then, in the fall semester of either 75 or 76, my father’s graduate student Harry Sapienza went down to Cain’s home in Maryland and interviewed him for a couple of hours. Harry did a phenomenal job and really got Cain to open up about all facets of his life. Eventually it came out that Cain had already hired Roy Hoopes to write his bio, so my father put the brakes on things and took up his bio on Emerson. He felt Hoopes had first dibs on the project. I know my father admired Hoopes’ biography on Cain as do I.

Q: Cain responded to Dr. McAleer's questions with the intensity known to him. He gives his thoughts on everyone from Hammett and Chandler, in the mystery genre, to Hemingway and Fitzgerald in literary fiction. Even Arthur Miller. Do you have a favorite story or quote?

A: As a fan of local history one of my favorite chapters in Packed and Loaded is Cain’s vivid description of what a Hollywood “Triangle Girl” is. I mean . . . he talks about Marilyn Monroe and how she was a Triangle Girl and what it really meant to be one. There’s a great story there about this culture perhaps long forgotten by all. Now it’s codified nowhere I think, but in the memories of Cain through Packed and Loaded. These fascinating gals, doing what it takes to survive in the gritty Hollywood of the 40s and 50s, could be the “Mad Men” of their day.

Q: What was your father's impression of Cain?

A: Very high. In one of his letters to Cain he told him he was happy just to be on the same planet with him. My father admired people who were straightforward and by the book. Rex Stout and Cain were very much cut from the same cloth. He was the real McCoy.

Q: Is there anything in particular that you find funny or insightful or unusual that Cain comes up with?

A: I think in his afterword to the book by Shamus Award winner Jeremiah Healy, he summed it up best focusing on how after each question Cain would ask, “What else you got?” Like his works, Cain was the king of “less is more.” You knew where you stood with him.

Q: How did Cain feel about the film versions of his work?

A: Cain wasn’t full of “Cain.” He enjoyed his success because it gave him a platform to write. Above all the story was what mattered. “Why does this story need to be told?” That’s why he preferred the first person POV. It has more of a ring of truth to it. He did not let Hollywood go to his head.

Q: I understand, too, that these interviews were almost lost to us until you found them. Can you tell us a little about that?

A: Good question. Around 2000 a publisher was releasing a new edition of my father’s Rex Stout biography. P.G. Wodehose wrote the original foreword to the Stout bio and when we dug out my father’s Wodehose correspondence to do some research for an updated introduction to the Stout bio, the Cain work – long since thought to be lost – was found!

Q: Your father was a serious literary biographer of people such as Dreiser and Thoreau before tackling Rex Stout in the mystery field. How and why did he make the jump?

A: My father was an eclectic scholar. I think his military training in the Big Two taught him how to adapt and in the old days of education this is what you had to do. In the 40s and 50s Boston College was not the big school it is today. The Jesuits gave him an assignment and it was his job to learn the subject, master it, and disseminate the knowledge to his students. Interestingly, it was his Dreiser bio that landed him the Stout bio. When my father was visiting his cousin in Connecticut back in 1968 or 69, his cousin invited him to meet his neighbor – Rex Stout. When Stout met my father he had just completed my father’s book on Dreiser and admired it very much. Soon after he hired my father to author his bio. They became great friends. A picture of Stout tending to his irises still hangs in my father’s study nearly forty years after Stout’s death and seven years after my father’s. Well . . . I guess my secret as to why I like the malice domestic formula so much is out . . . Rex, Nero, and Archie are alive and well here. Cain, too! There is some more great stuff on Stout and my father on my website www.crimestalkers.com

Thanks, Paul. But I can’t leave without asking you a question or two. You’ve been able to master the short story formula quite well and have appeared in some great anthologies. How are the novels coming and what can we expect?

I feel a little funny since this is an interview about you and your book. I'm just about done with my novel "The Blues Don't Care," a mystery set on the L.A. homefront during World War II. And almost done with another satirical novel about a screenwriter in L.A. – sort of a 21^st Century West Coast "Bright Lights, Big City".

Thank you for stopping by, Andy.

I think anyone who's interested in mystery in general and Cain in particular, would enjoy this book. I know that I love both "Double Indemnity" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice" both as books and as movies. And, in fact, if I had to show a Martian the ultimate example of film noir it would be "Double Indemnity".

So anyone interested in mystery or Cain or the McAleers or any of the authors mentioned here should check out...

...PACKED AND LOADED:

Also check out www.crimestalkers.com

Buy "Packed and Loaded" at Amazon

BECOMING UNGLUED: AN INTERVIEW WITH LOIS WINSTON, AUTHOR OF ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY GLUE GUN

Joining me today is Lois Winston, author of Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception, House Unauthorized and the Dreams and Desires series. She's just come out with ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY GLUE GUN, the first book of a new series, the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries.

PAUL:  Hi Lois and welcome. What is your background – before becoming an author and needlepoint aficionado?

LOIS: First, thank you for hosting me on your blog today, Paul. Secondly, I’m not a needlepoint aficionado. I don’t think I’ve designed or stitched needlepoint in at least 20 years. What I design, among other things, is counted cross stitch. Big difference. Probably not to most guys (except those who own craft publishing or manufacturing companies) but a huge one to needlecrafts enthusiasts.
I’ve been designing needlework, fabric crafts, and general crafts for book and magazine publishers and kit manufacturers for many years (if I told you how many, you’d try to figure out how old I am, and in our youth-obsessed culture, I can’t have that, now can I?). Before that I worked as an advertising art director and a staff artist for a major department store chain.

Tell us a little about yourself, your background.  Do you have a day job or are you able to support yourself with your writing?  ...and needlework?

I wish I could support myself with my writing! Few authors can. I know NY Times bestselling authors who still can’t quit their day jobs. I juggle three careers. Besides my writing, I still design for one manufacturer and several magazines. I’m also an associate of the literary agency that reps me.

And tell us a little about your new book, "Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun."

I thought you’d never ask! ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY GLUE GUN is the first book in my new Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries series from Midnight Ink. It’s a fast-paced amateur sleuth mystery infused with humor. Kirkus called it, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” How cool is that?

I understand that the protagonist in this novel is a new one for you.  Tell us a little about her.  Is she like you?  How did she come about?

Is Anastasia like me? I’m getting asked that question a lot. Anastasia and I have similar backgrounds. We’re both North Jersey girls. We both went to art school. She’s a crafts editor for a women’s magazine. As I mentioned earlier, I design for magazines. I’ve also worked as a crafts editor for several craft book publishers. We both have two sons and one other relative in common (but I’m not saying which one!) The differences? My husband is very much alive (thank goodness!), I don’t have a Shakespeare quoting parrot, and I haven’t found any dead bodies hot glued to my office chair. Yet.

Love the title: Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun.  And I know you write humorous mysteries, but where did that title come from?  --Have you ever been assaulted with a deadly glue gun...

Anastasia came up with the title. And yes, I have been assaulted with a glue gun -- on more than one occasion. I’ve got the scars to prove it.

Would you say deadly glue guns kill people or do people kill people?

I’d say people kill people with deadly glue guns. Although certain glue guns have been known to take on a life of their own. Just ask mine.

And do you sleep with a glue gun under the pillow for protection – is it licensed?

Doesn’t everyone? No license required for glue guns, at least not yet.

In the new book, there's a Shakespeare quoting parrot named Ralph.  Can you tell us some of his favorite lines from Shakespeare?  And does he look for animalcentric quotes from the Bard or is he a generalist?

Ralph’s quotes are always situation-appropriate. He’ll pick up on something being said by someone and run with it.  For instance, at the beginning of the book, Anastasia is confronted by a demand for $50,000 from her dead husband’s loan shark. Ralph sums up the situation by squawking, “If you have tears, prepare to shed them now, Julius Caesar. Act Three, Scene Two.”  Ralph always annotates his quotes. Comes from spending most of his life in Great-aunt Penelope’s English lit classroom.

And what's this about Anastasia's mother-in-law being a Communist?  Or does she just like to wear pink?

Lucille is a card-carrying commie. Very old-school. Decidedly red.

How much of your fiction is drawn from real life?  Or your life in particular.


I get much of my source material from either personal experience or observing life around me. I’m a total news junkie and have used actual news stories as springboards for plots and characters. And as I mentioned earlier, there is this one relative that Anastasia and I both have in common…

One of your pet peeves is people who don't return phone calls or answer their e-mails.  I'm with you on both.  Any chance the glue gun or another weapon might be used on these folks in a future novel?

Always a possibility. Anastasia’s been known to wield a mean X-acto knife, as well.

Tell us some of your signings that people can go to.

Right now I’m in the middle of a month-long blog tour. The schedule is posted on my website, http://www.loiswinston.com, and at Anastasia’s blog, http://www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com. I’ll also be at several writers’ conventions and conferences throughout the year, and those are also posted on my website.

How and when/where can people get your book?  And how can they reach you...assuming you want to be reached.

ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY GLUE GUN is available now at most bookstores, all the usual online venues, and at my publisher’s website, http://www.midnightinkbooks.com. I have links on my website that will take you directly to Amazon, B&N, etc. As for me, people can contact me through my website or by emailing me at lois@loiswinston.com.
 
Anything else you want to share with us?

For the blog tour I’m doing this month, I’m giving away 5 copies of ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY GLUE GUN. Everyone who posts a comment to any of the blogs where I’m guesting (see above for where to find schedule) will be entered into a drawing. (Anyone who’s email isn’t included in their comment should email me privately at lois@loiswinston.com to let me know they’ve entered.) In addition, I’m also giving away an assortment of crafts books to anyone who posts a comment on select blogs.

Thank you for being here today. I now know to stay out of the line of fire of glue guns. And I hope people will go and buy ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY GLUE GUN before the glue is dry.

A (MOSTLY) NOIR STOCKING STUFFER LIST

Well, tis the season to be merry. The season of peace and goodwill toward all things. And what could be more merry and peaceful than noir stocking stuffers? So if you're looking for some last minute items, check out some of these below:

 

BOOKS:

Tapping the Source by Kem Nunn – surf noir at its best – Small town hick comes to Huntington Beach, CA ("surf city"), looking for his missing sister and gets the proverbial more-than-he-bargained-for. This ain't Frankie and Annette's beach party or Brian Wilson's (and the Beachboys) Surfin' USA...
Down There (Shoot the Piano Player) by David Goodis – from the “poet of losers,” his best book in my opinion, though I know others would disagree. Like many of Goodis' protagonists, Eddie cannot escape his past. Or his present.
Raymond Chandler – just about any of the novels; you might try a later one like "The Long Goodbye." Another trip through Chandler's mean streets. Marlowe's a little older. A little wiser, maybe. I don't think this book was very well received when it first came out. I think it's been reassessed in later years – I like it. Hate the movie based on it, though it does have some good points. Most especially the High Tower Apartments, where I once looked for an apartment. Trippy place.
The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham – not really noir, but if I had to pick a favorite book this would be it. Like with everything, some love it, some hate it. A great story of a man's quest for inner peace and the meaning of life. Sounds silly these days, what with such things as “Eat, Pray, Barf” and the like. How do we – how should we – lead our lives?
Ask the Dust by John Fante – For the longest time John Fante had been mostly forgotten, remembered only by a few who thought of him as our own. It's like having a favorite band that few people know, then one day they hit it big. You feel like you've lost something. About a  decade or so ago he was rediscovered and the rest, as they say, is history. I know some people hate this book, where little happens. But to me it speaks volumes of a struggling writer's life in a Los Angeles that is no more, or maybe it is and we just don't quite see it anymore.

MOVIES:

Double Indemnity – The ultimate example of film noir. It's got it all the elements a noir should have: shadows, rain, greed, downfall by one's own Achilles' heel. A great femme fatale in Barbara Stanwyck. And, of course it's in glorious black and white. What more could you ask for on a cold, rainy winter night? 
Ghost World – One of the few movies that, sooner or later, I try to steer almost everyone I know toward. Starring Thora Birch, Steve Buscemi and a pre-superstar Scarlett Johansson. Not a horror story, which some people seem to infer because of the title. But a story of people, young and middle aged, lost and trying to make their way in a "foreign" world – the world you see right outside your window. Touching. Poignant. And definitely worth a watch, though maybe wait till after Christmas...unless you want to join the ranks of those in Winter Blues and Depression Club.
Kiss Me Deadly – The search for the Great Whatsit by Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. Hammer makes Chandler's Marlowe, Hammett's Spade and most modern PIs look like Pee Wee Herman by comparison. And the movie Hammer doesn't touch the prose Hammer in that regard. Spillane didn't name him Hammer for nothing. A great noir movie. And it always amazes me on the Dish online program guide that this movie only gets a two star (out of four) rating when crap like those true classics that will surely stand the test of time "Orphan" and "The Crazies" get more. One of the best examples of where the movie definitely improves on the book.
In a Lonely Place – Some people classify this movie as noir; I'm not sure it fully meets the criteria. Nonetheless, it's my second favorite movie of any after "Casablanca". One is romantic idealism (with some cynicism tossed in for good effect); the other is pure cynicism. You decide which is which. "In a Lonely Place" is another movie that, in my opinion, greatly improves on the book, though I know this is sacrilege to some Dorothy Hughes fans. But, without giving too much away, the movie is more ambiguous and with a much more ironic ending, while the book is more a more straight forward story of a killer. From Bogart's character in the film: "I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me."
Sherman's March – Well, it takes a certain kind of person to enjoy this – I guess I'm the kind. Ross McElwee set out to make a documentary about Sherman's march through Georgia during the Civil War. It turns out to be almost nothing about that, but instead is a Mr. Toad's Wild Ride through the modern South with a man looking for, well, I guess himself – as well as a girlfriend. And Burt Reynolds.... And so much more.

MUSIC:

Leonard Cohen – A lot of his songs are much the musical equivalent of David Goodis novels. Try especially the "I'm Your Man" or "The Future" albums for a nice look at the dark side of things.
Noisettes "Wild Young Hearts" album – Well, a bit of a departure here. Definitely not noirish in any way. Newish group, but they remind me of the "girl groups" of the early Sixties updated to today. Try especially the songs "Wild Young Hearts" and "Never Forget You." Bouncy fun.
Ruby Friedman Orchestra – relatively new also, and unfortunately some of my favorite songs by them/her are not easily available, though you can hear them on the web – like "Burning Skies" and "Hang Around". Still there are things to download at iTunes or Amazon. If you like alt sounds check her out.
The Dark Shadows (Brigitte Handley's alt rock group, not the TV show) – I particularly like the songs "Invisible" and "Lament of a Lost Soul". The latter might have worked good in "Ghost World," if the song had been around then. And the former is damned hard to find – but a good find. It's out on a CD...but you have to order it from Australia. Might hear it on Rodney on the Roq though.
Smithereens Christmas – Pat DiNizio, lead singer-songwriter wrote a beautiful song called "In a Lonely Place" based on the movie and including the above Bogart lines from it.......so the 80s (though they're still around) punk group qualifies as noir. But this is them doing their versions of Christmas songs. Hey, they did it before Dylan. -- But if you want their best album get "Especially for You."
On a side note, I have a story about Pat DiNizio, the lead singer/main songwriter of the Smithereens.
I love old movies. And, as stated above, one of my favorites is "In a Lonely Place" with Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame. On the Smithereens' album "Especially for You," from the mid-1980s, they had a song called "In a Lonely Place," and even copped some lyrics from some of the movie's dialogue. And I always liked the song as well as the movie.
So, I was looking to buy a vintage poster from that movie. To make a long story short, I did. And who did I end up buying one from but Pat DiNizio. So when I look at that poster or hear that song I always think: I wonder if DiNizio was looking at the very same poster and being inspired by it when he wrote the lyrics to that song? Great poster. Great song. Great album...if you like that punky-new wavy thing from the 80s.

Have a

Merry Noir Christmas

and a

Punk New Year!

Technorati Tags: Christmas,stocking stuffers,film noir,mystery,Paul Marks,Paul D. Marks,music to buy,Ruby Friedman,The Dark Shadows,Brigitte Handley,The Smithereens,In a Lonely Place,Double indemnity,Raymond Chandler,David Goodis,Tapping the Source,Kem Nunn,Kiss Me Deadly,Noisettes,Ghost World

Deadly Ink 2010 Short Story Collection…

…is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Includes my story “Poison Heart,” plus stories by J.F. Benedetto, Mitzi Flye, Barb Goffman, Carole Hall, Erika Hoffman, Rosemary Olson, Judith R. O’Sullivan, John Reisinger, T.S. Rider, Charles Schaeffer, D.I. Telbat, Elise Warner, Alice M. Weyers, Lina Zeldovich.

Proceeds go to the Christopher Reeve Foundation.  Good stories for a good cause.  Get yours now.

The Four Rs – Reading, Writing, Rithmetic and Reckoning

Recently, several of the authors and one of the of the editors of Murder in La-La Land trekked up Highway 126 to the Blanchard Library in Santa Paula, CA. We had a good turnout and everybody there was wonderful. As nice as can be. Interested. Attentive. The library itself, a former supermarket, is a cavernous building – a giant airplane hangar or soundstage with tons of books. The kind of place that I enjoy just wandering around for hours.

But there was (is) one problem: Except for the people who came to see us, this huge building was empty. Empty! Not a single person there wandering the stacks. Nobody at the tables bent over books. Nobody on the computers. Nobody even talking loud so the librarian had to shush them. Granted, we live in the age of the internet, but people still go to libraries, don't they? And isn't the library still a place to go for socializing, if not for learning? Where I live they are going to be opening a new library and I can't wait, even though I'm addicted to the internet as much as anybody else.

I fear that this is merely a symptom of a post-literate society. After all, what are people looking up on the net, Shakespeare? Or is it only Much Ado About Poontang? Or spending endless hours on Facebook, just diddling around with the all important updates about what they had for breakfast and, even more importantly, if they had a good bowel movement.

Maybe because it was summer. Maybe because it was a weekend afternoon. But something tells me that's the not the case. We all know that reading and readership is declining and ageing. Out of a crowd of about twenty-five people, maybe three were under the age of fifty. That is scary.

It seems to me that the more info we have the less people seem to be interested in it – at least in info that means anything.

And how many people in our society are functionally illiterate? I've seen figures of up to a third of the population cannot read a medicine bottle. How many lawyers can't name the Supreme Court justices? How many teachers don't know even the basics of their subjects and can't teach? How many people are dropping out of school or graduating, but still barely functional? How many people can barely see beyond the tip of their typing fingers?

Hell yes, I want readers. And I want a country where people are literate, which doesn't mean they have to read Proust or Joyce or, God forbid, "Gravity's Rainbow". I'm no snob, hell I write mysteries for the most part, with some serious fiction thrown in for good measure.

The Blanchard Library is a veritable supermarket of books, but still the audience is going hungry, filling their minds with Facebook and Four Square updates, living Second Lives instead of their first (and real) lives.

This does not bode well for us as authors or the country as a whole. Frankly, it scares the shit out of me! Important Facebook update to come.

 

Technorati Tags: literacy,reading,writing,libraries,Paul Marks,Paul D. Marks,Santa Paula,Murder in La La Land,mystery,Continental Tilt

DOES MURDER REALLY SMELL LIKE HONEYSUCKLE?

 

It was a hot afternoon, and I can still remember the smell of honeysuckle all along that street. How could I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle?
                               --James M. Cain/Raymond Chandler/Billy Wilder
                                          --Double Indemnity

Does murder really smell like honeysuckle? Well, I'm not so sure about that, though that is one of my favorite lines from film noir. But we did go to the Motion Picture Academy the other night to see Double Indemnity on the really big screen as part of Oscar Noir: 1940s Writing Nominees from Hollywood’s Dark Side festival – http://www.oscars.org/events-exhibitions/events/2010/noir-doubleindemnity.html

And if one had to show a Martian the ultimate film noir for my money it would be D.I. It has everything a good noir should have: great, shadowy black and white photography (I know, I know, there are color noirs), a femme fatale, a man who gets sucked into a vortex of lust and murder and people who are just utterly despicable – just the kind of people you want to spend a couple hours of your life with, at least onscreen. I could write pages on how much I like this movie and film noir, but there's not much that hasn't already been said and this blog is really about the screening and the festival. But if you want to see a great film noir, check out Double Indemnity.

And there's certainly nothing like seeing a movie on not the big screen, but the huge screen – the Silver Screen. I noticed things that I'd never noticed before, though one of them was pointed out before the screening: Raymond Chandler, who co-wrote the screenplay with Billy Wilder, based on James M. Cain's novel, has a recently discovered cameo. After Fred MacMurray leaves Edward G. Robinson's (Barton Keyes's) office, Chandler is seen sitting on a chair in the hall. A rare appearance for the reclusive author.

One of the drawbacks to seeing an old movie like this today is that audiences have become jaded and cynical. When I watch a film noir in the dark of my home I take it seriously, unless it's just so bad that you can't help but laugh, in which case I would probably turn it off. But with an audience, even an audience of noir lovers, there is laughter, sometimes at appropriate places, sometimes not. And the laughter takes one – at least this one – out of the moment and out of the mood of the film, especially a serious film. That said, there's also something enjoyable about watching a great old movie with an audience, even a movie I've seen fifty times, if not more.

Before the movie, Miriam Nelson (Franklin) spoke. She played Edward G. Robinson's secretary. Screenwriter Nicholas Meyer introduced the movie. And Edward G. Robinson's granddaughter and great grandson were there in the audience.

After the movie, Laurie MacMurray Gerber, Fred's daughter, was interviewed. She said that if you take a look at the original drawings for Captain Marvel you might notice a similarity to Fred MacMurray as the artists based Marvel on her dad. She also talked about how she'd never seen her dad kiss another woman, other than her mom, actress June Haver, except when she watched Double Indemnity for the first time.

If you love film noir, there's still time to see several great movies on the really big screen. Check it out at: http://www.oscars.org/events-exhibitions/events/2010/noir.html

                                                * * *

On another, but related subject, the security at the Academy Theatre sucked. I can sort of understand going through security at an airport though that, along with several other things, has made flying a nightmare. I'm not scared of terrorists or the actual flying – never have been – but I am scared of airport security which makes me insecure about my rights and freedom. But I digress. When we got to the Academy Theatre we had to empty our pockets into little plastic trays as one does at the airport, a security guard rifled my wife's purse. What were we going to do, blow up the ten foot tall golden Oscars at the front of the auditorium?

Since we moved out to a more rural area outside of L.A. a few years ago and have become sort of hermits/recluses we haven't been going to screenings as we used to. Never had to go through security. Of course that was awhile back and they were industry screenings. The Double Indemnity showing was open to the public so maybe that's the difference. Because if it isn't and you have to go through this humiliating process every time you go to a screening, what a nightmare our society has become. Hell, even if it is a public screen, how sad that this is what we've become. And I do find it humiliating to be searched and prodded as if we're all badguys.

Can't wait for the full body scans and breast groping to begin.

The Salahis can get into an affair with President Obama, but we have to go through this humiliation to watch a 60 year old movie?  Enough already!

 

Technorati Tags: film noir,double indemnity,Paul D. Marks,Paul Marks,Salahi,mystery,movies,James M. Cain,Raymond Chandler,Billy Wilder