Max Allan Collins's Blog, page 76

Current Deals

There are a lot of promotions going on right now, so I thought I’d collect them all in one post:

MICKEY SPILLANE ON SCREEN, a complete study of the television and film adaptations of Mike Hammer, from academic press McFarland, can be snagged at Barnes and Noble for 33% off, or $30.37. The tome was slated for a September 2012 release, but Max received his copies today, and McFarland’s online store lists the book as shipping now.

Two Nathan Hellers, TRUE CRIME and THE MILLION DOLLAR WOUND are both on sale on the Amazon Kindle store. TRUE CRIME is $1.99, with the end of sale unknown, and THE MILLION DOLLAR WOUND is also $1.99 through the end of May.

THE GOLIATH BONE, the chronologically last Mike Hammer, and the first by Mickey Spillane and M.A.C., is still a steal for the Kindle at $1.85.

QUARRY and QUARRY’S VOTE are discounted on the Kindle store, with the QUARRY $1.99 sale and QUARRY’S VOTE $1.99 sale extended until the end of May.

The QUARRY trade paperback is also 35% off, this week only, when purchased directly from Perfect Crime’s printer, Create Space. The entire Nolan series is also 20% off through the end of the month, and the deals can be combined in one order to save on shipping. Just add both codes below separately to your cart. At 20% off, orders of two or more will beat Amazon, and the more you buy, the better the deal. I suggest all of them, of course.

Nolan series 20% off code: LX2E2WBF

QUARRY 35% off code: 62LHK8WT

Create Space Links: QUARRY | FLY PAPER | HUSH MONEY | SCRATCH FEVER | SPREE | MOURN THE LIVING

And don’t forget to check out LADY, GO DIE!, the lost sequel to I, THE JURY, and ANTIQUES DISPOSAL, the newest Trash ‘n’ Treasures cozy from Barbara Allan. Both are in stores now!

Continue below for this week’s post from M.A.C.

The Weird Ways of the Net

For yet another week, I spent much of my time on a sort of internet tour for LADY, GO DIE! (out this week). Later in this update, I will provide links to various pieces I’ve written and interviews I’ve given. How odd it is, to be doing most of my promo on the web – not in book stores or even on TV or radio.

On the other hand, I should note that Barb and I have a book signing this coming Saturday, May 12, at Barnes & Noble in Davenport, Iowa, from 1 p.m. to 3. This is the first signing for both ANTIQUES DISPOSAL and LADY, GO DIE! It’s at North Park Mall, 320 W. Kimberly Road, Davenport, IA 52806.

But isn’t the internet weird? Sometimes wonderfully so. For decades, I wondered and even searched for Ennis Willie, author of the Sand novels that had (along with Richard Stark’s Parker series) inspired me as a teenage writer, in particular Nolan, the series Perfect Crime has recently reprinted in trade paperback. Then one day, out of the blue, I hear from Ennis Willie himself – neither a penname nor an African American (both had been speculated) – in my e-mail box. Since then, he was published two collections of his “Sand shockers” and I have written introductions to both.

Now I’m about to share with you an e-mail and my response. It comes from Ennis Willie’s 1960s editor at Merit Books. When I was 15 I wrote this gentleman, asking him if he’d look at my first novel, without telling him my age (the book was called The Gray Flannel Thugs). He said he’d look at the book. Meanwhile, forty-eight years later, this turned up in my e-mail box:

Max -

As an old man now, I was thinking about fiction I had enjoyed and Ennis Willie popped into my head. Wondered if he had written anything lately. Picked up “A Sand Shocker” from Amazon. Was surprised to see my name in it at least four times. Also, your editor used the short stories I had Willie do for Rascal. He never wrote any before I came onboard.

If you are interested, I might be able to fill you in on some of the Camerarts details. Although not there from the beginning, I did spend four years there.

Lastly, I was/am a big Dark Angel fan. Liked very much what you did on Before the Dawn. You’ve come a long way, baby.

Cheers,

Tony Licata

This was my somewhat astonished response:

Dear Tony –

How amazing to hear from you.

You have the honor of being the only editor who rejected me who I look back on fondly and with gratitude.

As you may recall, I had my parents drive me to your office in Chicago to deliver my first novel manuscript in person. I was, I believe, 15.

You wrote me a very long, helpful, encouraging editorial letter, and when I tried a novelette for Rascal, you responded with a similarly long and helpful letter. You didn’t have to do that. Hard to know just how much you aided me in my career at that very important juncture.

I wound up writing four novels in high school, and then the novel I wrote in community college (Mourn the Living) — very much a Sand imitation — got me into the undergrad Writers Workshop at Iowa City. Richard Yates, author of Revolutionary Road, was my instructor and mentor. The next two books I wrote sold before I got out of grad school, and that community college novel eventually got published, as well.

How odd and sweetly strange it is that you read one of my DARK ANGEL novels as a reader and not an editor. Somehow that’s the greatest compliment of all. I’d love to send a few other books of mine, not based on anybody else’s concepts, to show you how really far I’ve come.

Thank you for getting in touch with me, and thank you for the time you spent with an enthusiastic kid from Iowa, who was writing sex scenes long before he ever had any. Of course, I never did shoot anybody, either, and I’m still writing about that….

Warmly,

Max

* * *

I wrote a very in-depth piece about the process of putting LADY, GO DIE! and the other “lost” Hammer novels together for Lit Reactor.

Here’s a well-conducted interview about LADY, GO DIE! at Slacker Heroes.

The Slacker Heroes interviewer also did this nifty review of the book.

Another nice interview with lots of comics images can be found at CBR’s fun site.

MTV.com asked me to rate my top ten crime comics.

Flavorwire wanted a beginner’s guide to crime fiction, and I chose these ten books.

Finally, Criminal Element presented an excerpt from LADY, GO DIE!, but you won’t need to read that, will you? Since you’re going to buy the book this week….

M.A.C.

New Edition Nolan Trade Paperbacks 20% Off

To celebrate the new editions of heist artist Nolan’s adventures, Perfect Crime Books is offering a 20% discount through the end of May when ordering straight from the printer’s secure store at createspace.com. Each book comes with a new introduction from Max (aside from Mourn the Living, which includes the intro from the Five Star Press run). For me, shipping on one book came out to be around $3.50, and was only a couple dollars more for an order of all six, so the deal is better the more you buy.

Click on the covers below and enter the following code at checkout:

LX2E2WBF

For the maxallancollins.com book pages:

Fly Paper | Hush Money | Hard Cash | Scratch Fever | Spree | Mourn the Living

South Carolina Snaps / Quarry for $1.99

NEWS FLASH: QUARRY and QUARRY’S VOTE will be $1.99 on Kindle for 48 hours! First sale price on Quarry e-books.

QUARRY Kindle $1.99


QUARRY’S VOTE Kindle $1.99

This week my update will be a short one, because (a) I just finished writing eight blog entries in support of LADY, GO DIE! (links will be posted), and (b) I am providing a few pictures from our recent South Carolina trip for Mickey’s induction into the SC author’s hall of fame.

But I do need to mention that ANTIQUES DISPOSAL, the new hardcover, is out even as I type this, as is the mass-market paperback edition of ANTIQUES KNOCK-OFF.

Also, the Perfect Crime trade paperbacks (with new after words) of the Nolan series are available now or soon will be. They are FLY PAPER, HUSH MONEY, HARD CASH, SCRATCH FEVER, SPREE and MOURN THE LIVING. Actually, the MOURN after word is recycled from the Five Star edition. Otherwise, new stuff. [From Nate: Looks like Amazon has SPREE, FLY PAPER, and HARD CASH now, with the others coming soon. I'll make an announcement when they are all available.]

There’s a nice review here of the new Heller novella collection, TRIPLE PLAY.

And a really nice review of ANTIQUES DISPOSAL from the perceptive Craig Clarke can be found here.

Here’s a fun review of BYE BYE, BABY.

And a very nice recommendation for LADY, GO DIE! right here.

–

Left to right: Atlantic Ocean, MAC, Atlantic Ocean.

Left to right: MAC, Bogie pretending to be Hammer, Jim Traylor.

MAC and Jane Spillane

MAC sportsman

Potential Crusin’ venue?

M.A.C.

Antiques Disposal On Shelves Now, Antiques Bizarre Free On Kindle

Antiques Disposal comes out today, so be sure to check your local bookseller or purchase a copy online:

Antiques Disposal is the latest Barbara Allan collaboration and the sixth in the Trash ‘n’ Treasures cozy series, with Brandy and her mother Vivian entering the competitive—and deadly—world of storage auctions. But if you’re a fan of M.A.C.’s more hardboiled work, don’t let the word cozy fool you—this series is both tough and funny. Here’s what Ron Fortier of Pulp Fiction Reviews had to say:

“As a fan of hardboiled detective fiction … [cozies are] not my particular brand of tea…[But deciding I'd take a chance with Antiques Disposal] is probably one of the smartest things I’ve done in a while. Why? Well simply because the book is so damn funny, I honestly couldn’t put it down. And the characters! … There is a charm and decency to these characters that immediately grabbed me and had me caring for them from page one….if all of the Trash ‘n’ Treasures Mysteries are as wonderful as Antiques Disposal, then sign me up for the long haul.”

And Publisher’s Weekly liked it too, wrting: “A classic gathering of suspects, under the guise of auctioning off the cornet, leads to an unexpected denouement.”

Plus, if you’re still on the fence, or would just like to catch up on the series, Amazon’s running a sale on the e-book of Antiques Bizarre. And it’s a heck of a sale at 100% off. I’m assuming this is very time limited, so act quickly. Here’s the link:

http://amzn.to/JnRPmN

Your Southern Correspondent

As I write this, I’m in a Holiday Inn Express in Murrell’s Inlet, South Carolina, shacked up with a great-looking blonde. That the blonde in question is my wife Barb only takes the slightest bit of the fun out of it.

We are here for one of our periodic meetings with Jane Spillane, Mickey’s lovely, energetic widow. We today went over the inventory of unpublished Spillane material, discussing what will be doing when the six substantial Hammer manuscripts have all been completed and published. Hint: there are three more, less substantial but very interesting Hammer manuscripts beyond the initial six. Plus there are five more shorter fragments that will make short stories (an eventual Hammer short story collection is planned).

What brought us here, however, was to participate in the induction of Mickey Spillane into the South Caroline Academy of Authors – their Hall of Fame. Mickey, of course, would have recoiled at being termed an “author,” and would have informed one and all that he was a writer. The difference between authors and writers? Writers make money.

TRIPLE PLAY was published last week, and I wrote a brief blog post about it here.

And here’s a cool review of WAR OF THE WORLDS MURDER.

Have I mentioned that AmazonEncore will be bringing out all six “disaster” mysteries in new editions (and on e-book)?

M.A.C.

The Goliath Bone Kindle Sale

I was just browsing through Amazon and noticed the kindle version of The Goliath Bone is currently on sale for $1.88. I don’t know how long this will last, so if you haven’t read first Spillane/Collins Mike Hammer collaboration (also, chronologically the last in the series), now’s your chance!

Sharable Link: http://amzn.to/HR5aHI

Be sure to continue below for this week’s update!

Nate in Japan (Collins, not Heller)

This week I’m turning the update over to my son Nathan, who has just returned from a month-long stay in Japan. As some of you know, Nate is a Japanese-to-English translator (he just completed a massive METAL GEAR SOLID novel for Viz). His girl Abby joined him for the final two weeks, and he proposed. She accepted. You’ll see some of that in his great pics below.

First though, I do want to share a couple of links.

TRIPLE PLAY, the new Nate Heller novella collection from AmazonEncore has just been published; buy it here.

The first review for TRIPLE PLAY is in from that great writer Ed Gorman.

The great review site Bookgasm has posted a rave for LADY, GO DIE!

The anniversary of the Titanic sinking has given THE TITANIC MURDERS some attention around the web, notably here.

M.A.C.

—

Nate here:

I’ve been going through my photos and posting them on my personal blog here, but I wanted to share some of the highlights, and some others that I haven’t caught up to yet.

Artisan fair in Okazaki, Japan. Featured center is a giant Japanese drum and locally woven fabric. The exhibition took place inside an old sake brewery with an original wood roof.

My friend and fellow University of Iowa alum Dodzi in a Book Off, a national chain of used bookstores that sells not only novels but manga, cds, movies, and video games. These stores are everywhere—most towns have at least one, and my home city of Okazaki (with a population of around 370,000) has three. Nagoya (think Chicago and its suburbs) has around twenty-five. Most books are half-price, while overstock (probably about a third of each store’s stock) is a dollar each. Each time I go to Japan, I take a day with Dodzi and hit as many stores as possible to stock up on reading for the next year or two.

A demonstration of Japanese pearl diving. The women divers are known as ama (yes, as in You Only LIve Twice). I’m not sure if ama still do most of the actual harvesting or if it’s just for a tourist show, but they did go underwater and come back up quite a few oysters before retreating to the heated boat (The water was about 45 degrees.)

Forest at Ise Grand Shrine. Japanese shrines and temples (the difference being that shrines are Shinto and temples are Buddhist) are often located in enclaves of natural forest, doubling as both religious site and national park. Even a small, local shrine inside a city will occasionally have a half-acre or so of woodland, or even a small playground area for children. This stone retaining wall, part of the much larger shrine complex at Ise, was probably built hundreds or even thousands of years ago, and the forest permitted to reclaim it.

Ema (small wooden plaques) at Fushimi Inari shrine. These wooden plaques can be purchased at many Shinto shrines for a few dollars. Typically, a prayer or wish is written on the reverse side and hung at the shrine. The fox head ema of this shrine are unique in that the front can be drawn on as well.

Me at Fushimi Inari Head Shrine, Kyoto. Shinto Shrines have torii gates to mark the entrance into sacred land. As a mark of the shrine’s importance, Fushimi Inari has thousands of the gates, often spaced close enough to give the impression of a tunnel. When we asked someone why there were so many torii, he said, “Because more is better.” There’s probably a more historical or religious explanation, but that’s good enough for me.

Sunset at Miyajima. The giant torii seems to float on the water and shows the competing theory, “Bigger is better.” When the tide goes out, people can (and do) walk right up to it.

Me with a lifesize statue of Solid Snake from the immensely popular Metal Gear Solid video game series. My trip to Japan was in part a celebration of completing my third novel translation, a novelization of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The book is at the printers now!

I’ll close the update with one more picture, and what was definitely the highlight of the trip. At the Linx Resort on Mikawa Bay, I asked Abby, my girlfriend of two years to marry me. She said yes.

By Hook or By Crook, Free E-Book

I'm still in Japan through the rest of the week, but I saw this on Amazon, snatched it, and thought I should share.

By Hook or By Crook (Best Crime & Mystery Stories of the Year)

This (free, for now at least) collection includes 28 shorts including "The Big Switch," a Mike Hammer story by Max Allan Collins and Mickey Spillane.

Chinatown Revisited

At last a Blu-ray of CHINATOWN has been released, and it looks glorious. I haven't listened to the commentary featuring writer Robert Towne and director (though not of this film) David Fincher. But the feature, on this upteenth visit by me, once again wove its spellbinding narrative.

As the author of the Nathan Heller novels, I was struck by how much I was influenced by the film, not in the obvious way of its being a period private eye film with a historical basis; but by two other, more subtle aspects of the film.

First, Jake Gittes is a rather typically cocky P.I. who is able to master his little corner of the universe. But when cast into the bigger world that is the corruption of the USA in general and L.A. in particular, he is out of his depth ("You may think you know what you're dealing with…"/"Forget it, Jake – it's Chinatown"). Heller was definitely influenced by the post-Watergate conspiracy approach of the film, and while Heller (like Gittes) always has small victories, he cannot triumph over the powers-that-be, whether government or mob. It's significant in CHINATOWN that while Jake is pretty much in every frame of the film for its duration, he is finally, literally yanked out of the frame – and stripped of his ability to have an impact on the story – as its conclusion tragically unfolds.

Second, while Jack Gittes reflects Robert Towne's respect for Raymond Chandler, Towne nonetheless set out specifically to make Gittes the opposite of Phillip Marlowe (this I confirmed in an interview online). Gittes takes divorce cases, he'll sleep with clients, he'll take a bribe, and…any of that sound familiar? I set out in TRUE DETECTIVE specifically to break every one of the rules Chandler set down in his "down these means streets" code. Towne, I have learned, essentially did the same thing.

Those of you who love CHINATOWN but who have dismissed its sequel, THE TWO JAKES (1990), should strongly consider watching the DVD of the latter after viewing the Blu-ray of the former. Whether you disliked THE TWO JAKES or avoided seeing it out of misguided respect to CHINATOWN, you need to give it a serious look. It works extremely well when your mind is fresh with the first Gittes film, as it's a coda of sorts that is intertwined with CHINATOWN both on the plot and thematic level. On its own terms, it's an intelligent private eye film, directed by Nicholson with restraint and sense of style and mood. As a ten years later continuation of CHINATOWN, the second film has resonance and substance.

Of course, THE TWO JAKES is not on the level of CHINATOWN. Nicholson studiously avoided any melodrama and even left some plot elements (including a killing and a great post-courtroom comeuppance for a Noah Cross-style villain) on the cutting room floor, after his initial cut was deemed too lengthy. Apparently Towne was unhappy with those cuts, but that doesn't keep THE TWO JAKES from being a worthy, rewarding coda to the greatest private eye film of all time (yes, even better than KISS ME DEADLY).

For a film to be great, the gods must smile – everything must fall into place, all creative talents must be perfect for their roles (whether actor or otherwise) and at the top of their game. Luck and magic must happen. CHINATOWN originally had what is said to be a lousy score, and Jerry Goldsmith was brought in at the last minute to write (in a little over a week) what is now considered one of most memorable film scores of all time. THE TWO JAKES suffers from what is at best a serviceable score (by Van Dyke Parks), and at worst an intrusive one.

Nonetheless, it too deserves a Blu-ray. On my sound system, the unmemorable music swamps the dialogue; perhaps the Blu-ray format, with its excellent sound, would remedy that. But it took Paramount this long to release CHINATOWN, so….

And I suppose it's too late to hope that Nicholson and Towne might get together one last time for GITTES VS. GITTES, the third film in the trilogy, derailed by the lack of commercial success for THE TWO JAKES (not intended as a coda, but a pastoral fugue of a second act). The trilogy was to be water (CHINATOWN), fire (THE TWO JAKES) and air (GITTES VS. GITTES). The third film would have been set in 1968 and deal with the end of no fault divorce, a reclusive Howard Hughes-type villain, and the LA freeway system. Call that one the greatest private eye film never made.

M.A.C.