Jeffrey L. Blehar's Blog, page 9
October 11, 2017
Influences: Edvard Grieg
A musical composer may seem an odd choice to be listed among the influences for this blog, but Grieg’s music (among others) is a large influence. Grieg’s music foreshadows the score to film. His music evoked the ebb and tide of emotion found in film. Countless movie composers looked to Grieg as a jumping off point (Universal took from Grieg directly in the early 1930’s).
The two suites of Peer Gynt is Grieg’s masterpiece. He originally wrote the themes as the incidental music for Henrik I...
October 10, 2017
Influences: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) was one of the most prolific writers of all time. Burroughs was discharged from the military upon the discovery of a heart condition. He bounced around, working many different types of jobs (a common theme among pulp writers). He spent time as a ranch-hand in Idaho, worked for his father, and began writing while he was a pencil-sharpener wholesaler. He took a chance on the pulps, because he believed he could come up with stories better than most of those h...
Thank You for downloading Nighthawks
I wanted o thank everyone who downloaded the free Nighthawks: A Book of the Broken ebook. I appreciated the help and received some great feedback. A new, version has just been listed on Amazon.
If you read it and liked it, please rate it or review it on Amazon. It would help immensely.
If you like supernatural, detective crime stories, Nighthawks may be just what you are looking for.
AdvertisementsOctober 8, 2017
The Machines: Hammond
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The Hammond Typewriter first appeared on the market in 1884 as the first alternative to the Remington Standard. It featured a type-shuttle, which could be easily switched to foreign language boards. The hammer struck the paper from behind, unlike most other machines. The key layout was named, the “Ideal Keyboard” as opposed to the common, QWERTY. At the heart of the Hammond is a turret of semi-circular pins that are pushed when a key is pressed.
The Hammond 1 appeared on the market as th...
October 7, 2017
Saturday Spotlight: Wait for the Dawn
Wait for the Dawn
Author: Martha Albrand
Cover Art: Rafael de Soto
Originally Published?
Reviewed Edition: Dell 544 (1950)
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Martha Albrand was the pen-name of Heidi Huberta Freybe Loewengard (that is a mouthful). She achieved some fame as a mystery, romance writer using post World War II as her backdrop.
A woman, Christine, living in France loves the perfect man, but she discovers he may not be so perfect, after all. The rich, handsome Victor sweeps Christine off her feet. She fails to rec...
October 6, 2017
Adrift (A Short Story)
Taufik sat in the cramped, hot interrogation cell. There was no air-conditioning. He had sweated through his thin, cotton shirt and was thirsty. He was scared. He had done his civic duty and know he was being treated like a common criminal. He had a business to run, but here he was waiting for someone to tell him why he was being held. This is what one gets for trying to do the right thing.
The door swung open, bringing a small gust of air with it. Not only was the room hot, it was sti...
October 5, 2017
Influences: Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (1904-1991) was the “breakthrough” writer. He managed to walk that thin line between the pulps and literary acclaim that nearly all pulp writers failed to accomplish while they were alive. He drew the line himself, referring to his work as either ‘entertainments’ (thrillers) or ‘novels’ (literary works). He brought a Catholic perspective to his world of moral ambiguity.
He spent much of his life travelling to wild and remote places. He was even recruited by MI-6 to ser...
October 4, 2017
Influences: Patricia Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) got her start as a comic book story writer. In 1950 she published Strangers on a Train, one of the great first novels. Alfred Hitchcock would turn it into one of the top movies of 1951, securing Highsmith’s reputation as an author of psychologically complex thriller. Her short stories made regular appearances in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine throughout the 1950’s.
1955 saw the first of five appearances of Tom Ripley, the author’s most enduring creation. Wi...
October 3, 2017
Influences: H. Rider Haggard
Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1856-1925), father of the ‘Lost World’ genre of fantasy is often overshadowed by those who followed. This is an undeserved place among the imaginative fiction writers of the late nineteenth century. Like many of his contemporaries, an air of white supremacy runs through his work. Sadly, this is the most common trope in early lost world and lost civilization stories from this time. While not trying to skirt the issue, it must be said Haggard was the most sympatheti...
October 2, 2017
The Machines: Blickensderfer
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The Blickensderfer Typewriter (you have to love that name) was patented in 1891. The Number 1 and Number 5 were released to the public at the World’s Columbian Expo in Chicago in 1893. The Blickensderfer writers were the first truly portable typewriters. The other draw to these machines was the price-tag: $35 (compared to $100 for Remington, Hammond and Yost machines).
The Blickensderfer abandoned the QWERTY keyboard, which was developed for mechanical reasons. The layout avoided key jam...
