David Cranmer's Blog, page 50
April 24, 2016
April 22, 2016
April 21, 2016
Where All Light Tends to Go
My latest review for Macmillan's Criminal Element blog. Sample:Consumers of crime fiction are living through an epic cultural period, triumphing the underside of “The American Dream,” where the working man and woman worth their salt has been pushed to the border of our humanity, and where gun-running for a motorcycle gang that works with drug cartels for protection or selling crank to pay for cancer treatments is presented as fair and judicious life choices.
RAZORED ZEN: Reviews: Torn and Frayed, and, HWA Poetry Showcase...
RAZORED ZEN: Reviews: Torn and Frayed, and, HWA Poetry Showcase...: Here's a couple of reviews I put up on Goodreads lately. I also posted these on Amazon but they took off the HWA one, probably because I...
April 18, 2016
April 16, 2016
April 14, 2016
The Drifter Detective #7: Torn And Frayed
Sometimes I’ll pull off the shelf a Ross Macdonald book featuring the world weary Lew Archer, P.I., and other times I might choose to read several passages from the absurdist essayist/novelist Albert Camus. From these two vastly different entities, my own story TORN AND FRAYED transpired for the seventh installment in the Drifter Detective series. I’m hoping I’ve created a plot without the standard tropes associated with the genre, serving up a splash of absurdism. Amazon description reads:The road may have finally gotten to Jack Laramie. After a heated incident at a roadside diner, uncharacteristic of the wandering P.I., he decides he’s in need of a break and accepts a steady gig as a handyman at the ranch of an elderly farmer. Thinking he’s going to have an easy time of it tending to the chickens and pigs, Jack soon finds that it isn’t so different from his usual job when family secrets and money-hungry scoundrels threaten to pull him into a web of deception that might just tear him down.
Amazon ebook link.
*print edition forthcoming soon.
April 12, 2016
Kevin's Corner: Review: "The Lawyer: Six Guns At Sundown" by Eric ...
Kevin's Corner: Review: "The Lawyer: Six Guns At Sundown" by Eric ...: Author Eric Beetner continues the excellent The Lawyer series published by Beat to a Pulp with his entry Six Guns At Sundown . The Lawyer...
April 9, 2016
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
It took me four months to watch the biggest film of 2015—Star Wars: The Force Awakens—and here are a few haphazard thoughts from my first, late-to-the-game viewing last night:What a strong actor Daisy Ridley (Rey) is in every scene. All the youngers are marvelous but this lady has serious acting chops—looking forward to watching her in material beyond a space opera. And for the returning veterans: Great to see Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewie (Peter Mayhew) though Carrie Fisher seemed stiff as Leia—uncomfortably so. And, hey, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Han sure could have used you a little sooner. (I’m sure that will all be explained in further detail but talk about sitting this one out, right?) That being acknowledged when we do see the last of the Jedi’s, this fanboy, was seven-years-old again, it was 1977, in Dryden, New York, and I was watching the original with my mom and dad at a drive-in. The Force Awakens is what ‘going to the movies’ is all about.
Minor nitpicks: Believe this point has been voiced in numerous fandom circles: found it amusing that Luke, Han Solo, etc., are myths after only thirty odd years. But, who knows, sands through the hourglass may move faster this galaxy far, far away. And I would have liked to have seen more of Chewbacca in a couple of key scenes.
When talent, writing, and direction is packaged fresh, it’s almost eye-opening and awe-inspiring how a plot that has so many borrowed elements from Star Wars: A New Hope can seem born again. J.J. Abrams deserves a ton of credit for paying homage and also providing a fresh direction.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a whole lot of fun that I recommend to everyone … especially us old scruffy-looking nerf herders.
