Ed Gorman's Blog, page 223

Amazing statistics

Ed here: We've been told since the seventies that romance novels of various kinds outsell all other types of genre fiction. But this new Harris poll contradicts this.One question I have though is--what constitutes thriller/mystery and what constitutes romance?
For instance Is a paranormal romantic thriller a romance or a thriller? Anyhow here are the results:

Harris Poll Finds Mysteries, Thrillers Edge Out Romance Novels
By Publishers Weekly Staff
Oct 07, 2010
ShareThis | | Reader Comments (0)
A new Harris Poll is out, and among its findings are that mysteries, thrillers, and crime novels beat out chick-lit and romance novels by a large margin; and that more women than men read mysteries, thrillers, and crime novels.

The poll, conducted among 2,775 U.S. adults online this past August, found that among those who say they read at least one book in an average year, equal numbers—about eight in 10—said they have read a novel or nonfiction book in the past year. Almost half (48%) of fiction readers said they read mysteries, thrillers and crime novels, while a quarter read science fiction (26%) and another quarter (24%) read "literature." One in five said they read romance novels (21%) and one in 10 have read graphic novels (11%) in the past year. Chick-lit (8%) and western (5%) books are less popular among respondents.

for the rest go here:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by...

New Books: Jan Grape, Carolyn Hart

[image error]

From Jan Grape

Each writer has their own method to begin a book or story. For me, the majority of the time, I hear voices in my head. And the best thing is that no one calls the men in the white coats to carry me away.

In What Doesn't Kill You, recently released by Five Star, I began hearing a young woman's voice. Shortly thereafter, I realized this was a grown-up version of a little girl I had actually seen several years ago.

I was in a large chain bookstore when I noticed a little girl, probably eight or nine years old. She was skinny, had a long blonde pony tail and both her ears stuck out like the open back doors on a car. She was with her grandfather and I overheard him asking a clerk for help in locating a reference book on legal documents.

The little girl picked up and looked longingly at several books, but I could tell they probably didn't have the money to buy one. She finally angled over to the bookmarks and picked out two. But when her grandfather came back he said, "No," they couldn't buy anything today.

I wanted to buy the bookmark for her yet I knew that if I offered, the grandfather would be highly insulted. So they left, but I vowed that one day I'd write a book for her.

A young girl who told me her name is Cory is talking to her best friend, Ty-Ty. She, of course, is not that little girl from the bookstore except in my imagination. When both her parents were killed in a car wreck she went to live with her bachelor uncle, Giff Purvis in the small town of Bent Bell, Texas. She loves her Uncle Giff and her horse, Miss Dumpsie, but she can't help thinking about leaving this small town and heading out into the big wide world.

Cory and her friend Ty-Ty find a body in the old Whalen house and shortly afterwards, Ty-Ty, nineteen and a half-native American, is accused of the murder. Cory is determined to prove otherwise despite all efforts to stop her investigating.
She did give me several moments of apprehension because it has been a very long time since I was Cory's age. But I grew up in a small West Texas town and knew the wonderful folks that populate small towns so I could relate to the people who popped up in What Doesn't Kill You and started talking to me.

----------------Carolyn Hart

[image error]

The late Bailey Ruth Raeburn struggles to protect a beautiful, willful woman determined to play hunt-the-killer in GHOST IN TROUBLE.

Bailey Ruth, an impetuous redheaded ghost, is up to her coppery curls in challenges as she deals with a recalcitrant charge, a fraudulent medium, a mother's heartbreak, old passions and new, and a telltale rawhide dog bone.
Heaven help her!

Merry, Merry Ghost, second in the series, will be available in paperback October 26. Bailey Ruth's debut novel - Ghost at Work - is available in paperback, E book, and Books on Tape.. www.CarolynHart.com

Moonchasers - optioned again

I'm not sure how many times my short novel Moonchasers has been optioned but it's got to be six or seven times by now. It was prominently announced by the producer of The Shawshank Redemption as her next production the morning after she won an Academy Award. There is an Evelyn Waugh novel in the travails that ensued.

Next a then-hot producer-writer said he was sure we could get a big name director and funding because of his adaptation. The trouble being that I hated his script so much I refused to sell him another option. Then a couple of falling A stars whom I admired very much tried to get funding but couldn't. And then a TV dude who saw it as Lassie with guns came up with a script that had me laughing out loud even through the supposedly melancholy scenes. Yadda Yadda Yadda.

Pam Susemiehl is and has been David Mamet's assistant for a number of years. She's worked on many of his films and produced some of his Tv projects. She's also a screenwriter. Her intention is to write and produce what I assume would be a low-budget version of the book. She is talking to directors now. I wish both of us good luck.

Tony Curtis

Ed here: With all the Tony Curtis pieces on the web you'd think there would be nothing left to say. But Esquire's Tom Junod's piece may be the most incisive.

Tom Junod:

He made quite an impression on me, Tony did. I still remember sitting in Spago with him and Jill, and what he said after Jill St. John came over to his table, with Robert Wagner, and made nice to him: "What a piece of shit." I still remember what he said about younger women, and fidelity to older ones: "Can you imagine Tony Curtis with a woman my age?" I still remember the story he told about Billy Wilder — about what Billy Wilder said to him after Tony's son OD'd and Tony stumbled one night back to Spago, nearly blind with guilt and grief and remorse, and wound up kneeling in front of Billy Wilder at his familiar table, asking, "Billy, how could this happen, how could my boy do such a thing?": "You, Tony. You showed him how." The Hollywood Tony lived in was that kind of place — a barbaric place, in which the cost of being as beautiful as Tony Curtis or Marilyn Monroe or even Jill St. John was putting your beauty in the hands of someone as merciless as Billy Wilder — and yet Tony survived it, because he never forgot that it was the beautiful ones who got laid, and never ceased delighting in the fact that he, Bernie Schwartz from the Bronx, got to fuck Marilyn Monroe.

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/the-side/featu...


for the rest go here:
http://www.esquire.com/the-side/featu...

The Autumn Mystery Scene

[image error]

Ed here: I have to say that as someone who spent nearly eighteen years along with Bob Randisi working on Mystery Scene the issue that Kate and Brian have put together is especially notable. Not only are the articles and features something every mystery lover will enjoy--the pages are all slick and there is four color from cover to cover. A huge step forward and a milestone in the magazine's history.

Table of Contents

Features

Kathy Reichs: Bones and Beyond
Her bestselling novels about a forensic anthropologist, Temperance Brennan, and the hit TV series they inspired are only the beginning for this powerhouse.
by Oline H. Cogdill

William Kent Krueger
Long known as a "writer's writer," the word is spreading about this author's richly characterized, densely plotted,and emotionally resonant novels.
by Lynn Kaczmarek

Murder on the Menu
There's nothing more delicious than crime writers cooking up trouble—and writing down recipes.
by Kevin Burton Smith


Lester Dent: The Man Behind Doc Savage
As the creator of an iconic hero, Lester Dent was hugely successful, prolific, influential—and virtually unknown.
by Michael Mallory


The Write Stuff: Authors in Crime
The literary life is thrilling, dangerous, even deadly—well, at least it is in these films.
by Art Taylor


Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Sister
There's a strong case to be made that Enola is the best detective in the Holmes family.
by Cheryl Solimini


The Murders in Memory Lane: Charles Willeford
A writer as idiosyncratic as his characters.
by Lawrence Block

What's Happening...With C.C. Benison
by Brian Skupin



Departments


At the Scene
by Kate Stine

Hints & Allegations
Writers on Reading: Deon Meyer. 2010 Thriller Awards, 2010 David Award, 2010 Ned Kelly Awards, The New Hawaii 5-0.

Our Readers Recommend
by Mystery Scene readers

Writing Life: Gormania
Forgotten Books; Nancy Pickard; Frenzy; Perry Mason.
by Ed Gorman

New Books Essays
Bowling for Rhinos
by Betty Webb

Back Home
by Michael W. Sherer

Dateline: Hemingway
by Diane Gilbert Madsen

Boston, Inside Out
by Rosemary Herbert

Crime Scene Crazy
by L.J. Sellers

Sounds of Suspense: Audiobooks Reviewed
by Dick Lochte

Child's Play: Books for Young Sleuths
by Roberta Rogow

Short & Sweet: Short Stories Considered
by Bill Crider

Small Press Reviews: Covering the Independents
by Betty Webb

Very Original: Paperback Originals Reviewed
by Lynne Maxwell

What About Murder? Reference Books Reviewed
by Jon L. Breen

Mystery Scene Reviews


Miscellaneous


The Docket

Letters

Mystery Miscellany
by Louis Phillips

Advertiser Index

Advertising Info

Good Reads: The Ghost

I've always liked urbane cynical narrators.The Brits are especially good at the game and that's certainly the case with Robert Harris and his novel The Ghost, which Roman Polanski filmed successfully as The Ghostwriter.

I can't see Tony Blair lying his ass of on TV while book touring without thinking of this novel for The Ghost is clearly about him (some in the British press accused Harris of everything but treason for publishing this novel).

What we have here is a writer who's ghosted a number of autobiographies of celebrity figures. In prestige and money writing for a recently resigned Prime Minister is an enormous step up. He will earn ten million to step in and write the book in a month. The reason for the rush? The previous ghost drowned under strange circumstances and wrote a dull draft that wouldn't sell even with a huge promotion.

Adam Lang, the former Prime Minister, is presently residing in a mansion on Martha's Vineyard. It is here the ghost Rick begins to interview him. Rick soon learns that Lang has at his beck and call his wife, his loyal chief staffer and mistress, and enough armed security men to start a small war. The atmosphere is not unlike that of a horror film. Whispers, harsh voices behind closed doors, threats.

He also begins to understand that Lang is an empty suit. Bright, handsome, fashionable, there is no there there. Except for one thing. The International Court has indicted Lange for rounding up British citizens during the Iraq war and turning them over to the American authorities where they were water boarded. One of them, a nineteen-year-old, died. The British public and pols despise him and want him punished. America is protecting him, which is why he's here, hiding out in the mansion in a bitter winter that Harris evokes stylishly and hauntingly.

If you want a good, angry, occasionally droll (Harris has a lot of fun skewering the publishing industry) this is well worth the paperback or e book money. A truly enjoyable book.

Locus - Pulp Fiction

[image error]

Really entertaining and informative discussion of pulp fiction in the new issue of Locus. Robert Silverberg, Richard Lupoff and Frank M. Robinson discuss the topic at length. Also an excellent interview with Barry Malzberg. Plus all the usual great Locus news stories and reviews.

Knopf Buys 4 Great Pages For $2.5 Million

Knopf Buys 4 Great Pages For $2.5 Million

By MIKE FLEMING | Wednesday September 29, 2010 @ 7:27pm EDT

Tags: Alfred Knopf, Andrew Wylie, Book Publishing, Book Publishing Deals, Kiran Desai, Orhan Pamuk, Robin Desser, Sonny Mehta, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

|
EXCLUSIVE: The deals are popping this week, and publishing is not immune. On the basis of a 4-page proposal, Alfred Knopf's Sonny Mehta has paid $2.5 million for The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, the new novel by Kiran Desai. She's the Booker Prize-winning author of The Inheritance of Loss. Robin Desser is the acquiring editor. This is the time for big book deals in the run up to the Frankfurt Book Fair, which gets underway in Germany next week. The publishing crowd was also buzzing over the fact that the deal was brokered by Andrew Wylie, who signed her 2 weeks ago from Inkwell Management. She left to join Wylie because he reps her partner, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk.

Forgotten Music: Dakota Staton

Wikipedia:
Born in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she attended George Westinghouse High School and studied music at the Filion School of Music in Pittsburgh. Later she performed regularly in the Hill District, a jazz hotspot, as a vocalist with the Joe Wespray Orchestra, a popular Pittsburgh orchestra. She next spent several years in the nightclub circuit in such cities as Detroit, Indianapolis, Cleveland and St. Louis. While in New York, she was noticed singing at a Harlem nightclub called the Baby Grand by Dave Cavanaugh, a producer for Capitol Records. She was signed and released several singles, her success leading her to win Down Beat magazine's "Most Promising New Comer" award in 1955. In 1958, Staton wed Talib Ahmad Dawud, a black Antiguan Muslim trumpeter and noted critic of Elijah Muhammad[3].
She released several critically acclaimed albums in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including: The Late, Late Show (1957), whose title track was her biggest hit, In the Night (1957), a collaboration with pianist George Shearing, Dynamic! (1958) and Dakota at Storyville (1961), a live album recorded at the Storyville jazz club in Boston. Staton moved to England in the mid-1960s. She continued to record semi-regularly.

Ed here: I've been listening to Dakota since the Fifties. She sang beautifully about nighttime, infusing songs with her own melancholy take on our vale of tears. Two or three times I thought she was ready for the kind of breakout that Dinah Washington enjoyed at the same time. But it wasn't to be. She's well worth listening to.

Sometimes in the 90s somebody wrote me a letter, said they'd read my novel The Autumn Dead and particularly appreciated my riff on Dakota Staton. She said she was a friend of Dakota's and that Dakota was very pleased that I had written about her. Really. Listen to her.

Forgotten Books: THE DEAD BEAT by Robert Bloch

[image error]

I've always admired the novel that Robert Bloch wrote immediately following publication of Psycho. I am one of four people on the planet who can make that claim.

What I've always liked about it is the way Bloch took a sleazy no-good psychotic bastard and set him right down in the middle of a Midwestern family that could have doubled as sit-com people. Bloch really makes you care about these folks and how they are so slow to catch on to the psychotic jazz musician they make the mistake of trying to help.

The title signals the era, the early sixties when the Beats were so much in the news. Bloch shows us a kind of faux beat existence with the musicians we meet early on. Bloch gets the one night stand life (in both meanings of that phrase) down just as well as he gets the middle-class days and nights of the family the musician will ultimately turn on. For Bloch this is a return of sorts to his Fifties paperbacks such as The Will To Kill and The Kidnapper. Jim Thompson country before anybody knew who Thompson was. (Bloch bristled when I asked him once if Thompson had ever been an influence--he said he'd never heard of Thompson until much, much later.)

Reviewers of the time didn't like the relatvely slow pace. They also complained that the novel didn't offer the shock or sass of Psycho (I say sass because the novel is very funny in places--something Hitchcock picked up on immediately). I like the treachery and the darkness here. I didn't used to believe in evil. But now I do. Robert Bloch brings to life the kind of evil all around us.