Ed Gorman's Blog, page 248

Ron Goulart; End of It All

[image error]



One of my all-time favorite magazine scores again with issue #16. What I like especially about Cinema Retro is that its writers always find a new slant on material, even if it's a subject that's been dealt with many times before. This issue is packed with those kind of surprises. One caution: Cinema Retro frequently sells out. It's best to subscribe s you're sure not to miss an issue.



---------------------------Ron Goulart



The vigor and economy of Ron Goulart's writing has always fascinat...

Pro-File: Robert S. Levinson

[image error]


PRO-FILE: ROBERT S. LEVINSON

1. Tell us about your current novel (or project).

I've been setting and getting ready to tackle a series of library and indie bookstore readings that kicks off mid-March and runs a month in support of my eighth book and fourth stand-alone, THE TRAITOR IN US ALL, shipping about now and, if you'll permit me a brief commercial break, goes something like this:

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, two teenage girls are brutally murdered and a third kidnapped in...

New Book: The Guilt Edge by Robert J. Randisi

[image error]

The Guilt Edge

Robert J. Randisi

John C. Boland is a talented writer who has twice been nominated for a Shamus Award for Best Short story--once in 1984, and again in 2009. Also had several books published in the 90's from Pocket Books. John and I met back in the 70's.I think, when we were both members of MWA. When I emailed him last year to congratulate him on his nomination he told me he was starting a small press called Perfect Crime Books. Immediately, I wanted to do something with him. I...

New Books" The Traitor In Us All by Robert S. Levinson

[image error]
[image error]

From Robert S. Levinson:

"An embrace."

That's how Dan Boone closes a letter to Jack Sothern in THE TRAITOR IN US ALL.

Boone is a failed American entertainer who settled behind the Iron Curtain in the years before the Berlin Wall came down and achieved the success that had eluded him at home, fame and glory far beyond his wildest hopes and dreams.

Sothern is the down-at-the heels journalist he turns to for help when he makes a dangerous decision to return stateside, hopefully cast off his repu...

Pro-File: Interview with St. Martin's Toni Plummer

[image error]

Pro-File: Toni Plummer

Toni Plummer grew up in South El Monte , California , a working-class suburb of Los Angeles . She earned a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame and a Masters in Professional Writing from USC. Toni is an Associate Editor at Thomas Dunne Books, a division of St. Martin 's Press, where she acquires fiction and nonfiction. Some of her authors include New York Times bestselling author of Slumdog Millionaire Vikas Swarup , California Book Award winner Michael J...

The End of It All & Other Stories

[image error]

Ed here: When the two volumes of my Collected Short Stories were published in the UK many of you felt that the price was out of range. So I've chosen what I feel are the strongest stories from each volume, including some that have never been collected before and made a deal with Ramble House over here. This edition is a lot more budget-friendly. Thanks.

FROM RAMBLE HOUSE:

THE END OF IT ALL and Other Stories

Ed Gorman

23 short stories from the pen of the master of horror and suspense, Ed Gorma...

In books, what looks like death is really progress

Ed here: Steve Pearlstein almost always finds an interesting angle on publishing news. Here's a excerpt from his column today:


Steve Pearlstein from The Washington Post 3 Feb 2010

Last weekend, a noisy little melodrama in the book publishing world involving Amazon.com and Macmillan provided a wonderful case study of the radical transformation taking place all across the economy as a result of the digital revolution.

In books, what looks like death is really progress.

Wednesday, Feb. 3 at 11:00am ...

Forgotten Books: The Scarf by Robert Bloch; Mystery Scene Winter Issue

"This is a thread that runs through all of my mystery/suspense fiction," Bloch has pointed out. "The terrible inability to understand the irrational behavior of certain human beings, what is it that impels that sometime senseless sadistic cruelty, and I tried to familiarize myself with it because I can recognize that, deep down within, there are certain of those aspects within myself which I probably manage to exorcise by way of the typewriter."

This was Robert Bloch talking to an interviewer ...

Tina Brown on the Andrew Young Book

I've been around enough pols in my life to know that most of them have their whipping boys and girls. Nothing new there. Budd Schulberg noted this very well in A Face in The Crowd and that was in the late Fifties. But Tina Brown really nailed it beautifully in her piece on the Daily Beast this morning. The relationship between tyrant and servant--and this goes for any such relationship in any field. It's standard in rock and roll and Hwood. I've seen it in corporations. I like Brown btw. I kn...

Rip Torn

In the New York Observer Spencer Morgan writes about not only Rip Torn's current problems but some of his dilemmas in the past. In case you haven't heard:

"State police responded to an alarm at the Litchfield Bancorp building in Salisbury, CT at 9:40 PM last night. Police say they found Torn "with a loaded revolver" and he was "highly intoxicated." Law enforcement sources tell us Torn gained access through a broken window, which they believe Torn broke himself. Torn was taken to the Troop B b...