Ed Gorman's Blog, page 87

PRO-FILE TOM KAKONIS TREASURE COAST

http://www.mysterythrillerbooks.com/book/treasure-coast/

1. Tell us about your book / books that Brash is publishing. Brash Books is planning to reissue as E-books my six crime novels published from 1988-1997 and long since out of print.  Additionally, they are offering an entirely new, previously unpublished novel entitled TREASURE COAST.  This book is set in south Florida and peopled by an ensemble cast of losers caught up in a misguided kidnapping scheme that, sometimes comically, often violently, goes disastrously awry.  It will be available early in September.2. Can you give a sense of what you're working on now?Currently I'm attempting to put together a collection of short stories written over the years though never published, and held together by a common theme of warped and thwarted ambition.  The working title for this venture is A MAN'S AMBITION and OTHER STORIES.  Also, I'm blocking out the elements (characters, venues, narrative line) for another crime novel, a robbery gone wrong story tentatively titled IDIOT'S TALE.

2. Can you give a sense of what you're working on now?Currently I'm attempting to put together a collection of short stories written over the years though never published, and held together by a common theme of warped and thwarted ambition.  The working title for this venture is A MAN'S AMBITION and OTHER STORIES.  Also, I'm blocking out the elements (characters, venues, narrative line) for another crime novel, a robbery gone wrong story tentatively titled IDIOT'S TALE.
3. What is the greatest pleasure of a writing career?Going to work in your underwear and still getting paid for it.
4. What is the greatest DISpleasure?All the onerous, though absolutely necessary, work that follows the completion of the last line of one's book: the editing, copy editing, promotion, etc.
5. If you have one piece of advice for the publishing world, what is it?For the publishing world as such, it's far too slippery for me to offer any advice.  For someone trying to break into that world I can only pass along the cliched advice of persistence and don't give up the day job too soon.  I was 57 years old when I published my first work of fiction so I believe I bring a certain authority to that topic.
6. Are there two or three forgotten mystery writers you'd like to see
in print again?I always liked the work of Horace McCoy, a forgotten writer of the thirties and early forties.  I'd really appreciate seeing his books (six of them, I think) in print again.
7. Tell us about selling your first novel. Most writers never forget
that moment.I was fortunate enough to have a friend in the television business at the time I finished MICHIGAN ROLL, my first published novel.  He put me in touch with a large and prestigious agency (to remain anonymous here) and they agreed to look at the manuscript on his recommendation.  After about a month of anxious waiting, I discovered the returned manuscript in my mail box with a note politely declining to represent me while still praising the story and the writing.  Probably boiler plate rejection prose.  However, also included was a list of smaller agencies that they felt might be interested in looking at the manuscript.  I chose the first name on that list, contacted them (using the implied endorsement of the larger agency), and they agreed, albeit grudgingly, to look at a few chapters.  Evidently they liked enough of what they saw to invite me to send along the rest of the book.  At about that same time the annual ABA convention was going on, so one of the agents I'd been dealing with took the manuscript to the convention, showed it to a St. Martin's Press editor, who liked the book and made an offer on the spot.  It didn't matter to me that the money was far from huge.  After a lifetime of trying, despairing, dreaming, quitting in disgust, resuming, I finally had a much-stubbed toe in the door, and the phone call bearing that news was one of the highest points in my life
--
www.leegoldberg.com

From Gravetapping; Earth Abides George R. Stewart

EARTH ABIDES by George R. Stewart This review of George R. Stewart’s novel Earth Abides was originally written for SFReader a very, very long time ago, and my opinion of it has altered somewhat in the passing years. Its significance as a novel has increased—the ideas and story have stayed with me as much as any novel I have read. The haunting and bleak images of humanity’s passing are powerful, and while I still think the novel would be better served if the omniscient voice were removed or limited, I also understand it frames the story’s ideas.
Earth Abides is lauded as one of the most noteworthy post-apocalyptic novels ever written. It was originally published in 1949, and its author, George R. Stewart, was better known as a writer of nonfiction than fiction, but Earth Abides is easily his most recognizable work.
Ish Williams is a graduate student working on his fro Gravetapping by Ben Bouldenhesis—“T



eek Area”—in the EARTH ABIDES by George R. Stewart


eek Area”—in the EARTH ABIDES by George R. Stewart

This review of George R. Stewart’s novel Earth Abides was originally written for SFReader a very, very long time ago, and my opinion of it has altered somewhat in the passing years. Its significance as a novel has increased—the ideas and story have stayed with me as much as any novel I have read. The haunting and bleak images of humanity’s passing are powerful, and while I still think the novel would be better served if the omniscient voice were removed or limited, I also understand it frames the story’s ideas.
Earth Abides is lauded as one of the most noteworthy post-apocalyptic novels ever written. It was originally published in 1949, and its author, George R. Stewart, was better known as a writer of nonfiction than fiction, but Earth Abides is easily his most recognizable work.
Ish Williams is a graduate student working on his thesis—“The Ecology of the Black Creek Area”—in the wilds of northern California when a virulent virus destroys humanity. When Ish returns from the wilderness he finds an empty world. There are no bodies littering the streets, no signs of struggle, nothing except the surreal stillness of empty towns, streets, businesses, and homes. Everything is gone, and Ish doesn’t understand what happened until he reads the bleak, desperate headlines of the final issue of a newspaper in an abandoned magazine shop.
Earth Abides is the story of Ish’s survival. He is a man of intellect—he mourns the passing of knowledge—and he can visualize the future not as an abstract idea, but as it very well may be. Ish chronicles the remnants of humanity as it forms itself into small tribes. The tribes survive from what the “old ones” left behind. Their food comes from cans. They raid sporting goods stores for firearms and ammunition, and miraculously the remnants survive and grow. Ish begins his journey as an observer, but quickly finds himself as a participant in the new world.
Earth Abides is one of the most troublesome novels I have read. It is troublesome because the writing—style, narrative, and plotting—drove me batty. In a matter of a few pages it would cycle from powerful and energetic to dull and overly analytical. The major reason for this wild swing was the frequent interruption of narrative with an omniscient spoiler every few pages. The spoiler acted as a chapter heading, but it, in very academic and technical style, detailed exactly what was going to happen over the next several pages.
It is also an unflattering portrayal of the terribleness of surviving civilization’s death. There is nothing romantic, or wholesome, or evil, as in many other popular post-apocalyptic stories, but rather it highlights the difficulty, the loneliness, and downright miserable aspects of survival. It reads realistically—the way I imagine it would be if nearly everyone died leaving only a few people holding the bag; suicides, drugs, alcohol, and insanity the flavor of the day.
Realism is the novel’s strength. Mr Stewart’s vision of desperation is vivid and consuming; early in the novel, when Ish returned to emptiness, he drives from town to town honking his horn, waiting for a response that never arrives. The loneliness and desperation is palpable.
Earth Abides is a roller coaster. I enjoyed yes, but I also disliked it. It is a novel filled with ideas, but its impact is lessened by an over-evaluation of those ideas.   

 wilds of northern California when a virulent virus destroys humanity. When Ish returns from the wilderness he finds an empty world. There are no bodies littering the streets, no signs of struggle, nothing except the surreal stillness of empty towns, streets, businesses, and homes. Everything is gone, and Ish doesn’t understand what happened until he reads the bleak, desperate headlines of the final issue of a newspaper in an abandoned magazine shop.
Earth Abides is the story of Ish’s survival. He is a man of intellect—he mourns the passing of knowledge—and he can visualize the future not as an abstract idea, but as it very well may be. Ish chronicles the remnants of humanity as it forms itself into small tribes. The tribes survive from what the “old ones” left behind. Their food comes from cans. They raid sporting goods stores for firearms and ammunition, and miraculously the remnants survive and grow. Ish begins his journey as an observer, but quickly finds himself as a participant in the new world.
Earth Abides is one of the most troublesome novels I have read. It is troublesome because the writing—style, narrative, and plotting—drove me batty. In a matter of a few pages it would cycle from powerful and energetic to dull and overly analytical. The major reason for this wild swing was the frequent interruption of narrative with an omniscient spoiler every few pages. The spoiler acted as a chapter heading, but it, in very academic and technical style, detailed exactly what was going to happen over the next several pages.
It is also an unflattering portrayal of the terribleness of surviving civilization’s death. There is nothing romantic, or wholesome, or evil, as in many other popular post-apocalyptic stories, but rather it highlights the difficulty, the loneliness, and downright miserable aspects of survival. It reads realistically—the way I imagine it would be if nearly everyone died leaving only a few people holding the bag; suicides, drugs, alcohol, and insanity the flavor of the day.
Realism is the novel’s strength. Mr Stewart’s vision of desperation is vivid and consuming; early in the novel, when Ish returned to emptiness, he drives from town to town honking his horn, waiting for a response that never arrives. The loneliness and desperation is palpable.
Earth Abides is a roller coaster. I enjoyed yes, but I also disliked it. It is a novel filled with ideas, but its impact is lessened by an over-evaluation of those ideas.   

BRASH BOOKS PRESENTS THE JUAN DOE MURDERS BY NOREEN AYERSDERS BY

[image error]
http://www.amazon.com/The-Juan-Doe-Murders-Thriller/dp/1941298249

1. Tell us about your book / books that Brash is publishing. While living in Southern California I read about murders of “nameless” undocumented aliens. Putting immigration politics aside, just think of the word alien. No: it’s human. Maybe we should ban that word alien, unless it relates to outer space. “THE JUAN DOE MURDERS” tracks the nefarious underworld that sometimes snares people who merely want to find work to support themselves and their families. The conflict takes place in an affluent community near a prestigious university, a heartless hallway-shouldering we wouldn’t expect.
2. Can you give a sense of what you're working on now?I’m reviving a suspense novel following a kid railroaded into 30 months in prison for stealing a front-loader in the Arizona desert. The friend he did it with on a lark is now a deputy who keeps complicating his life. Then a desert-rat bounty hunter gets the kid in more trouble when he asks him to set lights for a runway where a private plane is coming in. The kid doesn’t know the payload is marijuana and bad guys are waiting to rip it off. When I first wrote this manuscript I was advised that drug stories were old-hat, no one would publish it. So I put it aside for 20 years. Today I may only have to change the load of weed to heroin and meth!
3. What is the greatest pleasure of a writing career?I’m a bit of a quiet person, so I suppose for me writing is a way of shouting. Readers are friends I want to share pleasant things with in a more focused way, as we would on a walk or before we posted endless pictures of flowers, food, pets, and vacations on Facebook. But I also have this extravagant idea that I can bring attention to injustice, and sympathy for people whose careers confront the most unattractive deeds of mankind. “Don’t you SEE this body here?  It used to be a person who had dreams and cute habits and a history and kids and a grandparent the person wanted to take care of, and now some vermin did him in. Let’s go get the piece of dirt and make him (or her) pay.”  It doesn’t matter if the story is fiction. Fiction represents the world in its conflicts, tightened for comprehension.
4. What is the greatest DISpleasure?Promotion, promotion, promotion. I don’t like talking about my books. The first time I gave a talk, a woman came up afterward and told me I never gave the name of my book! Well, shame on me. Not to is ingratitude. What I do enjoy is having a platform to encourage other people’s aspirations. I’m likely to have an audience of aspiring writers, sure. But even if there’s someone in the audience dragged there by a writer friend, and that guest wants to create a fifty-foot needlepoint art piece of a tank of tulips instead of a book but isn’t sure it’s worth it or if anyone would love it, I want to encourage that person’s need for expression. I particularly like speaking to groups of people who are just now coming free of careers that ate up all their time and they wonder if they should start.
5. If you have one piece of advice for the publishing world, what is it?         Spot that beauty in the crowd who doesn’t wear sequins. Other than that, I won’t presume. The business side of publishing is complex. I frankly wouldn’t want to be in those shoes.Advertise outside of genre.  Brainstorm with staff as to where ads could be placed, such as in the magazine Poets & Writers, or in conference pamphlets and what I call Missouri catalogs: those catalogs that were known to be a fit for isolated farmers’ wives to sell them kitschy doodads you don’t need, like LTD Commodities
6. Are there two or three forgotten mystery writers you'd like to see in print again?JOHN STRALEY, who writes the most beautiful, lyrical prose while having his sleuth do his job in Alaska.LES ROBERTS, who gives us masterful pictorials through the medium of words while his sleuths cover scenes in Cleveland and L.A.
7. Tell us about selling your first novel. Most writers never forget that moment.You are sure right about that!  I had read maybe two handfuls of mysteries either written by my writing group friends or because of their recommendations, when I started my novel that pretty much sold to an editor based on 30 pages at a writer’s conference (Squaw Valley). I told him I had another 70 pages written; he asked me to send them on. Based on that, he went to his boss and got the go-ahead to offer a contract to an unknown author who hadn’t even finished the book. An incredible agent who was also at the conference got me a big advance. Were they mistaken?  I’ll never know.

-- 
www.leegoldberg.com

BRASH BOOKS PRESENTS THE JANE DOE MURDERS BY NOREEN AYERSDERS BY

[image error]
http://www.amazon.com/The-Juan-Doe-Murders-Thriller/dp/1941298249

1. Tell us about your book / books that Brash is publishing. While living in Southern California I read about murders of “nameless” undocumented aliens. Putting immigration politics aside, just think of the word alien. No: it’s human. Maybe we should ban that word alien, unless it relates to outer space. “THE JUAN DOE MURDERS” tracks the nefarious underworld that sometimes snares people who merely want to find work to support themselves and their families. The conflict takes place in an affluent community near a prestigious university, a heartless hallway-shouldering we wouldn’t expect.
2. Can you give a sense of what you're working on now?I’m reviving a suspense novel following a kid railroaded into 30 months in prison for stealing a front-loader in the Arizona desert. The friend he did it with on a lark is now a deputy who keeps complicating his life. Then a desert-rat bounty hunter gets the kid in more trouble when he asks him to set lights for a runway where a private plane is coming in. The kid doesn’t know the payload is marijuana and bad guys are waiting to rip it off. When I first wrote this manuscript I was advised that drug stories were old-hat, no one would publish it. So I put it aside for 20 years. Today I may only have to change the load of weed to heroin and meth!
3. What is the greatest pleasure of a writing career?I’m a bit of a quiet person, so I suppose for me writing is a way of shouting. Readers are friends I want to share pleasant things with in a more focused way, as we would on a walk or before we posted endless pictures of flowers, food, pets, and vacations on Facebook. But I also have this extravagant idea that I can bring attention to injustice, and sympathy for people whose careers confront the most unattractive deeds of mankind. “Don’t you SEE this body here?  It used to be a person who had dreams and cute habits and a history and kids and a grandparent the person wanted to take care of, and now some vermin did him in. Let’s go get the piece of dirt and make him (or her) pay.”  It doesn’t matter if the story is fiction. Fiction represents the world in its conflicts, tightened for comprehension.
4. What is the greatest DISpleasure?Promotion, promotion, promotion. I don’t like talking about my books. The first time I gave a talk, a woman came up afterward and told me I never gave the name of my book! Well, shame on me. Not to is ingratitude. What I do enjoy is having a platform to encourage other people’s aspirations. I’m likely to have an audience of aspiring writers, sure. But even if there’s someone in the audience dragged there by a writer friend, and that guest wants to create a fifty-foot needlepoint art piece of a tank of tulips instead of a book but isn’t sure it’s worth it or if anyone would love it, I want to encourage that person’s need for expression. I particularly like speaking to groups of people who are just now coming free of careers that ate up all their time and they wonder if they should start.
5. If you have one piece of advice for the publishing world, what is it?         Spot that beauty in the crowd who doesn’t wear sequins. Other than that, I won’t presume. The business side of publishing is complex. I frankly wouldn’t want to be in those shoes.Advertise outside of genre.  Brainstorm with staff as to where ads could be placed, such as in the magazine Poets & Writers, or in conference pamphlets and what I call Missouri catalogs: those catalogs that were known to be a fit for isolated farmers’ wives to sell them kitschy doodads you don’t need, like LTD Commodities
6. Are there two or three forgotten mystery writers you'd like to see in print again?JOHN STRALEY, who writes the most beautiful, lyrical prose while having his sleuth do his job in Alaska.LES ROBERTS, who gives us masterful pictorials through the medium of words while his sleuths cover scenes in Cleveland and L.A.
7. Tell us about selling your first novel. Most writers never forget that moment.You are sure right about that!  I had read maybe two handfuls of mysteries either written by my writing group friends or because of their recommendations, when I started my novel that pretty much sold to an editor based on 30 pages at a writer’s conference (Squaw Valley). I told him I had another 70 pages written; he asked me to send them on. Based on that, he went to his boss and got the go-ahead to offer a contract to an unknown author who hadn’t even finished the book. An incredible agent who was also at the conference got me a big advance. Were they mistaken?  I’ll never know.

-- 
www.leegoldberg.com

BRASH BOOKS PRESENTS BILL CRIDER'S OUTRAGE AT BLANCO

1. Tell us about your book / books that Brash is publishing.

OUTRAGE AT BLANCO has an interesting history.  Pat LoBrutto bought it for the Double D Western line at Doubleday, but the line folded before the book was published and the rights were returned to me.  I was paid for the book, though, which was nice.  Several years and a new agent later, the book was bought at Dell, and I got paid again, more than the first time.  The editor liked it so much that he asked for a sequel, which became TEXAS VIGILANTE (not my original title).  He was interested in a third book, and I was working on the outline when he left Dell, so that was the end of that. 

.2. Can you give a sense of what you're working on now?

Right not I'm working on another entry in the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series.  This one will come out in 2015, and the tentative title is BETWEEN THE LIVING AND THE DEAD.  It involved a haunted house and, of course, ghosts. 

3. What is the greatest pleasure of a writing career?

There are a lot of pleasures.  Writing itself, hearing from people who like the work, getting paid, and more.  Hard to say today which one's the best. 

4. What is the greatest DISpleasure?

I know I've answered this question for you before, but right now I can't think of one other than trying to read a royalty statement. I've about given up on trying to figure them out. 

5. If you have one piece of advice for the publishing world, what is it?

"The publishing world" now is so diverse I can't think of any advice that would suit everybody. I still think the major publishers haven't quite caught on to eBooks.  They need to get up to speed.

6. Are there two or three forgotten mystery writers you'd like to see
in print again?

Brash Book is bringing back so many great writers, and with other publishers are doing the same, I can't think of anybody who's left out now.

7. Tell us about selling your first novel. Most writers never forget
that moment.

Ah, THE COYOTE CONNECTION.  Nick Carter and the assassination teams coming in through Mexico.  One of the things that I remember best is that my friends James Reasoner and Joe Lansdale both published their first novels at about the same time.  That was a great thrill for me, seeing all of us in print and on the stands at the same time.  And we're still there after all these years.
-- 
www.leegoldberg.com

Cagney & Lacey: 30 Years Later Written by Sharon Elizabeth Doyle

FROM MYSTERY SCENE
Cagney & Lacey: 30 Years LaterWritten by Sharon Elizabeth Doyle
This groundbreaking television series about two strong, intelligent female detectives redefined the cop show.
Photo: MGM Home Entertainment
Over 30 years ago, a show namedCagney & Lacey appeared on television. It was part of a golden era of television that began with Lou Grant, wended its way through Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, Alien Nation, Frank’s Place,thirtysomething, and ended with L.A. Law. It was probably Cop Rock that really killed it. It was an era which gave birth to multiple, intertwining story lines. An era when TV tried to use its bully pulpit to talk about serious issues and to portray complicated, imperfect human beings in realistic situations.Cagney & Lacey started out in 1974 as a screenplay by Barbara Corday and Barbara Avedon, became a TV movie in 1981, and finally a series in 1982. It was cancelled almost instantly and then revived—one of the few shows ever to succeed in being recalled by its fans. By the end of its run, it had been written by some of the best television writers (and future novelists) around—April Smith, Robert Crais, Terry Louise Fisher, Patricia Green, Georgia Jeffries, Robert Eisele, and Peter Lefcourt. It’s a credit that I will never take off my resume, no matter how old it makes me look, because it was one of the smartest, painfully honest and best-written shows ever to be popular on television.Following its demise in 1988 for a 16.8 rating—or perhaps because they hired me to write two episodes—there were no hour-long shows featuring female protagonists for almost ten years. That mold was finally broken by Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This season we have The Closer, The Shark, and The Women’s Murder Club—all featuring women protagonists who stand alone, no questions asked. Their way was paved by the partnership of Christine Cagney, a single, somewhat obsessed career woman and Lacey, a mother and wife who needed to work. Both of them happened to be great cops.I sat down with Georgia Jeffries, the executive story editor and a producer of Cagney & Lacey in its Emmy years (her credits also include China Beach and Sisters), to explore the show. Georgia was hired in 1984 to write a freelance episode, based on a pitch and a screenplay she’d written about a female marine. After her second episode, she was invited to join the staff to give Cagney’s character more depth and edge. Because she was the only staff writer with young children, she often ended up writing “mom” speeches for Lacey as well. Three years later, she wrote the episode where Cagney bottoms out as an alcoholic—a possibility she’d seen in the character from the start.“April Smith, who shaped the series in its earliest days, brought a novelist’s attitude to layered character development,” remembers Jeffries. “Character is action. Understanding the internal conflicts within the character, wrestling with her most deep-seated needs and desires…these are the essential seeds of drama.” When Jeffries read the backstory of hard-drinking Cagney’s bond with her charming Irish drunk of a father, she saw a story line and began “stringing the pearls”—laying in story beats—so that Christine would someday have to face her demons. That episode (“Turn, Turn, Turn”) garnered Sharon Gless her second Emmy and Jeffries a Writers Guild award.In the beginning, however, the main point of the series was that these were women making it in a man’s profession and they were good at what they did. Period. In those years, that was the only issue that needed to be explored.“The producers didn’t want to do ‘Technicolor cops,’” remembers Jeffries. “There was an emphasis on being absolutely accurate.” As a journalist, Jeffries had gone on a ride-along with a Rampart LAPD sergeant and was nearly caught in a gunfight. The screenwriter’s night on patrol transformed her attitude toward the job that cops have to do and became the basis for her first episode (“An Unusual Occurrence”). “That young officer was also the father of three children who risked his own safety to protect, serve, and put bread on his family’s table. And, oh, yes, he had to make split-second, gut-level life-and-death decisions without warning. You bet that opened my eyes and won my respect.”for the rest go here:
http://mysteryscenemag.com/index.php?...

Headlines that shouldn't be true...but are

Ted Nugent compares Jewish Congressman Eric Cantor to Nazi propagandist
Joseph Goebbels

SENATOR Cochran : I grew up doing 'all kind of indecent things with
animals'...

Businessman's grave ransacked by daughter looking for 'real will'...

Surgeons Mistakenly Remove Healthy Kidney From Cancer Patient...

911 Dispatcher Tells Rape Victim to 'Quit Crying'...

Repo man dies after Virginia truck owner ‘accidentally’ shoots him —
twice

NBCNEWS paid Chelsea Clinton $600k salary...

Fox News host: I wouldn’t be surprised if undocumented kids are front
for drug dealers

Texas Democrat tells MSNBC: Racists here ‘are out and proud with it’

PA mother of seven dies while serving two-day jail term for kids’
truancy violations

Donald Sterling Has Hired Investigators to look into other owners?

Pro-File: Sam Hawken Tequila Sunset

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASI...

Sam Hawken:



Tell us about your current novel/collection.

Tequila Sunset is a novel that tells three intertwined stories about El Paso/Ciudad Juárez on the border of Texas and Mexico.  The unifying element is Barrio Azteca, a Texas prison gang that has metastasized into an international criminal organization causing untold chaos in Mexico.  At the time of Tequila Sunset’s writing, Barrio Azteca was responsible for as much as 85% of all the murders committed in Ciudad Juárez, the longtime homicide capital of the world.  At the same time, El Paso is the safest city in the United States.
To illustrate this, I chose a trio of characters to put a human face on this slow-motion disaster.  One is a convict released on parole, but still tethered to the gang that protected him on the inside.  Another is a detective from El Paso who struggles to balance her work with the demands of single-parenthood of an autistic child.  The last is a Mexican federal agent who specializes in Los Aztecas, and the Herculean task he faces in the city of Juárez.

2. Can you give a sense of what you're working on now?

At the moment I’m working on bringing a new series character to life. Camaro Espinoza is her name, and she’s a former Army combat medic who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, only to return home and find trouble around every turn.  Luckily she’s well-equipped to deal with the danger. She’s a tough, enjoyable woman to write about and it’s my hope that she’ll find a home very soon.

3. What is the greatest pleasure of a writing career?

Being able to do what I want, within reason.  When I sit down to create, I can do whatever strikes my fancy on the day.  No one dictates the subject matter, the characters or anything of the sort.  I have an academic and a management background and in both those environments you’re under strict guidelines about what you can and cannot do, as well as how you do it.  I find the freedom to make my own decisions very liberating.

4. What is the greatest DISpleasure?

The work itself.  I’m not one of those writers who really enjoys writing. Don’t get me wrong, I have a brutal work ethic that essentially compels me to write for four to six hours every day, but I don’t think to myself, “Wow, this is so much fun!” as I create.  I always finish every project with a sense of profound relief because then, for at least a brief moment, the pressure is off and I can relish the accomplishment.  Then the process repeats itself.

5. If you have one piece of advice for the publishing world, what is it?

Don’t put writers in a box.  There’s this all-out war going on between traditional publishers and self-publishers, with each side denigrating the other while extolling the perfection of their chosen path.  As I mentioned before, writing represents total freedom, so why would anyone want to limit their options?  There are many ways to bring material to an audience and everyone should be doing everything, not getting into bloody knife fights about who’s got The Secret.  I think this is the issue of the next ten years, as all this shakes out, and the sooner the writing and publishing community gets on the same page, the better for everybody.

6. Are there two or three forgotten mystery writers you'd like to see in print again?

Interestingly enough, I don’t have a wish list of authors like that, at least in the crime/mystery field, because the authors I like are all available now.  For example: for a long time I was trying to get people to seek out old copies of Hell Hath No Fury, by Charles Williams, because it had gone out of print and no one seemed to have ever heard of him or the book, but now thanks to e-publishing, you can get it again.  What I’d very much like to see is writers like Edgar Rice Burroughs, who are giants in the history of popular fiction, get real, well-put-together editions of their classic work that everyone can get hold of for a reasonable amount. Too much fun writing from the first half of the 20th century is lost, even as ebooks make it easier and easier to bring those works back.

7. Tell us about selling your first novel. Most writers never forget that moment.

I remember being stunned at the suddenness and rapidity of the process.  I was prepared for a long slog with The Dead Women of Juárez, but it went to the first publisher who saw it and in a matter of weeks.  I thought it would take at least as long to sell it as it took to write it (a year), and I was so surprised that it sort of washed away all my other emotions. Later I recall being overwhelmed by the idea that people in the publishing biz actually thought it was a good book, because I was never very fond of it, and had even grown to dislike it during the writing process.  These were my first lessons in something I now take for granted: people are never going to think of your work the way you expect they will, so don’t be quick to extol your own virtues or to denigrate your efforts, because you will invariably be at least a little wrong.
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Joss Whedon Was Left 'Pretty Devastated' After Losing 'Speed' Writing Credit

EmailRSSJoss Whedon Was Left 'Pretty Devastated' After Losing 'Speed' Writing CreditPosted: 06/10/2014 8:37 am EDT Updated: 06/10/2014 8:59 am EDTPrint Article

Share212Tweet658Email3 It's not a total secret that Joss Whedon wrote the production script for "Speed" -- credited writer Graham Yost has frequently mentioned Whedon's contributions in interviews -- but the acclaimed director has rarely commented on the work he did for Jan de Bont's 1994 blockbuster. HuffPost Entertainment spoke with Whedon about "Speed" 20 years after the film's release.Thanks for taking the time to talk to me about "Speed."
In my whole career, I’ve never had to talk about it. I’ve never signed a copy of it, I’ve never sort of been a part of it. And I was proud of it, I worked hard on it, I had a really great time and I worked with really cool people. I thought it was good stuff. Graham has been very generous, but I did not get a credit on it. The studio gave me one, but then the Writers Guild of America took it away, and I was pretty devastated. I have the only poster with my credit on it.Why did they pull your credit?
It has to do with WGA bylaws. You can come in and rewrite all of the dialogue, and still not get credit. They didn't think I made big enough changes to the plot. I actually did a lot of overhaul, but much of it was to a later draft, so it went back to what Graham originally had.Graham credits you with most of the dialogue, and has mentioned that many of the more ridiculous scenes worked because of the lines you wrote for them. How did you go about handling those more over-the-top plot turns?
For me, it’s only about everybody playing the reality of the situation, and having time to take out some of the “movie stuff.” There was a draft -- after Graham’s, before I came on –- that was very not good. One of the things it had in it was that Sandra Bullock’s character was a stand-up comic, and I’m like, "Nobody can ever root for a stand-up comic in this kind of movie!" And they said, "Well, if she says something funny, that will explain it." [Laughs] I thought, "They’re all going to die and she’s trying to get new material? That’s not it."Did you make a lot of changes to the characters? I know the biggest overhaul was with Alan Ruck [the tourist].
Alan Ruck’s character was written as an angry lawyer. He was a bad dude. He was like, "You are a bad cop! I want blah blah blah!” He was that guy. Nobody is doing that in a disaster. They’re frightened, and they’re pulling together. And what was a lawyer doing on a bus? So, I wanted him to be a nicer guy. In an earlier draft, there was sort of this format where everybody told their backstory, and I didn’t think we needed all of that necessarily. But the tourist, he’s a very grounding figure, and Alan is so sympathetic. For me, the whole essence of what I felt was useful in the movie was him saying, “We’re at the airport, I’ve already seen the airport.” When the absurdity has just gone to the point where I can turn to the mundane.
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Supreme Debate by Max Allan Collins

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Supreme DebateJune 10th, 2014 by Max Allan CollinsSUPREME JUSTICE continues to ride high on the Kindle bestseller charts. I am under no delusions about this – it’s a book a lot of readers are getting free this month, but it still feels good to have a #1 bestseller and to have so many new readers exposed to my work. (I should say “our” work because Matt Clemens was my co-conspirator on this one.)The Amazon reviews are pushing 150 at this point. Keep in mind that the recent Heller novels are lucky to get over 30 reviews (hint hint), and Quarry novels often stall out in the mid-teens. SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT has been sitting at 14 Amazon reviews for some time now, and even TRUE DETECTIVE – which also hit #1 on Kindle when it came out a couple of years ago – has yet to break 100, even with the fresh sales from confused readers who think it’s the HBO show’s source (some revenge, anyway).What’s most interesting about the reviews is the continuing debate over the book’s supposed liberal bias. There continue to be far right readers who give the book a one star rating without having read it – they’ve just heard the book is a liberal screed, or have been misled by the Amazon write-up, which rather overstates that aspect of the book. Others do read the book, or some of it, but are offended by what they see as a caricature of Clarence Thomas. This is of course odd, since Clarence Thomas is a caricature….On the other hand, a growing number of conservatives who have read the book seem to like it. Some continue to find more liberal bias than I think is in there, but I may be too close to see it. (Note the Clarence Thomas crack above.) But I am grateful when these readers express themselves honestly and react to the book and not what they’ve heard or assume about it.I’ve done some limited commenting on reviews, and had an extended, civil exchange with one reader who claimed I’d called conservatives “Nazis.” I pointed out that the word appeared nowhere in the novel. He said I’d used “fascists” and that that was the same thing. I said it wasn’t, no more than “Commie” and “socialist” were the same thing, and so on. The back and forth was respectful and even illuminating. And I tried to make the point that I didn’t call anybody anything – one of my characters did.

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