Thomas Pluck's Blog, page 38

An Honor and a Duty

Criminal Element reviewed BLADE OF DISHONOR today as part of their “Fresh Meat” series.

Writers like to say reviews don’t affect us—especially the bad ones—but of course it is not true. Ms. Keller had a lot of nice things to say:

“He has a certain style, a punchy language that puts the reader right into the action, successfully amping up my adrenalin and leaving me on the edge of my seat. This also has the effect of driving the story forward at break-neck speed, making it hard to put the book down until the very end. And to be honest, folks, I wanted more when it was over. Call me an adrenaline junkie if you will, but the rush his writing supplies is addictive.”

I couldn’t ask for a higher honor, to have a reader say that. It’s humbling. You’d think praise like that would lead to arrogance, and writers do need to be wary not to fall into that trap. Humility is the kind of pride that steadies you from falling. And I’ll express that by considering it my duty to live up to that kind of review. To fulfill those expectations, no matter how much work it takes. I will not rush things out the door. I will not dilute the intensity of the stories I want to write. And I will write for the reader first, earning their attention with every word, every line, every paragraph, every page.

Sometimes, as my wife just remarked, it makes me breathe heavily with fierce concentration. But that’s the only way I know how to do it.

You can get part one of Blade of Dishonor, The War Comes Home, for .99 cents on Kindle.

 

 

 

All three parts are available in the Omnibus edition for $4.99

and the Trade Paperback will be available soon.

Tagged: Blade of Dishonor, Ninjas, Reviews, samurai

Taylor Ham or Pork Roll?

If you don’t know what either of those are, you are missing out on the king of breakfast meats. Thinly sliced, spicy breakfast salami, it is the official breakfast meat of New Jersey:

Some call it pork roll, others Taylor Ham, though it only vaguely resembles ham. It’s not rubbery like Spam, or grainy like scrapple. It has a spice all its own, and when sliced thin and fried to crisp edges, it is the perfect accompaniment to a fried egg and slice of American cheese (Land O’ Lakes preferred) on a kaiser roll, bagel, English muffin, tortilla, or my favorite, challah French Toast:

The Jersey Farmer at the Candlewyck Diner

P.S.: Challah is pronounced “Holla!”

You can get this at the Candlewyck Diner near Giants stadium in the Meadowlands, and I reviewed this great Jersey diner for Devil Gourmet, in my weekly column The Big Eat.

 

Tagged: Breakfast, Devil Gourmet, Taylor Ham

Hardwired for Altruism or Man is Wolf to Man?

If you’ve been following Ben LeRoy’s discussion on violence in fiction, he quotes a recent WSJ article states that we are Hard-wired for Giving. When we support a cause we identify as good, helping those in need, the same centers of the brain fire with activity as when we crave a bacon cheeseburger or a little tussle in the dark with a hottie. That’s right, giving fires the pleasure centers of the brain.

But aren’t we born to be selfish? Isn’t civilization a thin veneer of morality over the base nature of human savagery?

Maybe not.

We are animals, primates. If you want to understand human behavior, read Jane Goodall, or Jared Diamond’s The Third Chimpanzee. Watch a chimp troop. They have an alpha mating pair. Some cleave to the leaders, others connive. They sneak sex, because they are not allowed to breed. They will kill each other’s babies, and tear each other’s faces and genitals off in combat. They will wage war against rival troops over resources. But those are the extremes; the political maneuvering is more interesting, and human behavior is similar. The strong will battle you face on, but the smart will chip away at your foundations of power while pretending to be your friend.

Unlike chimps, we will help our fellows whether we are related or not. Humans are weak, hairless apes who barely made it. Our major evolutionary advantage is our ability to run for long distances and persevere. It’s even theorized that our large brain was a coincidence, meant as a cooling mechanism for our blood on those long chases after food (or fleeing angry chimps). And those who used that large brain most efficiently survived.

What does this mean? That’s up for you to decide. I’ve sided with the apes who help each other. But I won’t hesitate to tear the genitals off any apes who come after our children.

“We are hardwired for altruism.”

“We are nature, red in tooth in claw.”

Both are true. The struggle between those urges is what makes us human.

Robert Mitchum in The Yakuza

For the run-up until the publication of BLADE OF DISHONOR on Sept. 10th, I’m revisiting the books and films that inspired it: ninja, samurai, MMA fighters, WW2 epics, and yakuza flicks.

You don’t expect Robert Mitchum to star in a Yakuza film, but the hangdog look he earned with age- Born in OUT OF THE PAST and perfected in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE- serves him well in this hardboiled tale of honor and the human heart.

THE YAKUZA was directed by Sydney Pollack (Jeremiah Johnson, Tootsie, Three Days of the Condor) the screenplay by Paul Schrader, who would go on to write TAXI DRIVER, BLUE COLLAR, and MISHIMA. Scorcese wanted to direct, but the studio gave it to Pollack; the film didn’t go particularly well, so that’s a good thing. Maybe we wouldn’t have TAXI DRIVER if Marty directed this film.

Robert Mitchum plays Harry Kilmer, a PI who lived in Japan after serving in World War II, who left when his love Eiko refused to marry him. He returns to help his friend George, whose daughter has been kidnapped by yakuza. Harry meets up with Eiko and her brother Ken Tanaka, a former yakuza who left the life to become a sword instructor. Ken holds a debt of honor to Harry for protecting Eiko through the war years, and agrees to help find the taken girl.

They rescue the girl in a bloody gun and swordfight, a precursor to the end of TAXI DRIVER, and escape with their lives- but with prices on their heads. Harry can flee the country, but stays behind to protect Ken. The debt of honor is mutual. They face the yakuza gang in a brutal, prolonged battle that evokes YOJIMBO and STRAW DOGS, and in the end learn the secret of why Eiko would not, and still will not marry Harry Kilmer, and how deep Ken’s debt truly is.

THE YAKUZA is a solid hardboiled thriller for its time, and while it clings to misinformed myths of the yakuza gangs- that they will only fight with swords- these flaws are easily put aside to enjoy the story. Ken Takakura is more of a stoic samurai, and Mitchum’s match in minimalist, facial acting. The film suffers from a plethora of characters and a lack of emotion. The unrequited love between Harry and Eiko doesn’t carry the sting it should, but Mitchum is always a joy to watch and this is no exception. The swordfights are impressive for an American film of the time, and it offers a glimpse into a world that was unknown to the West at the time, the secretive crime families known as the Yakuza.

Ninja Lee Van Cleef: The Master

For the run-up until the publication of BLADE OF DISHONOR on Sept. 10th, I’m revisiting the books and films that inspired it: ninja, samurai, MMA fighters, WW2 epics, and yakuza flicks.

No, not that movie with all the yelling! The TV series starring Lee Van Cleef as a ninja master roaming the world in a van with goofy drifter Max Keller, dodging Sho Kosugi and fighting injustice!

I loved this show as a kid, and I’m still miffed they never had a crossover with the A-Team or Knight Rider. Ninja master John Peter McAllister (Lee Van Cleef) leaves the ninja life in Japan to seek a daughter he never knew he had. His former student Okasa (played by Sho Kosugi), a ninja master in his own right, decides this is dishonorable and cannot suffer his mentor to live.

The show was rather ridiculous, playing on pop mythology of the ninja powers, but it was good fun. I recall Max and Peter hanging from their ankles as prisoners in a dojo, and Van Cleef smashes a lightbulb with his foot and cuts the ropes using the glass held between his toes. It was better than Ninja III: The Domination, where evil ninja spirits possess a woman, but The Master’s charms were the non-stop action and the simple fact of NINJAS ON TELEVISION in the early ’80s.

Do you remember THE MASTER? The episodes were repackaged as TV movies, but sadly neither these nor the shows are available on NetFlix. Youtube clips are all that remain:

Tagged: Lee Van Cleef, Ninjas, Television

Blade of Dishonor gets a Cover

Blade of Dishonor comes out 9/10/13.

‘Rage Cage’ Reeves comes home from the war to find his grandfather embroiled in a centuries-old battle between ninja and samurai over a stolen sword…

More details here.

From a story and character created with David Cranmer, editor of Beat to a Pulp.

Cover art by Roxanne Patruznick. Cover design by Suzanne Dell’Orto.

Tagged: Blade of Dishonor

Violence in Crime Fiction

Ben LeRoy of Tyrus Books, a publisher of noir, crime fiction, and much more, wrote a blog post that’s touched a nerve:

“On the Repercussions of Crime Fiction“

I agree with Ben on a lot of points. Gratuitous violence bothers me. Partly because I’ve experienced violence personally; sometimes I feel that I’ve earned the right to be silly about it, because it’s part of a healing process, but that’s arrogant of me. Anyone can write about it, but if it sounds like “virgins writing sex scenes,” to quote Andrew Vachss, your inexperience certainly shows. So do your research; if you write violence because you think it’s cool, join a fight club instead of watching Fight Club, and see if you still think so.

Here’s my response to Ben.

I write fiction that often deals with violence. I have experienced it first hand, and violence always has consequences in my fiction. Does this mean stories have a Hayes code where evil is always punished? Hell no. It means if the hero reacts with violence against someone, there will be an equal and opposite reaction. Revenge, or punishment, or personal anguish. That’s the reality of violence. “Heroes” of war refuse the title. They are disturbed by what they have done. (Not all, of course. Some are psychopaths, some are gifted with a selective empathy that lets them forgive themselves; I highly recommend Lt. Dan Grossman’s book On Killing for interviews with soldiers that explains the different mindsets.)

So when I write a violent story, it means the villain has family to mourn him or her. And that living violently means violence will be visited upon people you care about. That the hero will have problems that can’t be solved with a hard drink at the end of the day.

I do tire of reading about the emotional wreckage that violent crime strews through our lives. Police procedurals, and so on. People forced into desperate choices? Sleazy losers manipulating those around them, crushed when their castle of lies collapses? Sure, but I read plenty of lighter fiction in between.

The fact is, a murder will sell a book. Not because we’re morbid. It’s in our lizard brain, the same way animals watch when one of their kind is torn to pieces by a predator. It makes us better at avoiding the same fate.

I do think art affects us, from movies to games to books. There was a time in the ’90s when it seemed like every character in movies was an asshole, like this was more real. There are plenty of assholes out there, and plenty of violence. But there are plenty more stories to be told. I’ll take it as a challenge to write a crime novel without a violent crime. If I remember, there was little violence in Steve Hamilton’s The Lock Artist, and I enjoyed that. (Though one character has violence in his past).

Thanks for starting this conversation, Ben. It’s a good one. A while back I had to remove all swearing from a story; I wrote several afterward without it, even hardboiled ones. They were as well received as the ones I let loose in. I’ve found, as Hitchcock said, that it’s the tension people want. Not the violence. The stories I’ve written that get the strongest reaction delay the violence. It either happened before we begin (the veteran’s flashbacks in Freedom Bird) or is insinuated to occur after the story ends (The murder-suicide in We’re All Guys Here). What they both have is tension, a loaded gun ready to fire. Something for me to think about.

My current novel in progress (Bury the Hatchet) is all about the consequences of violence, mistaken intentions and motives tangling together and destroying the lives of everyone involved. We get to see the hero mete out punishment, and be on the receiving end, and never learn his lesson. Because doling out just deserts feels so good.

What are your thoughts? I enjoy movies like Shoot ‘Em Up and Crank, but I tend to prefer movies where the violence is taken a little more seriously. Hell, even Pulp Fiction teaches proper trigger discipline (Poor Marvin).

Comment here, or drop by Ben’s blog. Tyrus publishes some of the best fiction out there, from the noir of Reed Farrel Coleman to the hilarious Hello Kitty Must Die, which I’m reading now.

Tagged: Tyrus Books, Violence

Protectors snags Major Awards!

The writers who contributed to Protectors: Stories to Benefit PROTECT gave their all. Here are some of the awards and nominations they’ve racked up:

First, “Adeline” by Wayne Dundee won the Peacemaker award from the Western Fictioneers for best Western story of 2013.

Then “Baby Boy” by Todd Robinson was a finalist for a Derringer Award for best short crime story.

And now, Dave White’s “Runaway” is listed in The Best American Mystery Stories 2013 under Other Distinguished Stories of 2012:

And that’s not counting the awards the previously published stories have received, like “Season Pass” by Chet Williamson an Edgar finalist for 1989.

Fans of Ken Bruen, James Reasoner, Ray Banks, Patti Abbott, Nigel Bird, Johnny Shaw, Dan O’Shea and many more will find new stories that you won’t find anywhere else. 100% of proceeds from Protectors go to PROTECT, the only lobby that fights the abuse of children exclusively.

It is available in all e-book formats and in paperback:

Protectors: Stories to Benefit PROTECT

Tagged: Chet Williamson, Dave White, Ken Bruen, Protectors Anthology, Todd Robinson, Wayne Dundee

Strength Toward Justice

I wrote about redefining modern masculinity for The Good Men Project.

Tagged: The Good Men Project, Zak Mucha

Do you have a ninja infestation? Call ‘Rage Cage’ Reeves.

Meet ‘Rage Cage’ Reeves. MMA fighter. Marine. Back home from Afghanistan, looking for his Grandpa Butch, who he finds mixed up in a centuries-old battle between ninja and samurai over a stolen Japanese sword.

If your home has become overrun with ninjas (sic) or shinobi and yakuza, the Warriors of Hachiman will send Rage Cage Reeves to help, at reasonable rates.

He will be available starting September 10th, so set your appointments early.

If you review books for a blog, publication or website please contact me for an Advanced Reading Copy for review.

Tagged: Blade of Dishonor, David Cranmer, Japan, Mixed Martial Arts, Ninjas, Rage Cage Reeves, samurai, Swords