Interview at BSC

Keith Rawson, one of the twisted minds responsible for the rebirth of CrimeFactory, interviewed me for BSC when I was out in Phoenix last month.



Keith blogs at Bloody Knuckles, Calloused Fingertips and has contributed some kickass noir fiction to Plots with Guns, Pulp Pusher, CrimeWav.com, Powder Burn Flash,Twist of Noir and many other cool crime fiction sites.

Two Great Events on Friday, March 5th

There are two events on the same night that I'd like to get to - I'm going to do my best to hit both:

First, New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry is launching The Dragon Factory, his follow up to the kick-ass thriller, Patient Zero. The Dragon Factory brings back Joe Ledger and the whole Department of Military Sciences team as they take on a pair of evil twins who are unloosing a genetic nightmare of transgenic monsters and genetically-enhanced mercenaries.

It's a three-for-one event, too: Jonathan will also be signing two other brand-new releases, The Wolfman, his novelization of the screenplay of the new film starring Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins, and a cool new anthology, The New Dead, from St. Martin's, a Zombie-themed anthology that has gotten high praise from critics.

The launch is at 7:00pm at Doylestown Bookshop, 16 S Main St. Doylestown, PA (215)230 7610

For those of you who are going to be downtown in Philly this Friday, you can hit the world premiere of Larry Withers' new documentary, David Goodis...To a Pulp, his fascinating and very personal investigation into the life of Philly's most notorious writer of noir fiction. Larry has put together a compelling look at the circumstances that brought an up-and-coming screenwriter back from LA to live out his days writing dark, unforgettable stories, hanging out in dives and blurring the line between his life and his doomed and luckless characters.

David Goodis...To A Pulp, a biography of noir writer David Goodis, has its world premiere, March 5 in Philadelphia at 8:30 p.m. at the Society Hill Playhouse, 507 South 8th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, 215-923-0210. $10 at the door.

Reading in Princeton

I'll be doing a reading Wednesday night, February 17th as part of the Arts Council of Princeton’s Starry Winter Night: A Story Hour for Grownups, featuring Princeton area writers; Solley Theater, Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, 102 Witherspoon Street in Princeton, NJ.

Presents to Myself

Dear Boss,

I just got a huge care package in the mail to indulge my various obsessions:

Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History, by David Aaronovitch, about the persistance of belief in conspiracies. "Aaronovitch argues persuasively that conspiracy theories are often a psychological defence against the indifference of others. This book will not change the theorists' views, of course, but it will be invaluable in our refuting them logically." - Andrew Roberts, in the Literary Review.


The Glister: A Novel by John Burnside, about a series of disappearances in a blighted English town. “John Burnside can make even the most mundane scene feel threatening. Oddly tender, for all the terror it evokes, his prose has a seductive depth and clarity that's impossible to resist. His novel, The Glister, is a delight–a scary, fascinating exploration of innocence and evil, and the thin margin that often separates the two.” —Scott Smith, author of A Simple Plan and The Ruins.

Longford, directed by Tom Hooper. "In the hands of Peter Morgan (writer of The Queen and Frost/Nixon), the intertwined lives of a child murderess and an English lord become what can only be described as a moral thriller--a suspenseful story of evil and forgiveness." - Brad Fetzer.

Five Days, A BBC miniseries written by Gwyneth Hughes, in which a mother and two young children vanish in broad daylight. "Riveting because it weaves the most familiar milestones of a major homicide investigation — the news conferences, police interrogations and family meltdowns — into a less predictable and intricately layered narrative that averts clichés without diluting the suspense..." The New York Times

Also waiting for my copy of The Things That Keep Us Here, by breakout novelist Carla Buckley.

Good news

Ballerinas esotica,

I was interviewed this week by the cool Italian literary site, Liberi di Scrivere, so now I feel like a man of the world.

Also, Scott Montgomery, the crime consultant at BookPeople in Austin, gave me and Dope Thief a really nice boost in in his Top Ten List for 2009.

Scott has been an amazing friend to me and Dope Thief, which is the February selection of his Hard Word Book Club, a noir-centered book group Scott runs out of BookPeople. I'll be talking live to the club on February 24th, which should be an excellent time.

The blog post is by David Thompson over at his blog for Busted Flush Press. David is the owner of Busted Flush, which publishes outstanding crime fiction, as well as the owner of Murder by the Book, one of the country's best mystery book stores. I'll be down in Houston at MBTB for their Noir Night on June 24th.

Scott Phillips Interview at Do Some Damage

Head over to Do Some Damage and check out the great two-part interview with my twisted pal Scott Phillips, author of The Ice Harvest, The Walkaway, and Cottonwood, which I just re-read and enjoyed just as much the second time.

Scott talks about his career and writing process as well as his upcoming novel "Supply Sarge" from Phoenix Books and the comic series he's been working on with the artist Roger Peterson, whose work you can check out at his website, "Dollar Store Novels."

Scott's work always deals with the hidden and strange sides of life that we all pretend we aren't constantly thinking about. He's staked out this dark and compelling territory for himself, documenting in his various books a kind of murderous underground history of a patch of the midwest, from the 1870's to the present day. He's also a ferociously funny storyteller, both in his novels and in person.

There are always pieces of grotesque reality lurking in his novels, like the "Bloody Benders," a real clan of killers who waylaid travelers in 19th century Kansas, or a bizarre sex raffle that operated in a defense plant in Wichita in the 1940s.

Scott also produced as good a piece of short fiction as I've ever read, "The Emerson, 1950" at the short-lived and much-missed "Murdaland." The good news is that you can read it online at the website.

Check him out, and buy his books. Do it now.