Mainly Mystery Interviews

I've gotten behind with posting interviews here, but the ladies at Mainly Mystery Reviews have interviewed several authors from Heartsong Presents: Mysteries.

ELIZABETH LUDWIG (Where the Truth Lies)
CANDICE SPEARE (Murder in the Milk Case)
SUSAN DOWNS (Acquisitions Editor)
SUSAN PAGE DAVIS (Homicide at Blue Heron Lake)
DANA MENTINK (Trouble Up Finny’s Nose)
MARY CONNEALY (Of Mice…and Murder)

(For those keeping score at home, my three HPM titles are scheduled to hit subscriber mailboxes in 2009, and retail shelves in 2010.)

** Subscribe to Heartsong Presents: Mysteries -- and get four books FREE! **

Milestone for DC Comics

Before she moved to Nashville and married me, my wife Erica was in New York City working in comics -- including stints at both Milestone Comics and DC Comics. Well, this past weekend at Comic-Con International it was announced that Milestone's characters will be folded into the DC Universe. The announcement was made by Erica's old boss, Milestone co-creator, comics writer, and TV writer/producer Dwayne McDuffie.

As reported by Comic Book Resources, Static will join the Teen Titans, while Icon and Hardware will guest star in Justice League America, a book McDuffie writes. The JLA will also soon face off against Milestone's Shadow Cabinet. Keep up with all things Dwayne McDuffie at DwayneMcDuffieNews.blogspot.com.

Adapting Richard Stark's PARKER

Comic Book Resources reports that the "Parker" crime novels will be adapted as graphic novels by Darwyn Cooke (New Frontier). Based on the books by Richard Stark (pen name of Donald Westlake), Cooke says the graphic novels will leave much of the source material intact. "Donald Westlake has been very involved in the development process and we've had a very productive back and forth through the email. With a character as low key and internal as Parker, Donald's explanation or understanding of his motivation was revelatory."

See the whole story here.
IDW Publishing: The Hunter Preview by Darwyn Cooke

Westlake's original Parker series starred the hardened professional thief in a string of almost twenty hardboiled caper paperback originals in the 1960s and '70s. According to Thriller Detective, the Parker series is "one of the absolute best hard-boiled series ever written, unapologetically brutal and unflinching." Variations of the Parker books have made it to the silver screen, including 1967's Point Blank, starring Lee Marvin, and Angie Dickinson, and 1999's Payback, starring Mel Gibson.

Under his real name, Westlake writes in a funnier vein -- his Dortmunder series follows an unlucky master criminal from one misadventure to another. Visit the official Donald Westlake website, "But I Could Be Wrong."

Cooke is known largely for his superhero comics, such as his blockbuster New Frontier, which fills in the gap between the comics Golden Age and Silver Age, placing it in historical context. But CBD points out that he is not unfamiliar with noir: "I've always had more natural affinity for crime stories," he told the site. "If you look at my work on 'Catwoman' and 'Slam Bradley,' you'll see my love for the genre."

Hunt for Adventure

The folks at Hard Case Crime announce a new adventure pulp series launching in 2009 from Dorchester: THE ADVENTURES OF GABRIEL HUNT tells "the continuing story of a modern-day adventurer traveling the globe in pursuit of priceless artifacts and lost civilizations. Anyone who grew up reading H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs, or Alexandre Dumas and Sax Rohmer, or Doc Savage and the Avenger ... or grew up watching adventure movies starring Buster Crabbe or Harrison Ford ... will find a lot to enjoy in the Hunt novels." Sample art at HuntForAdventure.com. You can also sign up for updates.

Read Jason Pinter's THE MARK free

Through August 5, author Jason Pinter offers free online access to the first book in his Henry Parker series, THE MARK. (The third volume hits shelves July.) Just click on the widget below ...

Pinter also offers to thank in the acknowledgements of next year's book any fan who links to the free offer, posts the widget, or emails five friends. (Details here.)

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The stars shine for MONK 100

This entry has been moved to Crime TV: The stars shine for MONK 100

Tasha Alexander's A FATAL WALTZ

Writer Tasha Alexander continues to wow readers and critics alike with her third Victorian-era murder mystery, A Fatal Waltz (William Morrow):

Novelist Alexander returns with Victorian thriller (Tennessean)
Books: Love—and Murder—Austrian Style (Nashville Scene)
Quick Reads (Nashville City Paper)
A Fatal Waltz (Author and Book Media)
Bookman/Bookwoman

Listen to a podcast interview at A Word on Words. (Direct link here.)

Related links:
Q&A: TASHA ALEXANDER, PT 1
A Fatal Waltz on Amazon
Tasha Alexander's official site

Happy Birthday, Dame Diana Rigg!

Today is the 70th birthday of British actress Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg DBE, best known for playing Emma Peel in The Avengers and Tracy Bond in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. In a prolific career on the stage and screen, she has performed roles in the Royal Shakespeare Company, starred in The Great Muppet Caper, and hosted PBS Mystery.

Related links:
TV Themes: THE AVENGERS (w/ THE NEW AVENGERS)
Diana Rigg biography (Wikipedia)

TV Themes: CHECKMATE

This entry has been moved to Crime TV.

Crime TV Main Titles

• AGATHA CHRISTIE'S GREAT DETECTIVES
• ALIAS
• AVENGERS (w/ NEW AVENGERS)
• BARNEY MILLER
• BATMAN 1966 (w/ THE ODD COUPLE)
• BONES
• CHECKMATE
• DRAGNET
• EQUALIZER (w/ CALLAN)
• GET SMART
• HARDY BOYS / NANCY DREW MYSTERIES
• HART TO HART
• HAWAII FIVE-O
• IT TAKES A THIEF
• JUDD, FOR THE DEFENSE
• KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER
• LONE RANGER
• MAGICIAN
• MAGNUM, P.I.
• MANNIX
• MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE
• MOD SQUAD
• MONK
• NBC MYSTERY MOVIE
• PERRY MASON
• PETER GUNN
• ROCKFORD FILES
• S.W.A.T.
• SAINT
• SIMON & SIMON
• STARSKY & HUTCH
• T.J. HOOKER

Comics panel at Nashville library

My lovely wife, Erica, will be a panelist at a comics/graphic novel discussion at the Nashville Public Library (main branch) on August 9. She will be joined by author/artist Hope Larson (Chiggers) and scholar Dr. Jonathan Lampley (The Amazing, Collossal Book of Horror Trivia).

THOUGHT BUBBLES OUT LOUD
Saturday, August 9
2:00-3:30 p.m.

Nashville Public Library
615 Church Street
Conference Room 1A
(615) 862-5853

Erica's webcomic The Miller Sisters is posted at TitleTrakk. (Scroll to the bottom.) Catch up on the story on Erica's profile at ComicSpace. Visit TitleTrakk's About section for Erica's bio.

B&H launches fiction site

B&H Publishing Group has launched an all-new web site for its growing line of fiction. The portal features contests, author pages, book club questions, and book video trailers.

"The clips for new releases like hostage adventure Forsaken or supernatural thriller Shade make the content perfectly clear," says B&H electronic marketing manager Ben Todd. "And it's easy to share these trailers with friends via e-mail."

The site offers a free download of Sisters, Ink, the first in a series of four novels by Rebeca Seitz following the lives of four daughters adopted into a family and connected by their late mother's love of scrapbooking.

Short Story Lunch Hour

The main branch of the Nashville Public Library holds a "Short Story Lunch Hour" the third Thursday of every month. Bring your lunch and listen to a visiting author give a public reading.

Tomorrow: Deborah Teramis Christian reads from her trilogy of critically acclaimed sci-fi novels. Christian is a scholar, translator and activist who has recently relocated to Tennessee to finish her newest novel. The event takes place noon to 1 p.m., in the Popular Materials-Author’s Corner, at the main branch, 615 Church Street.

See you there!

Back to Bond

The new James Bond novel, Devil May Care, by author Sebastian Faulks ("writing as Ian Fleming"), reportedly picks up where Fleming left off in 1966 (despite the many, many official, licensed James Bond novels written over the years by other authors). Much is made of how "authentic" the book is, but novelist, TV producer (and Kentucky Colonel) Lee Goldberg begs to differ: "This feels like a limp effort to rip-off GOLDFINGER...the movie, not the book...and it fails on just about every level. This isn't a bad book, it's not just a very good one. It's literary cool whip ... "

Related links:
Complete JAMES BOND novels by Ian Fleming
Complete Guide To James Bond Songs

Speaking of Lee Goldberg, he posted several dispatches from the International Mystery Writers Festival in Owensboro, Kentucky, which included a radio drama-style production of his play, MAPES FOR HIRE. Follow the links to read up on his adventures here in the Mid-South:
Elvis, BBQ and The Gavel
BBQ and Crime
The Play is the Thing
Colonel Goldberg
The Jewish Colonels
Leaving Kentucky
More MAPES

Hitchcock 'Premiere Collection' coming Oct 14

In October, MGM releases a set of classic Alfred Hitchcock films in all-new DVD editions, including some titles that have been out of print for some time. The eight-disc "Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection" includes Best Picture Oscar-winner Rebecca, the endearingly loopy psychoanalytical drama Spellbound, the dark espionage romance Notorious, the legal drama The Paradine Case, the spy thriller Sabotage, the romantic murder mystery Young and Innocent, the high seas suspenser Lifeboat, and one of Hitchcock’s earliest films, the whodunit The Lodger with an all-new anniversary score.

Collectively, these films hold a combined 23 Academy Award nominations, and star such Hollywood legends as Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier, Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, and Cary Grant. The new DVD editions sport all-new special features, including audio commentaries, featurettes, screen tests, still galleries, vintage radio interviews, an AFI Tribute to Hitchcock, and more. The set also includes a 32-page notebook with trivia, production notes and more about the legendary director.