Saturday, December 03, 2011

Buy My Book!

Amazon.com: Rest in Peace eBook: Jack MacLane: Kindle Store: Danny West knew that something was wrong from the first day his folks moved into the rundown house next to the creepy graveyard. The neighborhood kids would never come over to play. At night, he saw weird shadows prowling around the crumbling tombstones, and heard strange gurgling sounds. But his parents wouldn’t listen to him. They said he had a good imagination…

Then bad things started to happen. Terrible, gruesome things that even scared his dad. There was something in the graveyard. Something in the graveyard. Something that no kid could ever have imagined. Something that should have been left alone to Rest In Peace.

Most Popular Baby Names 2011

Celebs inspire 2011's most, least popular baby names

Want to Win an E-Book?

Adventures In Writing: Book Drawing

Bill Tapia, R. I. P.

TODAY.com: Ukulele player Bill Tapia, believed to be the oldest performing musician in the world, died on Friday at the age of 103, his official website said.

Honolulu-born Tapia, who played with the likes of Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby, died in his sleep at his home in Los Angeles, the website said.

Latest Getting Away With Murder Now On-line

GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER # 61 DECEMBER 2011

Song of the Day

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

ETX Woman Facing Felony Charge in Pumpkin Heist

Today's Vintage Ad

Gator Update (Snappy Edition)

Don't you get snappy with me! | The Sun |News: REPTILE handler Stuart Parker has some workmates who will really bite your arm off.

But the wildlife expert has no problems getting up close with Nelson the alligator, and even insists he's totally safe to be around.

Excellent photo at the link.

I'm Sure You'll All Agree

10 Movie Remakes That Are Better Than The Originals

Six Films That Are Dumb But Beautiful

Six Films That Are Dumb But Beautiful

Hat tip to Jeff Segal.

PaperBack


Donald E. Westlake, Dancing Aztecs, Fawcett Crest, 1976





Feeling Safer Now?

NY Daily News: An 85-year-old Long Island grandmother says she plans to sue the TSA after a humiliating strip search on Tuesday by agents at JFK Airport.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

The Times They Have a-Changéd

BBC News - Why are US teenagers driving less?: Recent research suggests many young Americans prefer to spend their money and time chatting to their friends online, as opposed to the more traditional pastime of cruising around in cars.

7 Movies That Put Insane Work Into Details You Didn't Notice | Cracked.com

7 Movies That Put Insane Work Into Details You Didn't Notice

10 Most Shocking Retirements in Sports History

10 Most Shocking Retirements in Sports History

Today's Western Movie Poster

America's saddest cities revealed

America's saddest cities, and also the happiest.

Or Maybe You Did

10 Common Words You Had No Idea Were Onomatopoeias

5 Inaccurate “Historical” Stories That Ended Up In History Books

5 Inaccurate “Historical” Stories That Ended Up In History Books

Way Out West

Friday, December 02, 2011

Bill McKinney, R. I. P.

People.com: Deliverance actor Bill McKinney died Thursday from cancer of the esophagus, according to his Facebook page.

McKinney, who was 80 when he passed away, was best known for his role as a twisted mountain man who assaulted Ned Beatty's character in 1972's Deliverance. During the scene – which Entertainment Weekly calls "one of the most unsettling scenes ever put on film" – McKinney's character orders his victim to "squeal like a pig."

Yet Another List I'm Not On

Notable Crime Books of 2011 - NYTimes.com

P. K. Dick Update

BBC - BBC Radio 4 Programmes - Great Lives, Series 26, Philip K Dick: Actor Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon; The Queen; Midnight in Paris) explores the life of Philip K. Dick with Matthew Parris, and explains why he had such a big influence on his recent production of Hamlet.

Buy My Book!

Amazon.com: Just Before Dark eBook: Jack MacLane: Kindle Store: It’s just an old junkyard, a place where Lane Hamner loved to play among the rusty old car bodies. But you never know what you might find in a junkyard, especially when your uncle isn’t the kindly old gentleman you think he is. He’s actually the kind of man who would put someone into a car that’s about to be run through the crusher, just to get rid of him.

Frank Castella isn’t so easy to get rid of, however. When his spirit takes over the junkyard, bent on revenge, a lot of people are going to die, and Frank isn’t going to make it easy on them.

If You're Reading This, You Had a Good Reason

FACT: Many Of Us Go Online For No Reason

Alan Sues, R. I. P.

Alan Sues - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Alan Sues (March 7, 1926 – December 1, 2011) was an American comic actor best known for his performances as part of the ensemble on the 1968–1973 television program Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Sues' on-screen persona was campy, outrageous and contained verbal slapstick; typical of his humor was a skit that found him following a pair of whiskey-drinking cowboys to a Wild West bar and requesting a frozen daiquiri.[1] Sues' recurring characters on the program included Big Al the Sportscaster and Uncle Al the Kiddie's Pal.[1] He also parodied castmate JoAnne Worley when she left the show, appearing in drag.

Hat tip to News from Me.

Uh-Oh

JoBlo.com: If it exists, it must be rebooted. That's the current mantra in Hollywood, and the reason we now have this bit of news. STARSHIP TROOPERS is now about to get the reboot treatment courtesy of Sony.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Mexican Food Crimes: List of Violence Involving Mexican Cuisine

Hat tip to Stan Burns.

Yet Another List I'm Not On

2011's Most Searched

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Police: Teen stabbed with fork over baseball card

Hat tip to Art Scott.

12 Days of Bookmas -- Day 2 #bookmas

Play to win free books! Go here for an explanation of the contest and for a list of the many blogs where clues can be found.

Clue for Day 2 (posted noon December 2 and written by Jessica Alvarez):
Day 2: Q-What was the first romance Jessica A ever read?

Here's my clue: What do you offer for someone's thoughts? Try your level best to answer.


Song of the Day

The 25 Most Disturbing Twilight Products of 2011

The 25 Most Disturbing Twilight Products of 2011

Hat tip to Art Scott.

It Was Her Constitutional Right

Woman refuses to put on clothes after caught having sex at intersection

Today's Vintage Ad

Texas' Criminal Geniuses Lead the Way

abc13.com: A federal judge in Houston has issued prison sentences to two of four people who pleaded guilty to robbing a Houston bank and bragging about it on Facebook.

5 Reasons Money Can Buy Happiness

5 Reasons Money Can Buy Happiness

The Never-ending Stories: Arthurian Literature

AbeBooks: The Never-ending Stories: Arthurian Literature: There are few genres with as much staying power as Arthurian literature. It began around 830 (but Arthur may have been mentioned by a Welsh poet even earlier than that) and these classic tales are still going strong today. King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Merlin the wizard, Mordred, Morgan le Fay, Lancelot, Tristan, Galahad, Gawain and the knights of the round table have legendary status in literature.

Hundreds of books and millions of words have been written about these people and their trials and tribulations, and that’s just the fiction. The Arthurian ball started rolling when a monk wrote Historia Brittonum for a Welsh king. This early history book of England and Wales mentions Arthur, and then Geoffrey of Monmouth took the stories and added his own flourishes in Historia Regum Britanniae around 1136.

It was then a free for all with anyone who could write (and not many could) retelling these stories. The strange thing is that these stories about a Welsh-English warrior king, his wife, his knights and a wizard became an international bestseller. The stories were picked up and retold in France, Germany and Scandinavia and beyond.

Lots more at the link.

PaperBack


Thomas B. Dewey, My Love Is Violent, Popular Library, 1956.




Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

Woman Says She Saw Officer Texting while Driving

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

Dallas - TNT - New Series Coming Summer 2012

No Comment Department

Elvis Presley's 'Long Lost' Swedish Daughter Sues His Estate for $130 Million

Or Maybe Not

10 Nifty Google Easter Eggs That Will Amuse You

Today's Western Movie Poster

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

Houston News: Some of the bags contained a total of 40 discarded syringes, some of which still contained meth residue. Another bag contained sheets of uncut counterfeit $100 bills. And a third had the weirdest surprise -- a hate pumpkin.

Comic Strip of the Day

Frank & Ernest

I'll Be Watching

David Milch Strikes Deal to Bring Faulkner Works to HBO

40 Best Books About Human Rights

40 Best Books About Human Rights

Forgotten Books: The End of Summer: Science Fiction of the Fifties -- Edited by Barry N. Malzberg & Bill Pronzini


Yes, I can here the grumbling already. This one surely isn't forgotten, you're saying. Well, that's because you're geezers. I have a feeling that SF readers under 40 haven't even heard of this book, which I consider an essential anthology. Out of print since 1979, I think. If there's a more recent version, maybe someone will let us know in the comments.

The thesis here is that while SF's Golden Age might have been the '30s and '40s, the genre came of age in the '50s. The stories in this volume are offered in evidence. Malzberg's introduction claims that "The level of short-story writing during the decade . . . has never been equalled. . . ." You can judge for yourself.

You'll notice that it's an Analog book and that Ben Bova is the series editor, and six of the ten stories here are from Campbell's Astounding. That's only because the editors chose them, though. There was no coercion. They were free to choose whatever they pleased.

Malzberg's intro has been published elsewhere, but if you haven't read it, it's a must. So is Pronzini's afterword, as are the afterwords he and Mazlberg provide for each story. Mainly, though, there are the stories themselves. I was lucky enough to grow up during the '50s and to see some of these in their original magazine appearances. I don't have a clue as to what my life would have been without my discovery of SF in those years, but I'm certain it wouldn't have been nearly as good. I loved this stuff then. I still do.

House of Frankenstein

Thursday, December 01, 2011

PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Interesting Books to Your Attention

Mosiman's first new book in seven years! Check it out.

Amazon.com: BANISHED eBook: Billie Sue Mosiman: Kindle Store: When the Queen of the Fallen Angels came to earth again she took the dead body of a ten-year-old native girl on an island.

It was the 1200s and life was primitive, but Angelique managed to rule the people for two hundred years, on what would become Haiti, until Columbus arrived. Escaping her island home for Spain, the little angel with her malevolent intent, wandered through the world using humans to do her biding as her parents and guardians for the next two hundred years. Then in England in the 1800s, she brought down Nisroc, an angel she trusted to be her partner and helpmate. She was weary of depending on humans, always having to control them and train them and trust they would do as they were told. Her old friend, Nisroc, however, was the solution to all her problems.

Yet there was a problem once she brought him to earth. Nisroc wasn't like Angelique. Nisroc fell in love with a frail human being--something that was unthinkable to Angelique. Use them, abuse them, even kill them, but never would she love them.

And, in the end, her companion from the Fallen had to flee for his life before the terrible child managed to take what soul he had left. She had been betrayed. She must make him pay...

Buy My Book!

Amazon.com: Blood Dreams eBook: Jack MacLane: Kindle Store: Hubert is a killer. He loves the sport of it - the thrill of the hunt - and Hubert can feel and share in the pain of his victims as they breathe their final breath.

Larry is a young boy who dreams about death before it happens. He can't remember his dreams by day, but by night he is haunted by the faces and words of the dying. When the two end up in the same town, and become aware of one another, a classic battle of good and evil ensues. Blood Dreams is an old school supernatural thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Soon to be Starring in the Remake of THEM

Meet the world's heaviest insect, which weighs three times more than a mouse

Photo at the link.
Hat tip to Art Scott.

Does Mark Finn Have an Alibi?

Person in gorilla suit dumps sand in Little Caesars and runs away ... numerous times

No Comment Department

Man choked in movie theater for disturbing the film: The victim of the attack was watching the movie when his phone rang.

The Decline of Western Civilization Continues Apace

Teen charged with shooting girlfriend as he was pistol-whipping mom

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Woman assaulted with macaroni grease

The Decline of Western Civilization Continues Apace

WAVE OF THE FUTURE? NEW THEATER WELCOMES SMARTPHONE USAGE- DURING PERFORMANCES!

Hat tip to Steve Stilwell.

Lost Novel by James M. Cain

Titan Books: Hard Case Crime Discovers Lost Novel by Author of Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, and The Postman Always Rings Twice.

New York, NY; London, UK (September 19, 2011) – Hard Case Crime, the award-winning line of mystery novels published by Titan Books, today announced the discovery of a lost crime novel written by James M. Cain, author of such classics as Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, and The Postman Always Rings Twice. The new novel, The Cocktail Waitress, has never before been published. Hard Case Crime will bring the book out in Fall 2012.

More at the link.

Bookmas Christmas Book Giveaway -- Day 1

Go here for an explanation of the contest and for a list of the many blogs where clues can be found.

Clue for Day 1 by Jessica Faust:
At the end of last year I had the "brilliant" idea of tackling the Book List Challenge [link to here please

At the time I thought I was smart by giving myself a lot of leeway. Probably not smart enough. I still didn't read nearly as many of these in 2011 as I would have liked, but I did get to a few and one of them became such a favorite that I read it twice and am a little sad it took me this long to read it at all.

What book is she talking about? Here's my own clue: Janet Rudolph should win easily today.

Song of the Day

Milton Burton R.I.P.

pattinase: Milton Burton R.I.P.

A fine writer and a fellow Texan, always a pleasure to talk to. He'll be much missed.

Did They Not See MOUSE HUNT?

The Sun |News: Pair wreck house looking
for a rat...but never find it

Back on the Streets!

Birmingham Mail: A “TIPSY” Broad Street reveller who punctured a nine-foot duck costume with a pair of nail scissors “after a few shots of tequila” has escaped being sent to prison.

First It was the Thin Mints Melee . . . .

Mother Beaten By Son Over Kool-Aid, Police Say

I Found a Penny Yesterday

Spider-Man Comic Found in Attic Worth Over $10,000

Hat tip to George Kelley.

Today's Vintage Ad

10 Worst Movies Involving Men Dressed As Women

10 Worst Movies Involving Men Dressed As Women

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Houston News: ​A Longview woman apparently got the jump on bad Black Friday-like behavior the night before Thanksgiving. That's when police say she ran over a man in the parking lot of an area Walmart, all because of a dispute over a parking spot.

Nic Cage Updage

Action Comics No.1 sells for $2.16m

PaperBack


Robert F. Mirvish, Wide-Open Town, Popular Library, 1955





Judy Lewis, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: Her mother was Loretta Young. Her father was Clark Gable.

Yet Judy Lewis spent her first 19 months in hideaways and orphanages, and the rest of her early life untangling a web of lies spun by a young mother hungry for stardom but unwilling to end her unwed pregnancy.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Suddenly the Midnight Seems Less Dreary

Ravens are only species other than apes who can 'point' and share objects like humans

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

Bad Mugshot Bonanza: Five Longview Crime All-Stars Netted in Single Drug Bust

Before And After Photoshops

Before And After Photoshops: CELEBRITY BUZZ George Clooney and Kim Kardashian have never looked frumpier. Concerned about the negative psychological impact of deceitful media images, Dartmouth Professor Hany Farid has developed an algorithm to determine how much a photo has been manipulated through digital chicanery. Here are the worst offenders from his study.

Today's Western Movie Poster

Marion Holmes DeFore, R. I. P.

NY Daily News: Marion Holmes Defore, a big band singer of the 1930s best known for her novelty vocals, died Nov. 17 in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 93. Her hits, mostly recorded when she was the lead vocalist for Art Kassel and His Kassels in the Air, included “I’m a Little Teapot” and “Alexander the Swoose (Half Swan, Half Goose).”

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Time

Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Time

A Few Things You Might Not Know About George Harrison

A Few Things You Might Not Know About George Harrison

Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Buy My Book!

Amazon.com: Ryan Rides Back eBook: Bill Crider: Kindle Store: Bill Kane was going to hang for murdering Ryan's sister... After three long years, folks were shocked Ryan would show his face after abandoning his sister to her bloody fate. Others were amazed - and frightened - that he was back at all. No man could have survived that night in Shatter's Grove.

But Ryan was no ordinary man, and Tularosa was in for more shocks and surprises, because Ryan was back for justice - and the real truth behind his sister's betrayal and murder.

The Legacy of George Harmon Coxe

The Legacy of George Harmon Coxe, by James Reasoner

There's Always a First Time

Las Cruces Sun-News: Warden Joe Chavez says in 20 plus years, it's the first time the facility has been locked down over a burrito.

Quote of the Day

All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.
----Ernest Hemingway

Contests Begin Tomorrow

BookEnds, LLC — A Literary Agency: The Twelve Days of Bookmas Giveaway: Because it was so much fun last year, we have decided to bring back the Twelve Days of Bookmas Giveaway, a book giveaway just in time for holiday gift-giving or as a little treat for yourself.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Off the Beat with Will Greenlee: A woman accused of dropping her pants and bending over to give a neighbor "something to take a picture of" after the neighbor apparently photographed her dogs running without a leash was arrested.

Yet Another List I'm Not On

The 25 Least Influential People Alive

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Song of the Day

50 Most Entertaining Book Titles

50 Most Entertaining Book Titles

Hat tip to George Kelley.

Today's Vintage Ad

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

Ugliest Tattoos: A Texas Vegetable Tattoo

Survey says the best place to live is.. |

Survey says the best place to live is... not in the U.S.

PaperBack


Grahame Webb, Killer Croc!, Fontana Books, 1980




Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: The Lubbock man who became stuck in his chimney early Monday apparently was not impersonating Santa Claus.

The man, 22, had accidentally locked his keys inside his house on the 7500 block of Vicksburg Avenue, said Robert Loveless, deputy fire marshal for the Lubbock Fire Department.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Libby Fischer Hellmann: Interview

Read Me Deadly: Libby Fischer Hellmann: Interview

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Houston News: Harrison County sheriffs say that 39-year-old Galen Granger Wallace hurled liquid drain cleaner at a man and a woman inside a home north of Marshall. The victims told police that Wallace had been inside the home threatening them with the acidic cleaning product for some time before he carried through on his promises.

10 Greatest Movie Villains of All Time

10 Greatest Movie Villains of All Time

Gee, I'm Really Happy for Him

Atlanta man wins $1 million lottery for second time in three years

Joe Lansdale Story for Kindle -- Free!

Amazon.com: Bullets and Fire eBook: Joe R. Lansdale: Kindle Store: "Dad told me once, that if people don't care about where they live, the way they act, people they associate with, they get lost in the dark, can't find their way back cause there's no light left. I had taken a pretty good step into the shadows tonight." It's payback time, in this short story by Joe R. Lansdale.

10 Silent SF and Horror Masterworks

Across the Universe: Action, Not Words: 10 silent sci-fi and horror masterworks

Hat tip to Jeff Segal.

Here's the Plot for Your Next Cable Comedy Hit

Miami News - Riptide 2.0: Stripteases, sexual favors, booze, porn mags, and fat stacks of cash would be run-of-the-mill in many Miami strip clubs. But at downtown's maximum security Federal Detention Center?

Don Devito, R. I. P.

NY Daily News: Don DeVito, a Brooklyn-born Columbia Records executive who produced the famed Bob Dylan albums "Blood on the Tracks" and "Desire," died in the Bronx Friday. He was 72.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

The Ghost of Frankenstein

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

NJ.com: A town man was arrested on Saturday for squirting a bottle of urine at a jitney bus driver and then repeatedly punching the victim in the face while the bus was stopped at a red light at Bergenline Avenue and 55th Street, reports said.

Buy My Book!

Amazon.com: A Time For Hanging eBook: Bill Crider: Kindle Store: Lizzie Randall, the preacher's daughter, is murdered. The men of the west Texas town are set on lynching Paco Morales, a Mexican teenager who happened to be in the vicinity at the time. No proof, but, after all, he is only a Mexican. Reason and/or conscience work on most of the would-be lynchers, so that, in the end justice is served. The list of suspects grows to include almost everyone in the story, thus providing an agreeable tangle of clues.

I'd Advise you to Keep off His Lawn

The professor who poses nude with his students in the name of art'

Mi Casa, Su Casa

Sonoma Co. Police Say Burglary Suspect Made Himself At Home CBS San Francisco: Humphrey had showered and put on the homeowner’s clean gym shorts, a hooded sweatshirt and slippers. He made himself a taco meal, helped himself to some homemade cookies and settled down on a couch in the living room to watch a movie he had taken from another room in the house, Thompson said.

Michael Hastings, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: Michael Hastings, a British playwright whose best-known work, “Tom and Viv,” about the first marriage of T. S. Eliot, created a cultural brouhaha over the appropriateness of fictionalizing the lives of real people, died on Nov. 19, at his home in London. He was 73.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Paris Hilton Update

Paris Hilton Snags a Red Ferrari on Black Friday

Uh-Oh

French man ordered to pay wife 10,000 euros for lack of sex

Now Available as an Audiobook!

Ryan Rides Back Audio Book | Bill Crider | Download Ryan Rides Back: Ryan Rides Back
UNABRIDGED
by Bill Crider
Narrated by Andy Mack

Futurama’s Writers Reveal Six Hidden Jokes You Probably Missed

Futurama’s Writers Reveal Six Hidden Jokes You Probably Missed

Hat tip to Toby O'Brien.

Song of the Day

Nicolas Cage Update

Look Where We Found Nic Cage!

Reader, I marinated it

The Independent: What if Virginia Woolf, Geoffrey Chaucer or Raymond Chandler had turned their talents to food writing?

Today's Vintage Ad

Stonehenge Update

Pits add to Stonehenge mystery

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

NBC Connecticut: The Christmas spirit was all around on Sunday during a Christmas Craft Fair in Southington until a woman stabbed another woman with a Christmas ornament, police said.

Five Jobs Even Riskier Than Texans' QB

Five Jobs Even Riskier Than Texans' QB, Such As Spinal Tap Drummer

PaperBack


Guy N. Smith, Alligators, Arrow Books, 1987





Top 10 Biggest Explosions

Top 10 Biggest Explosions

Well, I Got More than Half of Them Right

Fictional Inc.: You can't actually shop at any of the stores in this quiz or buy the products, but you still might recognize them from the TV shows, movies and books they come from. How much do you know about these fictional companies?

I Report, You Decide

Best album covers ever

Today's Western Movie Poster

Yet Another List I'm Not On

In fact, I get scared just looking at the pictures.

10 Most Extreme Tight Rope Daredevils

10 Best Urban Legends Ever in Our Email

10 Best Urban Legends Ever in Our Email

8 Incredible Discoveries People Just Sort of Stumbled Into

8 Incredible Discoveries People Just Sort of Stumbled Into

Overlooked Films: Cotton Comes To Harlem

I really like Chester Himes' Harlem novels about Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones. They're violent, hilarious, over-the-top stories about a Harlem that never was. So naturally when this movie appeared in the theaters in 1970, I was right there to see it. While it's probably impossible to capture Himes on film, I wasn't disappointed. The movie has the mix of humor and violence and weirdness of the novels, though in smaller proportions, and the cast is great. Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jaques play Gravedigger and Coffin Ed. Redd Fox has a great role, and Judy Pace is beautiful. Calvin Lockhart plays a preacher working a back-to-Africa scam, and he loses $87K that's stuffed into a bale of cotton. Everybody wants that money, and the race is on.

I got a huge kick out of this movie 41 years ago. I have no idea how it holds up, but I'd like to see it again. I think it's time I read the book again, too.

Cotton Comes To Harlem

Monday, November 28, 2011

New Story at BEAT to a PULP

BEAT to a PULP :: Papercut Pete's Blood-Stained MacGuffin :: Cameron Ashley

Buy My Book!


Amazon.com: Gator Kill (Truman Smith Private Eye) eBook: Bill Crider: Kindle Store

He Wouldn't Keep off Her Lawn!

Woman Attacks Neighbor With Axe, Cops Say: A senior citizen in a small Hudson Valley village is accused of attacking her neighbor with an axe during a property line dispute.

No Comment Department

Off the Beat with Will Greenlee: "He then stated that he shoots in the yard all the time and that fighting is what redneck people do," records state.

A Jet Pack for Christmas?

Amazing Video: 'Jet Man' stunts alongside fighter jets over Alps

PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Interesting Books to Your Attention

Amazon.com: Dead Men's Harvest (9781444712636): Matt Hilton: Books
Joe first appeared in Dead Men's Dust - a book that saw him hunting for his estranged brother, John, who had been kidnapped by the vicious murderer, Tubal Cain.

In his next outing, Judgement and Wrath, Joe has to protect a girl from a professional hit man who goes by the name of a fallen angel, Dantalion.

Book three, Slash and Burn, has Joe and Kate searching to find her missing sister and coming up against two monstrous killers known as the Bolan twins and their boss, the former assassin known as 'Quicksilver'.

Book Four, Cut and Run, has Joe is up against a doppleganger, Luke Rickard, who has framed him for murder and leads him into a cat and mouse chase where the violence of his past maskes a return visit.

Book Five, Blood and Ashes, has Joe protecting a family from a band of White Supremacists hell bent on bringing down the American government and prepered to do anything to achieve thier end game.

Book six is Dead Men's Harvest, and Joe is once more pitched into battle with an old adversary who has a bone to pick...

The World's Great Bookshops

The World's Great Bookshops

Hat tip to George Kelley.

Song of the Day

Meet Kasey Lansdale

Kasey Lansdale tells about growing up Lansdale style.

In Nine Kinds of Pain -- Leonard Fritz

In Nine Kinds of Pain is a knockout of a book. Leonard Fritz takes a lot of chances with his narrative, including comic strips, authorial intrusions, and fragmented story-telling, but he manages to pull it off, giving us a nightmare vision of a hellish and decaying Detroit with plenty of bad people making plenty of bad decisions. There's Baby, a prostitute, and Dante, her worthless boyfriend. There's Dallas, the cop who has more problems than the usual cop, and his friend Ron Frady, who's too deep into a big scheme to make himself rich. It's hard to describe. You just have to read it to see what I mean. And I do recommend that you read it. Fritz is a powerful voice, and he has something to say about all kinds of things.

New Pulp Press proves again that being willing to take a chance on a really different kind of novel can pay big dividends. Readers who take a chance on this one will see what I mean. Check it out.

Howard Waldrop & Lawrence Person review Hugo

Howard Waldrop & Lawrence Person review Hugo

Today's Vintage Ad

Or Maybe You Did

10 Voice Actors Who Shaped Your Childhood and You Didn’t Even Know It

25 Most Surprising Rock Formations From Around The World

25 Most Surprising Rock Formations From Around The World

Paris Hilton Update

Paris Hilton Shares Pics From Her Bikini Calendar Photo Shoot In Hawaii

PaperBack


H. Vernor Dixon, That Girl Marian, Monarch, 1962





Top 10 Ghost Stories Ever!

Top 10 Ghost Stories Ever!

Link via SF Signal.

Seepy Benton Needs This

Signals - Gifts That Inform, Enlighten & Entertain: I
Irrational Numbers Wall Clock

Irrational Numbers Wall Clock

In math, irrational numbers are those that can't be represented by simple fractions. Two examples are pi and the square root of 2. Designed by a mathematician, for mathematicians (and others in the know, like engineers and scientists), this clock tells time in irrational numbers logically placed on a 360-degree circle. For example, pi (3.14159…) is just a few degrees past where the 3 would be on a regular clock face. Black with white markings and hands, metal clock runs on 1 AA battery. 12" diameter.

Hat tip to Art Scott.

Today's Western Movie Poster

Ken Russell, R. I. P.

Ken Russell, Controversial Director, Dies at 84 - NYTimes.com: Ken Russell, the English filmmaker and writer whose outsize personality matched the confrontational brashness of his movies, died on Sunday, news agencies reported. He was 84.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Headline of the Day

3 face prison time in special toilet paper scam

5 Sports Fans Who Ruined Sports

5 Sports Fans Who Ruined Sports

Ranked: David Cronenberg Films from Worst to Best

Ranked: David Cronenberg Films from Worst to Best

Hat tip to Jeff Segal.

Bride of Frankenstein

Sunday, November 27, 2011

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . . .

Car ding leads to early morning shootout in Wichita | Wichita Eagle: Car ding leads to early morning shootout in Wichita

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . . .

Man: Anger issues led to window smashing | Mobile - CapeCodOnline.com: HYANNIS - A 29-year-old man who told police he has “anger issues,” will be arraigned Monday in Barnstable District Courts on charge he randomly smashed car windows in a parking lot outside the Toys R Us store.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Axe and spear gun stand-off

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Crossdressing Muggers WBAGNFARB

Crossdressing muggers charged in Lincoln Park assaults

Buy My Book!

Amazon.com: When Old Men Die (Truman Smith Mysteries) eBook: Bill Crider: Kindle Store: Truman "Tru" Smith is a PI who'd rather be reading Faulkner or fishing on his beloved Galveston Island than solving mysteries, so when his friend Dino asks for help, Tru at first demurs. With some not-very-subtle arm twisting, Dino finally persuades Tru to investigate the disappearance of Old Harry, a homeless vagrant whom Dino and his family have "adopted." Tru makes some half-hearted efforts to find the old geezer--who Tru figures probably disappeared because he felt like it--but only succeeds in getting shot at, doused in the Gulf, and bopped on the head. Of course, these events not only make Tru cross, they also rouse his suspicions about why somebody is so determined to keep him from finding out the real reasons for Old Harry's disappearance. It's not long before Tru discovers that some very nasty business is going on--business that isn't in the best interests of Tru's island.

Croc Update

gulfnews : Receding waters reveal crocodiles, poisonous snakes: Image Credit: Receding waters reveal crocodiles, poisonous snakes
  • Image Credit: AP
  • Residents carry a crocodile on their shoulders after they caught and killed the reptile at a flooded residential area in Bangbuatong district of Nonthaburi province, north of Bangkok, Thailand. Murky floodwaters are receding from Bangkok's inundated outskirts to reveal some scary swamp dwellers who moved in while flooded residents were moving out, including crocodiles and some of the world's most poisonous snakes.

Hat tip to Jerry House.

The Decline of Western Civilization Continues Apace

Christmas, 'Jersey Shore'-style: Snooki ornaments sell out
JERSEY-SHORE-ORNAMENTS

Song of the Day

Now Available as an e-Book!

Cover for 'BEAT to a PULP: A Rip through Time'

BEAT to a PULP: A Rip through Time

Ebook By BEAT to a PULP
Rating: Not yet rated.
Published: Nov. 27, 2011
Category: Fiction » Literature » Science Fiction - Adventure
Words: 38393 (approximate)
Language: English


Ebook Short Description

Dr. Berlin has created a powerful time-travel device with the ability to predict the future and retrodict the past. He swipes his own creation from The Company and disappears into history. The Company's time-cop Simon Rip and the sexy, brilliant Dr. Serena Ludwig join together to track Berlin and return the device. Their pursuit will take them back to the ice age and forward to the end of time.

Today's Vintage Ad

Pocahontas Update

Archaeologist traces Pocahontas wedding site

PaperBack


Harry Whittington, Rebel Woman, Avon, 1960





Cheap hit man

Cheap hit man

Gift Suggestion

King Kong (Dramatized) Audio Book | Violet Crown Radio Players

Includes the classic song, "Don't Shoot that Monkey Down." I've seen and heard this performed at a convention, and you can't go wrong.

A Website of Possible Interest

Paperback Price Guide and Valuation Guide: Value of Old Paperback Books: Searching for vintage paperback values? You have come to the right place! IGuide™ is proud to host the online version of Graham Holroyd's Paperback Prices. The price guide is maintained by Graham Holroyd, whose Paperback Price Guide book has been the authority on vintage paperback values since it came out in 2003. The database contains tens of thousands of web pages of information on individual paperback books. Each page contains a description of the book and estimated values, as well as a section for "Real Market Data", actual prices contributed by our Board of Advisors.

Today's Western Movie Poster

Interesting (and Mostly Depressing) Photos of a Bygone Time

DOCUMERICA: Images of America in Crisis in the 1970s

LIFE's 37 Best-Ever Science Photos

LIFE's 37 Best-Ever Science Photos

Biggest Celebrity Hair of the 80s

Biggest Celebrity Hair of the 80s

Frankenstein