Thrilling’s Days of Yesteryear?

Kevin Burton Smith is more interested in, and more committed to the study and advancement of detective fiction than anyone I know. Although he’s been writing for me at January Magazine for years, I’ve only had the chance to meet him one time, during a trip I made to Los Angeles to do some research for a novel I am writing. We met for lunch on a sunny afternoon, and sat out on the patio of a hotel restaurant, yapping about the authors we’ve enjoyed reading over the years, as well as the books here and there that we would probably have been better off never picking up. Though there are some delicate souls who find Kevin’s commentary rather abrasive at times, he’s a man who knows his business--no doubt about that--and his business is crime. Well, the fictional variety, anyway.

As a result, I was saddened this morning to read his blog post about his decision to put The Thrilling Detective Web Site, that vast storehouse of information about crime fiction he’s been assembling for the last eight years, “officially on hiatus.” Of course, it had become pretty obvious to those of us who are regular Thrilling Detective visitors that something was wrong; there hadn’t been a site update since January of this year. And I’m sure I was not alone in hearing from Kevin about his increasingly busy life in Southern California (after a move from Montreal), and his need to actually make money now and then, Web sites and blogs not being the most lucrative endeavors of the 21st century. I guess those other responsibilities just didn’t leave him time enough to maintain and update the Thrilling Detective site. As Kevin explains:

So, for the month of June, and maybe a little longer, the site is officially on hiatus. I’ll be regrouping, considering my options. And recharging myself, hopefully. Right now, I hope to be back on track by summer, but we’ll see. I’ll be discussing those options with Gerald So, our fiction editor, and with She Who Must Be Obeyed, and with anyone else who cares to write me on the topic. And of course I’ll also be in Toronto at Bloody Words, no doubt keeping a bar stool warm. If you’re in the area, drop by. Despite rumours to the contrary, I don’t bite.

I know well how draining it is to keep up a Web-based project of any size, which is why I put The Rap Sheet on a hiatus last year. It’s especially tough if you must balance nonpaying Web work against halfway lucrative and interesting employment of other sorts. Kevin’s decision to take a vacation from The Thrilling Detective Web Site is surely the right one. Like others, I’m sad to see the site lay fallow for a time--and worried, because I know how easy it is to give up on a demanding but largely unrewarding project permanently, once you’re content with having given it up temporarily. But I am glad to know that the site’s contents aren’t going away, that they will remain available to researchers and readers even though Kevin is off drinking mai tais in Chandler’s red wind for a while, and recharging his creative batteries. I hope that he’ll continue to keep up his Thrilling Detective blog and contribute occasionally to The Rap Sheet in the interim. And, like so many of the fans he doesn’t really know he has, I’ll look forward to welcoming The Thrilling Detective Web Site back when it’s tanned, rested, and ready.

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Now for a contrasting bit of good news. Pseudonymous publisher “Dash Courageous” has announced the creation of a new pulp mag for the Web. Blazing! Adventures Magazine, as it’s to be called, is currently on the lookout for new short stories. It sounds like he wants tales set during the guns-and-gams era of Hammett, Chandler, Daly, et al., as well as yarns that boast modern settings but play by pulpish rules about “explicit language, sex, alternative lifestyles, etc.” Story lengths can run to 5,000 words, and there’s even real cash money for contributors--well, $5 per story, anyway. It’s hard to tell exactly when this new pulp periodical will debut, but Messr. Courageous says he’ll be accepting submissions between June 20 and August 20. I’m curious to see what results from all this promotional hype.