The Squawk Box

There are several recent crime-fiction-related interviews worth checking around the Internet: January Magazine’s newest reviewer recruit, Cameron Hughes, chats with that “extremely charismatic and charming man,” Irish author John Connolly, at CHUD.com; Val McDermid tells The Guardian that on some days, writing is “like carving granite with a teaspoon”; Sons of Spade’s Jochem van der Steen persuades “podcast novelist” Seth Harwood to select a soundtrack for his Jack Palms books; and at Chatterific, Gerald So asks Charles Ardai (aka Richard Aleas) about his second John Blake novel (Songs of Innocence), the value of knowing the last line of a story before you begin writing the whole thing, and the fact that the next book he’s “committed to write is the fiftieth book in the Hard Case Crime series, which will be published at the end of 2008.”

As a counterpoint to all of this gabbing, here’s a video tribute to that master of profound silence, French mime Marcel Marceau, who died yesterday in Paris at age 84. We’re applauding his splendid career, even if you can’t hear it. Which is of course appropriate.