Bullet Points: TV Addict Edition

• Reginald Hill is among the longlisted nominees for this year’s Portico Prize for Fiction, “the only book prize exclusively for books about, or set mainly in, the North of England.” You’ll find the list of non-fiction contenders right here.

• This week’s short-story offering in Beat to a Pulp is titled “The Sweetest Kind of Chaos,” and it’s written by Minneapolis’ Copper Smith.

• Yes, the rumors are true: today is Talk Like a Pirate Day. Beware all bilge rats and wenches, your timbers are about to be shivered! More here and here. Can it be coincidence that tonight’s episode of The Glades (written by Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin) is all about pirate treasure? Methinks not, me bucko.

• This evening’s Masterpiece Mystery! brings us a new installment in the excellent Inspector Lewis series, called “Your Sudden Death Question.” Check your local listings for time and channel.

• Meanwhile, Murder, Mystery & Mayhem encourages viewers who are taken with Inspector Lewis to revisit the older series from which it spun off, Inspector Morse.

• As if there weren’t already enough crime fiction to watch on television tonight, remember that the new Martin Scorsese-produced Boardwalk Empire will premiere at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO. TV Squad’s Maureen Ryan offers a two-part interview with Boardwalk Empire’s creator, Terence Winter, here and here.

• Another in a long line of weird Hollywood stories.

• I missed mentioning this before, but September 15 through October 15 has been designated National Hispanic Heritage Month. In association with that celebration, here’s a list of Hispanic mysteries and crime novels available in English.

• Did you know that Honey West, the novels-born private eye most memorably portrayed on the small screen by Anne Francis, now has her own comic-book series?

• Ex-con, former Conservative Party official, and author Jeffrey Archer has sold the film rights to his best-selling thriller novels.

• Many authors are squeamish about writing too much explicit sex into their crime fiction. Maxim Jakubowski, “King of the Erotic Thriller,” advocates using less restraint.

• Max Allan Collins not only wants more sex, but violence as well.

• Robin Jarossi reviews the two-part ITV production Aftermath, adapted from Peter Robinson’s 2001 Alan Banks novel of the same name.

• Happy birthday to Adam West, the former star of Batman, who turns 82 years old today. (Hat tip to Bill Crider’s Pop Culture Magazine.)

• Congratulations to my friend Allan Lengel on the second anniversary of his launching the federal law enforcement news site, Tickle the Wire.

• For the 62nd episode of his CrimeWAV.com podcast, author Seth Harwood has recruited Los Angeles novelist and Rap Sheet contributor Gary Phillips to read from his newly published novella, The Underbelly. Listen to that episode here.

• Pornokitsch’s Jared Shurin continues his assessment--in order of their publication--of John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee novels, writing most recently about One Fearful Yellow Eye (1966). At the same time, Steve Scott recalls a non-series MacDonald novel, April Evil (1955), for his terrific blog, The Trap of Solid Gold.

• Interviews worth your time: Library Journal chats up Otto Penzler on the subject of his newest doorstop of a collection, The Best American Noir of the Century, co-edited with James Ellroy; J. Sydney Jones quizzes Lisa Black about Trail of Blood, her third novel starring Cleveland forensic scientist Theresa MacLean; Steve Mosby is the latest focus on Paul D. Brazill’s series of interviews with crime writers from the North of England; Bookdagger fires questions at Nicolai Lilin, author of the new novel, Siberian Education; and Val McDermid submits to an inquiry by New Zealand blogger Craig Sisterson.

• The rather quirky TNT-TV series Memphis Beat, featuring Jason Lee as a police detective and singer, has been renewed for a second season.

• For the true-crime aficionados among us.

• And Bouchercon San Francisco’s conference chair, Rae Helmsworth is soliciting ideas for movies to show in the convention hotel on Wednesday, October 13--the night before the festivities really kicks into gear, when Bouchercon attendees are just beginning to arrive. Click here to add your suggestions to the current options of films set in the Bay Area. If you need further ideas or inspiration, check out this list Kelli Stanley put together for The Rap Sheet.