Bullet Points: Christmas Rushed Edition

• A fitting tribute to Ian Fleming: Jamaica’s present Boscobel Airstrip, located in the northeastern parish of Saint Mary and used principally by private jets, will soon be upgraded, expanded, and renamed after the creator of super-spy James Bond. Fleming lived in Saint Mary Parish during his retirement in the late 1950s and early ’60s.

• Patti Abbott has pulled something of a surprise on the followers of her recent round-robin short-fiction challenge. As she explains, “I was originally going to end this challenge myself next week,” but after receiving the 11th installment, from blogger Dan Fleming, “it seemed like the perfect ending. My piece would be redundant at best.” You can catch up on the full run of that progressive story here.

• A very special Christmas episode ... of The Avengers?

• Dragnet pays its own tribute to the holiday.

• I missed this post when it was put up last month, but I think author Ed Gorman’s distinction between detective novelists Ross Macdonald and John D. MacDonald is right on. And judging by the comments attached to his remarks, I’m not alone.

• Have you ever wanted to listen to an interview with acclaimed California writer Don Winslow (The Dawn Patrol, Savages)? Well, this is your chance, as he answers questions from Jeff Rutherford. Listen here.

• Scottish novelist Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting) chooses “five great crime novels,” all but one of which I’ve read. (Hat tip to Campaign for the American Reader.)

• Anyone up for a David Goodis memorial? It is scheduled to be held on January 11, 2001--the 40th anniversary of that author’s death--at his graveside in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania?

• From today’s edition of Salon: “Stieg Larsson and Dan Brown novels are riddled with clichés, but for many readers, that’s a feature not a bug.” Really? More here.

• New England author William G. Tapply died of leukemia in July 2009, but Skyhorse Publishing still has one more posthumous novel of his to release. It’s called The Nomination and will reach bookstores in late January of next year.

• It’s not crime fiction, but since the mastermind behind it is crime-fiction blogger Cullen Gallagher (Pulp Serenade), his marathon tribute to the Gold Medal western novels deserves a mention on this page. Authors whose work has so far been considered include Harry Whittington, Donald Hamilton, and Jonas Ward (aka William Ard).

• Another book cover to admire.

• South African writer Roger Smith has been draped in bouquets by international crime fiction authority Peter Rozovsky for his novel Wake Up Dead. I still haven’t gotten around to reading that book (the U.S. paperback version isn’t due out till next month), but we can all get a sense of Smith’s literary style by reading his short story, “Ishmael Toffee,” which has just been posted here.

• No wonder Americans think Republicans are obstructionists and out of touch with current economic realities ...

• A remarkable recap: Do the Math presents an annotated rundown of “all of Donald E. Westlake’s major fiction, his lone book of reportage, and three important essays.”

• Remaindered, the short independent film directed by author-screenwriter Lee Goldberg, which I wrote about in October, “has been chosen as an official selection of the 2011 Derby City Film Festival in Louisville, Kentucky,” according to Goldberg’s blog.

• Roger “R.J. Ellory, author of The Anniversary Man and Saints of New York, answers Declan Burke’s questions about which crime novel he would most like to have written, his most satisfying writing moment, his present reading, and more here.

• The prolific Max Allan Collins is pushing to finish work on another unpublished Mickey Spillane novel, The Consummata, at the same time as he polishes off the preliminary research on Ask Not, his latest Nate Heller detective novel, this one based around the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Find out more here.

• Steve Holland offers a two-part gallery of Ngaio Marsh book covers.

• R.I.P., Richard Holbrooke. The skilled and veteran diplomat, who oversaw negotiations to end the war in Bosnia, was often mentioned as the leading candidate to become Secretary of State under a President Al Gore, and who President Obama appointed as his special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, died Monday night after surgery to repair a tear to his aorta. He was 69 and will be much missed.