Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Scouring the Web

• Dennis Lehane will lend his name to a new crime-fiction imprint from HarperCollins. “The publisher announced Monday that Dennis Lehane Books will issue ‘a select’ number of literary fiction works each year that have ‘a dark urban edge,’” reported iWon Entertainment. “The author himself said in a statement that he was hoping to help ‘worthy writers’ in need of more attention. No release date has been set for the first book.” Let’s just hope that this venture doesn’t steal too much time away from Lehane’s own fiction-writing. (Hat tip to Bill Crider.)

• Happy birthday, Elmore Leonard, who turns 86 today.

• The Fall 2011 edition of Needle magazine is now available. Contributors include Ray Banks, Art Taylor, Holly Wess, Nolan Knight, and Keith Rawson. There’s even a previously unpublished Gil Brewer story among this issue’s contents.

• I also received in the mail the latest edition of Mystery Scene, which includes profiles of Val McDermid, early feminist author Arthur B. Reeve, and James Sallis; features about supernatural sleuthing novels, Max Allan Collins’ Nate Heller series, and Spider-Man’s rebooting; and Ed Gorman’s tribute to the late Martin H. Greenberg.

• Ivan G. Shreve Jr. applauds our continuing NBC Mystery Movie tribute.

• Including among this list of “10 Pilots That Thankfully Didn’t Get Picked Up” is Knee High P.I., a 2003 Comedy Central film starring Martin Klebba as Hank Dingo, “the world’s smallest private detective with the world’s biggest ego.” It reminded me that I’d just stumbled across that movie on YouTube. Begin watching it here--if you dare.

• Speaking of cheesy flicks, what about the 1968 Jane Fonda science-fiction picture Barbarella? See the trailer here.

• One of the last great train robberies in the United States took place on this date in southern Oregon in 1923. Read more about it here.

• Having already counted down his favorite Columbo episodes, Adam Graham at the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio site now turns to picking his 20 preferred installments of the 2002-2009 Tony Shalhoub series, Monk. You can click here to see numbers 16 through 20, and here to read about five more “honorable mentions.” Stay tuned to Great Detectives of Old Time Radio for more Monk picks.

This looks like a shirt made for me!

• Don’t forget about Patti Abbott’s Reginald Marsh flash-fiction challenge. Stories are supposed to be posted one week from today.

• Crime-writing pairs is the focus of a fine piece in Tipping My Fedora.

• Paul D. Brazill interviews Bruce DeSilva, the author of Rogue Island.

• Divisions within the Republican/Teapublican ranks and the radicalized party’s demand for an ideologically “pure” standard-bearer seem likely to sink the GOP's 2012 presidential candidates.

• And thank you to Crimezine for choosing The Rap Sheet as one of its “Top 10 Crime Sites of the Week.” This blog is in good company, too.

1 comment:

Barbara said...

I've only read one Lehane but I'm anxious to read his other books. I too hope he won't take too much time away from writing fiction.

Barbarella has to be one of the cheesiest movies ever. Of course I might hate it because my name is Barbara, but it was just plain awful.