More, Always More

A few things I forgot to mention in my last news wrap-up.

• After almost five years in business, Richard Helms’ fiction Webzine, The Back Alley, is finally closing up shop. But editor Helms says he’s open to offers from anybody else who’s interested in taking up The Back Alley’s reins. “ ... I will happily sell the domain name and rights to produce the ’zine,” he writes. “How about twenty bucks and bottle of Patrón Añejo tequila?” That sounds like a deal for some aspiring editor out there.

• Fans of the old CBS Radio Mystery Theater, the late-night drama series broadcast from 1974 to 1982, will be interested to know that all 1,399 episodes are now available for your listening pleasure here. (By the way, I’ve added this site to The Rap Sheet’s blogroll, under “Characters/Series,” so you can easily find it again in the future.)

• Scottish novelist Val McDermid recounts the roots of her popular Dr. Tony Hill series in a piece for Mystery Readers Journal.

• The good folks behind PulpFest, the annual pulp-fiction convention--to be held this coming August in Columbus, Ohio--sent along the following name-change alert:

As a result of the recent death of one of the organizers and stalwarts of the pulp hobby, PulpFest has decided that henceforth the Munsey Award will be called The Rusty Hevelin Service Award, or, in short, The Rusty. Hopefully, this will be accepted as a tribute to a man who was influential in making PulpFest and its predecessors as successful as they are today.

Information about nominating somebody for The Rusty can be found here. The deadline is April 30 of this year.

• You haven’t been keeping up with It Couldn’t Happen Here ..., the blog devoted to that 1970s cult-TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker? Then you’d better start checking in. It’s already up to critiquing episode 15, “Chopper” (aka “The Headless Harleyman”).

• Also worth your following: Pulp Serenade’s Cullen Gallagher is in the midst of critiquing the diverse fictional works of Vin Packer (née Marijane Meaker) as well as Ed Gorman’s regrettably under-appreciated Sam McCain series.

• And is that really George W. Bush on the cover of Honey Gal, the 1958 Beacon Books paperback original edition of Charles Willeford’s fourth novel? Sure looks like him ...