Working the Web

• Crime Factory Publications, known best for its quarterly e-zine, is preparing to launch a “new book line with an Australian-exclusive, print-only edition of the anthology The First Shift ($13.99), which includes some of the most acclaimed voices, both established and upcoming, in the world of crime fiction.” This new publishing venture will be kicked off by an event to be held on March 5 in Melbourne, Australia, attended by wordsmiths Megan Abbott, Adrian McKinty, David Whish-Wilson, and Leigh Redhead. “All attending authors,” reads a press release, “will read selections from their work, in the loose, fun format of acclaimed Noir at the Bar events held in St. Louis and Los Angeles. Fresh from Adelaide Writer’s Week, Megan Abbott will be reading from her forthcoming novel, Dare Me, for the very first time publicly. Live jazz from After Dark, My Sweet will score the evening and books will be for sale.” Sounds like fun.

• Today would’ve been the 87th birthday of Edward Gorey, the Chicago-born illustrator and author familiar for his macabre artwork. Although Gorey died way back in 2000, the Los Angeles Times’ Jacket Copy blog notes that “His work lives on, as do the fur coats--A.N. Devers bought one at auction--that Gorey used to wear to the ballet, along with Converse sneakers.”

• This is likely to put a chill on the possibility of anymore sequels to Mario Puzo’s The Godfather being published in the near future. As The New York Times explains today,

Paramount [Pictures] has sued Anthony Puzo, a son of the novelist, seeking to stop publication of a new “Godfather” novel called “The Family Corleone” ...The studio says that it gave permission for a 2004 sequel, “The Godfather Returns,” written by Mark Winegardner and published by Random House, but not for a 2006 follow-up, “The Godfather’s Revenge,” also by Mr. Winegardner and published by Putnam.

The Family Corleone is currently set for release on May 8.

• Really? A Hannibal Lecter TV series? Really?

• This collection of cinematic lip-locks would’ve been totally appropriate for last week’s Valentine’s Day. Instead, it’s part of the Moviefone site’s pre-Oscars celebration.

• Again in the lead up to this Sunday’s night Academy Awards presentations, Entertainment Weekly spoke with Tim Miller, creative director of the studio responsible for the opening sequence of the U.S. film version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. That sequence and a link to the EW piece can be found here.

• Yes, it’s true: Two and a half years after the popular TV series Monk disappeared from USA Network’s weekly schedule, “obsessive, compulsive detective” Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) will soon return to the small screen in a two-hour movie, according to the show’s creator, Andy Breckman. Let’s hope the fetching Traylor Howard can be convinced to reprise her role as his aide, Natalie Teeger.

• I haven’t yet handled a copy of Chris F. Holm’s debut novel, Dead Harvest (the first in a succession of “Collector” books), but I’m already in love with the cover, which captures nicely the style of Penguin’s classic crime-paperback fronts.

• The late Howard Hopkins is the winner of this year’s Pulp Ark Lifetime Achievement Award. “The award,” reports All Pulp, “will be given to Howard’s wife, Dominique, on her husband’s behalf.” That ceremony will take place during the Pulp Ark convention, to be held in Batesville, Arkansas, from April 20 to 22.

• The Los Angeles Review of Books, a new online literary and cultural arts publication, sent me a notice, explaining that it will launch its full Web site on Wednesday, April 18. That notice adds: “The complete LARB Web site is specifically designed to take full advantage of evolving technologies of the Web, offering an immersive, interactive online literary experience, with reviews and essays, video and audio of author interviews and events, reader forums, a comprehensive searchable database of books, authors and their publishers, and much more.” Funny. Here I thought the present LARB site was perfectly adequate. I guess my expectations weren’t high enough ...

• In an all-too-brief interview, California writer Deborah Harter Williams reintroduces us to Thomas B. Sawyer, one of the early screenwriters for Murder, She Wrote.

• Jewish mystery writers will be honored during an event to be held on Sunday, March 4, at the Peninsula Jewish Community Center in Foster City, California (south of San Francisco). Mystery Fanfare provides the necessary specifics.

• Crime novelist Max Allan Collins lists his 16 favorite movies. Surprisingly, not all of them have to do with malfeasance and murder.

• Another novel I haven’t yet read. Darn!

• This movie has potential: “Elliott Chaze’s 1953 noir classic, Black Wings Has My Angel--one of only two crime novels he wrote--is being adapted for film,” reports Omnimystery News. “Anna Paquin (True Blood), Elijah Wood, and Tom Hiddleston (Wallander) are set to star in a screenplay by Barry Gifford (City of Ghosts). The storyline follows escaped convict Tim Sunblade (expected to be played by Hiddleston), who teams up with a call girl named Virginia (Paquin) in a backwoods Mississippi motel, where they plan a daring heist.”

• And I couldn’t be happier about this! Warner Home Video has announced it will finally release in DVD format all 27 episodes from the first season (1957-1958) of the often light-hearted TV Western Maverick, which starred James Garner and (beginning with the eighth episode) Jack Kelly, both playing gambler brothers adrift in the 19th-century American West. I already have on my shelves a “best episodes” DVD from that series, but I look forward to owning the complete first season, due out on May 29. As my Maverick-loving old pappy might have said, this is a must-have for Garner fans.