The Late, Great Jim Croce (1943-73)

For some reason, I started humming the lyrics to an old Jim Croce song this morning. I haven't thought of Jim in too many years. He died young tragically. Don't so many of the good ones? His plane crashed near Natchitoches, Louisiana, on September 20, 1973. He was all of 30. "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" and "Time in a Bottle" were probably his best known folky rock songs. They got plenty of airplay on the FM rock radio stations. I bought an 8-track tape of one of his albums. It got mangled in the tape player. I hated 8-tracks with a vengeance. But that's another story altogether. Jim struck me as a cool dude who was down to earth and approachable. I would have loved to sit down at a table with our beers and just shoot the breeze with him. Here's the link to the first song I ever heard by Jim Croce. Its title "Operator" pretty much sums up what's going on in the ballad. He mentions phone calls costing you a dime. I'm not sure that's entirely accurate. Phone calls had jumped to 25 cents by then, as I recall it. But who gives a toss about an extra 15 cents, right? Enjoy.   

Click to hear for Jim Croce singing his first hit "Operator"

My latest fiction title Smoking on Mount Rushmore: 16 New and Selected Stories has an Uncle Sam-themed title resonating with July 4th if you're doing some reading before the festivities and fireworks kick off. The title story is about Cerise and Derek, a young married couple who decide to have a last trip/fling before he ships out with us military unit to serve overseas. Derek picks Mount Rushmore as their destination, and off they go on a lark. He wants it to be a memorable trip and suggests Cerise perform a patriotic striptease for him on Mount Rushmore. She reluctantly agrees.
Of course, they run into a few problems along the way, threatening to keep Derek from having his fun before he has to leave the U.S. Readers at Goodreads and Amazon have enjoyed [book:Smoking on Mount Rushmore: 16 Selected & New Short Stories|17228169] for the diversity and freshness of its short fiction offerings. "Your money's worth & then some," says one Amazon reviewer.

The Different Pets I've Used In My Novels

Dashiell Hammett included a pet dog named Asta in his Thin Man novels starring the husband-and-wife detective team of Nick and Nora Charles. Asta was a goofy but clever and lovable female Schnauzer. In the Thin Man movie comedies starring Myrna Loy and William Powell, Asta was a male Wire-Haired Fox Terrier actually named Skippy who now even has his own Wikipedia entry.

The inclusion of Asta gave the popular movies a warmer appeal the 1930s Depression audiences paid for their tickets to come back and see again and again. I've watched the movies, and Asta does often steal the show.

Which is the roundabout way I bring up the topic of my including pets when I'm writing my novels. I grew up with dogs, mostly beagles like Snoopy. When I got married, we took in a couple of cats, the tabby living until age 21. Later after they went to the happy feline hunting grounds, we got another cat. Her name is Frannie, and she rules the roost as I've blogged about in an earlier blog post. In Pelham Fell Here, P.I. Frank Johnson (well, he's not quite a private eye yet) inherits a pet ferret from the neo-Nazis he names Mr. Bojangles.

That was fine, but then I had to make sure Mr. Bojangles appeared in every scene, or else Frank had to foist the little ferret off on somebody to babysit it. Sometimes Mr. Bojangles gets into mischief like getting lost in a display room of caskets much to Frank's chagrin. Mr. Bojangles lends humor to the scenes, and Frank grows fond of the ferret. Actually, I think we both did by the end of the novel.

Reading Any Good Books Right Now?

Light night I started reading a new ARC. I've also been thinking about re-reading Harry Crews' A Feast of Snakes, an iconic Southern Gothic noir published in 1976. My wife recommended Winston Churchill's daughter's memoir which I don't know the title of right now. I'm not a big fan of memoirs/biographies except the rare one on baseball players. The longer days make the reading time a bit shorter for me.

Why Are Gritty Settings So Popular in Crime Fiction?

I've been thinking a lot about my choice of the settings in my novels. Since I write a lot of crime fiction with a hardboiled or noirish bent, I gravitate to the grittier settings. My early novels likeThe Blue Cheer and Pelham Fell Here were based in rural areas of West Virginia and Virginia, respectively. My last novel using a rural setting was Lake Charles set in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. My later novels like The Zinc Zoo and Ask The Dice are centered in the suburbs (often blue collar).

I don't know if there's any striking reason except the crime fiction genre just seems better suited for the grittier settings. I moved from the rural to suburban settings in my novels. A city has a lot of dark, rough neighborhoods to choose from to create different scenes. One classic pulp fiction writer who had an early influence me is Bruno Fischer. He wrote of the not-so-placid suburbs in his fine novels like The Evil Days.

One of my unpublished novels titled THE BAG MAN'S HOLIDAY is set in a fictitious small city in Florida. I've spent some time in the Sunshine State which has drawn its share of crime novelists, past and present. The hot, muggy climate goes along well for creating a cauldron for the criminals to pursue their evil aims and pleasures.

Tuesday's Overlooked TV Shows: The Monroes

I enjoyed watching this intelligent Western series on TV back in 1966-7. Michael Anderson Jr. played the oldest brother Clay Monroe and the gorgeous Barbara Hershey was the oldest sister Kathy Monroe. The fresh and interesting premise was the young Monroes (five in all) moved West and set up living in a cabin on their father's stake of land. The link below to the video segment also includes the show's opening with the credits run, and the theme music playing. I remember that part quite vividly. Of course after I'd gotten interested in the storyline and characters, the powers that be at the network TV brass decided to pull the plug on The Monroes, and that was that. I suppose not enough folks tuned in to watch it. Pity. Today forty years later after watching this clip found on YouTube, I can still say that I like viewing The Monroes. You might, too, if you like Westerns.
Click here to see the opening to The Monroes TV Show

Here Are A Few Of My Favorite Movie Comedies On A Monday

I like to draw up lists from time to time when writing my blog posts. I use different categories, and this time I thought it'd be fun to write down some of the funniest movies I have watched. I go to the cinema house, but I'm more comfortable just hanging out at the house and checking out the movies. One thing occurs to me. I remember laughing at the time I watched the movie. Would that still be the case if I saw the movie again now? I don't really know. Of course, I've seen all the funny scenes and know all the punch lines that are coming. I did see Animal House again, and I got a few laughs, though not nearly as many as the first time I viewed it on the silver screen. Without further ado, I give you the list. Drumroll, please...

1. The Pink Panther series

2. Animal House

3. Something's Gotta Give

4. Little Miss Sunshine

5. Julie & Julia

6. Napoleon Dynamite

7. A Christmas Story

8. Tootsie

9. Some Like It Hot

Ed Lynskey's Books Newsletter

I put together a newsletter this spring on my 14 books (novels and short story collections) with more titles in the pipeline. It's getting a little insane for me to keep up with them all. I'm writing a cozy mystery series along with an on-going hardboiled private eye series. I'm also writing stand alone novels, not to forget my short story collections.

I plan to offer my valued newsletter subscribers links to my latest short stories published online to read for free. Sometimes I'll ask for their opinion on which protagonist name of several I should pick to use in my work-in-progress.

My next books newsletter will be sent out this September. If you'd like to receive my books newsletter to see what author stuff I'm up to right now, please send me your email address, and I'll happily add you. I'll post this blog announcement again a couple of times throughout the summer.

You can contact me offline at: e_lynskey@yahoo.com.

Happy reading,

Ed

The Next Sue Grafton: W IS FOR WASTED

I just saw at Goodreads that Sue Grafton's next title is W is for Wasted due out in September. I usually set aside a week during the summer to read her alphabet mysteries. They just appeal to me as summertime books where I'm a kid again sitting in the shade outside and reading. My books read list here on Goodreads indicates that I've read B, C, E, F, G, K, M, T, and U. There may very well be more titles, since I don't always remember to flag my books as read, and I don't trust my memory to recall any of the other titles. My mother and sister are big fans, and they turned me on to the Grafton titles. I find a lot to like about them. The time period is spot on for me. Kinsey Millhone never ages from book to book. I love that fact. Eternal youth: yes! Plus which, she's a funny, tough, and smart lady, all very likeable traits. I've always enjoyed reading the male private eye books (Lew Archer, Mike Hammer, Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade to name but a few), and I felt ready to add a female operative to my reading list. Happy reading to you and yours.

You Learn Something New Every Day: Saltbox House

This might be a new feature--you learn something new every day--I'll be doing to my blog posts. I do a fair amount of research and checking on stuff while I'm writing my novels. The need has arisen because my readers want me to get it right, and I try as close as I can to do so.

For some reason, saltbox house came up today during my writing session. So, I decided to google it, and I ran across the link below to a Library of Congress page. It turns out I've seen saltbox houses (especially during my rural years) all my life, and I haven't known what they are called.

So technically, I didn't learn something new to me, but just found out what label is used to identify it. I don't know how practical or comfortable it is to live in a saltbox house, but I sure do dig its distinctive architecture.

This is especially true since I now reside in a 1970s neighborhood of all-alike split-levels using three or four basic colors. I suppose the developer had to keep the costs down. Not my complaint, just my observation. So, I give you the saltbox house.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/175_...
Saltbox house:

How Can Anbody Not Know Who Sam Spade Is?

A younger crime fiction reader came across my reference to "Sam Spade" in one of my novels and made the comment they didn't know who he is. I thought my leg was being pulled, but the puzzlement was genuine. I was then just as flabbergasted, but I guess I assumed everybody knows about Dashiell Hammett's famous private eye creation. I didn't give it a second thought while I was doing the revisions of my novel. Name-dropping is always a dicey proposition in writing novels because of this very reason. Usually I refrain from doing it, but I figured Sam Spade has a broad, across-the-generations appeal and recognition. Probably not everyone has seen The Maltese Falcon film with Bogie starring as Spade, but the Sam Spade name must be used frequently and widely enough in the daily lexicon of English. I wonder if Philip Marlowe is also as unknown to any crime fiction readers. On the other hand, I don't know if Hammett or Chandler are on today's high school reading lists, so it's understandable why Sam Spade might be obscure. I remember I was assigned to read John Knowles' debut novel A Separate Peace in high school, but I think Hammett or Chandler would've been a lot more fun to me. At any rate, I'll certainly reconsider using the Sam Spade reference in the future novels as I'm writing them.

My Not So Crazy Life With A Cat

Her name is Frannie, and she's a rescue kitten taken from a local junk yard. She eats day and night. Hairballs are left as gifts. She sleeps 75% of the day, then prowls the house all night, I think. She likes to stalk bugs and, once, even cornered a mouse in the bathtub. She uses a rusty sounding meow. She shows me a different personality than our other two cats, both put down, never a fun thing to do. By now, all the fellow cat owners/butlers out there are shaking their heads, saying, "Yeah, that's what I'm talking about." Frannie is good company. She keeps me on this side of sane and the edge off my writing days. That's my Cat Blog #1.

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: Where the Sidewalk Ends

This 1950 film noir directed and produced by Otto Preminger paired Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney again from Preminger's big hit film Laura released in 1944. I've watched Laura several times on tape, and I got to say I like this grittier film better. Plus Karl Malden (so young looking!) has a meaty role here, and I've always liked his acting chops. The plot is pretty straightforward. Dana plays a hardboiled cop who gets a little rough with a suspect and accidentally kills him. The victim turns out to be a big decorated war hero who drinks too much. He also is separated from his wife played by Gene. Of course, Dana goes to a lot of trouble to cover up his misdeed while he falls in love with the always gorgeous Gene. When Gene's father is tagged for the murder, things get more complicated and interesting. Gary Merrill plays a good slick-talking mobster chieftain who Dana wants to pin the murder on. Ben Hecht wrote the dialogue so you know it is going to be snappy and peppered with street slang. All in all, Where the Sidewalk Ends is a nice treat of a film noir to watch and enjoy.

Forgotten TV: Sergeant Schultz from Hogan's Heroes

 

One of my favorite TV sitcoms was Hogan's Heroes before all the tawdry junk about Bob Crane (playing Colonel Hogan) came to light. My favorite character had to be the overweight, bumbling prison camp guard Sergeant Schultz. He was always saying "I know nothing" every time he caught the POWs doing something against regulations which was pretty much always the case. The video clip seen above is a good example. The spoof on the Nazi POW camps was usually worth a few laughs and chuckles. I haven't seen HH in many years, so I don't know if the humor would be as funny. I'd like to keep my good memories intact, and I doubt if I ever watch another episode unless I get into a nostalgic mood. Enjoy. 

Do Good Fences Really Make Good Neighbors?

I don't know if I've blogged on fences before this post, but they've been on my mind of late, so I will again. This spring I tore down the rail fence surrounding our rear yard. Since the posts had rotted off in the dirt, the task was an easy one. I piled up the old rails and posts. The "new look" sort of was a naked one with the fence now gone. It wasn't a bad look, just a different one. I wasn't sure what my neighbor would think, but my dilapidated fence had become an eyesore. Still, it created a definite boundary between my property and his. We're talking about a grassy postage stamp here, not acres of ranch grazing land. On the other hand, some folks are territorial when it comes to their yards. Six-foot privacy fences are popular in our neighborhood. I can see the practical need and value for a fence such as if you are a pet owner or have small kids. Otherwise I consider them a liability. I personally don't like chain-link fences for a residence although some do, and that's fine with me. My neighbor did come out, and we chatted on our property line. He asked if I had plans to put up a new fence, and I said no. I don't know if he'll pay for having his own fence erected. I have no problems with it if he does. I did mention to him the 900 lbs. of fence debris, and its $27 disposal fee. Frankly, I'm just glad to be rid of the headache.

My New Cozy Mystery Series Title Is On Sale For $1 Over Next Thirty Days

I write

 

 

I write a cozy mystery series featuring two senior sleuths, Isabel and Alma Trumbo, who are also sisters living in a fictional small town. The debut title, QUIET ANCHORAGE, was published in 2011, and it was popular enough to convince me to write a sequel. The front cover appears above. Readers have compared the series to Anne George's Southern Sisters Mysteries and Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote. Right now, my publisher Booksforabuck is offering the e-book at their website for $1.00 at the link given below. 

 

http://booksforabuck.com/mystery/mys-13/cashmere-shroud.html

 

Troglodytes, My Private Eye Novel, Is Now An E-book

Troglodytes is my fourth Private Investigator Frank Johnson novel that has been released for the first time as an e-book. Troglodytes was originally published in 2009 by Mundania Press. Frank is sent to Ankara, Turkey, by a wealthy client to hunt down and find her missing husband. Of course, he encounters all sort of problems while carrying out his mission, including a trip made to the strange land of the troglodytes. I've included some of the review excerpts below of Troglodytes when it was first published. If you enjoy reading gritty private eye stories with colorful settings, Troglodytes should appeal to you.     

"Full of intriguing characters."
Ray Walsh, Lansing State Journal

"Highly recommended."
Jack Quick, Bookbitch.com

"Worthwhile."
Mark Rose, Bookgasm.com

"Hold on to your hat!"
Shirley Johnson, Midwest Book Review

"Vivid language, smart dialogue."
Jen's Book Thoughts

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: Pickup on South Street

This snappy 1953 film noir starring Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, and Thelma Ritter is an entertaining crime film with Widmark playing a pickpocket who's been arrested three times. Strike number four will send him to prison for life, so he's got to be extra careful. When he lifts Peters' wallet while riding on the subway, he gets more than he ever bargained for since she's a courier of microfilm for the Reds. The Commie angle is the different twist to this film noir, and the flag-waving parts aren't too heavy-handed or distracting. The always solid Ritter plays a washed up bag lady reduced to selling men's neckties and street information to make the rent. I read Ms. Peters was asked to dye her hair blonde for this role, but she refused to do so. Good for her. Because as a brunette she looks like a million bucks. Widmark does a good job playing the cocky pickpocket who proves he can take care of himself with the big city cops or the Commies. At one point in the NYC Public Library he uses a microfilm viewer to see what he's stolen. It looks almost like the relics I used to do my research a few decades later. Gotta love the old microfilm. Not! Look sharp for Milburn Stone who later played Doc on TV's long-running Western series Gunsmoke in a bit part. IMDb.com rates Pickup on South Street with a 7.8/10.0, and I'd go along with that mark.

Revisiting My High School Leisure Reading List

One of the cool things about the internet is the online catalogs that libraries offer for running searches. I discovered my high school's library catalog is also online, so I thought I'd check to see if the books I read in high school are still on the library shelves. Why? Just for kicks. I remember I liked reading a bunch of Leon Uris novels like Exodus and QB VII. To my surprise and delight, both Uris titles are offered. There was a cool nonfiction book I read about some guy searching for Amelia Earhart's remains. Bummer, I can't find that title in the catalog. I also recollect poring over James Michener's Kent State: What Happened and Why. Kent State was on my mind a lot back then since I was headed off the college soon. I imagine a lot of students and parents worried about the same thing. My further browsing finds Ross Macdonalds' Great Stories of Suspense with his stories and other writers I enjoyed reading like Hammett and Cain. I'm thrilled to find it still on the shelf. I'm sure there were other books I checked out of the library, but I've forgotten them by now. Pity. Revisiting them now has been fun. What books do you remember borrowing from your high school library?      

How Did a Hardboiled Author Come to Write a Cozy Mystery?

Since the second title The Cashmere Shroud in my cozy mystery series will  soon be out, I decided to run a guest blog I wrote when the first title Quiet Anchorage hit the streets.

Sometimes you like to break out of your mold and try your hand at something a little different and new. Fiction writers often like to make such a change of pace. It keeps us fresh. I’d written and published several titles in the P.I. Frank Johnson mystery series. Frank is generally a stand up guy, and I hope and trust we can keep hanging out together. But as I said, I felt the yearning to stretch my wings. Luckily, not everything I’d written fell in the noir or hardboiled genre.

You see, for a few years, I’d also been writing and selling my stories to the TRUE magazines from Dorchester Media. Those stories (the author gets no tagline) were a hoot to write, and I got paid a decent rate. I must’ve produced forty or more stories. Not all of them sold, but enough did. I spent a few apprehensive days mulling over if I could create a novel intended primarily for a female readership. Could I hack it?

Every Sunday night for years, we’d tuned in to Murder, She Wrote (1984-96) on TV. Jessica Fletcher was a smart, feisty, and persistent sleuth, and the shows made for entertaining and fun viewing. I especially liked Tom Bosley in the role as Sheriff Amos Tupper (1984-88). My pleasant memories of watching Jessica planted the seed for my new direction. My reading of mysteries includes the occasional amateur sleuth title. That’s how I came to explore the idea. Maybe, just maybe, I could do it.

I searched for somebody to base my amateur sleuth creation on, and my two late aunts were the obvious choice. Alma and Isabel were sisters living in a small Virginia town where they were born and bred. I next debated if they’d mind if I used them as my character models. My chuckling mom didn’t think so when I asked her, and I didn’t pick up any spooky vibes from the spirits of their displeasure over my plan.

Thus encouraged, I steamed ahead and wrote the first draft of [book:Quiet Anchorage|10530870]. It was a gas to do. A cinch, I thought. Boy was I ever naïve. The numerous editing rounds turned tricky. Homing in on their authentic voices posed my biggest challenge. Obviously septuagenarian ladies don’t think or speak like the hardboiled Frank does.

Well, I was either a glutton for punishment or plain stubborn since I kept plugging away. A half-dozen female beta readers passed along their comments, both the good and bad ones. And I got plenty of bad ones. Quiet Anchorage wasn’t a book I just plopped down and typed out in couple of months. There was sweat and pain involved. But my pair of amateur sleuths in print gradually took their shapes.

The real Alma and Isabel having lived through two world wars and the great depression knew a thing or two about toughing out the hard times. They weren’t pushovers, and they didn’t suffer fools. In Quiet Anchorage, they’re forced to take up investigating a homicide after their niece Megan is accused and falsely arrested for the murder of her fiancé Jake. Quiet Anchorage is a small town, and the rare murder occurring there stirs things up.

As with any pair of protagonists, their personalities had to differ. Alma is the impetuous, outspoken, and fearless sibling while the older Isabel is more cerebral, reserved, and patient. Having been raised on a farm, both are blessed with common sense and pragmatism. They laugh at themselves, kid around a little bit, and don’t take their sleuthing efforts too seriously. Of course, they’re determined to help Megan. That’s job one.

If I had to pick a small town to move to and live in, Quiet Anchorage would do me quite nicely. It’s a tidy place with friendly folks. The slower pace and more relaxed temperament suit me fine. Families live there. Kids play in the yards. But a murder has rocked Quiet Anchorage, and there will be consequences. The rush to judgment has landed Megan behind bars, and the smug, satisfied local sheriff will soon learn he’s underestimated her daunting pair of aunts. They’re not above offering a bribe if it gets them the information they need to move forward in their quest to free her.

Readers have cottoned to my cozy mystery and become its fans. Reviews, for the most part, have been positive. No doubt as the series unfolds, their characters will take on more depth. I included some back-story in Quiet Anchorage to flesh out their distinct personalities of Alma and Isabel Trumbo. Be looking here on my blog for the news of their next adventure in print.

10 Of My Favorite Private Detective Novels

One of my guilty pleasures in fiction reading has been the private eye novel. So I thought it'd be fun to compile a list of my favorite PI novels so far in my reading adventures. 10 of my favorite detective novels would look something like the following. There are other titles I've also enjoyed reading, but 10 is my cut-off point here.

#1. Lawrence Block, When the Sacred Ginmill Closes

#2. Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely

#3. Stephen Greeleaf, Death Bed

#4. James Crumley, The Last Good Kiss

#5. Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress

#6. Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon

#7. Arthur Lyons, Castles Burning

#8. Ross MacDonald, The Underground Man

#9. Mickey Spillane, I, the Jury

#10. Sue Grafton, C is for Corpse

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: He Walked By Night

This 1948 police procedural got high marks at its release, and I enjoyed watching it for what it is, the precursor to TV's Dragnet cop drama. Well, Jack Webb himself stars in this cop movie as a smart police lab technician. Richard Basehart stars as the cop killer with no conscience who lives in L.A. while Scott Brady is the relentless homicide detective bringing him to justice. I liked how Webb uses a projector with different slides, and all the robbery victims' inputs to build a picture of the cop killer. The final chase scene is taken through the sewers of L.A. a la The Third Man. I don't know if L.A. has such large sewers but it works well for the film. If you like early gritty cop films, this one should be a good bet to watch.

New Movie Review: Frances Ha

This coming of age film concerns a spirited 27-year-old lady named Frances from NYC who is a dance apprentice with aspirations to join the main company and tour with them. In other words, she wants to get paid for what she loves doing. Hey, don't we all? It's more of a drama than a comedy although there are a number of funny lines. Frances Ha isn't my usual cup of tea, but I found it engaging and entertaining enough to stick with the main character. The plot rambles a bit, but then I guess that's the point as Frances tries to get her feet on the ground. Her closest friend and one-time roommate is Sophie who has her own set of dilemmas to grapple with. They seem to be peas in a pod they're so much alike. One of the themes most striking true for me was Frances' always being broke. I imagine the cost of living in NYC isn't real cheap. The actress playing Frances reminded me of a young Ellen DeGeneres. IMDb.com gives Frances Ha a 7.6/10.0 rating, and I believe that's a fair mark for the type of movie it is.

One of the 16 short stories in Smoking on Mount Rushmore: 16 Selected & New Short Stories is titled "Emily Thrice Stoned." I submitted it to the Shots Crime & Thriller Ezine published in the UK. The fiction editor Sarah Weinman, who later became a noted crime fiction critic and anthologist, accepted my short story. Shots ran my short story in 2005. It's one of my favorites in my collection, and one of these days I hope to expand it into a full-blown novel. The protagonist Payne is a recurring figure in my short stories, and I believe he deserves his own book where he can have a larger say about things. Sort of a the world according to Payne (with apologies to Garp). Anyway, you can read "Emily Thrice Stoned" in an earlier version at this link. Click on through and enjoy your read of a story noirish in tone. http://is.gd/WQDAYI