A Nice Day For Taking a Long Walk

My taking long walks through our neighborhood for the excercise also breaks up my work day. On the nice days, I'm so tempted to just keep on walking, but I can't. I see things. Which house on the real estate market for several months has finally sold. Residents are always adding extra bedrooms to their homes as their families get larger. Porch additions are also popular. Brick or slate walkways are put in. One neighbor with the onset of Parkinson's Disease had some handrails installed. Sad. Roofs are re-shingled. Trees are trimmed or cut down altogether.

I don't know my neighbors' names, and I really don't want to. We speak if we pass each other on the sidewalk or bike path. I give the homes and yards my own names. So, one lady who likes to feed the crows (I don't know why) is, appropriately, The Crow Lady. If tell my wife something that happened near The Crow Lady's house, my wife knows where I mean. Mistletoe grows in the tree in a different yard, so it becomes The Mistletoe Tree. You get the idea.

I meet a lot of joggers, young and old alike. Jogging once appealed to me before my knees screamed so loud in protest, I'd no choice but to listen and give it up. I think jogging is a better exercise, and maybe some day I'll rejoin their ranks, pain or no pain. But for now I just walk. Cyclists are fewer in number. As a kid, I used to ride a bicycle just about anywhere I wanted to go. It still looks like a lot of fun. Walking doesn't work up the same sweat. It's a slower pace, allowing me the tine to think, say, about how to solve a knotty plot problem in my latest novel I'm writing.

But mostly I just enjoy getting out in the fresh air and bright sunshine. That's why I like to walk.

Beware of the Critics' Spoilers and Spoiler Alerts

Sometimes while I'm browsing the reviews of books, I'll run across some variation of the tag "***WARNING: SPOILER ALERT***". The goal is to let the reader know the reviewer is about to talk about how a book ends or give away a key plot point. It's sort of like on the TV news when the sportscaster is set the announce the final score of a big game you haven't yet watched on TiVo or on a repeat broadcast.

The sportscaster warns you to leave the room before the score is reported. Sometimes they only give you a few seconds to make your getaway out of earshot. Or perhaps you can mute the TV remote's volume and close your eyes. If you are like at our house, you'll never find the elusive remote in time.

By learning how the book ends, you don't have as much fun reading it. In other words, the guilty party has "spoiled" it for you. When I write reviews, I try to be sensitive about giving any spoilers. If I see one, I'll delete it rather than run the Spoiler Alert. I've gotten so now I'm even sensitive about commenting on the ending like saying it was disappointing, surprising, or corny. One thing I've noticed about new movie trailers is they can tip off the plot and ending too much. But that's a different topic for another blog post.

Film Noir Review: The Woman in the Window starring Edward G. Robinson

The more I see of Edward G. Robinson's acting, the better I appreciate his thespian talents. I'd seen him as the thuggish gangster chieftain Johnny Rocco in Key Largo and the sad death scene he did in the science fiction thriller Soylent Green, his last picture made with Charlton Heston. In this well-acted film noir, Robinson plays a middle-aged psychology professor whose specialty is criminology. He is attracted to the painting of an attractive young woman displayed in an art shop window. Played by Joan Bennett (who I've enjoyed in the previous films I've seen her act in), she accosts Robinson. Believe it or not, she invites him to her swanky apartment to see her other "sketches" (instead of etchings?). Their romantic evening is interrupted by a large man with a quick temper who thinks she's his exclusive property. He breaks into her apartment, and a struggle ensues and...well, you have to watch the movie to appreciate it. Whip-thin, leering Dan Duryea is the particularly sleazy blackmailer. Fritz Lang directed it, so the photography is gorgeous and the camera angles are nicely arranged. IMDb.com rates this movie a 7.7/10.0, but I'd go higher with a solid 8.0. It's not gritty and hectic like many of the classic film noirs, but I like this one's mostly clever plotting, and Robinson is a real pro to watch act.

Stumped For a Blog Topic On a Rainy Saturday Afternoon

Well, folks, I just couldn't conjure up a blog topic I felt like writing a post about. I was stuck. So, I checked back on my first post of the Cracked Rearview Mirror Blog. It went live on December 9, 2010. Since then, I've written 610 blogs, but it sure doesn't seem that many to me. (This was on my Goodreads version of Cracked Rearview Mirror Blog I still maintain.) I try to write a different blog five times a week. Anyway, I ran an informal survey to determine my 5 most favorite blog topics and this is what I found.

1. Film noir. I like the latest first run movies, but since I write crime fiction, I enjoy watching the film noirs on DVD or the public domain pictures streamed online. I'll run a review of one from time to time.

2. Baseball. Washington, D.C. inherited a MLB team from the Montreal Expos. I feel sorry for the fans up there since I was a fan of two expansion teams that left D.C. (now the Twins and Rangers). This topic may heat up for the summer. We'll see.

3. Writing. I'm less inclined to post on this topic since I do it all day. Enough already, you know? Still, I enjoy writing about writing once in a while.

4. Reading. I love my Kindle which has opened a whole new world of ebooks for me. I've got a ton of ebooks waiting for me on my Kindle.

5. Twitter. I got involved late in the twitter thing. I've put out over 15,000 tweets. It's still a mystery to me, but it's been fun. I've met some interesting folks and made some great twitter friends over there.

Here's an informal poll. What blog topics do you enjoy reading the most here? Which ones do you like enough to read more about? Your inputs are useful and appreciated. Thanks for hanging out with me.

Hey, guess what? The sun just peeked out from the overcast sky. How's that for good timing?

The Spice of Variety in My New Short Story Collection

Smoking on Mount Rushmore: 16 Selected & New Short Stories offers the reader different types of stories. A few stories are sweet and poignant in tone. Such a tale as "The Thief of Hearts" finds a serious young lady who is coming to grips with her strained relationship with a career ne'er-do-well. The son in "Lakota Road" takes his sick father for his last drive along the road to their old home. I like to use strong female protagonists in my fiction. "Mr. Weem's Dog" finds a young lady, Sharon Knowles, as a criminology student interning at at large city police department where she learns firsthand about at how cunning murderers can be. I also included several of my hardboiled P.I. Frank Johnson stories in "The Perfect Victim" and "Following the Sunsphere." Dark romance emerges in the powerful title story where a couple embark on a quixotic road trip to Mount Rushmore. The Loch Ness Monster plays a major role in the haunting short story "Camera Shy." Something is featured for all crime fiction fans.

The Different Ways We Authors Hear Our Characters Speak

Have you ever been in a new situation or place and began to speak like the majority does? While I was in Turkey for a tech transfer project, I heard the Turks speak in a clipped, precise English they'd learned at their university. I must be something of a mime, because I soon caught myself using the same inflections, syntax, and rhythms that they employed while conversing.

Or, if you're from a different region, and you return there for a visit, it won't be long before you revert to the natives' drawl or lilt. We all want to fit in and not to sound funny when we speak is one of the ways we can do it. The same deal applies when authors write their characters' dialogue.

It might come off sounding stilted to some readers while others think it's spot on and believable. Of course, it's easy for authors to exaggerate the lingo and make it inaccessible or too dense to be understood by the readers. Noir and hardboiled genres have their own language that experienced readers and fans might have little or no trouble following while a new reader might give a thumbs down on after slogging through only a few pages.

This intriguing 1956 film noir stars Raymond Burr and Natalie Wood, both seen in this publicity photo taken from the movie. Burr plays a mama's boy rogue, and Wood becomes his nubile but feisty captive. The movie was adapted from the crime novel A Cry in the Night by Whit Masterson, the psuedonym for the Edgar Award-winning writing duo of Bob Wade and Bill Miller based in San Diego. They also wrote first-rate crime noirs under the pen name Wade Miller. As a personal aside, Bob Wade reviewed my private eye novel The Blue Cheer for the San Diego Union-Tribune a few years ago. Getting back to the movie, it follows the book pretty faithfully, and I give the movie a thumbs up. It's more of a police procedural drama than a typical film noir. Edmond O'Brien plays the kidnapped Wood's overprotective police captain father, and he turns in a restrained performance. I've seen him in other flicks where he's a bit too over-the-top for me. The always reliable Brian Donlevy is O'Brien's police captain friend. Burr who've I've seen play the villain in a few movies now comes across as creepy yet vulnerable in this deranged role. Of course, all this action is seen through the 1950s' prism which is a bit dated when viewed today. Portraying the parents' overbearing attitudes wouldn't fly in this day and age. IMDb.com gives A Cry In The Night a 6.1/10.0, but I like the film's pedigree, so I'm going with a 7.0. It runs 75 minutes, not a bad way to pass the time.

To Upgrade, Or Not Upgrade My E-reader?

Last night I caught a TV ad for the new Kindle Fire HD priced at $299, if memory serves me. I was working on different blog post with my laptop at the time. Anyway, it got me to thinking about upgrades to the latest and greatest version of something, such as in this case e-readers. From the brief ad, it looks pretty slick and cool. I don't know about other folks' situations, but $299 is a gob of green in our household. The price of gas is creeping back up. Sequestration is a big word tossed around a lot in these parts. The federal government is yoked by law to make drastic cuts in the budgets. El old laptop might bite the dirt anytime. My point is I'd have to think long and hard before I ever popped. My basic Kindle still serves me just fine. On the other hand, I can anticipate the excitement of getting a new one. Anyway, that's my e-reader story, and I'm sticking with it. For now, at least.

Do You Know Any Big Magazine Readers?

A good friend of mine, we'll call him Frank, does a lot of reading, only he doesn't read all that many books. In fact, I doubt if he's cracked one open since we graduated from high school together. That might be an exaggeration. I'm sure Frank has read from the Bible, and he probably keeps a few books around at home. Most of his reading is done from the magazines he subscribes to, and I know this because he then passes some of them on to me. I don't read his Popular Mechanics because I can barely hammer a nail straight. I used to change my own oil, and I took a great deal of mechanical pride in it. But Frank would just roll his eyes and shake his head at me.

Frank also enjoys reading Smithsonian Magazine which I also like browsing through during my slow times. I believe he must read every word printed in SM. He's always telling me all about the articles he's read. Of course if he's already given me the good parts (we'd call that a "spoiler"), then I might feel less inclined to read the articles for myself. I think at one time he also took Field & Stream, but I haven't seen that magazine of late whenever I go visit him. At a different time, he was into organic farming and pored over those type of journals for planting tips and ideas.

I used to leaf through the well-thumbed magazines while I was hanging out in my doctor or dentist's waiting room. Nowadays I usually take in my Kindle with me. I recently told Frank that his favorite magazines are probably now available in digital format, but he scoffed. He's too old school to update his reading habits. Maybe he likes the crisp, crinkly feel to the paper between his fingers. He knows I'm a writer who has written published some novels, but he's never tried to read one, and I'm fine with that. We'll just talk about what he's read in the magazines because it's all interesting stuff to me.

How Many Books Do You Not Finish Reading In A Year?

I blog a lot about reading books, and one category I don't think all that much about is the books I don't finish reading (the acronymn often used is "DNF") for one reason or the other. I know I don't like to give up on anything, including the books I select to read. It's like a form of admitting self-defeat, and who needs that?

Goodreads even offers us a list of the popular didn't finish reading books: http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/d.... Some surprising titles pop up there for me. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, for instance. Huh? That's like The Great American Novel. Anyway, I like to re-read it every few years because it is such a rich, powerful novel about the Jazz Age. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption also places on the list. I liked that World War II book, and I only read a few nonfiction titles every year.

What are the biggest reasons why you give up on reading a novel? No plot is probably mine. I've got to have a narrative arc with a start, middle, and ending to keep my interest. Good prose is a must, too. I like an original voice, but not one that's too far out there. It's difficult to describe here, but I know it when I read it. The other reasons I give up a book fall under the general category of "just not my cup of tea."      

Don't Overlook The Cheap Source of Paperbacks: Your Library Discards

Every year, U.S. public libraries cull out the older books from their collections. All the libraries probably follow this weeding out procedure, but I can only speak to the U.S. public libraries and also just about novels since they are what I write and publish. I've had discussions with different librarians, and they explain weeding out their collections is necessary.

There is only so much shelf space, and the new books are getting published all the time. I can understand what they are saying (library collection management), so I accept what has to be with good humor. Interestingly, however, I've discovered there is also a side benefit created for the authors and readers alike. In other words, it's win-win.

The library discarded books are often sold at a drastic discount. As a writer, I see my novels get resold so more potential readers can afford them to read. Of course, I won't make any money off the resales, but maybe I gain even one new reader, always a positive thing. The readers, in turn, can pick up inexpensive reads and stretch their book-purchasing dollars further. Our library puts its discarded library books in bins and shelves located near the door. The books aren't like brand new, but they are decent reading copies. Plus even the discarded hardbacks will still hold up with use and handling.

I've read where some libraries donate the proceeds they raise from the discard sales to the local literacy programs. That's pretty cool. I can't imagine getting by in the world if I didn't know how to read. Literacy sounds like a good topic for a different topic.

If you're also an ebook reader, like me, the library discards may not impact you as much. On the other hand, I don't know if libraries will ever "discard" ebooks in the future. Somebody smarter than me may know the answer to that question.

Meantime happy reading, be it ink either on paper or digital screen.

Checking Out The Book's Dedication Is Interesting

In my early novels like The Dirt-Brown Derby and The Blue Cheer, I was more aware of my dedication page than I have been in my last few novels. Probably it was because writing the novels was a new and different experience to me. I've dedicated every one of my 13 published books to my lovely wife Heather. The exception is my first Isabel and Alma Trumbo cozy mystery Quiet Anchorage that I dedicated to my mother. For one thing, she's the closest generation now to the real-life Isabel and Alma (long since deceased) who I based my two snoop sister characters upon.

Book dedications are fun if not sometimes cryptic and mysterious. The generally conceded Great American Novel, The Great Gatsby, bears the touching dedication, "To Zelda Once Again." F. Scott Fitzgerald names his wife Zelda. Moving on to the crime fiction genre, the one I mostly write in, let's consider Dashiell Hammett's dedication in The Maltese Falcon, "To Jose." It's the nickname by he which he called his wife Josephine Dolan Hammett. By the time his classic novel got published, the Hammetts had separated.

James Crumley in his masterful hardboiled detective novel, The Last Good Kiss, wrote, "To Dick Hugo, grand old detective of the heart." Crumley titled his book after his friend Richard Hugo's poem "Degrees of Gray in Phillipsburg." The pertinent lines are:

             You might come here Sunday on a whim.
             Say your life broke down. The last good kiss
             you had was years ago.

That dedication makes for a nice association. I have no idea if Crumley asked Hugo if it was okay, but I can't imagine any poet not wanting his lines immoratalized in a great novel. I sure wouldn't. So, the next time you read a good book, be sure to check out the dedication made in the front. Maybe do a little Google snooping. Knowing who the author thought enough of to dedicate his or her book to in some small way enhances your appreciation of the book.

This gritty 1949 film noir is adapted from the Cornell Woolrich novel The Black Path of Fear, so a nice book tie-in exists. For the most part, I enjoyed viewing THE CHASE. The picture and sound quality on the version I saw was grainy and scratchy, particularly during the night scenes. Still, I was interested enough to hang in there. THE CHASE's length runs 81 minutes. It stars Robert Cummings as our clean-cut hero, Steve Cochrane as the sadistic pretty boy gangster, and Peter Lorre as his oily lackey. The gorgeous Michèle Morgan is Cochrane's miserable wife, and Cummings falls madly in love with her. Naturally, he wants to whisk her away from criminal Miami and go live together in the festive Havana. (This was in the days before Fidel Castro came to power there.) I can't say anymore regarding the plot and play the spoiler. (Here's an eerie aside from Wikipedia: Michèle Morgan's California house was later the site of the horrid Manson murders.) If you're a film noir fan, THE CHASE delivers on several levels. The shadowy camera work is first rate. The plot has an interesting structure. Cochrane (check out his strange real life death on Wikipedia) and Lorre are in top form as the antagonists. Cochrane's getaway gangster car features a nasty mechanical trick you'll defintely want to check out. Woolrich's oppressive atmosphere is there, too. IMDb.com rates THE CHASE at 6.8/10.0, but I'd grade it a tad higher at 7.1. This is another film noir (remember they were just made as B movies) which has passed into the public domain. Enjoy watching it.