Comics on Comics

With Marc Evanier, Asterios Kokkinos, Kathryn Lyn, and Robbie Peron, I did a panel called Comics on Comics at the West Hollywood festival -- comics book creators and comedians discussing (in smart-ass fashion) the state of the comic-book industry. It was a blast and really funny - available for watching here, or iTunes download here.

Smoking in Moscow

I love cigars. In the scene in The Crime Writer, where Drew Danner gets home from court, goes out back, and smokes a cigar on his back deck....well, that's my deck. And it was my cigar too (fictional cigar-swiping bastid!). When I was in Russia, Smoke Magazine interviewed me, and photographer Dima Gushchin took a bunch of pictures for a big feature article. Here's a few of them, showing me puffing smugly away, with furrowed brow and a (I hope) an aura of gangsta gravitas.

On the entertainment front, I suggest you all see Burn After Reading, which embodies the level of brilliant quirkitude we've come to expect from the Coen brothers. Appaloosa has some great scenes and moments (Two men lying wounded in the dirt after a shootout. "Well, that was quick." Reply: "Everyone knew how to shoot.")

And, lastly, if you're not reading Eric Powell's The Goon, why the hell not?

Vigilante Madness

This week.

Back From Russia

I went to Russia for the Moscow Book Fair, and for a lineup of interviews, signings, and presentations. Between Moscow and St. Petersburg, I had a lot of adventures and no shortage of fun, and I even got to see Lenin's pickled body on its slab outside the Kremlin. All four Rackley books are in translation there, and it was really interesting to see how different the questions were posed by Russian readers -- a very informed, intellectual crew. I hope to have some pictures to post shortly, but for now, it's jetlag and catch-up!

Wizard Interview re: Punisher

Here's my latest interview for Punisher, from the folks at Wizard.

Glasvegas

This is the best new band I can remember hearing. Or, I should say, I can't recall the last time I was so excited by a group.

Out of Glasgow, they're sort of Phil Spector Wall of Sound meets U2, strained through The Jesus and Mary Chain with, uh, du-woop?! James Allan, the lead singer and writer, is a poet.

In particular, you need to check out "Flowers and Football Tops," "Geraldine," and "Daddy's Gone." Find the lyrics on line -- some of you might need a little help with the Glaswegian accent.

As a writer, I don't usually write about bands, but these lyrics are gorgeous with a strong narrative drive. And beside, hell, if I'm this excited by anything....

Many thanks to writer buddy David Young for referring me to them (and I stole part of his description).

Punisher Interview

Here's an interview with the good folks at Comic-Related about Punisher 61, my run on the title, and coming violence.

One Day, Two Comics

This Wed, the second Foolkiller in the second limited series came out, with a special guest appearance by....the Punisher.

And my first Punisher - cover by Dave Johnson, art by the inimitable Laurence Campbell, also hit stands.

It's a vigilante two-fer....

Coming To You From Chiang Mai, Thailand

One of the more unusual sightings of The Crime Writer, courtesy of Kyle Khasigian...

Some Belated Pics from Thrillerfest

Here I am with Bob Crais and Überagent Aaron Priest. And below is Crais and Coben with the brilliant Lisa Erbach Vance. We had a great time at the awards; our table included me, Harlan Coben, Robert Crais, Aaron Priest, Lisa Erbach Vance, Lucy Childs, David Hosp, and David Baldacci. A good crew.

Comic-Con

Pretty much lives up to the hype. Now I'm not the biggest convention person, but I have to say, the range of cool shit on hand was, well, pretty extraordinary. Among the highlights were sharing a softball infield with Marvel legend John Romita, Jr., then signing next to him a day later, catching up over dinner with the inimitable Howard Chaykin, and wandering the floor to see which artists' work caught my eye. My favorite "discovery" (he's been around longer than I have, but I only discovered him this weekend) is Mike Sosnowski, an incredible artist. Check out "The Culprit" - I picked up a print for the house.

He's Baaa-acck!

Foolkiller #1 of 5. Short Time. Arc title: White Angels. On stands today.

Jesse Kellerman

Jesse Kellerman's novel, Trouble, was nominated in the same category as The Crime Writer for the ITW Thriller Awards (from which I just returned - another glorious six-hour delay at JFK, this one involving a panic-attack-having passenger in a Detroit Tigers jacket forcing our return to the gate, thereby losing us our spot in the lengthy queue for takeoff. In fairness, if I was a Tigers fan this season, perhaps I'd be having panic attacks too. But we digress.).

So.

I thought, in a show of graciousness, I should read said book so I could have something pleasant to say to Jesse should we cross paths, or -- if said book proved unworthy -- so I could generate a suitable compliment ("The font was really lovely." "That book jacket - wow!" "I really like your shoes.")

Well.

About thirty pages in, I had that feeling of excitement. You know the one - where you realize that not only have you hooked into a book that you Love, but that you are reading an author who you know that you will be reading for years to come. It is not an exaggeration to say that his is the most exciting new voice in crime fiction I've read in years.

I gave my copy to a friend I saw in New York. Got another one for my sister. Pitched the lady sitting next to me on the plane. Emailed my agent, and my editor. Mentioned it to a screenwriter buddy at lunch. Yeah, that kind of book. Dark and sophisticated, with a playwright's dialogue and a psychologist's, uh, uh, insight. And good words and stuff, too.

His other novels, Sunstroke and The Genius, are on my list, to be bought on my next bookstore trip. Trouble should certainly be on yours.

Thrillerfest 2008

I'm off to ThrillerFest in New York. Should be a lot of fun. It'll be the biggest collection of thriller writers in one hotel in a long time, with David Baldacci, Harlan Coben, Robert Crais, Sandra Brown, James Patterson, Brad Thor, Kathy Reichs, R.L. Stine, Lee Child, Heather Graham, and more. My panel with other Thriller Award nominees is Saturday at 11, but each day will be filled with workshops, panels, and speeches on everything from martial arts to forensics to clichés that piss writers off. I think it not unreasonable to predict that bourbon will be in evidence as well.

The Crime Writer Out In Paperback

On June 24, the paperback of THE CRIME WRITER will launch. The cover is more or less the same, with a few added blurbs from Dennis Lehane, Robert Crais, Lee Child, and Brad Meltzer.

Also, in addition to being nominated for Best Novel from International Thriller Writers, the book (as I SEE YOU) has been shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger. Which, in addition to being a great honor, has the all-time best name for a literary prize.

On the eve of this wider launch, I wanted to take a moment to thank readers, booksellers, reviewers, and librarians for their stunning support of this book, and their help in making it an instant international bestseller.

Stan Winston

Another great one, gone too soon.

Writing Quotation of the Week

File this one in the "show, don't tell" category.

"Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader—not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon."
--E.L. Doctorow

One of the Greats

Sydney Pollack, rest in peace.

A Favorite New Foreign Cover

From Spain. I love this one. It took a few looks to pick up the scalpel in place of the pencil. It's so great when a foreign edition arrives with a really masterful cover like this one.

Nobody's Fool

Today.

The end of the five-comic limited. All five comics will also soon be collected in a trade edition, also available at your nearest comic book store.

Stay tuned for the next Foolkiller limited, which will be called White Angels.

New Sheriff In Town

Some art from my first Punisher (#61).

Thank you, Laurence Campbell (interiors).

Thank you Dave Johnson (cover).

Blurb Bitching II: Bride of Blurbs Bitching

Okay, I got a fair number of emails in response to my Blurb Bitching blog entry (some months back) so I thought I’d answer the main questions being put to me.

What makes you more likely to blurb?

1. A personalized letter from the author. I’ve gotten a few really great letters from editors that made me crack a galley, but for the most part, if the author doesn’t even have time to enclose her thoughts, I generally don’t have time to read her manuscript. So don’t leave it solely to your publicist/editor/agent/friend who walks dogs with Thomas Harris. Have them do the hand-off, but make sure you get your voice in there.
2. If the person requesting a blurb from me is familiar with my work, and makes that somewhat clear in the cover letter. Nothing says arrogance like an unpublished writer asking me to read his manuscript who hasn’t bothered to read one of my books. When it came to the authors I asked for blurbs from, I made sure I’d read virtually everything they had in print. An if their oeuvres were unrealistically weighty, I made sure I’d read at least four or five of their novels.
3. I won’t blurb books from vanity presses.
4. If the damn thing looks good. I don’t care if it’s a social novel or a book of lesbian haiku, the first few pages better sing.
5. (And here I feel like Ms. Curmudgeon, your high school college admissions advisor): Don’t make dumb-ass spelling and grammar errors in your cover letter. If you can’t be bothered to figure out the difference between “it’s” and “its” in a one-paragraph cover letter, you probably shouldn’t be pointing a 300-page manuscript my direction.

Will you always blurb your friends even if their books suck?

No. And Ayn Rand better quit asking.

Do you ever tell people you don’t like their books?

No. They’re not asking for a critique, just a blurb. So I’m not reading looking to be helpful from an editorial perspective. I never want to undermine a young (or old, for that matter) author early in her career with a rejection, so I will often beg off mediocre manuscripts due to exigencies of schedule, etc.. Often this isn’t an excuse; much of the time it’s true.

The Punisher

As was announced this weekend, I will be writing the next Punisher arc after Garth Ennis's legendary run on the title. My five-book arc will be called "Girls in White Dresses," and it'll be followed by arcs by Duane Swierczynski and Victor Gischler, both of which I'm really looking forward to. You can tell I'm up for the challenge by the fact that I just wrote "arc" three times in two sentences.

Website for the Sick and Twisted

A buddy of mine forwarded on this link. A pretty amazing look at that most American of conventions: the last meal on death row.

What would you order?

Battlestar Galactica Season 3 Out On DVD

If you don't like Battlestar Galactica, you have no soul.

I'm just sayin'.

Three Books

I recently finished April Smith's Judas Horse and was blown away by her command of character and language. The book is rich and sophisticated and yet never overdone. There's not a sentence in there that's a stretch. She does something I admire very much; she can give us a perfect understanding of a character in a few paragraphs, while never resorting to stereotype. It's a fine line, and she walks it beautifully.

I also finished Marcus Sakey's The Blade Itself -- such an impressive novel, particularly for a debut. He really knows how to ratchet up the suspense, one step at a time. It's a very capable, tight, well-constructed thriller. He unafraid to locate flaws - and fault - within his protagonists, something a lot of writers shy away from. And that makes his protag so much more easy to identify with. We really feel his predicament. It's also such a lean book. Everything in the service of plot. And yet he still manages to cover his bases and get in enough character work to make it a compelling read. I can't remember the last time I read a book that quickly.

Finally, my boy Ross Macdonald's Black Money. And with him, it's best to let him speak for himself:

"They were innocent eyes, not youthful but innocent, as if they perceived only pre-selected facts."

"He was retreating angrily into bad grammar."

"The pictures on the wall were all religious, and there were so many of them that they suggested a line of defense against the world."

"It was a moral hardship for me to walk away from an unclosed case."

From Russia With Love

The Rackley books have been getting some nice attention in Russia, where The Kill Clause and Troubleshooter have already come out from my excellent publisher, Geleos. In 2008, The Program and Last Shot will be published. A few months ago, I posted the Russian Troubleshooter cover, one of my favorite foreign covers ever. Here's The Program.

International Thriller Writers Announces 2008 Nominations

ITW just picked their five bests in three categories. Lovely news, and great to be nominated along with my buddy, Robert Crais.

BEST NOVEL 2008
No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay (Bantam)
The Watchman by Robert Crais (Simon & Schuster)
The Ghost by Robert Harris (Simon & Schuster)
The Crime Writer by Gregg Hurwitz (Viking)
Trouble by Jesse Kellerman (Putnam)

BEST FIRST NOVEL 2008
Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell (Dutton)
Big City, Bad Blood by Sean Chercover (William Morrow)
From the Depths by Gerry Doyle (McBook Press)
Volk's Game by Brent Ghelfi (Henry Holt and Co.)
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (William Morrow)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL 2008
The Last Nightingale by Anthony Flacco (Ballantine)
A Thousand Bones by P.J. Parrish (Pocket)
The Midnight Road by Tom Piccirilli (Bantam)
The Queen of Bedlam by Robert McCammon (Pocket)
Shattered by Jay Bonansinga (Pinnacle)

Introducing....A New Type of Assassin

Today.

Meet Sickle Moon.

Spring Training

Ah, there is a new bounce to my step with the return of the smell of freshly mowed outfield grass. Baseball is art. It is opera. With its delightful nine-act structure -- meticulous strategy punctuated by bursts of action -- it is the best sport for the (criminally) literary minded.

I give you two quotations from -- of all people -- George Will:

"Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal."

And to counter the naysayers:

"Football combines the two worst things about America: it is violence punctuated by committee meetings."

The prosecution rests.

Mitch Hedberg on Screenwriting

"I wrote a script and gave it to a guy who reads scripts. He said he loved it, but I had to rewrite it. I said, 'Fuck that, I'll just make a copy.' "

Rip Torn and Normal Mailer On-Camera Fight

Really, you must watch this.

During the filming of Maidstone, Torn hits Mailer on the head with a hammer. Then Mailer mostly bites his ear off. This is what we call literary mayhem.

The Razzies Announced for Worst Movie Honors

All I have to say for Linsay Lohan is....ouch.

Here they are:

Worst Picture:

I Know Who Killed Me

Worst Actor:

Eddie Murphy, 'Norbit'

Worst Actress:

Lindsay Lohan, 'I Know Who Killed Me'

Worst Supporting Actress:

Lindsay Lohan (as Aubrey), 'I Know Who Killed Me'

Lindsay Lohan (as Dakota), 'I Know Who Killed Me'

Worst Screen Couple:

Lindsay Lohan & Lindsay Lohan, 'I Know Who Killed Me'

Worst Remake or Rip-Off:

I Know Who Killed Me (Rip-Off of 'Hostel,' 'Saw,' and 'The Patty Duke Show')

Worst Prequel or Sequel:

Daddy Day Camp

Worst Director:

Chris Siverston, 'I Know Who Killed Me'

Worst Screenplay:

Jeffrey Hammond, 'I Know Who Killed Me'

Worst Excuse for a Horror Movie:

I Know Who Killed Me

Quotation of the Week

I got this appended to an email from a Navy SEAL buddy. I think it's a great one:

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
--Proverbs 27:17

Print on Demand - A Dream of the Future?

I just finished reading RETURN FROM THE STARS by Stanlislaw Lem, renowned Polish science fiction writer (I would venture to say he is the MOST renowned Polish science fiction writer, but that sounds too much like a joke).

Published in 1961, this book has this vision of the future of publishing:

"The originals—crystomatrices—were not to be seen; they were kept behind pale blue enameled steel plates. So a book was printed, as it were, every time someone needed it. The question of printings, of their quantity, of their running out, had ceased to exist. Actually, a great achievement, and yet I regretted the passing of books."

Sound familiar?

Smart-Ass Quotation of the Week

"The world is overstocked with people who are ready and eager to teach other people to write. It seems astonishing that so much bad writing should find its way into print when so much good advice is to be had."
--Robertson Davies

Horror Movie of the Year

Far and away the best horror movie I've seen this year - in fact, in many years, is The Orphanage. I don't want to say anything about it for fear of giving away anything. But it is a staggering psychological study. There are virtually no cheap thrills, just a slow, mounting terror. It is amazing.

And while I'm on movies, I should list my favorites of the past year (since, for the first time, I'm not on any best-film or -script panels, so I'm not sworn to secrecy).

Best Drama: Michael Clayton.
Best Comedy: Juno.

What were your favorite movies of 2007?

Oh, and here's a great little real-life amateur detective story you might enjoy.

Advice of the Day

"Never be the brightest person in the room."
--James D. Watson

On Art and Editing....and Editing....and Editing

"Art is never finished, only abandoned."

Leonardo da Vinci

Guess the Country...

...and the book.

This is one of my favorite foreign covers for one of my novels.

Foolkiller #3

Today.

A Word on the Strike

I attended a Writer’s Guild Meeting last night, where members heard from the negotiating committee and Guild leadership. One of the tactics of the AMPTP has been to portray our leadership as crazy, power-drunk, and out of touch with the demands of the business and the interests of our membership.

Like many writers, I am not a joiner nor a big fan of groups. I wasn’t a boy scout; I’ve never been a member of a church or temple; I didn’t join a frat in college. Clubs and allegiances make me slightly nervous, and I’ve never had a taste for chants and slogans. Usually when large groups unite behind a cause, I can’t stomach the dogma that inevitably emerges. So you can imagine that the “brotherhood” aspect of the strike is not one that I cotton to naturally, nor am I inclined to believe that leadership—of any kind—will adequately represent my interests or viewpoint.

Add to that the fact that it is always more fun and seemingly more sophisticated to be cynical. It’s always easier to cast a jaundiced eye, to be the one who sees through the bullshit, who knows a better angle, who has the caustic aside that breaks up the lockstep of the zoned-out masses.

Like everyone else who works in Hollywood, I have followed this strike closely because of what’s at stake. And in last night’s meeting, as in the previous guild meeting, I can report that there was not a single strategy, proposal, or explanation presented to me by WGA leadership and the negotiating committee that I disagreed with.

Not one.

Our leadership, our negotiating committee, our positions are eminently reasonable, considered, and, yes, sane. These are complicated issues, and most people don’t have a clear grasp of them. What is at stake is New Media. The internet. How films and TV shows will be distributed. What is at stake is the future and how—indeed if—writers will be compensated in it.

Coming to Hollywood as an author, I was amazed at the benefits and infrastructure provided to me as a screenwriter. Health care. Pension. Residuals. Minimums. There’s not a day I’ve worked in L.A. that I’m not grateful for these benefits—benefits that provide for my family and that allow me to continue to do my job. These benefits were won by the sweat and courage of men and women who had much more to lose and who took greater risks than those before us now. These benefits were won by the sacrifices others made for future generations, for me.

This membership, this year, cannot dissipate those gains. We cannot cave in to an unfair deal that writers decades from now will be saddled with. This is a watershed contract. Future writers will look back to this year, to this contract, to us, every day as they live with what our resolve and respect for writing yielded. They can look back on us with the same gratitude we look back on those who came before us. Or they can look back with disappointment.

We’d be well served to remember that this contract isn’t just for us.

In full support,

Gregg Hurwitz

Foolkiller #2

Now that Foolkiller #2 is out, some of you might recognize these comics that young Mike Trace tries to steal from the pawnshop. Does anyone know their significance?

More Mailer

I seem to be missing Norman Mailer today. So here's another favorite quotation.

“Being a man is the continuing battle of one’s life, and one loses a bit of manhood with every stale compromise to the authority of any power in which one does not believe.”
-N.M.

The Squeeze

This article, from Yahoo news, seems like bad news all around.

Here's the opening....

NEW YORK - The latest National Endowment for the Arts report draws on a variety of sources, public and private, and essentially reaches one conclusion: Americans are reading less.

The 99-page study, "To Read or Not to Read," is being released Monday as a follow-up to a 2004 NEA survey, "Reading at Risk," that found an increasing number of adult Americans were not even reading one book a year (bold mine).

Norman Mailer, R.I.P.

"You don't really know a woman until you meet her in court.”
--Norman Mailer

The Crime Writer/I See You Charts Update

The Crime Writer debuted in the US as an LA Times Top 10 bestseller.

As I See You, it spent 11 weeks on the Ireland bestseller list, 5 of those in the top ten.
4 weeks on the bestseller list in the UK.
4 weeks on the bestseller list in Australia.

So a great start for the English territories. Still to come: France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Spain, Japan, Israel, Poland, and more.

I feel fortunate to have such a great group of readers, librarians, sales reps, and editors.

Everybody Plays The Fool

And, alas, me too. My editor, Axel Alonso, sent me this jpeg some time back, telling me that it would be the first Foolkiller cover. I opened it with great excitement....

Oh well, can't win 'em all.

There's a fun - and unusual - interview with me up at Silver Bullet Comics in anticipation of the first Foolkiller's launch, which is tomorrow!

Lan Medina Art

Here's a peek at some art from the first Foolkiller, coming out Oct 23. Lan Medina strikes again!

For a cool new montage of comic art, put together by my MySpace guy, Eric Thoma, check this out.

He's Heeere!!

In comic book stores everywhere.

Dispatches from the Front

The Crime Writer (I SEE YOU) has now launched in Australia, where it debuted on the bestseller list.

Stay tuned for comic news soon. Wolverine and the Foolkiller slashing into stores next month.

And a new cover -- guess the book, guess the country.

Honest Abe with the Quotation of the Week

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.
--Abraham Lincoln

The Deathsong of J Patrick Smitty

More art.

Another interview.

Who knew it could get this bloody.

Audio

The Crime Writer is now out in audio format from BBC Audiobooks America, read by
Scott Brick (who does an excellent job). It'll be available soon also in download format from amazon, audible.com, and iTunes.

Why All Writers Should Read Jung

"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."
- C.G. Jung

Tour Reading

Now and then, we all go through a spell of reading where everything we pick up, well, sorta sucks. I'm having the pleasure of blazing through a winning streak, where I like every book as much as the last. Having just wrapped my main part of my book tour (which gives me lots of reading time), I have a few new favorites to report on.

Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston. This was recommended to me by my editor at Marvel, as Charlie writes Moon Knight for him. It is gritty, smart, intelligent, and fast-paced. A great down-and-dirty noir read. I've heard his next up, The Shotgun Rule, is also excellent.

Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk. I came into this one reluctantly, having never read Palahniuk, and being the only male in the United States who didn't love the movie version of the Fight Club. I was really blown away by Palahniuk's skill—amazing character development, sharp dialogue, and real poetic beauty.

Bangkok 8 by John Burdett. I know, I know, I'm behind the times, as usual. I generally don't like books set in "exotic locations" (forgive the term), because said locations are usually an excuse to avoid a plot, but Burdett handles all sides of this dirty little mystery with mastery.

Fuck Noir, anthology edited by Jennifer Jordan. A cracking, really smart introduction by Mark Billingham sets the tone for this edgy collection. And a variety of names you'll recognize contribute, all giving an homage to that king of all words.

Along my tour, smart mystery booksellers insisted I buy: Big City, Bad Blood, by Sean Chercover, and The Blonde, by Duane Swiercynski. So I have more reading—recommended from reliable sources—to come.

I See You

I SEE YOU is the name of THE CRIME WRITER in the UK, and the book has just rolled out these past few weeks (jumping from #22 to #7 on the bestseller list for Ireland). Chris High, master of crime-fiction reviews and interviews, posted one of each for me on his superb website. Click here for an interview with yours truly, and here to see his take on I See You.

I've been getting lots of emails from readers of I SEE YOU, from England to Ireland to Australia. Keep 'em coming!

Tour Update

Hello all,

Apologies that I've been scarce around here. I've been on tour, and so far have hit San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Minneapolis, Houston, and Phoenix. Great events, and even greater meeting readers from all over. The booksellers have been really spectacular this time around, making The Crime Writer a staff or club pick in numerous places, and I've greatly appreciated that. The Crime Writer hit the top ten on bestseller lists in Los Angeles and Ireland this week, too, which has been great. I've got a few more stops left -- around LA, Boston, Milwaukee, and will be adding more, so if you haven't yet, please come by and say hello.

Tales From Minneapolis

You've probably read about the terrible bridge collapse by now. While I was stock signing, my escort/driver, Tim Hedges, decided to take a different route into the city, so we steered clear of the bridge. This was in the same half hour of the collapse.

The city was pretty shocked, but I was pleased to arrive at Scene of the Crime to a happier scene; Gary and Pat had gotten married in the store about 15 minutes before my arrival. I've never had to be the follow-up act to a wedding, and I fear I paled in comparison, but here's wishing two wonderful people a wonderful marriage.

The Opening of The Crime Writer

I woke up with IVs taped to my arms, a feeding tube shoved through my nose, and my tongue pushed against my teeth, dead and thick as a sock. My mouth was hot and tasted of copper, and my molars felt loose, jogged in their beds from grinding. I blinked against the strong light, and squinted into a haze of face, too close for casual—a man straddling a backward chair, thick forearms overlapped, a sheet of paper drooping from one square fist. Another guy behind him, dressed the same—rumpled sport coat, loose tie offset from open collar, glint at the hip. Downgraded to bystander, a doctor stood by the door, ignoring the electronic blips and bleeps. I was in a hospital room.

With consciousness came pain. No tunnels of light, no bursts or fireworks or other page-worn clichés, just pain, mindless and dedicated, a rottweiler working a bone. A creak of air moved through my throat.

“He’s up,” said the doctor from faraway. A nurse materialized and fed a needle into the joint in my IV. A second later the warmth rode through my veins and the rottweiler paused to catch his breath.

I raised an arm trailing IV lines and fingered my head where it tingled. Instead of hair, a seam of stubble and stitches cactused my palm. Lightheadedness and nausea compounded my confusion. As my hand drifted back to my chest, I noticed dark crescents caking the undersides of my nails.

I’d dug myself out of somewhere?

The cop in the chair flipped the piece of paper over and I saw that it was an 8 x 10.

A crime-scene photo.

A close-up of a woman’s midsection, the pan of the abdomen caked with dark blood. A narrow puncture below the ribs faded into blackness, as if a stronger flashbulb were required to sound its depths.

I raised a hand as if to push away the image and in the dead blue fluorescence I saw that the grime under my nails carried a tinge of crimson. Whether from the drugs or the pain, I felt my gorge rise and push at the back of my throat. It took two tries and still my voice came out a rasp, barely audible around the plastic tube. “Who is that?”

“Your ex-fiancée.”

“Who…who did that to her?”

The detective’s jaw shifted once, slowly, left to right. “You did.”

Crimespree

Crimespree is one of my favorite magazines, run by Jon and Ruth Jordan, two of the smartest people in Crime Readerland (and the fiction editor is the inimitable Jen Jordan). So I'm flattered to be on the cover of the latest issue with Lee Child. Inside, Lee and I discuss everything from drinking to James Bond to sock puppets.

Crimespree is well worth checking out. Oh, and there's a supplemental blog, too, with more tidbits about crime, books, flicks, shows, and comics.

First Person

I'm getting asked a lot, in pre-pub interviews, why the move to first person for the first time in my career. I started out with three stand-alones, and then came the four Rackley books--all in third person. I knew somewhere during my writing of Last Shot that the next book was going to be a departure. A big departure. I love the stand-alone, and was ready to create a completely new world and cast again. I needed some fresh blood. I think the fact that I wrote The Crime Writer in the first person is probably because of how close I felt to Drew. The main challenge (aside from not starting every sentence with “I”) is, of course, viewpoint. In that all information—and all clues—are funnelled through one man’s perspective. And since it’s a novel of paranoia, well, there are distinct pragmatic advantages to first person, in that you can keep twisting the reader's understanding, one turn of the screw at a time.

Meet the Foolkiller

Here he is, in all his glory. The first comic in the 5-book Foolkiller arc will be released from Marvel in October (along with a Wolverine Annual that I wrote), later to be compiled as a graphic novel. The art (and cover) are from the inimitable Lan Medina.

I talk about the inspiration behind the character here.

For an interview about Marvel Max (and Foolkiller) with my editor, Axel Alonso, click here.

Wolverine

This weekend, Newsarama ran a sneak peek of the Wolverine Annual I wrote, titled, THE DEATH SONG OF J. PATRICK SMITTY. The art, by Marcelo Frusin, is amazing -- I couldn't be more pleased with the job Marcelo is doing. I'm quickly learning that the artist, in comics, makes the writer look more talented.

Bum Beating

I'd say this article wins the award for Most All Around Ugly. The event, the parallels drawn, and the interpretation offered.

Note the ominous phrasing of "influenced by" below. I wonder what else those young men were influenced by, and what the respective weight of those influences was. People are influenced by anything they come into contact with. There is an enormous—enormous— difference between influence and causation, as the article suggests, and as countless morally indignant groups will surely maintain. (I also love the sneeringly sanctimonious statement at the end from the Bumfights website).

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- One of several teenagers who beat a homeless man to death was influenced by videos featuring homeless people brawling and performing dangerous stunts, according to a television interview transcript.

Jeffery Spurgeon, 19, expressed his first public remorse for the May 2005 killing in the interview that will air Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes." It was conducted from a Jasper penitentiary where Spurgeon is serving an up to 35-year sentence.

Spurgeon said he and the others beat Michael Roberts, a frail 53-year-old homeless man who lived in the woods, "for fun." He said they were emulating scenes from "bum-rushing videos," according to the transcript. He mentioned "Bumfights," a video series available online, as a favorite.

Roberts died after three separate attacks with sticks, fists and logs. Justin Stearns, 19, Christopher Scamahorn, 16, and Warren Messner, 17, also were convicted and are serving prison terms from 22 to 35 years. Phi Huynh, 16, the fifth member of the group charged in connection with the attacks on Roberts, is awaiting trial.

Neither Spurgeon nor the others explained why they attacked Roberts during a weeklong sentencing proceeding in April, and Spurgeon's attorney Mitch Wrenn said the "60 Minutes" interview surprised him.

"I don't remember anything about bum fighting coming up," he said.

The videos depict homeless men and women engaged in humiliating, self-destructive acts, including ripping out teeth and ramming themselves into doors.

According to the Bumfights Web site, the videos are satire meant to call attention to the problems of poverty and violence.

My Favorite Vonnegut Quotation Of All Time

"If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don’t have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts."

Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without A Country

Welsh Bar Lays Down Folk Wisdom

PISCES MORTUI SOLUM CUM FLUMINE NATANT -- an inscription over a Welsh bar. Translation: “Only dead fish go with the flow.”

Quotation of the Day

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.

--Anais Nin

Burn Books For Literacy!

Check out Tod Goldberg's article on this bizarre argument here at Jewcy. In the piece, I offer my thoughts on the bookstore that is burning its stock.

Gary Ross on Screenwriting

If you do it for yourself, it will come out fine. If you do it for other people, you will turn into an ungodly disposable beast and you won't recognize yourself in a few years."

The Problem (or not) with Reviewing Mysteries

In this article on detective fiction by Edmund Wilson in The New Yorker, he claims, "I began to nurse a rankling conviction that detective stories in general profit by an unfair advantage in the code which forbids the reviewer to give away the secret to the public—a custom which results in the concealment of the pointlessness of a good deal of this fiction and affords a protection to the authors which no other department of writing enjoys. It is not difficult to create suspense by making people await a revelation, but it demands a certain originality to come through with a criminal device which is ingenious or picturesque or amusing enough to make the reader feel the waiting has been worth while."

This is interesting -- sort of like the dilemna faced when editors cut a trailer for a movie or when editors write flap copy. How much are you allowed to give away without revealing too much? Trailers often err in the direction of giving too much away just to get you in the seats. I noticed a trend starting maybe five years back of trailers revealing the second act close (usually around 60-90 minutes into a film). Which leaves little in the movie to surprise you.

Do you think reviewers are handicapped by the inverse problem? They can't give too much away without readers and authors crying foul play? So if a mystery is bad, they're limited in how they present their argument?

What's your vote?

The Master

We understand that fiction is a lie to begin with. To ignore the truth inside the lie is to sin against the craft, in general, and one's own work in particular.
--Stephen King

Oldboy

Oldboy is one of my favorite films, a South Korean thriller, and -- some are claiming -- a piece of the inspiration behind the Virginia Tech mass murder.

I'm certain this will reignite debate over whether violence in entertainment leads to real-life violence. Those of you familiar with my books probably can guess my position on that. The notion that a film or book would be the impetus to a mass murder (rather than merely providing sick-minded stylistic flourishes) seems to me inane. Back to the old saw about book censorship -- you never hear anybody say, "I believe this book should be banned because it might be harmful to ME." Does anyone out there believe they shouldn't see Oldboy in case they suddenly feel compelled to murder 33 innocents?

One of my favorite lines on this topic was given by A.M. Homes (one of my favorite authors). She wrote a brilliant novel called The End of Alice, which depicts a girl being stabbed to death. When asked by a reviewer how she would feel if her book was found in the house of someone who murdered a child, A.M. replied, "That’s like asking somebody who makes steak knives how they would feel if their knife was found in the home of someone who murdered someone."

Are we to believe, if we regard the constellation of illnesses and influences that turned Cho Seung-Hui into a mass murderer, that Oldboy was a major one? Or even the straw that broke the camel's back?

However, I do take issue with NBC's decision to air the self-aggrandizing footage Seung-Hui took time out to film between rounds of gunfire. Televised sports long ago made a decision not to air footage of streakers or people who storm the field or court. Because, hell, if it gets you international air time, it'll encourage more people to do it. NBC's complying with Seung-Hui's wishes that he be made a star hold him up, oddly, as a figure for other twisted minds on such a path to emulate.

The Oddest Book Title Awards

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

Quotation of the Week

"I would live to study, and not study to live."
-- Francis Bacon

The Lookout

This movie is yet another reason to respect Scott Frank. The chess scene and the old man in the farm house (being purposefully vague for those of you who haven't yet seen it) are two examples of hitting precisely the right balance between emotion and subtlety.

Comics 'n TV (and a few more Sport Flicks)

My poll of the moment asked for your favorite comic books and TV shows. Here's what we got:

Comics: Miller's Daredevil, Spider Man, Thor, The Punisher (multiple times, including my vote - esp. for Ennis's work), Marshal Law, The Avengers.

TV: 24, Miami Vice, Law & Order - Special Victims Unit, Quantum Leap, X-Files (hell yeah), Twin Peaks, Survivor, Pimp My Ride, Sopranos, Deadwood, Six Feet Under, MASH, CSI Las Vegas, Criminal Minds, Dexter, The Simpsons, The English Premier League Review Show, Lost, The Office, and - the greatest show in the history of television - The Shield.

Others pointed out that Bend It Like Beckham and Rudy were left out of best sport movie contention.

Anything else missing here, folks?

Also, W M Jensen won the contest by successfully guessing - at page 37 - how Walker pulled off the perfect closed-cell escape from Terminal Island. He'll get a cool, signed first foreign edition of one of the Rackley books. Congrats, Bill!

Vigilantism

Some time ago, I was sent an email by a woman asking how I saw the four Rackley books fitting together. I've called the series an "action meditation" on vigilantism because, after all, it's not every day one can coin a pretentious oxymoron. But the books really do each offer a different take on the issue, and each one represents a different step of Tim's development in confronting this issue.

I suppose since all the Rackley books deal with vigilantism, I wanted to portray what kind of trauma would work on an upstanding deputy and make him consider other options. Tim is an ethical, above-board deputy, and it’s not just Ginny’s death that makes him go outside the law; it’s the failure of the courts. He realizes eventually that the courts, while flawed, represent the best hope; more precisely, that the other options present even more problems.

The Kill Clause is about (among other things) Tim's embracing vigilantism, and his ultimate rejection of it.

The Program is about Tim, a man of action, having to act within the law to bring down a cult that victimizes people while keeping within legal limits.

Troubleshooter is about Tim’s internalizing Dray’s values (her consistent rejection of acting outside the law).

Last Shot is about Tim confronting himself, as embodied in Walker Jameson.

Of course, there was no roadmap when I was writing. There was no template or outline that I filled in. Most of this - as with many other matters in my writing - I only realized after the fact. When I'm dug in well to story and character, I rarely consider themes. They just manage to work themselves out.

Predicta-Hit

This is an incredible article about a computer program designed to predict which scripts can become Hollywood blockbusters. It raises an array of interesting issues, not the least of which relate to the role of the writer...

Steve Martin

This is the funniest thing I've read this year.

Sandford, Koontz, and (of course) Chandler

I have an entry up on America Reads, a website dedicated to getting more Americans to read. Check out the site here.

Your Senator As, uh, Editor

Senator Phil Berger, the head of the North Carolina State Senate, wants the government to review and approve film scripts before shooting begins on films made in his state. This would apply to all films applying for the state rebate program, which offers a 15% incentive for filmmakers to shoot in North Carolina. His proposal comes on the heels of Hounddog, the movie in which Dakota Fanning, at age 12, plays a rape victim. It's always sticky when government starts playing art critic. I can picture it now: "Can't we have a bit more character arc for Sally?" "Well, Senator, her growth is more subtle and internal." "Can we change goddamn to goddang then?"

When I was doing research for my soccer script, set in WWII Ukraine, I came across a section talking about how Stalin would personally oversee final cut on many films made in the Soviet Union. However bad we think we've got it, imagine having Stalin over your shoulder, observing your work and twirling his mustache. I wonder if their guild protection covered being shot and left in a mass grave.

Reviews for Sale

This Slate article is amazing. It discusses new practices not just in self-publishing, but in purchasing blurbs and reviews. The audacity is jaw-dropping.

Art and Human Rights (and Bono)

It seems artists, when discussing weighty issues, run the risk of seeming...well...out of their depth. And even if they are well-intentioned, or can affect genuine policy changes, they can be deflated quite effectively. Especially by a Scotsman.

The story below sailed through my inbox and made me actually laugh out loud:

Bono is playing a U2 concert in Glasgow, Scotland when he asks the audience for total quiet.

Then in the silence, he starts to slowly clap his hands, once every few seconds. Holding the audience in total silence, he says into the microphone, "Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies."

A voice with a broad Scottish accent, from near the front of the crowd, pierces the silence..."Well, fucking stop doin' it then!"

A Quotation for the New Year

"Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment."

--Samuel Johnson

Ode to the Generalist

This was sent to me from one of my SEAL buddies currently overseas. Amen.
__
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert Heinlein, Time Enough For Love

Philosophical/Literary Quotation of the Moment

"Tragedy is a conflict between two rights."

--Hegel

Quote of the Day

"You should always work hard at work worth doing."

Teddy Roosevelt

Elementary

Stanford is again offering their wonderful program where they mail twelve weekly facsimiles, this time of Sherlock's return and struggle with Professor Moriarty.

For more, visit http://sherlockholmes.stanford.edu/subscribe.html.

Noir and Literary Thrillers

I came upon an essay on this topic on the blog of Jerome Weeks

Here's an excerpt:

"Basically, these are often novels that use the hard-boiled conventions but don't fit simply into the genre. Or they are the essential definers/redefiners of the genre itself. Those conventions include, but are not limited to, a sense of moral complexity if not outright confusion, a society that is compromised or corrupt and violent, crime treated not as a puzzle to be solved but as an act of violence that typifies something about this noir world, a protagonist who doesn't so much solve a puzzle as make a dangerous moral choice or act of redemption (the protagonist himself is most likely implicated or compromised, too) -- and a menacing mood, a laconic or succinctly vivid style and various characters to suit all of this."
--
I think this is a goddamned brilliant encapsulation of noir and literary thrillers. That's what so many people fail to grasp: It is ALL about the dangerous - or compromised - moral choice, and the choices made in the fallout. And sometimes, that moral choice or position can seem forced upon the protagonist simply because of who the protagonist is, because of unexamined assumptions underlying the protag's personality and life. There's the ambiguity. And the act of violence MUST be emblematic about the world portrayed, not merely horrific, not merely puzzling.

Quality Control

If you need any evidence why politicians shouldn't write sex scenes, click here.

Jim Webb's Novels and the Strategic Idiocy of Senator Allen

In an idiotic move that seems unreasonably low-stooping even for U.S. politics, Virginia Senator George Allen has sent out a press release condemning excerpts from his rival Jim Webb's fiction writing. Yes, that's right. Lines of dialogue, taken out of context. Notions of character. He seeks to prove that Jim Webb is a misogynist because his characters - his CHARACTERS! - mention things like "knocking the bitch up." And there are - gasp! - graphic sex scenes. And mentions of breasts. He's also making much of an excerpt that portrays pedophilic sex.

Now I've yet to get political on this blog, but I can say in all seriousness, give us a fucking break here. Are we really going to judge men and women who run for office in this country by nasty (or merely sexual) things that their characters say and do? I guess that rules out pretty much anyone in the entire crime fiction community from running for public office. I know I've written some particularly graphic things, sometimes words in the mouths of characters, sometimes in point of view or free indirect discourse of a character, sometimes in the tone of a narrator who - newsflash - is not me. It's not just those of us who write crime fiction who could be called to moral task here - it could be anyone who's ever written about, uh, conflict. Or assholes. Or racists. Or misogynists. Let's just not portray those people at all. In fact, let's not write about these topics. Allen's campaign is now judging literary themes, and sensing "patterns" in Webb's portrayal of women. So I guess Joyce and Hemingway are screwed too. And Christ - what to do if someone catches Dianne Feinstein reading Sanctuary? A U.S. Senator, exposing herself to a book with a graphic corn-cob rape scene? Surely a human such as that wouldn't be fit to hold public office.

This is clearly a calculated absurdity. There's no question it will prove effective, but I hope it's roundly condemned in thinking quarters as well.

Israel and, uh, Comics

Okay, here's my first interview about Foolkiller - the classic Steve Gerber character who I'm bringing back for Marvel. Only catch...it's in Hebrew!

Here's the link for those of you who read Hebrew or want to check out some Foolkiller graphics (actually, if you scan down the page, you can read the interview in English):

http://www.superheroesetc.co.il/columnpiece.asp?item=367

Is There Such a Thing as Non-Literary Fiction?

The terms "literary fiction" and "commercial fiction" always crack me up. As if Thomas Harris or Stephen King's writings are, uh, "non-literary." As if Philip Roth mows lawns to supplement his unmarketable talents. It's been said before and often: Isn't there just good fiction and bad fiction? People forget that Camus's inspiration for The Stranger was The Postman Always Rings Twice. Cain's masterpiece is pretty goddamned literary. And The Stranger has sold a few copies. Why bother labeling them? Frankly, they both kick serious ass.

The following section is from an amazing Washington Post article, in which Ayn Rand compares the writing of Mickey Spillane, rarely the critics' favorite, to those of Thomas Wolfe:
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"Rand appreciated Spillane's precision as a writer, and in an essay on literature (which appears in her book "The Romantic Manifesto") quotes from Spillane's description of New York at night as an example of his skill -- "The rain was misty enough to be almost foglike, a cold gray curtain that separated me from the pale ovals of white that were faces locked behind the steamed-up windows of the cars that hissed by. Even the brilliance that was Manhattan by night was reduced to a few sleepy yellow lights off in the distance" -- and then compares it to a passage by Thomas Wolfe -- "The city had never seemed as beautiful as it looked that night. For the first time he saw that New York was supremely, among the cities of the world, a city of night. There had been achieved here a loveliness that was astounding and incomparable, a kind of modern beauty, inherent to its place and time, that no other place nor time could match."

To Rand, "there is not a single emotional word or adjective in Spillane's description; he presents nothing save visual facts; but he selects only those facts, only those eloquent details, which convey the visual reality of the scene and create a mood of desolate loneliness." Wolfe, she argued, used only estimates, "and in the absence of any indication of what aroused these estimates, they are arbitrary assertions and meaningless generalities."

for the complete article, click here:

___

Now Wolfe is a brilliant writer, and Spillane certainly has written a few clunky passages. It's unfair to compare merely two sentences and draw broader conclusions. But I found the contrast interesting and compelling, and worth discussion. Which do you prefer and why?

On Politics

I got this interesting email from a reader the other day.
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After a couple of chapters of Last Shot, I was hooked. Then came the cheap political barbs agaist Cheney & Ashcroft, and I kind of lost patience with it. Too bad your so jaded. It looked promising.
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I wrote back:

It always surprises me when readers take political dialogue or comments of the characters and assume them to be the position of the author. My characters tend to be apolitical or anti-political - they're a cynical, suspicious bunch. The Clinton barbs in my books during those years inevitably led to emails from angry liberals. But no one interprets a rapist character's rantings as the author advocating rape, or revealing his true position.

In any event, if you find such remarks off-putting, there's not much I can say to that.
----
To his credit, the man responded:

Thank you for your reply. It did seem that a point of view was being expressed. I'm sorry if I have jumped to a conclusion. I'll give some of your earlier books a try to get some context, and perspective. Thanks again.

----
To which I replied:

It's an interesting question. In Do No Harm, I wrote about a liberal doctor colliding with street-smart cops. The doc is too naive, and the cops tend too aggressive. In the book, the path to successful resolution of the issue lies directly between the two. It was funny for me to see how people on either side of the political fence reacted, everyone thinking that the characters' opinions were the author's -- but usually only the characters whose opinions they disagreed with. Maybe we're set up to interpret that way.
----
It is an odd issue -- when people decide to get offended and why. Sometimes, a book DOES display a clear bias. But sometimes, as in Last Shot, the opinions are what make the most sense for a character. At times these opinions can overlap with the author's, but not always. Bizarrely, I've also had people email me thinking I was racist because my antagonists use derogatory terms(!).

My Last Blog Entry

Was in fact from The Onion, identified by Hunter Goatley. Thanks, Hunter!

The link is http://www.theonion.com/content/node/52061

Of Mice and Cliffs Notes

This was forwarded on to me by my high-school English teacher. Priceless. It's been zapped around the Internet enough that I've lost the reference (maybe from the Onion?) so if you can identify it, please do and I'll put up the proper credit and a link.

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Girl Moved To Tears By Of Mice And Men Cliffs Notes
August 18, 2006 | | Special Section: Back-To-School Special

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA

In what she described as "the most emotional moment" of her academic life, University of Virginia sophomore communications major Grace Weaver sobbed openly upon concluding Steinbeck's seminal work of American fiction Of Mice And Men's Cliffs Notes early last week.

"This book has changed me in a way that only great literature summaries can," said Weaver, who was so shaken by the experience that she requested an extension on her English 229 essay. "The humanity displayed in the Character Flowchart really stirred something in me. And Lennie's childlike innocence was beautifully captured through the simple, ranch-hand slang words like 'mentally handicapped' and 'retarded.'"

Added Weaver: "I never wanted the synopsis to end."

Weaver, who formed an "instant connection" with Lennie's character-description paragraph, said she began to suspect the novel might end tragically after reading the fourth sentence which suggested the gentle giant's strength and fascination with soft things would "lead to his untimely demise."

"I was amazed at how attached to him I had become just from the critical commentary," said Weaver, still clutching the yellow-and-black-striped study guide. "When I got to the last sentence 'George shoots Lennie in the head,' it seemed so abrupt. But I found out later that the 'ephemeral nature of life' is a major theme of the novel."

Weaver was assigned Of Mice And Men, a novel scholars have called "a masterpiece of austere prose" and "the most skillful example of American naturalism under 110 pages" as part of her early twentieth-century fiction course, and purchased the Cliffs Notes from a cardboard rack at her local Barnes & Noble. John Whittier-Ferguson, her professor for the class, told reporters this was not the first time one of his students has expressed interest in the novel's plot summary.

"It's one of those universal American stories," said Ferguson after being informed of Weaver's choice to read the Cliffs Notes instead of the pocket-sized novel. "I look forward to skimming her essay on the importance of following your dreams and randomly assigning it a grade.

Though she completed the two-page brief synopsis in one sitting, Weaver said she felt strangely drawn into the plot overview and continued on, exploring the more fleshed-out chapter summaries.

"There's something to be said for putting in that extra time with a good story," Weaver said. "You just get more out of it. I'm also going to try to find that book about rabbits that George was always reading to Lennie, so that I can really understand that important allusion."

Within an hour of completing the cliffs notes, Weaver was already telling friends and classmates that Steinbeck was her favorite author, as well as reciting select quotations from the "Important Quotations" section for their benefit.

"When I read those quotes, found out which characters they were attributed to, and inferred their context from the chapter outlines to piece together their significance, I was just blown away," said a teary-eyed Weaver. "And the way Steinbeck wove the theme of hands all the way through the section entitled 'Hands' he definitely deserved to win that Nobel Prize."

Weaver's roommate, Giulia Crenshaw, has already borrowed the dog-eared, highlighted summary of the classic Depression-era saga, and is expecting to enjoy reading what Weaver described as "a really sad story about two brothers who love to farm."

"I loved this book so much, I'm going to read all of Steinbeck's Cliffs Notes," said Weaver. "But first I'm going to go to the library to check out the original version Of Mice And Men starring John Malkovich and Gary Sinise."

Cocktails and Writing

There is an interview with me up on the Good Girls Kill For Money Club website:

http://www.good-girls-kill.com/2006/09/08/hold-me-thrill-me-kiss-me-kill-me/

in which I converse with readers and the delightful Tasha Alexander. I also pose a few questions for you readers.

Great Books by Friends

Okay, here's some serious ass-kicking books you may have overlooked. They're written by buddies of mine, which made me all the more relieved when they were really good.

The Purification Ceremony, by Mark T. Sullivan. I met Mark at Thrillerfest this year, and got a copy of this tracker-in-the-woods thriller. Not only does he know this world inside-out, but his prose is goddamned beautiful. I mean, this boy can seriously write.

Shotgun Alley, by Andrew Klavan. The second in Drew's superb Weiss and Bishop series (or, as I like to think of it, Bishop and Weiss series), this is a great, wonderfully written story about outlaw biker gangs. It was interesting to see what a writer who I admire did with the same world I researched for Troubleshooter. (Drew's latest, Damnation Alley - also great - just came out).

Public Enemy, by Will Staeger. Okay, so I'm cheating because I'm not quite done yet. But Will is such a solid writer that I know the ending will be great. When I blurbed his first book, I referred to his "adrenalized lyricism" and that's precisely what it is.

These books are remarkably different, but they all have excellent crime/action plots and ALSO (increasingly rare) wonderful use of language. These are three novelists who aren't just storytellers, they're writers too. Check out three guys at the top of their game.

Best Sports Movies

In my last Poll of the Moment, I asked you - devoted readers and culture consumers - which was your favorite sports movie. I was curious as I'd just begun my soccer script for ESPN. And the critics have spoken! Your top choices were Victory, Hoosiers, the Replacements, Caddyshack, Rounders, Vision Quest, Bull Durham, Breaking Away, Any Given Sunday, Remember the Titans, da Rockies, Happy Gilmore, and Brian’s Song.

Any movies missing from that list?