Behind the Times

As usual, I'm behind the times when it comes to reading books - especially high profile books. But these two live up to the hype.

Tom Rob Smith's Child 44 - a tale of a Soviet policemen trying to solve a series of child murders in Stalinist Russia. The genius of the book isn't merely in its evocation of that time, but in the fact that we meet a protagonist as he is growing disillusioned with the very system that he represents - as he is trying to catch a murderer who the state refuses to admit exists.

Timothy Hallinan's A Nail Through the Heart - recommended to me by numerous people with good taste - is a brilliant mystery set in Bangkok. The setting lives and breathes, the characterization is spectacular, and the dialogue is so good you practically hear it out loud. Plus it manages to be noir - wry and cool - without overreaching. Hallinan is a stunning talent.

Robert Crais Interview About Trust No One

Here are some behind-the-scene shots of me and Robert Crais during our interview about Trust No One. We had a great time talking plot, mayhem, and character....

Shocking Mystery Bookstore Robbery Footage!!

New Interview up at KGB

This just posted.

Writing Quotation of the Week

Writers kid themselves—about themselves and other people. Take the talk about writing methods. Writing is just work—there’s no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type with your toes—it is just work.
--Sinclair Lewis

Breaking in to Comics

I often get asked about how one breaks into comics, but I don't have a good answer in general. Because I transitioned from novels and screenplays, I already had writing samples, and I lucked into an editor - Axel Alonso at Marvel - who was familiar with my work. But there's a great article by Steven Grant on CBR that lays out nicely how an aspiring writer might attempt to find work.

Trust No One

Coming June 23! For more info and for tour info (the tour will include Boston, NY, LA, San Diego, and the Bay Area), go to the newly redesigned www.gregghurwitz.net.

E.B. White Quotation of the Week

"Be obscure clearly."

Three words, and yet some of the best writing advice I've come across...

Frank Miller's Charlie Brown

This link, as forwarded to me by Richard Brewer, is well worth a look. Brilliant.

William Maxwell and Jesse Kellerman

I'd been meaning to write for some time about So Long, See You Tomorrow, an off beat novel centered around a small-town murder by William Maxwell (onetime fiction editor for the New Yorker).

Some lovely, sparse language and wonderful touches - "...I understood not only how generous they were, but that generosity might be the greatest pleasure there is."

"He died in agony, of a gall-bladder attack, when he was in his early fifties, and the oval photograph, adapting itself to circumstances, is now clearly the photograph of a dead man."

"New York City is a place where one can weep on the sidewalk in perfect privacy."

And so on. Great, pithy, insightful language, and some lovely characterization.

Then I read Jesse Kellerman's latest - The Genius (or, in the UK, The Brutal Art). Many of you know that I love JK's writing. His last, Trouble, was one of my favorite books of 2007. Well this is an even more compelling read - at times staggering. His characterization and facility with language is pretty goddamned remarkable. It occurs to me that were I to excerpt my favorite touches and lines, my blog post would go on indefinitely. So just go buy it already.

Quotation of the Week

"You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed"
~ Antoine de Saint Exupery

Some Vocabulary Words in Honor of Friday the 13th

And yes, I've seen all 97 movies, including Jason Takes Manhattan and Jason versus Freddie.

Quatorzieme: a professional 14th guest that superstitious hosts can hire for their dinner parties. Popular in Paris.

Paraskavedekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia: fear of Friday the 13th

Triskaidekaphobia: fear of the number 13.

Punisher Event

Here I am at my Punisher: Girls in White Dresses signing with the inimitable Richard Brewer and Robert Crais (who wrote the intro). A great event at Earth2Comics....

Girls in White Dresses: The Trade

This Wednesday, Punisher: Girls in White Dresses comes out at amazon.com, and at comic shops and book stores everywhere. It collects all five of my Punisher comics, and features an introduction by Robert Crais.

My sole signing will be Feb 7, 1 pm at:

Earth2Comics
15017 Ventura Blvd
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
818.386.9590

Quotation of the Day

"The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything."
Theodore Roosevelt ~

Happy Inauguration Day!

And to celebrate, the single best version of our national anthem, recorded by perhaps the only individual cooler than our new President.

Hugh Jackman on Creative Courage

"I've always felt that if you back down from a fear, the ghost of that fear never goes away. It diminishes people. So I've always said 'yes' to the thing I'm most scared about. The fear of letting myself down -- of saying 'no' to something that I was afraid of and then sitting in my room later going, 'I wish I'd had the guts to say this or that' -- that galvanizes me more than anything."
--Hugh Jackman

I've often wondered if this kind of fear fuels creative drive.....

Me and Christopher Rice on TV interview

Here's me and the inestimable Mr. Rice doing an interview on the Patti Gribow show, where we discuss research, writing gay characters (as a straight vs. gay author), choosing plots, and generally make fun of each other.

Wit and Wisdom

Josh Billings, considered by many to be our country's second greatest humorist (behind Mark Twain) is overlooked by many.

I thought I'd ring in the new year with a few favorite quotations:

-- -- --

I have never known a person to live to be one hundred and be remarkable for anything else.

As a general thing, when a woman wears the pants in a family, she has a good right to them.

Learning sleeps and snores in libraries, but wisdom is everywhere, wide awake, on tiptoe.

Life is short, but it's long enough to ruin any man who wants to be ruined.

Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope.

Most people when they come to you for advice, come to have their own opinions strengthened, not corrected.

Reason often makes mistakes, but conscience never does.

Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.

The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his own way.

The road to ruin is always in good repair, and the travellers pay the expense of it.

There are people who are always anticipating trouble, and in this way they manage to enjoy many sorrows that never really happen to them.

There are two kinds of fools: those who can't change their opinions and those who won't.

There's a great power in words, if you don't hitch too many of them together.

Words are often seen hunting for an idea, but ideas are never seen hunting for words.

The End of The Punisher Arc

The final book of my Punisher arc, JIGSAW, came out yesterday. I had more fun writing this story than anything I've yet done in comics. It will be collected in a trade shortly, I'd assume.

Look next for a short comedic Wolverine piece I did in SWITCHBACK, coming out Jan 7.