All Blog Posts Tagged 'movies' (17)

My Favorite Things

Unlike many Saturday mornings, I didn't have a topic I'd been mulling over in my head this week. I went through my journal and all I had left were more nostalgia pieces, most of which will show up sometime, but I felt like I'd inflicted enough of my childhood on you. So, thanks to Molly Greene, author of the blog Molly Greene: Author and her post "101 Fabulous Blog…

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Added by Joe Stephens on July 23, 2015 at 12:37am — No Comments

Great Cop Movies: From Coast to Coast

The release of Gravesend this month got me thinking about some of my favorite police movies set in New York City and Los Angeles...depicting both good cops and bad cops.

Here is a short list.

(Listed chronologically, with year of release and director. Some of the great novelists, non-fiction writers and screenwriters are named in parentheses.)

New York

The French Connection (1971) William Friedkin (Robin Moore)

Serpico…

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Added by J. L. Abramo on September 30, 2012 at 2:00am — No Comments

Author Solutions Establishes Million-Dollar Film Fund

Author Solutions wants to start making movies. The company, which has over 145,000 self-published titles in its library, has started a film development fund with $1 million of seed money to acquire the film rights to books by its authors.… Continue

Added by Love Is Murder Conference on August 2, 2011 at 12:35pm — No Comments

Movies and Stories

First: a quick self-promo even though it is frowned upon - my story, Live Free or Die, Die, Die! was selected to appear in the crime/pulp/noir anthology of the same name scheduled for release this November. I may even be asked to do a reading so I'll keep people posted.

Second: I watched the movie Scarlett Street starring Edward G. Robinson of Little Caesar and The Public Enemy fame, as well as Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea. I had no idea what I was getting into, having no…

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Added by Douglas J. Osterhoudt on July 26, 2011 at 1:33am — No Comments

Amadeus, Murder and the real Mozart

The long wait for a successor to Amadeus is over. In fact, my new novel MOZART’S LAST ARIA answers questions about the great composer’s death that are far more deeply rooted in historical research than Peter Shaffer’s nonetheless terrific play.

Shaffer, whose play was first performed in 1979 and filmed by Milos Forman in 1984, proposed court composer Salieri as the man who…

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Added by Matt Rees on May 2, 2011 at 6:22pm — No Comments

The cadences of language

My personal preference in writing is to hear conversation which sounds real, even if that's not the way that most people actually speak. It also matters to speak without barriers, focusing your character regardless of who they might be (skin color as opposed to yours).

In his essay "Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing" he says: "My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I… Continue

Added by Troy Kirby on April 21, 2011 at 4:30am — No Comments

Scary/mystery movie picks & ebook giveaway

In the new issue of Kings River Life Magazine the staff shares their

favorite picks for scary/suspense and mystery movies! Check it out and

share yours with us as well

http://kingsriverlife.com/10/30/scarymystery-movie-pics/

Also, read an interview with vampire author James Garcia Jr., a review

of his book, and enter for a chance to win a copy of his ebook!…

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Added by Lorie Ham on October 31, 2010 at 4:35am — No Comments

Why Movies Suck

(Also posted at One Bite at a Time)

Here's a tidbit from the Trivia page of IMDB's entry for the movie Get Shorty:

MGM didn't want to extensively use Elmore Leonard-inspired dialogue in the

film, and pushed Barry Sonnenfeld and Scott Frank to make many passages

more generic than the book's, but once John Travolta signed on to… Continue

Added by Dana King on August 18, 2010 at 11:26am — 1 Comment

Crime fiction with a vengeance

The original Swedish title of the opening installment in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy was “Men Who Hate Women.” Which proves that you can write a huge international bestseller and not know why people would read your book.

Larsson’s U.K. publisher changed the title to “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” With his original title, Larsson would’ve been a posthumous hit (he died in 2004 of a heart attack at the age of 50) in Sweden, where he was well-known as a…

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Added by Matt Rees on March 30, 2010 at 10:42pm — 2 Comments

Casting Your Characters

My upcoming book finaled in a contest once, and part of the last step was to suggest actors who might play the roles in the story. This was difficult for me because I don't know the names of any actors under the age of forty. In fact, I don't know the names of many actors still living. Luckily my children were able to help, and I came up with a girl reminiscent of young Elizabeth, Ron Howard's daughter. (You see, I have to put them into a generation I can identify with!)

It's a… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on December 8, 2009 at 10:24pm — 3 Comments

Anybody Else a Sherlock Fan?

If so, you have to try this new promotional website.

Fill in the five gray boxes with the password, IRENE, and you will hear and see Warner Bros. video for the new Holmes movie set to open Christmas Day.

If you're a Holmes fan, you know the password IRENE remembers Irene Adler, the woman who once tricked Sherlock into revealing the…

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Added by Jack Getze on August 23, 2009 at 1:30pm — No Comments

Gran Torino

(Also posted on One Bite at a Time.)

The Beloved Spousal Equivalent and I finally got around to watching Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino last weekend. I wish I could remember what the hell was so important that it kept me from seeing it in the theater. This is a wonderful film.

Truly a character-driven thriller, the story is about a bigoted, retired autoworker named Walt Kowalski, played by Eastwood.… Continue

Added by Dana King on June 30, 2009 at 5:49am — 3 Comments

Two awesome reviews for BEYOND THE LOOKING GLASS...and one for LIBRARIANS DONT GET MARRIED

Reviews

Title: Beyond the Looking Glass

Author: AP Miller

Author Website: na

Genre: Horror/Fantasy Erotica

Published by Extasy books

Cinderella,…

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Added by AP Miller on December 24, 2008 at 6:30pm — 1 Comment

Favorite Detective Movies

I happened to catch a television rerun the other day of the terrific 1967 movie “In The Heat of the Night” starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. The film won five Oscars including Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Actor (Steiger). Poitier plays Virgil Tibbs, a black Homicide Detective from Philadelphia who becomes involved in a murder investigation in a racist small town in Mississippi. It got me thinking about other outstanding detective movies I’ve seen (as opposed to crime or mystery… Continue

Added by Christopher Valen on December 18, 2008 at 9:36am — 4 Comments

A Quantum of Me...

The new James Bond movie is breaking all sorts of international box-office records, and not just by people wanting to find out what a Quantum of Solace is. Bond is back, and, in many respects, bigger than ever. I've talked about Bond before, in fact, my very…

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Added by D.R. MacMaster on November 5, 2008 at 9:19am — No Comments

The Most Riveting Movie Moment Ever

I heard someone speak of this as the scene in The Great Dictator where Chaplin as Hitler makes sport with the globe of the world. And I’m sure you have an opinion, which I’m anxious to hear about. Mind you, I’m not looking for movie quotes like “Make my day” or “We’re in for a bumpy night.” What I’m after are those moments of cinematic action that seem to symbolize and say so much more than the constituent elements of the scene.

So what’s my candidate for the most riveting… Continue

Added by Paul McGoran on July 14, 2008 at 10:14am — No Comments

Trashy People, Trashy Topics But One Helluva Good Movie

I could care less if a faded and jaded country star ever had an affair (while underage or at any time) with a big time baseball player. If a teenage Disney sensation slaps her fans in the face by posing for a trashy cover on a national magazine. It makes no difference to me if flashy actresses and kinky socialites flame out on drugs and booze or if an actor in a respected crime series tanks his career with heroin and a pharmacopia of other substances. Frankly, none of those stories merits any… Continue

Added by Doug M. Cummings on May 4, 2008 at 4:00pm — 2 Comments