The Film Noir Foundation is trying to kill me. Their line up at the Egyptian this time around is the best yet, including the rare and brilliant ACT OF VIOLENCE and Sam Fuller’s THE CRIMSON KIMONO, which I would love to see on the big screen. I’m afraid I’m gonna be forced to bring a sleeping bag. There isn’t a single night I want to miss. How can I possibly choose between mint-condition Yul Brenner in PORT OF NEW YORK or THE CROOKED WEB, a… Continue

After a surprising eleventh hour invite, it looks like my short story “Cutman” has been accepted for publication in the forthcoming Busted Flush antho A HELL OF A WOMAN: An Anthology of Female Noir, edited by Megan Abbott. “Cutman” is about a very butch female cutman (the person who stops cuts from bleeding during a match) and a girl boxer. My Helen Nielsen piece will also appear in the same anthology. I don’t have a pub date yet but I’ll post it… Continue

I’m writing a short piece on 50’s era pulp mystery author Helen Nielsen. My fixation on Nielsen started because of this photo on the back of the Dell edition of DEAD ON THE LEVEL (aka Gold Coast Nocturne):

I just love that challenging, tough guy stare. She looks like she could take more than half of her male contemporaries in a fair fight.



I could go on, (and on and on) but I’m saving it for the write up. I’m… Continue

In the week (or so) right after I hit a tough deadline, I always seem to find myself wandering around in a sort of scatterbrained daze, unable to focus or concentrate and constantly feeling like I’ve forgotten something critical. I wanted to be done with CHOKE HOLD a month ago, but it got derailed by this upfront paying gig and so now I’m way behind. I was hoping to slip right back into it, but I feel restless and unsure of every word. I know I’ll come around eventually, like I always do, but I… Continue

I went to the paperback show today. Sadly, there seem to be fewer and fewer dollar bins every year. That’s normally where I find the bulk of my pulps. I’m a reader, not a collector. I love beater reading copies, since that’s what I plan to do with them anyway. This year I think I only got a single book from a dollar bin. (actually it was a two dollar bin.) Everything else I really wanted was more in the 10 to 20 range, so the budget didn’t stretch… Continue

I already mirror my blog in several virtual, locations but I guess it wouldn't hurt to put it up here too.