Howdy Jack (Texas roots, here)
Thanks for the note and checking out my website. I like your blog about being a hack...I feel like that all the time!
Enjoy your weekend!

jack are you going to lcc denver?

Almost wrote "Hi Jack" but decided that would be too funny. Enjoyed your short piece about being a hack. Brought to mind a writer;s group I used to belong to in the Dallas area. We called ourselves "The Hacks" and we met at this great bar near Love Field. Had some terrific writers in the group, including Sandra Brown.

I'm pleased to be in this group of terrific writers.

Simon--

Your post impressed me (The one about what you do and all that.) I got some very early rejections that said, "You don't write very well." Ironically, these were those that I respected almost as much as the one (actually the same one twice on different projects) that I received from the Atlantic Montly.

Tenacity is the key. I have books and stories that I have never sent out because they're just not good enough as they are. I often revisit them, consider, then decide to work on them again or to let them lie fallow for another year of two.

Tenacity is the key, but you have to be tenacious and improve as well.

Thanks for your post. I'm going to repost his on your crimespace.

Jack

Hey Jack - it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance.

I was just reading your "confession" up above. It's wonderfully self-deprecating.

This isn't a popular view, I know, but frankly I kind of like it when I'm described as a "successful hack". It implies two things: consistency and tenacity. But then I've a great fondness for fiction as a disposable resource (books are meant to be read, not kept, not agonised-over), so I've always got a lot of time for pulpish "hackwork". People use the word disparagingly. I just smile and nod.

So three cheers for you - and all the best with your "big" project. If you can think of yourself as a successful hack AND a "proper" author, you've got a lot further than most.

Cheers,

-s

I just deleted some of the older posts ... Hope its all right.

Kathy--
I think everyplace has a flavor, and yes, I do try to portray that. To get another flavor, and a damn good one, Read Laura Lippman. Although I suppose you have. I've tried to do it with Hollywood too, but mine is an old black and white and grainy color flavor.

Kathy, Thanks for the compliment about "Blondes, Blondes, Blondes." I had to project most of the atmosphere backwards from the time I remember it in the 50s, but I'm told it works. Glad you enjoyed it.

Hi, Jack. Of course, I want to be friends with you. Especially after that long bus ride to the Texas Barbecue party. Hang in there!

Yep, you called it! I saw the film version of Jamaica Inn first, and it was just a wreck. Of course, the sound was so terrible that the story was nearly impossible to follow. But the book was so entirely different, and made sense, and was just great gothic fun.

I have friends who have almost the whole Hitchcock collection, and every year we celebrate his death with films and a few episodes of Presents. To Catch A Thief is on this year's list. I'm really looking forward to it.

Got your message on my chat wall, Jack. Thanks for the kudos on the blurbs. If truth be known, (here's where every body gets to see just how much of a newbie I am) if truth be known, when my editor asked me to start collecting blurbs, I didn't reveal it at the time, but I was of the belief that the blurbs were created by the publisher, ran by the blurbing author for an OK, and voila, they appeared. My first eyeopening lesson! I visited your website as well. Haunting cover on Elizabeth Short's demise in the shadow of other unfortunates. You've got a big fan in Harriet Klausner, I see. She recently reviewed my second, THE SCREAMING ROOM, on BN.com. I owe her a HUGE hug. I too was a big fan of McBain's work. Meyer Meyer?? I'll bet his copy editor was thrown by that name. James Lee Burke's work I enjoy as well. In fact, his daughter, Alafair was gracious enough to give me a pretty good blurb. If no one is yet to say it, "you" strike a startling resemblance to Hemingway in photo number two! Glad, we're friends!

I read your post on my page, thanks, Jack. I guess you're right. I also remember when the May Company opened a store in 1947 on Crenshaw, a few blocks away, and Hopalong Cassidy made an appearance, but nobody is writing books about that….lol.

Jeff, I've already posted a reply on your page. Things haunt me too, which is, perhaps, why I write about a period that I can barely remember--except for the shock of it all.

Hello Jack,

I saw your book, "Shadow of the Dahlia" listed on Amazon. In 1947, at the time that the Black Dahlia murder took place, I was five years old and lived a couple of blocks from where the woman's body was discovered. To this day, I remember vividly the details of the crime. I remember my parent's anxiety when they wondered how such horrible murder could've happened so close to our home. And I can still see in my mind the bold headline, and graphic photos of the crime scene, that was plastered all over the front page of Los Angeles Mirror newspaper, which was delivered to our house that evening. People have asked me why that particular murder--committed sixty years ago--still troubles me so much. I can't answer. Perhaps it was because I was so young and it the first time I came face to face with mortality.

Thanks for inviting me to your page. I'll be ordering your book this week.

Hi Jack,
Thank you for the invitation and let me return the favor by inviting you to crime investigation - research in NING where I hang out most of the time.
Best of luck,
Janet

Thanks for the invite. I'm just learning my way around crimespace, but I'll stop back when I have more time to read.

I suppose we've got to write as much as possible and publish as much of it as possible -- even if it is "just" a blog. So yes. Blog more.

Thanks for the welcome Jack. When are you coming back to California to share more wine with Vito and me? We miss you. I can't wait for the new one Jack. Keep writing you old hack.

Thank you so much for the add!