The Name of Noir is Marlowe

Duane Swierczynski pointed me to an excellent Mystery File article about author Dan J. Marlowe. Duane writes:

Marlowe’s life story has enough twists and turns for at least three or
four Gold Medal novels. Marlowe was widowed at a young age, became
close buddies with one of the most notorious bank robbers of the 1960s,
and later in his career, suffered a stroke that wiped away his
memory–but not his writing ability. Somehow, through all of this, he
wrote some extremely fine hardboiled novels, the best being his first
two Earl Drake books:  THE NAME OF THE GAME  IS DEATH and ONE ENDLESS HOUR. 

Duane is a right — those are two great books. But if you read NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH, and you must, be sure to get the first version, not the subsequent rewrite where some of Earl Drake’s very, very rough edges were smoothed out so he could become (following ONE ENDLESS HOUR)  the improbable hero of a series of secret agent novels.

Man Titty

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The hilarious Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Novels are at it again, reviewing some terrible book covers:

Sarah: It is a moderately-known fact that I had a breast
reduction 11 years ago. 7+ lbs. of tissue were removed. I think he
received in transplant what I had taken out.

Now, do you need inflated man-titty to be a demon hunter? Perhaps if I’d kept my old boobs, I’d be a demon hunter now.

Candy: If I were him, I’d be so worried about scratching my
chest with those talons on my hands. I mean, what if I puncture
something? It’s hard to be appropriately terrifying when there’s a jet
of saline squirting out of one’s (rapidly deflating) chestal region.

Psyched up

The premiere of the new USA Network series PSYCH is the highest-rated opening episode of any new basic cable series this year. Bill Rabkin & I wrote an episode for PSYCH that will be airing later this summer.

In all, 6.1 million total viewers tuned in,
scoring USA’s best numbers since the two-hour "The 4400" debut
harvested 7.4 million viewers in July 2004.

The news wasn’t so good for MONK, which kicked off with strong ratings but they were the lowest season debut numbers since it’s first season. One reason for the dip could be MONK’s new timeslot — the series was shifted an hour earlier to accomodate PSYCH. Bill and I have also written an episode of MONK, which airs July 28th.

The Lion’s Share

There’s an article in today’s Los Angeles Times talking
about how Lions Gate Television, my former employer on MISSING, manages to make
a profit on their cable television shows.

But by employing financing formulas it has used to make and distribute
such profitable, low-budget movies as "Madea’s Family Reunion" and the
"Saw" horror franchise, Lions Gate not only covered its costs on
"Weeds" but also cleared what industry analysts estimate was about
$100,000 per episode of pure profit.

[…]By cobbling together money from license fees, income from international
sales, state and local tax rebates and subsidies, Lions Gate has at
least broken even from day one on all nine of its shows — a rarity in a
business where most network shows begin in the red.

It’s interesting stuff. The TV
division is run by the impossibily energetic Kevin Beggs, easily one of the
brightest, friendliest, and most creatively supportive execs I’ve ever worked with. It’s nice to see him
getting the recognition he deserves.

Mystery Gumbo

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Last night, my local chapter of the Mystery Writers of America had a summer party at author Bill Fitzhugh’s house in the valley. We all sat outdoors in the warm night air under big, shady trees and strings of Christmas lights. Bill made three different kinds of gumbo and an array of tasty shrimp and crab appetizers, proving that if things ever cool down for him in publishing and radio, he can always open a restaurant.

I caught up with lots of folks, including authors Denise Hamilton, James Lincoln Warren, Diane Pugh, Gary Phillips, Theresa Schwegel, and Christa Faust, who told me all about her novelization of SNAKES ON A PLANE.149435218_665888794f
Christa once wrote a 95,000 word FRIDAY THE 13th original tie-in novel in six weeks, and without ending up in the I.C.U., which I find pretty darn amazing. She has a tattoo of a vintage typewriter on her belly. I didn’t see it there, but she told us about it, and I found a picture of it later on her website.  Christa told me some horror stories about  the brutal deadlines and low pay in the tie-in biz…then again, she loves telling horror stories of all kinds. She wore a dress covered with skulls that fascinated the kids at the party.

Denise Hamilton and I talked a lot about conventions — she’s already looking forward to Bouchercon 2007 in Anchorage.  We also talked a lot about dogs. We mystery writers are an exciting bunch. Denise and I are getting together in September "in conversation" for a Sisters-in-Crime event. I promise that that conversation will be more thrilling, suspenseful and erotic. She’s hard at work on a new stand-alone novel that’s due soon.

The lovely and charming Theresa Schwegel insists that winning the Edgar hasn’t changed her, but I don’t recall her insisting that people kiss her hand and refer to her as "your highness" before the award. I didn’t mind. I don’t think she has a typewriter on her belly.

As the night went on, I told the story about my broken arms once and the story about the Naked Bookseller twice. If I am going to keep going to these author gatherings, I am going to need some fresh material. We left around 9 pm when my daughter started to nod off…she had a full day of swimming, swimming, tae kwon do testing, swimming and swimming.

Bill gave everyone generous "To Go" bags full of gumbo and rice on the way out, so my lunch today isn’t going to include another trip to The Habit where, oddly enough, I bump into Bill every so often.

It was  a great party. I hope Bill does it again next year.

UPDATE 7-11-06: Christa blogs about the party.

Thrilling Video

The ITW has put together a four-minute video, shot and edited by David Hewson at the convention, and posted it on YouTube. The video features short interviews Lee Child,
Zoe Sharpe, David Morrell, Steve Berry,  Gayle Lynds and Heather Graham

among other. Don’t blink or you’ll miss the shot of me signing books with Erica Spindler at the start of the video.

Thrilling Photos

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Author M. Diane Vogt took these Thrillerfest pictures of me with Lee Child and my daughter Maddie with R.L. Stine and kindly passed them along (Click on the photos for larger images). Maddieandstine
The scariest thing about RL Stine was that he was wearing all-black when it was 110 degrees outside. He probably lost 30 pounds just walking from his car to the convention center.

Mr. Monk Goes to Dinner

My latest Natalie Blog is now up on the USA Network site.

The other night, just for the heck of it, I invited Monk out to dinner with Julie
and me. That meant, of course, that we had to stop by his apartment on
the way to pick-up a set of dishes and silverware that he could bring
with him to the restaurant in a special, padded picnic basket.