Elect to Read

So, please forgive the rushed tone of this post as I'm stocking up on ammo for NoirCon this week. Seriously, there're bound to be some dangerous people waiting to take a piece of me in the city of brotherly love. Halloween may be behind us, but I'm betting the feeling is lingering in your psyche and you'd do well to check out John Rector's brand new one, The Grove, which I'm reviewing over at Ransom Notes.

Chris La Tray has a belated recap of N@B and on a related note, I've got something to tell you about a N@B project involving Tim Lane, but... nah. I'll save that for later.

Former N@B reader Frank Bill is given the ol' phone book and rubber hose treatment by Rod Norman at Signs & Wonders. Beat to a Pulp editor David Cranmer is also interviewing Mr. Bill, (tee-hee), and Elaine Ash right here.

Paul Brazill is demanding answers of R.J. Ellroy, and Keith Rawson grills a big Mac Russel Mclean on video at Spinetingler.

Charlie Stella has written Benjamin Whitmer's Pike a helluva review. "Book of the Year." Yeah, that bad boy is wracking up the praise, unfortunately, these ol' blogs are some of the only places reviewing paperback originals like Pike, so on this election day I'm proposing we all go vote with our wallets on some quality fiction from small publishers at independent bookstores. Mmmm? How 'bout Stella's own Johnny Porno? Or maybe Jonathan Woods' Bad Juju? Pinckney Benedict's Miracle Boy, Gary Phillips' The Underbelly, Lynn Kostoff's Late Rain, Seth Harwood's Young Junius or perhaps The Drop Edge of Yonder by Rudolf Wurlitzer? And I'm operating on the assumption that everybody has requested their free copy of Rut by Scott Phillips from Concord Free Press by now, yeah? Just a few I've enjoyed this year. And yeah, I'll get off the soap box now.

Speaking of quality small publishers, anybody out there who's not following Tyrus books on Twitter is missing out on frequent book giveaways. Thanks Ben LeRoy. Keep up the good work.

Have you seen the trailers for the new Ken Bruen movies, William Monahan's London Boulevard or Elliott Lester's Blitz? Been a while since I read Boulevard, but I gotta say I don't recognize the material. Looks like it could be a good movie, but I wouldn't have known it came from K's book. Jason Statham looks like an appropriately nasty Brant, though. Looking forward to both.

And for anybody who thinks my characters are too ridiculous to be real, I highly recommend viewing the new documentary The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia. Watch it, then we'll talk.