Music I Like: Moonglow/Theme from "Picnic" - Morris Stoloff

Great movie, great music.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: The Angel Detective, July 1941

This was the only issue of this pulp, which is notable for the fact that the lead novel was written by Edward S. Ronns, much better known to us by his real name Edward S. Aarons, under which he wrote the excellent, long-running Sam Durell espionage series as well as a number of other top-notch mystery and suspense novels. But everybody's got to start somewhere, and Aarons had been selling to the pulps for only a couple of years when he was tapped to write this story. The only thing I know about it is that the detective wore a mask and had an Eskimo assistant (this courtesy of Bob Weinberg's website). Luckily for those of us who enjoy his later work, the extremely short life of THE ANGEL DETECTIVE doesn't seem to have hurt Edward S. Aarons' career.

Music I Like: Tropicando - Les Baxter

Still in a bit of a lounge mood tonight. My parents had at least one Les Baxter album and I remember hearing music like this quite a bit when I was a kid.

Flash Fiction

JELLYFISH APOCALYPSE

"You gotta shoot 'em in the brains, Mabel!"

"They's jellyfish, Claude! They ain't got no brains! Besides, the bullets just go right -- "

THE END

Vacation

As some of you know, Livia and I have spent the past three-and-a-half weeks at her parents' vacation cabin down on the Texas Gulf Coast. Our Internet service was a little patchy, but I was able to carry on much like normal. I carried on better than normal when it comes to the writing, as I always do down there. Livia just put up a blog post with a bunch of pictures, so check 'em out!

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Rodeo Romances, Fall 1950

Another RANCH ROMANCES competitor, although even more specialized with its emphasis on rodeo stories. A good line-up of authors, though, including Robert J. Hogan (of G-8 and His Battle Aces fame), Frank Richardson Pierce, Joe Archibald, Clinton Dangerfield, Edwin P. Hicks, and Cliff Walters. (The fact that this issue sports a cover featuring a good-looking redhead with cleavage and a smoking six-gun had nothing to do with me deciding to post it, of course.)

Music I Like: Lujon - Henry Mancini

Music like this makes me think I was born too late. I should've been pounding out paperbacks for Gold Medal, Dell, Avon, Ace, and all the others. But at least I can try to capture that spirit in some of my work.

Forgotten Books: Escape From Five Shadows - Elmore Leonard

I've mentioned before that I prefer Elmore Leonard's Westerns to his crime novels, which puts me in the minority, I'm sure. Not that that bothers me. I've read all of Leonard's Western short stories and am working my way slowly through his Western novels.

Originally published in 1956, ESCAPE FROM FIVE SHADOWS is Leonard's third novel. It opens where a lot of novels might end: with the unjustly convicted protagonist's escape from prison. Corey Bowen, found guilty of rustling and sent to Yuma Prison, then to the work camp called Five Shadows, doesn't get away, though. He's recaptured and brought back, and that's just the beginning of a tense, low-key story that includes plenty of suspense and just enough action and romance.

As you'd expect from a novel by Elmore Leonard, even an early one, the dialogue is excellent and most of the characters can't be trusted as they play off of each other and try to gain an advantage. In addition to Corey Bowen, there are a couple of other inmates who are part of a second escape plan with him; the corrupt superintendent of the prison camp; a government official and his femme fatale wife; the beautiful daughter of a stagecoach station manager; and the Apache trackers whose job it is to go after prisoners who try to get away.

ESCAPE FROM FIVE SHADOWS is a slow burn of a novel that finally erupts in some excellent action scenes. As usual, Leonard's depiction of Arizona Territory is excellent, with the landscape almost becoming a character in its own right. If you've never read any of his Western novels, this would be a fine place to start.

Music I Like: Signs - Five Man Electrical Band

A lot of that Sixties counter-cultural, anti-establishment music hasn't aged very well and these days sounds almost quaint. This song sort of falls into that category, but my friend James Pickard did a great version of it, accompanied only by his guitar, one night at the coffeehouse where we both hung out in the summer of 1971. As I recall, I was sitting on the floor with a girl named Beth at the time. I've been fond of the song ever since.

Music I Like: My Maria - B.W. Stevenson

More classic Texas music from the Seventies, from an artist who died much too young.