A Blog You Should Check Out

A friend of mine told me about this blog, Reading California Fiction. The author covers all sorts of books, including many crime and mystery novels. The most recent post is about Chandler's THE SIMPLE ART OF MURDER. I'm going to be digging through the archives to check out some of the older posts. I think a blog devoted to fiction set in a particular state is a good idea, and someone should do one about Texas fiction. Not me, though.

Monster Masterworks

The first comic books I remember reading are mid-Fifties issues of SUPERMAN, BATMAN, and WALT DISNEY’S COMICS & STORIES that I came across a few years after they were published. But it wasn’t long after that that I encountered TALES TO ASTONISH, STRANGE TALES, and the other “monster” comics that Marvel was publishing at the time. These books featured short, stand-alone yarns heavily influenced by the horror and science-fiction movies of the Fifties, with titles like “Groot, the Monster from Planet X!” and “Taboo, the Thing from the Murky Swamp!” (Gotta get those exclamation points in there.)

I wasn’t a huge fan of those stories, but I read plenty of them. And when Marvel reprinted a bunch of them in the Seventies, I read some of those, too. So when I came across MONSTER MASTERWORKS, a trade paperback full of those reprinted stories, I had to pick it up and read it, for old time’s sake, if nothing else.

The biggest appeal of these stories now is the artwork. Most of them in this volume were penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by Dick Ayers, the team responsible for so much great work on the various Marvel superhero titles a few years later. MONSTER MASTERWORKS also includes stories drawn by the great Steve Ditko and one story penciled by Kirby and inked by Bill Everett, the Golden Age icon who created the Submariner. (Quick – “Sub-MARE-in-er” or “Sub-ma-REEN-er”?)

Not surprisingly, the scripts are all by Stan Lee, and boy, are these stories silly, especially the ones drawn and probably plotted by Kirby. The Ditko stories, “The Threat of Tim Boo Ba!” (probably my favorite story in the book), “Zzutak, the Thing That Shouldn’t Exist!!” (whoa, two exclamation points, must be really scary, kids), and the positively restrained “Fear in the Night” at least have twist endings. Some of the other stories are pretty interesting, too, such as “The Brute That Walks!”, a yarn that foreshadows the creation of the Hulk a few years later.

All in all, I had a great time reading this collection. It didn’t quite make me feel like I was seven years old and sitting on the front porch of my parents’ house reading funny books again, but it came close.

Charlie Bartlett

I think I need to start a new category for some of my movie posts. I could call it Movies I’d Never Even Heard Of. I probably won’t, mind you, but if I did, CHARLIE BARTLETT would certainly fit into that category. I didn’t know anything about it, but it turned out to be a really good film, especially for one that I didn’t know existed.

Charlie Bartlett is a 17-year-old with an extremely wealthy and extremely ditsy mother and an absent father. The father’s absence plays into the plot later on, so I won’t say anything more about that. Charlie has just been expelled from an exclusive private boarding school for making phony driver’s licenses in his dorm room and selling them, and his mother decides that he should go to public school. This turns out to be a terrible idea at first, because the preppy, eccentric Charlie doesn’t fit in at all in today’s rough-and-tumble high school.

But things start to improve. Charlie falls in with the school’s drama club (especially the principal’s pretty daughter) and figures out a novel way to keep the school bully from beating him up. Soon he’s back to his old ways, acting as unofficial psychiatrist to his classmates (Charlie has been in therapy all his life, it seems, and knows a lot about such things) and prescribing medication that he scams out of his own psychiatrist. And he’s making money hand over fist at it, of course.

Up to this point, the movie has been pretty much a comedy, and a good one, too. But then it begins to take some serious, darker turns, and it also does that very well before finally coming to a satisfying conclusion. Anton Yelchin, an actor I hadn’t heard of, plays Charlie and does a great job. Kat Dennings, from NICK AND NORA’S INFINITE PLAYLIST, is good as the principal’s daughter, and the principal himself is played by Robert Downey Jr., who as usual is fine in a role that’s about as far as you can get from the buffoonish high school principal who usually shows up in movies like this. CHARLIE BARTLETT is full of unexpected twists and character developments and some surprisingly sweet moments, and I’m glad we happened across it. If you haven’t seen it, or even heard of it until now, like me, I highly recommend it.

Longarm and the Lone Star Trackdown

I got my copies of this one yesterday and I've seen it in Wal-Mart, too, so I know it's out there. It's the wrap-up of a storyline that's been running in the past three Longarm Giant Editions: LONGARM AND THE OUTLAW EMPRESS, LONGARM AND THE GOLDEN EAGLE SHOOTOUT, and LONGARM AND THE VALLEY OF SKULLS. While these books can be read as stand-alones, I think they're more effective if they're read in order. Jessica Starbuck and Ki from the old LONE STAR series play major roles in this one, and a character from another old Western series shows up before the book is over, too. I think these books are a lot of fun, and I hope the readers feel the same way.

Forgotten Books: The Mediterranean Caper - Clive Cussler

I don’t suppose you could really consider any of Clive Cussler’s novels forgotten, but you don’t hear much about this one, and it has some historical significance because it was the first published appearance of Cussler’s long-running series character Dirk Pitt. Not, however, the first Pitt novel written. Chronologically, the first Pitt novel is PACIFIC VORTEX, which Cussler wrote but was unable to sell. THE MEDITERRANEAN CAPER came next and was published in England by Sphere Books in 1973 under the title MAY DAY. Bantam brought it out as a paperback in the U.S. in 1977 as THE MEDITERRANEAN CAPER. However, by that time, Pitt had appeared in the U.S. in hardback in what’s actually the third novel in the series, ICEBERG, his first appearance in the U.S. Then a few years later, following Cussler’s ascent onto the bestseller list with RAISE THE TITANIC!, Cussler dusted off that trunk book, PACIFIC VORTEX, and found a publisher for it. Confused yet? You would have been if you’d read THE MEDITERRANEAN CAPER or ICEBERG back in the Seventies, because the books contain references back to previous volumes in the series that hadn’t actually been published yet. (Update: Check the comments for clarification on this book's publication history.)

With that bit of history out of the way, what about the books themselves? Well, knowing the order in which they actually run, story-wise, I read the first one, PACIFIC VORTEX, a few years ago, and while I thought the writing was pretty rough in spots, I enjoyed it. As I’ve said many times before, give me a writer with a distinctive voice, even if that voice isn’t as slick as some others. I’m just now getting back to Dirk Pitt. THE MEDITERRANEAN CAPER gets off to a great start. A small U.S. air base on the Greek island of Thasos is attacked by a mysterious World War I-era German biplane. A ship belonging to NUMA (the National Underwater Marine Agency) happens to be nearby searching in the Aegean for a prehistoric fish that may not be extinct after all. Pitt and his sidekick Al Giordino, who are troubleshooters for NUMA, happen to be flying in, too, in a World War II-era PBY, so we get a nice dogfight between the two vintage planes.

After that, Pitt has to investigate the reason for the attack, of course, which leads him into a conspiracy right out of a Sixties secret agent movie: there’s a beautiful woman who may or may not be trustworthy, an evil baddie who looks like Erich Von Stroheim (as Cussler points out frequently), an underground labyrinth with deadly dangers lurking in it, secret lairs, skin-diving, explosions, fistfights, double-crosses, a wrap-up where the bad guy stands around explaining everything . . . well, you get the idea. If you like this kind of stuff (and you know I do!), THE MEDITERRANEAN CAPER is a lot of fun. At this point in his career, Cussler’s still not much of a stylist and has a tin ear for dialogue at times, but he keeps things moving along so well that doesn’t really matter, at least not to me. As a character, Dirk Pitt is a kind of a jackass at times, too, but you have to admire him because Cussler really heaps on the punishment but Pitt keeps taking on the bad guys anyway. I enjoyed this novel enough that I’ll certainly continue with the series, and I don’t think it’ll take me several years to get around to the next one. In fact, I have a copy of ICEBERG already and will probably read it later this year.

Coming up in Forgotten Books posts: I feel a Western binge coming on.

Body of Lies

BODY OF LIES is a pretty good thriller about a CIA field agent (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his handler (Russell Crowe) trying to track down a terrorist mastermind in the Middle East. There’s almost no politics in this movie, which is fine with me. Instead it’s an anti-terrorism procedural with some classic espionage movie elements added to it, such as the abundant double- and triple-crosses and the fact that hardly anybody is telling the truth. There’s plenty of gritty action (not surprising since the movie was directed by Ridley Scott), tiny touches of humor here and there, and good performances by everyone involved. I don’t recall hearing much about this one when it came out, so I didn’t really know what to expect, but I enjoyed the movie and think that it’s well worth watching.

More Free Books - The Vampire Affair

If you go over to Livia's blog, you can read the opening paragraphs of this book (which I think are really good -- again, not an unbiased reader!) and find out how to enter to win one of the free copies she's giving away.

Longarm: Hell Up North -- Tabor Evans (Peter Brandvold)

LONGARM: HELL UP NORTH is the 365th entry in the long-running Longarm series, and it’s a good one. This yarn finds Deputy U.S. Marshal Custis Long in the far northern reaches of Dakota Territory, trying to bring in a fugitive from justice before winter closes in. When he’s wounded in the line of duty, he seeks help in a small, eerie town called Helldorado that’s been taken over by a gang of outlaws. The owlhoots are waiting there for a reason, although Longarm doesn’t know what it is, and not only does he have to conceal his identity as a lawman and try to stay alive, he also has to solve the mystery of what has brought the outlaws to Helldorado.

The author behind the Tabor Evans house-name this time around is Peter Brandvold, who knows the country he’s writing about quite well. That shows in the book, too, as he paints a vivid picture of the bleak Dakota Territory landscape with an ominous winter closing in. As always in a Brandvold novel, there’s plenty of well-written action, great dialogue, and numerous touches of humor. He remains one of the best in the business at picking out just the right details to make a scene come to life.

This is one of the most entertaining Longarms I’ve read in a while, and if you’re a fan of the series or just enjoy a good, gritty Western yarn, I recommend you pick up a copy.

Guest Blog: Peter Leonard on Deciding to Write

(I think this is a nice essay, and I'm glad to publish it here on the blog.)


Boy, You're on Your Way
By Peter Leonard

I remember when I was nine years old, going down the stairs to the basement, seeing my dad at his desk, white cinder block wall behind him, concrete floor. He was writing longhand on unlined, 8½ x 11 yellow paper, typewriter on a metal stand next to his chair. Across the room was a red wicker waste basket, balls of yellow paper on the floor around it, scenes that didn't work, pages that didn't make it in the basket. In retrospect, it looked like a prison cell but my father didn't seem conscious of his surroundings, deep in concentration, midway through a western called Hombre that would be made into a movie
starring Paul Newman.

Forty years later I remember visiting my father after work one evening. I was stressed out after presenting a new ad campaign to Volkswagen that got lukewarm reception. Elmore no longer wrote in a
cinder block basement. With forty novels and a dozen scripts to his
credit, he now worked in the living room of his manor home in
Bloomfield Hills, a tiny suburb of Detroit. What struck me was that
his desk looked much the same as it had that day when I was nine. Same
yellow pad, and half a dozen balls of yellow paper next to the waste
basket against the wall, electric typewriter on a metal stand behind
the desk. No computer anywhere in sight. Elmore in Levis and sandals
and a dark blue Nine Inch Nails T-shirt, talking enthusiastically
about the opening scene of his new book called The Hot Kid.

Watching my father, I thought, here's a guy who really loves what he's
doing, and I didn't. Earlier that afternoon, during my presentation,
the VW ad manager had taken my first campaign board and flung it like
a frisbee across the conference room. And I thought that was our best
idea.

I don't know if my observations that day were the final motivator, or
if it was my continued disinterest in advertising, but a couple months
later I decided to write a novel. I was forty nine. I remember sitting
on a couch in the family room, writing the opening scene of a book
called Invasion, while two of my kids, Alex and Max, were doing their
homework. I read what I had written and thought: this isn't bad, maybe
I can do it.

The last piece of fiction I had written was in 1974. I had taken a
creative writing class my senior year in college and really enjoyed
it. I never aspired to be a novelist, but after graduating I wrote a
six page short story -- I can't remember the title -- and mailed it to
my father to see what he thought. A few days later I received his
three page critique. One line summed up his point of view. "Your
characters are like strips of leather drying in the sun. They all look
and sound the same." That from a writer who never used similes or
metaphors.

I had not written another word of fiction in twenty five years. But as
I looked back, it had less to do with Elmore's comments and more to do
with getting a job and getting married and raising kids and starting a
business. I may also have been intimidated because my father was so
good. In fact, I remember having dinner with Senator Don Riegel -- he
lived in the neighborhood and our daughters were friends. I told Don I
was writing a book and he said, "You writing a book is like Michael
Jordon's son trying out for the NBA."

I said, "Don, thanks for your support."

He said, "No, I was kidding. I'm sure you'll make it.'"

It took a year and a half to finish Invasion. I didn't want Elmore
involved in any way, so he suggested sending it to Jackie Farber, his
former editor at Delacourt.

He said, "Jackie's good. She'll tell you the truth."

I was excited. I thought it was a good story with good characters. I
mailed the three hundred page manuscript to Jackie and called her a
week later. I said, "What'd you think?"

"You've got a nice facile style," Jackie said. "But I have one
question. Who's your protagonist?"

I knew who the main character was, but if it wasn't obvious, I had a
problem. I was disappointed, but I could understand what Jackie was
saying. I had thirty seven characters, and a murky plot that needed
thinning out. I didn't try to defend the book. I put it aside
remembering the prophetic words of Russell Banks:

"Most novelists have a failed attempt or two, books that didn't work,
didn't make it. Pages in a desk drawer somewhere."

I didn't dwell on the failure of my first novel. I had another idea
and began writing Quiver, a story about a woman whose husband is
killed in a bow hunting accident by her sixteen-year-old son. While
the main character, Kate McCall deals with the loss of her husband and
her son's surly guilt, her ex-con, ex-boyfriend comes back in her life
and sets into motion a series of events culminating in a life or death
confrontation with a gang of killers.

I sent Quiver to my agent, Jeff Posternak at the Wylie Agency. He read
it and said, "I guarantee this is going to sell."

And it did.

I remember when Jeff called with the good news. It was an overcast day
in March. I was in my office, looking out the window, trying to think
of a headline for an ad. The phone rang and I saw the New York caller
ID. I picked it up and said, "hello."

Jeff said, "I've got good news for you. Are you sitting down? You're
going to be published. St. Martin's has made an offer for two books."

I can't tell you how elated I was, finally breaking through after
three and a half years. It's a real kick to hold your first published
book in your hands, and then to see it on a shelf in bookstores. I
don't think that'll ever get old. I called my father and told him.

He said, "Boy, you're on your way."

©2009 Peter Leonard

Peter Leonard, author of Trust Me, lives in Birmingham, Michigan. His
first novel, Quiver, received wide-spread critical acclaim.

For more information please visit http://www.peterleonardbooks.com/

Forgotten Books: Scarlet Riders, Don Hutchison, ed.

I’m not a big fan of, nor well read in, the genre sometimes known as “Northerns”. These are stories set in Alaska or Canada, usually centered around the Gold Rush. When I say I’m not a big fan of Northerns, I don’t mean that I dislike them. I simply haven’t read enough of them to say one way or the other. I’ve definitely enjoyed most of the books I’ve read that fall into that category, though. This anthology, published by Mosaic Press in 1999, which features a dozen pulp yarns with Northwest Mounted Policemen as their heroes, is one of the best Northerns I’ve run across.

Of course, that might be expected considering the line-up of authors: Lester Dent, Ryerson Johnson, Hugh B. Cave, Murray Leinster, Frederick Nebel, and Talmage Powell, among others. These are all well-known and well-respected pulp wordsmiths, although with the exception of Johnson they’re more famous for their work in other genres. The lesser-known writers in the book also turn in good stories. Dent’s two stories about the otherwise-nameless Silver Corporal are especially interesting. Published at the same time as Dent was beginning his long run on the Doc Savage novels, the stories show some striking similarities to his work on Doc. Though the Silver Corporal is very different physically from the Man of Bronze, he has the same superhuman strength, and his enemies have the same tendency to come to a bad end in the traps they set themselves. The novella by Nebel, “The Valley of Wanted Men”, is full of the same sort of fast-paced, hardboiled action that can be found in his private eye stories for BLACK MASK and DIME DETECTIVE. “Spoilers of the Lost World” by Roger Daniels even adds a fantasy element to a typical Northern adventure. Here’s the complete table of contents, along with original publication info:

"Deadly Trek to Albertville" by Talmage Powell
Originally published in POSSE, March 1957
"The Frozen Phantom" by Lester Dent
Originally published in WESTERN TRAILS, April 1933
"Spoilers of the Lost World" by Roger Daniels
Originally published in NORTH-WEST ROMANCES, Fall 1938
"White Water Run" by Hugh B. Cave
Originally published in WESTERN STORY, 14 February 1942
"Red Snows" by Harold F. Cruickshank
Originally published in THRILLING ADVENTURES, February 1938
"The Driving Force" by Murray Leinster
Originally published in COMPLETE NORTHWEST MAGAZINE, July 1938
"Snow Ghost" by Lester Dent, featuring The Silver Corporal
Originally published in WESTERN TRAILS, May-June 1933
"Phantom Fangs" by John Starr
Originally published in NORTH-WEST ROMANCES, Spring 1942
"The Dangerous Dan McGrew" by Ryerson Johnson
Originally published in ACE-HIGH MAGAZINE, 2 March 1931
"Death Cache" by Lester Dent, featuring The Silver Corporal
Previously unpublished
"Doom Ice" by Dan O'Rourke
Originally published in NORTH-WEST ROMANCES, Summer 1942
"The Valley of Wanted Men" by Frederick Nebel
Originally published in NORTH-WEST ROMANCES, Spring 1940


There’s also an excellent introduction by Canadian pulp expert Don Hutchison about the genesis of such Northern-oriented pulp magazines as NORTH-WEST ROMANCES and COMPLETE NORTHWEST MAGAZINE. I don’t think I’ve ever owned a single Northern pulp, but I may have to remedy that one of these days. All in all, an excellent anthology, highly recommended to anybody who enjoys action-packed pulp yarns.