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Showing posts from September, 2011

September Updates

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The first issue of Pulp Modern is now available. I've very excited about this. Everything I've seen Alec Cizak attach his name to has been nothing less than stunning. Plus, my friend Brian Roe contributed the interior artwork. Waste no time and ORDER NOW!               _______________   Patti Abbott is hosting another flash fiction challenge. For details and to throw your hat in the ring, head over to her blog . If you've never participated in one of her challenges or even just taken the time to read the entries, you're missing out. Her prompts and challenges have coaxed some of the best fiction I've ever read online from a such a disparate group of writers.   If that's not enough to convince you, for every entry Patti will donate $5 to  Union Settlement   _______________  

Preparing

It's early here. I'm drinking coffee and going over my notes for my phone conversation with Barnaby Conrad. Hopefully, he remembers Shane Stevens and can shine some more insight on the most secretive man in crime fiction. I'm not holding my breath, however. Sometimes, inspite of everything I've found, I feel like I'm on a fool's quest.

Shane Stevens' The Warriors...?

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I'm still working on my Shane Stevens piece...though I guess I should call it a book now. I dug up some more letters and found a couple more people who actually knew him. Also happened to come across a few interesting tidbits about things he wrote that never went anywhere. One of them, I thought I would actually share: It appears that long before the project went to Walter Hill, Shane Stevens was hired to adapt Sol Yurick's The Warriors  into a screenplay. Yurick's novel was written in 1965. Hill's film version was released in 1979. But Hollywood was trying to make a film version as far back as 1969. From The Movie Call Sheet column of The Los Angeles Times, April 25, 1969: American International has signed Shane Stevens to work on the screenplay of "The Warriors," based on the book by Sol Yurick. Robert Fresco and Denis Sanders will produce with Sanders scheduled to direct. How different would the movie have been with a screenplay by Shane Steve

Warren Miller's The Cool World

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I've been reading a number of historical pieces of criticism on white authors who wrote about "black" characters and the "black experience." Warren Miller's name appears frequently, usually mentioned in the same line as Shane Stevens. I'm unfamiliar with Miller's name or his work. Google has turned up little and his Wikipedia entry, like Stevens', is fascinating in its brevity: Warren Miller (1921–1966) was an American writer. Although he gained some notoriety for his books dealing with issues of race, as in The Cool World and The Siege of Harlem , and for his more political books such as Looking for The General and Flush Times , because of his early death due to lung cancer and his outspoken political views he has remained relatively unknown.   From what I can tell, everything of Miller's is out of print. I've put in requests at our university library and they're pulling 1st edition copies of The Cool World and The Siege

Crime Factory: The First Shift Available For Pre-Order

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I'm in a print anthology with a lot of other badass writers. It's official release isn't until later this month, but  Crime Factory: The First Shift  is available for pre-order from both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Neither of the entries includes a list of contributors yet, but I can assure you that you won't be disappointed. Order From Amazon Order From Barnes & Noble I'm not going to bash Amazon, because I order things from there, but if you're feeling really motivated and want to be helpful you could even go into your local bookstore and order a copy. It's far more beneficial than you can imagine. Or you could go to your local library's webpage and fill out an order request. Whatever you decide to do, I hope you check it out.