At The 5-2: "Stranger" by Kathleen Shaw

This week, retired English teacher Kathleen Shaw lets her imagination run wild about a "Stranger":



Through December 31, I'm accepting love-themed crime poems for publication in February 2014.

I've begun booking The 5-2's 2014 blog tour.

At The 5-2: "But People Just Don't Act That Way" by Allen Stein

This week, a poem by North Carolina teacher Allen Stein that segues from fictional to actual atrocities:



Through December 31, I'm accepting love-themed crime poems for publication in February 2014.

I've begun booking The 5-2's 2014 blog tour.

Thanksgiving

Yesterday was a terrible travel day, apparently. My family gathering is close enough that I'll only be traveling today. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it's about sharing and being grateful at the core. I'm also reminded of everything we would do without thought of receiving thanks, our true spirit of service.

At The 5-2: "Why?" by Stevie Cenko

Florida-based poet Stevie Cenko considers the crime committed against Jacksonville DJ Anthony Blakely, asking "Why?":

Updates from Silver Birch Press

• 
  Back in July, 5-2 alum Catfish McDaris alerted me to a submissions call for poems made by redacting passages from existing noir and hardboiled novels. For our help bringing contributors to the anthology, publisher Melanie Villines is listing Catfish and me as contributing editors. The 120-page, digest-sized book will sell at Amazon.com for $12 starting December 1.
  
  My poem, "Victorian Whorehouse", was created from the opening of Robert B. Parker's first Spenser novel, The Godwulf Manuscript.


• Also of interest to noir aficionados, Melanie tipped me to L.A. historian Kim Cooper's upcoming first noir novel, The Kept Girl:
  
  

  

  Kim Cooper's The Kept Girl is inspired by a sensational real-life Los Angeles cult murder spree which exploded into the public consciousness when fraud charges were filed against the cult's leaders in 1929.
  
  The victim was the nephew of oil company president Joseph Dabney, Raymond Chandler's boss. In the novel, Chandler, still several years away from publishing his first short story, is one of three amateur detectives who uncover the ghastly truth about the Great Eleven cult over one frenetic week.
  
  Informed by the author's extensive research into the literary, spiritual, criminal and architectural history of Southern California, The Kept Girl is a terrifying noir love story, set against the backdrop of a glittering pre-crash metropolis.

  
  Through December 25, you can help publish The Kept Girl by subscribing to a special edition for $65 (which includes additional perks).


• Looking ahead to Valentine's Day, Silver Birch Press is calling for Valentine's Day erasure poems made by redacting page 214 of the book of your choice. If enough submissions are accepted by December 31, they will be published in an anthology.

NCIS: "Gut Check"

A pen recorder is discovered on SECNAV during a briefing at NCIS. Gibbs and the team call in young NSA analyst Ellie Bishop (Emily Wickersham), who, two years earlier, had written a paper predicting this breach of national security.

It's difficult to notice when a good series like NCIS falls into formula. Having noticed some of it, I haven't been as engaged the past three seasons and skipped buying the DVDs. However, I knew Cote de Pablo's decision to leave after eight seasons would be a chance to refresh the show.

An eccentric thinker, Bishop was two steps ahead of the team for most of the episode, the writers' good-natured way of subverting NCIS's formula, the way NCIS subverted JAG's. At the same time, Bishop had difficulty sharing her thought process and accepting the team's help. By episode's end, she realized this, and Gibbs offered her a job.

At The 5-2: "Above Suspicion" by Ken Tufford

New Jersey teacher Ken Tufford brings us a cleverly constructed poem:



I'm now accepting love-themed crime poems for the four weeks of February 2014. Submit today.

And I've designed new 5-2 Gift Shop items. I hope you enjoy.