THE WATCHMAN by Robert Crais

After a fateful car crash, multiple attempts are made on 22-year-old heiress Larkin Conner Barkley's life. To repay a debt incurred while helping Elvis Cole, Joe Pike agrees to keep Larkin alive.

The premise may sound familiar. Readers may even guess some of the twists, but all of Crais's characters defy stereotype. Reading has become as much my job as my pleasure, and for the first time in a long time, I felt no pressure to finish, yet was so curious what the characters would do, I finished the book in three days.

You may know that my Crais fandom waned after L.A. Requiem as each new book Crais wrote was a large-scale multi-viewpoint thriller. In my review of his most recent Elvis Cole novel, The Forgotten Man, I called the book self-indulgent. The Watchman, told mostly from Pike's precise, laconic perspective, may be the book Crais needed to write to get back to basics.

At the same time, The Watchman continues to distinguish Pike as a much deeper character than Hawk before him, and Bubba Rogowski and Windsor Horne Lockwood III after him.

First P. Diddy, Now This.

Miley (nee Destiny Hope) Cyrus has changed her name to Miley Ray Cyrus to honor her father, Billy Ray Cyrus. I'm all for the sentiment, but I thought she was well known enough as Miley.

I also think her playing Miley Stewart, who plays Hannah Montana, and then playing Hannah herself at concerts is confusing. Maybe kids get it.

Patry Francis Blog Day

The paperback reissue of Patry Francis's debut novel, The Liar's Diary, goes on sale today. Many in the blogosphere know Patry better than I, but I remember her comment in 2006 on one of my posts about Karen Allen. With a fourth Indiana Jones movie in development hell, the New York Post's Lou Lumenick asked Allen what she thought happened to Indy and Marion after Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Allen said, "I kind of like the idea they stayed together and had kids," Allen says with a laugh. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if all those great writers who have been working on the script came up with something along those lines?"

Patry commented, "Then we could have son of Indy (or daughter) in a new sequel..."

Truly clairvoyant. As Ronstadt and Neville sang, "That may be all I need to know."

Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

Editor Richard Geyer has accepted my poem "Root" for publication in next month's issue of Contemporary Rhyme.

WENN: Bond Girls Prepare for 'Quantum of Solace'

Olga Kurylenko has launched a grueling fitness regime to prepare for her role in the newly titled James Bond movie Quantum Of Solace. The 28-year-old former model will play the role of Bond's side-kick Camille in the 22nd installment of the super-spy franchise - and she's undergoing a special workout program to ready herself for the task. She says, "I'm doing weapons training and body flight training for aerial scenes and stunt work for fighting. My days are so long, and it's very physical. She's going to be very different from the previous Bond girls. She's a fighter. This girl is going to kick ass. She's on her own mission and she's driven by revenge." The film, which will see Daniel Craig reprise the role of Bond for a second time, has been shooting at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England, since November and is due for release later this year. And St. Trinian's star Gemma Arterton, who plays an MI6 agent in the movie, has already shot her love scenes with 007. The 21-year-old insists playing Bond's love interest was more difficult than she first thought. She says, "I felt like a giggly girl, and I felt so young and inexperienced - but I kissed James Bond!"

Love Hurts

...but it sure does inspire writers. Patti Abbott and Aldo Calcagno are behind the latest multi-blog fiction event. Write a story 750 words or less involving love and crime, and post it on your blog/site on Valentine's Day.

Aldo has offered to post stories by those without sites on Powder Burn Flash. If possible, let Patti and Aldo know the title of your story ahead of time, so they can post links to all the stories.

Quantum of Solace

You've probably heard Quantum of Solace is the title of this year's James Bond movie starring Daniel Craig. You may know that Ian Fleming's story "Quantum of Solace" wasn't a spy story and featured Bond only in the background at a Bahamian dinner party. Wikipedia can give you a synopsis of the movie.

Nowhere else on the Web will you find my friends' parodies on the title:

Harry Potter and the Quantum of Solace (Andrew Carbone)

Star Wars Episode I: The Quantum Solace (John Ricotta)

Spongebob Squarepants II: Quantum of Starfish (Gerald So)


and my projected lyrics to the film's title song:

Tell me, oh please tell me this.
How will I get
a Quantum of Solace?

When you go for the kill,
best not to miss.
I'll never give
a Quantum of Solace.

Bursting with natural flavor

...just like Mother Nature intended!

These are the wholesome, tasty words on the bag of dried blueberries in my kitchen. You have to look on the back to find that natural, heinous, thirst-inducing sweetener, high fructose corn syrup.

WGA Strike Update: Informal Talks to Begin This Week

United Hollywood reports the following e-mail was sent to strike captains:

Informal talks between WGA negotiators and reps for the other side will commence this week. WGA leadership has been studying the Executive Summary of the DGA's Temporary Agreement to determine which parts of their deal might form a framework for our own negotiations with the Companies. While nothing formal has been proposed, and the DGA's full agreement has not yet been released, the willingness of the other side to meet with us is a sign of movement.

WGA leadership remains committed to getting the best deal possible in this contract negotiation, and will issue a formal statement regarding progress as soon as possible.

Big Blue Bowl Bound

So certain the cold would rattle Eli Manning, I didn't watch the game. I'm glad I was wrong. Their tenth straight road win of the season earned the Giants an improbable trip to the Super Bowl. If Tom Brady just pulls a Romo in two weeks, we can celebrate. As they say about the New York Lottery, "Hey, you never know."

Sweet Child O' Mine

"Sweet Child O' Mine" can now be purchased as part of my ebook Call Me Cupid: Six Screwball Stories of Love (February 2012).

Edgar Allan Poe's Birthday

The blogosphere reminds me Poe was born January 19, 1809. My fondest Poe-related memory is a sixth-grade field trip to Holy Trinity H.S. in Hicksville to see several of his stories performed with enhanced sound effects. "The Tell-Tale Heart" in particular scared the daylights out of me. I wouldn't commit to being a writer until two years later, but Poe's work certainly encouraged my decision.

2008 Edgar Nominees

BEST NOVEL

Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (Henry Holt and Company)
Priest by Ken Bruen (St. Martin's Minotaur)
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins)
Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House Books)
Down River by John Hart (St. Martin's Minotaur)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

Missing Witness by Gordon Campbell (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
In the Woods by Tana French (Penguin Group – Viking)
Snitch Jacket by Christopher Goffard (The Rookery Press)
Head Games by Craig McDonald (Bleak House Books)
Pyres by Derek Nikitas (St. Martin's Minotaur)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

Queenpin by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)
Blood of Paradise by David Corbett (Random House - Mortalis)
Cruel Poetry by Vicki Hendricks (Serpent's Tail)
Robbie's Wife by Russell Hill (Hard Case Crime)
Who is Conrad Hirst? by Kevin Wignall (Simon & Schuster)

BEST FACT CRIME

The Birthday Party by Stanley Alpert (Penguin Group – G.P. Putnam's Sons)
Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
by Vincent Bugliosi (W.W. Norton and Company
Chasing Justice: My Story of Freeing Myself After Two Decades on Death Row for a Crime I Didn't Commit by Kerry Max Cook (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
Relentless Pursuit: A True Story of Family, Murder, and the Prosecutor Who Wouldn't Quit by Kevin Flynn (Penguin Group – G.P. Putnam's Sons)
Sacco & Vanzetti: The Men, The Murders and the Judgment of Mankind by Bruce Watson (Penguin Group – Viking)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

The Triumph of the Thriller: How Cops, Crooks and Cannibals Captured Popular Fiction by Patrick Anderson (Random House)
A Counter-History of Crime Fiction: Supernatural, Gothic, Sensational by Maurizio Ascari (Palgrave Macmillan)
Deviance in Contemporary Crime Fiction by Christiana Gregoriou (Palgrave Macmillan)
Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley (The Penguin Press)
Chester Gould: A Daughter's Biography of the Creator of Dick Tracy
by Jean Gould O’Connell (McFarland & Company)

BEST SHORT STORY

"The Catch" – Still Waters by Mark Ammons (Level Best Books)
"Blue Note" – Chicago Blues by Stuart M. Kaminsky (Bleak House Books)
"Hardly Knew Her" – Dead Man's Hand by Laura Lippman (Harcourt Trade Publishers)
"The Golden Gopher" – Los Angeles Noir by Susan Straight (Akashic Books
"Uncle" – A Hell of a Woman” by Daniel Woodrell (Busted Flush Press)

BEST JUVENILE

The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Shadows on Society Hill by Evelyn Coleman (American Girl Publications)
Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn (Clarion Books)
The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh (Hyperion Books for Young Readers)
Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things by Wendelin Van Draanen (Random House Children’s Books – Alfred A. Knopf)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Rat Life by Tedd Arnold (Penguin – Dial Books for Young Readers)
Diamonds in the Shadow by Caroline B. Cooney (Random House Children's Books – Delacorte Press)
Touching Snow by M. Sindy Felin (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing – Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
Blood Brothers by S.A. Harazin (Random House Children's Books – Delacorte Press)
Fragments by Jeffry W. Johnston (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing – Simon Pulse)

BEST PLAY

If/Then by David Foley (International Mystery Writers' Festival)
Panic by Joseph Goodrich (International Mystery Writers' Festival)
Books by Stuart M. Kaminsky (International Mystery Writers' Festival)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

"It’s Alive" – Dexter, Teleplay by Daniel Cerone (Showtime)
"Yahrzeit" – Waking the Dead, Teleplay by Declan Croghan & Barbara Machin (BBC America)
"Pie-Lette" – Pushing Daisies, Teleplay by Bryan Fuller (ABC/Warner Bros Television
"Senseless" – Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Teleplay by Julie Martin & Siobhan Byrne O’Connor (Wolf Films/NBC Universal)
"Pilot" – Burn Notice, Teleplay by Matt Nix (USA Network/Fox Television Studios)

BEST MOTION PICTURE SCREENPLAY

Eastern Promises, Screenplay by Steven Knight (Focus Features)
The Lookout, Screenplay by Scott Frank (Miramax)
Michael Clayton, Screenplay by Tony Gilroy (Warner Bros. Pictures)
No Country for Old Men, Screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, based on the book by Cormac McCarthy (Miramax)
Zodiac, Screenplay by James Vanderbilt, based on the book by Robert Graysmith
(Warner Bros. Pictures)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

"The Catch" – Still Waters by Mark Ammons (Level Best Books)

GRAND MASTER

Bill Pronzini

RAVEN AWARDS

Center for the Book in the Library of Congress
Kate's Mystery Books (Kate Mattes, owner)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD

In Cold Pursuit by Sarah Andrews (St. Martin's Minotaur)
Wild Indigo by Sandi Ault (Penguin Group – Berkley Prime Crime)
Inferno by Karen Harper (Harlequin – MIRA Books)
The First Stone by Judith Kelman (Penguin Group – Berkley Prime Crime)
Deadman's Switch by Barbara Seranella (St. Martin's Minotaur)

As usual, I'm not up on many of the nominees. I would like to see the Burn Notice pilot win.

Redecorating

For the longest time, photocopied pictures of Robert B. Parker and an older Raymond Chandler have adorned the door of my bedroom/home office. Today I took both pictures down, and put up a photocopy of John Cassaday's sketch of Mal Reynolds from Serenity: Those Left Behind, which fills in the story time between the end of Firefly and the Serenity movie.



Still on my door are a photocopied panel of Spenser's late 90s appearance in Tank McNamara, a photocopy of the cover of Hemingway's Men Without Women, and a New York Times artist's rendition of a younger Chandler dressed in a trenchcoat, notepad in hand.

MR. MONK AND THE TWO ASSISTANTS by Lee Goldberg

A soccer injury brings Julie Teeger, Natalie, and Monk to the hospital, where Julie is cared for by none other than Monk's original assistant, Sharona Fleming. When Sharona left the TV series (a contract dispute with actress Bitty Schram), it was explained she suddenly reunited with her ex-husband and left San Francisco without further notice. Now Sharona's husband, Trevor, stands accused of murder, and even Sharona believes he's guilty. Monk wants him to be guilty, so Sharona can come back and share assistant duties with Natalie. Only Natalie, afraid for her job, shows an interest in clearing Trevor.

Author/screenwriter Lee Goldberg's fourth Monk novel shows a keen understanding of the relationship between page and screen, which has been on my mind lately. Any tie-in novel is expected to deliver the flavor of its source material. There were a few scenes where I thought, Monk would never do that. Then I realized Monk would never do that on TV, as played by the gentlemanly Tony Shalhoub; a novel really lets him loose.

Indeed this is Goldberg's most novel-suited premise yet. He adds just enough spice to bring out the assistants' differences for tension and character study. In the mind-blowing final third of the novel, Sharona and Natalie are accused of separate murders, and Monk seems even more aloof in their time of need. Readers know, of course, neither of them is a murderer. The fun is in seeing how, or in this case if, Monk proves it.

No Mo' Romo

The old Giants fan in me resurfaced as Eli Manning and Big Blue showed me something, hanging on to beat the favored Cowboys, 21-17.

I say they have a shot against the Packers next week. And then it's a longer shot, but they could be ones to spoil the Patriots' perfect season.

Rabkin to Write Psych Novels

From the blog of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers comes word that William Rabkin, screenwriting partner of Lee Goldberg, has signed a 3-book deal to write novels based on USA Network's popular series Psych. The first book is due out in January 2009.

I'm curious to see what Rabkin does with Shawn-Vision, the effect showing Shawn's noticing small details that allow him to make deductive leaps that seem psychic.

No power in the 'Verse can stop her.

I wasn't very interested in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles until I realized Summer Glau was in it, playing a female-model Terminator protecting John Connor.

The Weinstein Company, WGA Announce Deal

NEW YORK, NY and LOS ANGELES, CA – (January 11, 2008) – The Weinstein Company (TWC) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced today that they have signed a comprehensive independent agreement. While the details are not being disclosed, the deal addresses the issues important to writers, including New Media.

As a result of this agreement, Writers Guild members will now be able to work with The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films, the genre division under the TWC banner.

Big City, Bad Blood, Big News

Crimespree Cinema's Jeremy Lynch reports that author Sean Chercover has sold the rights to his debut novel and its P.I. protag Ray Dudgeon to Fox. Writer-producer Paul Guyot will develop Big City, Bad Blood as cable series.

Good luck, Sean and Paul.

Speech, Speech.

I started If You Want to Know About My Life... for no momentous reason four years ago today. I worried it might take time from my writing and that I'd run out of posting material. Fortunately, the opposite happened. I'm encouraged to find the reasons behind my reactions and write about more every day.

Because I hate deadline pressure...

I reserved my room for Bouchercon 2008: Charmed to Death a full nine months in advance. See you there.

I Remember It Well, But Perfectly?

I've really soured on literary flashbacks. Not only does a flashback stall a story's natural progress, not only are too many flashbacks set in harder-to-read italics, but I find the fidelity of first-person flashbacks largely implausible. Whose memory isn't gilded or eroded by time? Who remembers long conversations word-for-word years later?

I can accept a perfect flashback in third person-limited or third-omniscient. That is, an unbiased account of exactly what happened.

"You're pretty, you're smart..."

"...you've stolen my heart."

These words of love were spoken by Edward Stratton III (Joel Higgins) to his soon-to-be wife Kate Summers (Erin Gray) on the totally 80s sitcom Silver Spoons.

While in real life my heart has only been stolen twice (both times retrieved), Erin and her characters were pleasant fantasies. She turned 58 on Monday and was paid tribute on John DuMond's Nobody Move. A day earlier I had bought the first season of Magnum P.I. for $19.59 mainly because it featured Erin as Joy "Digger" Doyle, for whom a spinoff series was attempted.

TV or Books?

In his latest post to Detectives Beyond Borders, Peter Rozovsky writes:

My beefs with Law and Order are the (faux?) handheld camerawork and the humorless deadpan batting back and forth of sound bites about Important Issues. The former may have been edgy in the late 1960s and seemed edgy in early music videos, but now it's an annoying cliché. The latter is an unsuccessful attempt to get around something that books can do better than television: convey factual information.

That shortcoming is especially noticeable in shows about forensic investigation, where characters will recite aloud to one another lines like "In some respects, he meets the typical profile: White male, 30 to 35 years old, lives alone, good job, some graduate school. You know, I bet he tends not to have many friends and has trouble forming relationships with women." Real investigators would know this stuff and would not need to spout it to each other. The actors' delivery is invariably wooden, and the scenes destroy the suspension of disbelief that is necessary for drama or fiction to work. In fiction, this sort of thing is called an information dump. In television, it's called Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

...And now, readers, over to you. In what other ways do books tell stories better than television? What advantages, if any, does television have as a medium for telling stories?

I commented:

Books are better at delivering characters' thought processes and internal monologue throughout, getting to feel much more intimate than the voiceover many shows and movies have done to death.

Point taken about TV information dumps, but I'll stick around if interesting characters are delivering them, like Abby Sciuto of NCIS or Dr. Gregory House.

TV generally handles pacing better than books do. TV has less time to establish relationships and give exposition, so things are usually cut down to the essentials. This is better than reading flat backstory/expository passages by an author who doesn't have a way with words.

I'll add that TV handles action sequences better. Sometimes after reading a fight scene on the page, my only mental image is of a game of Twister.

"There's two O's in 'Goose', boys."

Legendary reliever Rich "Goose" Gossage has finally been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

TV/Film News

Crimespree Cinema's Jeremy Lynch yesterday posted a review of my favorite new shows this season.

In related news, the WGA yesterday announced a contract with Tom Cruise and Paul Wagner's United Artists.

Reloading My Favorite Bullet

The comeback issue of David Bates's poetry ezine has gone live, featuring my poem "Impression". Thanks, David.

Time and Relative Dimensions in Space

One of our network hubs had been on the fritz since just before Christmas, and on Sunday it flatlined. Yesterday and today felt like a week as I had no idea what was going on in cyberspace while waiting for a replacement hub. It was, in a word, bliss. I wouldn't want to be denied access very much longer—bills to pay, lists to run, etc.—but this little hiatus gave me time watch Fargo and make dents in Kiss Me, Judas by Will Christopher Baer, Sorrow's Anthem by Michael Koryta, and Hallowed Ground by Lori G. Armstrong. Today I had time to work out and read DC's The New Frontier Vols. 1 and 2.

Sounds Like...

David Hagberg's espionage thrillers starring ex-CIA agent Kirk McGarvey have caught my eye. Oh, I could never read them; I'd always think of MacGyver. I have the same problem between Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp and JAG protagonist Harmon Rabb, Jr. Unfortunate, but unchangeable. What if I hadn't watched so much TV growing up?

Belated Christmas Presents

My friend Deshant had to work the night I got together with my other college friends and their daughters, so we exchanged gifts last night. I gave Deshant the first season of Psych on DVD, and he gave me a hardcover volume of Darwyn Cooke's revival of Will Eisner's The Spirit. Great stuff tinged with some wicked humor. I'm now looking forward to reading Cooke's The New Frontier.

I Am (Not Quite) Legend

Watched I Am Legend last night with my college friends Matt, John, and Deshant, and we were all sort of underwhelmed. The first half is pretty good, with Neville running from and shooting screechy creatures and talking to mannequins in New York City, believing he is the last man on Earth.

Just as he goes mad and and tries to kill himself, he is miraculously saved by a woman and child from Maryland who turn out to be genuinely healthy humans. I think this sums up why I didn't enjoy the movie more. With direction developing out of nowhere, I never got a feel for the pace. The movie ran only 1 hour 40 minutes, but it felt longer while at the same time needing more bulk.

Here Comes Smithee Claus...

John Rickards has accepted the aforementioned "Smithee Claus" for Degeneration Twenty. I'm not sure when the story will run—five stories per issue—but to paraphrase Pete Venkman, I'm excited to be a part of this new venture.

January 3, 1973

George Steinbrenner bought the New York Yankees for $10 million. The franchise is currently worth $1.2 billion.

NCIS in Syndication

Starting tonight at 9, USA Network airs two back-to-back episodes of NCIS every Wednesday. You can jump on the bandwagon with the pilot, "Yankee White":

Shortly after lunch with the President, a Naval officer assigned to carry the nuclear football on Air Force One dies of a seizure. The Secret Service, FBI, and NCIS must sort out jurisdiction while the President's life is at stake.

Should old acquaintance be forgot?

S.J. Rozan has posted another of my season six-word stories. Thanks, S.J..

New

I'm not one for new year's resolutions. Like most humans, I've failed to keep too many of them. That said, I am committed to perceiving as much newness as I can. Logically I know January 1st is just the day after December 31st, but when you think about it, any measure of time is arbitrary. So why not see new chances in every year, every month, every day, every moment?

Easier said than done. In grade school, January was my worst month: the momentum of a new school year gone, summer vacation nowhere in sight. Even as I woke just now, I told myself, Here it is January again. It can feel like a month of Mondays if you let it.

So the trick is not to let it. Much as I dread January, there's a part of me that loves to work on rainy days, in the wee hours, when there's a foot of snow on the ground, i.e. when other people just want to sleep in.

Three-and-a-half hours into January, I say:

That's okay, let's see how you do it,
Put up your dukes and let's get down to it...
Hit me with your best shot, 2008.