The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 30

Several blog tour participants were moved by Charles Harper Webb's "Prayer for the Man Who Mugged My Father, 72". Keith Snyder was moved to create an audio presentation with which we end the tour.

My thanks again to the participants and audience. I hope we've sparked a lasting appreciation for poetry.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 29

Two stops today on the So Dark For April blog tour: S.J. Rozan takes a timeout from MWA Edgar® Week to blog about The Lineup. And contributor J.D. Smith discusses his poem "From a Depositon".

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 28

For the 32nd stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, author Stephen Blackmoore at L.A. Noir.

Tarnished Legacy?

As expected, some Robert Parker fans are not happy two of his series are continuing beyond his death. A few have made the familiar comment that this is a publicity stunt that will tarnish Parker's legacy.

How is it anything but a compliment to one's legacy that others want it to live on? If Parker's legacy is tarnished at all, Parker did it himself by disregarding details in Spenser's background that, until then, had formed his history.

During Parker's life, it was said if he had only ended the Spenser series earlier, it would be even more renowned and better received than it is. As was his right, Parker not only continued Spenser, but created several subsequent series with dynamics similar to Spenser. Showing the same independent spirit, his estate has now allowed Ace Atkins and Michael Brandman to continue Spenser and Jesse Stone respectively.

In the end, I can say Parker was an eloquent writer who produced one of the steadiest P.I. series. I can't say it's the best, or that Parker had the brightest creative fire. His contemporaries Donald E. Westlake and Lawrence Block, for example, wrote several series that were tonally very different from each other.

Spenser and Jesse Stone to Continue with New Authors

On January 18th of this year, one year after Robert B. Parker's death, I posted some speculation that the Spenser series might continue with a new author. Today, Parker's estate and longtime publisher G.P. Putnam's Sons announced it will indeed happen. New Spenser novels will be written by Ace Atkins beginning in 2012, and Parker's movie-producing partner Michael Brandman will write new Stone novels.

Now that the news has broken, I'm ambivalent, but more optimistic than most Parker fans I've heard from. Feel free to comment yourself.

The Lineup Blog Tour - Day 27

For the thirty-first stop on So Dark For April blog tour, Chicago's Kent Gowran at Blood, Sweat, & Murder. Also check out Kent's hot new flash fiction site, Shotgun Honey.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 26

The thirtieth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour sees journalist, novelist, and comic book writer Duane Swierczynski interview Lineup #4 contributor David Corbett about Corbett's poem, "Bargain".

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 25

Two stops today on the So Dark For April blog tour: Cullen Gallagher reviews The Lineup #4 at Pulp Serenade, and NoirCon organizer Lou Boxer runs down his five favorite Lineup #4 poems.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 24

For the twenty-seventh stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, a post from our cover photographer, Kathy Slamen.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 23

For the twenty-sixth stop on So Dark For April blog tour, thriller writer, reviewer, and personal friend Ali Karim chimes in at his blog, Existentialist Man.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 22

For the twenty-fifth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, contributor Stephen Jay Schwartz explores how his appreciation for poetry developed and invites reader participation at Murderati.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 21

For the twenty-fourth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, author and reviewer James R. Winter spotlights "mitralleur" by Michael Casey as an example of how long crime can go unnoticed.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 20

For the twenty-third stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, New Jersey journalist and crime novelist Wallace Stroby looks back on his contribution to last year's Lineup #3 and surveys The Lineup #4.

Press Release: An Evening of Criminally Good Verse

Presenting an Evening of Criminally Good Verse

Tuesday, May 31st, 6:00 P.M.

@

The Cornelia Street Cafe
29 Cornelia Street
New York, NY 10014
www.corneliastreetcafe.com

Please call (212) 989-9319 for reservations. Cover: $7.


Contributors Jeanne Dickey and Caitlin Elizabeth Thomson join editors Reed Farrel Coleman and Richie Narvaez reading from the recently published fourth annual edition of The Lineup: Poems on Crime.

Published by Poetic Justice Press since 2008, The Lineup invites poets' honest reactions to what they see as crime in fifty lines or fewer.

A limited number of The Lineup #4 will be sold at the reading. Copies may also be purchased locally at The Mysterious Bookshop (58 Warren Street, NYC). Visit Poetic Justice Press on the Web at http://poemsoncrime.blogspot.com.


Reed Farrel Coleman is a three-time winner of the Private Eye Writers of America's Shamus Award for Best Novel. He has also received the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards, and has been twice nominated for the Edgar® Award. He teaches writing classes in mystery fiction and the novel at Hofstra University.

Jeanne Dickey's work has appeared in literary journals such as Passages North, RE:AL, Karamu, and The Good Foot. She is working on a novel, A Fanciful Glamour, which she hopes to complete by the end of the year, if not sooner. An except of that novel is forthcoming in the anthology The Unbearables Big Book of Sex.

Richie Narvaez has had work published by Mississippi Review, Murdaland, and Thrilling Detective, and in the anthologies Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery, Indian Country Noir, and You Don't Have a Clue. He is the editor of the online humor journal Asinine Poetry.

Caitlin Elizabeth Thomson is a Canadian currently residing in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Hart House Review, Imago, Softblow, The Toronto Quarterly, Neon, Right Hand Pointing, and the anthology Killer Verse. Her first collection of poems The Victims Of Ted Bundy: Washington State is forthcoming this winter from Jeanne Duval Editions.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 19

The 22nd stop on the So Dark For April blog tour is Theresa Weir/Anne Frasier's Monkey with a Pen. Anne voices her support for The Lineup and shares her poem "Home" from The Lineup #3.

Plus, if you're wondering whether The Lineup is coming to e-readers, my comment on her post has the answer.

BURN NOTICE: THE FALL OF SAM AXE

Read my review of last night's Burn Notice prequel movie at BSCreview. Thanks as always to editor Elena Nola.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 18

Today, John Kenyon asks, "How could Ken Bruen not be in The Lineup?"

A rhetorical question, of course. Ken embodies writing poetically about crime like no other. He had a poem in the inaugural Lineup, and his return in Issue 4 with "Funeral: Of The Wino" inspired Kenyon's post, the twenty-first stop on the So Dark For April blog tour.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 17

The Lineup's third episode of CrimeWAV is live! Listen with the player above.

And below, a behind-the-scenes video of Peter Linari reading "The Balance Lost" by Steve Weddle, recorded by Keith Snyder:



See the full Lineup 4 blog tour schedule.

1-800-How's-My-Writing?

This morning on Do Some Damage, Joelle Charbonneau discusses how, the more she writes, the more difficult it has become to judge her own work.

I commented:

I tend to think no one can objectively judge his/her own work. Creators are inextricably attached to what they create. They can compensate somewhat by putting the work away for a while and looking at it again later, trying to put themselves in the place of someone who's never seen the work, but ultimately, the work has to be judged by someone else (agent, editor, etc.).

We all have days we think our work-in-progress is crap. It may be helpful to discard your worst and best opinions of your work and just push on to a draft you think is worth submitting. The point when you can't think of what else to revise may be a good time to submit and let your agent/editor advise you from there.

I've heard many writers say the more they write, the harder it gets. This makes sense for writers trying to create new situations and new characters with each new novel, trying to make it seem as if their series protags are encountering new people and places. Practice only makes perfect for repetitive tasks like trying to write more or less the same book over and over.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 16

Two stops today on the So Dark For April blog tour: Fellow poet David Rachels asks me five quick questions, and a post from from founding co-editor Patrick Shawn Bagley.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 15

For the seventeenth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, I invited a post from contributor David Corbett.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 14

Two weeks into the So Dark for April blog tour, we have two stops: Charlie Stella's Knucksline and BV Lawson's In Reference to Murder.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 13

For the fourteenth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, author Paul D. Brazill interviews Lineup #4 contributor Keith Rawson.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 12

Two stops today on the So Dark For April blog tour: Lineup #4 contributor Keith Rawson recounts his creative past and return to poetry.

And author and friend of The Lineup Bill Cameron takes us through not one, not two, not three, but four readings of Issue 4, concluding along the way that:

A poem differs from a story in that a poem may not exist to lead us to resolution. A poem may not be concerned with replacing what we think with know with what we need to know. A poem may, in contrast, winnow down to the interstices between life's darkest details and so illuminate and reveal. It may not answer, but rather lead us to further questions. And in the very act of asking we may achieve understanding the clearest answer can't always provide.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 11

For the eleventh stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, founding co-editor Richie Narvaez pointedly reflects on the tradition of crime in poetry and how The Lineup continues that tradition:

...[E]very poem can be seen as a crime poem. A stolen heart. A broken vow. A shattered reality. Paths are crossed. Conflicts ensue. Emotions recollected afterward. Or every poem might be seen as a criminal act. An act of independence. A rebellion. An assault on some status quo.

Spring 2011 Mysterical-E

The Spring 2011 issue of Mysterical-E went live last week, featuring my TV/film column on how NCIS has stayed atop the ratings where other veteran shows have dipped. Thanks to editor and fellow NCIS fan Joe DeMarco.

Speaking of NCIS, I haven't bought quite bought in to the serial killer arc that started last week. See my review at BSCreview.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 10

For the tenth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, Janet A. Rudolph invited me to guest-blog at Mystery Fanfare about the origin of The Lineup: Poems on Crime.

Janet is director of Mystery Readers International, the largest mystery reader/fan organization in the world. She also edits the nonfiction Mystery Readers Journal, each issue covering a different theme in mystery fiction. Thanks again for the invite, Janet.

VERSE NOIR by David Rachels

Earlier this week, Brian Lindenmuth alerted me that David Rachels was offering five review copies of of his self-published Verse Noir. Having considered some of David's work for The Lineup, I was eager to see more of it in book form.

Verse Noir is a 72-page, little black book of terse philosophy and proverbs. If you like devilish quips, this is for you. My favorite poem, "Dad", details a father's object lesson on his son's twelve birthday.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 9

Lineup alum and current president of the Short Mystery Fiction Society Sandra Seamans shares her thoughts on Issue 4 for the ninth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour.

FOX's Breaking In

I'll tell you up front: I was interested in Breaking In before I knew its premise. I'm a fan of series star Bret Harrison from the late, lamented CW show Reaper. I'm a fan of Michael Rosenbaum from Zoe, Duncan, Jack, and Jane, Smallville, Justice League...

Anyway, here Harrison plays Cameron Price, a hacker in his seventh year of college on a full scholarship with two dorm rooms at his disposal. In the pilot, he is discovered by Oz (Christian Slater), who runs the security testing company Contra. Contra was hired to test the security of the university's computer network, but instead of turning Cameron in, Oz hires him.

Cameron's new colleagues are fellow misfit savants Cassius Sparks (Alphonso McAuley), Josh Armstrong (Trevor Moore), and Melanie Garcia (Odette Annable), all of whom would prank him as soon as welcome him. The humor hit at hyperspeed, as did the plot details, but that invited me to pay attention every second. Even then, the show managed to pull one over on me. Well done.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 8

Founding co-editor Anthony Rainone will be adding to a post throughout the day for the eighth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 7

Writer and scientist Chris F. Holm interviews contributor Steve Weddle for the seventh stop on the So Dark for April blog tour.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 6

Writer, mom, and retired Suffolk County L.I. police officer Kathleen A. Ryan covers Issue 4 and all our National Poetry Month doings for the sixth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, Women of Mystery.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 5

Investigator John DuMond of the blog Nobody Move! reflects on "Slider, Part 7" by Reed Farrel Coleman for the fifth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 4

Detectives Beyond Borders' Peter Rozovsky highlights John Stickney's "Creation" for the fourth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour. I especially like the final paragraph of Peter's entry:

No one saves the world in these poems, no one takes over an entire town, knocks over a bank, terrorizes a city, or slaughters a classroom full of students. That would be too easy; that stuff is for the newspapers. These poems are about small crimes or about the quiet, intimate moments before and after big ones. Or rather, they remind us that for those most intimately involved — victims, perpetrators, survivors, a son who prays for vengeance on the man who mugged his father — any crime can radically alter the world. There are no small crimes.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 3

For the third stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, Lineup alum Patricia Abbott praises the poetry of Charles Harper Webb.

The Lineup 4 Blog Tour - Day 2

For the second stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, Bill Crider discusses the final poem in The Lineup #4, "Houston Oil Man Missing" by Germaine Welch. Bill also links to a blog post by Ellery Queen editor Janet Hutchings about mystery and poetry.

See the full tour schedule.

Mystery and Crime

Today on Do Some Damage, Scott D. Parker discusses the "chasm" between mystery and crime fiction. He writes:

Here's how I tend to generalize the two. Mystery fiction is trying to solve a crime, usually murder, and figure out the killer. While there are undoubtedly titles out there that use criminals as the protagonists, this style of storytelling tends to focus on the good guys, the ones trying to answer the question of whodunit?

Crime fiction seems to be about criminals or ordinary people caught up in events beyond their control. Where mystery fiction ends when the killer is identified, that's often the place where crime fiction starts. Mystery can be an aspect of crime fiction, but not always. For example, a heist film has little mystery to it other than to show how the robbers pull off the deed (or not).

Perhaps I've not read broadly enough, or perhaps I'm looking for different things nowadays. I'm not sure. But it just seems that there is a chasm in the middle of this genre we call home that separates us. I wonder why that is?

I commented:

I think you've hit on the key differences between mystery and crime fiction. I believe the chasm exists because, for some readers and authors, "mystery" brings to mind more intellectual characters like Holmes and Poirot and a brand of storytelling "crime" authors don't recognize as their own. I know Russel McLean hates when the term "mystery" is applied broadly.

"Crime" fiction seems to fit a postmodern world where you can't assume crimes will be solved or killers will be caught. Detectives may be too consumed by their own demons to do much sleuthing.

While I enjoy both types of story, I have a soft spot for mystery because, by definition, it intends to challenge the mind. Crime fiction's surprises are more visceral. The crime fiction I like best blurs the rational line between right and wrong. A criminal may have broken the law, but laws are man-made after all. The act in question doesn't necessarily make the the lawbreaker a "bad guy".

So it begins.

My friend and former boss at The Thrilling Detective Web Site, Kevin Burton Smith, asked for the first spot in the Lineup 4 So Dark For April blog tour as a way of celebrating his site's thirteenth anniversary. Here is his commentary, poetic in itself.