Chatterrific Interview with Brian Thornton

Today on Chatterrific, a short interview with Brian Thornton, longtime discussion listmate and editor of the ambitious ebook anthology West Coast Crime Wave.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

You may now buy my Valentine's ebook of six flash fiction stories for Kindle or Nook:

"Call Me Cupid"
"Connect the Dots"
"Every Man for Himself"
"Sweet Child O' Mine"
"Rocky Road"
"Once Upon a Wedding Cake"

Comments here on the blog have called these stories "Brilliant," "Clever and entertaining," "Refreshing."

You may also enjoy We Might Have, my ebook of twenty-four poems on love and chance. Give yourself or your Valentine the gift of my wit.

Should You Teach Your Kid to Fight?

Author, martial artist, and boxing referee Tom Schreck posed this question on his blog today.

I commented:

I have no formal fight training, but I appreciate that training teaches discipline. Kids who learn self-control are more likely to stay out of fights than kids who don’t. A few months ago, I became interested in Verbal Judo, as espoused by the late English professor-turned-cop George “Rhino” Thompson. In short, Verbal Judo teaches you to maintain a professional face, to deflect verbal abuse with language that defuses conflict and elicits cooperation from others. I’ve found Thompson’s strategies more effective than just instinctively speaking my mind.

Before I discovered Verbal Judo, I had more than ten years experience moderating discussion lists. In the heyday of discussion lists, most communication over the Internet was written, from e-mail to instant messages. While the cloak of cyberspace can make people bolder than they are in person, and moderators especially can latch onto the feeling of power, writing has always calmed me and helped me think logically. I don't lord over members of my lists. I start discussion and step back once things are rolling.

In 2008, I was elected president of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, a list of more than a thousand members, the most vocal of whom were strong personalities, sometimes making it difficult for different voices to be heard. I came in with a plan in writing to address what I saw as the most prevalent problems. This was met with backlash as the members felt I was forcing policy down their throats, even as my plan was open to discussion/group vote.

In the end, I solved the problem of list discipline by stepping back. I realized, with such a large list, it was impractical to step in as the arbiter of all disputes. Instead, I recommended that the individual members take responsibility for their behavior, including behavior that might lead to disputes. I would later learn that raising people's expectations of themselves is one of the goals of Verbal Judo.

I stepped down in 2010, after one term, though many members wanted me to run again. I didn't see what else I could do for the group. New ideas were needed, and I knew the truest test of what I accomplished would come after my time in office.

At The 5-2: "Lt. Machine" by Jackie Sheeler

This week, Lineup #3 alum Jackie Sheeler brings us the Occupy Wall Street poem "Lt. Machine". Also check out Jackie's video of the poem.

#verseday Peer Pressure

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I came up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere, including The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly and NoirCon's First Annual Poetry Contest.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, January 26. My topic this week is peer pressure.

Write a poem about peer pressure by noon Friday, January 27.

Why Do I Write Crime?

Following Zoë Sharp's post about why we read crime, Murderati's David Corbett asks why we write crime.

I commented:

I write crime (fiction and poetry) because, as engaging as reading it is, I wonder what I (or my characters) would do in the same situations. The curiosity eats at me until I pick up a pen and paper. Yes, that's still most often how I start writing.

If I ever tried to commit a crime off the page, I suspect I'd be caught right away if not in the "just thinking about it" phase. Still, every personality has positive and negative aspects—light and dark sides, as they say—and writers' ability to explore their dark sides on the page can prevent harmful tendencies from manifesting themselves off the page. Writers' conscious exploration results in fewer subconscious tendencies. To know oneself is to have greater self-control.

I also write crime because every paragraph, every sentence, every word seems to have purpose. That's how I like to write anything.

Where have you gone, Jorge Posada?

Posada, the Yankees' No. 1 catcher from 2000 to 2010, retires today a member of five championship teams in a 17-year career spent entirely in a Yankee uniform.

Jorge played his heart out, played with fire, a quality the Joe Torre-led teams were otherwise thought to lack. Emotion got the best of him at times, but there's no denying his leadership and clutch performance.

Happy New Year All Over Again

In Chinese astrology, today begins the year of the Water Dragon. I'm a good portion Chinese, and Chinese astrology is more interesting to me than Greek. However, having only so much memory to devote to trivia, I've forgotten the traits that go with each sign.

Chinese New Year usually means a meal with my extended family, but as it falls on a Monday this year, I don't see that happening. Anyway, as always, I wish you good fortune.

At The 5-2: "Outlaw at Peace" by Randall Avilez

Enjoy.

Also, I'm pleased to announce you can now record audio of accepted 5-2 poetry by phoning a dedicated voicemail number. While creating and submitting your own audio/video files gives you greater creative control, I offer the voicemail number to anyone who can't make their own files but would like to perform for The 5-2.

Yesterday, I downloaded a message from Clarinda Harriss as an MP3 file. Clarinda is coming to The 5-2 February 13 with "Sweet-talk Me on Valentine's Day".

The Big Bang Theory: "The Recombination Hypothesis"

The Big Bang Theory aired its hundredth episode last night, in which Leonard and Penny spontaneously go out to dinner. The date turns sour, but they end up having latenight sex and decide not to reveal to the group that they've gotten back together. Very late, Leonard is snapped back to before he asked Penny out. In other words, Leonard imagined most of the episode's events.

I enjoyed "The Recombination Hypothesis". The dialogue was expository at times, but I thought it honored the show's history and brought newer viewers up to speed. The shot of Leonard staring wistfully at Penny as he came up the stairs recalled the pilot. Their decision to keep their relationship secret recalled Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco's actual relationship.

Most of all, I like how the show has grown to include Penny's view of Leonard, but the expansion makes it difficult to accept that Leonard imagined the whole thing. Did he imagine Amy and Bernadette's conversation with Penny as she got ready for the date? Or was that Penny's imagination?

Next week, Leonard and Penny experiment with their new relationship. Does this mean the actual date went exactly as Leonard imagined? I wish there were fewer dream sequences on TV in general. Even in comedy, I can relate better when characters' actions make a difference and can't be taken back.


PENNY
Have you thought this through?

LEONARD
Yes. And I think we should go anyway.

Another Look at Parker's Shadow

Yesterday, Criminal Element's Jake Hinkson blogged about how he's become more open to Putnam's plans to publish new Spenser and Jesse Stone novels. Among other things, Jake touched on how Spenser had already grown beyond Parker with TV's Spenser: For Hire, as had Jesse Stone with the TV movies starring Tom Selleck.

I commented:

I'm a longtime Parker/Spenser fan, and I've been open to the idea of continuing Spenser for a year now. To me, Spenser casts too long a shadow on contemporary P.I. fiction to die with Parker.

...[W]ith TV's Spenser: For Hire, Parker was credited as "Creative Consultant" but claimed that simply meant he cashed a check every week. TV made some changes to the characters that didn't sit well with me, but the show did well enough on its own to run for three seasons (1985-88).

As you point out, the Jesse Stone movies also have a continuity independent of the books. I think that was a good decision, given that Tom Selleck is much older than the Stone of the books, and if the movies followed the books to the letter, they would hold no surprise for faithful readers.

I can't muster much interest in Brandman's Stone novels, and what I've read of Killing The Blues hasn't helped. However, Atkins' track record as an author is much better than Brandman's, and Ace's novel The Ranger [newly nominated for the MWA's Best Novel Edgar® Award -ed.] convinces me he can write in the Parker vein.

#verseday Sestina

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I came up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere, including The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly and NoirCon's First Annual Poetry Contest.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, January 19. Today, try writing a sestina, like this week's 5-2 poem.

Write a sestina by noon Friday, January 20.

Quick Change

Earlier today I tried to add Google's Share buttons to this blog, as I'd done to The 5-2 and Chatterrific. A long-forgotten tweak prevented the buttons from showing in my previous template, so I switched to this one. New York's unseasonably warm weather ended the other day. I guess it's only natural my blog return from its sunny vacation.

At The 5-2: "Railway Sestina" by Kimberly Poitevin

A sestina has seven stanzas, the first six of which are six lines long. The words that end each line of the first stanza are repeated in different orders to end the lines of the next five stanzas. Finally, the seventh stanza is three lines long, and each line incorporates two of the six established end-words.

The sestina originally adhered to more rules, such as a syllabic limit, but many poets have taken liberties with the form to drive their points home. "Railway Sestina", for instance, uses the same six end-sounds if not the same words.

My thanks to poet Kimberly Poitevin and reader Alison Dasho.

THE ZEN MAN by Colleen Collins

Colleen Collins co-owns Highlands Investigations in Denver, Colorado. She has also written twenty novels for Harlequin and Dorchester and is a longtime member of my contemporary P.I. fiction discussion list, DetecToday. As preparation for a Chatterrific interview, Colleen sent me two instructional ebooks and her novel, The Zen Man.

Lawyer-turned-P.I. Rick Levine is the titular character. During a professional party at Rick's lodge, his ex-wife Deborah is murdered. Tabbed as the prime suspect, Rick, along with his partner/girlfriend Laura, must clear his name by uncovering who else stood to gain from Deborah's death.

The Zen Man is an homage and update of Dashiell Hammett's Nick and Nora Charles, a well-paced mix of banter, action, and New Age philosophizing. At the heart of it is Rick, a sympathetic, flawed character working to redeem himself.

You can visit The Zen Man website to learn more. Why not take advantage of the 99-cent Nook price through January 18?

Wanted: Voices for The 5-2

In many instances, 5-2 poets are not set up to send in audio/video files themselves. I'm always looking for people to perform the poetry featured there. To credit performers properly, I've redone the "Editors" page, renaming it "Confidential". It will include bios of our voice talent who read 5-2 poems besides their own.

E-mail me if you'd like to join the growing roster.

Why Do I Read Crime?

Today on Murderati, Zoë Sharp surveys the reasons we read crime fiction.

I commented:

All the reasons you mention are true for me to some degree. At the moment, I find I'm reading crime to make some sense of the seemingly senseless. I don't mean for stories of good conquering evil or chaos being restored to order, but for a more muted, personal coming-to-grips. I think writing, and reading in turn, allows us to see events and experiences in a different light, to get perspective.

#verseday Luck

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I came up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere, including The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly and NoirCon's First Annual Poetry Contest.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, January 12. My topic this week is luck.

Write a poem involving luck (good luck, bad luck, blind luck, Andrew Luck...) by noon Friday, January 13. Incidentally, The 5-2 is currently accepting love- or passion-themed crime poetry if you wish to tie the elements together.

Eight is Not Enough

On this day in 2004, I tentatively toed into the blogosphere to see if blogging would help my fiction and poetry writing, and it has. I started a weekly feature only in the past few months—linking to the poems at The 5-2. The bulk of this blog is at my whim. That keeps it fresh for me and, I hope, for you.

If you've been with me from the beginning, I salute you. If you're new here, I welcome you.

Realizing Characters

On her blog yesterday, Patti Abbott discussed fully-realized characters, ending with the question, "What characters are memorable for you? Who walks off the pages of a book and into your memory?"

I commented:

To me, perhaps as much as half the responsibility for realizing a character lies with the reader. Part of the writer's job is to give just enough detail to let the reader's imagination go the rest of the way.

Offhand I think of Holden Caulfield (CATCHER IN THE RYE) and Alonso Quijana (DON QUIXOTE) because they resonated with me and my experience when I first read them (in high school and college respectively).

At The 5-2: "Some Like It Hot" by Charles Rammelkamp

Rammelkamp returns to The 5-2 with a steamy, daydreamy poem.

Meanwhile, submissions are open for love- or passion-themed crime poetry to be featured in February.

New Look at Chatterrific

I decided to revamp my author chat blog, Chatterrific, this weekend. I'm going for a comfortable coffeehouse experience that lends itself to chat. Have a look.

Coming soon, interviews with Brian Thornton, editor of West Coast Crime Wave, and Colleen Collins, Colorado private investigator and co-author of How to Write a Dick.

I'm open to talking anything related to fiction, poetry, film, or TV. If you're interested, we can chat by e-mail, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, or Skype.

#versday Epiphanies

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I've come up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere, including The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly and NoirCon's First Annual Poetry Contest.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, January 5. My topic this week is epiphanies.

Write a poem about an epiphany by noon Friday, January 6. Incidentally, The 5-2 is currently accepting love- or passion-themed crime poetry if you wish to tie the elements together.

"Remaindered"

I'm back at Nasty. Brutish. Short. reviewing "Remaindered" by Lee Goldberg. Originally published in the August 2001 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, the story is available as a free Kindle download this week only.

At The 5-2: "The Christmas Itch" by Kent Gowran

This week, The 5-2 welcomes Kent Gowran, who is also editor of the flash fiction site Shotgun Honey.

The audio reading of Kent's poem is by my friend John Ricotta, who also composed and performed the music for this video.

A Look Ahead

Tomorrow I begin the final proofreading of my February 2012 ebook, Call Me Cupid: Six Screwball Stories of Love.

In April, I will be publishing a $2.99 ebook version of The Lineup #3 (2010) for Kindle and Nook, including seventeen of the original nineteen poets' work. Sarah Cortez sold the electronic rights to her poems elsewhere, and Carrie McGath opted not to have her poem reprinted. If you're curious, you can read one of Sarah's poems here, and hear Carrie's poem, "The Crimes of Cat-Calling", in an episode of Seth Harwood's CrimeWAV.

And later this year, I will publish a second ebook of C.J. Stone stories.