NaNoWriMo Strikes Back!
on Nov 16, 2009 in Writing NaNoWriMo Well, just when I thought I had this NaNoWriMo beast tamed, it snuck up and bit me in the butt. I’m behind again, though only by a day. One problem is my eyeballs. They just don’t want to stay open and stare at a computer all day. Before I start...

HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVE: The Case of the Poisoned Puppet
on Nov 15, 2009 in Dan Turner Robert Leslie Bellem Pulps Most issues of Hollywood Detective had a Dan Turner comic story along with the prose adventures. Why they made him look like a grown up Jimmy Olsen I'll never know. This one is from May 1943, the same issue as 'Shakedown Sham'.    ...

SAM SPADE: The Prodigal Daughter Caper
on Nov 14, 2009 in Sam Spade OTR Hammett mp3s This week's caper comes to you direct from August 28, 1949.  Be sure to shop eBay, your local antique store, or your grandfather's medicine cabinet for Wildroot Cream-Oil.The Prodigal Daughter Caper Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Still Playing:The...

Johnny Cash sings "Bonanza"
on Nov 13, 2009 in TV themes TV Westerns mp3s .Lorne Greene stopped by to sing this for us some weeks back, and I mentioned the vocal version had also been recorded by Johnny Cash. Well, David Cranmer was (sort of) singing a Cash tune the other day, right here, and it reminded me this was still...

Forgotten Books: SINFUL WOMAN by James M. Cain
on Nov 12, 2009 in Forgotten Books James M. Cain Mystery fiction This book surprised me in two ways. First, that a James M. Cain novel had appeared as a paperback original. And second, that any Cain novel could be considered a Forgotten Book, even by someone with a memory as faulty as mine.“A Brand New Novel”,...

DEATH COMES to The Story With No Name: Part 15 by James J. Griffin
on Nov 11, 2009 in Story With No Name James J. Griffin Western fiction This is it. The grisly demise of one of our beloved (or not so beloved) characters. Read on, and see what Ranger Jim Griffin has done to alter the landscape of this epic saga.Previous installments, penned by the likes of I.J. Parnham, Jack Giles, Chu...

SOMEONE WILL DIE. GUARANTEED.
on Nov 10, 2009 in Story With No Name Western fiction Yes, Mr. James J. Griffin, author of tomorrow's installment of The Story With No Name, promises that one of our main characters WILL DIE. But who? Slick gent Silas Barnett? Naughty-but-nice Lola? Sheriff-turned-vigilante Zack Roden? Our hero Walt Arn...

Satan Hall 4: Satan's Kill
on Nov 10, 2009 in Pulps Carroll John Daly Satan Hall Mystery fiction A word of advice. Don't ever sneak into Satan Hall's apartment and try to kill him in his sleep. Johnny tried it, here in this 1932 issue of DFW.He stepped two spaces forward; he pressed the button of the flash; he laid the nose of the heavy automati...

NaNoWriMo: Hell Week or Honeymoon?
on Nov 9, 2009 in Writing NaNoWriMo Week One was a little of each. Not quite as bad as Hell Week at the old Kappa Sigma fraternity house - sleep-deprived, starved, dehydrated, hectored, harangued and thoroughly mindf***ed. Not as good as the week my wife and I honeymooned in Great Brit...

Lust of the Lawless - a Complete SPICY WESTERN by Robert Leslie Bellem
on Nov 8, 2009 in Robert Leslie Bellem Pulps Western fiction Most readers of "Adult" westerns assume the concept was born back in the 70s with series like Slocum (think about it) and Longarm, the guy with the long erect cigar between his teeth. Truth is, they were around as early as 1936, when Spicy Western St...