The Beat On The Street

Finally, we were able to have Trick-or-Treat this Saturday, after the powers that be in my town postponed it, because of the ice/snow storms that brought most of Massachusetts to its knees. We were lucky to have not lost our electricity, but a whole lot of people went up to five days without it. The official hours of T-or-T were 4:00pm to 6:00pm. Very strange, as it was sunny out the whole time. $10.00 at the Salvation Army got me the above Disco Dan get-up.

Here's a few things of note that I checked out on the web.

- It's November, so that means it's Noir time over at Absolutely * Kate's place. Already some great stories have been posted by some familiar names. Today, it is Chris Rhatigan. Bop on over to The Bijou HERE

- Speaking of Mr. Rhatigan, he provided links to some very good stories by Erin Cole and Julie Morrigan HERE

-Darren Sant provided an excellent review of Paul Brazill's "Drunk On The Moon" series HERE

- Over at Tony Black's Place, Ray Banks is talking to Allen Guthrie about "Dead Money" Not to be missed, HERE

- Editor at the Flash Fiction Offensive, Dave Barber, has announced that the FFO has re-opened for submissions HERE

- Seems like Mr. Barber also has some competition in his house. Check out his daughter's first published piece of writing, and be sure to take a look at all the comments  HERE

- Top writer and overall good guy, Nigel Bird, has an interview over at Luca Veste's blog HERE

- Last week, Sandra Seamans had an excellent post regarding the lack of women getting published in crime fiction, and self- promotion HERE.  Well, Chris LaTray has taken the baton from Sandra and posted a candid, well thought out post HERE

- I had never heard of film director Jim Jarmusch before, but thanks to Paul Waters' Blackwatertown blog, I am very intrigued by the films he has made, especially "Dead Man" starring one of my fave actors, Johnny Depp.  Check out another well written and interesting segment of "The Day I Met..." HERE

- Finally, author Lee Goldberg of "Monk" fame, and Joe Konrath share some intesting stats regarding their print vs ebook sales at Joe K's blog HERE

The Beat On The Street

No, this is not a picture of Heartbreaker, before they hit the big-time. And if you don't know who they are, well, you ain't up to speed on your pop culture history. Mrs. Howell certainly would have had a field day chasing the Heartbreaker lads around with the scissors though.

In other news:

- I finished Steve Brewer's novel, LOST VEGAS, and posted the following review at Amazon and Smashwords.

5.0 out of 5 stars Dig Heists?...You'll Love This.
"I am a huge fan of heist style stories and this one certainly delivered the goods, and then some. The writing style is smooth as silk. This was a very entertaining read and the pages seemed to fly by. A terrific plot, tremendous characters, lots of action, and many laugh out loud moments. The style is surely reminiscent of Elmore Leonard, but the author adds a Stephen King like touch to it, that makes it his own. This story begs for a movie adaption ala, Oceans 11, Get Shorty etc...Already started reading The Big Wink by the author and am loving it."

I am well into Steve's medical marijuana heist story, THE BIG WINK, and as mentioned, loving it. Couldn't resist taking a sneak-peek at his Hillbilly Noir crime story CALABAMA, which opens with, "Never argue with a man whose tattoos outnumber his teeth".

- Adrian McKinty just announced his next novel, COLD, COLD GROUND is coming out in January. I'm all  over that one. Details HERE

- Luca Veste unveiled the cover for OFF THE RECORD HERE

- Found a pretty cool interview Christa Faust did HERE

- The latest edition of Needle Mag is out. Steve Blackmore fills you in  HERE

- Speaking of Needle, you can try and win yourself a copy over at Do Some Damage HERE

-While you're over at DSD, be sure to check out the interesting posts and associated comments that have been made the last few days.

- Over at Ashedit, find out how author Rebecca Forster got her novel HOSTILE WITNESS to # 1 on the Kindle charts HERE

The Beat On The Street

Saw lots of 9/11 specials on the tube all week and yesterday. God bless everyone who died, survived, and sacrificed their time helping out before and after this trajedy. I'm damn proud to be an American!!

The NFL was on yesterday, but I watched the US vs Ireland Rugby World Cup match. What a great sport and these guys make NFL players look silly. Most of my mates on the cricket team I played for  also played Rugby, so I know how tough and fearless you need to be to play rugby. I think in my younger days, I would have been a decent Rugby player but... I still have all my teeth and the legs have avoided serious injury so far, so propably just as well. AND  BELOVED NOTRE DAME LOST TO MICHIGAN, They officially SUCK!

- Sanda Seamans beat me to the punch on some excitin news from John Kenyon, Check it out HERE

- Glenna is back in action with a couple of well done reviews, including Declan Burke's Absolute Zero Cool HERE

- R.S Bohn is giving away a print  version of her chapbook "Letters From The Egg". She's mulling over a couple options for the best way to do the random drawing. Maybe a reader poll is in order R.S? Check it out HERE

- Steve Weddle has a great post about writer conventions over at Do Some Damage and if you leave a comment you could win a copy of  "D*cked"  HERE

- Paul Waters over at Blackwatertown, has  link to a short film, "Attack of the Evil Muffins" by aspiring filmmaker Hannah Charles. Def worth a look HERE

-Big congrats to Gerard Brennan over at Crime Scene NI, whose forthcoming novella "The Point" has already secured some big-tme endorsements. Find out who HERE

- More big-ups and best wishes / hopes go out to Greg Grzegorzek, whose novel just went out on submission to publishers. Read all about it HERE

- And finally, Jodi Macarthur is back in action. This is great news from a way cool and talented writer. Details HERE