Interesting Reading Elsewhere--CrimeFictionWriter: Death of the first draft

I am nowhere near able to do this .....

CrimeFictionWriter: Death of the first draft: I don't know precisely when I stopped writing first drafts, but I do know I haven't written a first draft in years. When I started...

Interesting Reading Elsewhere: "There's No Such Thing as Good Writing: Craig Nova's Radical Revising Process"

In one of my many online writing groups, Texas author Jan Christensen posted a link the other day to this very interesting article in The Atlantic. The piece is here and written by author Craig Nova. It will make you think about the necessary act of revising your work in a radaically new way.

Well worth your time.

Interesting Reading Elsewhere--Tall Chambers at Bookbrowsing

PJ Nunn has an interview that author Earl Staggs did with his character Tall Chambers. You can read the interview here and it is well worth your time. You could even leave a comment. In your comment, you might suggest my idea that Tall needs a sidekick named "Short Magnum" in book two of this series is a good one.

Earl isn't so sure about that.

He definitely was not impressed with my idea that a female character could be named "Tiffany Penetrator" or "Trixie Doubleshot."

I also suggested Terminal Response as a sequel to Justified Action and he didn't much care for that either.

 So hard to help him be successful.....

FFB Review: "THE VANISHERS" by Donald Hamilton -- Reviewed by Barry Ergang

 Friday means Friday’s Forgotten Books hosted by Patti Abbott. Please welcome back Barry Ergang and make sure you check out the other reading possibilities here after you read the review below……

THE VANISHERS (1986) by Donald Hamilton

Reviewed by Barry Ergang

I've been a fan of Donald Hamilton's novels about secret agent Matt Helm since I was in my teens, which means over the course of fifty years, give or take a year or two. Paperback originals under the Fawcett Gold Label imprint, the Helm novels  date back to 1960, starting with Death of a Citizen and ending in 1993 with The Damagers. Those who only know Helm via the (admittedly entertaining) movie spoofs starring Dean Martin do not begin to know the character. The Helm of the novels is a tough, canny, no-nonsense professional who makes the James Bond of Ian Fleming's novels look like a callow, sentimental, incautious amateur. Helm's enemies are also far more plausible than Bond's, however diverting and cartoon-like the latter's may be.     

The Fawcett Gold Medal paperbacks included detective stories by the likes of Richard S. Prather and Stephen Marlowe, spy thrillers by Edward S. Aarons and Philip Atlee, and noir by David Goodis and Peter Rabe. These were, in the main, slim fast-paced novels that typically ran between 144 and 160 pages in length. A few exceptions ran close to or slightly over 200 pages. But then, over time, some of Fawcett's authors started writing longer books. I don't know if it's true or not, but I've often suspected that many publishers demand longer books so they can charge higher prices for them.

In the novel under consideration here, a number of relatively prominent people—scientists, businessmen, and politicians—have vanished (or have been vanished) during the course of the year, and Matt Helm's boss, Mac, expects to be among the next to disappear. He assigns Helm to check on the well-being of the hospitalized Astrid Watrous, who may have been poisoned by a woman named Karin Segerby. Astrid's oceanographer husband is among those who have vanished. After putting emergency routines in place against the possibility of Mac's disappearance, and then being told to "scramble" by a trusted colleague, Helm and Astrid fly to Norway to begin a perilous journey through Scandinavia to a mysterious installation known as the Darkroom. Besides having to worry about attacks from possible terrorists, Helm has to deal with Swedish relatives whose loyalties are hard to determine. To further complicate his situation, a man named Bennett, an old enemy, has been appointed temporary head of the agency in Mac's absence, and aims to make his position permanent. He's declared Helm a traitor and defector, and has assigned agents to kill him. Beset from all sides, Helm isn't sure whom he can trust.

Sounds like a tense, exciting read, doesn't it? For this reader it is and it isn't.

First-person narrator Helm retains the wry manner that was established in Death of a Citizen, and which I've always found appealing. E.g., "A man who says he isn't going to take any chances, as he jabs a gun amateurishly into the back of a trained agent, makes it very hard for said agent to take him seriously. It's one of the situations for which we're taught several responses, mostly lethal, even though no sensible person with a firearm is going to move in that close. After all, the whole point of guns is that they can hurt at a distance."

The problem with The Vanishers is its length. At 295 pages, it lacks the pace of so many of the other books in the series, especially the first thirteen. It's filled with protracted passages that describe the various routes Helm takes driving through Norway, Finland and Sweden, often sounding more like travelogue than fiction. It reinforces the suspicion I voiced earlier, that the publisher may have insisted on longer work and Donald Hamilton therefore padded the story with lots of filler. Even some of the dialogue exchanges seem to go on longer than necessary. Padding dilutes tension rather than prolonging it. Another notable feature is that, being  occupied with entirely different matters, Helm isn't at all involved in the resolution of the vanishings.

Did I dislike the novel? No. It was fun to visit with Matt Helm again, even if aspects of the visit were disappointing. Would I recommend it? Yes—with the caveat about padded passages and the suggestion that some readers might want to skim or even skip over them.

Barry Ergang © 2013

The reviewer would like to thank Karen Mayers for kindly loaning him The Vanishers.

*****

Many of the Matt Helm novels are among the books from his personal collection that Barry has for sale at http://www.barryergangbooksforsale.yolasite.com/. He contributes 20% of the price of the books to our fund, so please have a look. A Derringer Award winner, some of Barry's written work is available at Amazon and Smashwords.

Interesting Reading Elsewhere-- Writing Mystery with Linda Rodriguez

Over on the Book Country blog, there is an interesting interview with Linda Rodriguez of Every Broken Trust and Every Last Secret. I really like this series and highly recommend it. The books definitely should be read in order starting with Every Last Secret. The very good interview is here and discusses the books as well as her writing process in general.

In case you missed my reviews, my review of Every Broken Trust is here and Every Last Secret is here.

Interesting Reading Elsewhere---Six Steps of Self-Publishing (Mostly for Traditional Authors)

Author Libby Hellman with lots of good advice on what she believes is the best way to go self published in Six Steps of Self-Publishing (Mostly for Traditional Authors)

Interesting Reading Elsewhere---- Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine: The Heist -- Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg

 Texas author Bill Crider reviews The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg....

Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine: The Heist -- Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg: I'm a big fan of the work of Lee Goldberg, and Judy's a big fan of the work of Janet Evanovich. So when the review copy of this bo...

Sad News

Joan Parker, the wife of author Robert B. Parker, died Tuesday. The obituary in the Boston Globe can be found here.

Applies to all of my writing

though these days it is mainly letters that I am doing to insurance companies, collection agencies, student loan folks like NELNET who can't understand reality or documentation.....

Sandi Tonight

Sandi is doing okay. She does tire very easily, but says she does not hurt all over like she used to before the transplant. She is incredibly pale and seems pretty weak to me. After every meal she gets body wracking chills just like she did before the transplant.

Quite honestly, she seems to me to be just as weak and sick now as before she left for the transplant and that worries me. A lot.

Her patience for stupidity is pretty low right now and it does not take much to annoy her. Like the stupidity of a certain local medical service company who ignored the reality of our situation and turned her over to a collection agency over a $33 bill we have been making installment payments on. As she pointed out while cussing them to me--if we didn't have the money to pay it it all off in one shot to the original creditor, why in the heck would they think we suddenly would if some worthless collection agency hassles us?

Makes one wonder....

Interesting Reading Elsewhere--- Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine: Free Advice from James Lincoln Warren

 Lots of good advice here whether it be for short stories or longer works......

Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine: Free Advice from James Lincoln Warren: Free Advice from James Lincoln Warren : Here, completely free, is some advice for aspiring short story writers of crime fiction.

Shooting Sheriffs

....and other targets....

 

Interesting Judicial Ruling

A judge in New York had found against Fox Searchlight Pictures and says they must pay interns for the work that was done. Unpaid internships are very common and I never understood why it was okay. Yes, I know one is getting college credit and work experience, but it also seemed to me that is the company involved was basically getting free labor. Seemed to me the company got far more out of it than the intern did based on what I was told over the years by some who had gone through these deals as well as what I had read about them.

Sounds like this judge saw it the same way in the story here. It will get appealed so it is not the end of the matter in this court or in other courts where other cases have been filed. Still, it is an interesting judicial ruling that could have considerable impact.

I'm Telling You

and I can still do a pretty good imitation of the voice at least.....

 

WTF--Wednesday Twisted Funny

Imagine....if you will....

Very True

and very thankful that Sandi is back home. She gets tired easilym as expected, but she looks amazingly good.

 

FREE BOOK---Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine: Free for Kindle for a Limited Time

 And well worth your time....

Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine: Free for Kindle for a Limited Time: AN IMAGE OF DEATH (The Ellie Foreman Mysteries): Libby Fischer Hellmann: Amazon.com: Kindle Store : Who knew that a career in video docume...

Interesting Reading Elsewhere--Straight From Hel: Don’t Club Your Reader With Your Message

 Besides being right about chunky peanut butter, Carolyn has some advice that some writers really need to heed......

Straight From Hel: Don’t Club Your Reader With Your Message:  Today, Carolyn J. Rose is posting here on Straight From Hel. Carolyn is the author of several novels, including  Hemlock Lake ,  Throug...

Message From Glen Walker

I have mentioned my friend Glenn Walker from time to time here. He is involved in various projects involving writers and entertainment. He posted the message below yesterday in one of the groups I am in on a project worthy of your support.
 

I want to promote the South Jersey Writers Kickstarter: 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/195597240/south-jersey-writers-group-2014-anthology?ref=email 

Please donate if you can, it's a good thing to support fellow writers.  

Glenn

Sandi is HOME!

Supershuttle took forever but she is finally home.