This is just sick...

... and it's sacrilege. Just utter and complete sacrilege-

Obviously whoever did this sign up is not a fan, or a mystery fan nor is he or she earning their money in any sense of the word.

Raymond, we hardly knew ya around here

Wait a minute, let me get this straight...Raymond Chandler was living in San Francisco, some three years before Dashiell Hammett? This wonderful tidbit was discovered by novelist, Mark Coggins.

Honestly, I don't think Chandler ever set a story here, and I cannot even remember a specific passage where he even bothered to mention San Francisco in passing. It's just as well, Los Angles, I mean Angeles is the city the Brit is associated with most.

Recommended Summer Reading

The San Francisco Chronicle has some recommended summer reads by some notable San Francisco and San Francisco Bay Area personalities. We're talking Rita Moreno, Danny Glover, Jaime Lauren, Phillip Kaufman, and Peter Coyote.

Not to mention comedian and Paul D. Brazill impersonator, Will Durst goes with my lifetime favorite.

There's also Joan Chen...

...and let's face it, who cares what the others have to say, when you have Joan Chen? They should've devoted the article solely to her. So my recommendations for you? I'll keep it simple because I'm not a reviewer by any stretch of the imagination.

"Jack Wakes Up." Remember when Quentin Tarantino and John Woo were firing on all cylinders? Well Seth Harwood has all of that in spades. One of the best parts of this book, is that the protagonist, Jack Palms, often doesn't know what he is doing or what he is going to do next. He's purely reactive and damn it, that's perfect. Even though he is a former actor, he is real by virtue of how deals with each situation.

The finale is nothing short of Woo bullet ballet.

"Spade And Archer?" I thought that Joe Gores would nail Hammett's prose, the way that he had done previously in novels and one screenplay. I believe that he didn't try as hard as he could and maybe he didn't want the audience reading this book exactly the way they would read Dashiell.

That being said, this was a good book that while not as crisp as Hammett, is a very satisfying novel. The shadow of the real Thin Man or not, Gores does a brilliant job of creating Sam Spade's back story (don't make me use the word, "prequel") and it is a must read.

Connelly's back, 'nuff said.

Mister Bruen does what few can, he can make you empathize with a psychopath (not the psychopath's actions). He has a prose that is unrivaled and literally like no other. He doesn't write books for the cozy set and by God, who wants that? Crime is not white gloves, tea, cucumber sandwiches, crumpets, and china. It's raw as a blood-red steak on a rusty tin plate, with a chaser of Jameson's in a glass that has never seen water nor soap.

"Once Were Cops" brings to mind the old Raymond Chandler quote about Dashiell Hammett-

"Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse; and with the means at hand, not hand-wrought dueling pistols, curare and tropical fish."

The Return of Sam Spade

You're saying to yourself, "did I read that post title right?" Yes you did, though we're actually talking about a prequel to "The Maltese Falcon," and this one is written by Joe Gores (with no undiscovered notes or any "new" contribution from Hammett, other than his original story).

This novel is called "Spade & Archer" and it is set in 1921, 1925, and 1928. We Sam turn into the hardened hard boiled detective that he became and we find out where he barely shed a tear when Miles Archer took that final tumble down Burritt Alley (yes, "Burritt," not "Burrito").

I am over the moon, because I believe if anyone on Earth can write a satisfactory story about Sam Spade using Hammett's style, Joe Gores can. Of course I'm using his excellent book "Cases" as a sample of what he is capable of, as well as Wim Wenders' film "Hammett," where Joe Gores tied together a fictional Dashiell Hammett on a case that would inspire Sam (Hammett) to write all of his stories.

The S.F. Chronicle interviewed Joe Gores about "Spade & Archer," and also about Gores' interesting life that inspired his other novels.

Will The Real Sam Spade Please Stand Up?

Kevin Burton Smith got me hip to some artwork by Owen Smith, that was to be a tribute to "The Maltese Falcon." The thing that interested me the most, beyond the fact that it was a tribute to one of the greatest authors of all time, was the fact that this artwork was going to be shown right here. In the very streets of the City of Saint Francis.

Well, I looked and I looked.

And I looked.

Then I looked again, because I have a one-track mind like that.

No poster. Finally about three weeks ago, they put one up on the part of Market Street near where I work.

When I saw Owen's poster, I knew he got it right. You see, technically, Sam Spade is not Humphrey Bogart.

Ease up! Ease up! Put the gats away, you mugs! Give your VCR or your DVD a rest for a minute and pick up Hammett's book for a second. C'mon, a little more than a second is all it will take. There it is on page one, paragraph one-


"Sam Spade's jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth. His nostrils curved back to make another, smaller, v. His yellow-grey eyes were horizontal. The v motif was picked up again by thickish brows rising outward from twin creases above a hooked nose, and his pale brown hair grew down--from high flat temples--in a point on his forehead. He looked rather pleasantly like a blond satan."


That's it verbatim. No quotation marks were around the letters "v," the word "motif" was italicized and "satan" wasn't capitalized. He was closer in appearance to Viggo Mortensen than Bogie, yet I can't imagine anyone but Bogart playing him. Neither could George Raft, I imagine ; )

I took some pictures of the poster at the kiosk, but my camera was not cooperating at the moment they were taken and let's face it, the pictures were as jacked up as Miles Archer at the bottom of Burritt Street.


Can you think of some examples of movie casting that went way against the literary grain?

Happy Belated Birthday, Dashiell!

In my work-related stupor, I forgot to celebrate Dashiell Hammet's birthday (May 27th). So here's to you, Sam, you made crime fiction what it is today.

Hard Boiled Chapters

Back in the pulp days, you had everything in released in a serialized form. Even Dashiell Hammett's novels were dished out first in both pulp and legitimate magazines (would you believe Redbook?*), before they were published.

It was a good idea then and it is an even better idea for the Internet age. Patrick Baggata has revived it in Hard Boiled Chapters. Or as he says...

Hard Boiled Chapters features gritty crime stories by various authors, serialized into short chapters. Some stories may run only one or two chapters while others take their time to unfold.

How can you go wrong? Patrick has posted so far, seven chapters of "Becoming." Mary Thomas has posted three chapters of "Lefty" and yours truly, has a chapter of "Strawberry Quick," there. Check it out.


*Chapters of "The Thin Man" were sold to Redbook in July of 1933. Pp. 225 of Dashiell Hammett's "Lost Stories" edited by Vince Emery.

Why Isn't This A National Holiday, Yet?

Raymond Chandler once wrote, that Dashiell Hammett gave murder back to the people who really committed it.

-James Ellroy

One hundred and thirteen years ago, today, Dashiell Hammett was born. This was a great day in history, because so much of what you read and see today, was directly influenced by this man.

Crime literature was virtually one big game of "Clue." With stuffy people in smoking rooms and libraries, waiting patiently to be done away with. Then the protagonist could conveniently recite droll dialogue while both innocent and suspect alike, stood by without regard to their own personal well-being.

As Raymond Chandler pointed out in the essay that Ellroy was quoting from, he brought crime back to the people that actually committed it and for more plausible reasons then what existed in literature at the time. Thus, giving you something to be actually thrilled, shocked, and enchanted by...instead of failed academicians making inane accusations, between sips of sherry.

So raise whatever you are drinking, please and toast Samuel Dashiell Hammett.

The Opening Salvo...

...Of The Reluctant Short Story Writer.

This is kind of odd. I am as vain as the next writer, but I didn't want to have to put up a blog that was devoted to my short stories. Hell, I stumbled on to short stories, virtually by accident. I ran out of Walter Mosley material to read, one day. So I went online and looked for any of his non sci-fi work that I could find. Before anybody takes offense, I love science fiction and it was my refuge at one time, but I've drifted away from it, as the reality of our world becomes worse.

Besides, if some people are pointed out as having a sweet-tooth, my predilection as far as reading, is crime fiction. Noir and neo-noir in specific. I found this nugget, "The Best American Short Stories 2003," which was edited by Walter Mosley and Katarina Kenison. Mind you, I've read short stories by Hammett, Chandler and some crime fiction anthologies, but this was something else. Good stories, diverse stories, things that got me thinking that maybe life isn't always about bullets and broads...though one could argue that those two things are essential to a good story.

As a result, I tried to write short stories here and there. Some of them are decent, some of them are good and that's not in my opinion. I love certain lines or paragraphs of my works, but I rarely love any of my works in their entirety.

The "tags" or labels that follow the story, will tell you just where these stories originally appeared. One place was JJ's, who inspired those of us who were fortunate enough to read his blog, every Friday. You would go to JJ's every Friday afternoon and he would give you a starter sentence. You, the writer, had to have it done and posted to your blog by the following Monday, at noon. He kept thing challenging and his starter sentences could make you doubt your own sanity.

The other place was Tribe's "Flashing In The Gutters," which is no more. You'll have to find out on your own as to why...though I will say that no good deed goes unpunished and that Tribe is as good-hearted a person as you are going to find.

So part of the reason I created this blog was for me to try my hand at writing short stories again and the other part? So that the stories that used to have a home on "Flashing In The Gutters," could be seen again by others. By the way, all editor and wannabe editors, foaming at the mouth is unbecoming. All of the stories will be posted as they were, warts, grammatical errors, clipped syntaxes, and all. Sorry.