Noir and San Francisco

The Rap Sheet asked author Kelli Stanley to name her Top Ten Movies set in San Francisco. She came up with an amazing list and I agree with most of it, though my favorite is-



Not what would you expect for such die-hard Hammett fan, right? You would've guessed I would have chosen "The Thin Man" or "The Maltese Falcon." Well, neither has as many exterior shots of my favorite city in the world, as "Dark Passage."

And neither film had Lauren. Both "Dark" and "Falcon" had Bogart, though "Maltese" had the better Bogie performance. I am not, nor will I ever be a Mary Astor Fan, and as great as John Huston was, I prefer shot-for-shot, Delmer Daves direction. Before you get angry, I said I "prefer," as in it's a personal preference. Put the lead bird down.

The Rap Sheet also has a Top Ten Books Set In San Francisco List by Janet Rudolph, and J. Kingston finishes it up with the Top Ten TV Series.

Monday's Shorts

First with a quasi-NSFW link, (cue Don Adams soundbite) "missed it by that much."

Next comes two great sets of Six Sentences, one by Paul D. Brazill and another by Frieda Bee.

Though it is a brief a mention as possible, I finally (site decorum) got my (site decorum) name up on The Rap Sheet, whoo!

Damn...I spoke too soon, here comes Sandman Sims to give me the hook.

Doc has kicked off Friday Flash Fiction right, with "Grandpa's Last Blast."

Last but certainly not least, Keith "Awesome," a.ka. "Raw Dog" Rawson has a new gig reviewing short crime fiction at Fantasy Book Reviews. Not to mention he has been added on as a finalist for the Watery Grave Invitational and as I said before, you the reader will benefit the most...now, even more so.

A New Twist On Pop-Up Books

Are these ladies terrified at the possibility of having to read another one of my stories?

Eh, just the lass in the red. You can tell because she's actually considering strangling herself before reading yet even another word that I have written. As for the others? An artist named Liliac created three dimensional pop-up covers and collages out of existing book covers. I found this courtesy of The Rap Sheet.

The Bad News In Baltimore, Murdaland

From The Rap Sheet comes some sad news...

Murdaland has gone out of business. It was a good magazine, nice and gritty, just the way I like it. If Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock magazines were a little too "pristine" for your crime fiction tastes, chances are Murdaland was right up your alley. Not that I'm slamming the former two magazines, I am just saying that if you were looking for fiction like the Akashic Noir series, Demolition Magazine and Powder Burn Flash, Murdaland was your mag.

There will be other magazines just like it and it really wasn't around long enough for anyone to get completely attached, but I would have liked to have seen it find the audience it deserved.