Newspapers sure ain't what they used to be (Day Keene edition)

Wouldn't it be swell if you could get your morning cup of coffee, tea, or Ovaltine (my preference), and open the daily newspaper to page 29 and read a serialized version of a Day Keene novel? Well, beginning in May of 1953, you could. While doing research on Day Keene (real name Gunard Hjerstedt), I discovered that his novel To Kiss, or Kill was serialized in at least two different newspapers: the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and the Galveston Daily News in Galveston, Texas.

And they say New York has everything...well, here's at least one thing we definitely don't have.

Here's a glance at the first installment of the serial on page 29 of the Galveston Daily News, May 29, 1953. Right between the shoes and the comics, and beneath the Indo-China War.


P.S. Pulp Serenade reviewed the Gold Medal edition of To Kiss, or Kill earlier this year.

News Update: Top Suspense Group

I'm excited to report about a new eBook venture called Top Suspense Group. Founded by Dave Zeltserman (author of The Caretaker of Lorne Field and Pariah), Top Suspense Group is offering eBook versions of some of the best crime writers out there, including Ed Gorman, Vicki Hendricks, Max Allan Collins, Bill Crider, Harry Shannon, and Zeltserman himself.

What I find encouraging about this group – beyond the service of making available some great books, some of which are unjustly out of print (such as Gorman's spectacular Western Wolf Moon) – is that it is bringing people together to work as a group. We all know the literary industry is undergoing a lot of changes, and people are figuring out how to adapt in order to survive as authors, publishers, and readers. Collaborations such as Top Suspense Group seem like a good possibility for the future.

Read the official press release below:

TOP SUSPENSE GROUP
www.topsuspense.com
www.topsuspensegroup.com

Electronic books are soon to be a billion dollar business, yet it's more difficult than ever to find a good read, especially via digital download. With more than 700,000 ebooks already on line, with a good number of them self-published, ebook stores are becoming the equivalent of publisher's past 'slush piles'. A newly-formed collaborative site called The Top Suspense Group plans to slash through all the clutter. www.topsuspensegroup.com will be offering readers one central site filled with exciting e-books, covering several genres and all at reasonable prices.

"Readers can count on us," creator and acclaimed author Dave Zeltserman explains, "Every member of our group has already made his or her mark on genre fiction, whether it's noir, crime, mystery, thriller, horror or Westerns, and in some cases, several of these genres."

Authors aboard include Zeltserman, Max Allan Collins, Bill Crider, Ed Gorman, Vicki Hendricks, and Harry Shannon.

Zeltserman has spoken before about the difficulty readers have in searching for sites that offer seasoned professionals. Top Suspense Group members make some of their finest material available at affordable prices. Many of the ebooks will contain bonus material, such as the writer’s commentary on the book that has been purchased, or the addition of a free short story.

"We believe readers will appreciate a reliable inexpensive site that continuously delivers some of the best in contemporary genre fiction," said Top Suspense Group member and multi-award winning author, Max Allan Collins.

Coming Soon: Gold Medal Westerns Marathon

Coming soon to Pulp Serenade will be a marathon of Gold Medal Westerns. Reviews, quotes, and high-quality scans will accompany all reviews, as well as an essay of appreciation. While the Gold Medal crime novels get most of the acclaim these days, the imprint also published a large number of excellent Western novels (many of them authored the same writers as their crime novels). This marathon will celebrate the Gold Medal Westerns with a selection of their best works that span nearly half a century. Stay tuned for more details!

NoirCon Pictures

Kieran Shea and Jonathan Woods

Dennis Tafoya

The NoirCon Bookstand, courtesy of Farley's Bookshop - this is only a fragment of the books they brought along! A great selection that included books by all of the panelists. If only I had won the lottery before I attended...

NoirCon's Official Booksellers: Farley's Bookshop

NoirCon Audience

NoirCon Master of Ceremonies Charles Benoit gives away a raffle prize: beer!

Lou Boxer, NoirCon founder, pulls double duty as bartender.

Jed Ayres, Kieran Shea, and Wallace Stroby

Scott A. Cupp and Patti Abbott

Eric Rice and Aaron Finestone

Ed Pettit, Meredith Anthony, and Peter Rozovsky

Megan Abbott and Anthony Neil Smith

Matthew Martin Quinn, Libby Cudmore, and William Boyle

Margery Budoff, Jeff Wong, Scott Phillips, and Lou Boxer

Cameron Ashley and Duane Swierczynski

NoirCon Day 4

The final day of NoirCon got off to a spectacular start with Fantomas at 99: The Lord of Terror, a panel about the famed French arch-criminal that has appeared in numerous books, comics, and movies over the past century. Panelists Howard A. Rodman and David White detailed not only the rich heritage of Fantomas, but also the many possibilities the future holds for the figure, who continues to appear in books and movies (including White's own novel, Fantomas in America).

Fantomas began as a serialized novel in 1911 by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre. The cheap publication was similar to the pulp magazines in America around the same time. They continued to write these 100,000 word issues at the rate of one a month for two years straight. White and Rodman revealed that the reason why Fantomas had two protagonists who were after the arch criminal, Inspector Juve and the journalist Fandor, was that Allain and Souvestre to each write about one character, which sped up the process. The two writers would spend 1 week plotting, 2 weeks on their own writing, and then 1 week combining their writing into the finished product.

Howard A. Rodman and David White

Rodman and White showed stills from the many Fantomas movies, including the famous silent serial by Louis Feuillade from 1913; a lost American serial made in the early 1920s; Paul Fejos' sound version from 1932; Fantomas Against Fantomas, which is from 1949 and set in a castle owned by the SS; and this curious surrealist short called Monsieur Fantomas, which was made by Ernst Moerman in Belgium in 1937. The panelists said the short was online, and low and behold it is!

Monsieur Fantômas (1937)

The final event of NoirCon was called the Last Call Panel, which featured authors William Lashner, William Boyle, Jon McGoran, and Lawrence Light. They began with a discussion of one topic they felt had been missing from the 4-day event: humor. As Lashner said, "The less in life your expectations have been met, the more necessary humor is to keep you from going insane." He also revealed that "serious sex scenes frighten me," which got the audience laughing. This led into a discussion of sex in noir fiction ("I think some people should do it, and some people shouldn't," according to William Boyle ), followed by a look at different perceptions of villains. Scott Phillips, from the audience, cracked everyone up with a story about his evil dentist who once made him get a root canal without any anesthetic. When Phillips would cry out in pain, the doctor would remind him, "It can't possibly hurt!" To end the event, Lawrence Light told a rousing Irish yarn about how all it takes is one goat to ruin a man's reputation. Overall, the candid panel was lively and engaging with lots of interaction with the audience, a great ending to NoirCon 2010.

William Lashner, William Boyle, Jon McGoran, and Lawrence Light

NoirCon Day 3

Day 2 of NoirCon 2010 ended with a great, low-key hang in the lobby of the Doubletree Hotel. Now, that made getting up for Day 3 a little tough on only 4 hours of sleep, but it was well worth it for Keynote Speaker Joan M. Schenkar's Lady in the Dark: As Noir As it Gets, a slideshow presentation on Patricia Highsmith. The author of The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith wittily began by saying, "What could be more noir than a hungover writer trying to address an audience during breakfast?"

"You can take the dark out of night, but you can't remove the noir from American society," said Schenkar. The presentation revealed how the enigmatic author's life often mirrored her own duplicitous, peculiar characters -- sometimes eerily so, such as how Highsmith repeatedly set murders in her books in the real life locations of her lovers' homes. Love and murder are inextricable in Highsmith's work, Schenkar maintained. Both are described as "a pursuit and a capture," and even while even Highsmith's The Price of Salt may have the distinction of being her only book without a murder, Schenkar insightfully pointed out how many of the metaphors involve bullets or other violent acts, leaving a subtle shade of death on every page.

Other quotes that have stayed with me are: "She was always in disguise. Misdirection was her middle name"; "She wasn't a crime writer -- she was a punishment writer. She was really concerned with how murder affects the murderer"; and "She inspected human like a martian on high."

Noir Scholars: Joan M. Schenkar, Lou Boxer, Robert Polito

Up next was another Highsmith-related panel: "Patricia Highsmith at the Movies" with Rich Edwards and Thomas Kaufman. Focusing just on the Ripley adaptations, the two panelists used clips and frame enlargements to show how filmmakers used cinematic compositions to represent the complexities of the Ripley character. The films they focused on were Purple Noon (1960), The American Friend (1977), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Ripley's Game (2002) and Ripley Under Ground (2005). Despite feeling that "the movie adaptations lack the audacity and perversity of the original novels," both panelists made strong cases for the artistry of all the adaptations.

Rich Edwards and Thomas Kaufman

Next, Megan Abbott and Anthony Neil Smith took the stage for Through a Rearview Darkly: A Revisionist History of Noir. Abbott and Smith are not only stellar fiction writers, but both have a deep, scholarly understanding of literature, and they have Ph.Ds to back it up. Their focus was on the contentious fascination of noir writers with the 1940s and 1950s. They dared to ask how we can represent those areas without falling into pastiche or cliche. Smith and Abbott cite Walter Mosley and James Ellory as two of the first (and most influential) writers who began to re-examine the classical noir age through different lenses. This was one lively discussion, with some participants arguing that writers shouldn't fetishize the post-war Los Angeles area anymore, while others maintained that the city's importance in the evolution of noir literature makes it an important focal point to return to.

Megan Abbott and Anthony Neil Smith

Following lunch, John Buntin, author of L.A. Noir, gave a historical presentation called Sorting Out the Syndicate: Goombahs, Gonifs, and The Italian-Jewish Mob. Buntin detailed the criminal and police clash in Los Angeles from the 1930s through 1950s by examining the rise of L.A. crime boss Micky Cohen and LAPD police chief William Parker.

John Buntin

Next up was the panel Damn Near Dead 2: Live Noir or Die Trying!, based around the upcoming anthology from Busted Flush Press. A number of authors took the stage: Patti Abbott, Scott Cupp, Christa Faust, Scott Phillips, S.J. Rozan, and Reed Farrel Coleman. After the authors described their stories and how they got involved with the anthology, they all shared memories of late Busted Flush Press founder David Thompson. The audience shared their own stories about David, which made for a warm and endearing memorial.

Christa Faust, Scott Phillips, S.J. Rozan, Scott Cupp, Patti Abbott, and Reed Farrel Coleman

The final panel of the day was Reality and Noir, with Wallace Stroby and David Corbett. The authors discussed the need to make the criminal element both more realistic and human. Stroby used his experiences as a journalist (including a tense but hilarious dinner with the New Jersey mob to honor the retirement of a fellow reporter who covered organized crime), while Corbett shared many stories from his days as a real Private Investigator. "Evil is paying the bills," Corbett memorably said, explaining that "for the most part we represented the bad guys." Corbett also offered the following wisdom: "Number one rule of criminal defense: snitches lie." He and Stroby also advised never to hire a convicted felon for a locksmith -- apparently, it is a popular occupation for felons that want to go "straight."

Wallace Stroby

David Corbett

NoirCon Video 2: George Pelecanos Reads David Goodis

George Pelecanos, recipient of the David L. Goodis Award at the 2010 NoirCon, reads an excerpt from Goodis' The Wounded and the Slain.

NoirCon Video 1: Robert Polito Reads Kenneth Fearing

This video is of Robert Polito reading two poems by Kenneth Fearing at NoirCon2010. The poems are St. Agnes' Eve and Angel Arms. Apologies for the poor audio quality.

NoirCon Day 2

NoirCon Day 2 got off to an auspicious start when I bumped into Reed Farrel Coleman and S.J. Rozan trying to make sense of Google Maps' confusing directions on the street. Somehow between all of us, we did make it there on time for the opening panel, "Pornography in Noir Fiction," which included Reed, as well as Jay Gertzman and Christa Faust. Reed, always with a sense of humor, offered an alternate title for the panel: "Hegelian Motifs in Cat Cozies." The conversation had as much to do with the shape-shifting definitions of both "noir" and "pornography" as it did the function of such labels. Christa made a good point about the necessity of sex scenes in literature to show the uniqueness of characters, and that by cutting to the conventional "blowing curtains" (as she called it), or by overly dramatizing or idealizing the moment, a writer loses a great opportunity to show how a character can react both physically and emotionally.

Christa Faust and Reed Farrel Coleman

Up next was the Philadelphia Noir panel, centered on the newly published anthology by Akashic Press. Wrtiers Meredith Anthony, Dennis Tafoya, Jim Zervanos, and Duane Swierczynski, and editor Carlin Romano, were in attendance. The panel hammered home the importance of how intimate knowledge of locations and site-specific research can not only enhance a story, but offer new avenues for plot and character.

Meredith Anthony, Jim Zervanos, Duane Swierczynski, Carlin Romano

The third panel of the day was a conversation with Johnny Temple, publisher of Akashic Books and recipient of the Jay and Deen Kogan Award for Excellence in Publishing, and Tim McLoughlin (editor of Brooklyn Noir). It was exciting to learn that Temple was a member of the punk rock band Girls Against Boys -- as a musician, I always appreciate seeing overlaps between two of my biggest areas of interest. The thing that Johnny said that stayed with me most was that his main goal with Akashic was to "normalize diversity" by publishing under-represented writers, minorities, and even genres, and by not limiting them to niche markets or labels. Everything they publish they treat as literature with the utmost respect.

Tim McLoughlin and Johnny Temple

It was my great honor to host a conversation with the great William Heffernan for the International Association of Crime Writers luncheon. Heffernan spoke of the real-life story that inspired his latest novel (and one of his best), The Dead Detective: it was a news story he heard about a mother who one day decided to leave her car running and murder her two children, and then headed to church. One survived, the other didn't. Heffernan then fictionalized the story by asking, "What if the surviving son became a police officer and had to deal with another case that involved abuse against children, how would he handle it?"

William Heffernan and myself

Heffernan also talked about his career in writing, which began as a journalist for several different newspapers in New York and New Jersey. It was an economic necessity, but it was also a crucial training ground, as his assignments brought him close to the crime and corruption that would be at the core of so many of his novels. It also brought him close to danger: while looking into the supposed accidental death of someone, Heffernan was shot at by someone who didn't want the death investigated or questioned. He also spoke of his contacts with the police department, who could give him first-hand insight into the life and career of Johnny Broderick, who was the focus of his first novel Broderick, and how because the statute of limitations had passed, they could reveal the famed NY police officer's corruption and violence.

Stylistically, Heffernan explained his preference of switching between multiple points of views (often including the killer's perspective, even when we as readers don't know their real identity). For him, the attraction of mystery fiction is that level of insecurity, of realizing just how vulnerable we really are, of opening up to the dangers that could be present at any moment.

After my conversation with Heffernan, Laura Lippman took the stage with George Pelecanos, recipient of the David L. Goodis Award. Pelecanos gave a great, one-sentence definition of noir: "There's no way out." Laura had a great, comical quote about Pelecanos' work: "Sane, well people don't write the books you write." Pelecanos later explained that, "It is all right to wake up in the gutter once in a while, but when you are 50 and you wake up int he gutter it isn't fun any more." Regarding his latest book, The Way Home, Pelecanos explained, "There is nothing more noir than a kid born in the wrong place."

Laura Lippman and George Pelecanos

The Dark Passage: Noir Poetry panel opened up with Ed Pettit reading Joseph Moncure March, as well as a poem solely comprised of David Goodis titles. Robert Polito, author of Savage Art about Jim Thompson, read several selections from his book Hollywood and God as well as poems by Kenneth Fearing, author of The Big Clock. What stayed with me most from Polito was his point that noir fiction has a complex mainstream tradition: it is at once on the fringes, and populated by characters also on the fringes, but at the same time these stories not only get to the heart of American society, but they are also part of mainstream literature. In the case of Goodis he was writing widely-distributed paperback novels, while someone like George Pelecanos is writing a hit TV show The Wire and reaching broad audiences with his novels.

Robert Polito and Ed Pettit

The Writers on Noir panel included Vicki Hendricks, Reed Farrel Coleman, William Heffernan, Seth Harwood, and Cameron Ashely. Something Heffernan said stayed with me: "The only time I outline is if a publisher requests one. Then I throw it way. There is a certain moment when characters begin to take over a book. If they don't, then I'm in trouble..."

William Heffernan, Vicki Hendricks, Reed Farrel Coleman

At the Awards Ceremony, Temple said many kind words about David Thompson of Busted Flush Press, who tragically died all too young last month. Pelecanos ended his speech by saying that that, "I'm very proud to be a crime writer and one of y'all."

Johnny Temple and Lou Boxer

The NoirCon 2010 Awards

NoirCon Day 1

NoirCon 2010 is off to a great start! The 4-day event fittingly kicked off with Larry Withers' terrific new documentary, David Goodis...To a Pulp. When Withers' mother, Elaine, passed away, he and his family discovered a family secret that had been locked away for nearly half a century: Elaine had been married to a young pulp writer named David Goodis. Withers' doc is both a literary biography and a love story, but not the kind with a nice and neat ending. While much of their relationship is still shrouded in mystery, Withers chronicles both of their lives leading up to their brief marriage, what happened to both after the divorce, and -- most importantly -- Elaine's impact on Goodis' writing. Withers, along with Goodis scholars such as Lou Boxer, Aaron Finestone and Jay Gertzman, provides evidence that the haunting, domineering women in many of Goodis' books may be variations on his relationship with Elaine.

David Goodis...To a Pulp is a long overdue vindication for the legacy and work of David Goodis. It treats his novels with the scholarly eye and respect they deserve, and provides a humanistic portrait of a man who, still to this day, is as much an enigma as he is an icon. Fans of the author will not want to miss this one. Stories such as him pretending to get caught in the train tracks, or playing Dr. Kildare with his friends, makes Goodis all the more recognizable as a real person, but it also makes his erratic adult behavior all the more complex.

The post-film Q&A with Jared Case revealed that not only was the documentary made with passion, but also on an incredibly shoestring budget, which makes the final product all the more impressive.

Goodis Scholars Galore on Opening Night:
Aaron Finestone, Jay Gertzman, director Larry Withers, and Mr. Noircon himself, Lou Boxer

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Also on day 1, I got to meet in person many friends I have made through Pulp Serenade. Patti Abbott, Jed Ayres, Cameron Ashley, Lou Boxer, Aaron Finestone, Duane Swierczynski, Kieran Shea. Sitting at a German Beer Hall (while sipping herbal tea, no less), Jonathan Woods (author of Bad Juju & Other Tales of Madness and Mayhem) wandered over to our table to hang out. The fabulous graphic designer Jeff Wong (who made the awesome program for NoirCon 2010 pictured at the top, as well as designing many of the Busted Flush Press covers), was also at our table.

All in all, a great start to NoirCon.

More updates tomorrow!

NoirCon Pre-Gaming

Over the course of the next several days, Pulp Serenade will be attending NoirCon in Philadelphia. I am very excited for the event. On Friday morning, I will also be moderating an hour-long conversation with author William Heffernan, whose most recent novel The Dead Detective is just out from Akashic Books.

Throughout NoirCon, I will be taking pictures and some video clips and uploading them here to Pulp Serenade. That is, assuming I can get the digital camera to work. I've never used one before, so keep your fingers crossed that I can figure it all out tonight.

If you are at NoirCon, please let me know!

I am hoping to meet a lot of new people and make lots of new friends.

See y'all in Philly!

James M. Cain on Words and Writing

"The only way I can keep on the track at all is to pretend to be somebody else – to put it in dialect and thus get it told. If I try to do it in my own language I find that I have none. A style that seems to be personal enough for ordinary gassing refuses to get going for an imaginary narrative. So long as I merely report what people might have said under certain circumstances, I am all right; but the moment I have to step in myself, and try to create the impression that what happened to those people really matters, then I am sunk. I flounder about, not knowing whether I should skip to the scene at the church or pile in a little more of the talk at the post office. The reason is...I don't care what happened. It doesn't matter to me. Narratively, I do not exist, I have no impulse to hold an audience."

--James M. Cain, quoted in The Baby In the Icebox and Other Short Fiction, ed. Roy Hoopes.