Angler spent night with crocodile under his bed after catching it while out fishing on his birthday
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Friday, May 24, 2013
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
Amazon.com: The Guns of Retribution eBook: Icy Sedgwick: Kindle Store: The search for a murderous outlaw has brought the long roving Grey O'Donnell near to his hometown of Retribution, Arizona. Bounty hunters might not be popular but old fashioned manners, kindness to regular folk and a face for the ladies make Grey an exception when he rides into town. Grey has a job to do, upholding the law when others won't, but the odious Jasper Roberts has made himself Sheriff of Retribution and he has a score to settle with Grey. Jasper isn't going to let morals or the law get in the way of a good hanging and the townsfolk are cowed by their villainous lawman. Can you really mess with a man's momma and get away with it? Sometimes there is more than one bullet with your name on it.
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
American Ghoul: Walt Morton: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: AMERICAN GHOUL tells the story of seventeen-year-old Howard Pickman, a boy with odd problems. He just got dumped into the worst high school in the state of New Jersey, but that's nothing compared to his secret family history of digging up corpses for dinner. This is a novel filled with the creepy funkiness of the 1970s, a bygone age of punk rock, bad disco and muscle cars roaring through hot summer nights. AMERICAN GHOUL explores the good times of teenage friendships and the darkness at the heart of American youth. It's a fun, scary, and zany look at a time when being a teenager was so dangerous you just might have to be a monster in order to survive. AMERICAN GHOUL is recommended for readers from age 13 on up. If you lived through the 1970s, a few flashbacks are guaranteed, both pleasant and shocking.
Forgotten Books: Blackburn -- Bradley Denton
While I'm calling this a forgotten book, I doubt that anyone who's read it has forgotten it. Can it really have been 20 years since it was published? Wow, that's scary. Seems like only a couple of weeks ago.
Jimmy Blackburn is a killer. He kills only people who, in his judgment, deserve to die, like oil-change scam artists, crooked encyclopedia salesmen, people who kill dogs. He doesn't stay in one place very long, as you can imagine. As he travels, he occasionally manages to fit in somewhere, but not for long. Somebody always needs to be killed.
Blackburn winds up where any killer might, and I won't go into that. The circumstance of just how he gets there are complicated, and the ending even offers a hint that Blackburn might have found what he was looking for on his travels. Some of Blackburn's early life is brought out in flashbacks to his childhood. Denton's not saying the character's upbringing made him a killer. He's just showing the casual cruelty and inhumanity that can be found anywhere, including a small town in Kansas. Sometimes our end is our beginning, maybe.
Bradley Denton tells his story in straightforward prose, unadorned by any frills. It's a very effective method. Oh, and I should mention that as grim as the subject matter is, and as terrible some of the events are, parts of this book are hilarious. You'll laugh even if you don't think you should. Trust me.
There are several other stories about Blackburn. "Blackburn's Lady" is one of them. You can read it here. "Blackburn Bakes Cookies" is another. It's here. And "Blackburn and the Blade" can be found here. All are recommended.
Jimmy Blackburn is a killer. He kills only people who, in his judgment, deserve to die, like oil-change scam artists, crooked encyclopedia salesmen, people who kill dogs. He doesn't stay in one place very long, as you can imagine. As he travels, he occasionally manages to fit in somewhere, but not for long. Somebody always needs to be killed.
Blackburn winds up where any killer might, and I won't go into that. The circumstance of just how he gets there are complicated, and the ending even offers a hint that Blackburn might have found what he was looking for on his travels. Some of Blackburn's early life is brought out in flashbacks to his childhood. Denton's not saying the character's upbringing made him a killer. He's just showing the casual cruelty and inhumanity that can be found anywhere, including a small town in Kansas. Sometimes our end is our beginning, maybe.
Bradley Denton tells his story in straightforward prose, unadorned by any frills. It's a very effective method. Oh, and I should mention that as grim as the subject matter is, and as terrible some of the events are, parts of this book are hilarious. You'll laugh even if you don't think you should. Trust me.
There are several other stories about Blackburn. "Blackburn's Lady" is one of them. You can read it here. "Blackburn Bakes Cookies" is another. It's here. And "Blackburn and the Blade" can be found here. All are recommended.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Steve Forrest, R. I. P.
Steve Forrest, star of TV’s ‘S.W.A.T.,’ dead at 87� - NY Daily News: The TV action series "S.W.A.T." only ran for 37 episodes in 1975-76, but it left a permanent imprint on popular culture and a big part of that mark was Lt. Dan "Hondo" Harrelson, played by Steve Forrest.
Forrest died last Saturday in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He was 87 and no cause of death was announced.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
CBS Pittsburgh: A couple face charges after police in York County say they stabbed each other during an argument over which contestant should win ‘American Idol.’
Neil Brittlebank: Meet the man who collects rare bricks
Metro News: Some people collect stamps, others coins and trainspotters have to accumulate engine numbers – but have you ever heard of anyone collecting bricks?
Sure I have. My father collected bricks. I suspect he had more than 1000. That was a long time gone, but they're probably still where he put them all those years ago.
Sure I have. My father collected bricks. I suspect he had more than 1000. That was a long time gone, but they're probably still where he put them all those years ago.
Booker International Prize Winner
NPR: American author Lydia Davis was awarded the Man Booker International Prize, worth about $90,000, at a ceremony Wednesday in London. Davis is renowned for her works of (very) short fiction. One story, "Samuel Johnson Is Indignant," reads in its entirety: "that Scotland has so few trees." Another, called "Certain Knowledge from Herodotus" says, "These are the facts about the fish in the Nile:"
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Finally Available in all eBook Formats!
Amazon.com: Shotgun Saturday Night - A Dan Rhodes Mystery (Dan Rhodes Mysteries) eBook: Bill Crider: Kindle Store: Sheriff Dan Rhodes knows it's going to be a bad day when Bert Ramsey arrives at the jail with a neatly wrapped arm and lays it on Dan's desk. He has another out in the truck, he tells the sheriff, and "a couple of legs, too, but they don't match up." To Rhodes's relief, the severed limbs—part of a large cache Bert has discovered while clearing brush—are not evidence of a mass murderer at large in Blacklin County, but something more on a par with the usual emergencies the Texas lawman has to deal with: cows loose in the churchyard, ninety-year-old Mrs. Thurman's periodic attacks of "blindness" (which Rhodes cures by sending out a deputy with fresh light bulbs), and the like. Meanwhile, back at the jail, his attenuated employees are bristling about the new deputy, a highly qualified police officer, but a woman, and the air conditioner has collapsed during the heat wave. Plus his personal life has its own problems; does he or does he not want to marry Ivy Daniel?
Carol Burnett Update
Carol Burnett to receive Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the Kennedy Center: “I can’t believe I’m getting a humor prize from the Kennedy Center,” Burnett said in a statement. “It’s almost impossible to be funnier than the people in Washington.”
Why Don't They Just Buy Him a Tinfoil Hat?
Man ‘Controlled By Satellites’ Makes 100 Calls To 911 In A Month, Vows To Continue : “My brain, I can feel it starting. I’m blasted by the signals, every couple of minutes,” he said. “I yell and I scream, ‘Stop it, I don’t need this,’ but they never listen.”
Trevor Bolder, R. I. P.
The Raw Story: Trevor Bolder, the bass guitarist in David Bowie’s Spiders From Mars band, has died at the age of 62 following a battle with cancer, it was announced Wednesday.
Bolder joined the British rock star’s backing group in 1971, appearing on classic albums including “Hunky Dory” and “Aladdin Sane”.
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