Saturday, October 18, 2014

Brooklyn Leads the Way

100-year-old Brooklyn math teacher who refuses to retire says she ‘can’t sit back and do nothing’

Ghost Wanted -- Carolyn Hart

Bailey Ruth is a vivacious red-headed ghost who serves in Heaven's Department of Good Intentions, overseen by a ghost named Wiggins, who occasionally send Bailey Ruth to Oklahoma to right wrongs.  There are strict rules for such jobs, all of which Bailey Ruth ignores at one time or another, though probably never so quickly as she does in Ghost Wanted.  

This time, there's another ghost, Lorraine Marlow, who'd chosen to remain on Earth rather than go to Heaven.  She passes her time sparking romances between library patrons by leaving them roses.  Unfortunately, someone else has started leaving roses and engaging in a bit of vandalism.  And this leads to murder.  Bailey Ruth teams up with Lorraine to help out the young woman falsely accused of the crime, while at the same time Bailey Ruth is trying to bring Lorraine and Wiggins together after the many long earthly years that have separated them.  

This is a great concoction with humor and romance as well as murder and a dangerous killer on the loose.  If you're looking for some fine seasonal entertainment with amusing ghosts rather than blood and gore, it's right here.  Check it out. 

Are Writers Born or Made?

Are Writers Born or Made? Jack Kerouac on the Crucial Difference Between Talent and Genius

Song of the Day

Paul Simon Track 1 - Mother & Child Reunion - YouTube:

Or Maybe You Did

11 Book Sequels You Probably Didn't Know Existed

Today's Vintage Ad


Forgotten Hits: 50 Years Ago This Weekend

Forgotten Hits: 50 Years Ago This Weekend ... and ... The Saturday Surveys (October 18th)

PaperBack



Brian Shaw, Ships of Vero, Curtis Warren, 1952

Uh-Oh

Bewitched reboot in the works

The Weird Week in Review

The Weird Week in Review 

12 Celebrity #TBT Photos You May Have Missed This Week

One photo might be considered slightly unsafe for work.

12 Celebrity #TBT Photos You May Have Missed This Week

Bid Early and Often

Outtakes From The "Abbey Road" Album Cover Are Being Auctioned Off Next Month

Friday, October 17, 2014

Neil Patrick Harris: By the Book

Neil Patrick Harris: By the Book 

Free for Kindle for a Limited Time

Primal Fear - Kindle edition by William Diehl. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.: Martin Vail, the brilliant "bad-boy" lawyer every prosecutor and politician loves to hate, is defending Aaron Stampler, a man found holding a bloody butcher's knife near a murdered archbishop. Vail is certain to lose, but Vail uses his unorthodox ways to good advantage when choosing his legal team--a tight group of men and women who must uncover the extraordinary truth behind the archbishop's slaughter. They do, in a heart-stopping climax unparalleled for the surprise it springs on the reader.

Latest AHMM Podcast

PodOmatic | Best Free Podcasts: Kathy Lynn Emerson reads her story "The Kenduskeag Killer" from the April 2005 issue.

10 Perplexing Mysteries That Were Only Recently Solved

10 Perplexing Mysteries That Were Only Recently Solved

Song of the Day

Back to the Island / Leon Russell - YouTube:

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Wisconsin man accused of throwing dildos at teenage girls

8 Movies That Started Shooting Without a Completed Script

8 Movies That Started Shooting Without a Completed Script

Today's Vintage Ad


First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Florida woman scratches boyfriend badly in fight over bed covers

PaperBack



Jack Webb, The Damned Lovely, Signet, 1955

Bid Early and Often

Will John Lennon’s “Paperback Writer” Guitar Be a Million-Dollar Seller?

When Coonskin Caps Were Cool

When Coonskin Caps Were Cool

My mother was definitely cool!  My sister obviously approved.

30 Beautiful Vintage Dust Jackets

Jungle Girl by Edgar Rice Burroughs30 Beautiful Vintage Dust Jackets

Tim Hauser, R. I. P.

VVN Music: Tim Hauser, the only member of the Manhattan Transfer to have been with the group from their forming until today, died on Thursday from an undisclosed cause. He was 72.

A Forgotten Anthology Series

Vintage Treasures: Orbit 3, edited by Damon Knight

A Forgotten Detective Series

Michael Stone’s Streeter

Another Forgotten Book

Red Queen, White Queen by Henry Treece

A Forgotten Writer

theguardian.com: RA Lafferty might just be the most important science-fiction writer you've never heard of.

FFB: R. A. Lafferty -- Strange Doings

Let me say a good word about Donald A. Wollheim.  Others might have bad words to say, but here he was a huge figure in the SF field.  Just check out this Wikipedia entry on his work as an editor, and you'll see what I mean.  He was a man who published writers that other editors seemed to have little interest in.  At Ace Books, he published the first novels by Philip K. Dick, Samuel R. Delany, and R. A. Lafferty, to name three, and he published the first collections of stories by Dick and Lafferty.  When he established DAW Books, he continued to publish Dick and Rafferty (and of course many others).

R. A. Lafferty's work isn't easy to describe.  In fact, I think most people just give up, so I won't even try.  Let's just say that you're not likely to run across any other stories like Lafferty's stories.  They're quite readable but deeply odd or oddly deep or both.  I've read three of four of his novels, and they're even harder to describe.  The other day I had a hankering to reacquaint myself with some of his stories, so I pulled this little volume off the shelf.  It contains 16 stories, and I wanted to read "Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas" again.  It's a story about a census taker who does his job all too well, told very much like a tall tale, but not like any tall tale you've ever heard before.  While I had the book down, I reread "Continued on Next Rock," a story about some archaeologists who have among their number a very strange woman and who are joined by an even stranger man.  It's about unrequited love, among other things.  There's archaeology, too.  I couldn't resist reading "Ride a Tin Can," which is something you definitely won't want to do after reading the story.  "Rainbird" is a time-travel story.  You've never heard of Higgston Rainbird, and after you read the story, you'll know why.  

If you've never read Rafferty, this collection would be a good starting place.  I couldn't reach my copy of Nine Hundred Grandmothers.  That might be even better.

Strange Doings -- Table of Contents:
Rainbird.
Camels and dromedaries, Clem.
Continued on next rock.
Once on Aranea.
Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas.
The man with the speckled eyes.
All but the words.
The transcendent tigers.
World abounding.
Dream.
Ride a tin can.
Aloys.
Entire and perfect chrysolite.
Incased in ancient rind.
The ugly sea.
Cliffs that laughed.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest

Amazon.com: Guns of November (Fight Card) eBook: Jack Tunney, Joseph Grant, Paul Bishop, Carl Yonder: Kindle Store: November, 1963...Sent to Dallas by Attorney General Robert Kennedy to investigate the disappearance of a boxer connected to a major Civil Rights violation, FBI Special Agent Jim Gregory finds himself desperately trading punches with those plotting to change the course of history.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Idaho Man, 52, Arrested For Battering Female Victim With A Burrito

Yes, I Am.

Are you among the world's wealthiest?: If you have $3,650, you’re among the wealthiest half of people in the world, according to Credit Suisse's new report on global wealth.

Song of the Day

Canned Heat - Going Up The Country - YouTube:

Dracula: “I Vant to be a Star”

Dracula: “I Vant to be a Star”

Today's Vintage Ad


10 Plague Novels

10 Plague Novels That Will Not Help You Deal with the Ebola Virus 

25 Of Oscar Wilde's Wittiest Quotes

25 Of Oscar Wilde's Wittiest Quotes for the 160th Anniversary of His Birth 

PaperBack



Basil Heatter, The Captain's Lady, Popular Library, 1950

I Want to Believe!

UFO photos published after 50 year cover-up (Video)

50 Best Films About Writers, Ranked

50 Best Films About Writers, Ranked

Uh-Oh

Crocodiles Use Teamwork to Trap Their Prey 

'Tremors 5' Officially Announced

'Tremors 5' Officially Announced (First Look!) -: The fifth heart-pounding installment in the action-packed sci-fi comedy-adventure franchise, Tremors 5 began principal photography in South Africa on September 22, Bloody Disgusting learned.

Croc Update

Toothy crocodylomorph of the Jurassic era was 30 feet long

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Elizabeth Pena, R. I. P.

Variety: Actress Elizabeth Pena, who appeared in “Modern Family” and “La Bamba,” died Oct. 14 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to her nephew, Latino Review writer Mario-Francisco Robles. She was 55.

Wanna Win a Demon?

Small Crimes: Win a Demon!

Free for Kindle for a Limited Time

The Scarlet Pimpernel (Everyman's Library Children's Classics) - Kindle edition by Baroness Orczy, Otto Penzler. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.: The breathtaking debut of the one man brave enough to stand up to the Reign of Terror 

The Revolution has begun, and the streets of Paris run red with blood. Every aristocrat has been declared a traitor; the guillotine awaits them all. At the city’s West Gate, the tyrannical Sergeant Bibot toys with desperate families, allowing them to think for a moment that escape is a possibility. It is not. Every last member of the nobility—man, woman, and child—will pay the ultimate price. 

Only one man stands in the way of the ruthless mobs. The Scarlet Pimpernel, his name taken from the flower he leaves as a calling card, has infiltrated Paris to bring as many innocent nobles to safety across the English Channel as he can. Savior of the aristocracy, scourge of the executioner, the Pimpernel is a hero like no other. But who is he? Marguerite Blakeney, whose dandy of a British husband has been nothing but a disappointment, would love to find out. 

This ebook features a new introduction by Otto Penzler and has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

Uh-Oh

3 More ‘Harry Potter’ Films Coming

Hat tip to Mike Stamm.

Feminist Writers on Books Every Man Should Read

Feminist Writers on Books Every Man Should Read

Song of the Day

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Fortunate Son - YouTube:

I Want to Believe!

They’re Out There – North America’s Top Five Cryptids   

Link via The Presurfer.

Today's Vintage Ad


“When Character Counts” (by Brendan DuBois)

“When Character Counts” (by Brendan DuBois) | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN

10 Science Fiction Authors Whose Books Just Kept Getting Stranger

10 Science Fiction Authors Whose Books Just Kept Getting Stranger  

Link via SF Signal.

PaperBack



William Manchester, Cairo Intrigue (aka Beard the Lion), Pocket Books, 1959


Yet Another List I'm Not On

The Finalists For The 2014 National Book Award

Paintings of Nick Cage as Pokémon

Paintings of Nick Cage as Pokémon

Yet Another List I'm Not On

Best Debut Novels Since 1950 

I Wanted to Believe!

German documentary claims Roswell UFO was Nazis

13 Must-Watch Horror Films From The Late 1930s

13 Must-Watch Horror Films From The Late 1930s

I Miss the Old Days

But not these old days.

What The World Was Like When The Class Of 2018 Was Born

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Yet Another List I'm Not On

But hooray for my friends (and former members of DAPA-Em) Steve Lewis and Janet Rudolph!

Mystery Reviews: Scroll down to see MYSTERY BLOGS TO FOLLOW

Free for Kindle for a Limited Time

The Thinking Machine - Kindle edition by Jacques Futrelle. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.: His name is Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, but to the newspapers he is known as “The Thinking Machine.” Slender, stooped, his appearance dominated by his large forehead and perpetual squint, Van Dusen spends his days in the laboratory and his nights puzzling over the details of extraordinary crimes. What seems beyond comprehension to the police is mere amusement to the professor. All things that start must go somewhere, he firmly believes, and with the application of logic, all problems can be solved.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Serbia v Albania suspended after ‘drone’ sparks brawl

How "Blanche On the Lam" Inspired Naomi Hirahara

How "Blanche On the Lam" Inspired Naomi Hirahara

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Southington man arrested after ‘aggressive’ mopping incident  

Hat tip to Toby O'Brien.

The Boy Who Killed Demons -- Dave Zeltserman

What if you woke up one day after you'd just turned 13 and realized that you could see demons?  You'd probably be pretty worried, and so is Henry Dudlow, whose journal makes up the text of The Boy Who Killed Demons.  Henry's very bright, but he's so worried that he does a lot of research on mental illness before he decides that he's really seeing demons.  These demons, by the way, appear to everyone else as normal human beings.  Henry sees them as they really are.

After deciding that he's not mentally ill, Henry has to make other decisions, like what to do about the demons.  He can't tell his parents, who are conventional types not likely to believe their son is seeing infernal creatures.  His classmates certainly wouldn't.  So Henry decides to go it alone.  He does a lot of research, both into demonology and into current events.  What he learns in the latter pursuit makes him realize that he has to kill as many of the demons as he can.  Doing that will require more than just bravery; it will require special knowledge and weaponry.

It's hard enough to be a teenager without having an extra burden like Henry's, and it costs him plenty in terms of his relationships with his parents, his friends, and his first girlfriend.  Not to mention the cops.

Henry's journal makes for a fast-moving story told in straightforward prose.  There's plenty of suspense and lots of chapter cliffhangers that make the book hard to put down.  Zeltserman comes up aces again, with just the book for your Halloween reading.  Check it out.

Bizarre ‘alien’ sea creature caught off Singapore

Bizarre ‘alien’ sea creature caught off Singapore   

Hat tip to Art Scott.

The Guy Who Played The Looney Tunes Theme

The Guy Who Played The Looney Tunes Theme Was Pretty Awesome 

Song of the Day

Ray Charles Willie Nelson Seven Spanish Angels(studio version) - YouTube:

Alvin Community College Leads the Way

Best Radio Station Houston 2014 - KACC 89.7 FM 

Today's Vintage Ad


Archaeology Update

Scottish Viking hoard is most spectacular and biggest of modern times say archaeologists

PaperBack



Philip Wylie, Danger Mansion, L. A. Bantam

I Want to Believe!

Cold fusion reactor verified by third-party researchers, seems to have 1 million times the energy density of gasoline

14 Must-Watch Horror Films From The 1960s

14 Must-Watch Horror Films From The 1960s

13 Must-Watch Horror Films From The 1950s

13 Must-Watch Horror Films From The 1950s

NYC Doesn't Lead the Way!

The Nation's Most Rat-Infested City Isn't The One You'd Guess  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Joe Lansdale Update

paulfry@sstpublications.co.uk…: BIRMINGHAM, UK, October 13, 2014 - Short, Scary Tales Publications (SST Publications) owner, Paul Fry is absolutely delighted to announce the signing of SST’s biggest deal to date. SST have acquired the exclusive comic/graphic novel rights to the entire series of best-selling and multiple award-winning author Joe R. Lansdale’s acclaimed “Hap and Leonard” crime books. The books will be adapted and illustrated by Finnish comic artist Jussi Piironen. They will be published as full-colour oversized hardcovers and also in oversized softcover and digital formats.

11 Must-Watch Horror Films From The 1940s

11 Must-Watch Horror Films From The 1940s

Horror Films of the Hollywood Pre-Code Era

Horror Films of the Hollywood Pre-Code Era 

Link via mental_floss.

Overlooked Movies: The Hospital

Want to watch a really scary movie this Halloween?  I have one for you.  The Hospital.  It's also very funny if you like your comedy the way you like your coffee, black and bitter.  I wouldn't recommend that you watch it before going into the hospital, any hospital, for surgery, which is when I saw it for the first time.  I almost canceled the appointment.  It won't give you any comfort if you fear medical treatment.  And while it was made more than 40 years ago, it's still right up to date.  Now that's really scary.

George C. Scott (who might be better here than in Patton) might be a failure as a husband and father, but he's a brilliant surgeon and a pretty fair hospital administrator.  He's suicidal, but still wants to do the right thing for the hospital and his patients.  Too bad the entire staff of doctors and nurses appears to be wacky, crazy, or uninterested.  And if that's not bad enough, there's the serial killer who's on the loose in the building.

Diana Rigg brings her father to the hospital, and when she meets Scott, it's clear that she's the free-spirited '70s woman who's going to save him.  She's really good in this, even if things don't quite work out for the couple.  Or maybe they do.  The ending is inconclusive.

The movie everybody seems to remember Paddy Chayefsky for is Network or maybe Marty.  I think it should be this one. 

The Hospital

The Hospital Official Trailer #1 - George C. Scott Movie (1971) HD - YouTube:

Monday, October 13, 2014

Yikes!

Write or Die: A Word Processing Program That Compels You to Keep Writing: If you stop typing, after a while, the program begins to delete what you've already written.

8 Terrifying Ghost Stories

8 Terrifying Ghost Stories - Kim Newman

Song of the Day

Mocedades "Eres Tu" (Remastered Audio) HD - YouTube:

The #1 Song the Beatles Turned Down

The #1 Song the Beatles Turned Down

Today's Vintage Ad


12 Celebs Who Look Just Like Their Famous Parents

12 Celebs Who Look Just Like Their Famous Parents

PaperBack



John Russell Fearn, Slaves of IjaxKaner Publishing, 1946

Don't Remove the Stake!

Telegraph: A skeleton with a stake driven through its chest has been unearthed in Bulgaria, in what archaeologists are terming a "vampire grave"

Thunderbirds Are Go!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1… Thunderbirds Are Go! as remake launches with a bang

Houston Doesn't Quite Lead the Way

America’s Favorite Cities 2014

I Want to Believe!

UFO refuels in jet chemtrail over Amsterdam (Video) 

New Poem at the Five-Two

The Five-Two: F.J. Bergmann QUESTIONING

I Want to Believe!

Giant crab has been spotted off British coast

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Find L.A.’s Mean Streets During Bouchercon

The Rap Sheet: Find L.A.’s Mean Streets During Bouchercon: There’s a special treat being planned for all of those people who expect to be in Long Beach, California, for the opening day of next month’s Bouchercon. The quirky “bus adventures” company Esotouric has scheduled a special, all-day Raymond Chandler tour of Los Angeles on Wednesday, November 12, expressly for early bird arrivals.

Free for Kindle for a Limited Time

Amazon.com: The Hunt (aka 27) eBook: William Diehl: Kindle Store: As the world trembles with the approach of World War II, a woman dies at the hands of Hitler's henchmen. Her murder forever changes her lover, Francis Scott Keegan, a relentless anti-Nazi mercenary, who becomes locked in a desperate cat-and-mouse game with the Third Reich's perfect spy, a man of a thousand faces. In an arena that encompasses presidents and gangsters, spies and sirens, the deadly present and the dark past, Keegan pursues his elusive quarry into the cutting edge of world events—and into the secret inner workings of a terrifying mission known only as "27."

Great Books, Great Sale!

.99 Cent Brash Books Super Sale! - Brash Books  

Sale ends tomorrow, 10/13/14

I Want to Believe!

Black triangle UFO spooking townsfolk of Shropshire, England 

A Nebraska Library's Human Scalp

Strange States: A Nebraska Library's Human Scalp 

Comic Strip of the Day

Link.

Song of the Day

Marty Robbins - There's Power In The Blood - YouTube:

Trial by Ordeal or No Deal

Trial by Ordeal or No Deal: No DNA. No fingerprints, No jury. For judges in medieval Europe, every trial was he said, she said. so they sometimes looked for divine intervention to determine guilt or innocence. If you were accused of a crime, you might be asked to prove your innocence through one of these ordeals.

Today's Vintage Ad


Science Misconceptions And Myths

Science Misconceptions And Myths 

PaperBack



Herman Melville, Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, Avon, 1956

Or Maybe You Will

26 Animals You Won't Believe Actually Exist

10 Popular Foods Once Considered Unfit (Or Barely Fit) To Eat

10 Popular Foods Once Considered Unfit (Or Barely Fit) To Eat

Val McDermid on mystery ideas.

Forensic science in crime novels: Val McDermid on mystery ideas.

Paris Hilton Update

Khloe Kardashian parties with Paris and Nicky Hilton in Dubai  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Archaeology Update

Ancient Basketmaker Village Found in Arizona Petrified Forest