Two Sentence Tuesday: Pulp Edition (30 June 2009)

One of the neatest things I picked up at Apollocon over the weekend was a collection of SF short stories published by Audio Text, AKA Infinivox. They recorded the best SF from 2008 and I listened to the first one this morning, "The Ray-Gun: A Love Story" by James Alan Gardner. The story is up for a Hugo and available online.

It's a charming story filled with good characterization and a pretty big sweep, human-wise. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Here's the opening twofer:

This is a story about a ray-gun. The ray-gun will not be explained except to say, "It shoots rays.

So simple. Yet, as the story progresses, there's a lot to this story, just under the surface. But the point is that you don't need to know how the ray gun works. It just does. A common theme I write about it that too often, writers think you want to know how certain things work. Isn't it good enough to know that it does and move on?

For my addition, I'm throwing up a few lines from my steampunk story. At the writer's workshop at Apollocon (discussion of the workshop coming soon at SF Safari where I'm blogging about the panels I attended), I received some good feedback. Patrice Sarath, the leader of my small group of five, liked my story but thought I should have started later in the chapter. For those keeping score, the opening sentences were these from a previous Twofer Tuesday. (If I'm not careful, I'll be submitting the entire chapter before long.) Here's her suggestion as to where the chapter really starts:

In fact, when the murderer had been thrown in his cell, Kionell remembered the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach and the sweat that almost instantly dampened his palms. He had cried out to the guards that he was innocent, that there must be some misunderstanding, that he was in the wrong cell. He even reached between the bars and swiped at the retreating guard’s back. All they had to do, Kionell screamed, was contact his master, Gregg Landingham.

This, of course, brings up other questions (why is Kionell in prison at all being the first one) but I'll fix all that later. One of my fellow reviewers, after reading what Serkis did to Kionell, considered Serkis 'crazy scary.' I smiled at that as I think the same thing.

If you want more Twofer goodness, the Women of Mystery blog is the place to be today.

Apollocon 2009

Over at SF Safari, I've started blogging about Apollocon 2009.

Enjoy.

Forgotten Books and Apollocon 2009

Alas, no forgotten book from me today. I'm prepping for the writer's workshop at Houston's Apollocon this weekend. I submitted the first chapter of my steampunk novel, the same one from which these sentences are a part. I'll blog about it next week, probably at SF Safari.

But Patti Abbot's blog is the place to be today. Head on over there for the complete list of titles that you're going to want to add to your List.

And be sure to check out SF Safari on Wednesday, 1 July, as I participate in Barrie Summy's Book Review Club. The title I'm reviewing: The Lies of Locke Lamora.

Upcoming reviews: Treasure Island and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Upcoming movie reviews: The Thing (1982), Up, Star Trek II

Upcoming questions to ponder: What makes a western a western?

Two Sentence Tuesday: Pulp Edition

After watching "They Were Expendable" the other night (my review), I'm still in the mood for World War II stories. Thus, I picked up Louis L'amour's Night over the Solomons (1986). I've never read any L'amour so, naturally, I start with a non-western. Go figure.

The title story was published in 1943 and, according to the author's note preceding the tale, had a bit of precognition (or coincidence) to it. The island in the story, Kolombangara, was the perfect place for the Japanese to build an airstrip. L'amour knew it from his time in the Pacific and, evidently, so did the Japanese.

Here's a twofer describing an action scene between the American hero, Mike Thorne, and a Japanese soldier. The "blade" in question is a bayonet at the end of the Japanese soldier's rifle.

"Instantly, Thorne slapped the blade aside with an open hand and moving in, dropped the other over his opponent, at the same time hooking a heel to trip him. With a quick push, he spilled him and snatched the rifle away."

What I like about this passage is the sheer amount of action contained in two sentences, especially the first. We modern writers are told to break out with short sentences to promote the action quicker. Not sure you always need to do that. L'amour does just fine his own way.

My twofer (slightly more, really) involves a supernatural western. In a bit of ironic timing, Chris over at the Louis L'amour Project, posed a question yesterday about 'supernatural westerns.' The timing is ironic since I was already working on one. So far, my two characters are contemplating a large pile of dung.

I indicated the dung pile. "I ain't never seen shit that big. What the hell kinda animal lays turds like that?"

Miller rose and spat. He tossed the wood down on the dung. The flies grew more irritated. Miller didn't care. He reached out and patted his horse on its neck.

"Not animal, Kendrick. Dragon."

We'll see where it goes.

For more twofer goodness, take a trip over to Women of Mystery.

BTW, I guess it's okay that I do these Two Sentence Tuesday posts as I am, not that I'm aware of, a woman.

"They Were Expendable" Movie Review

Back during Memorial Day, I taped a bunch of war movies that I haven't yet seen. Now, I can strike one from The Summer 2009 List.

"They Were Expendable" (1945) is a terrific film by John Ford and starring Robert Montgomery and John Wayne. It tells the story of a PT boat squad in the Philippines starting December 1941 and moving through the next year. Montgomery is the captain and Wayne the executive officer. The squad starts the picture with five boats (IIRC) and is trying to convince US Navy brass that the PT boat is a good fit for wartime activities, not merely ferrying messages back and forth.

As any student of history knows, the same day Pearl Harbor was attacked, the Japanese also attacked the Philippines. You get a sense of dread during the opening minutes of the film because you know (as well as the audiences in 1945 knew) what was about to happen. As the attack happened, Montgomery ordered his boats out of the docks in Manila Bay, away from Japanese dive bombers. His instincts proved true as his squad was the only boats still operating after the attack. I'm not sure if there were any conspiracy theories about FDR and Pearl Harbor by 1945 (that is, he intentionally kept our ships in port to provoke an attack and, thus, get the US into the war) but you could certainly see Montgomery's actions as such.

A good historical point made in the film was with Donna Reed. Not here, per se, but in the scenes, later in the film, with the officers of Montgomery's crew. When she came to dine with them--she a nurse still dressed in a one-piece khaki suit--the men stared at her googly eyed. You see, once our boys shipped over seas, most of our boys rarely saw an American woman. As one of the veterans said in Ken Burns' excellent "The War" series, the men sometimes had to be reminded of what they were fighting for. When a woman, especially an American, found her way into camp for whatever reason, the men remembered all that they needed to know.

That the movie takes place in the Philippines during 1941-42, I kept thinking "How can this picture end on a good note?" Most of the war pictures made during the war served the dual role of propaganda and moral booster. I was hard pressed how they were going to pull this one off, especially as the film wore on and the PT boat squad was ground down, boat by boat and man by man. Montgomery's crew got to see some action, none more perilous than taking none other than General Douglas MacArthur to an island with an air strip and, then onto Australia.

The closing shot of the film, the words flashed on screen, and the stirring music are worth the price of the film. According to IMDB, the film was released in December 1945, less than four months after the war ended.

Another historical aspect I appreciated with the film is how the characters operated under the giant machinery of war. Each man knew he was but a mere cog. Some cogs are more important than others and all the characters seemed resigned to their fate. there's a great, yet somber, scene with Montgomery and a superior officer. The officer explains what's what and the meaning of sacrifice (in the baseball sense). The true meaning of his words is not lost on Montgomery, the superior officer, or the viewing audience. Indeed, as the film ends, you don't know the fates of all the characters, something I found perfect for a film like this.

On the back of the DVD case, Leonard Maltin comments that this movie is one of the best all-time war movies ever made. I'm inclined to agree with him.

Forgotten Books: The History of Mystery by Max Allan Collins

(Another entry in Patti Abbott's continuing Forgotten Book Fridays. Head on over to her blog for the complete list.)

For folks like me, without the complete knowledge of mystery and crime fiction imprinted on our DNA, Max Allan Collins is a godsend. He has written The History of Mystery, a nice non-fiction book that traces the origins of crime fiction from the late 1800s until the 2000s. It's a large book, coming in at almost 12 inches square. That's perfect for what this book does best: present old paperback covers and movie art in a large canvas.

Starting with Edgar Allan Poe's C. Auguste Dupin, Collins discusses how the Pinkerton Detective Agency's real exploits gave rise to the dime novels in the 1890s and 1900s. When I read this book, I didn't realize Nick Carter was such an old character. There is, of course, an entire chapter on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes (natch) until you hit pay dirt: The Pulp Fiction Chapter. Here you've got gorgeous covers of the 1920s and 1930s: True Detective, Argosy, Detective Story Magazine, and, of course, Black Mask. All the main pulp characters are here: The Shadow, The Phantom Detective, The Spider, The Avenger, and others. As a reader, I drooled over all the livid covers of these great magazines. As a writer, I wised they were still being printed.

Dashiell Hammett and Erle Stanley Gardner each get their own sections. With the renewed interest in Cool and Lam mysteries throughout this Forgotten Book Group, it is nice to see the duo get an entire two-page spread complete with an original cover from Top of the Heap, the Cool and Lam story reprinted by Hard Case Crime.

Mystery comics are represented here. Besides the obvious Batman and Dick Tracy, there is Perry Mason (?), The Saint, and Collins' own Ms. Tree, among others. Agatha Christie opens a two chapter section on cozier stories, including folks like Father Brown, Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew, and the books of John Dickson Carr. Charlie Chan lands here as does Lillian Jackson Brown's Cat stories.

Once you hit the 1950s and 1960s, this is where paperback characters (Mike Hammer, Shell Scott, etc.) and those wonderfully lurid paperback covers take over the book. Again, drool commences. The ends with a section on TV detectives (Rockford, Harry-O, Magnum, and Jessica Fletcher) and some modern authors (Estleman, Francis).

All in all, if you want a nice, short (under 200pp) book with lots of fabulous covers and rare artwork, this is a good book to have. It's a coffee table book. Buy it and just set it out as a conversation piece. You'll likely find a whole lot of other people who love this stuff, too.

Bette Davis, "The Star," and Modern Older Actresses

My wife and I watched the 1952 Bette Davis film "The Star" last night. Davis is my wife's favorite actresses so I'm always up for a Davis film. The plot of "The Star" shows an older actress who fears her career is over but can't accept it.

"The Star" isn't the first film by Davis with this kind of theme. I've seen "All About Eve" and there might be more. "Sunset Boulevard" is another that comes to mind. And it's all about the ladies, older actresses who suddenly find themselves too old for the parts being written. It's a commentary on aging as well as the Hollywood system.

You never hear about this from the male side of the ledger.

So here's my question: I can't think of a modern film with a theme like this. Are there any? Or did the demise of the Hollywood contract system make films like this unnecessary? And what do you think about "older" actresses nowadays and the roles they get/don't get?

"Wallander" on PBS: "One Step Behind"

Through quirks in scheduling, HoustonPBS aired the third, and final, Wallander episode last night. "One Step Behind" is probably the best of the lot (here's my take on part one) in terms of mystery content that twists and turns.

We see three young people, dressed in vintage attire, having a picnic in the woods. Enter murderer and we now have three corpses. Enter Kenneth Branagh's Kurt Wallander, who, as usual, needs a good night's sleep and a bath. He and colleague Karl Svedberg are scoping license plates on cars coming off a ferry looking for stolen cars. Boring work. Svedberg tells Wallander that his personal life is starting to impinge on his work life. Wallander all but ignores the comment.

A day later, the mother of one of the young people comes to the station demanding answers. Svedberg is the detective on the case so Wallander looks for him. He's not there. Arriving at Svedberg's apartment, Wallander finds his collegue dead.

From here, Wallander and the rest of the team start investigating their colleague's murder and the disappearance (soon to be murder) of the three teens. What marks this episode as the best of the three is the personal relationships, or lack thereof. We learn, through Wallander's tortured eyes, that he really didn't know Svedberg at all despite working with him for ten years. Niether did any of the other co-workers. Wallander ponders his own relationships and, again, realizes he has no life outside work. It's a sad commentary on modern society where walls are erected that are so strong, nothing can break them down, not even the cries of friends.

Knowing he might get in trouble, Svedberg left Wallander some clues and, when Wallender pieces them all together, even I didn't see the ending coming. Well, I saw the ultimate end coming but not the big twist. I could say that the twist is like XYZ movie but, by doing that, the entire show would be given away. It' too good an episode to do that to you.

This episode is my favorite kind of mystery: something that, at the beginning, seems so tiny and small is really just a thread of a much larger canvas. And, once at the end of the story, the main character is changed.

I enjoyed all three Wallander episodes and I'm happy they're going to make more. Here is a link to PBS's Wallander page. Have a look and see if you can't catch some of them this summer. You'll certainly enjoy them.

Forgotten Books: Uncommon Grounds by Mark Pendergrast

(This is my latest installment to Patti Abbott’s Friday Forgotten Books. Head on over to her blog for the complete list.)

I love coffee. No, not the brown, tasteless sludge you find in offices worldwide or the dreck you buy in supermarkets. I’m talking real coffee. I love looking at the beans and seeing the color of the roasted bean, knowing what kind of brew it will make. I love going to coffee stores and discussing coffee, especially the country where the beans were grown and knowing the characteristics of different regional beans and roasts. I love the smell of freshly-ground beans, an intoxicating aroma the is at once earthy and industrial. I love the dark, frothy elixir you get when you make coffee using a French press. I love looking at the surface of my coffee in my mug, catching the light, and seeing the slick oil floating on the surface. I love slurping hot, black coffee (yes, slurping) and bringing in some air to accentuate the flavor of the coffee on my tongue.

I just love coffee. Mark Pendergrast does too and he wrote a book about it: Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World. The book opens in a place I’d love to visit: a coffee plantation in Guatemala. The intricate care Pendergrast takes when he describes the plantation literally puts you there, right next to him. From there, he takes you on a tour of time and history as he lays out the origins of coffee in Ethiopia (dancing goats anyone?) up to the modern faux coffeehouse experience of Starbucks and its imitators.

In a history we kind of know tangentially, it’s interesting to note when certain persons or things (Jim Folger, Maxwell House, Sanka) step on the coffee’s stage. Perhaps the keenest pleasure is learning the origins of certain phrases we’ve heard and used all our lives (depending on how old you are). Take Maxwell House’s “Good to the last drop” slogan. According to legend, Teddy Roosevelt is said to have uttered the famous phrase that became synonymous with the brand. Who can argue with TR?

It’s not all about selling. Pendergrast also writes about the social undercurrent of coffee and the revolutionary tendency prevalent in European coffeehouses across the centuries. He relates in detail the economics of coffee growing and production, the poor conditions of the growers and the opulent riches of the sellers. Even during these slower passages where you just get numbers, it’s not boring. It’s fascinating to learn all the details of what is basically a worldwide drug.

Pendergrast closes the book by describing how to brew perfect coffee. Other than roasting my own coffee beans, he and I pretty much make our coffee the same way. Uncommon Grounds is a wonderful book for any coffee connoisseur. If you’re not yet a connoisseur, you will be by the end of this book. I recommend the book highly.

And this from a tea guy.

The Lost Art of the Mix Tape

I love my iPod nano (3rd generation). I love being able to stuff 1500 songs on it, in various carefully-crafted playlists, and then hit random. It's my own DJ.

Now that summer's here, I made myself a "Summer 2009" MP3 CD. I've crammed 156 songs onto it. All of them have the feel of summer to me. I include everything from old Chicago (really?!) And the first thing I do when I put the CD into my player in my car (after rolling down the windows, mind you) is push random. Viola! Instant 'radio.'

However, there's still something to be said for the art of putting a certain number of songs together on a CD. You know what I'm talking about: taking one song into account, the instrumentation, the vocals, the tempo, and pairing it up with another like-minded song (or not, depending on how you make mix CDs). I've always enjoyed it. For the first six years of this decade, I made myself "Year's Best" CDs where I spread the 27 or so songs over two audio CDs. (Back then, I didn't have an MP3 CD player in my car.) I haven't done it in awhile and I thought I'd give it a go with my summer music. Thus, from the 156 song collection of Summer Songs, comes this specific playlist.

-Steve McQueen by Sheryl Crow - It was this or "Soak up the Sun" so I went with the guitar rock riff. And, besides, it's about friggin' Steve McQueen.

-Come to Me, Do by Chicago - The best song from Chicago 30, this sunny, summery tune will put a smile on your face no matter how bad your day is. It's like a Mountain Dew commercial. The horns are judiciously used and really make the song.

-Girls in Their Summer Clothes by Bruce Springsteen - This is the Boss in full Phil Spector mode: strings, bari sax, and a broad singing not found in Bruce's early days. You can feel the sunlight on your face with this song.

-Sister Lost Soul by Alejandro Escovedo - A mid-tempo song from arguably my favorite new discovery from last year, this features some of his string quartet work. A song you'd hear driving just after dusk any summer night.

-Slow Burn by David Bowie - The first single (do they call them that anymore?) off his brilliant 2002 album, its got Pete Townsend on guitar and a rougher edge than Bowie's other recent work. The second of my older male singer mini-trilogy who can really hold out long notes.

-The Road by Tom Jones - Tom Jones released his latest CD late last year and it's wonderful. This is a mid-tempo ballad that makes use of Jones's incredible voice. He holds back a bit which makes the tune all the much better. This is a driving-in-California song.

-Hey Eugene by Pink Martini - Another new discover from last year, this quirky tune has got some background brass and fun singing by the female lead. Definitely a late-night, post-club song when all you want to do is regain your hearing after hours in a club.

-This Life by Springsteen - Arguably, the sequel to "Girls in Their Summer Clothes," Clarence Clemons' solo to the fade-out is gorgeous. This is the kind of song you'd hear on a remake of American Graffiti.

-Same Time Next Year by "Chicago" - Keith Howland, guitarist for Chicago, wrote this song about touring every summer. Jason Scheff (current singer/bassist) sings and all the horn players are here. If CHI were to write songs like this, you'd get some folks saying "Wow. Chicago's back."

-Viva la Vida by Coldplay - Jumping back to the 80s sound with this one. It's the kind of song that should have been featured in a John Hughes film when the guy finally figures out he wants the girl and is running through the city, avoiding everything, to tell her.

-Lead Me On by Amy Grant - My favorite Grant song. Period. Sure, it sounds like the 80s but it's aged well. If the Hughes film featured a female lead, this is the tune *she'd* be running to.

-Keep Talking by Pink Floyd - The opening minute or so is the kind of music you'd hear in a documentary of Africa as dawn broke over the Serengeti. The guitar work, like almost all Floyd, is the soundtrack to summer nights.

-If You're Gone by Matchbox 20 - No surprise here that I pick the most Chicago-sounding tune Rob Thomas has ever made. Gotta love that horn break.

-Hollywood Nocturne by Brian Setzer Orchestra - Oh, does this song drip 1930s LA. Bari sax solo, mysterious lyrics, and kick-ass guitar, this is a noir movie in song.

-Follow Me by Pat Metheny Group - Metheny is always airy and breezy, the epitome of summer. Here, his solo is on the synth guitar. And the vocals (no words) evoke that midday heat burning down on you.

-The Obvious Child by Paul Simon - The opening, drum-laden track from 1991's Rhythm of the Saints (follow up to Graceland), this song's lush with the world music vibe. I dare you NOT to start moving with those drums playing.

-Inching Towards... by The Howland/Imboden Project - Chicago's drummer (Imboden) and Howland made a modern fusion/rock/instrumental CD. This track features Robert Lamm on piano and Chicago's trombonist, Jimmy Pankow, playing a Latin song with rock elements. Pankow's solo is reminiscient of his early avade-guarde (yes, I'm using that word) work on Chicago III and VII and Howland's guitar work is subtle and in-your-face simultaneously. This instrumental closes out the CD and always makes me want more.

So, do y'all have some favorite albums/songs that are quintessentially summer? And do y'all still make mix tapes/CDs?

Four!

Four Movies You Can See Over and Over

Raiders of the Lost Ark
To Kill a Mockingbird
Back to the Future
A Few Good Men


Four Places You Have Lived

Houston, TX (born; current)
Austin, TX (College)
Denton, TX (grad school)
Kent, OH (my POW time, AKA grad school) ;-)


Four TV Shows You Love to Watch

Lost
Project Runway (yes, really)
The Wire
The X-Files


Four Places You Have Been on a Vacation

DisneyWorld (4x)
Legoland/San Diego
Portland, OR/Seattle, WA
Guatemala (mission trip)

Four of Your Favorite Foods

Fajitas
Breakfast (eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns, toast)
Hamburgers
Spaghetti


Four Websites You Visit Daily

The Rap Sheet
Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine
SF Signal
Entertainment Weekly

Four Places You Would Rather Be

Caribbean beach
Spain
DisneyWorld
Southern California

Four Things You Hope to Do Before You Die

Publish more than one novel
Watch my son graduate from HS and college
Meet my daughter-in-law and grandchild/children
Go on a culinary tour of Italy and Spain with my wife

Four Novels You Wish You Were Reading for the First Time

Star Wars (novelization)
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Tag Four People You Believe Will Respond
Most already have.