Random Boasting

I'm happy to say that Big Daddy Thug over at Thug Lit has chosen my short story "Kill Posse" for his upcoming ThugLit Presents: Hardcore Hard-boiled anthology which Kensington will publish next year. You the man, Todd. Thanks!

Happy Birthday, Duke

John Wayne would have been 100 years old today, and Turner Classic Movies has been showing a few of his films in tribute. I used to think it was not Wayne's job to "act" in a film. It was his job to be John Wayne. Certainly he's not what you might call a classically trained Shakespearean actor. Later, when I became more familiar with Wayne's work, I found I needed to give him a bit more respect as an actor.

That's not to say he should play Hamlet or be cast in the lead of Death of a Salesman. For the life of me I cannot remember which film featured a drunken Dean Martin as a co-star and which featured a drunken Robert Mitchum as co-star. Many of these cowboy flicks run together. But within a certain range, Wayne was actually quite talented and generally quite smart about the roles he accepted. If you watch In Harm's Way, The Searchers and The Quiet Man all in a row, you'll see he's asked to do something just a little different in each film, and he does it quite well. Like I said, he's not Olivier, but he does a little more than just stumble around calling people Pilgrim.

The three films mentioned above are probably my favorite Wayne pictures. You can throw in True Grit and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon as honorable mentions. I'd love to hear your favorites too.

In case any of you swinging hep-cats forgot how to be wicked cool

The First Annual Box of Wine Writers Summit Invitational comes to an end

The bag are packed. The wine is drunk. The writing has been written. All in all it was a successful event.

Things written:

chunks of a novel
small chunk of screenplay
short story

Things eaten:

burgers
chicken wings
gumbo
jambalaya
catfish
shrimp
pizza
fajitas

things imbibed:

box wine
light beer


See you next year.

First Annual Box of Wine Writers Summit Invitational ... festivities continue

The conference was priveleged to host a special presentation by wine maker Sean Mondavi.

Try an Amazon Experiment ... at the very least You'll end up owning a cool as hell book

I've already mentioned what a great book Vicki Hendricks's Cruel Poetry is. A stunning noir novel with rich characters, a compelling story and steamy poke poke. If you're planning to buy it (and you should) then try this: purchase it from Amazon.com on May 25th. Word on the street is that even a modest number of purchases on the same day will do nice things to the Amazon ranking. As you know authors often struggle with ways to get the word out and promote their books. I know I'm always trying to think of new ways. So let's give this a try. And you won't be sorry. It's a hell of a novel.

First Annual Box of Wine Writers Summit Invitational -- Opening Ceremonies

The highlight of the Opening Ceremonies was when Sean Doolitte had a putt for Eagle on the Par 5 12th. Although he barely missed the putt, he had a nice tap-in for birdie. Also, we're doing some writing.