La Ronde 7

And once again it's Tuesday and time for part seven of Patti Abbott's round robin story. This week's chapter is brought to you by Eric Beetner in a story titled, "Mirror Image" You can find it here http://ericbeetner.blogspot.com/2010/11/la-ronde.html

Anthology Reviews

"Glitter Rose" is a single author collection by Marianne dePierres and reviewed by Charles Tan. http://charles-tan.blogspot.com/2010/11/book-review-glitter-rose-by-marianne-de.html I was looking for an online short story that I could link to for this author but found that most of her stories are in print venues. You can find out more about her at http://www.mariannedepierres.com/

I've been a fan of Kate Thornton's short fiction for a long time. She's one of those writers who unfolds such gentle stories that the readers are always surprised to find themselves crushed under the noirish endings that they rarely see coming. Her single author collection is called "Inhuman Condition: Tales of Mystery and Imagination" and reviewed by Jackie Houchin http://tinyurl.com/2a4bzp7 If you'd like a taste of Kate's writing drop on over to A Twist of Noir and read her story, "Part-Time Job" http://a-twist-of-noir.blogspot.com/2010/06/twist-of-noir-485-kate-thornton.html

And last is for an older anthology called "Tequila Sunrise" by Michael Bracken and reviewed by Kevin Tipple as part of Patti Abbott's Forgotten Books series. http://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2010/11/fridays-forgotten-books-tequila-sunrise.html
Though this story isn't about the same PI featured in the collection, you can get a taste for Michael's PI stories with his short, "My Client's Wife" http://www.thrillingdetective.com/fiction/07_06_03.html

If you haven't looked through The Thrilling Detective's fiction archives, you really ought to. The collection of authors on this site is simply amazing. Fans of Ray Banks', Cal Innes, will find several short stories featuring Cal. You will also find stories from Dave White, Laura Lippman, and Duane Swierczynski, just to name a few of the great authors. So go, take a read through the archives. http://www.thrillingdetective.com/fiction/index.html There's no better way to acquaint yourself with an author's work than through their short stories.

Some Friday Linkage

Just a bit of linkage today.

This one is about Westerns, McCarthy vs McMurtry in particular, but there are many others as well. This link came through the Rara Avis group. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-11-10/cormac-mccarthy-vs-larry-mcmurtry-best-western-novelist/full

Brian Lindenmuth sent me a pair a links about writing. The first is how to make your writing memorable, the second is about cardboard villains. Thanks, Brian!

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/communication-central/201011/when-you-communicate-are-you-memorable

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/psychology-writers/201010/cardboard-cutouts-make-rotten-villains

Over at Booklife Now, Jeff Vandermeer has an excellent essay on rejuvenating you imagination. http://booklifenow.com/2010/11/just-breathe-rejuvenating-your-imagination/

If you enjoy listening, Steve Steinbock has just the thing for you. This week he's hosting a forum on hard-boiled heroes over at the Audio Book Community. You can find the various links and all the details here http://criminalbrief.com/?p=14642 And hey, there's free downloads of 2 minute noir!

Damn!

Back in August I posted a link to Last Rites Publishing. They were launching a new zine and had 4 anthology calls listed. Now, according to Duotrope, they've closed up shop due to legal problems. Here's the original listing http://sandraseamans.blogspot.com/2010/08/oh-horror.html The anthology calls were:

Section 8: Tales from the Psychiatric Ward
Disciples of Poe
Experiment in Homicide
Terror, Horror, Gore

It's not a good day for the anthology market. And I'm thinking that I'll steer clear of posting calls from new and non-paying press, as this one was.

I wonder sometimes if people just suddenly decide to start up a press without looking into all the legal ramifications that come with starting a business or if they think writing is just a game that you can jump into and out of on a whim. Sure is discouraging.

Noir

This past weekend NoirCon was in full swing down in Philly. Cullen Gallagher has an impressive rundown of the event over at his blog, Pulp Serenade http://www.pulpserenade.com/ And, of course, the NoirCon blog is also host to an amazing assortment of information about the con http://www.noircon.info/

Over at Do Some Damage, John McFetridge takes a look at noir and wonders if it couldn't be just a tad more upbeat. http://dosomedamage.blogspot.com/2010/11/upbeat-noir.html

Back again. Some days I just have these duh! moments. I still want what you consider the essential noir shorts but I should have added that Otto Penzler and James Ellroy have put together a collection of "Best American Noir of the Century". A very impressive collection, by the way.

While this isn't precisely noir, there are quite a few noir stories included in Patti Abbott's post asking for your favorite single author collection of shorts. There's quite a list. http://pattinase.blogspot.com/2010/11/your-favorite-collection-of-short.html

And just a silly noir note: blogger's spellchecker considers noir misspelled, their options are nor, Nair, coir.

Sad Anthology News

Since I posted these anthology calls, I felt that I should also post the news that they've been delayed by the publisher, Norilana Books. The anthologies are:

Lace and Blade 3
Warrior Wisewoman 4
The Ladies of Trade Town
Scheherazade's Facade
Clothesline World

You can find all the details and a few updates at http://norilanabooks.livejournal.com/91313.html

Also affected by this decision is Clockwork Phoenix 4. You can find the editor's take on this decision here http://time-shark.livejournal.com/422018.html

ISBN

Friend of the Corner, Albert Tucher, emailed me this explanation of the ISBN number and gave me permission to pass the information along:

"Now you've done it, Sandra. You've awakened my librarian's didactic soul :-)

The International Standard Book Number is a unique identifying number. Anyone who issues a book can acquire ISBNs from the Brodart Company. They're essential, because distributors like Amazon, Ingram and Baker & Taylor can't or won't handle a book without an ISBN. It's a little strange that a publisher would try to do without the ISBN.

ISBNs were originally ten digits long, but they were recently converted to 13-digit barcode format."

Thanks, Al!