The Cover of Long Knives
Greg Simanson has done it again. This is the cover of Summer of Long Knives: How much impact did my views have on this cover, you may ask? Some, but…
Recreating Hitler
I've been doing a lot of straight history on the blog over the last month or so, but when it came to Hitler, I saw little advantage in rehashing his…
We Would Be Honored If You Would Join Us
Hi, All. As I may have mentioned once or twice, Summer of Long Knives, my new thriller set in pre-war Nazi Germany, is due to come out in mid-September. Not…
Best of the Year So Far
Best Movie Seen In Theaters: None. I hadn't realized until just now that I haven't been in a movie theater since I caught Skyfall with my mom and Venice last December. I…
Influences: To Know Kommissar Rolf Wundt, Check Out Tibbs, Burakov, and Rockford
The protagonist of Summer of Long Knives doesn't have a historical counterpart. He's a product of imagination inspired by three different detectives from film and television. The first is Virgil Tibbs from In…
Do You Have To Read A Friend’s Book?
From Slate: No. One cannot just go around reading the books of friends and acquaintances. The exceptions to this rule are few and obvious—looking at a draft to give constructive criticism,…
Ernest Goofiness In Its (Possibly) Highest State: Tommy Wiseau
Yesterday, I talked about the importance of ernest goofiness in the great bad movie. Today, I read the introduction to Greg Sestero's inside account of Tommy Wiseau's anti-masterpiece, The Room. Here's…
Wherein Someone Says Something Slightly Positive About Something I Wrote
From yesterday's review of Dismantle the Sun. (Thanks, Indie Books R Us): Every-so-often, a book comes along that I can’t put down. I don’t want to rhapsodize about this book, because that’s…
The Ten Opening Lines That Are Dearest to Me in Prose Fiction
In no particular order: This is the only story of mine whose moral I know. I don't think it's a marvelous moral; I simply happen to know what it is:…
Does Summer of Long Knives Pass the Page 99 Test?
The page 99 test arises from a quote from Ford Madox Ford, author of The Good Soldier, and one of the most important forces in early 20th century literary modernism: "Open the…