Let'em Say We're Crazy
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
Greetings, fellow human beings!
Back again for a brand new edition!
News
I attended Killer Nashville for the first time and I had a great experience. I met a lot of people who were at all places in their careers. Some starting out, some at it for years, some writers going the Indie route (like me) and others with big publishing deals.
And while I enjoy hanging out with you (I do), it’s a different experience …
Also, I won an award. Two, actually.
(That’s what we called burying the lede.)
I won a Claymore in the Best Comedy category (the first 50 pages of a manuscript, unpublished at the time of entry) and a Claymore as a 2nd Runner Up in the Overall Category. The second one might sound a little less sexy, but there were a LOT of other people.
I’m grateful and honored.
But not humble. :)
And if you haven’t had a chance to buy the book for your friend or enemy… you can find them here or here. Now you can tell them it’s AWARD WINNING.
Book Recommendation!
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler…
I first started reading Chandler in college… and for me, he’s the granddaddy of what I like to read and write. I aspire to be able to evoke mood like he does with such ease.
I know it’s a bit Chicken and the Egg, but when I read him, I’m inside those classic Hollywood noirs.
The Long Goodbye is my favorite of Chandler’s Philip Marlowe novels. It opens with Marlowe befriending Terry Lennox, a vet and a drunk.A few months later, Terry’s in trouble, his wealthy ex-wife has turned up dead. Marlowe promises to help just as Lennox makes a run for it. Meanwhile, Marlowe takes a case about a missing, alcoholic writer… which is totally not autobiographical guys…
There’s an ease to the storytelling (the guy was a master after all) that really appeals to me. Marlowe as a character has always stood outside of society. I’ve seen him described as the last knight in a world where chivalry is dead. (The novels were written either just as WW2 was about to start or Post-War.)
However, it’s the meditative quality of the book that I really love. It’s not a taught thriller. Sometimes, it’s not even about the mystery. It’s Philip Marlowe, out in the world, looking and thinking about the people in it. It’s about loyalty, friendship.
It’s about a lot of things. Which I feel lifts it from just a mystery to something more…
Nothing's gonna stop you now, Lawrence Allan!