I started reading Peter Benchley’s 1979 novel The Island sitting in a waiting room, for lack of anything better to read. And the sucker hooked me. For those who don’t know, the late author was the son of Nathaniel Benchley and the grandson of Robert Benchley, both literary figures of high reknown. He was also the author of Jaws, the … Read More
Review: a vampire suffragette in Alaya Johnson’s Moonshine
I first heard about Moonshine when I was on a 2009 convention panel with its author, Alaya Johnson. The central conceit–in 1920s New York, a woman battles for the rights of vampires much as other suffragettes stood up for women and immigrants–fascinated me. My own vampire novels, Blood Groove and The Girls with Games of Blood, also draw parallels between … Read More
Review: Albert Pyun’s Bulletface
One of the first interviews I did for this blog was with cult director Albert Pyun about his upcoming film Road to Hell (you can read it here). Now he’s released Bulletface, part of the grand tradition of films created in a ridiculously short period of time, in this case five and a half days (twice as long as Corman’s … Read More
The soul of rock and roll: Eddie & the Cruisers, the novel
There haven’t been very many good novels about popular music. It could be due to the inherent contradictory nature of writing in concrete terms about something so ephemeral, even when the writers are also musicians. Music is such an individual experience that it can be daunting to find the absolutes in it. I know, because I’ve tried: my novel The … Read More
Reviewing According to Crow at Guys Lit Wire
Over at Guys Lit Wire, a blog that reviews books for teenage boys, I discuss Ekaterina Sedia’s debut novel, According to Crow. If you’ve read her two later books, The Secret History of Moscow and The Alchemy of Stone, then you’ll want to check out her first one. If you have yet to discover the extraordinary Ms. Sedia, then let … Read More
Finding A Bomb Built in Hell
I’ve just finished reading the bookends of one of my favorite series, the “Burke” novels by Andrew Vachss. After 18 books in 23 years, he completed it with the release of Another Life in 2008. Meanwhile, his website has the free PDF of his first, unpublished novel, a sort of prelude to the Burke series titled, A Bomb Built in … Read More
New interview, new review
Jeff Cunningham interviews me at his blog, and there’s a perceptive review of The Sword-Edged Blonde over at Perrynomasia. Check ’em out!
Guest blogging at Guys Lit Wire
This month at Guys Lit Wire, I review In the Heart of the Sea, Nathaniel Philbrick’s book about the Essex, sunk by a sperm whale in 1820. Sound familiar? Herman Melville read about it, too.
First review in on Blood Groove
The first pre-publication review of Blood Groove has hit the Net. Read Patricia Altner’s comments here; she calls it, “an intoxicating brew of mystery, humor, and horror.”
New review of The Sword-Edged Blonde
Tia over at Fantasy Debut gives The Sword-Edged Blonde a perceptive evaluation. In part she says: “Eddie runs into his old friend, whose wife is in considerable trouble. The reunion scene between the two friends was great, and reminded me why I enjoy reading novels by authors who have at least reached the age 35 or so. No way a … Read More