SF/F Grand Master Harlan Ellison Dies at 84

June 28, 2018 admin 0

The world of science fiction lost a hero on Wednesday when Harlan Ellison passed away. His wife, Susan Toth, said the 84-year-old writer died in his sleep at his home in Sherman Oaks, California. On Twitter, author Stephen King said, “Harlan Ellison: There was no one quite like him in American letters, and never will be. Angry, funny, eloquent, hugely talented. If there’s an afterlife, Harlan is already kicking ass and taking down names.” From […]

New Spenser Film Deal Underway

June 27, 2018 admin 1

Netflix and Mark Wahlberg have made a deal based on the character of Spenser by the “dean of American crime fiction” Robert B. Parker, who died in 2011. Deadline Hollywood carries news of the deal here: Netflix has made a deal with Mark Wahlberg, Peter Berg and the Robert B. Parker estate to bring back for a potential series of feature films Spenser, the poetry-spouting wisecracking former boxer-turned Boston-based private eye made famous in 40 […]

(Not So Little) Controversy on the Prairie

June 26, 2018 admin 0

The Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, has voted to remove author Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name from the award the previously carried it. The award will now be known as the Children’s Literature Legacy Award, though it was established in 1954 as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award. From NPR: Wilder, who wrote the Little House book series, was the first recipient of the award, which was established in […]

Non-Fiction: The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson

June 25, 2018 J. Kingston Pierce 1

(Editor’s note: This review comes from Steven Nester, host of Poets of the Tabloid Murder, a weekly Internet radio show heard on the Public Radio Exchange [PRX]. Nester is also a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The Rap Sheet, Mystery Scene and Firsts Magazine. He last wrote for January Magazine about Stephen Mack Jones’ debut crime novel, August Snow.) While on a fly-fishing trip to New Mexico in 2011, author Kirk Wallace Johnson […]

Why the Book Is (Always!) Better than the Film

June 21, 2018 admin 1

The book is always better than the movie, right? I mean, it seems that way, but can it possibly true? Well, we’ve always thought so, but now, thanks to a platoon of psychologists at University College in London, we know it’s true. According to MarketWatch, the researchers found that “Jane Austen, George R. R. Martin, and Arthur Conan Doyle exerted a greater tug on people’s heart strings in book form than in the television of […]

Sunny Days Are Best With Dark Fiction

June 9, 2018 Linda L. Richards 0

Just can’t get enough crime fiction? The Rap Sheet, January Magazine’s sister publication, offers up a selection of more than 220 works of mystery, crime, and thriller fiction from both sides of the Atlantic scheduled to reach bookstores between now and the end of August. Read them in the sun while looking over your shoulder. That link is here.

Cookbooks: Vegan 100 by Gaz Oakley

June 9, 2018 Linda L. Richards 0

There have been a lot of vegan and vegan-adjacent cookbooks published over the last decade as many of us move towards a plant-based diet. Obviously some of these books have been better than others. Some are encyclopedic in nature. Others, for better or for worse, take a single vegan slice. Of the books that try to be all things to all people, I haven’t seen one of the newest generation of vegan cookbooks do it […]

Game of Thrones Prequel Gets HBO Greenlight

June 8, 2018 admin 0

Sad that the amazingly successful Game of Thrones is barreling towards its inevitable conclusion? Well, cheer up, final episode or no, the best might be yet to come: a Game of Thrones prequel, to be co-produced by series author George R.R. Martin, has been green lighted by HBO. The new series has been written and created by feature writer Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass, Kingsman) and Martin. From Deadline Hollywood: …the untitled project takes the prequel concept […]

Author and Celebrity Chef Anthony Bourdain Dead at 61

June 8, 2018 admin 0

Chef, author, television presenter and mystery writer Anthony Bourdain was found dead in his hotel room in Paris on Friday morning after taking his own life. He would have been 62 later this month. CNN confirmed the loss this morning: It is with extraordinary sadness we can confirm the death of our friend and colleague, Anthony Bourdain. His love of great adventure, new friends, fine food and drink and the remarkable stories of the world […]

Fiction: The Rule of Stephens by Timothy Taylor

June 6, 2018 Linda L. Richards 0

Catherine Bach is a survivor, something that, after the accident, everyone she meets thinks to make a remark about. How lucky she is. How blessed. She was aboard an Airbus A380-800 that fell from the sky, and she walked away. How can her life be anything but charmed? But Catherine knows that she did not walk away from the accident unscathed, even if the scars she has taken from the crash can’t be seen. Since […]