dhs literary show + tell

Runnin' the tunes

2009-12-10T14:09:00.004-06:00

DHS is today's featured runner in the Dallas Morning News!

Here's a sampling of his playlist for the 2009 White Rock Marathon on Sunday:

Bob Schneider -- C'mon Baby
Gnarls Barkley -- Gone Daddy Gone
White Stripes -- Seven Nation Army
Lupe Fiasco -- Kick Push
The Dead Weather -- I Cut Like Buffalo

From Guadalajara With Love

2009-12-09T13:25:00.007-06:00

Visit Gary Phillips in the Zócalo Green Room for a chat, and more photos.

"As usual, Gary Phillips is the star of any panel he’s on." - Dick Adler

Meet the minds behind MAGNETO TESTAMENT

2009-12-07T17:05:00.008-06:00

From the Simon Wiesenthal Center's official announcement:

Please join us TONIGHT for a conversation with GREG PAK and WARREN SIMONS
Author and Editor of X-MEN: MAGNETO TESTAMENT

Moderated by Mark Weitzman
(SWC Director of Government Affairs and Historical Consultant to X-Men: Magneto Testament)

Today, the whole world knows him as Magneto, the most radical champion of mutant rights that the world has ever seen. But in 1935, he was just another schoolboy - who happened to be Jewish in Nazi Germany. The definitive origin story of one of Marvel's greatest icons begins with a silver chain and a crush on a girl - and quickly turns into a harrowing struggle for survival against the inexorable machinery of Hitler's Final Solution.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009, 6:30 pm
New York Tolerance Center
$20 per person
The lecture will be followed by a reception and book signing (books will be available for purchase)

To RSVP or for more information, please contact Carly Sorscher at 212-370-0320 / csorscher@swcny.com

Guadalajara International Book Fair

2009-12-07T16:11:00.004-06:00

On the left is noir sensei Gary Phillips, for the panel "What makes an L.A. writer?"

Zócalo Public Square has also posted the live action and audio.

A Texas Maverick

2009-12-05T08:40:00.005-06:00

Hats off to Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir! Their fantastic adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON has been selected for the Texas Library Association’s 2010 Maverick Graphic Novel List.

This inaugural list recommends 54 exceptional and educational titles for middle school and high school readers.

Dick Adler's Best Mysteries & Thrillers of 2009

2009-12-04T16:26:00.006-06:00

Looky, looky... we spy 2 DHS superstars shining bright on the list!

Across the Atlantic

2009-12-04T16:04:00.003-06:00

Rob Kitchin gives Reed F. Coleman 5 stars, and names WALKING THE PERFECT SQUARE a Book of the Month!

"Walking the Perfect Square shuttles back and forth between 1978 and 1998, with Moe reflecting back on the case as he waits to meet a dying man who holds the promise of adding the final piece to a puzzle that has shaped the course of his life over the previous twenty years. It’s a plot device that works well; indeed, the plot unfolds and twists cleverly, hooking the reader in early and never letting go ... multi-textured, with excellent characterisation, sparkling dialogue, and a philosophical undertow that pervades the text without explicitly dominating it.

In Prager, Coleman has created a character with rare emotional depth; someone whose life seems worth exploring further. Some books are all surface, telling an entertaining story but little more, others demand you reflect on the moral complexities of life. The first kind fizzle for a moment, the second hangs round to haunt you. Walking the Perfect Square is the second kind."

The Jay-Z & Linkin Park of Noir

2009-12-03T16:59:00.004-06:00

Busted Flush Press has a fabulous anecdote on their blog. Sounds like the honorable Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Coleman have been knighted!

Have you read TOWER yet?

'Tis the season

2009-12-03T13:42:00.003-06:00

BSC Review gives it to you straight:

"Shadow Season, marks the moment where [Piccirilli] fully embraces straight-up fucking stone-cold noir ... what puts this release into must-read territory is Piccirilli’s unflinching and gleefully noir ending ... Shadow Season should be your first choice"

First looks

2009-12-02T16:38:00.004-06:00

IGN has a preview of BLACKEST NIGHT: Wonder Woman #1, out on Dec. 3.

"Fan-favorite writer Greg Rucka returns to chronicle the adventures of the Amazing Amazon in the DC Universe's darkest hour!

Black Lantern Maxwell Lord has risen and he seeks revenge and retribution for his murder at the hands of Diana. Look for unexpected changes to await Wonder Woman in the course of this series as she plays a major role in the War of Light against the Blackest Night."

Check out the preview of Greg Pak's INCREDIBLE HERCULES #139 at Newsarama too.

"ASSAULT ON NEW OLYMPUS," Part 2 (of 4)
Hercules leads the New and Mighty Avengers against the overwhelming forces of Hera's New Olympus -- but these are no ordinary foes our heroes face, but the gods themselves! Can the superpredator Wolverine outfox an immortal Huntsman? Can Spider-Man out-webspin the divine Arachne? Can Henry Pym outgrow the giant Argus? And with his love Delphyne Gorgon prepared to slay his mentor Athena, Amadeus Cho must make a final, fateful choice!

P. S.

2009-12-02T15:53:00.006-06:00

The delightful and debonair Mr. James Hime will be signing ARMADILLOS at Legacy Books in Plano, TX tomorrow night.

7 pm, Thursday, Dec. 3

Good times shall be had by all.

Celebrate Thanksgiving with armadillos

2009-11-24T16:58:00.005-06:00

It's pub day for James Hime's newest book WHERE ARMADILLOS GO TO DIE, which has already received great reviews!

"Hime nicely blends broad humor and sharp characterizations" - Publisher's Weekly

"[The] lively, unconventional characters and authorial brio (Scared Money, 2004, etc.) guarantee a few hours of blissful escapism." - Kirkus

"Character—and sleepy Brenham is full of them—is one good reason to applaud author Hime. Another is his fine portrayal of the sensibilities and rhythms of small-town Texas...Hime also has a fine ear for the colorful turns of phrase and metaphors of Texas and the small-town South...crime fans will find the tale terrific entertainment." - Booklist

Read an excerpt of the terrific tale here.

Fit & Happy!

2009-11-20T16:09:00.001-06:00

"Elizabeth Somer's new book, Eat Your Way to Happiness, reminds us the right foods coupled with exercise have a synergistic, immediate effect on your mood and cravings -- critical factors in the size of those jeans.

A registered dietitian and author of Food & Mood, Somer knows her stuff... this book is a terrific tool to educate and motivate... the real gift of Eat Your Way to Happiness is in its simplicity. It doesn't involve exotic terms, recipes or rigid food plans.

Rather, you'll likely be inspired to start adding more of the right foods for an immediate impact on your energy, thinking and mood."

- That's Fit, AOL Health

Eat your way... to the top

2009-11-17T16:40:00.002-06:00

Thanks to everyone who's supporting Elizabeth Somer's fantastic new book!

EAT YOUR WAY TO HAPPINESS is...

[drumroll please]

...#1 for the Kindle edition in Healthy Living, and #14 for the print edition!

The Only Woman in the Room

2009-11-17T13:15:00.006-06:00

The Austin American-Statesman writes about the unsinkable Molly Ivins' "legendary status."

"Austin authors Bill Minutaglio and W. Michael Smith spent months sifting through the Ivins collection at the Briscoe Center for American History, and what they found there set the tone for their poignant new biography 'Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life.'

In her words and her papers, the writers came to know a gentler, more vulnerable Molly Ivins, far more complex than the woman suggested by her folksy, lead-with-a-laugh persona. The experience clearly moved them. You can see it, even now, in the gentle way the authors sift through the contents of the open boxes, solemnly moving aside Molly's favorite blue shirt — the one she always wore when playing catch with her dog — to reach for a personal letter.

Bill Minutaglio has long been regarded as one of the great writers in Texas journalism. During his stint at The Dallas Morning News in the 1980s and 1990s, Minutaglio wrote exquisite long-form pieces about Texas poverty in a time of plenty. He also covered Dallas history, the blues, the fall of the Berlin Wall. Minutaglio has written seven books of nonfiction, including a George W Bush biography and "City On Fire" in which he tells the story of he 1947 Texas City Disaster in a narrative that feels more like a novel than a piece of history. He currently teaches journalism at the University of Texas at Austin."

In other coverage, The Daily Beast has Minutaglio's column about this sassy Texan, "the Texas cornpone flavored with a Tabasco sting".

Deadpool picks up some "lady parts"

2009-11-17T10:57:00.003-06:00

DEADPOOL: Merc With A Mouth #7 gets an unprecedented same-day 2nd printing!

Featuring an all-new cover by the legendary Rob Liefeld on the second printing, this issue marks the debut of Lady Deadpool, courtesy of series writer Victor Gischler along with red hot artists Rob Liefeld, Kyle Baker, Bong Dazo and Das Pastoras.

(Meanwhile, MTV imagines Ryan Reynolds in a wig and tights... ooh la la.)

NYC + ATL stylings

2009-11-17T10:10:00.006-06:00

Y'all check it -- Derek Nikitas' new book gets love from New York City and Atlanta:

"With THE LONG DIVISION, Derek Nikitas bumps up the style requirements for writing crime fiction another notch. When Jodie Larkin steals $5,000 from a home she cleans for an Atlanta housekeeping service and takes off in a stolen car to reconcile with the son she abandoned 15 years earlier, she sets in motion a chain of events that will eventually unite a group of strangers in grief. That takes some dazzling plot maneuvers, but Nikitas interlocks his fragmented story pieces in a way that makes everything seem inevitable — even the murders." - Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

"[Nikitas] stirs echoes of Tarantino, Carroll, Shakespeare... a novel concerned with bigger questions of identity, forgiveness, sin and fate." - Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Starting to think of stocking stuffers?

2009-11-13T16:33:00.005-06:00

Jill Thompson's delightfully zany MAGIC TRIXIE series would be great for the kiddos.

Booklist says "Thompson’s colorful art showing dragon Abby gleefully tearing up the house will have young readers laughing, and they’ll cheer Trixie’s solution to her problems.”

The Graphic Classroom is also a huge fan:

“From the candy-hued watercolors, to the adorable characters, to the sweet and witty story, MAGIC TRIXIE is a delight all around. Magic Trixie herself is a very bright, mischievous bundle of energy with a knack for getting in trouble and her friends are cute, cuddly takes on classic monsters with personalities that could easily belong to real, live children. The adult characters feel so real that I wonder if Thompson modeled them on her own friends and family. Young readers will relate to the relationships and family dynamics in the story and laugh out loud at the craziness. Thompson’s watercolors are truly stunning; she’s a master at mixing words and pictures seamlessly into a compelling story. I can’t recommend MAGIC TRIXIE highly enough – it’s jumped straight into my top ten all-ages comics of all time.”

Major props for Piccirilli's newest

2009-11-13T15:38:00.008-06:00

Tom Piccirilli chats with Seth Harwood over at Blood on the Page.

Cullen Gallagher has a wonderful write-up at Pulp Serenade:

"Shadow Season was one of those books that I connected with from the very first line, and went on to read in a single afternoon. It’s an uncompromisingly dark story masterfully told that speaks well beyond its gripping scenario. Piccarilli allows us to connect with the characters on a level that feels very private, perhaps all the more so because of the main protagonist’s blindness: together, we share in his darkness.

Piccirilli’s refined artistry as a writer, particularly his expressive phrasing and impeccable pacing, are on display throughout Shadow Season. Finn’s hyper-sensory perception as a result of his blindness seems to infect Piccirilli’s prose, which uses touch and temperature, sound and smell, to evoke the physical surroundings of the campus, and the increasing isolation of the hostile environment. Even Piccirilli’s decision to write in the present tense seems related to this overarching sense of “blindness”: everything is happening “now,” with no foresight into the future, and no assurance that everything will turn out all right in the end, if in fact there ever will be a finite 'end' to any of this. This only adds to the highly cinematic quality of the narrative, with the bulk of it occurring on a single day with the occasional flashback to earlier times."

And some other great reviews...

"Piccirilli sharpens his literary knives and begins his assault on the readers with the brutality he is so well known for. Shadow Season is an extremely disturbing novel, easily matching the emotional intensity of his earlier masterpieces such as A Choir of Ill Children and November Mourns. Its violence is harrowing, plentiful, and realistic as hell... Shadow Season is Tom Piccirilli at his absolute best. It is an erotically charged and brutally violent novel that will please not only his fans, but should delight anyone who enjoys intelligently written, high octane thrillers. Shadow Season is highly recommended." - Horror World

"I've raved on Omnivoracious before about mystery/noir master Tom Piccirilli--his The Cold Spot and The Coldest Mile are among my recent favorites. Now he has another first-rate novel out, Shadow Season, with an intriguing premise that severely limited or, depending on your perspective, opened up the possibilities of his prose. It's another instant classic." - Jeff VanderMeer, on Amazon blog "Omnivoracious"

For those of you who haven't discovered Piccirilli's short stories yet, check out his newest collection, forthcoming from Cemetary Dance!

"To say the fiction of Tom Piccirilli often defies convention or genre labeling would be a grand understatement. Better to say Piccirilli creates his own literary space, in which inhabits beings of a dark but strangely beautiful grotesqueness, characters that offer readers twisted, warped reflections of themselves.

The work contained in his upcoming Cemetery Dance collection “Futile Efforts” certainly does that and more. They run the gamut, proving what most already know: that Tom Piccirilli is a skilled and versatile wordsmith: a dark fantasist with the heart of a crime/Noir writer, a sculptor of oddities, and a gifted poet, also. However, for all Piccirilli's strange, melancholic grace, the sharp edge of steel isn't far behind." - Shroud Magazine

This Veterans Day

2009-11-12T11:09:00.000-06:00

"This Veterans Day reminds me when I was growing up in then-South Central L.A., I’d occasionally hear from my dad Dikes about his experiences in World War II. I knew he’d seen combat in an all-black squad at Guadalcanal and encountered racism both there and when he was in basic training in the Jim Crow Army at Fort Huachuca in southeast Arizona. My uncle, his older brother Norman, had seen mop-up action at D-Day and was among those black expatriates who’d remained in France after the war. Their younger brother, Sam, had been stationed in India, and my uncle on my mother’s side, Oscar Hutton Jr., I never knew. Oscar had been a Tuskegee airman and was killed in plane combat over Memmingen, Germany, in July of 1944. I have the Purple Heart awarded him posthumously.

But the experiences of the black soldier was missing from movies like “The Battle of the Bulge,” “The Longest Day” and “Patton,” a film with only a small part for one black actor, James Edwards (who had strong roles as a soldier in “Home of the Brave,” Sam Fuller’s “Steel Helmet” and “The Manchurian Candidate”), as the general’s valet. But where was the story about the 761st all-black tank battalion under Patton’s command? Where was the story of Patton writing of that outfit, “… I have no faith in the inherent fighting ability of the race.” (See “Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII’s Forgotten Heroes” by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anthony Walton.) And what about the amazing story of Medal of Honor winner Sgt. Eddie Carter, half black and half East Indian, who fought bravely with the anti-fascist Abraham Lincoln Brigade, in the U.S. Army in WWII, and with Chiang Kai-shek’s army? (My source here is “Honoring Sergeant Carter: Redeeming a Black World War II Hero’s Legacy” by Allene Carter and Robert L. Allen.)"

Click here to read the rest of Gary Phillips' introduction, and an excerpt from FREEDOM'S FIGHT. Phillips also shares the story behind the book over at The Rap Sheet.

Gischler gesticulating

2009-11-12T10:48:00.003-06:00

...or doing the robot. Either way, check out his W. W. interview with BSC Review, in which Gischler and Keith Rawson delve into the finer points of this writing business.

Rediscover a Texas original

2009-11-11T17:34:00.010-06:00

"Molly Ivins had a voice to be reckoned with at a time when female reporters were relegated to the 'women's pages.' Throwing off the mantle of convention and embracing the quirky rebelliousness of her home state of Texas in the 1960s, she forged a career as an influential political columnist and social activist. Fans of Ivins's work and readers interested in feminist history, contemporary politics, and media studies will like this first full-length biography of Ivins." - Library Journal

"full of wonderful stories about a complex, brilliant woman who will be remembered for her trademark wit and down-home wisdom"
- Dallas Morning News

"this biography will be enjoyed... it will help a new crop of readers discover an American original" - Cleveland Plain Dealer

"a solid account of her development as a reporter and writer. The best part, of course, is rereading Ivins’s old zingers... Aspiring journalists, read this — and then get to work." - Kirkus Reviews

"an illuminating portrait... Long before she grew famous for challenging the right-wing status quo, Molly Ivins worked at the Minneapolis Tribune. [Minutaglio and Smith's MOLLY IVINS] is a well documented look at an unconventional life." - Minneapolis Star Tribune

New release from a food guru

2009-11-11T17:23:00.005-06:00

Exclusive note from EAT YOUR WAY TO HAPPINESS author, Elizabeth Somer:

Most people realize there is a link between what they eat and their physical health. We know that a diet packed with saturated fat can, over the years, lead to heart disease, colon cancer and even dementia. Or that a diet low in other nutrients, calcium for example, can lead to problems like bone loss and osteoporosis. But fascinating research done over the past twenty years has shown us that there’s also a real link between what we eat and how we feel—emotionally and mentally. I first reported on this in my book Food & Mood, published in 1995. In the fifteen years since that book was published, the research has continued to evolve and grow, which led me to write my latest and most exciting book to date, EAT YOUR WAY TO HAPPINESS.

The evidence is so strong in these studies that I’ve now completely changed the way I eat and how I counsel others to. For example, in recent years a wealth of new research has uncovered a strong link between our intake of the omega-3 fat DHA and a reduced risk for depression, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. And vitamin D, once thought to be important only for maintaining strong bones, has now been linked to reducing winter blues. While eating right to feel your best is a style of eating, not just a food here and there, it is now clear that dotting a good diet with certain super mood foods can have a profound effect on how fast we think, how clearly we remember and how happy we are throughout the day. And that’s what EAT YOUR WAY TO HAPPINESS will help you achieve.

If you follow the guidelines in this book, you will start to see immediate improvement in your mood, and you’ll discover the happiness that comes with eating well. (And as an added bonus, you’ll also lose those extra pounds!). I can’t tell you how often people, after following the advice in my book, have told me, "I never knew I could feel this good!" Now you can, too.

Enjoy!
Elizabeth Somer

Towering above

2009-11-11T15:51:00.003-06:00

Soul brothers Reed F. Coleman and Ken Bruen are #4 on the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association's list of October 2009 bestsellers!

Recent Marvels

2009-11-11T12:57:00.010-06:00

Greg McElhatton at Comic Book Resources has some kind words about Swierczynski's IMMORTAL WEAPONS #4:

"I've been increasingly pleased... a thoroughly enjoyable group of one-shots focusing on the other mystical martial artists that Danny Rand hangs out with on occasion.

This month's installment brings Tiger's Beautiful Daughter to the foreground... When the climax hits, it's satisfying; not only because it's a good ending, but because it's a perfectly paced origin story. Everything you need to know about Tiger's Beautiful Daughter is there, and it's easy to look ahead and see where her life is going. It's a pity all origin stories aren't this concise and interesting.

Swierczynski and company are bringing back that same amount of fun that Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction initially infused to the title. With stories like this, I'll keep coming back."

And, by the way, this is the same Swierczynski who recently had an adventure, "smoking some incredibly potent form of crack" while time-traveling. Man, those writers have all the fun...!