Schenkar on Patricia Highsmith, Shirley Jackson and Stanley Edgar Hyman

                                                                                                     Laurence Parade

Joan Schenkar delivers the goods on Patricia Highsmith in her long-awaited, much anticipated biography of "Dark Lady" of American literature.  Soon to be out in paperback by Picador (US), Schenkar's work has been described as being:

"a wonderfully bold approach: not worrying about a linear chronology (although this is meticulously supplied in the appendices), but choosing instead to follow the emotional water course of Highsmith’s life, allowing her subject to find her own level — to be tidal, sullen, to flow without check, so that events in one decade naturally make an imaginative tributary into turbulence before and after." 

-Jeanette Winterson, The New York Times Book Review; cover review

"This is no ordinary biography...[Ms. Schenkar] writes with great authority and perverse affection...'The Talented Miss Highsmith' breaks much ground in connecting Highsmith’s diabolical tales with the real women who prompted her strongest passions .."

-Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"The end result is a biography that captures the writer in all her sullen, sinister, ambivalent glory. Grade: A"
-Entertainment Weekly.

Get a taste of Schenkar at The Wall Street Journal's SPEAKEASY as she talks about  her college days in idyllic Bennigton, Vermont with Stanley Edgar Hyman and his wife Shirley Jackson.

Schenkar is a force to be reckoned!

Be sure to see her at NoirCon 2010!

Bruen Bound For The Red Carpet 2011

London Boulevard

Release Date: Release date not yet set

Distributor: Still looking for distribution

Directed By: William Monahan

Cast: Colin Farrell, Keira Knightley, Ray Winstone, David Thewlis, Anna Friel, Matt King, Stephen Graham

Quick Thoughts: William Monahan, writer of both Kingdom of Heaven and The Departed, wrote and will direct London Boulevard, an adaptation of the Ken Bruen novel, which will star Colin Farrell as a South London criminal who, after release from prison, tries to give up the gangster life by becoming a handyman for a reclusive young actress. Co-starring are Keira Knightley, Ray Winstone and David Thewlis. On top of Monahan's credits as a screenwriter and the film's cast listing, Monahan has brought on Oscar-winning cinematographer Chris Menges and the Oscar-nominated editor of Memento Dody Dorn. A lot of potential here.

THE TIME HAS ARRIVED! SWIERCZYNSKI IS BACK!

Duane Swierczynski has done it again with this mind-blowing homage to Philadelphia!  Not since David Goodis, has Philadelphia been so alive, both in the past and in the past!  


You do not want to miss this time-bending tale that only Swierczynski could weave!  

Mickey Wade, an unemployed journalist, moves into his grandfather’s apartment in the family’s old Philadelphia neighborhood and, after gobbling a few aspirin to fight a hangover, finds himself beamed back to the day of his birth in 1972. Turns out those weren’t your garden-variety aspirin but, rather, the pills a crackpot scientist had created as part of a government-funded plan to investigate out-of-body travel. Only, in Mickey’s case, he can only go back to the early 1970s. But there’s plenty to do there: if he can somehow divert the young boy who will eventually murder Mickey’s father, he can change his family’s history. Swierczynski cleverly melds the thriller and fantasy elements (especially the notion of nonlinear time), producing a thoroughly readable, suspenseful romp that evokes John D. MacDonald’s pulp classic The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything. --Bill Ott

Come here him read from his latest work :

PORT RICHMOND BOOKS

3037 Richmond Street

Philadelphia, PA 19134

April 11, 2010

2:00 PM

Swierczynski (Severance Package, 2007) originally planned to write this beguiling, pulp-style mix of fantasy and mystery as a magazine serial, but when the New York Times Magazine bowed out of the fiction business, he turned it into a stand-alone novel.

Review

"Duane Swierczynski continues to carve out his own unique literary presence in a fascinating fusion of mystery, suspense, and sophisticated dark fantasy fiction.  Expiration Date is a skillful, fast-paced, rock'em, jolt'em, spook'em, leave-em-laughin' story with believable characters and a pedal to the floor narrative drive.  Top of the line entertainment."--Tom Piccirilli, author of Shadow Season


“Duane Swierczynski is one of the best thriller writers in America, and probably my favorite. I blazed through Expiration Date in one sitting and I loved it.” -- James Frey, New York Timesbestselling author of Bright Shiny Morning and A Million Little Pieces

Oscar Potential? First Look at the Slate - Bruen is already a Winner!

Oscar Potential? First Look at the Slate

This far out from peak season, it’s easy to overlook titles blipping distantly on the OscaRadar®. I’ll fill in a few missing titles from the list posted earlier today. Oscar prospects unknown, but projects that have piqued my interest.

+*London Boulevard- Directed by first time Oscar winning screenwriter William Monghan (The Departed ) taken loosely from the 50’s classic Sunset Boulevard starring Keira Knightley, Colin Farrell and Ray Winstone.

There really is no predicting these sorts of things but there is no harm in speculation.  I have put a  * near the ones I think have Oscar potential (I hate that word — what I mean is that, depending on whose directing and starring, one gets an idea of how it might go — taking into account track records and subject matter).  A lot of them are dressed up as Oscar contenders that might not end up being good in the “right” way.  One never knows, of course.   Some of them I think could go either way.  Some of them I just don’t know enough about. I have a put a + next to the ones I most interested personally (which may or may not have value for you).  One thing that’s important to remember is that the studio, publicist or strategist behind the contender is often as important as the contender.  I look at some of these and I think, yeah, never going to happen.  But we might as well keep an open mind.

Get your vote in early as Bruen will take Hollywood by storm!

Actor Colin Farrell is seen wearing a suit on set of "London Boulevard" with his co-star Anna Friel.

(July 22, 2009 - Photo by Bauer Griffin)

Here are some snaps of Keira Knightley whilst filming William Monahan’s upcoming London Boulevard in London.  

(photo source = Bauer-Griffin)

The film tells the story of an ex-con who becomes involved with a reclusive actress.

THE CELTIC TIGER IS A LAMB ON WORLD BOOK DAY! Dr. Ken Bruen

World Book Day is the biggest annual celebration of books and reading in the UK and Ireland.
'Read to a Million Kids', sponsored by Renaissance Learning, is a brand new initiative for World Book Day 2010.  The 11 £1 Book stories, read by their authors or actors, will be broadcast online during World Book Day.  Available exclusively to schools and libraries in the first instance, and supplemented with a fun quiz about the reading (to download please visit the Read to a Million Kids page), please visit www.readtoamillionkids.co.uk to find out more and to register to participate. 

Beannacht

("Blessing")

The Celtic Tiger becomes a lamb on World Book Day. 

Ken Bruen reads to the children of Galway from his book, PETER AND HIS MAGIC PENCIL.

Bruen once again proves that he is able to touch the hearts, souls and minds of every one he meets.

He is inspiration to the cynics as well as the innocents of the world.   Bruen has shown us time and time again that his talents are ageless, timeless and profound.

Bruen's life is a portrait of dignity and Grace. 

He is our Beannacht! 

Covers for Daniel Woodrell reprints by Katherine White

Behold, the covers for Busted Flush Press's upcoming reprints of Daniel Woodrell's two most acclaimed novels, Tomato Red and The Death of Sweet Mister!

Tomato Red 

Trade paperback, $15 (Canada $18)

September 2010 / 978-1-935415-06-0

New foreword by Megan Abbott!

The Death of Sweet Mister

Trade paperback, $15 (Canada $18)

March 2011 / 978-1-935415-08-4

New foreword by Dennis Lehane!

And have you registered for NoirCon 2010 yet?? Daniel Woodrell is scheduled to be there!

Mike Lipkin's Noir Journal and David Goodis

Noir Journal # 11: ". . . to a Pulp"

Noir Bio-Documentary: Davis Goodis . . . to a Pulp

 Noir author Allan Guthrie says that Lou Boxer "probably knows more about  David Goodis than anyone in the world." That's impressive, since Goodis is one of the best--if not the best--noir writer of the post World War II period. His books include Shoot the Piano Player (originally Down There), Nightfall, Cassidy's Girl, and many more. Piano Player was made into the FrançoisTruffaut classic 1960 noir film of that name. 

Check out NOIR JOURNAL, You will not be disappointed!