Blood on the Bayou

 

I was thrilled to learn one of my short stories was chosen for the upcoming Bouchercon Anthology. Here's the official press release for the book:

Bouchercon will be invading New Orleans for its annual world mystery convention this September where every year readers, writers, publishers, editors, agents, booksellers and other lovers of crime fiction gather for a weekend of education, entertainment, and fun! It is the world's premiere event bringing together all parts of the mystery and crime fiction community.

In conjunction with this year's event, Down & Out Books will be publishing BLOOD ON THE BAYOU: Bouchercon Anthology 2016 edited by Greg Herren.

"I am honored to have the opportunity to edit this outstanding collection of stories," said Herren, an award-winning author of mystery and suspense novels. "It demonstrates the deep appreciation each of the contributing authors has to their craft."

"This is the third year that we have had the privilege of publishing Bouchercon's official anthology," added Eric Campbell, publisher of Down & Out Books, "and I share in Greg's enthusiasm for these stories."

Nearly 100 authors blindly submitted a story for consideration by three industry professionals, who had the incredibly difficult task of narrowing the list down to just 22 stories. Kaye Wilkinson Barley, Eric Beetner, G. J. Brown, Sheila Connolly, O'Neil De Noux, Barbara Ferrer, John Floyd, Alison Gaylin, Greg Herren, BV Lawson, R. T. Lawton, Deborah Lacy, Edith Maxwell, Liz Milliron, Terrie Moran, David Morrell, Dino Parenti, Mike Penn, Gary Phillips, Thomas Pluck, Paula Pumphrey and Elaine Viets were chosen to have their stories included in the anthology. New York Times bestselling author Heather Graham will write the introduction.

Each of the selected authors contributed their stories to the anthology and the Bouchercon Committee and Down & Out Books have agreed that all proceeds from the sale of BLOOD ON THE BAYOU will go to support the New Orleans Public Library system and by extension readers and writers everywhere.

Founded in 2011, Down & Out Books (DownAndOutBooks.com) is an independent publisher of crime fiction based in Tampa, Florida.

Mr. Bug Goes to Town

I watched a little gem of an animated feature-length movie on TCM the other night titled Mr. Bug Goes to Town. Never heard of it? I hadn't either, and as it turns out, very few people have any inkling the film ever existed. Why is that, you say? The film was plagued with production problems from the outset, but the real problem was that it was released on December 5, 1941 - two days before Pearl Harbor.

After untold hours of painstaking animation (this was way back before computers, remember), and all the loving touches that are so evident in the film, it's a little heartbreaking to think that it became another casualty, of sorts, of World War II. It was re-released in 1946 as Hoppity Goes to Town by Paramount, but was deemed a box-office failure and relegated to deep in the film archives.

The heart of the story has a little bit of crime in it, with a happy and innocent band of insects living in the "lowlands" of a garden near Broadway in NYC until a broken fence leads to The Humans tromping on their territory and disrupting their community. Our plucky protagonist, Hoppity (a grasshopper, natch), is in love with the beautiful Honey (Bee), but he's not the only resident of Buggsville who has his eyes on Honey - so does the rich and evil C. Bagley Beetle.

The plot piles layer after layer of trouble and mayhem onto the Buggsville residents that Mr. Beetle happily fosters (with the help of his hapless henchmen Swat and Smack) because it all ties into his plot to make Honey's father Mr. Bumble so destitute that he's forced to have Honey marry the rich shyster to save both their home and their little "town."

Fleischer Studios is the creative force behind Mr. Bug Goes to Town, headed by the often-quarreling brothers Dave and Max. (The Fleischers were forced to sell their studio to Paramount mid-way through production on Mr. Bug due to financial problems). Max Fleischer was one of the pioneers of animation, creating Betty Boop and Koko the Clown, with the Fleischer studio also behind the popular Popeye cartoons in the 1930s and the better-known animated feature film Gulliver's Travels.

Under the reissue title, Hoppity had multiple re-releases on home video with inferior quality throughout the 1970s and had a more recent DVD release by Legend Films, re-titled as Bugville. The film has now become a cult favorite with a younger generation of animation buffs and was transferred from an original 35mm Technicolor release print owned by the Museum of Modern Art Department of Film. That version was shown in 2012 for the first time on television in a special hosted by Robert Osborne and Jerry Beck dedicated to rare animated films, including Gulliver's Travels.

Todd Mason has a regular Tuesday "Forgotten Films" feature on his blog, and you can check out more neglected masterpieces via this link.

The 'Zine Scene

First, some happy and yet sad news: the latest editions of Thuglit have just hit the market in both digital and print editions, but they are also the last. The issue, titled "Last Writes," has twelve new crime stories "to blow your faces off like a mistimed quarter-stick of dynamite."

 
The Spring 2016 issue of the Film Noir Foundation's quarterly Noir City magazine is out, with an article detailing the true story of the U.S intelligence community’s role in the birth of Italian neo-realism; a look at Rudolph Maté and his singular directorial achievement D.O.A.; Imogen Sara Smith considers Douglas Sirk’s dark side; Steve Kronenberg salutes the silken menace of George Macready; Brian Light revisits Peeping Tom, still disturbing after all these years; and Kelly Vance sizes up the latest from Arturo Ripstein, the noir Bleak Street. (HT to Vince Keenan.)


In the summer issue of Mystery Scene magazine, Craig Sisterson chats with James Runcie whose Grantchester mystery series, featuring Anglican priest Sidney Chambers, has been made into a hit PBS TV series; Kevin Burton Smith takes a look at well-known writers from other genres who have dabbled their toes in PI fiction's waters-including the creator of a world-famous young wizard; Kate Jackson examines "The Wimsey Papers," a series of mock letters and diary extracts written by Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey and his family and friends during WWII; Oline H. Cogdill chats with NCIS actor David McCallum, who has has taken up writing late in life at the age of 82; plus much more.


The July issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine continues the publication's 75th anniversary year with a look at its ongoing Department of First Stories feature that has helped launch the writing careers of several authors who are well-known today. To celebrate, there are new stories from nine of these popular authors.


EQMM's sister publication, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, also has treats in store in its July/August issue, including stories from two authors appearing in print for the first time: Jason Half with "The Widow Cleans House," and Mark Thielman with his Black Orchid Novella Award-winning "A Meter of Murder." 


The latest Flash Bang Mysteries features the short story "The Phone Call" by Herschel Cozine along with new short fiction from Jim Wilsky, Nancy Sweetland, Cynthia St. Pierre, Stephen D. Rogers, and Edward W.L. Smith.