January 2014 Book Round-Up

!: Cr: The Case of The Hardboiled Dicks – John Blumenthal

2: FA: Ink Mage, episode six(ebook) – Victor Gischler

3: RS: Desperate Endurance – Kasey Riley

4: CR: An American Outlaw(ebook) – John Stonehouse

5: WE: The Afterlife of Slim McCord – Jack Martin

6: CR: The Trespassers(ebook) – Elmore Leonard

7: WE: Confession(ebook) – Elmore Leonard

8: CR: the Trials of O’Brien – Robert L. Fish

9: SF: Shovel Ready – Adam Sternbergh

10: WE: The First Mountain Man: Preacher’s Blood Hunt – William W. Johnstone with J. A. Johnstone

11: CR: Upon My Soul – Rob ert J. Randisi

12: WE: Sixkiller, U.S. Marshal: Dead Man Walking – William J. Johnstone with J. A. Johnstone

13: TH: Pyramid Lake – Paul Draker

14: SF: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: The Sorrow of Empire – David Mack

15: WE: Butchery of The Mountain Man – William W. Johnstone

16: TH: The Contractors – Harry Hunsicker

17: WE: The Magic Wagon – Joe R. Lansdale

18: WE: Flintlock – William W. Johnstone with J. A. Johnstone

19: CR: Honorable Whoredom At A Penny A Word – Harlan Ellison

20: YA: All The Earth, Thrown To The Sky – Joe R. Lansdale

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January 2014 Movie Round-Up

Three Strangers(1946)

Black Jack(1968)

Man of Steel(2013)

Honorable Whoredom At A Penny A Word – Harlan Ellison

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crime, Harlan Ellison

Sixteen never before collected stories from Mr.Ellison’s early years as a writer. Most appeared in ’56-’57(his first sale was in ’55), though there are a few from the sixties.All but one crime stories, they all appeared in detective magazines, as well as a few “skin” periodicals. The cover is made up of a few of them. you can see his name on the covers of the detectve fiction mags, but not the skins(but then fiction wasn’t the star in them).

Jason Davis is the editor of the set. Mr Ellison gave hin a list of stories to choose from. They were in order, including the writer’s title, the published title , the venue, and what he was paid.

The title was Ellison’s and not strictly accurate. One story he got a half cent, another a cent and a half, and one to a slick publication for a nickel. But …at a penny word sounds so much better than at various rates a word.

Three stories feature Jerry Killian(pronounced kill-ee-un, he has a thing about that), ex-insurance investigator, ex-private eye, now working for a business protection agency. Another starred Big John Novak, a P.I. that gets blackmailed(*threats of lifting his license and pulling his gun caeey permit) by the police into assaulting an impregnable building to get a gunman that had killed five cops and shot a dozen other prople. You see, Big John had a talent the cops didn’t: he was three feet two inches tall.

Me. Ellison said he had intentions a rinning series of Big John tales(he was an adnirer of Rhird Prather’s Shell Scott tales and loved the way Richard Matheson captured the troubles a small person had in a life sized world).

The one story not a crime story. SADDLE TRAMP is a western. Ellison said he pretty much steered away from the western genre because of his admiration for Steve Frazee, Ernest Haycox, and Louis L’Amour. None og those stalwarts would have written this one.

And finally, there’s two versions of the one story: Ellison original and after turning a critical eye on it, the revised version that sold. He cuts some three thousand words from it.

A nice set. We see a young writer honing his craft and making a living while doing it.

Getting Better

I’m currently at a rehab facility healing from surgery. They did a skin graft on the bottom of my foot and said absoluely no weight until it healed. I have to do things that absolutely me you forget any sort of modesty to keep that weight off the foot, but doing okay otherwise.

I have plenty of books to read, the family keeps me supplied from home, and they have a computer. But man, is it slow. Mostly I do a few reviews.

How long will I be here? Who knows?

Be Away For a Bit

I have a doctor’s appointment in Winston-Salem this afternoon. My foot doctor says I should be in the hospital and am seeing the surgeon that amputated my left a few years back. Hope it won’t go that far.

Away For A Bit

Going to be away for a while. Have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon in Winston-Salem. The foot doctor sending me over says I need to be in the hospital and am seeing the specialist that amputated one foot already. Hope it won’t go that far.

New In The House

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1: Phantom Lagoon – Kenneth Robeson: the latest Doc Savage from Will Murray and the late Lester Dent,

2: Trials of O’Brien – Robert L. Fish: a tie-in from 1965 based on the Peter Falk TV series.

3: The Contractors(ARC) – Harry Hunsicker: DEA agent Jon Cantrell has to deliver a witness to a drug cartel transaction to a small town on the other side of Texas. Needless to say, the cartel want him stopped.

4: Shovel Ready(ARC) – Adam Sternbergh: a near future thriller where a dirty bomb set off in Times Square kills the tourist trade. Spademan is a former trash collector who kills for a living. He won’t hear sob stories. All he needs is a name and payment. But he has a line he won’t cross and one client lies to him about that line.

5: Preacher’s Blood Hunt – William W. Johnstone with J. A. Johnstone: the latest Preacher novel from one of my favorite authors.

and the ebooks:

6: Jason Evers: His Own Story – Frank Roderus: a western hitting ebook for the first time.

7: Dirk Ramm: Suited and Booted – Matt Hilton; a colction of three action short stories.

8: Our Turn To Shoot – Dan Eldredge: short story set during WWII.

Black Jack(Un Uomo per cinque vendette)1968

It was a tightly planned bank robbery. Two men showed up just at closing time with $3,000 that had to be deposited. They did the actual robbery, killing the bank manager when the safe was opened. There was a man who used a recalcitrant horse to distract the guard while all that was going on. The fourth man had checked into the hotel next door earlier with the admonition that he was going to sleep for a while. He climbs out a window and leaps to the bank roof where he lowers a rope with a hoot down the chimney of the bank fireplace. He hauls the bag of cash up and drops it into a special wagon driven by the brains of the outfit, Jack Murphy(Robert Woods), where he was just an innocent bystander as the rest sped out of town pursued by a posse. In a canyon where they passed, the rest of the gang waited with dynamite to cut off the posse.

Jack spends a little time with his girl friend, Susan(Lucienne Bridou), before heading out to divide the money. The usual split was a quarter for Jack, the rest for the gang. But it was such a large haul, that didn’t satisfy them and a falling out ensues.

Jack manages to get the upper hand, then takes it all, riding out with their guns and pays off  Indian Joe(Mimmo Palmara) with the admonition to “keep your mouth shut.” Something of a joke as he never speaks a word in the film. He does, however, point though and directs them to the ghost town where Jack is headquartered with his sister and brother-in-law, Julie(Dali Bresciani) and Peter(Nino Fuscagni).

He gives up the money to save his sister, but it doesn’t. The new leader, Sanchez, rapes and murders Julie and Indian Joe scalps her for her blond hair. Jack is left hanging, balanced on one good foot(the right was shot up), and likely would have died had not Susan come looking for him.

The plot becomes a revenge motive after this, the way of most films in this genre. Jack walks with a cane, but is just as good with a gun as ever. His mind also seems to have come unhinged a bit as he laughs maniacally more than a few times as he goes about hunting the gang members. He declares Jack Murphy dead and buried in the small town and becomes the Black Jack of the title.

All but Sanchez are easy to find.He’s disappeared and Jack takes a different tack in locating him. He’s also promised his brother-in-law he would deliver him alive so that the husband can get his revenge.

A pretty good film that ended in a manner i never saw coming. The link below is for the film under the German title On Your Knees Django.

https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/YjdKimDRheA&source=uds

Today’s Humor: Science Fiction Edition

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Science Fiction

Because I Like It: Motorhead

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Motor