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Saturday, March 31, 2012

Harold Robbins

He was one of the most commercially successful authors of the 20th century. You either loved him or hated him.

If you hated him it was because you thought he was lurid and trashy and his plots were formulaic. You probably didn't like his prose because it was too simple and heavy on adjectives.

If you liked him, you probably thought he was one of the most gifted story tellers of our time. This is the camp I fall into.

I am very willing to look past his trashy and campy plots. I can also ignore the uninteresting prose. What I can't ignore was his ability to generate excitement and buzz about his characters and the lives they lead.

I have a fun time living vicariously through the protagonists who work themselves up from rags to riches, only to fall, and then redeem themselves. Kind of like VH1's Behind The Music.

He also was another who could be a very cinematic writer and had his characters jetting around to exotic locales.

I recommend reading some of his earlier novels such as Never Love A Stranger, A Stone For Danny Fisher,  The Dream Merchants and most of all, The Carpet Baggers. These novels really shine amongst all his others and show off his literary prowess. Also, they are less sexually explicit than his later novels and really have strong sense of story.

Harold Robbins has always been a very guilty pleasure of mine. His books are still in print and can be purchased for your Kindle at www.amazon.com

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Peter Brandvold Part 2

OK, so there was only supposed to be a part one. But I all out fracken love this guy. Right now I am reading 45 Caliber Deathtrap and it is kicking some serious hay.

Like I said before, nobody writes a better western bad guy than he does. He has a way of making them rough in a demonic sort of way. What I also like about them is that they are flashy. He dresses them in all kinds of mismatched outfits from Sombreros with steeple crowns to beaded moccasins. The bad guys pretty much do what they want and that includes wearing what they want as well. His 45 Caliber series never disappoints. I don't expect this one to either.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Peter Brandvold

Like Ralph Cotton and a slew of many others Peter Brandvold is a mighty prolific author. He writes westerns--and damn good ones too! What I love about him most is his prose style. Some call it leathery. I think that is a good description. He is very evocative of place and knows how to write a bang up action scene. He also creates some down right dag nasty hombres. IE Rueben Pacheca the bounty hunter in his 45 Caliber series.

I would say he has about at least five western series going and they are all very good, albeit not for the faint of heart. If you like sex scenes in your westerns, he has those too.


Reach him on Facebook or google Writing For The Brand(his website) Also, look for titles of his under the pen name Frank Leslie. And he also writes for Ralph Compton.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Chris Craft( a dream)

Last night I dreamt I was at a party on a Chris Craft. If some one wants to explain that one and analyze me then have at it.

I have always liked Cris Crafts for their retro quality(not sure if they still make them) They also have a hard boiled noir feel to them as well. I would like to incorporate a scene on a Chris Craft in a Huey Dusk Story.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Nom De Plum

Right now I am having alot of fun writing under a different name. I think I will do that from now on when I want to add different elements to my prose style.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

discontinuing Police Call

Just a quick announcement. A writer friend began work on a story and when she started writing it, decided that it did not live up to her all around standards. Well after deliberating about my own story Police Call, I've come to that decision too. I have too many other story ideas that need to see the light of day.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Genre Hopping

The pulp writers of the thirties and forties on up to the fifties did this. They jumped from one genre to another. The main three that they would focus on would be crime fiction, horror, sci fi. Today's writer's do the same thing-- and alot of them mix genres, such as western horror, sci fi horror etc.

It is easy to understand why as writers we do this. I for one, get this surge that I affectionately call "the writing bug" where all sorts of story ideas come to me in just about every genre. As a result, I just want to write it all. But, with all this in mind I am left with a question, should you write an all sorts of story categories, or should you stick to just one or two? Of course there are many opinions about this.

Right now, I am happy to continue writing clown flavored crime fiction and to keep honing my western chops.