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Books: _The Bank Shot_ by Donald Westlake
Thu, 03 Jul 2008

No doubt I've gone on about Mr. Westlake in the past (or should have) -- truly his works form an astounding body of fiction that really everyone should have a taste of. I can only say that, fortunately for the humble reader, he has written and continues to write so many works that you will never truly run out - and for the completionists among us, much of his work is now out of print and can be great fun to track down. How many times in the past have you caught up to an authors latest work and waited half a decade for the sequal, and then found another one in the wait? With Mr. Westlake and his sydonyms you could start with books done many decades ago, only to find out he pops out a book a year .. go forward or back, you'll never keep up to the man.

Of the several dozen books I've read from the man, they are generally even.. highly consistent pacing (always a fast read since of course you can barely stand to put them down), always crackling and witty dialog, always very human characters -- likable heroes, bad guys you cannot wait to get their upcomings and always some absolutely perfect caper scenes.. be they amusing or action packed.) Choose Donald Westlake for his capers-gone-wrong or other works, or the Richard Stark alias for more serious crime noir fiction.. capers going right.

Just go read some. I'll wait. Go.

Anyway, I just wrapped up Bank Shot, a caper in the Dortmunder series (which is under Westlake, not Stark) from awhile back. Another great caper with familiar characters doing their jobs and hanging about at the O.J. Bar .. and some truly amazing scenes. Few 'comedy' books have ever evoked an actual real world laugh from me before, but this one had it.. action, dialog and a couple so well crafted scenes I had to tell my wife about them. I'm going to tell non-reader folks around my office about them. I'm going to look in a mirror and tell yself about them for Crom's sake.

Oh, I suppose I should summarize a little.. in Bank Shot, the gang comes across a bank that is being rebuilt, so for a short time the bank operation is being run from a heavy mobile home across the road while the main building is under construction. Suffice to say the mobile bank is locked down.. security guards, no wheels under the home, cement walls to hold up the unit and so on. But the gang is going to steal it. The whole bank.

As readers, we are in a lucky position.

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Writing: Some advice for writers
Thu, 03 Jul 2008

A friend of mine was describing a trap that some-or-many authors get in.. the middling author trap: Whereby you are moderately successful in the past, but not likely to produce the next Harry Potter and sell-through millions of books. As such, the publishers are more interested in new blood (rolling the dice to possibly find the next Harry Potter emitter) or known blockbuster blood.. thosre souls in the middle, cannot get published. Fascinating little shaft from an industry I know little about. Anyway during the discussion he noted a message board where some writers were discussing.... authory things.

I'm sure there are many very good threads but in particular I have this one - a very good short read with some thoughts on the writing processw, how to get published and so on. Clicky!

Absolute Write

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