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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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Literature: Pale Gray For Guilt
Tue, 06 Nov 2007

So many topics have come to mind the last few weeks, but just as easily drifted away. On the rough nughts when the baby is gnashing through her growth spurts and clawing her way through the rising waves of inputs, time goes quickly as we cheer her. On the easy nights when she plays away and giggles with fascination at her new found skills, what stone-hearted scoundrel could avoid playing with hose tiny probing fingers? So either way the days tumble by, rocks in a slide. (Last night was a funky night, so I will cop out on the rest of this posting :)

A very good friend of mine who had comforting thoughts a year ago when they were welcomed, resent an excerpt from a novel that was timely then. It is excellent stuff, clear and precise and binding. So I rcord it here for when it might be needed again, and as a mini review .. I've not read the novel but I think I must based on these few paragraphs. Perhaps they will entice you as well. (And if not, go read some Neal Stephenson. He'll mess you up.)

...too many others were gone, and I sought chill comfort in an analogy of death that has been with me for years. It doesn't explain or justify. It just seems to remind me how things are.

Picture a very swift torrent, a river rushing down between rocky walls. There is a long, shallow bar of sand and gravel that runs right down the middle of the river. It is under water. You are born and you have to stand on that narrow, submerged bar, where everyone stands. The ones born before you, the ones older than you, are upriver from you. The younger ones stand braced on the bar downriver. And the whole long bar is slowly moving down that river of time, washing away at the upstream end and building up downstream.

Your time, the time of all your contemporaries, schoolmates, your loves and your adversaries, is that part of the shifting bar on which you stand. And it is crowded at first. You can see the way it thins out, upstream from you. The old ones are washed away and their bodies go swiftly by, like logs in the current. Downstream where the younger ones stand thick, you can see them flounder, lose footing, wash away. Always there is more room where you stand, but always the swift water grows deeper, and you feel the shift of the sand and the gravel under your feet as the river wears it away. Someone looking for a safer place can nudge you off balance, and you are gone. Someone who has stood beside you for a long time gives a forlorn cry and you reach to catch their hand, but the fingertips slide away and they are gone. There are the sounds in the rocky gorge, the roar of the water, the shifting, gritty sound of sand and gravel underfoot, the forlorn cries of despair as the nearby ones, and the ones upstream, are taken by the current. Some old ones who stand on a good place, well braced, understanding currents and balance, last a long time. A Churchill, fat cigar atilt, sourly amused at his own endurance and, in the end, indifferent to rivers and the rage of waters. Far downstream from you are the thin, startled cries of the ones who never got planted, never got set, never quite understood the message of the torrent.

-- John D. MacDonald, _Pale Gray For Guilt_

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Literature: Eragon.. defaced :P
Sat, 30 Dec 2006

Having just seen the Eragon film, I thought I'd hit up the IMDB and see what rating it got, then head to wikipedia to find out something about the author. Turns out the Eragon page itself had been defaced, but was fixed moments later. To ensure the survival of the defaced site, I saved a copy which you can see here. (No, I didn't do the defacement, but I am a fan of the opening paragraph :)

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Canvas: Visions of Character
Tue, 21 Mar 2006

I would be remiss if I didn't point out that Big Z's father is having a showing of his paintings at Cafe Bernate (1024 Queen Street West, Toronto Ontario) from March 23rd through April 30th 2006. They're having the opening on the 23rd (which is to say, this Thursday!) wherein Jean Hawryluk will be present for tea and my dear friend Big Z will be working the cocktail station. I'm sure a lot of cool folks, friends and arteests will be mingling, but don't worry.. I'll have the most gadgets so I win.

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Comics: Batman: The Long Halloween
Mon, 20 Mar 2006

Another quick writeup from my phone..

While putting together some final features for a potential mini-release of Shadow Plan (perhaps I'll go for a 4.4 intermediate release rather than heading straight to 4.5 as originally planned) I've been valiently trying to keep up with the support email inbox. At the same time in the wee hours before falling off to sandland, I've been catching up on the goings-about in Gotham City. You see here, I picked this very fine book up for myself around Christmas but never got around to it.

This isn't the latest Batman or Dark Knight type comic as it was originally published around 1996 if memory serves; life has been busy for all of us of course, so I too have contributed to the death of the genre by tending to pick up the graphic novels or collections rather than the monthlies featured at the local comic shop. This book was a thirteen part series, spanning from one Halloween to the next and featuring a somewhat involved plot as the Batman tracks down a serial murderer who strikes only during holidays. Many characters feature cameos including Catwoman, Joker and some others (avoiding spoilage here) so its a fast and fun read.

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Food: Diets for the terminally .. busy.
Sat, 28 Jan 2006

I'm on the tubby side; I know it, but I don't really like it. Sure, not much of a problem now but someday I'm sure it will be and proving that we're not animals means thinking ahead once in awhile... damnit. Anyway, I've always preached that the best diet is one that a person can stick with fairly naturally, and than dieting alone really isn't the solution. Sure, most of us work where only unhealthy lunch options exist but the real problem is most of us plant the caboose in front of a cathrode ray tube for 2/3rds of every day. Jenny won't help, since you have to eat artificial food-like substances for the rest of your life -- that they oh so conveniantly sell, and that don't work when mixed with human food. Dr. B won't work, since they want to build a Jenny-like fake diet by re-engineering your eating habits. Sure, a few people can do that but as every study has shown.. diets do not work, especially for those of us with lactose conditions or other dietary constraints.

So whats a modern person to do?

Obviously, the answer is to eat like a normal person (for your ethnicity) should, and to get a bit of exercise now and again. Eating normal shouldn't be too too hard -- a few less chippies, and a bit more potatos. Exercise is very tough given how much we all work, and how we all commute everywhere. But it has to be done. I had a plan a year or so back and I think it started to work, but I managed to blow it.. so my immediate goal is to reinstate that plan, and stick more to it. The walking everywhere part I did quite well for a year or so, but blew it a month back.... so this time, no more exceptions!

Jeff's suburbanite plan:

Is that enough?

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Comics: Are these the end or beginning of days?
Tue, 20 Dec 2005

It is difficult to post to a blog in the runners-up days before Christmas without revealing ones recent where-abouts to a feisty and cunning wife, so instead I'll post about a recent conversation I had with some shopkeeps.

Comic stores are an interesting den; sometimes they're not more than hole-the-wall jernts with a few racks of goods, while other times they're larger establishments featuring figures and other tie-ins - video and anime, computer or tabletop games (RPGs!), you name it. Cool stuff (if you consider the Dungeon Master's Guide cool stuff, like I do.) You'll note that all of these things are the sorts of activites that attract geeks and obsessives so you just know that the shops are neat places for High Nerding. Anyway, these shops tend to be owned by real humans .. individuals. There are no big box malls running these places.. they just don't make enough money and so somehow remain the grit in the book industry. Nice.

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Lit: Retrogamer Returns from the Dead
Tue, 06 Dec 2005

You might remember from an earlier post of mine that the much adored Retro Gamer magazine went out of business; more specifically, Live Publishing went bust due to losses against numerous magazines despite RG itself being a money maker. Well, like the content it describes, Retro Gamer is making a comeback.

Although the new company has nothing to do with Live Publishing, the new boys are trying to get back their former customers - a wise plan; how many people were in the same boat as I.. renewing just before Live unknowingly tanked? Being out an entire years sub-money wasn't really cool, so getting a free 3 copies of the new rag means I'll pay attention. If this first new issue (issue 19) is anything to go by .. I may well be a subscriber again.

I've not had this issue long enough to make good commentary (notice a trend in this blog yet?), but it looks sharp and professional, yet maintains its retro-cuteness -- lots of big glossy photos of R-Type, Ms. Pacman, Leisure Suit Larry.. whats not to love? I even hear they'll not be so UK-oriented this time around.

Loverly.

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Comics: Serenity (aka Firefly)
Thu, 17 Nov 2005

I've been quiet a couple of days (terrible loss I know ;) as I was in training for a certification; I'll talk^H^H^H^Hbitch about that later. For now, I'll just say - perogies are amazing, but perogies are more amazing with meaty-spaghetti sauce. Speaking of tasty segues, it's very delicious watching Sony getting beaten-up in the public media for it's evil Windows and privacy-invading rootkit. For instance, while driving into the office today 680 News-radio featured a brief story about the state of things - though they got all the facts incorrect of course. Wonderful - A tech blog has kicked Sony right in the shins. Lawyers will make their move and perhaps Evil Corporate Bastards will regain just a little of their humanity (we can dream, right?) - and maybe 50 years from now we can look back and say "when we were young and free, at least we got some skin."

I'm still trying to work through the 10 or so episodes of the short-lived Firefly television show - time being what it is - but of the 4 or 5 episodes I've seen so far, I'm loving it. Apparently it ends abrubtly (as the show was cancelled) and the silver-screen movie picks up several years later (in both real world and virtual chronologies), so the three-issue comic set attempts to bridge that.. interregnum. I'll read through them once I finish up with the TV show set and let you know how they go.

Really, I just want a Firefly (the ship) figurine to perch atop my monitor in the office, beside my SDF-1.

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R.I.P. Retro Gamer Magazine UK
Tue, 27 Sep 2005

(Updated) Retro Gamer (RG) was a great magazine published in the UK for a year or two. With heavy heart I say this in the past tense for it would seem that Live Publishing is no more. Apparently RG-itself was doing pretty well but the other magazines Live was publishing didn't fare so well and dragged the company down. Quite a shame, as RG stood as one of the few retro-oriented magazines. At least some of the writers (who got stiffed!) are pooling together unpublished articles to print up a CD of the now missing issue 19 - check it out here. Also see this new retro magazine rising from the ashes, here

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Les Miserables, Or, How Our Car Got Broken Into
Mon, 19 Sep 2005

It certainly has been an eventful summer for things breaking, from the storm damage to a gate latch to water hoses to cars to you name it.. its amazing anyone gets ahead at all when they have a house :) Anyway, we headed out with the brother-in-law-and-his-wife to see Les Miserables in downtown Toronto. I'm not much of a thee-a-tre sort of fellow though in the past we have taken in The Lion King (amazing!), some theatre-with-dinners (cool), and Mamma Mia (not so good, but perhaps due to all the substitute performers we had).. and I've enjoyed them. Its nice to go out for a night on the town once in awhile, even it is to see theatre or ballet - Romeo and Juliet in ballet was wonderful though the Nutcracker I nearly slept through...

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Literature: The Greenbacks of Shannara
Fri, 22 Jul 2005

Do I plead the fifth or actually make this post? I debated this for a week, but in the name of bloganistic integrity.. here goes, and to heck with my reputation as sensible human being. I'm not really a literary elitist, but life is too short to read a lot of the bad and cheesie stuff out there IMHO, so I traditionally stick to known good authors or new (to me) authors recommended by friends. I wish I had more time and budget for just picking up random books (which is how I cam across so many great authors in the past, such as Steven Brust) but alas I do not. Still, sometimes you need to turn off your cynic and jump into some Robert Jordan or David Eddings and be done with (though usually its safer to just hit up some Phillip Jose Farmer instead :)

Anyhoo, Terry Brooks' Shannara series is undeniably one of the most popular (and profitable) series around. I believe I read some of it as a kid, but a couple months back I found myself in the mood for some so-called high fantasy (which I usually refer to as wank fantasy) - a term that seems to imply a high density of Tolkien-esque elements such as tall whispy elves who are friends to the forest and great in AD&D, short sturdy dwarves, a single world-saving artefact to be chased down and a great evil slowly sweeping across the playfield. Of course, Tolkien pretty much invented the modern fantasy genre and needs no description here, Terry Brooks series is essentially a formulaic knock-off. But thats okay, I knew that going in and so did manage to enjoy the first two volumes so far. (A note to my friends -- please keep talking to me ;)

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Literature: Bruce Campbell, If Chins Could Kill
Fri, 22 Jul 2005

Alright, I'll say it -- I'll out myself -- I'm a Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess fan. And not just the Callisto (Hudson Leick) kind of fan, but a fan of hammed up acting and mythos-mixing goofy plot television.

Remember, the measure of a man is not the value of his zipped ebook collection (ebooks do not collectibles make), but the weight of his paperback and hard cover collection -- and my collection now includes two vitally important volumes: If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a "B" Movie Actor and Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way

(I had other posting titles in mind, but really.. how can you top that actual book name?)

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Comics: Sweaty men and thin plots
Fri, 15 Jul 2005

Comics are cool, and then not cool - like skateboards and Def Leppard. (pause for applause) (ducking thrown tomatos) Thankfully with movies like Spiderman, X-Men and Batman making inroads to the public ethermind, comics and graphic novels are cool again. (And with Lord of the Rings being enormously popular, maybe a few people will learn to read again. Books I mean, and not just magazines with hot goth artwork girls by Neil Gaiman :) Regardless of what was cool or not back in the day, I collected a ragged assortment of comic books when I was a kid -- some nifty ones (since I was the sort of punk who liked things no one else did), and some uncool books (just because they were the kind a kid liked -- by which I mean inexpensive!) The result - my little library included some great to not-so-great stuff, like the original black and white packaged-in-baggies-with-cardboard-backing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles issue #1. And the infamous Dr. Fate sex-change issues.

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Literature: Reviewing (or drooling over?) the latest Parker, Nobody Runs Forever
Fri, 17 Jun 2005

If you're looking for books that are difficult to describe to someone whose not dipped into the crime noir fiction genre before, these are your best bet. Parker is the hardened (or hard-boiled) lead character in this series of books by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake being the authors real name) -- novels that are nearly impossible to put down once you've cracked them open. Literary cocaine, these are fast paced heist stories full of the sorts of characters you'd find (or love to find) in the underbelly of New York city..

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Recipe: Impossible Cheeseburger Pie
Fri, 20 May 2005

Sometimes I'm feeling a little peckish for something in particular, be it pasta or steak or pizza or just a fine sandwhich (the very best of which - like a Club House - will be called sammiches. I also suggest avoiding dishes that refer to themselves as 'gourmet' since that really just means pretend to like it when you really don't). But for me, once in awhile I get this urge to return to basics -- to fill up on a meal that harkens back to youth -- like mom used to make. And when you're a kid you don't go for fancy or complicated but simple things like peas and potatos which for me means Impossible Pie (or sometimes what I call Gray Stew, but thats for another article.) Recipe and terrible pictures below.

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