Smatterings

With a BBC documentary on Columbo slated to air today, Mark Billingham tells The Rap Sheet why he’s so keen on the rumpled detective.

Congrats to Laura Lippman on her Quill award win in the Mystery/Thriller category.

The Oregonian found themselves in a pickle as to how to cover Chelsea Cain’s HEARTSICK – and the unusual solution didn’t quite meet editors’ needs.

Patrick Anderson admires Michael Harvey’s ambitions on display in THE CHICAGO WAY.

Though Janet Maslin doesn’t quite have her claws sharpened, she at least pinpoints some of the problems I had with Brock Clarke’s AN ARSONIST’S GUIDE TO WRITERS HOMES IN NEW ENGLAND. I wanted to like this book – and Clarke can certainly write – but my satire buttons weren’t pushed at all, alas.

Dave White wonders whether authors plan their series arcs or just wing it.

Serious discussion has ensued over at Bryon Quertermous’s site about why crime fiction short story markets pay so much less than speculative fiction ones.

David Montgomery shares why your book may not have been reviewed. Oh, have I been there a few too many times…

Five more Bat Segundo podcasts are up – I suggest checking out the two–parter with Rupert Thomson.

Harry Potter – most profitable movie franchise ever.

And finally, six years ago I was setting up materials for a freshman biology class, and when the news was relayed to me, I kept going. Only when I heard about the Pentagon did it sink in and I began the long, strange walk home from John Jay College to spend the rest of the day on the Internet absorbing, commenting, conveying and wondering. Now it’s ⁹⁄₁₁ on a Tuesday again and the country may be more jaded and fearful but I can only strive to be neither of those things.