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Forever An Important Life – Howard Andrew Jones (1968 – 2025)

Forever An Important Life – Howard Andrew Jones (1968 – 2025)

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(As long as Black Gate lets me post here, this will run every year the week of Howard’s passing (January 16), to help keep his flame alive)

A LIFE IS NOT IMPORTANT EXCEPT IN THE IMPACT IT HAS ON OTHER LIVES – Jackie Robinson’s epitaph

Mark Rigney, Howard Andrew Jones, Bob Byrne

I did an interview last week with Jason Waltz for his ’24 in 42′ podcast (Yeah, I know: You just can’t wait to hear that one…).

One of the questions was about my favorite quote/lyric/poem/motivational thought. Some of you who know me probably figure it’s a Bible verse. And there are a couple that are right up there.

But it’s the epitaph on Jackie Robinson’s gravestone, which leads off this post.

My buddy Howard Andrew Jones has passed away from brain cancer. You’re going to see a LOT of people singing his praises in the coming weeks. All of it deserved. If I can stop crying long enough, my Monday morning post will be on Howard.

But you’re gonna see a common thread in the talk about Howard. The impact he had on other people’s lives. Especially in encouraging and helping writers – mostly in the sword and sorcery field.

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A Skillful Handling of a Standard Mystery:Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers

A Skillful Handling of a Standard Mystery:Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers

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Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers (Avon Books, 1948)

Mysteries aren’t my first choice in genre fiction; science fiction and fantasy appeal to me more consistently. Even so, I’ve read a fair number of mysteries, by authors from Dashiell Hammett to P.D. James. (I’ve also enjoyed science fiction and fantasy mysteries such as Randall Garrett’s Lord Darcy stories and Lois McMaster Bujold’s Memory.)

But two things happen to me over and over with mysteries: When I read a series by the same author, I lose interest before I’ve read the entire series, and I don’t come back to a series after I’ve put it down. The great exception on both counts is Dorothy Sayers’ Peter Wimsey novels. Of course I think that I come back to her because she’s especially good; at any rate her writing is to my personal taste. But my getting through the whole series, I think, has a more specific cause: Mystery writers tend to develop a formula for their novels, and at a certain point the investigations of V.I. Warshawski or Adam Dalgleish go stale for my mental palate; but it seems to me that Sayers, despite recurrent elements in the Wimsey novels, is taking up a different formula with each novel. They may not all be equally good, but they all offer the pleasure of novelty and experiment.

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That Annual Audible Sale 2025 (What I’ve Been Listening To)

That Annual Audible Sale 2025 (What I’ve Been Listening To)

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I have been using my library app a lot for audiobooks the past few months. I just borrowed (not all at once. I’m not a twit) the entire Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio shows, as part of my Douglas Adams rabbit-hole trip (which started when I listened to this book).

At the same time, I was listening to the early Cole and Hitch Westerns, from Robert B. Parker. You might have read about the great job Titus Welliver (Bosch) does reading those, here.

While using the library app more, I still have my Audible sub. And they do a BIG sale every year. Every title is on sale to some extent. Compared to last year, it seems like either the base prices were higher, or the percent reductions were less. However, I set my limit at $4 per title, and spent quite a few hours looking up authors and delving into subjects. I didn’t buy as many titles as I did last year. And I was hoping some things sitting in my Wish List since last year’s sale (like The Keep on the Borderlands) would be in my price range. Not even close. But I still picked up nearly two-dozen books – many for around $2.

CASTLE PERILOUS – John DeChancie

DeChancie wrote eight books in this series between 1988 and 1994. They aren’t quite as humorous as those classic-style paperback covers might lead you to believe:  like Craig Shaw Gardner’s stuff, or even Piers Anthony’s Xanth books. Maybe ‘fantastical’ is more appropriate. A little whimsical. 144,000 doors in the mysterious Castle lead to other worlds/aspects – one of which is Earth. It’s ruled by the sorcerer Incarnadine, and people who find their way to the Castle often become Guests, and stay. The series involves key characters in wild adventures – often with villains trying to take over the Castle.

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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Will Murray on Dash(iell) and (Lester) Dent

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Will Murray on Dash(iell) and (Lester) Dent

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Frequent guest columnist, New Pulp maven Will Murray, is back with more speculation: this time linking about the two biggest names in Pulp. Was Dashiell Hammett a Lester Dent fan? Well, let’s find out! 

The so-called Pulp Jungle, as Frank Gruber once called it, was a densely populated wonderland, at least insofar the greatest concentration of pulp magazine writers lived in or in close proximity to New York City, where most of the publishers were established.

Late in life, Theodore Tinsley, a regular contributor to Black Mask, The Shadow, as well as numerous other top pulp titles, recalled:

“Pulpland seems a strange, purple-clouded island, in a warm sea somewhere far off, where some of the damnedest elves and goblins I ever met used to say and do strange things, especially when drunk.”

Thanks in part to the American Fiction Guild, a writer’s association which flourished during the 1930s, a great many of these writers and their editors convened for Friday luncheon gatherings at Rosoff’s restaurant on 43rd Street. They socialized, vacationed together, dated, and even married. It was virtually a subculture delineated and confined by a common vocational focus.

Others, scattered throughout the country, kept in touch by letter. But not everyone knew everyone else, except possibly by reputation.

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What I’ve Been Listening To: November 2025

What I’ve Been Listening To: November 2025

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It’s been August since I shared What I’ve Been Listening To. My apologies for depriving you! And you know that I listen to audiobooks every single day: Work, home, car, walking, bedtime: I’m constantly listening to them.

I am set up with two library systems here in Columbus now, so I’m borrowing some listens with Libbby, and Hoopla. The first entry today was a borrow.

And I am typing this after watching my Dodgers win the first NL back-to-back World Series’ since 1975/76. 50 years ago! I have seen the Dodgers play in 10 World Series’ in my lifetime, and they’re now 5-5, having won the last three. It’s a good time to be a Dodgers fan.

CONSPIRATA/LUSTRUM (Robert Harris)

I loved Robert Harris’ Fatherland. It’s an alternate history mystery novel in which the Nazis won (similar to Len Deighton’s terrific SS-GB). HBO made a really good version with Rutger Hauer. I’m going to watch it again soon.

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The Double-A Western Detective Agency joins Holmes on the Range (Sorta…)

The Double-A Western Detective Agency joins Holmes on the Range (Sorta…)

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Last year, I did a three-part series on Steve Hockensmith’s terrific Holmes on the Range series. This essay, a comprehensive chronology, and a Q&A which Steve kindly did with me, represent the deepest dive anyone has done on these fun books. Since then, two novels (and a short story) in a spin-off series about the Double-A Western Detective Agency, came out. As well as one Old Red short story. I’m (yet again) listening to the Holmes on the Range audiobooks –  mixing in the short stories in chronological order this time – and loving the series all over again. I’m also reading the second Double-A novel (No Hallowed Ground).

I’ve added some info on the new series at the end of this post. And I’ve updated the Chronology. If I still haven’t convinced you to try that first novel, Holmes on the Range (or the short story collection, Dear Mr. Holmes), give me the benefit of the doubt. Steve’s a really good writer, and these are fun Western mysteries, with a Holmes underlay. Don’t be a saphead. 🙂

There are a lot of ways to go about writing a Sherlock Holmes story. Some folks attempt to very carefully emulate Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s own style, and to turn out a tale that feels as if it might have been penned (or typed these days) by the creator of the great detective himself. No surprise that results vary. GREATLY. Hugh Ashton and Denis O. Smith are the best I’ve found in this regard.

You can find stories ranging from pretty good to not suitable for (digital) toilet paper. I’ve had a half dozen of my own stories published and I’m still working on better voicing the good doctor.

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Not Your Average Standard: Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford

Not Your Average Standard: Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford

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Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford (Faber & Faber, April 4, 2024)

This is a strange (in a good way) hybrid of alternate history (a 2023 Sidewise Award winner, in fact), syncretism, crime noir, and Christological sacrifice. Oh, and it has a little something to do with jazz, specifically that of the 1920s hot jazz era played in bars and brothels.

Let’s take these in order.  The alternate history is the invention of Cahokia, in reality a prehistoric Native American settlement around some 80 surviving earthworks today preserved as the Cahokia Mounds archeological park located directly across the Mississippi River from St. Louis Missouri, as a Prohibition-era multi-ethnic capital city in a U.S. state formed by an alliance of Native American tribes. Cahokia has its own language, and although Catholic-converted Native Americans comprise the majority, there are various ethnic communities (that’s the syncretism part), including a large African American presence, and, as you might expect, tension among them.

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What I’ve Been Watching: October 2025

What I’ve Been Watching: October 2025

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Well, August was the last time I shared What I’ve Been Watching, and I know you’re always wondering what is getting my attention.

This week we’ve got three British crime shows, one American comedy cop show, and…an action movie.

RETURN TO PARADISE

I have written more than once about Death in Paradise This British cop show, set in a Caribbean island, is one of my favorites, through 117 episodes over 14 seasons. Click here to read about it.

There have been multiple cast changes, with several Detective Inspectors from Britain assigned. One, Humphrey Goodman (played by Kris Marshall), has his own spin-off, Beyond Paradise. Season three just began dropping on Britbox this week, and has been renewed for a fourth.

There’s another spin-off, set in Australia. It’s a bit different. There’s mild tie to Death in Paradise, but it’s not a sequel, like Beyond Paradise is. More on that below.

Anna Samson is DI Mackenzie Clark. She had been a police officer in her Australian hometown, when she dumped her fiance and went off to work in London. She’s under investigation there and returns home. She ends up working there again, where her ex-fiance is the ME, and his mother is her boss – before and again. So, you get the set-up.

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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Will Murray asks, ‘Do Lost Raymond Chandler Stories Exist?’

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Will Murray asks, ‘Do Lost Raymond Chandler Stories Exist?’

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“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.
– Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep
(Gat — Prohibition Era term for a gun. Shortened version of Gatling Gun)

Will Murray makes a return to A (Black) Gat in the Hand. Last month, Strand Magazine (who I wrote DVD reviews for in a prior century) published a lost Raymond Chandler story. Which got Will to thinking…

The recent discovery of a previously unknown and unpublished short story by Raymond Chandler reminded me of a question that’s lingered in my mind for a very long time.

How did Chandler in the early years the Depression support himself and his wife writing for Black Mask and other titles when he only sold a two or three stories a year?

Black Mask was then paying only a penny or a penny and a half a word for fiction to any but their top writers. Chandler was writing stories that were roughly 12 to 18,000 words long. He received $180.00 for his first sale, “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot.“ Even considering what a penny could buy in 1933, when a loaf of sliced bread cost 3 cents, Chandler wouldn’t have been able to survive solely writing for Black Mask.

It wasn’t until 1935 that he broke into Munsey’s Detective Fiction Weekly, which probably paid him two cents a word, and possibly more. A considerable raise, but still far short of what was required for subsistence living. And he only sold one story to DFW, “Noon Street Nemesis.“

Since Chandler had been a well-paid oil company executive until he lost his job in 1932, conceivably his savings carried him for some period. But according to Chandler biographer Tom Hiney, by the time he started working on “Blackmailers,“ Chandler’s savings had been all but exhausted. The story took him five months to write. Add another month or so until he received the acceptance check. So that’s $30.00 a month for six months toil, paid at the end of the six-month period. At his old executive position, Chandler’s salary had approached $10,000 a year.

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What I’ve Been Listening To: August, 2025

What I’ve Been Listening To: August, 2025

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What I’ve Been Listening To is back for another installment. Audiobooks are omnipresent in my life now. Work, home, car, walking, bedtime: I’m constantly listening to them. Often something I’ve listened to before, which lets my mind half-focus to no ill effect. But I’m still listening.

Some recent plays – all Audible, as I need to get Hoopla set up on my ‘new’ used phone. I have listened to five different Bruce Campbell projects recently, so that’s probably another post.

MIDDLEBRIDGE MYSTERIES

I wrote about Mistletoe Murders, which is an Audible original series. It’s like a Hallmark mystery movie. Emily Lane runs a Christmas-themed store, but she has a secret past. Of course, there’s a local cop boyfriend, with a daughter named Violet.

I like the series, and they turned it into a Hallmark TV series as well, though I’ve not seen that yet. It uses different actors, which I’m not too enthused about.

Well, Violet was trying to get into college at the end of season three, and she did. So, Anna Cathcart is back and starring in Violet’s freshman year in criminal justice studies. Her professor is played by Eric McCormack (Will and Grace). I was a big fan of his show Perception and he’s good as a supporting character here.

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