Prom Night at The Poisoned Pen
I just got back from a great event at
The Poisoned Pen bookstore in Arizona for my new book,
Prom Night and Other Man-made Disasters.
Prom Night is a collection of humorous essays describing episodes in my life from childhood, school, work and relationships, and since I grew up in Phoenix in the 60's and 70's, a visit to
Barbara Peters' bookstore in Scottsdale (a suburb of Phoenix) was just what the doctor ordered.
A number of friends and classmates from my high school,
Central High, attended the event, including some who figured prominently in the essays. Here is a picture of me with my old pal Mary Holden, a
writer and
editor in her own right. (Say, interesting how our pose in the photo sort of echos the couple in the cover photo.)
I was the opening "act" for
Craig Johnson, who is touring for his new book,
As the Crow Flies. It was great to hear Craig talk about
Crow and the forthcoming TV show,
Longmire, based on his series of Walt Longmire books. Craig and I have done events together in the past, including this signing at the
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, right after his first novel,
Cold Dish, was released.
It goes without saying that I snagged a copy of
As the Crow Flies. I thought it was terrific--as I have all of Craig's books--but I had to laugh when I came to a passage about Wyoming Sheriff Longmire struggling to use a complicated DSLR camera to take pictures at a crime scene. It reminded me a lot of Craig's own struggles when he took this picture of me in
his hat with
my camera.
Mystery reviewer extraordinaire, library manager and hostess of the
Glendale Library authors program,
Authors @ The Teague,
Lesa Holstine, was also present. She did a wonderful write-up of my conversation about
Prom Night with Poisoned Pen's
Patrick Millikin, so if you'd like to read more, check out her blog post
here.
Prom Night Is Here!
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| Prom Night and Other Man-Made Disasters |
No, not an actual prom night (although of course the annual high school ritual will go forward across the nation this spring as always), but my new collection of humorous first person essays,
Prom Night and Other Man-made Disasters.
The book is available in paperback from a variety of
booksellers, and in eBook on the
Kindle.
To kick things off, I'm giving some copies of the book away on
Goodreads and
LibraryThing. And there's also a Facebook
Page to "like."
Conversations with James Ellroy
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| Conversations with James Ellroy, edited by Steven Powell |
I
just learned of a
new book of interviews with crime fiction great James Ellroy, edited by
Steven Powell. That by itself would be a treat, but it also happens to feature a
photograph I took of Ellroy at the
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.
I always thought it was a revealing shot of Ellroy--he has a sort of half smirk in the photo that suits him--and I'm glad to see it featured on the cover.
Bullets Across the Bay: Exhibit Sample
I was thrilled to be part of the closing reception at the "
Bullets Across the Bay" crime fiction exhibit at UC Berkeley. I was even more thrilled that curator Randal Brandt included my novel
Runoff in the exhibit--in the authors influenced by Dashiell Hammett section:
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Runoff at Bullets Across the Bay
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The text reads:
San Francisco writer Mark Coggins has drawn comparisons to Hammett for
his novels featuring hard-boiled, wise-cracking PI August Riordan.
Although Riordan himself is something of a throwback, he tackles
decidedly 21st century problems, including corporate espionage in the
gaming software industry, internet pornography, and touch-screen voting
fraud. In an earlier book, Vulture Capital (2002), Coggins experimented
with using the uncommon [objective 3rd person] narrative style in a
conscious effort to evoke Hammett's The Glass Key (1931).
Bullets Across the Bay Closing Reception
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| Bullets Across the Bay Closing Reception |
Come hear Sheldon Siegel, Janet Dawson, Diana Orgain, Simon Wood and myself read selections from our favorite Bay Area mystery writers at the closing reception for the "Bullets Across the Bay" crime fiction exhibit at UC Berkeley.
Curated by Randal S. Brandt, Maria C. Brandt and Michaelyn Burnette, the exhibit features first editions of mystery novels set in the Bay Area supplemented with materials that contribute to the understanding of the genre and the
place.
I'll be reading a short selection from Dashiell Hammett's
The Maltese Falcon and Joe Gore's
Interface. For more information, visit this
link.
Ride a Red Dragon
I'm pleased to announce my short story, "Ride a Red Dragon" is available on Amazon Kindle for a mere 99 cents! Here's the set up:
When speakeasy and gambling hall owner Scooter Hawkins puts a call
into private eye Vic Lane to investigate an extortion attempt, Lane
barely has time to hear the assignment before two men with Thompson sub-machine guns burst through the door to ratchet up the stakes with a
stream of lead.
Lane’s investigation leads to a rival gambling
house known as the Red Dragon, and soon he is caught up in a ruthless
struggle with its beautiful proprietress, Wan Jung.
Set in 1920s
San Francisco with flappers, speakeasies and roadsters, “Ride a Red Dragon” is a two-fisted tale of deceit and
revenge reminiscent of Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op stories.
Pick it up
here.
Patricia Cornwell's RED MIST
#1
New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell's new novel,
Red Mist, goes on sale this Tuesday, December 6th.
What's that go to do with me? The book is set in and around Savannah, Georgia and when her publisher, Putnum, went looking for a atmospheric photograph from the area to use for the book's end papers, they found my shot of a
foggy morning at Colonial Park Cemetery.
They printed it in silver on both end papers and I think it looks tremendous:
(Notice the image is reversed to keep the tree clear of the dust jacket flap.) Patricia is also featuring it on her
website:
I don't think the Putnum folks realized that I am also a crime fiction writer, but of course the fact that I, too, write crime makes me all the more proud to have the photo on Patricia's book.
