Archives: Hardboiled & Noir

Farewell, Something Lovely

I swear I didn’t plan this. I was recently contacted by my old friend, the talented Fraser Ronald, who’s launched a Kickstarter for a collection of hardboiled sword-and-sorcery stories titled Farewell, Something Lovely. That this post comes right after I read Farewell, My Lovely and wrote a stupid post titled “Farewell, My Fence Rail” can only mean that synchronicity is at work. It’s also a sign that you need Fraser’s collection!

If you’ve been visiting the site over the last week or so, you’ll have noted how the interconnection between sword-and-sorcery and hardboiled pops up from time to time. Charles Rutledge in particular called it out in the comments section from the More on Noir post. Fraser hits that interconnection with both barrels… er, long swords.

Anyway, I strongly urge you to take a look at Fraser Ronald’s Kickstarter, which includes some art from my old friend Storn Cook. Don’t delay — there aren’t too many days left to join in!

Farewell, My Fence Rail

The writing day started out quite well. I rose without aid of an alarm clock and put in  a half hour of good work before I roused everyone else. Things got interesting after I returned from taking one of my children to school.

I have a three rail horse fence. One of my horses loves to press against the top rail to get the grass on the other side. When I pulled in this morning I found he had pressed against BOTH the top and middle rails and cracked them apart so that they hung down and a vast gap was there revealed (Our fence is old, and this happens occasionally, but usually only a rail at a time.) If he had cared to do so Trigger could have stopped munching at the grass and gone running wild and free. (And naked, but that’s not such a big deal if you’re a horse.)

In any case, Trigger’s adventure necessitated  a horse fence repair job that occupied my time until 12:30 or so, because after I fixed the broken boards I discovered three others that were close to going. I figured that as long as I was out there with all the tools I might as well head off future troubles

Despite all that, I got a lot of good work in once I finally made it back inside. And I must say, if I had to work on a fence in January, the weather THIS week is a far better time for it than say, last week when the temperature was frequently below zero. Today I ended up taking my jacket and hat off while I worked.

More on Noir

Yesterday I mentioned how wonderful I found the Spartacus TV show. Today I’m confessing that I finally got around to reading Raymond Chandler’s first Phillip Marlowe novel, The Big Sleep. Wow. Talk about lovely, evocative writing. Sure, I’m  just as puzzled as everyone else about who really killed the chauffeur, but what fine, fine prose.

My fascination with noir continues and I’m bouncing back and forth between Hammet stories of the Continental Op, Frederick Nebel stories about MacBride and Kennedy, Marlowe novels, and the Quarry books by Max Allan Collins. Collins is impressing me more and more, sort of the way Donald Westlake/Richard Stark did, in that the more I read of his work the more I come to appreciate how finely tuned the engines are in what seem, upon first glance, pretty simple vehicles. They’re not really simple at all, no more than a still life by a master painter is simply a snapshot of a bowl of fruit.

I came upon the Quarry books at just the right time, because I see that a TV series based around the character is now in the works. Should be interesting. I can imagine, though, that like Spartacus and Justified, it probably won’t be something I can watch with the rest of the family.

Parker Graphic Novels

File under “cool things to read.”

While at the library yesterday I chanced upon three graphic novel adaptions of the Richard Stark Parker books, all done by Darwyn Cook in all the stylish ’60s glory that talented artist/storyteller can manage.

What’s interesting to me is how much these adaptions showcase Stark’s work in a different way — highlighting phrases, for instance, that I hadn’t even noticed were pretty awesome until they were pulled out of the text and highlighted. The panel on the left, from Cook’s adaption of The Score, is a perfect example. Starks’ style is so understated I didn’t catch all that those simple lines implied until Cook’s illustration called it out.

Fantastic stuff. Go read it. Heck, here’s a link to a preview. Go read that.

Writing Conference Scenes

When you’re writing a scene where characters discuss the plan — no matter if it’s how to pull off the heist or how to save the ship, or where the killer might strike next — there’s always a danger of going into character overload. By that I mean you create a scene with so many characters that the reader (and maybe you , the writer) can’t keep everyone straight.

If you’re working with established characters in a TV show, it’s different. The original Star Trek had briefing room conferences all the time, but because these moments were usually with the series regulars, knowing who they were wasn’t much of an issue. If you were to write a briefing room scene on a whole new starship, though, think about all the shorthand you couldn’t do. Who’s that guy, and what’s his specialty? How do I introduce this woman’s important tactical information without having to go into pages of detail about who she is? These kinds of writing challenges used to drive me crazy.

I just read a virtual blizzard of Richard Stark Parker novels, and while they’re pretty far away from the “save the ship” briefing room scenes I grew up watching, they serve as models in many ways for the crafting of a good conference.

Reading Outside the Genre

I used to get advice about how I needed to read outside my genre, and I didn’t.

I used to get advice about studying other writers for technique, too, and I at least understood that — thanks to Dr. Karl Barnaby’s great class on writing techniques I learned how to slow down to see how the sentences work, and to examine why THIS particular action scene was so effective.

One of the reasons that I thought I didn’t need to read outside my genre was because there was so much of my genre yet to read (and the genre’s even larger now). It’s always good to understand the history of your genre if you’re going to be working in it. But I think the other reasons were laziness, arrogance, and no good sign posts. Who can you trust about what’s really worth your time? You have to be careful. I mean, every crappy science fiction series gets devoted fans, which is why I didn’t try Firefly (and discover how wonderful it was) for years.

This is all leading to a simple recommendation. I, personally, recommend to fantasy fans that they need to read a few books outside of their genre by Donald Westlake writing under the Richard Stark pseudonym.

Back when I was recovering from my knee surgery I finally dug out some books my buddy John Hocking had sent me, and one of them was the first Parker novel, by “Richard Stark.”