Forgotten Music: Swoon by Prefab Sprout

Forgotten Music: 

Swoon by Prefab Sprout

 

‘An outlaw stand in a peasant land, in every face see Judas.
The burden of love is so strange.

The stubborn beast and the priest, are hiding from the captains.
The burden of love is so plain.

Are they happy to see you?
No, you always bring trouble.
Cast a shadow on Mexico-denial doesn't change facts.’ Don’t Sing.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression, apparently. Which is why the first song on an LP is so important.

Prefab Sprout’s 1984 debut  kicks off with Don’t Sing ,a song based on Graham Greene’s classic novel The Power And The Glory so, you know, you can’t say that you didn’t know what you were getting into.

Prefab Sprout were – and are- songwriter Paddy McAloon who was born in Durham in the north of England which is a very good thing indeed.They  started off on Kitchenware Records, the Newcastle based post-punk indie label that also gave a home to the splendid Martin Stepehenson - although they were really only ever on nodding terms with 'post-punk’ or indeed rock music.

The Sprouts first single had the perplexing title of ‘Lions In My Own Garden (Exit Someone)’ and was about songwriter Paddy McAloon’s girlfriend leaving him to live in France. In  Limoges. Get it? Well, I didn’t for a while...

‘Lions ...’, like it’s follow up single ‘The Devil Has All The Best Tunes’, was an acoustic based  twisty-turny (musically and lyrically ) piece of low–fi  with a trace of Steely Dan at their most arch.

And then came SWOON.

SWOON is a flawed album, for sure, but, to paraphrase Pauline Kael,great albums are rarely perfect albums.

McAloons lyrics and his music are tied and bound together ,like those of his hero Stephen Sondheim, and when the songs break down it’s usally because they’re not working in tandem.

But when they do work , as in the  lyrically  ambitious ( for a pop single)  Don’t Sing or  I Couldn’t Bear To Be Special or their 'contribution to the urban blues', Cruel. They work brilliantly.

Swoon is :

1. "Don't Sing" – 3:53
2. "Cue Fanfare" – 4:06
3. "Green Isaac" – 3:31
4. "Here on the Eerie" – 4:00
5. "Cruel" – 4:20
6. "Couldn't Bear to Be Special" – 3:49
7. "I Never Play Basketball Now" – 3:40
8. "Ghost Town Blues" – 3:21
9. "Elegance" – 3:45
10. "Technique" – 4:38
11. "Green Isaac II" – 1:30

Prefab’ Sprout's later work was better produced,more streamlined and gave them greater commercial success but this is the one that works best for me.

According to Wiki, Paddy McAloon ‘was diagnosed with a progressive medical disorder that affects his retina and impairs his vision. He has also been diagnosed with Ménière's disease, an inner ear condition. ‘

But he's still producing interesting music, including a spoken word concept album.

There is more Forgotten Music at Scott D Parker's top blog here.

Listen to Don't Sing by Prefab Sprout here

HILARY DAVIDSON ! NEW NOVEL @ DARKEST BEFORE THE DAWN

HILARY DAVIDSON is a cracking writer, she really is. 

If you go over to her blog - DARK VOYAGE - you can find links a few of her short stories, including the brilliant ANNIVERSARY. 

Every one a gem, as Arthur Askey used to say. But really.

Well, Hillary Davidson has also written a novel. It's call THE DAMAGE DONE and it's OUT NOW !

If you want a taste of the book- and I think you DO - then go over to DARKEST BEFORE THE DAWN were ALDO CALCAGNO  will give you the first THREE chapters of THE DAMAGE DONE for NOWT! 

You can't beat that can you?

DARK VOYAGES is Here

DARKEST BEFORE THE DAWN is HERE

PULP METAL MAGAZINE ! More New Stuff!

PULP METAL MAGAZINE ! More New Stuff!

Listen To Jason Michel

' Something Hairy Comes To PMM!

& for once, its not just me.

This week's PMM is proud to feature an interview with Ryan Colucci, writer of the all-new Horror Graphic Novel, Harbor Moon.
Along with Ryan with have the second part of Chris Pollard's fairy epic -The Lad On The Knoll, a gentle piece of reminiscing by Sue W & two new brutal & funny stories, one by Kevin Atherton & one by Randall Pretzer.

PMM - Your little piece of Hairy Heaven.'

 

So, there you go! Pop over to PULP METAL MAGAZINE!

PULP SERENADE: Stories For Sunday!

It's good to see the great Cullen Gallagher back on that wild horse which is known as PULP SERENADE.

A regular feature  at PULP SERENADE is his Stories For Sunday and this week he's featured stories from Sandra Seamans, Katherine A. Russell and my story The Final Cut.

Pop over and have a gander HERE

Richard Godwin Interview

Richard Godwin Interview

Back in June I interviewed Richard Godwin at PULP METAL MAGAZINE. Here is the interview.

1. Sex or death? Which fuels your writing the most?

While they are two prevalent themes in my writing, they are not the only ones by any stretch of the imagination. The two are inextricably connected. The Elizabethans referred to orgasm as the ‘little death’. We come out of the darkness and will return to it inevitably, whatever religious concept you want to impose on that.

Humans use sex to ward off their own mortality. The huge industry surrounding plastic surgery is a good illustration of this as is the endless model of youth that Hollywood spawns.

2. Noir, and pulp in general, is usually seen as something that only the Americans do or do best. Do you agree? Do you consider yourself to be a British writer?

I think that more noir and pulp writing has come out of the Unites States and that much of it is first class. The States has some outstanding heavyweights among its writers across the board but it does not hold a monopoly on noir or pulp.

Ted Lewis was a key figure in the 1970′s revival of British noir. His novel Jacks Returns Home was filmed as Get Carter. Since the eighties we’ve had writers such as Nicholas Blincoe.

I see myself as an English writer with a lot of respect for my own country as well as the great American writers. Literature and storytelling are a global phenomenon.

3. Tell us about the theatre; the roar of the greasepaint, the smell of the crowd.

There are so many great dramatists from England. I am a huge admirer of Beckett for his minimalist simplicity. Someone who writes great dialogue today is the American playwright David Mamet. The theatre can be seen as a vehicle for exploring the dramas that affect us all. Some people interact and some people don’t, they’re enacting some form of solipsistic monologue, and that in itself is revealing.

My play ‘The Cure-All’ was staged at The Questors Theatre and went down very well. It is a comedy about a group of confidence tricksters using the New Age to rip off a bunch of greedy gulls. The thing about comedy is you know you’re hitting the right buttons if the audience laugh. They did. The greasepaint roared.

4. Which short stories would you have liked to have written?

I’ve never thought about it, but two that spring to mind are Stephen King’s ‘The Road Virus Heads North’ and if we can count a novella Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart Of Darkness’.

5. Your bloody footprints have been all over the interweb for about a year. What were you doing before?

Paying the bills and writing.

6. Do you think the ezines are a good breeding ground for writing talent in the  same way that the old  pulp magazines were?

Absolutely.

The publishing industry’s in trouble, we’ve just come out of a global recession and it’s arguable if it’s over, we live in an age where formula writing rules as does the craving for gossip on celebrities. The ezines you and I know about out there, especially the American ones are full of talent. There are many writers there who should be in print. Agents don’t want to take a risk and the publishers are obsessed by profit. In the States people still want to read good stories, which is great. I think the comparison with the old pulp magazines is a sound one. Behind the ezines are dedicated hardworking editors.

7. Are you working on a great unfinished novel or is it finished?

It’s finished, and will be published early next year.

8. Your writing is very vivid and full of strong images. Do you have any interest in writing for the silver screen?

Yes, it would interest me, crossing genres always take some adapting but with fiction basically you’re dealing with more dialogue these days. Many writers such as Cormac McCarthy write dialogue based prose at times. Elmore Leonard is easily adaptable to film because his fictions are dialogue oriented.

It would be nice, know anyone who wants a script writer Paul?

9. What’s on the cards for 2010?

Getting my novel ready for publication and more stories. My new site will be up shortly and more information will be available there.

10. Ask The audience:

From Richard to YOU!

If you had to identify one ingredient above all others that you look for and appreciate in a piece of fiction, what would it be?

BIO: Richard Godwin is a produced playwright whose crime novel 

has been accepted for publication later this year.

He writes crime and horror and his stories can be found at many vibrant magazines, among them A Twist Of Noir, Disenthralled, Word Catalyst and Danse Macabre. You can also find them in the recent anthologies ‘Back in 5 Minutes ‘ by Little Episodes Publishing and ‘Howl’ by Lame Goat Press.

He blogs here

http://richardgodwin.wordpress.com/

I'M IN THE HARTLEPOOL MAIL !!!

Yep, my home town's newspaper have a feature on me. It's HERE!

Fridays Forgotten Books: The Distant Echo by Val McDermid

Fridays  Forgotten  Books:

The Distant Echo by Val McDermid

‘The distant echo of faraway voices boarding faraway trains,’ Down In The Tube Station At Midnight, The Jam.

The Jam’s best song is a brutal piece of urban noir written to strike fear into the hearts of Britain’s Daily Mail Island. Or something.

In Val McDermid’s brilliantly written  novel the echo is the past. A guilty past.

It’s 1978 and a bunch of students a- life long friends- are on their way home after a night on the razz when find the body of a  young woman.

Cut to a quarter of a century later and the murder is still unsolved and  so the police cold case squad re-open the enquiry.

This is a cracking story of guilt, regrets and secrets but also a great examination of friendship and its ties that bind and sometimes throttle.The investigation looks at what it means to grow up. What you gain and what you lose.

The  first part of the story is a spot-on look at being young in the late ‘70s with perfect music and fashion references.

I’m sure my age gave The Distant Echo  a particular resonance for me - I read it because of the title -but I loved it. I bumped into the book by accident in Warsaw a few years ago and it’s stayed with me since then.

There are more FRIDAYS FORGOTTEN BOOKS at Patti Abbott's splendid blog HERE

Blurred Girl and Other Suggestive Stories by Steve Porter

One of  the best stories in  Byker Books' great Radgepacket Four  is Steve Porter's Blurred Girl.

Well, available now for you to purchase is Blurred Girl and Other Suggestive Stories by Steve Porter.

You can read about it at Steve's blog HERE.

Or you can buy it HERE

NoirCon! Lou Boxer Interview at PULP SERENADE

In SIX weeks some of you lucky people will be attending NoirCon in Philadelphia, which is  in that America.

One of those people will be PULP SERENADE's Cullen Gallagher.

Cullen interviews Noir Con's criminal mastermind LOU BOXER at PULP SERENADE

The NoirCon blog - with all the info that you could need on NoirCon, no really  - is HERE

James Reasoner Interview at Liberi di scrivere

James Reasoner  Interview  

at   

Liberi di scrivere

Those nice people at the rather cool Italin crime writing mag  Liberi di scrivere were kind enough to send me the English translation of their recent interview with the legendary crime writer James Reasoner.

The Italian interview is here

And here's the English one:

Liberi di scrivere Interview with James Reasoner 

"Hi, James. 

Thanks for accepting my interview and welcome to Liberi di scrivere. Tell us something about you. Who is James Reasoner?
 

A storyteller. A lifelong Texan. A husband and father. Not necessarily in that order.
 

Tell us something about your background and your childhood.

I was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and grew up in a small town nearby. It was a very normal childhood. My mother was a schoolteacher, although she didn’t teach after I was born, and my father worked in the aircraft industry and also repaired television sets. 

I went all the way through school in the same town and attended college with the idea of being either a librarian or teacher . . . although I knew by then that what I really wanted to be was a writer.
 

When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?

As far back as I can remember, I’ve been making up stories for my own entertainment. When I was growing up in the 1960s, Westerns were very popular on TV, and when I played with the other kids in the neighbourhood, I usually came up with some sort of story to go with it, instead of the group of us just running around and pretending to shoot each other. 

I started writing down my stories when I was 11 years old and continued to do so from then on. By the time I was 13 I knew I wanted to be a professional writer, but that seemed impossible. A few years later, though, I started submitting stories to magazines, so at least I was giving it a try.
 

Did you have much encouragement in those early times and if so by whom?

 
My parents didn’t actually encourage me, but they didn’t discourage me, either. They just couldn’t grasp the concept of someone actually being a professional writer, especially not someone from a small town in Texas. My friends, who sometimes appeared in my stories, seemed more enthusiastic about it, but I doubt if it ever occurred to them that I might write for a living someday. People where I was from just didn’t do that.

Tell us something about “Texas Wind”, your debut now published for the first time in Italy by Meridiano Zero and translated by Marco Vicentini who has a great fondness for  American crime writing . How long did you work on it ? Where do you get your ideas?
 

I started writing TEXAS WIND in the fall of 1978 and finished it in January 1979. By the time I started working on it I had been a professional writer for almost two years. My first sale was in December 1976, and I had published quite a few mystery stories in MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE. IMike Shayne novellas in the magazine under the Brett Halliday name and decided it was time to try a novel of my own. 

Naturally I decided on a private eye novel and set out to write a realistic book about Texas that wasn’t filled with stereotypes.  had been a fan of mystery fiction for many years, starting with juvenile novels, and I was particularly fond of private eye novels. I had done a couple of the

Also, on a practical level, most private eye novels that I’d read were set in New York or Los Angeles or San Francisco, and I hadn’t been to any of those places. But I’d been around Fort Worth all my life and knew it very well, and I didn’t see any reason that a private eye novel couldn’t be set there. All the locations in the book except for two or three actually exist, or at least they did at the time.
 

Tell us something about your road to publication. Have you received many rejections?
 

Like most writers, I received many, many rejection slips, enough that I was seriously considering giving up. But then I got married, and my wife Livia Washburn (who eventually became an award-winning novelist herself) convinced me to stick with it and try harder. I sold my first story a few months later, and while I’ve had plenty of rejections since then, I’ve been able to sell pretty steadily, too.

Your first novel is a private eye novel set in Fort Worth. You start the novel with the Cody’s visit to a potential client. It remind me Marlowe in The Big Sleep or Lew Archer in The Moving Target. Do you think of any particular writers as having influenced your style, or approach? Crumley in particular?
 

When I was in high school and college, I read every private eye author I could get my hands on. Hammett, Chandler, and Ross Macdonald, of course, but also Richard S. Prather, Mickey Spillane, Brett Halliday (I was reading Mike Shayne novels long before I ever dreamed that I would write stories about him), Michael Avallone, and plenty of others, I’m sure. 

One I didn’t read at that time, though, was James Crumley. I didn’t discover his work until after I had started writing. I became friends with Joe R. Lansdale and Joe recommended Crumley’s THE LAST GOOD KISS to me. It remains one of my favourite novels, with one of the best opening lines of all time, and I’ve read several more of his novels, but I don’t think his work really influenced mine to any great extent.
 

Could you tell us a little about your protagonist, Cody?
 

Cody (and I’m pretty sure that’s his last name, but to this day I don’t know his first name) is a smart, decent guy, and tough enough when he has to be. He was born and raised in Texas and loves the place, but he doesn’t necessarily like everything it’s come to be. He has a broad range of interests. 

One of my favourite lines from the novel is when Janice looks at the books in Cody’s apartment and says, “That’s the first time I’ve seen Herman Hesse and Zane Grey on the same shelf.” 

One thing I don’t recall if I’ve ever mentioned about him is that I came up with the name not because of Buffalo Bill Cody but rather Phil Cody, who was an early editor at BLACK MASK before Joseph T. Shaw became editor."


And here is the FULL English language version on the Liberi di scrivere interview blog: HERE

DANCING WITH MYSELF: I INTERVIEW, ER, ME...

Over at Nigel Bird's  splendid SEA MINOR blog he's been getting lots of people  to interview themselves:

Nick Quantrill, R J Ellory, Patti Abbott, Bill Crider, Christopher Grant & MORE.

Today it's MY turn. 

So here I am DANCING WITH MYSELF

The Final Cut at A TWIST OF NOIR

Yep, my story THE FINAL CUT has inevitably found its home at A TWIST OF NOIR. 

It's my twentieth story  THERE!

PLOTS WITH GUNS #10- OUT NOW!

The latest issue of Plots with Guns is LIVE.  

Anthony N. Smith brings us  hardboiled stories by Chris Benton (“Mekong Delta”),Matthew McBride ( "Have Chainsaw Will Travel"), Matt C Funk (The Napoleon Laurel"), Jason Duke (“Bullet Fandango”), and Bryon Quertermous (“The Loosest Sl*ts in All of Vegas”). 

I don't know about you but the title of Mr. McBride's story is enough to get me interested! 

And don't the lads look great?!

FLASH!

FLASH!

List of contents

Always Read the Instructions by A. E. Churchyard
Angel's Trumpet by Patricia La Barbera
Answers by Mark Tayler
Are We There Yet? by Geore Wilhite
The ATM by Robert C. Eccles
A Bad Hand by Aurelio Rico Lopez III
The Ballad of the Kid by Paul D. Brazill
Blow the Snow-Bird by Maggie Veness
The Bullet by Chris Bartholomew
Blue by Carrie Clevenger
Choices by Douglas Birkhead
Choices by Mark Taylor
Cold by John C. Mannone
Cupid, Playing by Kenneth C. Goldman
The Dark Side by Jim Bronyaur
Date of the Old Goat by Deborah Walker
Demon by Aaron J. French
A Dream of Peonies by Chris Allinotte
Dolce Pauline by R. W. Watkins and Robin Tilley
Even Zombies Have to Shop by Ellie Garratt
A Fairy Tale by Ryan Lawrence
Family Ties by Matt Nord
First Second and Third by Lee Hughes
Fly Away Butterfly by Kia Storm
For Your Loss by Cynthia D. Witherspoon
From the Belly of the Beast by Francesca Angelique Carrillo
The Garden Tea Party by John C. Mannone
The Greater Hand by James P. Wagner
The Growth by Erik T. Johnson
Haunted Houses Aren't Free by Ryan Lawrence
Haven't You Heard That I'm the New Cancer? by William Wolford
Mud in Your Eye by Chip O'Brien
How Does Beauty Come About? by William Wolford
Hunter by Laura Eno
The Immortal's Lecture by Daybert Linares
Injured Us by Luanna Azzarito
Innocent Until Proven by Marion Sipe
Itch by Jack Roth
Just Imagine by Iain Pattison
The Last Clown by Lee Hughes
Leper by Aaron J. French
Living with Dying by Kevin Brown
The Long Walk by Billy Burgess
M by Paul D. Brazill
Man with Shark Teeth Walks Into Jake's Diner by Sean Monaghan
Meeting Frieda by Martin A. Zeigler
Midnight Lemonade by Abigail Beal
Misconceptions by Patricia Hurst
Monotony by Kathryn slavik
A New Life by A. E. Churchyard
New Year's Resolution by Brad Nelson
No Deposit, No Return by Robert C. Eccles
No. 102 by R. W. Watkins
The Oak Tree by Col Bury
OnScar by Brad Nelson
Par One by Gregory Miller
The Partner by C. Douglas Birkhead
A Peaceful Solution by Jason Barney
Pride and Joy by Emma Kathryn
Proving Ground by Mark Anthony Crittenden
A Quick Break by Gregory Miller
Recruitment's End by Jason Barney
Right is Right by Luanna Azzarito
Seven by Jamie K. Schmidt
Shades of Black by Kevin Brown
Shiny Places by Maggie Veness
The Snitch by Ryan Lawrence
A Soldier's Last Stand by Jordan Fuselier-Gardner
Something Different by Chris Allinotte
The Stick Pony by Chris Bartholomew
A Strange Means of Suicide by Robert Essig
Sweet Heart by Christina Murphy
Tea Time with Warthog by Jodi MacArthur
To Whom It May Concern by Ryan Lawrence
Two Heads Aren't Better Than One by Laura Eno
Unavailable by Karen Schindler
Under the Bed by Kevin Wallis
The Unicorn by Steven Barrie
The Waking Death by Luke Campen
Willpower by Lily Mulholland
You never Know by Daniel Fabiani
3 O'Clock in the Midnight World by Charles A. Muir

Yep, look at that lot in the FLASH! anthology -edited by Chris Bartholomew ! 

Hughes, McArthur, Bury, Eno, Clevenger, Allinotte,Monaghan,  Crittenden, Mullholland. 
And more!

You can buy it from AMAZON UK here HERE

MORE NEW STUFF AT PULP METAL MAGAZINE!

Listen to JASON MICHEL:

'There may be no god, but Pulp Metal fucking rocks ..." - prof. Stephen Hawking *

Yes Folks! It is a scientific fact that Pulp Metal IS, in fact, the heaviest metal on the planet. & in celebration of this fact we have lined up an interview with traditional Canadian Metal band Skull Fist just to prove this ... Welcome to the Beavis & Butthead zone.

Not only that but we have the third episode of Jodi MacArthur's pirate saga The Wicked Woman's Booty, a piece of the music documentaries of Scorsese & two brand spanking pieces of fiction by Chris Pollard & Brian Kutanovski!!!!!

So, the Copenhagen Interpretation are you doing? Get over there right now!

*Did he really that?'

So get on over THERE!

HIT THE NORTH! STEVE MOSBY INTERVIEW....

                             HIT THE NORTH!

   

STEVE MOSBY INTERVIEW

Steve Mosby lives in Leeds and is the author of

• STILL BLEEDING
• CRY FOR HELP
• THE 50/50 KILLER
• THE CUTTING CREW
• THE THIRD PERSON

We had a natter.

Q1: The Cutting Crew is a chilling dystopian view of the world. What inspired it?

A few different things came together on that one. The most obvious is probably a love for Archer’s Goon by Diana Wynne Jones, which is a children’s book based around a vaguely similar theme: a family that control various aspects of city life. 

I’ve always liked that as a central metaphor – the idea you can take certain social roles or functions and distill them down into an individual character. So in The Cutting Crew you have eight mythical brothers who run different aspects of the city: one controls law and order; another, crime; and so on. You can then use the relationship between those characters to explore, very simply, the relationship between the social functions.

The book’s not quite as grand as that, though. The main idea that motivated it was the city as a family, with various members pulling in different directions, either working together for the good of the whole or else undermining the others for selfish reasons even though that will ultimately destroy everything. 

That’s the myth that keeps repeating through the city’s history: a fatal flaw that leads to self-destruction. I didn’t quite nail it, I don’t think, but the idea was to have that occur on various scales, so you’d also have Martin, the main character, whose life has fallen apart due to his own weakness.

Finally – again, perhaps obviously – the book was very much inspired by the city of Siena. I spent some time there many years ago, and it’s a wonderful place. It’s divided into districts named after animals, each with different colours and decorations in the street, and every year they have the palio: the horse race around the central square. In the book, I changed it to a boxing match, but the city is very much based on Siena.

Q2: Are you a political writer?

No, not at all. Or not deliberately anyway. I’d go even further than that and say I’m not even a social writer, and I don’t try to produce realistic fiction. It’s a trend you see quite often at the moment – or maybe I’ve just noticed it more – to make crime fiction grim, gritty, close to life, authentic. There’s nothing wrong with that; in fact, there’s a lot right with it. But I kind of take it in the other direction. 

Rather than using a crime to comment on society as a whole, I often use it to comment on an aspect of a character’s personal life. It’s fairly obvious that the serial killer in The 50/50 Killer is totally unrealistic; it’s not intended to be a commentary on real life murderers. But the method he uses allowed me to write about relationships, which is what the book is about underneath the torture and gore.

Q3: Has fatherhood mellowed your writing?

It’s blurred it through tiredness! To be honest, I’m not sure, as I’ve been working on the same project since before my son was born, and the plot was more or less set in stone. So I’ll have to see.

In general, I see myself mellowing as I’ve grown older. I certainly think about violence a lot more these days; as a crime writer – someone who exploits death and sexual violence in their fiction – it would be weird not to think about it. I can see my approach has changed slightly, and there’s stuff in The Cutting Crew that I’d, well, cut out if I was writing it again now. I’m also less skeptical of happy endings than I used to be. A part of me increasingly thinks “why not?”

Q4: What film interest has their been in your books?

Bits, here and there. At the moment, The 50/50 Killer and Cry For Help have been optioned by two separate production companies in France. The books have done quite well over there, so there was quite a bit of interest. I’m not sure quite where the process is at: I think a second-draft script of 50/50 is nearly due. It’s like every writer says – you sign the options away and then forget about it, really; believe the film will happen when you see it listed in the paper. But I can say the companies involved were very enthusiastic and had vision for the books, which was important in getting me to sign.

Q5: Are you a member of the Groucho Club?

Ha! No. I’m not a member of anywhere like that. I make it down to London for about ten minutes every year.

Q6: Do you get a lot of inspiration from living in Leeds?

I guess I must. It’s a nice city in many ways, as it’s so mixed. There’s a decent city centre, and yet five miles down the road you’re in the countryside. Vibrant nightlife. Lovely people. All that kind of business.

A fair few places from Leeds have found their way into the books, and it’s usually pubs and bars! A lot of pubs in The Cutting Crew are either named after or based on real bars in Leeds. Other locations too. None of the books are set anywhere in particular, but they obviously draw from places I’ve been, and I spend most of my time in Leeds so it’s inevitable parts of the city get filtered through my head and used as and where they’re needed for the plot.

Q7: What are you working on at the moment?

I’m between books right now, which is always scary because until you get going on a new one it might turn out to be ‘after books’ instead. But I’ve just finished a draft of my sixth book, Black Flowers, which is due out next April. It’s about a kind of cursed novel, and the relationship fiction, especially violent fiction, can have with real life. On the surface it’s a serial killer novel, really, but there’s a lot going on below that hopefully makes it more interesting.

So I’m waiting to hear back about that while kicking some new ideas back and forth in my head. Waiting for one of them to kick me back…

Thanks Steve.

STEVE MOSBY'S website- THE LEFT ROOM is HERE

SPOTLIGHT ON … Carole Parker –Screenwriter:Part Three

SPOTLIGHT ON …

Carole Parker –Screenwriter:Part Three

Carole Parker

‘I'm a Noir/Pulp/Hard-Boiled dame. A chain-smoking, hard-drinking, screenwriting beach babe, and all-around dangerous chick. If you've got the crime, I've got the time ...’

‘Carole Parker writes some of the sexiest, sassiest, dirtiest, ball-busting prose around and one of these days I'll finally persuade her to stick it in the pages of a book - fiction or autobiography, I don't care: both would be equally wild. She is also a creature of mystery and secrets, one of which is that behind that titanium- tough exterior there lurks a sweet, caring, loveable woman with a heart of pure gold.’ Tom Cain,author of a series of novels featuring Samuel Carver,: The Accident Man, The Survivor, (published as No Survivors in the US), Assassin and Dictator.

‘Carole Parker has a unique style that carries me back to the days of Raymond Chandler. Her writing is fresh yet evokes the days of the great hard boiled detectives. I get caught up and find that I cannot put her work down. I have to read it all the way through and then I'm sorry it's over. She is my favorite writer today!’ Shelly Liebowitz, Legendary Producer of Music, Television & Films

Carole Parker's latest HOT screenplay is LEGS. Here's the pitch from Carole:

'Former homicide detective Carrie Love has just opened her private eye shingle, and gets her first case: the ‘hearing aid guru to the stars’ wants her to find his missing daughter, who was working as a stripper. Then she finds out her father has suddenly died, and is summoned home to deal with her dysfunctional family.  Add falling in love with a porn star to the mix, and you got a recipe for disaster.'

And here's a salty taste of LEGS.. .

- LEGS, Series Pilot
   'From Dusk Till Dungeon'

EXT. WILSHIRE BOULEVARD - NIGHT
A canyon of airbrushed high-rise condos in Westwood
glitters on a hot summer night. Deserted at four in the morning.

A red ‘69 CADILLAC CONVERTIBLE ROARS down the street.
The kinda ride I’m gonna snag when this show goes to series.

INT. CADILLAC CONVERTIBLE - NIGHT
Behind the wheel is CARRIE LOVE (30),
long chestnut tresses frame a heart-shaped face.

Cruel red lips. Bloody blue eyes.
Legs for days. And nights.
Smokin’ hot bod that never quits.

Until it’s done.

CARRIE (V.O.)
That’s me, behind the wheel.
Homicide Detective Carrie Love, at your service.
Have blonde, will travel.
(beat)
Most people call me 'Legs.'
People say my legs are my best feature.
Comes from rollerblading ten miles a day.
Being five foot ten doesn't hurt, either.
More legs per square inch.
(beat)
I think my best features
are my ironic smile and my rapier wit.
But what the fuck do I know?
Most guys just stare at my boobs.

Seated next to her in the passenger seat is
LEXI STEEL (17), vixen from another planet.
Rail-thin. Blonde hair WHIPPING in the wind.

Heart-stopping in ‘naughty schoolgirl’ threads.
Right now she’s lighting a joint. Hands it to Carrie.

LEXI
Reefer madness, baby --

Carrie sees it. Smiles.
GRABS it. Takes a puff.

CARRIE
No woman, no fry --

LEXI
So you live AT the beach?

CARRIE
Swingin’ bachelorette pad deluxe, baby.
Venice beach a-go-go.
Hot and cold running pleasure,
on tap, twenty-four-seven.
(looks at her)
But I don’t fuck on the first date.

LEXI
THAT’S a shame --

CARRIE (V.O.)
I’d picked her up at Girl Bar in Beverly Hills.
Had just suffered a nasty break up
with the latest monogamy victim,
and needed a baby botox
Rodeo Driver to cleanse the palate.
Tastes great, less willing.
Nice house, owner on permanent vacation --
(beat)
You get the idea.

Carrie takes another hit on the joint.
Looks at Lexi.

CARRIE
It tastes funny. Is there --

LEXI
Angel dust? Yeah.
Pepper-minty FRESH.

Carrie squints.
Vision going blurry.
Gripping the wheel.

CARRIE
NO! It’s fucking up my HEAD --

EXT. WILSHIRE BOULEVARD - NIGHT
The Caddy FLIES AROUND A CURVE.
Reaches an intersection.

The light is yellow.
FLASHES to red.

But Carrie doesn’t see it,
and BARRELS through.
Luckily, there’s no one around --

Except for a TAXI CAB
that appears out of nowhere.

The Caddy CLIPS IT
and goes INTO A SPIN,
the weight of the monster vehicle
working like centrifugal force.

Carrie tries to HIT THE BRAKES,
but rushing on the drug,
she accidentally HITS THE GAS --

And the car SHOOTS FORWARD,
JUMPS the curb, and FLIES INTO
the glass windows of a BANK.

Glass SPRAYS IN THE AIR like a fountain.
An alarm starts SHRIEKING --

INT. BANK - NIGHT
And the Caddy FLIES into the bank,
SMASHING through desks,
SPRAYING wood and plaster
until it HITS the row of teller windows
and comes to a stop with a CRUNCH.

SPRINKLERS go off.
Water comes RAINING DOWN ON them.

Carrie watches Lexi FLY THROUGH the windshield
and HIT the wall like a ruined rag doll.   

CARRIE (V.O.)
And then my life ended as I knew it --

INT. HOSPITAL - EMERGENCY ROOM - NIGHT
A team of DOCTORS and TECHS fight to save Lexi’s life.
TEARING off her clothes. Giving her blood. Sewing her up.

CARRIE (V.O.)
Turned out Lexi was the daughter
of the chief of police --
AND she was underaged.
(sings)
'I am seventeen, going on forty' --
(beat)
And, being a cop, driving under the influence
of booze and narcotics with a minor
at WAY past the speed limit at four AM
was the trifecta of clusterfucked.
(beat)
Not to mention fucking up a BANK.
(beat)
Oh, and the naughty schoolgirl outfit?
That was her REAL uniform --

INT. COURTROOM - DAY
Carrie stands behind a desk wearing a suit
with her ATTORNEY (40’s),
a hawk-nosed civil servant.

The POLICE CHIEF (50’s)
sits in the witness box, red-faced.

CARRIE (V.O.)
I was lucky I didn’t go to jail.
The only thing that saved my ass
was my arrest record --
(beat)
And the fact that the chief
wanted to keep his darling daughter’s
exploits out of the tabloids.

Lexi sits in the spectator section
in a wheelchair with an IV drip
and a stern-looking private nurse.

CARRIE (V.O.)
Let this be a lesson to you.
Don’t drink and drive,
obey all traffic laws,
and be VERY careful about
who you hook up with
on a Saturday night.
(beat)
Trust me.
Fucking up your boss’s daughter
kinda ass-rapes the career path --

 Carole Parkers HARDBOILED & HARDCORE blog, THAT KILLING FEELING is here

Thanks to Carole Parker for being my guest.