VAN GOGH’S LIFE
EXCERPT FROM STARRY NIGHT CRIMES
Uncategorized
BUCK MADISON’S HIDEOUT
STORY OF THE CABIN
Let’s talk Character: Rick
The character Rick is a mechanic, a jokester and technical wizard. I really had quite a bit of fun with Rick. He was always a car guy, a wheelman, and looks after Buck’s 2013 Mustang. Near genius. Trained as a mechanical engineer he left Google to open his own luxury-mod garage, specializing in muscle … Read more
The Life of Frank W. Benson
“In the years following that period, the Benson family left Boston during the summers, traveling north. The family spent those warm months at a small frame house near a beach strewn with rocks. There was a small section of woods behind the house. “OK, George. Hold still. Please. Good Eleanor,” he said. Benson painted … Read more
DAYLIGHT GIRLS: Frank W. Benson’s life at 21, an excerpt from the novel
Frank had begged his father to let him study art in Paris. His teachers at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts school told him as much. To no avail. His father was dead set against it. His mother would side with her husband, though secretly she wished young Frank could go. The training that … Read more
Raymond Chandler on the Mystery of Storytelling
Raymond Chandler (Philip Marlowe series) once had a conversation with Ian Fleming (James Bond series). Chandler commented about his own interests when writing: “The detective doesn’t know what it’s all about . The detective wants to know what the situation was. He knows there’s something strange about the situation and is very curious about … Read more
Origins of Buck Madison
The “Buck Madison” stories came out of my desire to do several things. The first was to create a mystery character that I wanted to read about, involving: THE ART WORLD – My background is that of an artist, both as a graphic designer and as a fine artist. So that scene was comfortable … Read more
THE ART OF THE THRILLER: Weaving Murder and Masterpieces into Modern Fiction
Books rarely arrive fully formed—they evolve from stray ideas, late-night questions, global tramping, and the troublemakers who won’t leave an author’s mind alone. Here’s how each one of mine found its way into the world. Daylight Girls, the first of the series, was written many years ago in draft form. Even then, I had … Read more
PULP DETECTIVE HERO, The Art Crime Agent
One of my preoccupations over the last few years has been to write pulp detective novels. The genre appeals to me, since it offers a low standard of literacy, loose morals, and is a place where eccentric characters are welcomed, including authors. All pretenses to civility are eschewed and cussing is damned encouraged. This … Read more
Detective Characters: Sam Spade
In his introduction to The Maltese Falcon, the author Dashiell Hammett outlined how Sam Spade differed from his illustrious predecessors: “Spade has no original …For your private detective does not want to be an erudite solver of riddles in the Sherlock Holmes manner; he wants to be a hard and shifty fellow, able to … Read more