Sidney Williams's Blog, page 8

In the mid-1970s, the book rack at the local Eckerd's provided me a great deal of reading material.

Along with Doc Savage, Lew Archer and thrillers of the day sat a series of titles which brought Dracula, the prince of darkness, into the modern era.

A great deal of attention was focused on Dracula at that time. Magazines featured articles about the newly discovered tie between Vlad the Impaler and the Bram Stoker creation. Both the Christopher Lee Dracula films and Universal Films were also spotlighted frequently in Monster Times and Famous Monsters of Filmland, and the Aurora monster model kits were still on sale.

The Dracula Horror Series fit perfectly into that period, a blend of horror, science fiction and action adventure. More

I can't always report top news here, but I have a bit of information that may be of interest to those in the UK. On May 4, thriller writer Val McDermid will be visiting BBC World Services World Book Club, a radio show and podcast.


The program, recorded at Bush House, home of the BBC, spotlights an author discussing, reading from and answering questions about a single book. Past guests have included James Ellroy, Carlos Ruiz Zafron, Uberto Eco and many others. I subscribed a while back and have enjoyed the installments I've listened to. They're great discussions for writers to hear. More

A friend used to scan the new movie trailers on Apple's site regularly. One day he mentioned an upcoming flick called Red.

I realized he was talking about a Jack Ketchum adaptation. "I don't know if I have the stones for that," I said, because I knew it was the tale of a confrontation between an old man and the teens who'd killed his dog. (My vision, incorrectly, was of a hermit stalking unsympathetic but focal teen characters.)

I read Off Season when I was a kid without flinching, but like most viewers I do flinch if animals die on screen. I've almost recovered from Old Yeller, but it took a while. More

I now own a copy of the book to the left, The Girl in the Trunk, an early seventies pulp-noir mystery from Ace by Bruce Cassiday. It's the tale of a Honolulu cop who has to investigate, well, I think you get the idea from the cover.

I was browsing the fabulous Bish's Beat blog one day and caught sight of it in his vintage covers gallery.

Read full post here.

I'm in what I find to be an awkward phase. It's time to write the jacket copy for Midnight Eyes, a thriller I just turned in to Crossroad Press for copy editing. Summing up 100,000 words in a few paragraphs that capture the relevant points isn't as challenging as, I don't know, math, but it's not just dashing off a few lines either.

I thought I'd toss out the first pass here.

News that an ABC series with Edgar Allan Poe as its detective lead is intriguing and exciting, especially with dark mystery investigations on the agenda.

I'm sure the style, while the setting is historic, could resemble The X-Files and The Night Stalker revival with a little C. August Dupin-style ratiocination thrown in, but it's a little off-beat and innovative, and pays homage the father of many of the things I enjoy. I'll certainly sample it.

While it's to be written by Chistopher Hollier who's worked on Alias, the concept reminds me of a novel I enjoyed as a kid, a time when the idea of Poe and Poe's work were particularly thrilling.

I have mentioned it briefly here before though only in passing.

It's called Poe Must Die by the versatile Marc Olden who wrote thrillers of many stripes including a paperback series in the seventies, police procedurals and some wonderful Asian-themed thrillers including Dai-

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For #SampleSunday yesterday, I added a free sample of Blood Hunter to my Blogspot blog.

It includes the intro to the ebook edition plus a portion of the prologue.

Visit the book on Amazon as well to read Ryne Douglas Pearson's unsolicited review. :-)

E-books in multiple formats are on sale at the Crossroad Press store.

From the publisher: "From now until the 2nd of January we are having a 25%
off sale - one time use on the coupon - code is:

Holidaze

- Merry
Christmas everyone..."

My titles are here.

You can shop many other horror and thriller titles there.

David Burton, author of several fantasy thrillers, has an interview with me about Gnelfs posted on his Random Musings blog.

I got to talk a little about what I'm coming to think of as my "B-movies In Print" period of writing fast-paced thrillers.

Check it out and be sure to check out David's titles as well!

My buddy Clifford Brooks was showing me around San Francisco neighborhoods when he did an abrupt U-turn and grabbed a parking spot the other night. "You have to see this place," he said, nodding toward a showcase window with a giant blue robot: Heroes Club: The Art of Toys.

We could only stare in the windows at the shadowed array of collectibles since the shop had closed for the day.

But since we both grew up with Aurora model kits and Famous Monsters of Film Land, we returned the next day for a museum-like tour through an array of super heroes, soldiers, Bruce Lees, steampunk figures and a generous smattering of monsters including a full-sized Jason Voorhees looking down from a ceiling perch.

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