Pat Maginess: Private-Eye

STICKY POST

P.M.P.I. Contents and Updates

Saturday, 15. March 2008, 10:56:36

Pat Maginess, sea turtles, private-eye novels, private detective

"This isn't America, Jack. This is L.A."

-- Mulholland Falls (1996).

"I would never shoot a cat. Unless they really had it coming to 'em."

-- "All My Todays"

It was a long, dark, quiet drive back to Los Angeles.

-- from That Killer Smile

SHORT STORIES:

"Those Songs We Sing to Ourselves" -- NEW!
"Remember Me"
"Hello, Robert"
"All My Todays"
"The Salesman"
"It's a Dog's Life"

NOVELS:

That Killer Smile (Complete Novella).

Click on the book cover to go to the novel.

HISTORICAL:

Nick Carter: The Crime of the French Cafe (Anon/Piercy)

COVER ART MINI-STORIES:

As a service to my readers who might only have about two minutes
between Point A and Point B, I decided to post humorous bits using
the covers of old pulp magazines. Here's the link.

The Complete Cover Art Mini-Stories

REVIEWS:

Hollywood Confidential (Movie Review) -- NEW!
Margin for Murder (Movie Review)
The Proposal (Movie Review)
Best Detective Movies
Kiss Me, Deadly (Movie Review)
Attack of the Sabretooth (Movie Review)
Savior (Movie Review).
Bare Trap by Frank Kane (Book Review).
I, the Jury by Mickey Spillane (Review-Essay).
DaVinci's Inquest (TV Series Review).
The Snarl of the Beast by Carroll John Daly (Book Review).
Poisons Unknown by Frank Kane (Book Review).
V. I. Warshawski (Movie Review).

MISCELLANEOUS:

CSI: Noir
Survivor China Episode 2 (Parody)
The Jungle Book Revisited (Parody)
The Black Dahlia Revisted (Parody)
The Nazi Bastard Diaries
Einstein On Lunch (Tiny Tale #1)
Robespierre's Doll (Tiny Tale #2)
The White Book (Tiny Tale #3)
Curse of the Body Snatchers (Tiny Tale #4) -- NEW!
Barbershop Quartet #1
Barbershop Quartet #2
Barbershop Quartet #3
Barbershop Quartet #4

Green Car Buying Guide (Link) -- Check it out, it's really cool!
AutoBlog Green (Link) -- Excellent!

Check out what you've missed in the Archive.

My thanks to Glen Pierce of Topsail Productions for being so gracious as
to give me a link in their Blog Spot links. You can view that one here.

NOVEMBER UPDATE:

October was a busy month in my house, primarily due to the
acquisition of my new Dachshund puppy, Sasha. It had been fifteen
years since my last dog, Baron, was a puppy, and let's just say I
have been having flashbacks to the whole crazy puppy experience.
She's cutting teeth and chews on everything. She thinks she's a
Doberman and every once in a while gets in some guard dog training
by attacking my hands or face. And of course then there's the whole
pottie thing, which I have to say is the least of my worries with
this little whirlwind of a dog. But she is also very smart and can
be very sweet and is getting more into the kisses thing than the
bites thing. Other than that, October really wasn't much of a month.
I didn't do much at all except write and watch some old Bond James
Bond movies. But on top of the puppy, not doing very much was sufficient
for the time at hand. Have a great month -- and oh, a Happy Thanksgiving
as well.

"When life gives you flippers you make waves, right?" -- Karen Sota

Well the only thing that could possibly be better than private-eye fiction
are sea turtles. Humans have been around about 6 million years. Turtles
have been around for 200 million years. Unfortunately, they're having kind
of a tough go at it lately due to human civilization and a new virus out
there that's affecting them. Here's a quick link to several turtle hospitals.
Just click on the images and you'll get there. If you are a turtle hospital
or a turtle rescue organization, I will gladly post your link on this blog,
so just let me know.

Plus: Turtle Live Cam! (North Carolina (UTC -5) daylight hours)

Best wishes to all,
Edward Piercy

That I have made all transformations
According to the dictates of my heart
In all places that have desired my ka

37 Comments

STICKY POST

P.M.P.I. Theme Music

Tuesday, 20. June 2006, 01:54:38

Music

To play the music, click on George or Glenn's picture.

(Please be patient. It will take a minute to connect with your media player.)

George Friedrich Handel
Suite in d-minor HWV 447
Courante
Artist: Keith Jarrett
Format (MP3) / Timing (02:31)
Light and dark combined.

J.S. Bach
Partita in G Major BWV 829
Praeambulum
Artist: Glenn Gould
Format (MP3) / Timing (01:47)

Now playing in a galaxy near you...

Didn't know where to put this map, so I'm putting it here.

13 Comments

Poem After Sextus Propertius

Monday, 1. December 2008, 23:52:51

Poetry

POEM AFTER SEXTUS PROPERTIUS

(After Sextus Propertius, Elegies II.26A)

Let them deride me now that you are gone, my lovely girl, let them talk
of my bad luck throughout the city. For not so long ago I read poetry
atop your bed, knew for a time your faithfulness, and never had to doubt
that you would spurn rich men for the gifts I had to give.

If you think of traveling over the wide sea, one breeze will carry both
of us, one table refresh the two of us, one foreign tree shade us. And
at night, though you be fast asleep, I will lay next to you at the moonlit
spring of Memory.

I will endure it all, even the savage South wind, the wind that vexed
Ulysses and took Jason into an unknown land. If Jupiter himself were to
set the boat afire you will not be absent from my eyes, we will be hurled
upon the same beach to escape it. And if Neptune were to bring up a
raging storm, then hand in hand we will be lost to the waves, together
as in the past.

But Neptune is not so cruel to love. Neptune equals his brother Jove in
loving. Amymone was a witness to it, to which the god for her sake brought
waters to the very firmament. And Boreas, enamored of Orithyia, was not
cold to her at all. The gods, if love is in their hearts, transform the earth
and farthest skies.

Believe me, Scylla will be gentle to us, and huge Charybdis who never ceases
from her changing flow. No clouds will hide the stars from us, Orion will shine
clear.

You, my dear, you lost us when you left; my loss comes later, guaranteed
a happy death.

No comments

Ten Days in Purgatory

Monday, 1. December 2008, 22:42:48

The Four Seasons

I haven't said anything about it, because given the circumstances it
didn't seem but a small thing compared to all else that was going on
(like my Mom being in the hospital), but I've basically been out of
cigarettes for a week and a half now. Not having smokes has given me
this strange combination of physical energy that causes insomnia with
a mental numbness that makes me stupid.

Tired and just plain stupid. That's me right now.

Tomorrow, hopefully, the torture ends.

11 Comments

Noir Brooke

Sunday, 30. November 2008, 22:17:25

detective fiction, Photography, Pat Maginess

(Photo by Clause Visby.
And also here.)

I was on my old photography site today, Photosig, when I accidentally
came across the above photo by Claus Visby.

The photo amazed me, inasmuch as it could very well be a photo of my
character Brooke Pirelli, who appears in Dusk Until Dawn and several
of the short stories. She looks so much like her in the face, her hair,
and also the style of dress. The only real difference is that she is
carrying a big revolver instead of the .32 automatic that you might say
was Brooke's "murder weapon of choice."

There's one thing about the photograph. The revolver is cocked all the
way back, in the double action mode. Most shooters would have the hammer
clicked one stop back in single action mode. With double action you have
to keep pulling the hammer back every single shot, like revolvers in the
Old West, which were double action. With single action you just pull the
hammer back one click and then you can shoot until the cylinder is empty.
(You actually don't have to pull the hammer back at all, but it makes it
more difficult/slower to pull the trigger.)

In any case, the photo would make one hell of a great cover for my novel
-- if I already didn't have one, that is.

6 Comments

Cars, Raccoons, Brick Walls, Squirrels

Sunday, 30. November 2008, 04:02:36

TV Commercials, Spokane

I was going through some of the local news today when I came across
this story about a woman who rolled her car trying to avoid a raccoon.
Fortunately, the woman and the child who was with her were uninjured.

Which sort of reminds me of that near-serious squirrel incident that
happened a while back.

In a related story, another woman hit the proverbial brick wall by
driving her mini-van into -- you got it -- a brick wall. The woman
sustained head injuries and was taken to the hospital. There was no
report as to how the wall itself was doing.

24 Comments

Countries I Wish I Could Be Banned From

Sunday, 30. November 2008, 03:25:30

The Republic of Bullshit

This is about as close as I would
want to get to Damascus.

A humorous comment by one Opera member on one of Darko's recent posts
about being (supposedly) banned from entering a number of countries got
me to thinking. And you know what happens when I start thinking --
usually another Republic of Bullshit post.

So. What countries would I like to be banned from?

I would say Syria, for one. For a lot of reasons that I won't go into
here, Syria can just go to hell as far as I'm concerned. I'm not talking
about the people of Syria, of course; many of whom I'm sure are fine
people.

I also think it would be cool to have my blog banned in some country or
another. I think there are a good number of countries that more or less
restrict outside internet access. But what I'm talking about here is
having my blog banned specifically.

For example, I think it would be cool to be able to put

BANNED IN MADAGASCAR

at the top of my blog. Just to leave people wondering what the f*** that
one was all about. In truth, I have nothing against Madagascar, and I
love lemurs. But that's the first country that came into my head. So I'm
running with it.

Well, I think I'll have to give it more thought. Stay posted.

18 Comments

Datura, Vol. 1

Sunday, 30. November 2008, 00:05:18

Beautiful World

The first 20 of 40 plants mentioned in
Tori Amos' song "Datura."

I've never been a gardening type of guy.
All of this was a new world to me.

So come take a walk in Tori's garden.

Passion vine.

Texas sage.

Indigo spires salvia.

Confederate jasmine

Royal cape plumbago.

Arica palm.

Snow-on-the-mountain.

Pink powderpuff.

Datura.

Crinum lily.

St. Christopher lily.

Silver dollar eucalyptus.

White african iris.

Katie's charm ruellia.

Variegated shell ginger.

Florida coontie.

Ming fern.

Sword fern.

Dianella.

Walking iris.

13 Comments

1 2 3 4 5 ... 113 Next »

Showing posts 1 - 8 of 900.