Investigate the NightLite™ edition ★ PULP BUZZ on WordPress

Buzz for Modern & Retro Pulp with a Bang!


Pulp Buzz is the “thinner sister syndicate” of Midnight Reader. The new NightLite™ edition includes pulp posts, breaking tweets, author news, interviews and videos, and is optimized for fast loads on all devices. 

Fear not, the original Midnight Reader will continue ticking—and breathing—alongside its femme fatale sister, Pulp Buzz. —JF

Review: The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald

Classic crime fiction set in old Hollywood with storytelling as smooth as a ride in a Deusenberg. Archer’s hired to find a rich eccentric who’s gone missing; maybe kidnapped — or worse. This short novel is packed with lyrical dialogue, plot twists and a cast of deliciously sinister characters tromping through the seedy side of L. A. I’m already itching to read more of Ross Macdonald’s fine books. Highly recommended!

REVIEW: The Halloween Children by Brian James Freeman and Norman Prentiss

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  THE HALLOWEEN CHILDREN by Brian James Freeman and Norman Prentiss (Random House Publishing Group - Hydra)

 The authors of The Halloween Children are sneaky geniuses in the art of storytelling—adepts who snatch your attention, get you invested and immersed in the tale and then hint at something sinister in a subtle way that provokes dread, horror and suspense. It's as if they flick a juicy "thought drop" into the pool of the reader's imagination and then let the ramifications ripple into obsession, inciting intrigue and fear for the fate of beloved characters.

 Harris, the Stillbrook Apartment complex's handyman, is good father, but in all honesty, he favors the side of his son, Matt, where child discipline is concerned. His wife Lynn is searching for herself and struggling with inner turmoil, on edge and ruminating over their marriage––should they divorce?––and within the family's dynamics, her daughter Amber delights her to no end, but her son Matt needs to be watched. Then there's matter of the creepy neighbors, the tenants of Stillbrook: a spooky no-neck woman in a wheelchair who may be faking her injuries, the Durkins' exotic, thousand-dollar bird that shrieks unearthly squawks that sound like someone being tortured—or murdered. Which is strange because there actually had been a grisly death within the complex that was kept hush-hush by management.

 The story unfolds through Harris' journal, Lynn's journal (as assigned by a marriage counselor she's been seeing in secret), recordings, digital transcriptions, email and interviews. The immediacy of this technique makes for a taut, fast-paced, enjoyable read. The Halloween Children kept my eyes glued to the glow of the screen, licking my lips and swiping digital pages into the wee hours after midnight. This horror novel is a treat!
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Art from A Bullet for My Love by Octavus Roy Cohen 
Via PeterPulp

PULP COVERS: The Hungry One

She'd try anything for kicks
The-Hungry-One-1966-600x1022
1966 Gold Medal paperback original cover art by Barye Phillips

Investigate ★ PULP BUZZ SYNDICATE

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PULP BUZZ is a Twitter centric buzz syndicate for modern and retro pulp fiction. Noir, crime, lgbt, spicy, horror and hardboiled dime-store paperbacks and eBooks. I invite you to follow my tweets and hope you will come back when you're looking for "a certain dirty."

Buzz for modern & retro pulp with a bang!


 
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Buzz for Readers of Modern & Retro Pulp with a Bang! 

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Keep abreast of the latest in modern & retro pulp with a bang!
Keep abreast of the latest in modern & retro pulp with a bang!


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Curiously…

In my Midnight Reader series, CURIOUS is my top-selling eBook (also most-borrowed by #kindleunlimited & #AmazonPrime members), followed by Bad Boy, Rascal and Stranger.

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In paperback, the full MIDNIGHT READERTwelve Erotic Tales collection takes the top spot for most copies sold. ~JF




Cyber Monday — Here's what caught my eye…




The Girl with the Long Green Heart by Lawrence Block
Bank Shot by Donald E. Westlake
Save the Last Dance for Me by Ed Gorman
The Listening Eye by Patricia Wentworth
The Baby in the Icebox by James M. Cain
The Hot Spot by Charles Williams
The Spy and the Thief by Edward D. Hoch
The Swimming Pool by Mary Roberts Rinehart
The Dog Who Bit a Policeman by Stuart M. Kaminsky
Shellshock by Richard S. Prather
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye by Horace McCoy
Slipping Into Darkness by Peter Blauner
Long Live the Dead by Hugh B. Cave




Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing by May Sarton
Shockproof Sydney Skate by Marijane Meaker
The Magician's Girl by Doris Grumbach
Eye Contact by Michael Craft 
Hold Tight by Christopher Bram
The Men from the Boys by William J. Mann
Where the Boys Are by William J. Mann
The Lord Won't Mind by Gordon Merrick
One for the Gods by Gordon Merrick
Forth Into the Light by Gordon Merrick
Perfect Freedom by Gordon Merrick
The Sound of Heaven by Joseph Olshan
Wolverine Cirque by Joseph Olshan 




Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon
Mystery Walk by Robert R. McCammon
Usher's Passing by Robert R. McCammon
The Compendium of Srem by F. Paul Wilson
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
Lot Lizards by Ray Garton
The New Neighbor by Ray Garton
This Perfect Day by Ira Levin 
Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly
Chthon by Piers Anthony
Nightwings by Robert Silverberg
Blood Music by Greg Bear
Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler 

Recommended by PULP BUZZ SYNDICATE

Follow the PULP CHRONICLES

A subversive neo-pulp movement is afoot in publishing and through his syndicate JEFF FUNK is collecting pieces of the PULP CHRONICLES

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FIFTY SHADES OF GAY


MIDNIGHT READER MAGAZINE on Flipboard



Flipboard enthusiasts, try thumbing through my Midnight Reader magazine for articles on pulp fiction, crime novels, erotica, creative writing, consciousness, sex & culture. Flip me! — JF

All I Want for Christmas is Bernie!

Grand Master Crime Writer, Lawrence Block, has come out of retirement—and the result? Bernie's back! This time, however, the book is entirely a Lawrence Block production, as it's his first full-blown foray into self-publishing. I've preordered my copy so those elves at the print factory will have to work on Christmas day! Heh heh. JF




[Guest Post] My Life as a Lesbian by LAWRENCE BLOCK

Posted Nov 14, 2013 on LB's site

Here’s an email I received the other day:

“How very nice of you to send along what must be one of the first copies of The Burglar Who Counted The Spoons! I look forward to getting acquainted with Bernie. And I must say, the book itself is very handsome—love the cover illustration. I will take it with me on the plane when I make a brief dash to New York next month for my publisher’s honors event at the Anti-Defamation League’s annual dinner. 
Ann Bannon, author of Bebo Brinker

”Attached is a snapshot of me just before a panel discussion last night at the San Francisco Public Library. You should know that your name came up and elicited applause! The title of the panel was, ‘The Fabulous World of Queer Pulp, Yesterday and Today.’ We had a really excellent turnout, and people did seem to enjoy it. I always tell them that you and I and Marijane are the last three survivors of that era…”

The email’s author—and the stunning woman in the photograph—is Ann Bannon, whose pioneering lesbian novels were an inspiration when I was writing my own, first as Lesley Evans and then as Jill Emerson. (Marijane Meaker was another role model; I was an avid reader of both her Vin Packer novels of psychological suspense and her Ann Aldrich lesbian nonfiction long before I knew one person wore both those hats.)

I met Marijane a couple of years ago at a film class of Kurt Brokaw’s, and last year I got to know Ann at Gary Lovisi’s annual Collectible Paperback show. I can’t tell you how gratified I was when Ann embraced me as one of the last of the midcentury lesbian novelists. We renewed our acquaintance last month, again at Gary’s show, and, accompanied by her daughter, ducked out for a very pleasant lunch afterward. But actually we’d met without meeting a few years earlier. Terry Gross devoted an NPR episode of Fresh Air to classic lesbian fiction, and both Ann and I were invited. Terry’s guests almost invariably participate from a distance, although you’d swear she was talking to them face to face. I happened to be in Philly that day, and so arranged to show up in person. During a break, Terry said to me, “But Larry, you’re not actually a lesbian.” “Terry,” I said, “that’s only an accident of birth.”

LB writing as Jill Emerson
Well then. Here’s a link to that program, now available (astonishingly!) as an audible.com download for the irresistible price of $2.95.
Enjoy!
LB


Jill Emerson: One of the 50 Shades of Lawrence Block

via Open Road Media Videos

Richard Laymon's Classic Vampire Novel Back in Print

Richard Laymon is one of my all-time favorite authors. I used to pay hefty shipping rates to get his books from the UK or Australia, as he had become somewhat of a rock star in those countries, especially for people who like hardcore horror. Admittedly, it's not for everyone, but "Laymonites," as we're called, can't get enough of his novels. His style is amazing. I love how unpredictable his plots are, and his characters are dangerous. The first time I saw Bite in America was inside a mall, and I was thrilled because it signaled that Laymon had found an American publishing house that respected his work. Bite is classic Laymon-style horror, and a departure for him—rarely did he write about vampires. I think you'll enjoy the ride! —JF

[GUEST POST] On Writing Erotica & THE HARDEST THING by JAMES LEAR

Writing erotic literature makes me think a lot about the kind of men I find attractive. If you read my books, you’ll notice, I hope, that I don’t try to make every single man sound like an unattainable porn fantasy, for the simple reason that I don’t find those guys sexy. The zero-fat, over-defined, tanned-shaved-and-plucked look doesn’t work for me – and although I like a large penis as much as the next man, I’m equally turned on by small and medium. A lot of ink is spilt in erotic literature about thick, tousled hair, perfect teeth, dazzling ‘grins’ (men in erotica never smile, they always grin), six packs etc. I can’t be bothered. I give a few indications of the kind of bloke I’m thinking about, and try to let the reader supply the rest.

What I actually find sexy is masculinity in all its forms – and that, to me, is synonymous with naturalness. The more groomed and tweaked you become, the less masculine you are. Dan Stagg, the hero of my new novel The Hardest Thing, is an ex-marine fighting machine, so obviously he is physically fit – but I made him bald on top and hairy everywhere else, just to buck the trend. His dick does the job, but I don’t go on and on about how massive it is. The other main character in the book, Stirling, is exactly the sort of primped-up supermodel that I don’t really fancy – he’s got fabulous hair, no body fat and gym-perfect muscles. He uses moisturiser, and he shapes his eyebrows. Dan finds him kind of repellent at first, but the inevitable happens (this is porn, after all). From that point on, Dan and Stirling have to find some kind of common ground – and that means, at the very least, that Stirling has to grow out the hair dye and stop depilating.

As the plot progresses you’ll meet older men, younger men, fit men, fat men, cocks of all sizes and shapes. This reflects something I think is true about sex – if you stop obsessing about rigid criteria and types, you can have a lot of good loving with a lot of different people. In erotic fiction, you need certain things to trigger a response in the reader, so dicks have to be hard, arses and mouths have to be open/wet/tight and so on – but that aside I try to make the men and the sex pretty real. Obviously there’s more of it than there is in real life, just as there’s more bloodsucking in a vampire novel than there is in real life. But apart from the frequency, I hope this is more than just another fantasy.

—JAMES LEAR is the nom de plume of a prolific and acclaimed novelist. As James Lear, he is the author of The Back Passage, The Secret Tunnel, Hot Valley, The Low Road, and The Palace of Varieties. He lives in London. Follow him on Facebook and WordPress.

AMAZON | B&N | CLEIS PRESS

[GUEST POST] Be True to Your School by Greg Herren

First published on Queer and Loathing in America

Be True To Your School by Greg Herren

One Saturday night during my senior year, I was out with a bunch of friends and for some reason we stopped at a mini-mart on 6th Street in Emporia, Kansas. I don’t remember what we stopped for; I didn’t drink or smoke until after I graduated, and I distinctly remember it was during high school. I don’t remember who I was with or anything else about that evening—all I do remember is that the mini-mart had a revolving metal rack of paperbacks standing next to a revolving rack of comic books, and when I stopped to look at the comic books and the books (I always did this, attracted as a moth is to a flame wherever I was), there was a book with a cheerleader waving her pom-pons, a football player, a boy holding a camera, and a rather unattractive girl clutching books to her chest. Impulsively I grabbed the book and bought it, and the next day, a Sunday, I read it in my bed.

The book was Yearbook, by David Marlow.

High school wasn’t easy for me. Being a gay kid in the mid to late 1970’s in rural, conservative, deeply Christian Kansas wasn’t the ideal situation. I thought there was something wrong with me, and I didn’t feel close to anyone. This book, set in a high school in a town on Long Island in the late 1950’s, surprisingly resonated with me. It had four characters: Guy, an out of place, mocked and picked on sophomore who was smaller than everyone else and had no friends; Corky, the football star and golden boy that everyone admired, loved and wanted to be; Ro-Anne, his girlfriend, the beautiful and vivacious cheerleader absolutely certain of her place in the school pecking order; and unattractive Amy, smart, too tall, with frizzy hair and braces and a big nose and acne, also laughed at who uses her brains and her wit to withdraw into her own world where intelligence and brains are more valued than her looks.

Like me, Guy was a disappointment to his parents and his older siblings. I could so relate to him and his habit of losing himself into his hobbies to hide the loneliness. (For me, it was books and writing.) But Guy’s skill with photography brings him to popular Corky’s attention, and suddenly Guy is thrust into the popular circle, under Corky’s wing. Corky wants to be all over the yearbook, you see, and what better way to do that than to become friends with the best photographer in the school, an outsider?

This plan of Corky’s is what sets the story in motion, and for 244 pages I was completely riveted. Yearbook was completely unsentimental, and in the hands of a lesser writer the characters would have easily devolved into stereotypes. Marlow instead turned them into real people; beautiful Ro-Anne’s meanness became understandable once you knew her back story, so instead of being the typical pretty cheerleader ‘mean girl’ we’ve seen all too often in fiction and in film her behavior becomes understandable. None of the characters are perfect; you can feel Amy’s pain, Guy’s desperate need for acceptance, and the incredible burden of parental expectation that almost crushes Corky.

It was also one of the first times I’d ever read about a teenager starting to evolve sexually the way Guy was, and having feelings—both sexual and emotional—for another boy and being horribly confused by those feelings and also understanding those feelings had to be kept secret. Guy was never really sure what he felt for Corky; was he attracted to him, or were his feelings based in gratitude for being rescued from obscurity, being pulled inside and accepted by the popular crowd? And since his body was changing and developing, was it that gratitude, acceptance and love he was feeling being mixed up with sexual feelings?

As I said, the book wasn’t sentimental and there were no happy endings for any of the four. It was stunningly real, harsh and painful.

Guy Fowler arrived at the top of Edson hill at 8:45 and knew he was never going to live through the rest of the day. Monday, the twelfth of September, he made an entry in his mental diary: my last sunrise.

Those opening lines resonated with me; that was exactly how I felt on my first day of high school my freshman year. I also didn’t think I would survive high school.

Down in the girls’ locker room, beautiful and bouncy, giggling and gossiping, a voluptuous Ro-Anne Sommers zipped herself into her snug red and yellow outfit and looked at the ID bracelet she was wearing: CORKY.

Later in the first chapter, we meet Amy for the first time as she walks into the school assembly for new students, covering it for the school paper, remembering how the editor talked her into doing something she clearly didn’t want to do, and this:

Leonard peered up at Amy through thick eyeglasses, wondering as he did everytime he saw her just how she had managed so well to miss out on nature’s blessings—a girl whose hair was not just curly but kinky; a complexion not just troubled with acne, but riddled; teeth not just crooked but wired top to bottom, with marionette rubber bands which restricted movement as they were suspended from tiny hooks. Then there was the matter of that nose. A regular baked potato.

At the assembly, the reader finally meets Corky, as the principal introduces various student leaders to the new students:

Corky rose to his feet, waved and conquered. The girls wanted him. The boys wanted to be him. Tall and uncommonly handsome, charming, popular and powerfully built, Corky Henderson stood onstage, way up at the top of the totem pole, coolest of them all. Each short wave of his carefully parted dark hair was thicker than the next. His green eyes smiled at his appreciative audience and his dimples deepened with good reason: barely eighteen and already a legend.

And Guy’s reaction:

Guy applauded, too. His stomach gurgled. Adrenaline shot every which way. In all his life he’d never seen anyone he’d so instantly admired. For whatever Guy Fowler wasn’t, Corky Henderson most assuredly was. Guy calculated what it would take to be like the amazing fellow now center stage, soaking up all that limelight. Just another twelve inches off the ground; sixty additional pounds of sinewy muscle; the smile, the confidence, the right clothes, the rugged, casual, jocklike air and he’d have it all. Nothing to it.

He wanted to slash his wrists.

And, when his photography skills have been discovered, that moment at the Sugar Bowl (the town’s teen hangout) when Corky and Ro-Anne recruit him to their inner circle, and Corky reveals his plan about the yearbook to the dazzled, lonely boy:

”I want to be all over that yearbook, kid. Cover to cover! I want my kids to look through it someday and see what a hot shot their old man was.” Ro-Anne coughed into her buttermilk. “And what a beauty Ro-Anne was,” Corky was quick to add.

It is that meeting that sets everything in motion to the inevitable tragedy.

I never forgot this book; I reread it I don’t know how many times. My worn and battered copy was lost to the ages years ago.

I remembered it again recently, and did a google search. I was able to order an old, used copy. I discovered that David Marlow wrote a few other books, became a bodybuilder, and now lives in Palm Springs with his long time partner. My used copy arrived this week, and with some trepidation, I reread it this morning.

It still holds up, after all this time. It is just as painful to read and experience as it was that first time over thirty years ago, and it resonated just as strongly as it did back then. But in all my prior readings of it, I always had a sense that Guy’s feelings for Corky were an anomaly, and after the events of this book he went on to marry and have kids and all of that.

But at the reunion, there is this exchange between him and Amy, that I either never caught (or understood) in any previous reading, as they dance at the reunion:

She giggled and looked at him. “And what about you, tall stranger? What’s going on with your life?”
Guy shrugged. “Not much.”
“No romantic interest?”
“Naw. I’ve got plenty of time for that once I sort out the rest of me.”
She looked at him with affection. “Still confused?”
Trust Aunt Amy to get right to the bottom of things. Guy hugged her tighter. “Let’s just dance, okay? I didn’t come here to be analyzed.”
“Right you are!”
“I can tell you one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“I do what I want nowadays.”
“Smart boy.”
“Yeah. I guess I have you to thank for making me stop living for the neighbors.”

Absolutely amazing.

Greg Herren is the author of numerous novels including the Scotty Bradley mysteries, the Chanse MacLeod mysteries and the smoking hot erotic novel, Every Frat Boy Wants It under the pseudonym, Todd Gregory. Follow him @ScottyNola and Facebook.