Bookseller

I found my old B. Dalton Bookseller nametag in a box of old slides I've been scanning:

This provoked a very vivid B. Dalton dream last night. In the same box, three photo booth pictures from around 1982, smack dab in the middle of the B. Dalton years:

In the top one I'm doing my Stan Laurel face. I also had Stan Laurel hair. I was very, very young. And callow!

Uncage Me

"Uncage Me," Jen Jordan's second smutty anthology (after "Expletive Deleted") is out this week. Filthy stories from the likes of Allan Guthrie, Christa Faust, Victor Gischler, J.A. Konrath, J.D. Rhoades, Declan Burke, Brian Azzarello, Steven Torres, Stewart Macbride, Simon Kernick, Patrick Bagley, Greg Bardsley, Stephen Blackmore, Tim Maleeny, Nick Stone, Martyn Waites, Talia Berliner, Maxim Jakubowski, Gregg Hurwitz, Blake Crouch, Bryon Quertermous, Pearce Hansen and yours truly.

A randier, more perverted group would be hard to assemble. Buy it and read it one-handed!

Get a Haircut, Hippie

This is my old Carte Orange, a Paris subway and bus pass holder. I'm guessing this is circa 1989, when I was in my late twenties and had a lot of hair. Too long in front to be a mullet, too long in back to be a real pompadour, it's my opinion in retrospect that I look like a douchebag. Not as much as in those press passes, though.

shades

These are the actual shades worn in the Tex LeBeauf episode of Joel Sanderson's Basement Sublet of Horror.

my e-mail, FUBAR, and my revamped (sort of) website

Anybody who's had e-mails sent to me bounce back, they should go through now. And click the link to the left to see my website in progress. Mike Gebert did the site for me five years ago and I haven't updated it since, and since my priorities have shifted away from the publishing world I thought it was time to give it a reboot. So over the next few weeks Mike and I (mainly Mike) will be retooling the site to a more 21st century feel.

Best Birthday Ever

Here's a stereo GIF from the Robot Scott ViewMaster set I posted a few days ago. I wish I could find the rest in postable form, they're pretty great. This is (c)1996 by my brother Batfatty. I would be the robot clutching his birthday presents, the Starship Enterprise and an original Aurora "Uncle Blackout" model. (Click to enlarge, then savor its unearthly beauty.)

Noir at the Bar is Tonight!

That's right, and the above badly taxidermied Pan troglodytes will likely be there. It's at the Delmar Lounge, 6235 Delmar Blvd., Saint Louis, MO 63130 starting at eight o'clock. Yours truly will be reading along with Frank Bill of Indiana, Jedidiah Ayres of St. Louis, and the headliner of course is Anthony Neil Smith of Marshall, MN, reading from the brutal "Hogdoggin.'"

Tonight's Big Event

That's right, Anthony Neil Smith and I will be reading/signing tonight from seven to eight-thirty at Pudd'nhead Books at 37 S. Old Orchard in Webster Groves, MO. Neil will read from his new book "Hogdoggin'," and I'll read something from the book I'm finishing up, "Supply Sarge." I expect there'll be some drinking, some dancing, some fucking and some fighting, if I know my Dr. Smith.

Next week

I forgot about next week. Anthony Neil Smith is coming to St. Louis, and at 7 PM on the 27th (that's a Wednesday) he and I will be appearing at Pudd'nhead Books at 37 S. Old Orchard Ave. in
beautiful Webster Groves, MO. And the next night, Thursday the 28th, is the kickoff of St. Lou's version of NOIR AT THE BAR, a Philadelphia-based series founded by Peter Rozovsky (of Detectives Without Borders). Jedidiah Ayres ("Mosquito Kingdom" screenwriter and author of many short stories including "Politoburg" in the new THUGLIT antho "Sex, Thugs and Rock and Roll"), Anthony Neil Smith, Frank Bill (all the way from Indiana) and I will be kicking off the series with readings designed to curl your curlies. Subterranean Books will be selling books at this event, which will take place at the Delmar Lounge (6235 Delmar Blvd.,Saint Louis, MO 63130) in the fabulous U City Loop.

this week and next

7 PM Wednesday the 20th is Suspense Night at the St. Louis County Library Headquarters. Reed Farrel Coleman, SJ Rozan, John Lutz and I will be reading with Paul Harris moderating. I promise to read something from my work in progress that will make Reed do a spit take, probably involving unorthodox and/or insalubrious sex acts.
It may be worth mentioning that no writer involved in the annual "Suspense Night" since its inception has been a thriller writer, with the exception of Ridley Pearson. But "Noir Night" is too hard to pronounce.