Mid-Coast Halloween Reading: Jen Blood, Katherine Silva and Patrick Shawn Bagley

This is going to be an excellent reading with two talented writers, plus...um, me! Two out of three ain't bad, and they're not even charging admission. So if you're in the mid-coast Maine area on October 24, I hope to see you there.

Update: John Connolly in Waterville

As previously mentioned, the short film John Connolly: Of Blood and Lost Things will be screened next Friday at Waterville's Railroad Square Cinema, at 6:45 pm. Beginning at 8:15 that same evening, John will sign copies of his latest novel, The Lovers, at Children's Book Cellar (52 Main Street in Waterville). I'll be there to help my friend Ellen Richmond with this special event. We're going to have a great time. I hope you can join us.

John Connolly: Of Blood and Lost Things

The 12th Annual Maine International Film Festival runs from July 10-19 in Waterville. This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award winner is Arthur Penn, director of Bonnie and Clyde and Little Big Man.

For me, though, the big excitement comes from a short film about one of the best novelists in the crime biz, John Connolly. Check out this description from the festival's website:

John Connolly: Of Blood and Lost Things
Ireland 2009 Digital Projection 52 Minutes in English
Director: Maurice Sweeney
Print Courtesy: Tyrone Productions

Why hasn’t Irish born, best-selling author, John Connolly ever set one of his books in Ireland? His signature character, former NYPD officer, now P.I., Charlie Parker lives in Maine. Maine figures predominately in almost every one of his twelve books. In the latest Parker novel, The Lovers, the lead character works as a bartender at the Portland landmark, The Great Lost Bear. Shooting the majority of the film’s footage in Maine, director Maurice Sweeney shows the influence of the place on the writer and looks at how Connolly’s oeuvre constitutes its own universe, creation myth or parallel Bible. The topography of Maine and its bloody history reaching back to the early settlers are well used by the author in the crime genre, which has a long tradition in the US. Fans of Connolly’s writing will be delighted to learn more about him. Those unfamiliar with his books will be lead on a journey of discovery through images of Maine in winter combined with excerpts from his stories.

This film will be shown 6:45 pm on Friday, July 10 at Railroad Square Cinema. For ticket information and directions, visit MIFF’s website. In addition to attending the screening, John Connolly will sign books at The Children’s Book Cellar (owned by my friend Ellen Richmond). The Children’s Book Cellar is located at 52 Main Street in Waterville. The time of the signing has not yet been set, but you can bet I’ll post it here as soon as the information becomes available.

See you there.

Don't Tell Mom (Unless She's Sick Like You)

Yeah, it's Mother's Day and you'd better be treating Mom right. But afterward, be sure to tool on over to CrimeWav for their special podcast of selected work from the first two issues of The Lineup: Poems on Crime.

Big honkin' thanks to Aldo "Mysterydawg" Calcagno and Seth Harwood for making it all possible. And, hey, don't forget that Seth's novel Jack Wakes Up is now available in bookstores everywhere (and racking up some killer reviews).

Let's Be Independent Together

Today is International Buy Indie Day, the brainchild of novelist Joseph Finder. It's a great idea, celebrating and supporting that most endangered of literary species: the independent bookstore. So whatever your plans for the day, be sure to visit your local indie bookseller and buy a book or two (or five or ten).

My friend Ellen Richmond owns the Children's Bookcellar in Waterville, Maine and I know she'd love to have some extra customers today. And while Ellen specializes in kid's books, she also does special orders. I'm going down there today to pick up a copy of Joe Lansdale's Savage Season, which she ordered for me. If you're near Farmington, Maine, pop into Devaney, Doak & Garrett.

Stay away from the chains today. They'll be fine without you. It's time to give back a little of the support the indies have given writers.

The Children's Bookcellar is located at 52 Main Street, Waterville, ME. 207-872-4543.
Devaney, Doak & Garrett is located at 193 Broadway, Farmington, ME. 207-778-3454.

It’s Not You. It’s Me.

You may have noticed that there are fewer links down the right-hand side of this page. About a month ago, I went through the list and deleted any dead links as well as those to sites/blogs that I just don’t often visit. It wasn’t a judgment on the person who maintains a particular site. It was not even a case of disliking those sites. The problem was that I had an ever-growing list of links to pages I seldom read.

For example, I removed the links to a few blogs that are wicked cool and full of funny or insightful stuff. Why? Well, I live in a desolate region known as Dial-Up Land. The blogs in question are image-heavy and it just takes too damn long for my glacial-speed Internet connection to load the pages. Broadband is not an option here. Hell, it takes me the better part of an hour just to open and answer a few e-mails every day. I can’t spend a lot of time waiting for websites and blogs to load when I need to be writing or working around the house.

At some point, I caught up in the whole hey-let’s-exchange-links thing. Other writers e-mailed me and offered to link to my blog if I’d link to theirs. Fair enough. But it got out of hand, kind of like the whole friend thing on the social network sites. I linked to pages I’d only read once. My blogroll went on and on. There are still a few links here that came to me this way, but they’re for blogs that I actually do visit on a regular basis. My new approach to putting up links is this: if I like your blog/site and go there at least once a week, I link to it here. I don’t care whether or not you reciprocate. There are plenty of blogs listed here that do not link to Maine Crime Writer. It doesn’t hurt my feelings. I link to those blogs because I like them. Weird, huh?

So that’s pretty much it. Everything you never wanted to know about linkage at MCW. Now go on and enjoy your long weekend (assuming you get one) by getting outside and spending time with people instead of reading blogs. Maybe talk about that great speech Obama gave last night, or play ball with the kids, or pick the last of the tomatoes in your garden or just sit under a tree with a good book. Go on. It’ll be fun, trust me. You won’t even miss the Wide, Wide World of Web.

Hideaway by Michael Kimball

On Tuesday, June 17th, at 7:30 PM, the New YORK Theatre Company will present a test-run staged reading of Michael Kimball’s new play Hideaway at the York Public Library. Hideaway will open the 2008-09 season at The Players’ Ring (Portsmouth, NH) this September. Audience members will be invited to stay after the performance for a talk-back with director Joi Smith, playwright Kimball, and the full cast.

To separate their troubled son from the destructive influences of a Massachusetts suburb, Ray and Sally Stenovsky move to a remote lakeside cabin in northern Maine. They isolate Christopher and home-school him for five years. Then one day a prefab log cabin is erected next door. Enter Bobby Johnson and his young wife Deadre, a hard-partying couple living under Witness Relocation. When the play opens, Chris is alone. Scenes follow thematically rather than chronologically, in answer to Chris’s question: "How did I get here?"

Michael Kimball is the author of the thrillers Green Girls, Mouth to Mouth, Undone and the critically acclaimed Firewater Pond.