I am pleased to report that none of my friends died this week (Clemens, you can come out of your hidey hole).

If you have Facebook, you can check out this superior audience recording of “Alley Cats” with Mike and Nick Cornelison. You can get pretty much all of the dialogue. Several people have asked me what the requirements were for this competition, and I have frankly forgotten the exact instructions (which I received over the phone). There was a name and job description of one of the characters, the line “That’s gonna leave a mark,” the need to be a “buddy film” situation, the use of a manila envelope, and maybe a couple of other things. The audience knew of these requirements and sometimes ahhhed and even applauded when they were worked smoothly in. Understand, this was an under-the-gun competition – actors and crew waiting for me to quickly turn out a script that they could execute in under a week.

My buddy Parnell Hall has made some fun You Tube song videos about the writing game. Crusin’ and I (and lots of bigtime writers, including Crusin’ guest artists Val McDermid and Bob Randisi) participated in a new e-book-centric vid mostly shot at Bouchercon in St. Louis. (That makes our appearance the last video recording of the band with Chuck Bunn.)

Nice reviews for various M.A.C. stuff continue apace. That fine human and terrific writer Bill Crider contributed a great CONSUMMATA review.

This review from Bookgasm is kind of odd. The reviewer seems to like me and the Quarry series, but mis-reads QUARRY’S EX as a prequel to THE FIRST QUARRY, which I think it clearly isn’t. He doesn’t seem to like Quarry’s encounters with B-movie actors, either, and doesn’t seem to care for (or “get,” in my view) a novel that otherwise has earned glowing reviews. Still, always nice to be noticed by Bookgasm, a really great review site.

On a happier note, renowned comics writer John Ostrander provides a great BYE BYE, BABY review at my pal Mike Gold’s ComicMix site.

For those wondering what I’m up to this week, I am continuing work on a book entitled SPILLANE ON FILM with my ONE LONELY KNIGHT collaborator, Jim Traylor.

M.A.C.