MUSIC BOOKS NEWSPAPERS AND TELEVISION

Spent a very pleasant couple of hours in the lounge at the Hat Trick, a St. Paul drinking establishment, Friday evening. An Ex-Rocker from the hot 60’s scene, Mandrake Memorial, one of Philadelphia’s top local bands, has surfaced in a new persona. Michael Kac is revisiting the folk music scene solo with his tasteful blend of ballads and up tempo modern songs. He’s an accomplished keyboardist, banjoist and guitar player with a sweet low tenor voice as an added plus. He has a CD with Linda Cohen and also plays with a new group in the Twin Cities called Mill City Band. Catch his act when you can.

Everywhere you look newspapers are cutting back on space for reporting and reviewing the literary scene. Faced with declining ad revenues, newspapers are trying to reinvent themselves, thus pay more attention to reader interests which means less space for book stuff.

I’m gettin’ antsy about the release of my new PI novel in August. “The Case of the Deceiving Don.”

Even before the conventions make their now pro forma selection of presidential candidates the silly season of ads is beginning to sink my interest in television. EXCEPT, of course, for our own cable show.
If the newspapers won’t talk about books, we will. Minnesota Crime Wave Presents seems to be attracting a growing audience. Helps to have two dynamite co-hosts and great guests.

Thoughts whilst waiting for the dough to rise

Drove home from Mayhem via Des Moines. Lots of warnings and some bad weather around but avoided my 35 Route north. Des Moines is a livable city.

They are also fortunate to have a couple of good independent bookstores, along with the usual roster of mega chains. One where I stopped to chat with a few people and sign some stock is Beaverdale Books, on Beaver Street (naturally). Nice store, nice people good selection of crime fiction. Drop in if you are traveling through.

Mayhem in the Midlands: I haven't been to all of them, just most. This annual affair in Omaha, Nebraska is small, tightly and well organized, and takes place annually in a good hotel in a premier location. This year was smaller than previous, due I suppose, primarily to the escalating price of gas and the general malaise of the economy. Nevertheless, I reacquainted with old friends (not referring to age here) met some new and had numerous excellent conversations.

J.A. Konrath and I had an intense conversation over drinks in some bar, the other evening. Konrath
is intense, loud and sometime manic. He is also bright and insightful. Besides that he is a damn good writer. His Chicago-based police fiction is excellent.

Carol Bly who died recently a frank, straight-forward personality and top-notch writer of poetry and prose died a few months ago. She was a teacher, an ethicist who published widely read collections of essays and poetry over a long productive career. Now HolyCow Press has released her very first novel! It's entitled "Shelter Half," and although the reviewer for the local newspaper doesn't call it a mystery, it certainly has mysterious elements and can properly be see as crime fiction. I can't wait to read it.

There's the buzzer. Back to the bread dough.

LANDVIK AND HALE ON TV

OK,
I'm jazzed. Tonight (Monday April 28) we're in the studio again recording two more programs in our new TV series, MINNESOTA CRIME WAVE PRESENTS:

Remember "Patty Jane's House of Curl?" Well, I get to talk to the author, Lorna Landvik. What a kick. And then we're going to do an interview with Jocelyn Hale, new director of one of the best lierary centers in the nation, The Loft. The Loft is right here in Minneapolis and has so many programs for writers and readers, I'm not going to even attempt to list them. But if you want to know more about the organization, go to their web site: http:\\www.loft.org