Bang, Zoom – You’re the Greatest! Also 99-Cent Nate Heller

September 22nd, 2020 by Max Allan Collins

Till the end of the month, the latest Nate Heller novel, Do No Harm, is available for $2.99 as an eBook.

And starting September 22, all of the following Nate Heller novels are available for a mere 99-cents each on Kindle. This sale last only till September 28, so act fast!

These are the titles (in no particular order):

Damned in Paradise
Carnal Hours
Stolen Away
Chicago Confidential
Majic Man
True Detective
The Million-Dollar Wound
True Crime
Neon Mirage
Flying Blind
Blood and Thunder
Triple Play
Chicago Lightning

and this non-Heller title:

The Lusitania Murders

The promotion is here:
https://www.amazon.com/b?node=13819722011

* * *

Suddenly I’m ZOOMing.

Not long ago I did a panel promoting a book not by me, but by Susanna Lee, Detectives in the Shadows, on the impact of hardboiled private eyes on our popular culture. It’s an interesting book, with some observations I agree with (and some I don’t), focusing on a limited number of literary (and television) P.I.s. My participation came out of Ms. Lee doing a solid chapter on Mike Hammer and Mickey Spillane.

The panel was moderated by my pal Kevin Burton Smith, whose Thrilling Detective web site is a place any fan of private eye fiction can (and should) spend a lot of quality time. Other panelists, besides Ms. Lee, were Ace Atkins (Spenser being a topic of a Detectives in Shadows chapter), Alex Segura, comics writer and P.I. novelist (the well-regarded Pete Fernandez series).

It’s a pretty good discussion, although I talk too much (big surprise). Alex got a bit short-changed, but Ace had smart things to say, particularly when he was agreeing with me. Anyway, don’t take my word for it. Here it is.

This afternoon (Sunday September 20, 2020), A. Brad Schwartz and I were interviewed about our non-fiction book, Eliot Ness and the Mad Butcher. We were interviewed by Scott Sroka, a recognized Ness expert, and the grandson of one of the real Untouchables (Joe Leeson), and himself a former federal prosecutor. We were hosted by Quail Ridge Books (thank you, Rebecca!).

It’s a decent discussion, I think, and since Brad and I will not be doing any bookstore signings or appearances, this is a somewhat rare opportunity to hear us talk about the second Ness book.

Brad and I will be doing one more of these appearances, this time at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas (where we appeared in person for Scarface and the Untouchable): THE SECOND ACT OF ELIOT NESS: BATTLING THE MOB IN CLEVELAND, October 8, 2020, 7 to 8 p.m.

Information on how to attend at the museum or online is here.

And that’s just the start of my ZOOMing adventures. This coming Wednesday I will be interviewed by Eddie Muller for his TCM series, Noir Alley (always a must watch, even when I’m not on it) (or, depending on your point of view, even when I am on it). I will be interviewed for two separate episodes on a pair of my favorite films, Kiss Me Deadly and Born to Kill. They should both air yet this year, and when I have air times (and permission to share them) I will post them on this update/blog.

I was scheduled to be on Noir Alley in March but the Pandemic decided I shouldn’t travel; and I was thrilled to be asked anyway, thanks to viewers getting used to seeing Zoom and Skype transmissions on bigtime TV.

Getting ready for Noir Alley has meant upgrading my computer set-up, and Turner Classic Movies has sent some higher-end stuff including a microphone that looks like it belongs on Johnny Carson’s desk and an HD camera that is far too realistically able to show the world what a 72-year-old version of a boy wonder looks like.

My son Nate has been vital in getting these technological upgrades installed and tweaked for a parent who doesn’t text and fears Apps the way Kevin McCarthy does his fellow citizens in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

And tomorrow – the day before this first appears – I have to do a dry run with TCM to make sure we’ve correctly installed this stuff, though I’m pretty sure their techs have little if anything on Nathan Allan Collins.

* * *

I am happy to report that the first batches of the Wolfpack trade paperbacks have arrived, and they are beauties. These folks do a great job. I don’t have enough on hand to start mounting book giveaways, though that will happen very soon.

* * *

This is the second time I’ve titled one of these updates with a variation on Ralph Kramden’s toothless threat to send his wife Alice to the moon, and I suppose that’s risky in this climate. Will the day come – perhaps it already has – that a generation arrives who find The Honeymooners an offensive assault on their tender sensibilities?

Already, for decades, the all-African-American cast of gifted performers who made the Amos ‘n’ Andy TV show one of the funniest sitcoms in history have been consigned to the scrap heap of history. The creator of Harry Potter has a man in a dress killing women, I hear, and a whole lot of people who haven’t read the book want it boycotted.

As I have said many times: the place where the far right and the far left meet is a book burning…they’re just bringing different books.

I am always astounded at the things people complain about in my books. Quarry is viewed as having sexist views which they find just terrible (but nobody complains that he’s murdering people). Nate Heller also sizes up the attractive young women he counters, cataloguing their hair color and figures and facial features; but no one ever mentions that he often just flat-out kills people at the end of the books. I get attacked for writing sex scenes, mostly by priggish males, but don’t recall any complaints about gore.

Nothing new about that. That pre-dates political correctness, and just indicates how uncomfortable Americans have always been about sex and how comfortable they are with violence.

And now the Academy Awards are defining what elements a Best Picture nominee has to have, from the content of the screenplay to the ethnicity and sexual identification of the cast and crew. These are creative people who’ve banded together to promulgate this offensive nonsense, trivializing real problems and concerns into feeling smugly good about themselves.

It used to be Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Now the fiddlers burn other fiddlers while Nero and his boys sack Rome.

M.A.C.

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2 Responses to “Bang, Zoom – You’re the Greatest! Also 99-Cent Nate Heller”

  1. Ray Cuthbert says:

    I really enjoyed the YouTube interview by Scott Sroka with Brad Schwartz and yourself Max. It was really entertaining, so any of you blog readers who are on the fence about spending an hour watching it, I will suggest “get off the fence and watch it!”

  2. Neal Alhadeff says:

    Quail Ridge Books is across the street from my office building. In a non-pandemic world, I would have attended the talk in person. Maybe next year.