Archive for the ‘Message from M.A.C.’ Category

Happy Publication Day! And Conjuring Up an Injustice

Tuesday, October 7th, 2025

October 7 – the day this update appears – is the publication day of the new Trash ‘n’ Treasure mystery by Barb and me – Antiques Round-up!

Barb did a fantastic job on this one and I added my own touches, too. When she told me about some of the wacky things she was planning to do in this one, I had my doubts she – or anyone – could pull them off…but she did! “Yippee-ki-yay, Mother (and Brandy)!”


Hardcover:
E-Book: Nook Kobo Google Play

Barb is hard at work on her draft of the next book in the series, Antiques Web. She should be done by year’s end and I’ll saddle up for my draft come first of the year.

In the meantime, the movie that brings Brandy and her mother Vivian alive, Death by Fruitcake, should be available soon…we’ll let you know how, and where, to see it!

* * *

I have enjoyed the Conjuring movies, including the latest one (The Conjuring: Last Rites). I did wonder why in this latest installment nobody seemed to know how to switch on the lights when going into a room, but, hey – it’s a haunted house movie, so you need it dark.

The scariest thing about Last Rites is how cavalier Hollywood can be about giving credit where credit is due.

Before I get into this, let me say I am well aware that writers sometimes have to sign a work-for-hire agreement to get a gig. I signed plenty of those back when I was writing novelizations of movies and original novels based on TV shows. I get that.

But now and then something a writer has done as work-for-hire goes places nobody anticipated. For example, Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel were screwed out of Superman because they had signed work-for-hire agreements when they were teenagers. It took decades – effing decades – for DC Comics to give anything to their estates and to include a “created by” screen credit for Siegel and Shuster on any new Superman movie.

Which brings me to Ed Gorman.


Ed Gorman (1941-2016) and his wife Carol

Ed was one of my two or three best friends in the writing business. He was probably the best short story writer in the genre. He was one of the best incredibly prolific writers of novels. I never read anything by him that wasn’t smart and engaging; he could be a little dark at times, but that was leavened with wry humor.

We used to talk on the phone, in those pre-social media days, for hour upon hour. He was incredibly affable and funny in those conversations, not only with me but in phone conversations with many others in the field. Nonetheless, he was notoriously a near recluse. I am one of the few people in mystery fiction who Ed spent time with in person. We even did some signings together, and he came to one of my band’s performances, at which he seemed loose and easy and to be having a great time. Later he told me he’d been terrified.

He was a unique person and a fine writer. I once told Barb that if I died before completing a novel to give it to Ed to finish. That’s how high my opinion was and is of him.

One of the ways Ed made a living was writing books for Ed and Lorraine Warren, the famous psychic/demon-hunter couple whose “real” adventures are the “factual” basis of the Conjuring movies.

Has anyone who saw one of those movies – and, again, I am a fan – believed them to really be “based on the true story”? That the outlandish things that happen on screen really did in real life? I don’t hold that against the Warrens or those who’ve turned their tall tales into films. I like a good scary story.

Here’s another.

One of the books Ed ghosted for the Warrens was called The Haunted. It became a TV movie and he may have received some payment for that, though I’m not sure. Ed did not receive a byline on the book, but the first page says this:

Special thanks and acknowledgment
to Ed Gorman for his work on this book
.

Ed developed The Haunted from 40 pages of notes provided by a reporter working with the Warrens, and spoke with both the Warrens and the Spurl family (who lived in the “haunted” house). I remember Ed telling me he didn’t have much to work from, and didn’t believe any of it anyway. So he just wrote a horror novel, he said, which would be sold as “non-fiction” (his quotes). He was clear about creating much of it out of whole cloth.

Ed was good at horror novels. Very good. He did most of them under the name “Daniel Ransom.” So the Warrens chose wisely.

The Conjuring franchise has made two billion dollars. The Conjuring: Last Rites had grossed over $187 million worldwide by September 7, 2025. The film’s debut included $83 million domestically and a record-breaking $104 million internationally.

The movie is based on The Haunted, which Ed Gorman wrote.

His estate has been paid not one cent.

He receives no screen credit, not even the acknowledgment that the original book carried on its first page.

It’s possible, maybe probable, that Ed signed a work-for-hire contract. It’s also likely he was paid only a few thousand dollars for the work. So maybe Warner Bros/New Line doesn’t owe him anything, legally. But I am of the opinion that, even so, his estate deserves a taste, and Ed deserves screen credit.

But that seems unlikely to happen.

As Count Floyd would say, “Scary, kids, scary!”

M.A.C.

Hey Kids! It’s Book Giveaway Time

Tuesday, September 30th, 2025

We’ve not had a book giveaway here at the Update for some time, and I’m about to remedy that.

Last year Hard Case Crime reissued The Last Quarry in trade paperback form (with some bonus material in back, two of the three Quarry short stories from the ‘80s). Now HCC is taking the same trade paperback approach with The First Quarry (minus the bonus short stories).

What makes these reissues notable?

Well, the first three Quarry novels Hard Case Crime published (The Last Quarry, The First Quarry and Quarry in the Middle) appeared in the smaller original mass-market paperback size. This is for all of you who like to shelve your titles together – whether you are OCD or just particular – and would prefer your row of Quarry novels be all of the same format/size. Now you we no longer have to suffer with the indignity of the first three novels not lining up perfectly with the rest! Even the first four novels, as originally published by Berkley Books, were originally in mass market size. The fifth, Primary Target, re-titled Quarry’s Vote at HCC, was in hardcover and then a mass-market-sized paperback. All five are now HCC trade paperbacks.

I believe, though I am not absolutely certain, that Quarry in the Middle will also receive a trade paperback edition from Hard Case Crime, next year.

So, even if you have the original edition of The First Quarry, you are welcome to participate in this book giveaway. It works like this: e-mail me requesting the book at macphilms@hotmail.com. Even if you’ve won a title in a previous giveaway of mine, you must include your snail-mail address. Though no strings are attached, it would be nice if you’d review the book at the Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble sites, or your own blog, if you have one. The offer is open to US residents only, due to shipping costs.

[All copies have been claimed! Thank you for your support. –Nate]



I’ve talked about this before, but just in case you didn’t hear it from me, on an Update or otherwise, here’s why The Last Quarry was not the last Quarry, and why The First Quarry is not the first Quarry.

When Hard Case Crime got started, editor Charles Ardai approached me about reprinting Blood Money, the second book in my Nolan series (the first being Bait Money). I requested he collect both books in one volume, asking for no extra money, as I thought it awkward to start with the sequel to a long-out-of-print book, which Bait Money was at the time. He agreed and you can now get those books together as Two for the Money.

The Nolans did well enough for Charles to request I do another in the series. I said I’d prefer to do a Quarry novel. The series had something of a cult following (of course, as Donald E. Westlake said, a cult author is seven readers short of making a living) and I’d always felt the character should have put me on the map, which it hadn’t. The series was in fact dropped by Berkley Books after those first four entries.

But I’d recently made (with director Jeffrey Goodman) a short film about Quarry, based on my short story “A Matter of Principal.” The film did well at festivals and was warmly received when screened at a Bouchercon.

For this reason, and my own affection for the character, I wrote The Last Quarry for HCC, telling Charles I was thrilled to be able to wrap the series up (as the title suggests). I’d also been promised a Robert McGinnis cover, which I got. (And I should note that The Last Quarry was based on my screenplay of the eventual film called The Last Lullaby. The final film differs somewhat from my novelization.)

Then the damnedest thing happened: The Last Quarry was a success, garnering good sales and terrific reviews.

CUT TO: Charles and I are standing in a buffet line at a subsequent Bouchercon when he says, “It’s too bad you ended the series with The Last Quarry.” And I say, “Why don’t I write The First Quarry?”

Thus began a long series of Quarry novels (I’m working on Quarry’s Reunion, the thirteenth for Hard Case Crime), novels that have earned several Shamus nominations from the Private Eye Writers of America and two Edgar noms from the MWA. And there was a one-season of a QUARRY TV series from HBO/Cinemax, focusing on Quarry’s origin.

Not bad for a busted mid-‘70s paperback series.

Most of the new novels have me exploring the premise of Quarry using the late Broker’s list to track assassins to their next target, and offering a service to that target: stopping the hit by killing the assassins and discovering who bought the kill contract. This is what was set up in Quarry’s List, the second of the original four novels.

Some of these subsequent novels, like The First Quarry, tell of contracts Quarry carried out prior to – it gets confusing now – the events of the first Quarry novel (originally published as The Broker, currently carrying my preferred title, Quarry). Among these contract-killer novels are Quarry’s Choice and Quarry in the Black.

Another sub-set in the series are the “old man” Quarry novels, where the character is roughly my age Quarry’s Blood, Quarry’s Return).

I run into potential readers wanting to know what order to read the books in. I always say, I didn’t write them in order, so why read them that way? I would prefer to point such readers to two particular favorites of mine, Quarry’s Choice and The Wrong Quarry.

Is there a difference between the first four (Quarry, Quarry’s List, Quarry’s Deal and Quarry’s Cut) and subsequent entries, including the one I’m working on now?

Yes. There is more humor – dark humor, but more – in the later books.

One reason I didn’t try to take the series elsewhere, when Berkley dropped it, was my feeling that each novel had to top the last in extreme violence. Why did I feel that way? It’s not because I’m a sadistic nincompoop. It’s because, structurally, the early books are about showing Quarry in the first chapter or so doing something terrible, then in subsequent chapters (the bulk of the book) getting the reader to kind of forget that and come to like Quarry and view him as a reasonable guy (and a point-of-view character you could take the ride with). Then, at the end, faced with a situation that an actual normal human would otherwise deal with, Quarry again does something terrible.

All of this grew out of my desire to, in my way, top the great Richard Stark (Don Westlake) Parker novels. I had already written the first five Nolan novels, which were frankly imitative of the Parker series. I instead wanted to show readers (like me) of “crook books” with protagonists who worked the left-hand side of the street just what kind of “heroes” we (me) were identifying with.

The Parker novels were heist yarns told in third-person, giving readers some distance between them and the criminal events. I decided to do, instead of a professional thief, a hired killer, and tell the stories in the first person – put the reader inside Quarry’s head, and ultimately confront readers with just who it’d been they were rooting for.

To some degree, this approach is inherent in the later Quarry novels, yes, but the dark humor (I think) leavens the often nasty events of the narratives. That frees me from sense that I need to top the last book with some truly awful thing that Quarry does at the finish (although even then, in the Mike Hammer tradition, he is removing a bad guy or two or three).

The original novel – The Broker AKA Quarry – has this ambivalence built in. In that novel – never intended to launch a series – hired killer Quarry, to save his own ass, must solve the murder he committed.

Now Quarry’s 50th anniversary is just ahead (2026). I’ll try not to disappoint with Quarry’s Return.

* * *

Here is a list from Collider of the 20 best comic book movies. Guess what’s number two?

M.A.C.

Why I Am Troubled

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2025

As I’ve stated, I try to stay out of politics here.

And I don’t think what I’m about to discuss violates that, at least not exactly. I’ve seen people from the left and the right speaking out about the Jimmy Kimmel situation.

Jimmy Kimmel

Look, anybody can get fired. When you work for somebody, and they don’t like the work you’re doing, they have no obligation to put up with you. I’ve been fired. I was fired when I wrote the Dick Tracy strip largely because the editor (not the editor who hired me but his replacement) did not like my work and did not like me, and also because the Tribune Syndicate wanted to save money by using a staffer and not a freelancer.

That was unfair, obviously, but I always knew that could happen. I had a five-year contract that was renewed for another five years twice. It was a good run and a good paycheck.

So in that sense, what happened to Jimmy Kimmel is not a freedom of speech issue. ABC hired him, ABC can fire him (or suspend him or whatever). What is dangerous – what is wrong – is the way the FCC muscled ABC into getting rid of Kimmel. The FCC – backed by taxpayer money, which is to say you and me – was pursuing a political agenda. With ABC and Disney trying to get the FCC to approve a merger (that breaks the FCC’s rules), the actions of the FCC are strictly straight out of the Mafia playbook – it’s the protection racket, in a sense, and it’s authoritarianism adjacent (at least). “You can do it the easy way or the hard way,” a thug says.

Anyone working in the world of media can now be punished for having the wrong opinion. This potentially can extend beyond talk show hosts to the newsrooms and then to movies and books and even comic books.

I am not someone who watched Jimmy Kimmel. When Letterman retired, I decided I had better things to do than watch the ephemera that was late night talk shows. I might prefer to read or watch something else (an old movie maybe or even a new one) or work or even go to bed. I appear to have gotten older and now run out of steam sooner.

But this is troubling. It goes beyond Democrat and Republican into American. And other than to speak up – while I can – I don’t know what the hell to do about it beyond cancel Disney Plus, which I have.

The only other thing available to me is speaking out here. If I’ve offended anybody, I welcome them to object in the comments. But first I’ll remind them that the First Amendment allows us all to have our opinions, smart or stupid, in agreement or disagreement.

For now.

M.A.C.

NOTE: The above was written before the Kimmel situation changed (somewhat).

Let’s ask George Carlin what his opinion is:

The Writing Life

Tuesday, September 16th, 2025

A box arrived from the UK with a few advance copies of our new Antiques/Trash ‘n’ Treasures mystery, Antiques Round-Up. When I say “our,” of course, I mean Barb and my latest novel in the now long-running series.

Barbara Allan and Antiques Round-Up

I have watched, I guess it’s been for decades now, Barb developing into a terrific writer. She was good out of the gate, and like most of us, her improvements are somewhat incremental and don’t make themselves clear until some time has passed and those improvements have accumulated.

I know I still think I’m improving as a fiction writer even at this late date. I’ve been writing long enough to have no doubt lost my fast ball here and there, but certain craft things have improved. Or at least I’m still trying to have them improved.

Barb and I have different approaches. She is slow-and-steady wins the race. Even now, I may not spend more than two months writing a novel (depends on the novel of course), but she spends most of her writing year on one book in the series. Fiction writing is a love/hate affair, but I have always loved it more than hated, and often Barb seems to be the other way around. She always talks about the current book being the last one she’s willing to do, while I’m always looking for more books to write, as if as long as I have a book contract, that God or the Grim Reaper or whatever will wait for me to finish the current novel.

If there’s a point to this ramble, it’s how proud I am of the way Barb has risen to a truly professional level, and this latest book – which will be published a couple of weeks from now – is evidence of that.

We were published for years by Kensington, but our current home is Severn House, a UK publisher that puts a lot of their emphasis on the United States market. But we do hear from readers who dropped away at the point Kensington stopped publishing us, largely because – thus far – the series has been tricky to find in Barnes and Noble, and BAM and other of the surviving brick-and-mortar book stores.

Some of these readers don’t even know the series is continuing, and when they find out it is, want to know where they can get back onboard. Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have the Severn House books in hardcover and e-book; and all of them eventually become available from those sellers in handsome trade paperback editions.

We have had a lot of Hollywood interest in the Antiques novels – specifically for TV – over the last fifteen years. It’s gotten very close – very – but as yet no cigar. That’s why we made an Antiques movie ourselves, Death By Fruitcake, with Paula Sands (legendary Midwestern broadcaster) as Vivian Borne and Alisabeth Von Presley (Midwest pop superstar) as Brandy Borne. We’re proud of our little movie – I scripted it from a Barbara Allan novella (Antiques Fruitcake) and Barb co-produced and served as production manager.

This past week Chad Bishop, our co-producer (and Director of Photography and Editor) and I began dealing with the “deliverables” (the things a distributor requires) for Twin Engines Global. This ranges from getting trailers and the film itself to them and making closed-captioning happen and taking lawyer meetings about getting an LLC put together and a hundred other things.

Certainly easier to just write a damn book. It was however a fun, hard, unforgettable experience, shooting and editing it and all, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Meanwhile, I am almost half-way through the new Quarry novel, Quarry’s Reunion, which will be the 50th anniversary book in a series that I thought Berkley Books had killed 49 years ago…but thankfully Hard Case Crime unexpectedly resuscitated it in 2006 with the help of filmmaker Jeffrey Goodman, who made a short film from my script (A Matter of Principal) and a film version of The Last Quarry (The Last Lullaby). Fans also helped keep it alive.

I mentioned that fiction writing is a love/hate affair. Though she seldom grouses, I know Barb finds writing difficult. Funny thing is, after all this time, so do I.

I will spend a full day writing two or three pages of description and set-up for a chapter, or an hour on one paragraph; fortunately for me, the rest goes a lot faster, and dialogue scenes fly, as they need to when readers encounter them. Most of my novels are mysteries, obviously, and I re-plot them constantly as I go. Quarry’s Reunion had five or six preliminary overview outlines, and I’m on the fifth or six chapter breakdown now.

Part of this is my approach being half planning, half improvisation. I try to know enough about the story I am about to tell without mounting my horse and riding in all directions. So I know major things – like who-dun-it and why. Then I come up with a plan, a road map, a structure, that may be twenty pages long. But I try to keep it loose enough to make discoveries as I go. This has me revising the plan, changing and tweaking the trip I’m taking, as I go.

Here’s another difference between writers. Though we come up with the “Barbara Allan” basic ideas together, Barb rarely asks me for an opinion or plot help or anything while she’s writing her draft. I’m willing to help, and often offer – but I have too many ideas, too many ways to solve a problem, to do anything but frustrate her, throw her off-track. So except in cases of emergencies, I keep tabs on what she’s doing on her draft, but don’t interfere. And when I do my draft, she gets out of my way. She does read my chapters as I go, so can catch anything I’m doing that will upset the plot applecart.

I mentioned above that I sometimes spend a day on a few scene-setting opening paragraphs, or an hour or more on a transitional paragraph between breaks within a chapter. And in recent years – due, I’m afraid, to all the media around us dumbing everybody down – I get some (not a lot) of readers and reviewers complaining about what they see as needless description. I will defend that only with this: I have to see a scene in my mind before I write it; and in description – yes, even clothing – I am writing about character as much as anything.

Still, as I said to Barb the other day, “It’s frustrating to spend so much time on the stuff some readers skip.”

Here’s where you can pre-order Antiques Round-Up; it’s out on Oct. 7. It’s likely also available via the Net at anywhere else you like to buy your books.


Hardcover:
E-Book: Nook Kobo Google PLay
* * *

Here’s a review of The Two Jakes 4-K Blu-ray (from Kino Lorber) that is a comprehensive look at the film and the disc, and includes the commentary by Heath Holland and myself about the film. You have to scroll down to read that, but the whole review (my opinion is higher than the reviewer’s of the film itself, but the review is thoughtful and fair, even when I don’t entirely agree with it).

The Two Jakes poster excerpt

This a new bio of me at a Dick Tracy Wiki site. Looks extensive, though I admit not reading it yet.

M.A.C.