I’m not sure what compelled me to do two weeks of lists of “Five Favorites” here. I can say with confidence it was more about me looking back and summing up than trying to sway anybody about those favorites. I do admit to trying to bring new eyes and ears to Bobby Darin and Vanilla Fudge, but otherwise I was just taking stock of what has shaped and is shaping me, even at this late stage of the game.

Yesterday (as I write this) Heath Holland interviewed me about my return in recent years to indie filmmaking. I haven’t seen it, and don’t believe it’s been posted yet; but it felt good. I’ll provide a link here as soon as I can.

Heath Holland

I mention this, first, because I want to recommend Heath’s work on YouTube in general (under his Cereal at Midnight banner). He is one of the best and sanest of the champions of physical media out there right now. He and I have been doing commentaries (about 10 so far I believe) for various Blu-rays and 4K discs).

Also, as many of you know, I have a regular segment on YouTube as part of Robert Meyer Burnett’s show Let’s Get Physical Media, with the great Dieter Bastion. It’s a show that usually runs about two and a half hours, airing live on YouTube on Sunday afternoon (1 pm Central). And of course you can catch it anytime, after it airs, at your convenience. I usually come on about 2 p.m. Central and discuss discs I’ve recently watched, usually noir/mystery-centric movies or at least noir-adjacent. I stay for about an hour. There’s lots of movie talk and news of forthcoming physical media releases. I was a fan before I become, well, a segment.

Rob and Dieter have been great about promoting Death by Fruitcake, though I suspect it is anything but their cup of tea. They have also relentlessly given time to Return of the Maltese Falcon and to the Burnett/Collins collaboration, True Noir: The Assassination of Anton Cermak.

Rob will be coming to the Quad Cities some time in early May (exact date to be determined) for an event at the Putnam Museum in Davenport. (This event was supposed to be in early April but that didn’t work out.) We’ll be showing The Maltese Falcon on their big IMAX screen on the first night, followed with an interview with me about Return of the Maltese Falcon. On the second night we’ll present the opening chapters of True Noir, also in the IMAX theater.

Robert Meyer Burnett salutes True Noir

As I’ve mentioned, True Noir is now in wide distribution at your favorite audio source, with a four-CD set due soon from Skyboat. There’s also a soundtrack of Alex Bornstein’s wonderful score in the works, and I believe the entire audio drama will be available on Blu-ray in 5.1 with the collected chapter-by-chapter videos I made about the history behind this first Heller saga.

Enough about me. Let’s talk about you. What have you done for Max Allan Collins lately? I’m listening. I’m waiting.

Joking aside, you’ve done plenty. Many of you have reviewed Return of the Maltese Falcon on Amazon and elsewhere. That’s very helpful. The book is successful enough that serious talk is under way to do two Sam Spade follow-up novels. Barnes & Noble are carrying it widely now, again thanks to your nudging, although they have generally relegated it to the mystery section and not among significant new releases. BAM! has been much better.

Keep those reviews coming. If you’ve read the book, and like it, let Amazon know by way of a review, which can be as long or short as you like. If you didn’t like it, remember – silence is golden.

Death by Fruitcake can use your help, too – we have two lovely reviews at Amazon so far. It’s a little high-priced for a DVD (around $22) but unfortunately I can’t do anything about that. It’s streaming all over the place, but not free yet. That will come sometime next month, I think.

I was amused when Heath spoke of liking Fruitcake but being blindsided by what a different tone it has compared to my other work. (He had just listened to Michael Rosenbaum as Nate Heller in True Noir.) He also was not a fan or even familiar with “cozy” mysteries. But he did claim to have enjoyed our little movie, and particularly singled out Alisabeth Von Presley and Paula Sands for praise (not surprisingly).

Paula Sands and Alisabeth Von Presley in Death by Fruitcake.

And, for those of you who follow – or at least have sampled the Barbara Allan-bylined series my wife Barb and I write together – know, our Antiques/Trash ‘n’ Treasures mysteries are what you might call subversive cozies. They contain at least as much humor as mystery, and our tongues are in cheek throughout.

At 20 books, these novels about Brandy and Vivian Borne are arguably my (our) most successful series. The current one, Antiques Round-up, is a fairly wild ride, I think you’ll find. And we just delivered Antiques Web.

What am I – are we – working on now? Well, I am waiting to hear about the prospective Spade novels and a sequel to another successful property of mine, which puts me in a limbo in which I am not comfortable. Ditto for Barb, as the book we recently sent in is the last on the current contract.

I guess Barb and I are in an uber-Spring Cleaning mode, as we have descended into our basement to thin my book and magazines and DVD collections into something that can reasonably be considered contained. It’s ain’t easy, kids. I am looking at close to sixty years (choke!) of collecting…no, let’s be frank: accumulating…and to give you an idea, we took seven boxes of magazines and books to the Source Bookstore in Davenport last week, and another seven to Half-Price Books in Cedar Rapids yesterday.

And we’ve barely made a dent.

Do not think that our basement will be empty when we are finished. The goal is to turn it from a hoarding nightmare into a curated dream, and it’s going to be a year-long job (in and around the books we both have to write).

Or at least I hope we’ll have books to write. That depends on editors and readers, and obviously that’s where you come in – it’s why I’m after you to write reviews, and why I hope you’ll consider ordering Death by Fruitcake from Amazon (Oldies.com has it, too, a little cheaper but with postage that will sting if you’re used to no postage charges as an Amazon Prime member).

The success or lack of it for Fruitcake will determine whether I can muster my aging body for another run at a micro-budget indie or two. I have a horror film next in mind, and would love to do another Antiques movie, if my cast will come back.

The crazy thing is this: I have three major movie options going right now (Mike Hammer, Eliot Ness and Nolan, with Ms. Tree bubbling), which stand to generate a hell of a lot more income than another homemade micro-budget movie. But here’s how I look at it: I have had probably twenty-plus Hollywood options over the years, and exactly two have come through (Road to Perdition and Quarry). And I don’t seem to be getting any younger. So I just stay at it.

And as long as I am here, and you are here, I will.

M.A.C.