It’s how the cards fall, Ma’am

Fascinating report today in the news, about UK TV presenter and journalist Victoria Coren Mitchell. She has just made poker history, becoming the first ever two-time winner of the European Poker Tour (EPT) by winning the latest season of the tournament in Sanremo, Italy.

This is no mean feat, as she beat off 556 competitors to win a cash prize of £391,000 (476,100 euros) and a watch worth more than £4,000.

She knocked out fellow competitor Jordan Westmorland and was left at the table with Italian Giacomo Fundaro at the 98th EPT main event.

In London in 2006 Victoria became the first woman to win an EPT event for £500,000 prize money. She is the daughter of the late broadcaster Alan Coren and is married to comedian David Mitchell. Well-deserved win; the word is that she was known for her poker playing long before becoming a presenter. Victoria presents the quirky BBC4 Only Connect quiz programme, which my wife and I enjoy.

***

Not in the same league, but you too could be a winner if you purchased this e-book, a great collection of short stories about gambling, entitled Livin’ on Jacks and Queens available from online outlets (see below).

Legendary western writer and noted anthologist Robert J. Randisi offers up a winning hand with fourteen never-before-published tales of the Old West, each revolving around the central theme of gambling.

Robert J Randisi is an American author who writes in the detective and Western genres. He has authored more than 500 published books and has edited more than 30 anthologies of short stories. He co-founded and edited Mystery Scene magazine and co-founded the American Crime Writers League. He founded The Private Eye Writers of America in 1981, where he created the Shamus Award. He managed to do all that and yet he’s three years younger than me; that’s steaming.

Among the stories you can expect to be dealt in the collection are:

Jacks or Better by Johnny Boggs
A Cold Deck by Phil Dunlap
The Reckoning by Randy Lee Eickhoff
It Takes a Gambler by Jerry Guin
Odds on a Lawman by Christine Matthews
Pay the Ferryman by Matthew P. Mayo
White Face, Red Blood by Rod Miller
Hazard by Nik Morton
Acey Deucy by John Nesbitt
The Mark of an Imposter: An Evelyn Page/Calvin Carter Adventure by Scott Parker
Horseshoe and Pistols by Robert J. Randisi
Too Many Aces by Charlie Steel
Missouri Boat Race by Chuck Tyrell
The Legend of ‘Blind Ned’ Baldwin by Lori Van Pelt

Purchase from Amazon.com here

Purchase from Amazon.co.uk here



 

 

 

Saturday Story - 'Missives to Mina'

MISSIVES TO MINA

 

Nik Morton

 

Carpathian mountains - Wiki commons

Bistritz,

4 May, 1897

Dearest Mina,

            My profoundest apologies for not committing myself to paper to you before this day but the long and arduous journey has been decidedly hectic, more of which anon, and it has taken me all my time to maintain my journal in short-hand.

            I hope this missive finds you well. As I write I am ensconced in a cubicle constructed of ancient black oak, near to a crackling fire at one end of this old hostelry, The Golden Krone Hotel. But a moment ago I looked up, to perceive the embers of a ravaged log, and I could have sworn therein was an image of your dear friend Lucy. Whimsical, I know! I must strongly resist a tendency towards journalism when writing to my family, friends and loved ones!

            Since leaving hearth and home I have had no communication from my prospective host, but I have managed to follow his travel instructions to the letter. It has been quite an adventure!

            The journey began in earnest when I embarked upon the packet steamer 'Dark Star' bound for Dubrovnik. The cabin appointments left a great deal to be desired, with coal-dust from the boiler-room seeming to cover everything.

            That first evening, after an atrocious greasy meal, I had settled myself to write to you, but alas there blew up out of nowhere one of the fiercest storms ever encountered by our bluff but likeable captain Conrad. Much to my shame, I retired to my uncompromisingly hard bunk where, feeling awfully sorry for myself, I lay for the entire crossing.

            As you know, I have crossed the Atlantic to my cousins in New York on several occasions, and visited Uncle Silas in Eire, but I have never succumbed to 'mal de mer' before.

            You can be assured that it is not a pleasant experience! It is not simply an out-of-sorts sensation in one's stomach: one's head swims, as if it too is adrift in the very storm that belabours the vessel, and there is a disorienting muzziness engulfing the brain so that any cohesive thought is tantamount to being impossible to accomplish. A weariness encompasses the limbs, and a shivering weakness pervades the very soul. Sacrilegious to remark, but at one's lowest ebb one almost wishes for the Great Adventure, death, itself!

            Happily, on our approach to the port, the sea calmed and these varied ailments deserted me, though I confess to being left like a piece of damp cloth, wrung through.

            The carriage my host promised to provide was indeed awaiting me at the quayside. It was a splendid affair, most resembling a landau, with four strong black horses, all caparisoned in shining leather and brass livery.

            A rather cadaverous pair of men perched on its high seat, fancifully reminding me of those crows we used to stone in farmer Bayliss's field! My host's two retainers were taciturn to the point of rudeness, yet they speedily progressed me through the official formalities and, once my baggage was installed in the luggage compartment, we were on our way.

            If you believe our coaches are unpleasant contrivances, with the ubiquitous dust and bone-jarring springs, do not ever consider journeying in these continental contraptions! Within the hour I seemed to be bruised all over.

            At the outset, the plush upholstery had smelled of luxurious leather, but in no time at all the interior was clogged with a russet-coloured dust.

            I shall complete this epistle to you later. I am assured there is a post office at our next place of call for we must journey on this very night before the storm breaks.

            Your loving Jonathan.

 

Carpathians

5 May, 1897

 

Dearest Mina,

            Disaster struck! Last night, while our coachman drove our poor beasts pell-mell through a violent rainstorm, a wheel sheered from the vehicle. He was catapulted off the mountainside to an awful certain death, while I myself barely escaped with a bruised jaw and a sprained ankle.

            Fortunately, the surviving retainer, Arpad, knows the mountains well. He called some mediaeval curse upon the driver who had lost his life for his impetuousness, then directed me to follow him up through a winding overgrown defile. Rainwater sluiced down the rocks from above, and I was very soon drenched. I abandoned my portmanteau but struggled manfully with the carpetbag. Arpad deigned not to assist me.

            Eventually, Arpad found this shelter. It is an old ruined fortress, the walls long ago dismantled to supply the local populace with dry-stone walls and low-ceilinged hovels.

            The rain has ceased. I must confess to an uneasiness in the presence of Arpad. He is a great hulking fellow, with a low brow, beady black eyes and enormous hands. He hardly ever speaks, and when he does it is in guttural fractured Serbo-Croat.

            But as I gaze out the slit window, across these mountains, irrational worry departs.

            If only you could share this view with me, dearest Mina!

            The condensation from the night's rain has now become a romantic mist, half-clouding the mauve and grey peaks, with the rays of the rising sun glinting on outcrops of unblemished snow and twinkling ice. And the air is so fresh. This land must surely be blessed!

            I broke off writing for a moment as Arpad explained we must be getting on. He even gave me two swigs of his slivovice, a rather tart plum brandy, which perked me up considerably.

            I hope to write again soon, my dear. But I must close and slip this letter into its envelope. According to Arpad, his master will endeavour to send this on to you from his ancestral demesne.

            Strangely, I feel a trifle light-headed, probably on account of that liquor - a little sleepy. I am sure that Arpad will look after me, as his master has expressed a great interest in my writing style.

            Yes, indeed, I am greatly looking forward to meeting Count Dracula in his Transylvanian castle.

            Yours,

            Jonathan.

***

Note: If you haven’t read Dracula by Bram Stoker, I recommend it.

Even though you know the evil count, thanks to many films, you’re still bound to read with dread anticipation the epistolary story of Jonathan Harker, his family and friends.

 This was written as an exercise under 1,000 words with the subject ‘Letters’.

Previously published in Costa TV Times, 2010. Copyright 2014, Nik Morton

My vampire novel is Death is Another Life (writing as Robert Morton) and is available only until May from Amazon com e-book here

and from Amazon UK paperback from here

 

*** 

Two other books that may be of interest are:

The Fluttering by David Whitehead and Curtains of Blood by Robert J Randisi

I have both on my Kindle but haven’t read them yet!

The Fluttering

Something terrifying has started happening in Eggerton. People are turning up drained of blood and very, very dead. Have vampire bats started attacking humans? If so, then who’s delivering the hammer-blow that finally kills the victims?

For Detective Inspector Jack Sears it’s a mystery that not even virologist Doctor Christopher Deacon can help fathom. But then the police get lucky. Against all the odds, one of the victims survives. But strangely enough, that’s when things go from bad to worse …

Show more Show less 

Curtains of Blood

 

London, 1888. A knife flashes in the fog. A madman has begun the most notorious and shocking series of murders in history. With each new discovery of a woman's mutilated body, the citywide panic grows. The police seem unable to stop the killer, even when he taunts them with letters. Letters signed...Jack the Ripper.

In another part of London, the reign of terror has touched a young writer and theatre manager named Bram Stoker. The police have closed his theatre's production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and suspect its star of being Jack the Ripper. His livelihood endangered, Stoker sets out on his own to find the real killer. But Jack wants just as badly to find Stoker. When the madman and the author meet face to face, a new chapter will be written in the annals of horror.

Book review - Taggart

Louis L’Amour had a number of great successes with one-name title books, such as Brionne, Callaghen, Catlow, Conagher, Fallon, Flint, Hondo, Kilkenny, Radigan, Shalako, Tucker and Sackett, among others. Taggart is one of them.

Taggart was published in April 1959. Like many of his early 1950s novels, it was based on a short story, this one being ‘Trap of Gold’ (Argosy magazine, 1951).

The original story featured Wetherton, searching for gold in the desert. He has to fight the rock where he discovers a rich vein and his own greed to bring home the treasure to his wife and son.

The book Taggart naturally has more depth. Now it’s Adam Stark who finds the gold, in Apache territory, and living with him under the constant threat of discovery are his wife Consuelo and his sister Miriam. Into this mix comes Taggart, on the run for a crime he didn’t commit. Tracking Taggart is a lawman, bounty-hunter. And nearby, some two dozen Apache…

The conflict between the women, the men and the Apache is told well, even if L’Amour often slips from one point of view to another at the drop of a bullet or two. Both Taggart and Stark are your typical strong, honest men. Miriam is the strong woman and love interest. Consuelo is ambivalent about her marriage, trying to grasp dreams with a hand of open fingers instead of clasping what she has to her heart.

If you want a smooth, fast-paced read, this is guaranteed to deliver. The book was filmed as Taggart in 1964, featuring the film debut of David Carradine, with a screenplay that clearly departs from the book.

 

'Hazard' by Nik Morton is featured in Livin' on Jacks and Queens, an e-book anthology edited by Robert J. Randisi, which can be purchased here

 

BEAT TO A PULP - Round One

Just received my copy of Beat to a Pulp - Round 1 anthology and it's a handsome beast, weighing in at 380 pages with an intimidating cover. Editors David Cranmer and Elaine Ash have assembled a scintillating selection of writers, among them Charles Ardai (founder of Hard Case Crime), award-winners Hilary Davidson, Sophie Litlefield and the mysterious Anonymous-9, Ed Gorman,mutliple western authors Chap O'Keefe and Ian Parnham, and the legendary Robert J Randisi and James Reasoner. Novelist, prolific auhtor and blogger and columnist for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Bill Crider supplies a foreword and comments: '...Nik Morton's "Spend It Now, Pay Later", a chilling near-future tale that makes the "arm and a leg" intrest rate all too real.'

Order this through Amazon or other online bookstores or from your friendly bookshop. 27 tales about drifters, killers, cutlass-swinging pirates, slaughterous simians - pulp fiction with punch.

Writing Guide-01

WRITING THE PRIVATE EYE NOVEL
Edited by Robert J Randisi
(Writer’s Diget Books, hardback)

For a number of years I’ve wanted to write a private eye novel so I bought this book when it was new – 1997. There hasn’t been a new edition since, but really there’s little call for one. Virtually everything said in these pages still holds true. This won’t tell you how to write a mystery and few specifics are covered, but its advice will certainly prove useful and probably save a lot of time for anyone embarking on a PI novel. And, if you want to go down those mean streets, the recommendation is go for a series character. To do that, start building his or her backstory before you write the first book; that includes friends, relations and the neighbourhood. Sound advice for any novel, actually, but for a series character it’s almost essential.

Founder of the Private Eye Writers of America and creator of the Shamus Award, Robert J Randisi has gathered together a number of accomplished authors to offer their nuggets of writerly wisdom.

Lawrence Block advocates gripping the reader at the outset, never letting go till the end. He quotes Mickey Spillane, who said, ‘The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.’ We all know that beginnings are important; but don’t neglect the end – don’t rush it, don’t over-explain and don’t leave the reader disappointed. Intriguingly, Block says that his literary apprenticeship began with writing soft-core sex novels, which taught him to avoid sections of novel that were liable to lose the reader’s attention: keep the action going.

Loren D Estleman spells it out. ‘Suspension of disbelief is a high-wire act, requiring enough plausibility on one end of the balance pole to counter the pull of audacious invention on the other.’ He advises beginners to beware of proven authors who might ‘break the rules’; they can afford to, they have a fan base, followers. Beginners should stick with what works. For example, avoid soliloquies and clunking lengthy expositions at the end. He concludes that your book should ‘keep the reader tied up until the last knot is unravelled, then make them want to be tied up all over again.’

Ed Gorman advocates that writers should read – anything and everything. But especially as much as possible in your chosen genre. Choose four or five favourite books and analyse their chapters, characters, motivation etc and before long the mysteries won’t be that mysterious. That’s what many writing guides do, actually, they relieve prospective authors from wading through entire volumes doing their own research: the offer up the nuggets in digestible form. But even so, writers have to apply themselves rigorously and simply write and write and write.

Female private eyes are discussed, and writing a first person narrative from the perspective of the opposite sex. The setting of a PI novel can become a character in the series in its own right; so you need to know as much as possible about the chosen environment where the action takes place.

Max Allan Collins contributes twice – which isn’t surprising since he’s been nominated and won the Shamus Award more than once. His first foray discusses historical PI fiction, citing his award winning Nathan Heller novels which cover the early decades of last century. Needless to say, this kind of approach entails considerable research. Mr Collins’s second item is about writing private eye comic books. The market isn’t so great, but if you have a visual as well as a dramatic sense, then this may be worth investigating. You could check out Mr Collins’s Ms Tree graphic novels.

Writing the PI short story is covered too. This is quite difficult as the PI tale invariably relies on character and atmosphere, both of which eat up precious words. The writer of this section, Christine Matthews, quotes Stephen Vincent Benet: ‘A sort story is something that can be read in an hour and remembered for a lifetime.’ She also mentions the latest trend (1997) is Church lady mysteries. (It was about that time when I first thought up my Sister Rose character (Pain Wears No Mask), so that’s intriguing!

John Lutz emphasises the four main elements of fiction – character, setting, situation and theme. Whatever the fiction. Though in most good PI fiction, character dominates.

And of course there are crossover possibilities, mixing and matching more than one genre with your PI tale. They can work, and have the advantage of perhaps appealing to two distinct sets of genre readers.

An encouraging book if you’re inclined to write a private eye story. One of many useful books from Writer’s Digest Books. Check out their Howdunit Series for details about everything from poisons to weapons.