Before the Devil Knows that You Can't Keep Up a Blog

A few weeks back, I caught Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. I have a few misgivings about it, but generally I'd say that it is necessary viewing for crime film enthusiasts (it involves a jewelry store heist). It's really bleak, and in that sense, is ultimately an exercise in brightly lit noir. Also, the writer (Kelly Masterson) and presumably the director (Sidney Lumet) spent some time thinking about traditional -- Greek and Shakespearian -- tragedy. (To emphasize the point, there is a scene with a children's school play -- it's King Lear, I think (which would never be performed by young children).) Of crime films at the end of 2007/early 2008, I liked Eastern Promises better (November 25 blog post) than Devil, but I'm supposed to see No Country for Old Men soon.

Shocking! Another Post... Mystery Writers of America

For a mixture of reasons (pride, self-motivation, seeking pragmatic information and guidance), I joined Mystery Writers of America (paid my $95) once my story "Wilson's Man" hit the stands in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. It is a professional organization, and I qualify because I have been paid cash money by a third party for crime/mystery fiction. I appeared in the January 2008 "Fresh Blood" section (a list of new members) of MWA's newsletter, The Third Degree. I am also automatically a member of the Northwest Chapter, though its activities seem to take place almost exclusively in Seattle (which would mean a three-hour drive for a dinner meeting). I may try to go to the main MWA symposium and banquet in New York in late April/early May. My unlikely goal would be to finish a draft of a full-length caper that I have been working on in advance of the event.

For me, the jury is still out on MWA. I am hoping that it will provide more opportunities to submit to anthologies (I have a few good stories completed and waiting in the wings). I am on one MWA listserv and can get on another (I just have to contact the national office). The organization seems active and positive, a real community--more rewarding than the National Book Critics Circle to which I pay dues as well. Many of MWA's active, visible members seem to be more accomplished versions of myself: published by smaller presses, active as writers in their communities, etc., but not well known and usually without a major publisher.

The Blog of Death... and News Coverage

Okay. I shouldn't be a blogger. Apparently, to misquote Flannery O'Connor (from "A Good Man is Hard to Find"), I would be a good blogger if there were somebody here to shoot me every minute of my life. My Borsalino is off to good, regular bloggers.

My 15 minutes of Ellery Queen fame are over -- the next issue is out. The Oregonian (the state's main paper and, incidentally, owned by Advance Publications (The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired, etc.)), however, ran a cute story about me, my story, and the difficulty of finding Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine on the newsstand. Here it is, with the paper's three headlines; it's part of a longer neighborhood round-up, so I hope this constitutes fair use; thanks too to Oregonian freelancer David Santen for his legwork:

KEEPING IT WEIRD
Rose City Park >>
Mystery writer's work... vanishes

Northeast Portland resident Doug Levin earns his bread by writing: annual reports, ghost writing, the occasional book review for The Oregonian -- the stuff that pays the bills.

But in each life lies a little mystery. For Levin, it's "Wilson's Man," appearing in this month's issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Levin stands in good company on the table of contents, alongside works by Dashiell Hammett and Joyce Carol Oates.

The obligatory "on newsstands now" line should go here, but a cursory search of shelves at Broadway Books, Murder by the Book and The Press Club finds the venerable publication MIA. Thus: on newsstands somewhere. -- J. DAVID SANTEN Jr.

"Wilson's Man" in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

My story "Wilson's Man" is now on the stands (but not for long) in the latest (January 2008) Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (fondly called EQMM; the digest-size magazine is usually available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, and places with a good periodical selection). The acceptance (and now appearance) of the story was a big boost to my confidence -- and perhaps to my creative productivity. As the image to the right shows, my name didn't make it to the cover -- Dashiell Hammett and Joyce Carol Oates beat me out.

The story was written in October 2003, an indication of how long the submission, rejection, acceptance, and publication process can take. Since that time, I've written a handful of other stories, some of which I think are as good as or better than "Wilson's Man," though they have been rejected from a number of places. I have two other finished stories that I never sent out, and a few unfinished stories (as well as unfinished longer works). Mystery writer Bill Crider, who participates in a blog (Nasty. Brutish. Short.) that reviews short fiction, had some very kind words to say about "Wilson's Man."

For those who don't know, EQMM has a long proud history, publishing notable writers such as Highsmith, Faulkner, Hemingway, Westlake, Mailer, Simenon, etc. I believe EQMM was the first magazine to publish Borges in English. Today, the magazine publishes a mix of crime fiction, including one story in translation each issue, and a fair amount of stories by British and Canadian writers. EQMM has also just added a "Black Mask" revival section. Because no one really makes a living writing short crime fiction, the stories are arguably less constrained by market forces than novels; this translates into a fair amount of strong, original writing.

Falling Even Further... and Eastern Promises

Okay, I've stumbled at the outset. I've got scintillating informed opinions to share -- I just can't get them out of my head. Before I move to more blatant self-promotion, I have a recommendation: David Cronenberg's new movie, Eastern Promises. Cronenberg's last three films (this one, A History of Violence, and Spider) have been far less idiosyncratic than his previous work. His masterpiece is still Dead Ringers -- polished but also bizarre and original (and I know at least one person who complained that he thought he was going to see a thriller and was stuck with an art film). Eastern Promises is a good straightforward crime yarn. It has a good plot, pretty good performances, nice visual details, some stunning and brutal scenes, and virtually no fat.

Falling Down on the Job... and Charles Willeford

Okay, I've already fallen down on the blogging effort. It was an exciting week: my story in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine finally came out (more on that later), so I became eligible for and sent my membership fee to the Mystery Writers of America. At this point, my hope is to have the opportunity through the MWA to submit some stories (waiting in the wings) to anthologies.

I became interested in crime fiction at first as a means of procrastination while in graduate school. Through a strange set of circumstances, I ended up writing and delivering a conference paper on Charles Willeford, with the focus on his 1960 novel, The Woman Chaser. (The novel was the source of a really great 1999 movie of the same title.) A couple years later, I wrote the biographical essay on Willeford for the standard reference work, the Dictionary of Literary Biography (Volume 226, American Hard-Boiled Writers). And then I had the honor of being invited to Florida to talk about Willeford when a number of his papers were donated and exhibited at the Florida Center of the Book. I think my biographical essay provides a good background on Willeford, though it likely has its mistakes. Even more detail on Willeford is provided in Don Herron's book, Willeford. I'll say more about Willeford in a future post. All of his books are good, but some are more, for lack of a better word, accessible. Miami Blues might be his most straightforward crime novel (a police procedural). When it came out, Donald Westlake (another of my favorites, in Richard Stark mode, but more later) really raved about it. An early, very dark Willeford novel, Pick-Up, can be found in the second volume of the Library of America volume, Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s.

My Dram of Poison

Before I begin to issue supposedly blog-worthy pronouncements, I am going to use a few posts to establish my quasi-credibility. Eventually, I suppose I'll just sum up my few academic and professional accomplishments in my profile. As a fiction writer, I enjoyed the enormous privilege of seeing my first published story, "Fire Lines," appear in Measures of Poison (2002), from Dennis McMillan Publications. I'm a homunculus squeezed among several crime-writing giants such as James Crumley, George P. Pelecanos, Michael Connelly, Howard Browne, Charles Willeford, Jon A. Jackson, James Sallis, and several others. Since that time, I've done a fair amount of fiction writing, on and off with mixed success, and finally a second story, "Wilson's Man" is due out soon in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. More on that later, perhaps...

A Placeholding Welcome

Okay, this might be a bad idea, writing a blog. A cry for help. An endless form of procrastination. Eventually, I mean for this blog to serve as a small piece of self-promotion, and I hope, some useful comments for readers who share like interests (crime fiction, at least at first). For now, this post is it. A placeholder. A placeholder with one quick courtesy: I am the other Doug Levin, or a Doug Levin, but not the Doug Levin. The Doug Levin is a captain of industry who runs a technology company called Black Duck Software. He has a different blog, called Blougtopia. He looks like he's a nice guy and maybe even not too geeky for someone who runs a software company. I could ghostwrite for him -- and still sign my own name.