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Apr30
The Best Hardboiled Radio and Video on the Web

Dashiell Hammet Hard Boiled WriterWhenever I'm suffering from writer's block, I always pick up a battered private detective novel for inspiration. Now, I can do it on a video browser.

Over at the web video blog Reel Pop, Steve Bryant has brought pulp fiction into the YouTube era. He lists, complete with trailers, clips, and links, his five favorite television private detectives. Take a trip down memory lane with him. 

Last year while researching my Paul Malmont interview, I put together a list of the best hardboiled radio shows with the help of the Rara-Avis mailing list. Check it out for your audio pleasure.

1- The outrageous, jumbled metaphors and pulpy soundtrack of Pat Novak, For Hire.

2- The impeccable cool of Barry Craig, Confidential Investigator.

3- The cynical insurance P.I. who always gets mixed up in murder, Jeff Regan, Investigator.

4- The violent, dark adventures on Gunsmoke.

Finally,
list member Dick Lochte mailed in a much longer list, full of great shows to check out: "Richard Diamond, Private Detective was pretty hardboiled. The Third Man: The Lives of Harry Lime, with Orson Welles in adventures that took place before the character was bumped off by his pal, is arguably hardboiled. As are shows with Alan Ladd (Box 13), Bogart and Bacall (Bold Venture), Edward G. Robinson (Big Town), Jeff Chandler (Michael Shayne)."

Apr30
Should Writers Unplug the Internet?
How long can you go without the Internet?  Stephen Elliott just took a month off from using the Internet, and wrote an interesting essay about his experiences. He concluded that unplugging will improve your writing. Mostly, I don't follow his... Continue Reading
Apr27
"To feel like something lovingly crafted" : How To Build a Satisfying Multimedia Story
I first met Josh Goldblum when he cited this website in an academic paper he wrote for the 2007 Museums and the Web conference, entitled "Considerations and Strategies for Creating Interactive Narratives." After reading that mouthful of an essay, I... Continue Reading
Apr26
"Content is key but the form is generally pretty standard" : How To Build the Best Slideshow To Support Your Stories
"Senior year at any high school across this country is a major transitional period; a period in which students reaffirm their community ties while, at the same time, they prepare to separate from that community. Hurricane Katrina prematurely forced this... Continue Reading
Apr25
"Take in all forms of storytelling" : How To Find the Best Interactive Storytelling Resources on the Web
Josh Goldblum, has written it all. The founder of Blue Cadet Interactive has built interactive sites for gigantic publishers like Random House, international activists like John Prendergast, and the Smithsonian (Catlin's Campfire Stories).Along the way he's won the 'Best Education... Continue Reading
Publishing Spotted: Writers on Television
The brilliant No Fear of the Future blog explores an under-researched area of film theory: entirely random appearances by famous writers in movies. I dig the imaginary Love Boat episode where "an enfeebled Jorge Luis Borges" plays himself in a... Continue Reading
Apr24
"The latest in technology, design and storytelling" : How To Build A Complex Digital Story Project From The Ground Up
"The road was all ice. And all I could think about was, "How did I ever survive this?" Because I was dressed in the heaviest jacket with sweaters, with hat - and I was freezing! And I was there... Continue Reading
Learning How To Match Your Socks
I don't have a lick of artistic sense, visually. I can't match my socks in the morning, much less design a blog layout that is pleasing to the eye. Luckily, there are plenty of websites out there offering a free education... Continue Reading
Apr23
How To Turn Angelina Jolie's Diary into a Museum Piece : The Most Important Interactive Storytelling Tools That Fledgling Writers Should Know
"We found inspiration in the journals of Dan Eldon, which are some of the most elaborate, moving and personal expressions in publication today. By incorporating collaged visual elements into the design of a mock travel journal, we had now finally... Continue Reading
Apr20
A Portrait of the Blogger as a 30-Year-Old Man
I turned 30-years-old today, and I don't feel like blogging. I'll be back next week with an exclusive interview with the founder of Bluecadet Interactive, a company working at the cutting edge of digital storytelling. They created the Ripples... Continue Reading
Apr19
How Has War Changed Our Writers?
How will the Iraq War change our theater? A whole new generation of veterans are coming home right now, and they are bringing scores of new writers with them. It's time we start paying attention to these new voices. Smith Magazine... Continue Reading
Apr18
The Fine Art of Writing Long
How does a novel turn into a long book?Earlier this year, Vikram Chandra told us how he immersed himself in his most recent novel, and he didn't notice the length until he finally did a word count on his Microsoft... Continue Reading
Apr17
Meeting Vollmann: Web Reading Communities in Action
I read my first William T. Vollmann book while living in a drafty wooden shack in Guatemala. Vollmann's obsessive books were perfect for my monastic life in that house--I could spend entire evenings copying out his roller-coaster sentences and crazy... Continue Reading
Apr16
The Best Genre Reviews in the Business
Are you sick of snobby critics making fun of your favorite science fiction or pulp fiction novelists? Don't despair! The genre book-reviewing world just got a whole lot better.The Los Angeles Times Books section just contracted two of my favorite... Continue Reading
Apr13
"I put all that away and wrote from memory" : How To Reconstruct the Past in a Memoir
"The first narrative is about my trip to Vietnam as a young woman (I was 24). The second narrative is about my childhood with my father, who was a tunnel rat in the war. The third narrative follows my father's recollections... Continue Reading
What's "The Worst Thing About Literature"?
Who is Roberto Bolaño, and why should you be reading him? Earlier this week, Ed Champion observed: "Four people have mentioned The Savage Detective in the past forty-eight hours." I just finished that book--Bolaño's newly translated masterpiece. It's my first... Continue Reading
Apr12
"Do much more research than you need to do and then forget it" : How To Use Research Your Book
"They steered the boy through the holes and tunnels until they could see the pale light of a sleeping chamber. Wehn they were almost to the surface, my father paused in the darkness, as if held back by a kind... Continue Reading
Apr11
"I was faking a lot of that book" : How To Deal with Frustrating Writing Projects
"I blew on the joss sticks, and the ends fired orange. The rich, sharp smoke blanketed the base of the altar. I felt clumsy as I leaned forward, over the wooden steps that led up to the Buddhas, and stuck... Continue Reading
Apr10
Learning the discipline of writing : How To Get the Most Out of an MFA Program
"My father cleared his throat. He was quiet for a moment, and I suspected that he might be gearing himself for some confession, a bit of self-reflection about how the war had changed his life. But he gave me a... Continue Reading
How To Write Better Web Video
People like to complain that YouTube is full of lightweight videos and fluffy content. Everybody realizes that the potential for fantastic journalism exists in web video, but nobody knows exactly how to do it.Last week, one of the best... Continue Reading
Apr 9
"I sacrificed everything in order to write" : How One Writer Survived the Long, Long Road To Publication
“When Dad spoke, the bar became quiet. Vines slithered up the bar stools; tunnels opened at our feet. And Tommy Goodman, my father’s tunnel-rat friend, a man I learned to imagine from Dad’s war stories, pulled up a seat next... Continue Reading
Apr 8
The Death of the Laugh Track?
Sometimes I wish I had a laugh track, especially when my blogged jokes fall flat. But according to a couple experts, we digital writers need to prepare for a world without the good old laugh track. Over at Reel Pop, Steve... Continue Reading
Apr 6
SponsoredReviews.com: Blogger Advertiser Quid Pro Quo
Sponsored Review There are many writers looking to cash in on digital media by creating reading and writing communities, writing for online publishers or by creating independent columns on which to share their craft and artistry. Likewise advertisers are... Continue Reading
How To Share Writing
We spend so much time thinking about our own writing here, sometimes it's better to think about how you can share writing with somebody else. A few months ago Kimberlee Morrison told us how the Freedom Writers project transformed her life.... Continue Reading
Apr 5
How To Write Interactive Stories
We have the power to write the most interactive stories ever invented. How do we do it? Clive Thompson, one of my favorite web critics (check out his blog, collision detection), is asking the same question. He just reviewed Hotel... Continue Reading
Apr 4
Potter, Pirates and Poetry
When does fan fiction stop being fan fiction? When you put Harry Potter on a dinosaur and start making money. The Young Family Site just printed excerpts from pirated, invented Harry Potter books published in Mandarin (the picture comes straight... Continue Reading
Apr 3
How To Change Wartime Journalism
A couple months ago, I asked a simple question. Nobody answered.I'm going to ask again: In your opinion, who are the best wartime journalists working today? Who will our kids be reading in high school when they read about the... Continue Reading
Apr 2
Blogged Novels vs. Blogs By Novelists
What's more important for web writers right now? Blogged novels or blogs by novelists?I've been interviewing some of the most cutting edge writers of the digital age for over one year (!) now, and I've seen plenty of writers blogging... Continue Reading
The Birth of Fan Screenwriting
Are you ready for fan fiction screenwriters? Jazzed about Youtube, the Sci-Fi channel created the Battlestar Galactica videomaker. The website offers free downloads of crucial B-roll material from the hit television show: establishing shots of space stations, enemy bases, and robot... Continue Reading

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