Nancy Rommelmann

"Beside the Sea" and Amanda Stott-Smith

I have been working mostly in a vacuum for 3.5 years a book about Amanda Stott-Smith and what led her to drop her children from the Sellwood Bridge in May 23, 2009, and then last week I am asked twice by the media for an update on this work, the first time by Alison Hallett, in a piece about the new Alison Barker translation of Beside the Sea, just out from Tin House, and the second by a TV station, who will film on Friday. I admit to having trepidation about the latter, as I told Hillary Johnson at Dymaxicon, "I feel very weird being interviewed." To which she replied, "Now you know how the people you interview feel."

In the Mood for a Good Time?

What do you have planned this weekend? Some LA sunshine, some sex, some frolicking with movie stars and maybe, offing them? No? Would you like to?

Download Shooting Stars now. It's free, until midnight.

David Swinson, "A Detailed Man"

Dymaxicon author David Swinson gets a fantastic review of his new crime noir novel, A Detailed Man in the Press-Telegram of Long Beach. A former booker of punk bands in 1980s Los Angeles, as well as the producer of the iconic punk flick Roadside Prophets (starring X's John Doe and Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz), Swinson ditched the scene, and LA, to become a detective in Washington DC. For his third act, he's writing noir. A clip from today's review:

"And there's no reason to think that Swinson won't be as successful as a writer as he's been at everything else. While it's difficult to find a retired cop who hasn't written a book, it's rare to find one as beautifully written as 'A Detailed Man.'

"It doesn't fit cozily into any of the established subgenres of crime writing. It's not a stringing together of bawdy capers, that's for sure. It's as detailed (naturally) as police procedural novels, though without the maddening mystery. It's closer to the newish genre called Nordic crime, which has expanded beyond the geographical realms of Per Wahoo/Maj Sowell, Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbo and, sigh, Stieg Larsson...

"Swinson writes with the soul of a poet more than a policeman mining memories. His style is fluid and sharp, his protagonist, Detective Ezra Simeon, is, in the Nordic style, complicated, brooding and introspective."

A Detailed Man is available now on Kindle, early next year in paperback. I have a few of the latter for review copies. Let me know if you want one. And congratulations to David.