Archive book biz

Supermarket giant, Sainsbury is to relaunch its adult book club and also launch a children's book club as part of its increased focus on books. The chain will also increase book display space by 10% in most of its stores up and down the UK.

Russel Brand's sequel to the successful My Bookie Wookie has been pulled from the Autumn lists by Harper Collins. The reason given was that Brand has been tied up in film deals since being sacked from Radio 2 and is unable to complete the book on time. The book is now slated for Autumn 2010.

Big news for overseas fans of the Black Horse Western books who shop with The Book Depository - The company will open a new North American website next month - the same free postage anywhere in the world deal will stand, but it will now be quicker for those outside the UK to get their Black Horse Western titles.

Gollancz's previous Big Black SF titles have done so well that the company are to beef up the list with with new collection from Jack Vance and a collection of non-Conan tales by Robert E. Howard. The latter will be titled Conan's Brethren - no doubt in order to still have the selling power of the barbarian. Stephen Jones will pen the introduction to the stories.

Another Tarnished Star review

HERE



The Tarnished Star by Jack Martin is available now - anywhere that books are sold.


"If you’re a Western fan, you want to get your hands on this one."
James Reasoner, author of Gabriel Hunt At the Well of Eternity


"There are a number of dramatic scenes where the characters leap off the page, demanding sympathy and understanding. Plenty of action, a fast pace and a hero in the mould of James Stewart."
Ross Morton author of The $300 Man

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAINTED ARCHIVE

On the 23rd July The Tainted Archive will be one year old and looking back at the older posts is interesting reading - fittingly the first ever post on the Archive was a Wild West Genre Overview. Reading it now made me wince a few times but the enthusiasm is the main thing and it's sure enough got that. It's got that in spades.

Interviews have been a big part of The Archive during the previous year and we've covered some big names and not only in the western genre. From the crime fields we've had Charles Ardai, Megan Abbot, Mark Billingham and Max Allan Collins. From the western genre we've had just about everyone including high profile chats with Beau Lamour on his fathers legacy.

Expect many more interviews over the next year.

One of the greatest successes has been the Wild West Monday campaign - it's the fourth one Nov 2nd. The genre is starting to thrive again and Wild West Monday is a big part of that. Don't forget to sign our petition via the right hand side bar.

We've published a full length novel, previously published as a Black Horse Western, with Chap Okeefe's The Sheriff and the Widow which is archived and can be visited via the link in the right hand sidebar. If you've not read it then give it a whirl - its a free full length all action western.

The Archive has also played a big part in publicising a novel, The Tarnished Star by a certain Jack Martin and took it to number one in the Amazon pre-order charts over four months before actual publication. The Archive will be once again this coming year pushing my book - only this time my new novel Arkansas Smith which is due out in March 2010. I apologise for the self promotion but of course I'm going to push my own books - I'm a writer and that's what I do.


Perhaps the single greatest thing the Archive has done is make me so many good friends in the blogosphere - the community between bloggers is something very special indeed. We learn from each other and allow each other little peeks into our own personal worlds. I've got too many bloggy mates to list but you are one and all, super-fabby-gear-fantastic.

Currently the Archive is getting on average 200 hits a day, though there have been some day when it's gone has high as 400. And we are fast approaching the golden 50,000 page loads. Followers of the blog are many - you can follow the Archive by clicking the follow me button in the right hand sidebar.





And so here's to the coming year and so to start as we mean to go on and set the tone for the coming year we present in glorious digicolor a snap of me with a plastic prop pig. However there is no truth in the rumours that I am responsible for the swine flue epidemic.

Gran Torino DVD

Out this week on DVD - Eastwood still has it. When I went out to buy it the film had already sold out in W. H. Smiths, Borders and Tescos, though Tesco did have a Blue-Ray copy. I ended up getting a copy in ASDA and at £12 it's a bargain.

Watching the film again on DVD is I think a better experience than originally seeing it in the cinema was. For one thing I was better able to appreciate what is, at times, an almost semi-documentary style of film making. And Eastwood is, at 79 when this was filmed, awesome and he commands the screen in a way he has not done since The Unforgiven.

In many ways there are parallels between the movies. Unforgiven was a revisionist masterpiece of the western genre in which Eastwood said goodbye to his drifting loner character which has been deep in the genes of every western role he has played. And with Gran Torino he plays a man that could be an elderly Dirty Harry, a beaten down tough guy, a sad and lonely man who realises he has lived so long that he is literally out of time. And in the same way that William Munny was the natural conclusion of the western Eastwood then Gran Torino does the same thing for "he-man" Eastwood.

Course it's also a reflective meditation on the multi-cultural world we now live in.

If anyone gets offended by the many racist jibes in this movie I would say they are missing the point. Eastwood is superb, the young cast of newcomers work well within the everyday atmosphere of the film and it's brilliant from start to finish. And that shock ending - well I don't want to give anything away for those who have still to see it, but it's explosive.

If there's one weak point - it is that the actor playing The Priest is naff.

The Region 2 DVD contains several special features in the shape of several documentaries but what we really want is a commentary from the big man himself.

WILD BUNCH WEDNESDAY

Oh you lucky western fans -First we had Wild West Monday and now we have Wild Bunch Wednesday - head over to Joanne Walpole's Blog for details. There are also details on Howard Hopkins/Lance Howard's corner of the blogosphere.

This should be fun and allow for a peek into the world of several Black Horse Western writers.

RAGE AT DAWN 1955

An enjoyable enough B-western that is saved by a quality cast including Randolph Scott in the title role. It's also surprisingly violent with several brutal gunfights, a lynching and a man cremated alive.

The film uses the true story of The Reno Brothers, America's first outlaws as a backdrop but the events here with Scott as a agent who infiltrates the gang is pure fantasy.

The film is in the public domain and is available on the net for free download - alternatively there is a Region 0 DVD release but the remastering is crude and the picture often contains digital artefacts.

Western fans will enjoy this all action undemanding oater and at the price it is a worthy addition to the DVD library. And given that minor movies like these are unlikely to ever receive quality digital restoration then the current issue will at least suffice.

THE LEFT HANDED GUN (1958)

This movie was originally intended for James Dean and would have been the stars only true western had the fatal car crash not robbed the world of Dean's talent. Paul Newman had already taken over Dean's role in another project, Somebody up there Likes me (see previous post) and so he was once again selected to take the lead role.

At this stage in Newman's career he certainly has a lot of both Brando and Dean in his method acting style which interestingly he would tone down as he became more well known and comfortable in his own abilities. There are a couple of scenes where Newman's teenage angst looks ridiculously over the top and melodramatic - at times it seems all the young bandit needs is a clip across the ear to put him on the right track.

Directed by Arthur Penn, who would later make the western classic, Little Big Man, The Left Handed Gun tells the legend rather than the story of the west's most famous desperado, Billy the Kid. And it is a great western that has grown in stature over time and is these days rightly regarded as an important film in the development of the western.

Newman is for the most part superb and portrays The Kid as an illiterate (in reality The Kid was anything but illiterate as his famous letters to Governor Wallace prove) and psychotic teenager who has to make his own way in an uncaring society.

On its initial release the film turned audiences away - westerns didn't usually concern themselves with social comment - but it stands up well today and is an intelligent and gripping movie that deserves a higher status in the western genre than it currently enjoys.

Violent, gripping and compelling with a mostly great performance from all concerned.

Available as part of the Paul Newman DVD box set from Warner Video (for full contents scroll down to previous post)