Richard Stark's Blog

Opening weekend has come and gone and the results are in. “Parker” came in 5th overall at the box office with a $7 million take over three days in more than 2,000 theaters nationwide. One of my pet peeves with the stenographic nature of American journalism is the fixation on opening weekend box office results. The only people who really Read More ...

Propelled by what is probably the most aggressive and persuasive marketing campaign for any of the movies based on the Richard Stark novels, Parker, from the book, Flashfire, starts its theatrical run tomorrow. And I really can’t say enough about the marketing campaign, which has landed in my living room more times than I can count. Almost every person I Read More ...

The first of what is slated to be several movies based on the Parker series (originally published under the pseudonym Richard Stark) is due to be released in January, 2013. The first trailer (below) is already out and beginning to make the rounds in theaters. And the die-hard DEW fans are already deep in discussion on the merits of the Read More ...

After a long delay, I hope to reset the site with a new host very soon. Meanwhile, here's an interview I did with Maxim Jakubowski while on a recent trip through London. Until 2009, Maxim was the owner of the Murder One Bookshop on Charring Cross Road in London. The store had to close due to the pressures of big chain competition but it has been reincarnated as a mail order website devoted to expertise in the mystery genre. Stop by sometime. But while you're here, check out Maxim below.

Part One

Part Two

Content Management Systems can be easy to work with. A simple blog is a no-brainer for blogger or wordpress. But the more complex the site, the more complex the issues CMS has to handle, the more quirky the system gets. While it hasn't had an impact on the functionality of the site (as far as I can tell), the partially-working state of my CMS does impact my ability to add content. So I'm about to make an effort to fix things, which means the site might be only partly functional or may totally disappear from time to time. My hope is that the first few things I try will conain the solution and this will be a short-lived speedbump. But it's much more likely that I won't find a reliable solution for days. So this is the heads-up that whatever problems you may experience with the site in the near term are being addressed and should not be permanent.

 

And now, as Don would say…

 

Onward,

Pw

A few tidbits from the creation of the screenplay and shooting script for The Stepfather. I'll put together a more comprehensive movie page in the near future. For now, here's a few scans from Don's files.

 

 

 

 

Memory Book Page

The Kitchies: 2010 Black Tentacle Winner

 

 

The Jugger Book Page

Link to Ed Gorman's recent review

 

 

Parker Page

Excerpt from DEW article in NY Times from Jan 2001

Link to comic book critic Corey Blake's write-up on Darwyn Cooke

You can find links to sample chapters in some of the book pages on this site and more are being added over time. Indicating which books have sample chapters in the bibliography is on my list of things to do, possibly this weekend. Until then, it's pot luck.

 

Below, the first few paragraphs of The Mercenaries, the first book published under Don's own name, recently republished by Hard Case Crime as The Cutie (Don's original choice for title).

 

 

 

One

 

Ella and I went to bed at two-thirty. We turned off the light, reached for each other, and the doorbell rang.

 

I swore, and Ella's hand tightened on my shoulder. "Maybe they'll go away," she whispered.

 

The answer was another nervous jabbing at the bell. Whoever was outside was in a hurry. I sat up, switched on the table lamp beside the bed, and Ella and I squinted at one another. She was a good-looking woman, a damn good-looking woman. Black hair falling soft to her shoulders, lips full and red and bruised-looking, eyes half-closed and waiting. She was sitting up, leaning toward me, and the sheet had fallen away from her breasts. I didn't want to leave her, not now, not for anything. I didn't care who it was out there, Ed Ganolese or anybody.

 

The bell jangled again, and Ella smiled at me, to let me know she knew what I was thinking, and that she had the same thoughts. "Hurry back," she whispered.

 

 

Read the rest here.

Some links may have been broken on the site today but it's fixed now… again. A problem with a network upgrade today forced me to repair the database and the process reset the root domain address and broke the links. All better now.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Pw

If you happen to live in Toronto, you can catch the two previous film adaptations of Richard Stark's The Hunter at the A.V. Club next Thursday:

REMAKE/REMODEL: This week also sees the launch of an intriguing new program at the TUC. The brainchild of critic and AV Club Toronto editor John Semley, Remake/Remodel is a double bill of films that have a close relationship with each other. Screening Nov. 24 at 7 and 9:30 p.m., the inaugural edition pairs John Boorman's steely 1967 thriller Point Blank with the 1999 Mel Gibson actioner Payback. Why? Both movies were based on the same novel by Donald E. Westlake. Alas, only one of them was cool enough to star Lee Marvin.

 

Have fun.