If I Can Just Get Off This L.A. Freeway Without Getting Killed or Caught

Bags are packed, the iPod is loaded, I'm ready for the L.A. Times Festival of Books. If any of you are around Westwood... oh say, noonish on Sunday... stop on by. I'll be signing Expiration Date and wearing sunscreen and hanging out with some very cool people at the Mystery Bookstore tent. I'm also signed up for that Bukowski tour, so I'm sure I'll have some photos and updates for you next week. (As well as L.A. updates over the weekend.)

In the meantime, more very kind Expiration reviews have appeared. Carole E. Barrowman at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says: "This hard-boiled - no, make that deliciously scrambled - story would make the kind of film Johnny Depp would want to star in, Elmore Leonard would want to script, Terry Gilliam would insist on directing, and whose soundtrack would be available on an LP."

Pages & Pages Bookstore in Australia digs it, too, along with my earlier novels.

The newly-resurrected Spinetingler mag claims I make pace and plot my bitches.

And finally, Cullen Gallagher at Pulp Serenade grills me on Styx albums, Twitter, and my pulp paperback collection.

George Scithers, 1929-2010

Very sad to hear the news about the passing of George Scithers over at Bill Crider's blog. I never met Scithers, the longtime co-editor of Weird Tales magazine, but he was a huge influence on me. He was incredibly kind to a certain 17-year-old nerd hoping to intern at his magazine. And if it weren't for Scithers, all of my novels might have had the name "Duane Louis" on them.

My L.A. Times Book Fest Schedule

Last time I attended the L.A. Times Festival of Books I helped Sean Doolittle and Victor Gischler break into a pool, got a wicked sunburn, and almost scored an underaged California trophy wife. God knows what'll happen this time around. If you're around this weekend, here's where you'll be able to find me:

Friday Night (4/23): The Mystery Bookstore's Pre-Fest Party (1036-C Broxton Avenue). I'll be there probably around 6:30 or 7, depending on my flight/traffic from LAX. I think I booked the exact same flight three years ago, and I showed up at the party slight dazed. Which later led to the pool break-in. So, fair warning.

Sunday (4/25): I'll be signing at the Mystery Bookstore's booth (#411) at noon, along with Eric Beetner, Reed Farrel Coleman, Gar Anthony Haywood (who recently started blogging, by the way), Attica Locke and Gary Phillips. You'll probably also see me hanging around the booth area for much of the morning. And wearing sunscreen this time.

I'm also hoping to take Esotouric's cool-sounding Charles Bukowski bus tour ("Haunts of a Dirty Old Man") on Saturday afternoon. I've heard nothing but great things about these tours, and I say you haven't really seen a city until you've nuzzled its soft underbelly.

Pulp Serenades and Blood

I like Charlie Huston's policy of linking to book reviews on his blog -- he shares 'em all, good and bad. If you own the good ones, you have to own the bad (and downright ugly) ones, too. Fortunately, I have two extremely kind, thoughtful reviews to share.

The first is from Cullen Gallagher at Pulp Serenade, who says: "Expiration Date can be described any number of ways: time-travel, urban history noir; sci-fi, drugged-out family trauma; action-fantasy genealogy. Any way you look at it, the marvel of Expiration Date is less the novelty of its myriad influences than Swierczynski’s ability to seamlessly integrate all of them into a cohesive whole."

And Blood of the Muse gives Expiration a 9 out 10, and says: "This is a time travel novel done intelligently."

Tonight: Hickey and Boggs!

Tonight's Noir Night at the Hiway Theater in Jenkintown, PA, and I'm proud to be presenting Hickey & Boggs, the downbeat Robert Culp/Bill Cosby thriller from 1972. Sadly, the print the Hiway tracked down was in seriously poor shape, so they'll be showing a digital copy instead. (If it's anything like the copy I found on iTunes, it'll be just fine.) I'll be talking about the movie a little, and signing copies of Expiration Date before and after the showing. And after all of that, there's talk of drinking at the nearby VFW post, which only seems appropriate.

So stop by if you're anywhere near Jenkintown this evening, especially if you've never had the pleasure of watching Hickey & Boggs. The fun starts at 8 p.m.; admission is $10, but only $5 for Hiway members.

The Wheelman Goes to Taiwan

Here's the cover of the Taiwanese edition of my novel The Wheelman, which arrived just now. (Click on the cover for a larger view.) I love this so hard, it's not even funny. Hands down, favorite foreign cover. You've got an screaming dude with sunglasses and a gun. A city skyline that looks like a shotgun blast pattern. Nightmare bursts of neon. A black VW bug ready to rumble. And dig that flaming wheel, right in the middle of the title! (At least, I think that's the title.) I'm standing up and applauding, people of Taiwan. Take a bow.

What do you guys think? I mean, this wins the day, right?

Stella, Crider and Utter Scoundrel on Expiration

Charlie Stella made me blush with his review of Expiration Date at his highly recommended blog, Temporary Knucksline: "It’s a fast ride; maybe too fast since it was over before I was ready, but it’s a fun read and a fine break from the real-to-life news that bombards us day to day."

Bill Crider weighs in, too, over at his Pop Culture Magazine: "As usual with Swierczynski, the book moves like a bullet."

And the Utter Scoundrel over at Lies! Damned Lies! says: "It's all very twisty-turny and messed up and ingenious, and ends with a chapter that would have Rod Serling smiling."

I follow these guys regularly for their pop culture picks, so a thumbs-up from them makes me extremely happy. Thanks, fellas.

Beer and Loathing

Yesterday's signing at the Port Richmond Bookstore was a lot of fun, despite the fact that my nerves got the better of me and, right in the middle of my little talk, I accidentally dumped a bottle of Yuengling, spraying beer across my crotch in a manner that suggested I'd lost control of my bladder. Actually, this was the best place the beer could have ended up up; the bottle had been sitting on the writing desk of pulp legend Mike Avallone, which thankfully remained safe and dry.

Thanks to everyone who ventured out, including national internet sensation Joe Walker, Ed "Poe Boy" Pettit, Dennis Tafoya, Curt Broad (former owner of the much-missed Marlo Books), and whole gaggle of cool people who didn't mind hanging out with a guy with wet jeans. Special thanks to my hosts, Deen Kogan and Greg Gillespie, absentee host Lou Boxer (who arranged the whole darn thing), and my own Bride, who ran sales and, at one point, when someone asked for another beer, suggested I wring out my pants. Love you too, honey.

By way of revenge, I managed to do a little damage at the bookstore. Here's what I picked up. Usually I go for the paperbacks, but I was in a hardcover mood yesterday:

A Morning For Flamingos, by James Lee Burke. Picked this up last night, intending to read a page or two, and ended up blazing through the first 50. I love Burke.

The Way We Die Now, by Charles Willeford. I have the paperback, but I couldn't resist the hardcover for my collection.

Blood Simple, by Joel and Ethan Coen. Apparently, St. Martin's had an "original screenplay series" back in the 1980s?

The Player, by Michael Tolkin. I've wanted to read this for a while now.

True Confessions, by John Gregory Dunne. One of my favorite writers. Own the paperback, but again, this hardcover called out to me. Which is just an excuse to read it again.

Dreamland, by Newton Thornburg. Thoughts of Cutter & Bone made me pick this one up.

The Breaks, by Richard Price. Signed, too! Haven't read it yet. I'm pretty sure Greg Gillespie gave me a ridiculous discount on this one.

Chandlertown, by Edward Thorpe. Say the words "Chandler" and "Los Angeles" and I'm already pulling out my wallet.

Also purchased, but not shown: a paperback copy of Elmore Leonard's Ryan's Rules, which is actually Swag. Which I own. But I couldn't resist... alternate cover... alternate title... someone... help me...

Expiration Date: Port Richmond

Today at 2 p.m. I'll be signing books and talking Expiration Date at the Port Richmond Bookstore (3037 Richmond Street, Phila. PA 19134, just a few blocks from I-95). There will be cold beer and soft pretzels on hand, as well as copies of Expiration, Severance Package and the increasingly hard-to-find Secret Dead Men. But you'll also want to poke around the store, which is more or less vintage hardcover/paperback heaven. Hope to see some of you there.

Slowing the Sands of Time, Just a Little...

Due to overwhelming popular demand (okay, a few people have asked), I'm extending the deadline for the Sand giveaway by a few days. If you pick up a copy by midnight this Friday (EST) and send me proof, you'll receive a PDF of Sand In My Gun, a 7,000 word sample of the earliest version of what became Expiration Date, along with about 12,000 words of my Sand journal from that time. (Watch a clueless young author battle his way through his own mind!) Thanks to everyone who's picked up a copy so far and has joined the Sand brigade.

And huge thanks for spreading the word. I'm thrilled to hear how many of you are enjoying the book. I always worry that these things are amusing only to a limited audience: namely, me. It's good to know there are a bunch of us out there.

(Deadpool and) Cable #25

Wednesday brings the last issue of my Cable run... and appropriately enough, it takes us right back to the beginning:

COVERS BY: Simone Bianchi, Rob Liefeld
WRITER: Duane Swierczynski
PENCILS: Paco Medina

THE STORY:
"TWO MUTANTS AND A BABY" DOUBLE-SIZED FINAL ISSUE CO-STARRING DEADPOOL! You know, before that red-headed would-be messiah/destroyer of the world showed up, Cable had another partner. That's right: Wade Wilson -- a.k.a. Deadpool! And while everybody's excited about Cable bringing Hope back to the present to rejoin the X-Men, they're forgetting the most important part of the story: The beginning, back when Cable first lifted the helpless baby out of her incubator up in Alaska. Wait -- You don't think Cable did that alone, did you? You don't think he managed to make his way across hundreds of miles, avoiding Predator X and Purifiers without a little assist, do you? Hell no. Cable asked for help from his favorite Merc with a Mouth and now, finally, this action-packed, oversized story can be told. Before there can be an end, there must be a beginning. Rated T ...$3.99

You can check out some preview pages right here. And yeah, while the last issue of a run isn't usually the place to start with a particular comic... you can actually dive in with this one, since it's essentially a prequel. Hope you enjoy it.

Free Comic Book Day!

This Free Comic Book Day (May 1st), I'll be signing at Brave New Worlds' Willow Grove store with superstar artist Billy Tan. Sure, the Old City shop has stormtroopers, Zombie Hulk and Spidey. But we'll have Zatanna and Black Cat watching our backs. More details soon...