For those of us not familiar with your work, tell us how you first got into writing, and what works have influenced you the most? I actually got into writing without really realizing it, by playing a play-by-email STAR TREK role-playing game in high school. Back then, I was focused on directing theatre and film, but, looking back, it was the first seeds of my writing career. As far as influences go, I’m a huge fan of epics, so getting to write one in the FABLES universe is pretty fantastic. As a Minnesotan myself, how crazy is it that both you and FABLES creator Bill Willingham both call southern Minnesota home? How has the local...

IRON MAN 3-Directed by Shane Black, Written by Drew Pearce and Shane Black Starring Robert Downey Jr. Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Ben Kingsley THE COMPANY YOU KEEP-Directed by Robert Redford, Written by Lem Dobbs and Neil Gordon, Starring Robert Redford, Nick Nolte, Susan Sarandon, Julie Christie,Shia LaBeouf “I try to tell a story the way someone would tell you a story in a bar, with the same kind of timing and pacing.” Chuck Palahniuk No one in a bar would ever tell either of these stories. Both suffer from pacing. IRON MAN 3, of course, has a pace designed to please people who spend a lot of time playing...

This week , in conjunction with Friday Reads Facebook page, we are giving away copies Chelsea Cain’s KILL YOU TWICE audiobook,  Dana Cameron’s SEVEN KINDS OF HELL ,  Manuel Ramos’ DESPERADO and Daniel Stashower’s THE HOUR OF PERIL audiobook. KILL YOU TWICE (audiobook) by Chelsea Cain Nothing makes Portland detective Archie Sheridan happier than knowing that Gretchen Lowell—the serial killer whose stunning beauty is belied by the gruesome murders she’s committed—is locked away in a psych ward. Archie can finally heal from the near-fatal physical and emotional wounds she’s inflicted on him and start moving...

Cheryl Heuton and Nicolas Falacci’s Elmore Leonard based pilot has a new name: THE ARRANGEMENT. The pilot is based on the story WHEN THE WOMEN COME OUT TO DANCE. THE ARRANGEMENT tells the story of Lourdes Nieves (Stephanie Sigman, “Miss Bala”), a Columbian woman who trades her tragic and mysterious past for a fresh start in Miami by entering into a marriage with Billy Whitley (Bryan Greenberg, “How to Make It In America”), a well-meaning and ambitious politician. In a union of political expediency, Lourdes and Billy manage a delicate dance of romance and clear-eyed pragmatism as she leverages her experience and contacts to help her...

Season two begins, on A&E, on May 27th at 9 pm CST.

The Manuel Ramos Interview By Steven Torres This interview is in the latest issue of Crimespree (51) which is in the mail as this is typed. Manuel Ramos is an Edgar Award nominated author of novels and short stories mostly centered in the Denver area. If you haven’t read his books, you have missed out on great stories and some of the smoothest writing in the mystery field. Try Mooney’s Road to Hell if you want a taste of his noir mastery. Try Brown-on-Brown for some of the Luis Montez series. If you want the latest noir masterpiece, look at Desperado. Or, of course, you can find his short story in this issue. Steven Torres: I loved the Luis...

The Movement DC Comics Written by: Gail Simone Art by: Freddie E Williams II Cover by: Amanda Conner If Gail Simone’s name is on a title you must read it. Let’s just get that out of the way. She’s pretty much the perfect comics writer. She’s taken on so many books and characters and been able to craft epics. Her fan base loves her and she loves us back. Her writing can back up that love too. “The Movement” is a prime example of Simone’s excellence in comics. First issues can be tricky. If it’s too slow or not enough information it can lose a reader immediately. But some writers know how to grab that reader with just a snap. Simone is one of...

Marcia Clark, Ross McDonald and Nicholas Sparks are all sources for TNT’s current slate of projects in development. None of these have made it to the pilot stages yet, but are all in the process of attaching personnel and finalizing scripts. Portal House This project is the story of a group of young scientists who, while investigating what they believe to be a haunted house, stumble upon a portal into the time-space continuum. Things then take a turn for the worse when one of their own vanishes into the portal. Peter Gunn This re-imagining of the classic post-modern Blake Edwards-Craig Stevens’ series centers on a gentleman private...