The Crime Cafe

By: Debbi Mack
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  • Summary

  • Interviews and entertainment for crime fiction, suspense and thriller fans.
    © 2015 - 2021 Debbi Mack
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Episodes
  • Philip Marlowe in ‘Daring Young Dame on the Flying Trapeze’ – S. 10, Ep. 9

    Philip Marlowe in ‘Daring Young Dame on the Flying Trapeze’ – S. 10, Ep. 9
    Sep 29 2024
    This week's episode of the Crime Cafe features another story from The Adventures of Philip Marlowe. This episode comes to you ad-free. Relatively. :) The following is an unedited AI-generated transcript. Does an awesome job, huh? :) (00:00:12): Hi, everyone. (00:00:14): This is The Crime Café, your podcasting source of great crime suspense and thriller writing. (00:00:20): I'm your host, Debbi Mack. (00:00:22): Before I bring on my guest, (00:00:23): I'll just remind you that The Crime Café has two e-books for sale, (00:00:28): the nine-book box set and the short story anthology. (00:00:31): You can find the buy links for both on my website, debbiemack.com, under the Crime Café link. (00:00:38): If you'd like to (00:00:39): You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. (00:00:45): You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, (00:00:49): along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. (00:00:53): Unfortunately, our scheduled guest was unable to make it this week. (00:00:58): However, (00:00:58): I have instead another episode from the files of Philip Marlowe, (00:01:02): Private Eye, (00:01:04): Daring Young Dame on the Flying Trapeze. (00:01:06): Enjoy! (00:01:11): For the safety of your smile, use Pepsodent twice a day, see your dentist twice a year. (00:01:27): Lever Brothers Company presents the Pepsodent program, (00:01:30): The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, (00:01:32): starring Van Heflin. (00:01:40): Pepsodent presents Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler's famous private detective. (00:01:45): You've seen him on the screen in Lady and the Lake, (00:01:47): Murder, (00:01:47): My Sweet, (00:01:48): The Brasher Doubloon, (00:01:49): and The Big Sleep. (00:01:50): Now Pepsodent brings you the adventures of Philip Marlowe on the air and starring (00:01:55): MGM's brilliant and dynamic young actor, (00:01:57): Van Heflin. (00:01:59): Pepsodent (00:02:15): There comes a certain time in the year when I don't want to see midget auto races. (00:02:19): I just want to see midgets. (00:02:21): When I prefer sawdust to stardust, and popcorn to all other kinds of corn available in Hollywood. (00:02:28): The circus was moving in on the grounds at Washington Boulevard and Hill Street, (00:02:32): and I was turning in my usual fine job as sidewalk supervisor. (00:02:37): It was exciting. (00:02:38): It brought back all the sounds and sensations and convictions of childhood. (00:02:43): And then someone had me firmly by the wrist, (00:02:45): and I turned to look into a pair of steady, (00:02:47): smoky, (00:02:48): dark eyes that could be dangerous. (00:02:51): Excuse me, sir, but you are a private detective? (00:02:54): I'm a detective, but I don't get much privacy. (00:02:57): Yeah, my name is Ralph Tassinari. (00:03:00): Who told you I was a detective? (00:03:01): My feet aren't that flat. (00:03:03): Do you know a gentleman named Al Sicanolfi? (00:03:06): Well, I know an Al Sicanolfi. (00:03:08): He pointed you out. (00:03:09): He asked me what was the big idea. (00:03:11): What was my angle hiring a private detective? (00:03:13): He gave me an idea. (00:03:14): When has Al Sicanolfi had any ideas to spare? (00:03:17): Mr. Marlowe, besides owning one-third of this very fine little circus, I am Tassinari. (00:03:23): Of Tassinari, the Swede, and Glorian. (00:03:26): Trafisto. (00:03:27): The most brilliant aerial act in the business. (00:03:29): I own this circus with Glorian and the Swede. (00:03:32): Well, where does Al Sicanolfi fit in here? (00:03:34): Now, the Swede gets drunk and gambles fantastic sums of money. (00:03:38): This circus is worth a quarter of a million dollars. (00:03:40): Already,
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  • Interview with Tom Fowler – S. 10, Ep. 8

    Interview with Tom Fowler – S. 10, Ep. 8
    Sep 15 2024
    This week’s episode of the Crime Cafe podcast features my interview with crime writer Tom Fowler. Check out our discussion of his Baltimore-based crime fiction. Click here for a PDF copy of the transcript. Debbi (00:55): Hi everyone. My guest today is the USA Today bestselling indie author of the John Tyler thrillers and the CT Ferguson crime fiction series. Born in Baltimore, he now lives in the Maryland suburbs of DC, a place that I know well, or at least I used to know it well. It's my pleasure to have with me Tom Fowler. Hey, Tom. How are you doing today? Tom (01:21): Good, Debbi. Thanks for having me on. Debbi (01:23): Excellent. My pleasure. I was particularly intrigued by the fact that you are writing hardboiled mysteries that take place in Baltimore. You're originally from Baltimore and you've also written a whole lot of those books. How many books do you have in the CT Ferguson series? Tom (01:44): Sixteen currently. Just put up the pre-order for number 17. My hope is to have it out a little before Christmas. Debbi (01:56): Well, I got to tell you, I love a hardboiled mystery, and I love the idea of the setting in Baltimore. How many books do you plan to write for the series? What's your plan for the series in general? Tom (02:09): Yeah, I don't have any plan to end it. I think it's common in the genre to have these kind of open-ended series, and we look at the Spencer series. Robert B. Parker wrote 40 or 41 before he died, and there's been another 11 or 12, I think since his passing. Ace Atkins wrote the first nine or 10, and now Mike Lupica has taken over. So Jack Reacher was more of a thriller character, I would say, than mystery, but that's a 27 or 28. And again, there's an author transition happening there too. So I think it's very common to see these series just keep going, and as long as people are interested in reading them, I'm certainly interested in writing them. I have a lot of fun with these books. Debbi (02:56): That's cool. I've noticed they tend to be on the short side. Is that intentional? Is it just the way you write? Tom (03:04): I guess it's just the way I write. They're usually 70 to 75,000 words. The more recent ones have been closer to 70, so I'd say most mysteries are probably somewhere in the 75 to 80 range. So I hope I'm not writing too short, but it's the right length for the story. I don't want to pad the word count unnecessarily. They're first-person stories, so there's not a lot of side quests, if you will, happening that the other characters are going on, so. Debbi (03:34): Exactly. Yeah, and personally, I like short reads, so I mean, that just really appeals to me. Tom (03:41): Yeah. Debbi (03:44): What prompted you to write that series? Tom (03:49): A few things. I've mentioned before, I think I have a longer bio that mentions I wrote a "murder mystery" (in air quotes for those who can't see me) when I was about seven years old in which no one actually died, so no murder. And I named the, I guess I can't really call him the killer, but the person who stabbed people, the stabber, like in the first paragraph. So not a mystery either. Oh for two, but it's because I was at my grandparents' house a lot, and they would watch shows like The Rockford Files. This was probably the early eighties, and they were probably in syndication by then, but Columbo, shows like that where you had a cop or a PI, someone solving a mystery, and I've read a lot of different genres over the years, but I wanted to, at some point in the late two thousands to 2010, I wanted to write my own, and I really started writing that book. (04:52): I know I had a finished draft of the first book, The Reluctant Detective, around November, December of 2010. I wouldn't publish it until October of 2017. So the process took me about seven years, but I wanted to do, I like the crime genre a lot. I was big into shows like Monk and Psych and things like that at the time,
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  • Interview with Crime Writer Catherine Rymsha – S. 10, Ep. 7

    Interview with Crime Writer Catherine Rymsha – S. 10, Ep. 7
    Sep 1 2024
    This week’s episode of the Crime Cafe podcast features my interview with crime writer Catherine Rymsha. Check out our discussion about leadership skills and crime fiction writing. You can download a PDF of the transcript here. Debbi: Hi everyone. My guest today has a career in workplace communication and management. She teaches leadership skills and has a nonfiction book called The Leadership Decision which she published before her crime novel. Her crime novel is Stunning. It's called Stunning, and in addition, she has given a TED Talk on the importance of listening, so listen up. You might learn something. It's my great pleasure to have with me today, Catherine Rymsha. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. Catherine: You are. Thank you. Yes, you are. Debbi: Excellent. Wonderful. Catherine: So happy to be here. Debbi: I was going to ask you about that, and I'd completely forgotten, in the big hubbub of trying to get connected. Catherine: That's fine. Debbi: You wouldn't believe, people. Anyway, thank you so much for being here. What is it that made you decide to write a novel, and a mystery at that? Catherine: I love murders. Debbi: Who doesn't? Catherine: It's so odd saying that, but I'm talking to an audience who understands that. I love crime, I love murder. Even as a kid, I was reading like the Fear Street books and R.L. Stein and Goosebumps, and then ventured into Stephen King and then started to watch everything on ID, and 20/20 and Dateline, and all of those shows that dig into it. When I was a kid, I always wanted to write and I fell into leadership and wrote a ton about leadership, which for some, that's not the most thrilling topic in the world, which I understand totally. But then, I was pregnant when I wrote Stunning. It was a dream. It was based on a dream that I had, and I kept having the dream, and I thought maybe I should write this down and I just started writing. I would write before bed and just write, write, write when I had time and I wasn't sleeping or working a real job, and that's how it came about. It just felt like it needed to get out of my brain. Even as a kid, I was reading like the Fear Street books and R.L. Stein and Goosebumps, and then ventured into Stephen King and then started to watch everything on ID, and 20/20 and Dateline, and all of those shows that dig into it. Debbi: Interesting. So do you picture writing more books, or is this like your one shot ? Catherine: I just came out with a textbook, also not as thrilling, very academic, but I want to get back into writing murder and crime and even if I could do something based on real life murder or crime. I think those are things that are interesting to me to explore next. But I do want to start getting into it and I keep saying that, and I thought all summer I'll write another book. And now summer has come and gone and the book is not written. So I'm thinking, well, maybe in the fall. I say that and I laugh because I don't know if it's going to happen that quickly, but it's more fun than writing leadership. I mean, leadership is important but crime and murder and making things up is way more fun. Debbi: Making things up is fun. Catherine: Yes. Debbi: It's its own form of work, but at the same time it's fun work. Catherine: It is fun work. Debbi: Yeah. Your books - do you have a traditional, hybrid or are you self-published? Catherine: I am self-published with my first two, but the textbook, I did work with a publishing company, so that was interesting too, to have that experience after doing two on my own and working with editors and beta readers and that whole spiel. Debbi: The whole shebang, yes. Catherine: The whole team. Debbi: I was going to ask you about your publishing journey. What has it been like for you? Has it been what you expected? Catherine: With the first one, it was a learning curve, because I wanted to find an editor and I found an excellent editor named Sandy.
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