#donald e. westlake

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Forever and a Death - art by Paul Mann (2017)

[withnailrules]

His hands, swinging curve-fingered at his sides, looked like they were molded of brown clay by a sculptor who thought big and liked veins. His hair was brown and dry and dead, blowing around his head like a poor toupee about to fly loose. His face was a chipped chunk of concrete, with eyes of flawed onyx. His mouth was a quick stroke, bloodless. His suit coat fluttered behind him, and his arms swung easily as he walked. The office women looked at him and shivered. They knew he was a bastard, they knew his big hands were born to slap with, they knew his face would never break into a smile when he looked at a woman. They knew what he was, they thanked God for their husbands, and still they shivered. Because they knew how he would fall on a woman in the night. Like a tree.

From Richard Stark's THE HUNTER (1962), the first novel about cold-blooded criminal, Parker

[brokehorrorfan]

The Stepfather will be released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on September 10 via Scream Factory. The 1987 psychological horror-thriller is loosely based on mass murderer John List.

Joseph Ruben (Sleeping with the Enemy, The Good Son) directs from a script by Donald E. Westlake (The Grifters). Terry O'Quinn, Jill Schoelen, and Shelley Hack star.

The Stepfather has been newly restored in 4K with Dolby Vision and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Dual Mono. Special features are listed below.

Disc 1 - 4K UHD:

Audio commentary by director Joseph Ruben

Audio commentary by actress Jill Schoelen and Beyond the Gates filmmaker Jackson Stewart (new)

Audio commentary by film critic Meagan Navarro (new)

Audio commentary by film critic Kier Gomes (new)

Disc 2 - Blu-ray:

Audio commentary by director Joseph Ruben

Audio commentary by actress Jill Schoelen and Beyond the Gates filmmaker Jackson Stewart (new)

Audio commentary by film critic Meagan Navarro (new)

Audio commentary by film critic Kier Gomes (new)

Interview with actress actress Jill Schoelen (new)

The Stepfather Chronicles - Interviews with director Joseph Ruben, producer Jay Benson, actress Jill Schoelen, author Brian Garfield, and more

The Stepfather, Stepfather II, and Stepfather III trailers

Still gallery

Jerry Blake is a man obsessed with having the perfect American Dream life - including the house with the white picket fence in the suburbs, complete with an adoring wife and loving children. He believes he's found it when he marries Susan Maine and becomes the stepfather to Susan's 16-year-old daughter, Stephanie. But Stephanie gets an uneasy feeling when she is around Jerry with his Father Knows Best attitude - she can see that there is a darker side behind his cheerful exterior. Could she just be going through the typical teenager rebellion against her new stepfather, or could he be the same man who brutally murdered his family just one year earlier?

Pre-order The Stepfather.

[biblioklept]

Read "Nackles," Donald E. Westlake's horror story about the Anti-Claus

“Nackles” by Donald E. Westlake Did God create men, or does Man create gods? I don’t know, and if it hadn’t been for my rotten brother-in-law the question would never have come up. My late brother-in-law? Nackles knows. It all depends, you see, like the chicken and the egg, on which came first. Did God exist before Man first thought of Him, or didn’t He? If not, if Man creates his gods, then it…

[judgeitbyitscover]

The Comedy is Finished by Donald E. Westlake

Cover art by Gregory Manchess

Hard Case Crime, February 2012

The year is 1977, and America is finally getting over the nightmares of Watergate and Vietnam and the national hangover that was the 1960s. But not everyone is ready to let it go. 

Not aging comedian Koo Davis, friend to generals and presidents and veteran of countless USO tours to buck up American troops in the field. And not the five remaining members of the self-proclaimed People's Revolutionary Army, who've decided that kidnapping Koo Davis would be the perfect way to bring their cause back to life...

[iannozzigiuseppe]

Richard Stark - Il cacciatore - TimeCrime / Fanucci

Richard Stark – Il cacciatore Traduzione dall’inglese di Vinicius Letale TimeCrime / Fanucci Torna in libreria il primo romanzo della serie che Richard Stark, pseudonimo dello scrittore Donald E. Westlake, iniziò a scrivere nel 1962 sullo spietato criminale di nome Parker.  Torna un’icona del genere noir con una storia di rapine, tradimenti e vendetta. Dopo una rapina finita male in cui viene…

[desaparecidos]

The mother of the bride had been determined that her daughter would have a church wedding, and women who successfully name their infant daughters Tiffany do tend to get their own way, so an evening wedding it was.

Donald E. Westlake, Drowned Hopes

[alexhorrorfilms]

Why Me? (Чому я?)

Екранізація однойменного роману Дональда Вестлейка.

У парочки грабіжників практично випадково опинився дорогоцінний камінь, пов'язаний зі стародавнім прокляттям. Зірвавши куш, Гас і Бруно стали мішенями. За ними полює поліція, мафія, агенти ЦРУ, дуже злі турки і божевільні вірменські терористи.

Часом кумедна комедія, але загалом - міцний середняк, який не використав потенціал чудового акторського складу.

[ayanos-pl]

ドナルド・E・ウェストレイク、矢口誠訳『さらば、シェヘラザード』（国書刊行会 2018）締切に追われるポルノ作家が自分のみだらな妄想を書いたら、現実に本人がやったことと間違えられて、どんどん苦境にはまっていく。小説と現実の境目が曖昧になり、フィクションが現実を侵食していくコメディ。

[geekynerfherder]

'Somebody Owes Me Money' by Michael Koelsch.

Cover art for the novel 'Somebody Owes Me Money', written by Donald E Westlake, published in 2008 by Hard Case Crime.

[zippocreed501]

AUTHOR EXTRAORDINAIRE

'For me, the characters are part of the story, and come out of its development. I don't base them on people, or parts of people -the Frankenstein method. I base them on what I've noticed about the human race. I cannot tell you how stories develop. I have an initial idea, and start telling myself the story, day by day.'

'In the most basic way, writers are defined not by the stories they tell, or their politics, or their gender, or their race, but by the words they use. Writing begins with language, and it is in that initial choosing, as one sifts through the wayward lushness of our wonderful mongrel English, that choice of vocabulary and grammar and tone, the selection on the palette, that determines who's sitting at that desk. Language creates the writer's attitude toward the particular story he's decided to tell.'

'I was writing everything. I grew up in Albany, New York, and I was never any farther west than Syracuse, and I wrote Westerns. I wrote tiny little slices of life, sent them off to The Sewanee Review, and they always sent them back. For the first 10 years I was published, I'd say, "I'm a writer disguised as a mystery writer." But then I look back, and well, maybe I'm a mystery writer. You tend to go where you're liked, so when the mysteries were being published, I did more of them.'

'I know people who have suffered writer's block, and I don't think I've ever had it. A friend of mine, for three years he couldn't write. And he said that he thought of stories and he knew the stories, could see the stories completely, but he could never find the door. Somehow that first sentence was never there. And without the door, he couldn't do the story. I've never experienced that. But it's a chilling thought.'

Author Extraordinaire Donald E Westlake

[psycheapuleius]

“The thought I am happy was still invariably followed by the thought I don't deserve to be happy.”

— Donald E. Westlake, A Jade in Aries.

[lapetitemortarts]

Robert McGinnis

Born in 1926 in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in Wyoming, he is an American artist and illustrator. Known for his more than 1200 Illustrations and over 40 movie posters, including "Breakfast at Tiffanys" (his first movie poster), Barbarella and several James Bond and Matt Helm films. McGinnis became an apprentice at Walt Disney Studios, then studied fine art at Ohio State University. After wartime service in the merchant marine he went into advertising and a chance meeting with Mitchell in 1958 led to his introduction to Dell Publishing where he began a career of a variety of paperback covers for books written by authors such as Donald Westlake (signing as Richard Stark), Edward S. Aarons, Erle Stanley Gardner, Richard S. Prather, Shayne Michael and Carter Brown. In 1985, he was awarded the title of "Romantic Artist of the Year" by Romantic Times magazine. He is a member of the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame.

.......................... Nació en 1926 en Cincinnati, Ohio y se crió en Wyoming, es un artista e ilustrador americano. Conocido por sus más de 1200 Ilustraciones y más de 40 carteles de cine, incluyendo "Desayuno en Tiffanys" (su primer cartel de la película), Barbarella y varias películas de James Bond y Matt Helm. McGinnis se convirtió en un aprendiz en los Estudios Walt Disney, luego estudió Bellas Artes en la Universidad Estatal de Ohio. Después del servicio durante la guerra en la marina mercante entró en la publicidad y un encuentro casual con Mitchell en 1958 le llevó a ser introducido a Dell Publishing donde inició una carrera de una variedad de rústica de cubiertas para libros escritos por autores como Donald Westlake (que firmaba como Richard Stark), Edward S. Aarons, Erle Stanley Gardner, Richard S. Prather, Shayne Michael y Carter Brown. En 1985, fue galardonado con el título de "Artista Romántico del Año" por la revista Romantic Times. Él es miembro de la Sociedad de Ilustradores del Salón de la Fama.

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: September 2024

……….FILM……….

Army of Darkness (1992) Having now seen the original trilogy, it baffles me that all of the Evil Dead reboots exclusively lean into horror. Two thirds of the these movies are practically Saturday-morning cartoons! I love everything about this, from the humour to the puppetry to the insane haircuts.

Mad Monster Party? (1967) This is the first feature-length Rankin-Bass production that I've seen and you can tell the animators were invested in this one. 80% of the film is visual gag it's all so much fun. Zero complaints though I am a sucker for anything that lumps a bunch of public domain monsters together.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) While I wish they'd gone with the original sequel premise (Beetlejuice goes to Hawaii), this is still a solid comeback. Does it all work? No. But it is a great pitch for a Beetlejuice limited series.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) Loved the original, loved this even more.

……….TELEVISION……….

Neon Genesis Evangelion (Episode 1.21 to 1.22) Okay didn't watch much of this in September but it's taken a nosedive into a pool of existential dread. I mean it was always there but it feels like the end is going to be a battle with conflicting ideologies instead of the Angels. Wild stuff.

……….YOUTUBE……….

The Sustained Two-Shot by Every Frame a Painting It's been years since EFAP posted a video and I implore you to check out their back catalog of really insightful film analysis. If you like this video, you'll like the others. VIDEO

The Question No One Asks Shigeru Miyamoto by Good Blood Great insight into game philosophy and design, as well as a unique lens with which to explore the Zelda series of games. VIDEO

AB Dictionary by Allison Bornstein For those who may not know, I have a passion...for fashion! I keep going back to a few core resources for inspiration and guidance and Allison Bornstein's youtube channel is one of them. She leans towards women's wardrobes, but this introduction to her approach is fairly universal (leaning towards personal style vs "wear this not that".) VIDEO

……….READING……….

Murder at Hazelmoor by Agatha Christie (Complete) Really digging into Christie's work has given me some more perspective on which sorts of mysteries I connect. This one, which spends some time with the suspects, but not as much as in other books, made it much harder to keep track of everyone. But dang if the endings don't deliver so much satisfaction that I can't help but finishing it and thinking "Yeah! That was good."

The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett (Complete) The Discworld series of novels are always great but sometimes one just really clicks for me. Loved the monsterverse setting, loved the politics, loved it all. I'm not sure I'd recommend this as a good entrypoint but if you've read any of the Discworld books featuring the Watch and you haven't read The Fifth Elephant, definitely check it out.

Richard Stark's Parker: Slayground by Donald E Westlake and Darwyn Cooke (Complete) Darwyn Cooke's adaptation are always so stylish I always feel a little sad reading it, knowing it's his final rework of the Parker series. And such a gut punch at the end when it says Parker will return. Darwyn Cooke has been such an inspiration for me and his work is incredible; please check out this series or the DC: The New Frontier comics OR his run on Catwoman OR his contributions to Spider-Man's Tangled Web.

FF Volume 1: Fantastic Faux and FF: Volume 2: Family Freakout by Matt Fraction, Lee Allred, Michael Allred, Laura Allred, Joe Quinones, and many more (Complete) I loved Matt Fraction's work on Hawkeye and Michael and Laura Allred's work on Silver Surfer so I was excited for this pairing...but it didn't really click. The writing felt surprisingly dated and even across the two volumes I felt like I was missing a lot of context. I wish I could recommend it but there are better stories from these creatives and about these characters.

……….AUDIO……….

Flight b741 by King GIzzard & The LIzard Wizard (2024) The beauty of King Gizzard's prolific output is that they have the freedom to experiment. Sometimes I don't connect with what they're doing, and sometimes they put out an album like this. Into it.

Shingangumi by Ginger Root (2024) The vibes are right on the mark but the majority of the album just kinda washes over you. Some of Ginger Root's singles are really catchy and it's a shame I haven't connected with any individual tracks just yet.

……….GAMING……….

Wonderland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) With the book's upcoming release, our Tuesday group decided to take a break from Oz and Neverland and do a few dungeon delves. It was a whirlwind that included a character death and exploring a secret secondary realm! If you want to read the campaign diary then it's over here!

And that's it. See you in October!

[kethsposy]

I just started rereading an old book by Donald Westlake and cracked up before the first line.

Image description: the title page to Donald E Westlake's book Bank Shot, along with the opposite page, where authors often list their previously published works. He has a list labeled Other Books, which consists of A Tale of Two Cities, The Magnificent Ambersons, So Big, W.C. Fields: His Follies and Fortunes, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, The Merry Devil of Edmonton, An Account of Corsica, The Love Machine, and finally Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature.

All of which are certainly other books, although ones that have nothing to do with him.

[largesillyfriend]

I've been working my way through every movie based on a Donald E Westlake book character called "Parker."

So far in the series there's only been one movie where they actually call him Parker. I haven't gotten to that one yet.