Blaize Clement, R.I.P. 1932-2011

Popular mystery writer Blaize Clement has died, according to a July 27th announcement on her "Kitty Litter" blog by her son, Jack. The author of the cozy mystery series starring pet sitter Dixie Hemingway, Clement had been in hospice care and lost her battle with cancer on July 20th.

Since being diagnosed, Clement had continued her writing work, completing one stand-alone mystery/thriller -- I, Malcolm -- and a new volume in the Dixie Hemingway series -- The Cat Sitter's Pajamas. Clement made it known that she wanted her son to continue the Hemingway series, and he has announced that he has signed on for one additional volume (and possibly more), moving forward with his mother's characters.

Blaize Clement's entry in Wikipedia

Official Blaize Clement website

L.A. Banks, R.I.P. 1959-2011

Popular paranormal fantasy author L.A. Banks (a.k.a. Leslie Esdaile) has lost her recent battle with cancer, according to her publisher's website in the following post this morning:

"Several authors have reported today that Paranormal Fantasy author L.A. Banks has just passed away. Banks had been fighting a battle with cancer for some time, one that she tragically lost today. Banks was known to the science fiction and fantasy community primarily for her Crimson Moon werewolf series as well as The Vampire Huntress Legend series. Under a variety of pen names, L.A. Banks also wrote in several other genres including crime, thriller, and romance.

L.A. Banks was a witty, upbeat author who brought energetic and strong sensibilities to her work. The fields of SFF and her fans will miss her deeply."

L.A. Banks entry in Wikipedia

Official L.A. Banks website

R.I.P. Stephen J. Cannell, 1941-2010

R.I.P. Stephen J. Cannell, 1941-2010
Originally uploaded by BookGuide at LCL

Legendary television producer Stephen J. Cannell -- creator of The Rockford Files, The Greatest American Hero, Wiseguy, The A-Team, Silk Stalkings, Profit, 21 Jump Street and Baa Baa Black Sheep, and the novelist behind the popular Shane Scully thriller series, died September 30th, 2010 at his home in California, of complications from melanoma. He was 69 years old.

Cannell was one of television's most successful independent producers of action-adventure dramas throughout the 1980s and early 1990s; at one point in the late 80s, he had 5 of his series on the air simultaneously. Cannell originally had tremendous difficulty in school, as he suffered from the reading disability dyslexia. He persevered until college, when a creative writing teacher encouraged him to continue writing despite his difficulties.

In the 1970s, he became a story editor on ADAM 12, for producer Jack Webb, and continued to write and produce series such as THE ROCKFORD FILES and BARETTA for Universal, with Roy Huggins serving as a working mentor to him. In 1979, he launched his own independent tv production company, so as to have greater creative and financial control over the series he created, and went on to tremendous success. Having been mentored successfully, he served as the mentor to many others in the industry and was always willing to share writing tips with up-and-coming writers.

Throughout the years, his personal goal was to become a best-selling novelist, and after his company got out of television production in the late 1990s, he finally got the chance to live out his dream. He is the author of over 15 bestsellers, including 9 in the Shane Scully series; a tenth is due later in October.

More information about Cannell is available at:

His official web site

and dozens of other web sites across the internet.

R.I.P. Stuart Kaminsky 1934-2009

Long-time best-selling American mystery author Stuart Kaminsky died October 9th, 2009 in St. Louis, MO, where he had moved (from Chicago) earlier this year in hopes of receiving a liver transplant. His liver had been failing due to hepatitis-c, which he had contracted while serving as an Army medic in the 1950s, however he suffered a stroke shortly after arriving in St. Louis, making him ineligible for the transplant.

Kaminsky was an extremely prolific author, producing an average of two or more new books per year. He had over 60 novels to his credit at the time of his death. Kaminsky is probably best known for his Toby Peters series, featuring a struggling P.I. in late 1930s and 1940s Hollywood. These novels featured cameos or full-fledged "guest appearances" by renowned figures in the entertainment industry -- in Kaminsky's first novel, 1977's Bullet for a Star, Toby's client is a blackmailed Errol Flynn.

Kaminsky also had three other regular series: Abe Lieberman -- a contemporary series featuring a 60-something Jewish Chicago cop (starting in 1991); Lew Fonesca, a depressive process server in Sarasota, Florida (starting in 1999); and Porfiry Rostnikov, starring a thoughtful Moscow detective, which began in the Soviet era (1981) and continued to modern times. Kaminsky also wrote a pair of Rockford Files tie-in novels in the 1990s, showing what aging P.I. Jim Rockford would have been like 15+ years after the tv series (1974-1980) ended.

In addition to his mystery fiction, Kaminsky also wrote screenplays and books about the film industry -- he had received a doctorate in film studies from Northwestern in 1972, and subsequently taught both there and at Florida State University in their film studies programs.

Kaminsky has one or more books which will be published posthumously.

New York Times obit for Stuart Kaminsky

Chicago Tribune obit for Stuart Kaminsky

Wikipedia page for Stuart Kaminsky (with complete list of credits)

Internet Movie Database page for Stuart Kaminsky (with list of screen credits)

R.I.P. Dominick Dunne, 1925-2009

Popular American author Dominick Dunne died August 26th, 2009, at his home in Manhattan at the age of 83.

Dunne was the author of such bestselling works as The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, Fatal Charms, People Like Us, An Inconvenient Woman, A Season in Purgatory and Another City, Not My Own.

In addition to his work as a novelist, Dunne was a frequent contributor of columns and/or feature pieces to mainstream magazines, such as Vanity Fair.

You can find more information about Dunne, his life and his works at the following links:

Vanity Fair obit

New York Times obit

Wikipedia entry

Three Literary Giants Leave the Stage

Late October and early November have seen the passing of three prominent American authors – Tony Hillerman, Studs Terkel and now Michael Crichton.

Tony Hillerman died October 26th, at the age of 83. Hillerman is primarily known as a mystery writer, with the popular series of novels featuring Navajo Tribal policemen Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn. That series began in 1970 with The Blessing Way, and the 18th and final volume, The Shapeshifter, was released in 2006. Two of these novels have been turned into telefilms for PBS’ Mystery series – Coyote Waits and Skinwalkers. In addition to his mystery novels, Hillerman also has a couple of childrens books, and contributed the text to several photographic books about the American Southwest.

Here are some links to additional Tony Hillerman information: Hillerman page on Wikipedia, Obit in the Chicago Sun-Times, NPR Tribute, Unofficial Homepage.

Studs Terkel died October 31st at the age of 96. Terkel was an author, whose works chronicled ordinary Americans at various points in U.S. History. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1984 book, The Good War, a history of World War II. Terkel’s first book, The Giants of Jazz, was published in 1956, and he was still publishing in 2008.

Additional Studs Terkel info can be found at: Stud’s official site, his last interview, Obit at the BBC, Obit at the Daily Telegraph, Wikipedia page for Terkel.

Thriller writer Michael Crichton died November 4th, at the age of 66. During a diverse education, Crichton obtained an M.D. in 1969, as well as serving as a visiting lecturer in Anthropology at Britain’s Cambridge University in 1965. While a medical student, Crichton wrote novels under the pen names John Lange and Jeffrey Hudson, winning an Edgar Award in 1969 for A Case of Need as Hudson. Crichton is best know for his own particular type of novel – the medical/technology thriller. His first novel in this category was The Andromeda Strain, and he continued to write fast-paced, technology-based thrillers until his death. Some of his most well-known works are Congo, Jurassic Park, Disclosure, Airframe, Timeline, State of Fear, Prey and Next.

In addition to his writing, Crichton was also a director, helming 7 movies or tv-movies, including Westworld, The Great Train Robbery (based on his own book), Coma, and Runaway. He is credited with co-writing the 1996 hit Twister, and wrote the pilot script for the tv series ER, for which he has been listed as Creator and Executive Producer.

Crichton has one remaining unpublished novel, scheduled for release in 2009. He was diagnosed with cancer fairly recently and chose to keep that information private, such that his death came as a complete surprise for most fans. You can find more information about Crichton at: Obit at the Chicago Sun-Times, Profile/tribute in the New York Times, Tribute at PeopleForever.org, Crichton on Wikipedia, Official Michael Crichton web site.

Thomas M. Disch, R.I.P. 1940-2008

Thomas M. Disch, writer of hard-edged science fiction, social critic and poet, committed suicide in his New York City apartment on July 4th, 2008.

Born in the Midwest in 1940 (Des Moines) and raised in Minnesota's Twin Cities, Disch first connected with literature in high school classes, before being sidetracked by numerous jobs in multiple fields. By his twenties, Disch had moved to New York, ultimately taking classes at New York University. It was there that his writing finally kicked in, and although he worked a series of odd jobs to pay the rent, it was his short story and poetry writing that started to get him noticed in the literary world. His body of work ultimately included science fiction novels and stories, 10 poetry collections, plays, criticisms, an opera libretto for an adaptation of Frankenstein, gothic works and childrens' books.

His 1968 novel Camp Concentration is about an inmate in a US concentration camp who's treated with experimental drugs, and 1974's 334 is an experimental collection of linked stories all set in a New York City apartment complex. Disch' 1980 novella, The Brave Little Toaster was adapted into an animated film from Disney. His 1998 collection of essays, The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of won science fiction's Hugo Award for best non-fiction book of the year.

In recent years, Disch had maintained a blog at LiveJournal, where he continued to present original poetry and make acerbic observations on the world at large. Disch had suffered from depression at various times in his life, and the recent loss of his long time companion (and occasional writing partner) Charles Naylor, as well as a fight to maintain possession of his rent-controlled apartment, are rumored to have spurred him to take his own life.

Wikipedia entry on Thomas M. Disch

Mystery author Margaret Truman, R.I.P. 1924-2008

Margaret Truman Daniel, who was the only child of President Truman and his wife, Bess, and who forged successive careers as a concert singer, an actress, a high-profile wife and mother, and a prolific biographer and mystery novelist, died Tuesday, January 29th, 2008. She was 83.

See the full obit and biography in: The L.A. Times, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.

The libraries have Truman's "Capital Crimes" mystery series, from 1980's "Murder in the White House" [1980] to "Murder on K Street" [2007], as well as as 1969 "White House Pets", her 1973 biography of her father, and her 1976 book "Women of Courage."

R.I.P. John E. Gardner

John E. Gardner, the British thriller writer who became the official authorized James Bond novelist from 1981 until 1996, died August 3rd in England, from suspected heart failure.

Gardner established himself as a proper thriller writer from his first book (The Liquidator, 1964), which introduced series character Boysie Oakes (star of 8 books), and was an impressive choice to pick up where Ian Fleming had left off with the iconic espionage character. Between 1981 and 1996, Gardner wrote 16 original James Bond adventures, though he was quoted in interviews as being somewhat ambivalent about writing adventure novels featuring a character not of his own creation.

Retiring from "Bond-age" in 1996, Gardner returned to writing his own completely original fiction, although from 1997 until 2001 he went unpublished, dealing with both medical issues and the death of his wife in 1997. He had recently achieved critical acclaim for his historical mystery series featuring a 1930s female Detective Sergeant named Suzie Mountford.

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Here are some links to additional John E. Gardner information:

Gardner books in the Lincoln City Libraries collection
John E. Gardner's official website
Obituary and Tribute on MI6 Bond fansite