Paradise Has Relocated (Foreword to the book and gallery show by photographer Sandy Carson)

I well remember the media build-up to the assault from Hurricane Ike that wiped out so much of Galveston, Texas on September 13th 2008. “A great destruction is coming!” we were told, and the authorities ordered the locals to abandon their homes that they might save their lives. But in a weird act of Lone Star defiance thousands chose not to, preferring to stay and fight the whirlwind rather than take orders from some pecker-head in Austin, or worse, Washington D.C. Some died, others were ruined, still others fled the city as they realized the enormity of what they were up against. A friend of mine found himself locked up in his Houston home, alone with his heavily pregnant wife, as unseen wanderers, temporarily liberated of societal constraints, tapped menacingly on the windows. He called his father in Wisconsin, who offered to send guns.

Authors, Social Media and the Allure of Magical Thinking (Publishing Perspectives)

So anyway, I’ve got a great idea. Times are hard for publishers, therefore publicists should write books. No, really: they know what’s hot better than anyone. So they should write — maybe Harry Potter knock — offs like Percy Jackson, or political hate books on the villain of the hour. It doesn’t matter — just write something hot. What’s that? Writing and promoting require entirely different skill sets? Boo-hoo. Publicists will have to adapt if they want to keep their jobs. Oh yeah, and they should do this extra work for free.

Does that sound ridiculous to you? That’s because it is — which is why I always feel slightly skeptical when I read editorials from publishing professionals exhorting writers to perform the reverse metamorphosis. Yes, these pieces are often very inspiring. Last week’s editorial by Betsy Lerner “Should I Tweet?” was excellent and contained much good advice. But to attain the right level of fist bumping feel-good magic, it is necessary to elide some inconvenient truths:

1) Authors are often very weird people.

LONE STAR LUNCH: In Search of William S. Burroughs' Pea Field (Sabotage Times)

I’d been interested in Edinburg, Texas (they dropped the ‘h’ in the 1930s) ever since I’d bought a souvenir mug in a junk shop that read: Edinburg: Gateway to the Future. In fact, located as it is in the Rio Grande Valley 19 miles from the Mexican Border, it’s more like a gateway to drug war horror. But who could resist such a promise? The town also has an interesting origin: founded in 1908, it was originally called ‘Chapin’- until Mr. Chapin shot and killed a man, that is. Concerned about bad PR, the locals renamed their town after the birthplace of John Young, a big man in the history of the Valley. Actually, nobody remembered what town Young came from - only that he was Scottish. Edinburgh was their best guess.

I Was A True Crime Addict (Guardian)

A few years ago I took a break from my excessively wholesome diet of quality literature to go grazing in the world of trash. I read celebrity biographies, airport thrillers, detective stories - even new age twaddle like Paulo Coehlo's The Alchemist. Some discoveries gave rise to new reading habits, while others - such as the Coehlo - led only to envy of the author's stupendous wealth and amazement he could get away with it. Nothing, however, gripped me like the "true crime" stories.

A Short Tour of the Juarez- El Paso Border (RIA Novosti)

I met Sgt. Ron Martin of the El Paso police department early in the morning, and was about to climb into his car when I found my way blocked by an assault rifle, propped up against the backseat like a faithful dog awaiting its master. A thorny issue of etiquette presented itself: Do I push it out the way? But what if it goes off and blows my brains out?

Juarez: City of Fear (The Spectator)

‘We’re not going to die, are we Dan?’ asked my friend Joe, a CBS radio reporter, shortly before we crossed from El Paso into Juarez, Mexico, murder capital of the world.

‘Nah,’ I replied. ‘Our guide is a priest. It’s a Sunday. The Narcos will respect that.’

I was lying to make him feel better. In February a sacristan in Juarez had been murdered, one of over 1000 drug related slayings in the city so far this year. Elsewhere in Mexico priests had been beaten and butchered: for the cartels, nothing is sacred. And no sooner had we met Father Michael, an 86 year old veteran of World War II, than he assured us his priestly status and the holiness of the day offered no protection: ‘Most killings occur during daylight… and they increase on the weekend.’

Criminal Incidences (Examiners.com)

1

Elgin officer sentenced for possession of child pornography

Attorney General Greg Abbott's campaign against sex offenders and online sex predators in Texas claimed another scalp Monday when a Bastrop County Jury sentenced 48 year old Orvin Roger Miller to three years in prison for three third degree felony counts of child pornography possession. 

Prior to his arrest Miller had worked as a police officer in Elgin, a small city located 8 miles east of Austin, known to locals as the 'The Sausage Capitol of Texas'. Now he will find out what life is like on the other side of the prison wall.

In addition to jail time for the first of the three charges, Miller was given ten years' probation and fined $10,000.  According to the Attorney General's office, the cop's crime was discovered after he left a thumb drive containing his resume, personal data and personal collection of child porn in a police computer. A fellow officer is reported to have found the illegal material and reported Miller, bringing his career in law enforcement to an abrupt halt.