Crawls, Festivals, & Radio

Hey folks, just a quick update on all thing “hardboiled”. Writing is a little difficult as I broke my wrist a week back, and the plaster cast has mostly mobilized my left hand. But I am slowly on the mend, so I will hopefully get back to my more regular writing schedule soon.

In the meantime, I’ve been busy planning to attend a couple of upcoming events. Friday October 15th, I will be at the inaugural Book Crawl in Hamilton, ON. Modelled on the popular Art Crawl, this event will feature 30+ local authors selling their books along the very funky Ottawa Street business district. Come on out and say hi, and grab a copy of When The Luck Runs Dry if you find yourself in The Hammer on the 15.:)

A couple weeks later, I’ll be at another event in Hamilton. This time I’ll be part of the Page Turner panel, an event programmed as part of the long-running Hamilton Film Festival. I’ll be there along with Aaron Lam and Colin Chilvers. Chilvers is an Academy Award winning SPX specialist with a long and varied career that began back in the late 60’s when he worked on The Battle of Britain. It should be a fun and entertaining afternoon at The Westdale Cinema, and we’ll be doing a book signing afterwards, so hope to see you there. Details and links for advance tickets can be found at: https://www.hamiltonfilmfestival.com

Recently I caught up with James Tennant, host of Get Lit on 93.3 CFMU-FM. We chatted for about 30 minutes and the on-air broadcast should be late October. It will then be available via podcast. Here is a link for the show page and archived shows, and I’ll update the blog when the on-air date approaches. https://cfmu.ca/shows/9-get-lit

More updates soon-till then think good thoughts!

Stephen

Gore Park 1860

Authors in the Park

Hey folks all is good here at HardBoiled. I am working away slowly on the follow-up novel: Fallen Angels. I’ve been attending some writing workshops with the Quebec Writers Federation as I am now relocating full-time to Montreal.

I am in Hamilton this weekend , and will be participating in a cool event featuring local writers called: Authors In The Park. The show takes place Aug 1 from 1-4 pm and will feature a plethora of local talent hawking their wares, including your truly.

Swing on by this Sunday and say hi; and pick-up a signed copy of :When The Luck Runs Dry. The event takes place in Hamilton’s historic Gore Park, steps away from the Hunter Street Go-Transit station. Hope to see you there:)

Stephen

Spreading the word. Literally.

Hey folks, I hope everyone is well. It has been a busy few weeks for your humble author. Between vaccine jabs, medical appointments, and transitioning to a new residence in Montreal it has been difficult to keep the blog updated.

I squeezed in an interview with Hammer D20 that is live streaming this weekend, and I will tell you more about that (and hopefully provide an archive link) on the next blog.

We have a couple of shops selling print copies of : When The Luck Runs Dry in Hamilton, ON. I hope to have some more outlets, including some in Montreal in the future. Alternately, you can read the book by clicking above in the menu; links for e-pub platforms, mail-order service, and for the film LUCKY 7 (2012) all all there for your perusal.

Our friends over at the Paisley Cafe in Westdale have been doing a swift trade selling copies and cappuccinos, many thanks to Sarah (and crew) for helping get the title out! https://paisleycoffeehouse.com

We also are in stock at the very cool James St. Booksellers in downtown Hamilton. Contact Monique for curb-side pick-up of a hard copy and take a peak at the very cool interior that is one of the main locations of the Apple TV Series: GHOSTWRITER: https://www.jamesstreetbooks.ca

E-Book Release & Print Pre-Orders

The E-book release of: When The Luck Runs Dry is active as of March 17, 2021. You can find it on Apple Books, Kobo, and Kindle by clicking on the menu at the top of the home page. There is also a menu to contact us to pre-order a print copy of the novel, click on Print for the details. As well there is a Watch menu if you are interested in the original Neo-Noir film: Lucky 7 (2012).

I hope to have some news on retail outlets in the Ontario and Quebec region that may carry the title this Spring; more to come on that later. Thanks for the awesome support folks, and I will have another update in the near future. Cheers, for now!

Stephen

Sneak Peek

Well folks I hope everyone is well. We are making progress on art work and typesetting for the up coming Neo-Noir novel: When The Luck Runs Dry. The project is nearing a completion date in mid February, with a launch date tentatively set for March 17, 2021. Due to the pandemic the launch may have to be a virtual event, depending on the Co-Vid situation here in Canada. I am working on the social media sites related to the book, which you can find in the About and Contact menus above. Otherwise I am slowly writing away at the sequel novel: Fallen Angels, and I had a nice workshop with the #QuebecWritersFederation on the weekend that helped move that along. So here is a small excerpt from the upcoming book and if you are chomping at the bit to read it, you can watch the 2012 film version on I Tunes in North America here: https://factoryfilmstudio.com/portfolio-item/lucky-7/

Excerpt:

I step out of the cab into the now brisk air, and the cab driver helps me gather my things from the trunk. He lays them on the sidewalk while I light another cigarette. He reaches into his breast pocket and pulls out a business card and hands it to me. –
Taxi Driver: “Anytime you need a lift, here’s my number. Big tippers like you don’t come around very often!”
He chuckles and slides back into his taxi, pulling away into the darkened night, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
The sign from Farleys’ is lit from the side swinging slightly in the wind. But another light is glowing now from the downstairs storefront, a neon red and violet glow from an illuminated cross in the window. Strange to see. This was and old hardware store last, I remember-—Millers’?
Now as I look up, I see a new sign: The Church of The Universal Prophet. Jesus. You can thank the tax-free status of churches for all these store-front operations. Usually run by some crackpot or another—or some Mafia clan doing some old school money laundering. I try and peer through the drawn shades, but the view is obscured. Yet my ears can make out the sounds of an electric church organ filtering out onto the street. Sounds like an old school Protestant hymn from way back. Well, to my untrained ear at least.
But duty calls, and I turn toward the doorway to the right of the building and open the door. Farley’s is a strange old building, and the main oddity of it is that the pub is located on the upper floor. Many an inebriated patron has taken a tumble down this flight of stairs over the years, but no casualties so far—that I know of, that is. Other than a few livers, but those are a self-inflicted wound.
As I open the door, I hear the organ music from the church being overpowered by some Irish folk rock emanating from upstairs. The Irish—the Blacks of Europe. “No Dogs or Irishmen need apply, etc.” No longer: once shunned like the Italians in throughout North America, now everyone runs out to drink green beer and knows all the words to every song by U2. Kind of funny really. And the music only gets louder as I ascend the stairs.
I round the corner at the top of the stairs and enter a time capsule. The music and lights and pool tables and bar stools: they are all just as I remember them. The two guys tending bar are familiar as well, except a few years older. They’re my brothers, Allan and Brian, and the barfly at the end of the bar—he is still here as well: Alex Quigley. It was Quigley who first notices me standing silhouetted in the doorway, as I drop by duffel bag to the floor.
Quigley: “Well. If it isn’t Lucky 7; like Lazarus back from the dead!”
Lucky 7. That was nickname bestowed on me at a young age, being the 7th kid in a brood of 8. The only one younger than me was Frankie. I was deemed to be the one to bring good fortune upon the family, being the 7th born, but the only luck I seem to have brought was bad. Or so it may seem up to now anyways.
And, just now, my luck seems to not be taking too much of a positive spin either, as my brothers catch sight of me and advance from behind the bar with a mix of shock and anger in their eyes. Allan stands back while Brian advances forward blocking my path.
Brian: “Jesus Fucking Christ.”
Not the best wording for a conversation starter I think, but before I can reply, a flash of fist rises from below and a powerful pain shocks my jaw. And then the lights go out. For me anyways. Some homecoming.

Photo Credit: Sabrina Armani

Read it Soon-Watch It Now

Watch Here: https://factoryfilmstudio.com/portfolio-item/lucky-7/

As we near the publication in Spring 2021 of: When The Luck Runs Dry, here is some information on the 2011 feature film version of the story. It’s available now to stream or purchase on iTunes in Canada and the USA though Factory Film Studios! If you can’t wait to read it, you can watch it in the meantime:)

Here a little description and info on the neo-noir film:

Given up for dead, Patrick Farley (Lucky 7) returns home to pay a gambling debt to the mob but finds he’s been framed for murder. His luck’s run dry so he makes his own, and it becomes a dangerous game filled with sex, drugs, violence and betrayal. Can he hold on to the beauty he also finds waiting for him here in the heart of this broken down city, and follow its path back home?

Nominated for Best Screenplay -2007 Queen’s International Film Festival
Audience Choice Award -Hamilton Film Festival 2011
Official Screening Shanghai International Film Festival 2012-Focus Canada
EFM Berlinale 2013-Market Screening
Official Selection -BNFF 2014
Showcase Selection-Lucerne International Film Festival 2014

Some Press: http://playbackonline.ca/2012/06/08/canadians-showcase-20-films-at-shanghai-international-film-festival/

Follow us on FB: http://www.facebook.com/pages/LUCKY-7/36607157098?ref=stream

December 2020 Update

Hey folks! I hope everyone is well and surviving as best they can in these strange times. I am relocated back to Dundas, Ontario for the Winter. Walking in snow and ice is an issue for me, so Montreal isn’t the ideal place in the colder months for personal mobility.

Things are moving along slowly but surely with the final stages of work on: When The Luck Runs Dry. I am hoping for a March 2021 release, but with the pandemic situation that is a bit fluid at the moment.

Here is a small synopsis of the novel:

Given up for dead, Patrick Farley returns home to pay a gambling debt to the mob but finds he’s been framed for murder. His luck’s run dry, so he makes his own; and it becomes a dangerous game filled with sex, drugs, violence and betrayal. Can he hold on to the beauty he also finds waiting for him here in the heart of this broken down city, and follow its path back home?

Currently Laura Boyle is working on the interior design and typesetting of the manuscript. She’s done many cool book and cover designs including for Dundurn Press. London artist Jeremy Bruneel is currently working on cover art work. He has a unique style which he hopes to meld with a retro pulp detective novel look. You can take a peek at some of work on his Wixsite: https://jeremybruneel.wixsite.com/illustration

Speaking of taking a look at things, When The Luck Runs Dry is based on my script and 2011 feature film : Lucky 7. The film was selected for the 2012 Shanghai International Film Festival, and went on to North American distribution wth Factory Film Studios. You can rent or purchase it in North America on I Tunes so take a look : https://factoryfilmstudio.com/portfolio-item/lucky-7/

I’ll be updating again early in January with more news, and a little feature on my cousin Bob Hayes. He is a retired Wolf Researcher turned writer and he has just published his 4th book. Till then take care and think good thoughts.

Stephen

Photo Credit- Sabrina Armani

Back In The Saddle

 

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Hey folks, it has been a while since I have been blogging, but it is time to return to it on a more regular basis . I’m working on some blogs now for he next few weeks, so stay tuned. I am also sprucing up the site ,and updating my bio and contact info. Currently, I continue to host Soundtrack on CFMU 93.3 Wednesday’s  from 10:00-12:00 EST; although there may be a change of station and city later in the year.I will keep you posted on that. Otherwise film festival wise; last October I attended some screenings at the Festival De Nouveau Cinema in Montreal. Hopefully I will be attending this years Fantasia Film Festival in July and blogging about some of the cool screenings there. Also there is a graphic novel project in the works based on a recent script I penned called Diggers...so there are a lot if things happening ,and coming down the pipe. I will be ack soon with some new blog material. Tschuss.

2018-Update

It has been a  while since I blogged, and it has been a busy year w film screenings, writing, and travel. In July, I spent a few days at the  Fantasia Film Festival 2017- and the 2018  edition is back again in 3 months time. Recently I attended the Toronto Silent Film Festival and also hosted a screening of my film Lucky 7 at The Royal Cinema in Toronto. I spent Dec-Feb in Europe, and even though I didn’t get to any festivals per se I did see some films at various interesting cinemas in Berlin, Wroclaw, Strasbourg, and Bordeaux. I was also able to check out the Toulouse Cinematheque & the Lumiere Museum in Lyon-which still has a portion of the worlds first film studio. Very cool place. Otherwise, I have been spending some time writing; a new script is in the can plus some preliminary musings on a couple other idea…and radio wise the show on CFMU is still going strong and I acquired a lot of great vinyl in Europe-much to the distress of my pocket book:) Anyways cheers for now and I hope too be back at the blogging on a more frequent basis:)

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More great films here at the goEast FF ,which has wrapped up now with the awards having been given out a few days ago. Here is a little more about some of the films I was able to check out…

The Citizen– d. Ronald Vranik ( Hungary-2016)

Director Vranik returns to the festival after screening his film Transmision here in 2009. This time around he weaves a very human story centring around a African migrant in Budapest ,who struggles to make himself a part of Hungarian society. He comes into the circle of an illegal Iranian immigrant named: Shirin ,as well as a married Hungarian woman: Maria. This trio of characters become intwined in a fluid relationship involving love and loss,as well as racism ,and responsibility.

I found the film had a strong new- realist influence, as the director studies the socio-economic,race, and immigration issues prevalent in modern Hungary. But he never loses sight of the very human story unfolding before us.

Using a cast including a former economist from Africa and a designer from Iran the film grounds itself in an authenticity that again has echoes of the Italian new-realist movement.

A strong  feature here from Popfilm in Hungary….

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Exiled-d. Davis Simanis ( Latvia-2016)

This is the story of a German army doctor sent to Latvia in 1917 in the midst of WW I. He does so to report on back on the conditions of the facilitiy looking after wounded soldiers in a dilapidated old manor house.

While sporadic fighting takes place in the surrounding area, the doctor finds that the injured are suffering from unknown illness’ and trauma from the horrors of the war; and he seems incapable of healing them. All he can really provide for them is comfort and compassion and his time doesn’t seems fruitless. That is until he rescues a young boy left alone in the forest, and finds that perhaps he can help him find his way back to civilization.

Wonderfully played by Ulrich Matthes, this film is loosely  based on the the story of Ovids exile. It is a tough, unrelenting movie, based in historical research on WW I, which was the first large scale mechanized war ;and as a result the first war to unleash a wave of mental and emotional suffering on this magnitude.

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Filthy-d. Tereza Nvotova (Czech/Slovakia-2016)

Filthy is a gritty new film from first time director Nvotova. A graduation work for FAMU, this is an impressive film dealing with the topics of sexual abuse, mental illness, and coming of age.

After being victimized by a family friend and raped, our main character finds herself housed in a mental institution as she tries to cope with the trauma of the event.

Shot in the largest mental institution in Slovakia, a facility little changed since the Communisti Era, the director uses actors and real patients in the wards to give the movie the definite realist edge, and to ground it in the context of modern Slovak society.

Th story deals with  difficult and serious subject, but we never lose sight of the drama and encapsulation of tthe resiliency of human courage.

An impressive first film from Nvotova, and  one would hope for more good things to come from her in the future.

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Marina, Mabuse, and Moritori-d. Kathryn Andersen (Germany 2016)

Artur Brauner and his film studio are the subject if this new documentary from director Andersen.

Brauer survived the Holocast in Poland and made it to West Berlin in 1946. Always having been interested in cinema, he convinced his grandmother to sell her fur coat and with this money financed his first film: Moritori.

Shot in the ruins of Berlin, in near impossible conditions, Braurer created a solid drama about the persecution of Jews in WW II. Unfortunately the film was unsuccessful at the cinemas, so Braurer produced a more commercial film next, which proved to be a big success.

With the proceeds from this film, Brauer purchased an old poison  gas factory in Spandau mand here he set up his CCC Studios.

These studios were to pump out up to 18 feature films a year in the 1950s, and Brauer was credited with singlehandedly keeping the Berlin film scene alive after most of the talent had fled following the war.

The studio would go on to produce over 700 films, including  over 250 made by Brauner himself. Although concentrating on commercial fare the studio did make 24 films through the years dealing with the Holocast. These include Wadjas: A Love Story In Germany and the award wining film : Europa Europa.

Now in his 90s Brauner has handed most of the duties of the studio to his daughter ( and director of this film), Kathryn Andersen.

A very cool look at at the father of ” creative producing” ….

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A Hole In The Head-d. Robert Kirchhoff (Czech/Slovak-2016)

A documentary styled as an auteur film. This is an apt description of a new film by director Kirchhoff which is the latest in a series of works that include the award winning film : Normalization.

Here the director  has made a film that explores the neglected issue of the persecution of the Roma people’s , and their suffering at the hands of the Nazis during WW II.

Individual stories and remembrances are used to create a film more about the memories of the atrocities of the Roma Holocast, than a researcher-led traditional documentary telling of the story.

This style helps connect the film to its diverse characters knowledge of the past, and to their present day situations; including  their hopes for a recognition of their suffering…..

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