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2011-01-19T10:15:00.000-08:00

Books & Books to sell Trade Paperbacks of C.J. Beck's Kindle bestseller"Sixteen Stories, No Pets"

Books & Books, one of south Florida's last authentic small book chains and co-host of the Miami Book Fair, now stock at their Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale store, C.J. Beck's latest novel SIXTEEN STORIES, NO PETS, a comic condo crime mystery.

For full story go tohttp://www.prlog.org/11268489.html

C.J. Beck's backlist bestseller SPIKED #70 in Amazon Technothrillers

All C.J. Beck trade paperback titles are now available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon (top 5%) as eBooks.

SIXTEEN STORIES, NO PETS # 48 - Amazon criminal and lawyers' humor.

SPIKED reaches # 70 - Amazon Technothrillers boosted by Kindle despite $20.00 eBook price and 2002 pub date.

SIZZLE at # 14 - Amazon books on adoption.

2010-03-23T12:57:00.000-07:00

Brew Urban Café regulars discovered early Monday morning June 7th, 2010, the hurricane season had arrived early on Second Street in the Fort Lauderdale Historical area.

The scene was set for a stormy episode of the upcoming new TV series "The Glades". A writer who has lived and worked in the film industry said the Hollywood scale of the set spoke volumes about Fort Lauderdale's potential as a fresh new location for moviegoers jaded with Los Angeles and Miami.

Veteran producer Gary Randall ("Saving Grace") of Grand Productions gave this blog an exclusive interview - no other media were present - and outlined details of the new show he is producing with its creator Clifton Campbell (“White Collar,” “Profiler,” “21 Jump Street”) for Innuendo Productions.

Producers expect this original series to break the mold of police procedurals. It is set in the "fictional town" of Palm Glade, Florida, and stars Australian actor Matt Passmore (“McLeod’s Daughters,” “Underbelly”), Kiele Sanchez (“Lost,” “Samantha Who?”) and Carlos Gómez (“Shark,” “Sleeper Cell”).

Gary Randall asked this blog for help in tracking down the artist responsible for the iconic fresco on the interior south wall of Brew Urban Café, Fort Lauderdale's top coffee house. Details on Ralph Carbosa were provided after data mining My Fort Lauderdale voluminous archives and retrieving information supplied by the late and much lamented Larry Gluckman ("I resemble that remark"), inspiration for the Bronxian wit and barrista, Harry Glick, in C.J. Beck's novel Sixteen stories, no pets.

"Paging Mr. Carbosa. Hollywood calling."

A&E Network will premiere the original scripted drama series, “The Glades” on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 10PM ET/PT.

Craft and teamster support wagons were well secured far away from the location so as not to draw curious crowds. The street was packed with equipment including three large wind machines and fire hoses linked across the street to create a scene that Nature wrought again for windscale several hours later that afternoon.

In “The Glades,” Passmore stars as Jim Longworth, a homicide detective from Chicago who after being burned by his superiors relocates to the "sleepy, middle of nowhere town of Palm Glade", Florida, where the fun appears to be inversely proportional to the crime. Or so he thought...

Consider this. Fort Lauderdale and other quiet Florida spots are the settings for John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee stories, C.J. Beck's condo manager wise-cracking sleuth John Power in SIXTEEN STORIES, NO PETS and now Jim Longworth in "The Glades". How is it the public never get to hear about all this criminal activity perpetrated in "sleepy, middle of nowhere" places in Florida? Must be due to those self-effacing "Jim Longworths" and "John Powers" quietly getting on with putting wrong right in south Florida.

AMAZON KINDLE
Fort Lauderdale

2009-05-04T14:14:00.000-07:00

"compelling characters...loads of adventure,
evoking tears and laughter simultaneously"
-Hi-Riser on SIZZLE

From the author who stopped Donald Trump steal his ocean view - Sixteen Stories, No Pets

a mystery wrapped around a masterclass in condo survival

See the book's "political" endorsement at

http://blog.timsmith.com/

2006-08-17T12:06:00.000-07:00

Log line: High rise high jinks as janitor solves the mysterious death of a controversial condo board member.

SIXTEEN STORIES, NO PETS is a satire on condo life where the janitor solves the mysterious death of a controversial owner. There are fifty million potential readers in condos, coops and homeowners' associations waiting to laugh and cry along with the story's shenanigans and its rich cast of characters.

The book's style built around deep insider knowledge will certainly appeal to readers of Carl Hiaasen or John Grisham fans who want their legal funny. SIXTEEN STORIES, NO PETS is told in the unique inner voice of a janitor in a South Florida beach condo out of luck and love, who sees everything, hears everything but says little, except in his banter to the reader, replete with caustic advice like “Every question deserves a lie.” The sudden death of a controversial condo board director doesn't faze him, but does prompt him to work on solving how she died. All the cast are suspect; the condo board directors, the developer who is trying to build next door, his blackjack dealers, a pedicab company owner, a chickenhawk contractor, the missing husband and even the janitor.

Working through the puzzle propels us through this page turner, but it’s much more the sharp observations and satiric insights on surviving condo life, that make this story and our quirky narrator, wonderful entertainment and the basis for a franchise.

Interested? Then e-mail C.J. Beck http://blog.timsmith.com/2009/04/26/beach-condo-leader--tear-down-buildings/trackback.aspx

On the Fort Lauderdale set of In A Pickle with Jackie Mason, Steve Moskovic (One Angry Man) directing- - with a host of cameos from established actors such as Havana born action movie star Steven Bauer (Scarface).

Producers told this blog that they want "no publicity".
No worries on that score then - they spoke to the right blog for that. (SFX - boo-boom, stage right)

Mason demonstrated many years ago that he too believes in the My Fort Lauderdale credo by standing up to blowhard Ed Sullivan on his eponymous hit TV show. Cost him half-a-lifetime at the top.

Bauer's maternal grandparents were Jewish refugees from Germany - excellent credentials no doubt for being cast "IN A PICKLE". (SFX Rimshot, stage right)

SIXTEEN STORIES, NO PETS is a comic crime novel set in a fictional south Florida beach condo in a town called Las Olas By-The-Sea. The three minute film trailer opens as a condo commando falls to an untimely end.

AMAZON KINDLE
Fort Lauderdale