Alistair Kimble's Blog

I watch film noir year round, but Noirvember was a great time rewatch or discover some gems of the genre. I’ve listed some favorites below in honor of Noirvember.

Now, Eddie Muller has a list of his favorite noir films on his website, and I highly encourage you to take a peek. For those of you who aren’t aware of Eddie Muller, he’s been coined the “Czar of Noir” by my good friend, James Ellroy (I hope you know who he is, if you don’t, go read Black Dahlia and L.A. Confidential, and everything el...

I received my author copies of the mass market edition of Noir Fatale, a national bestseller, in which my story, A String Of Pearls, appears! Thank you, Baen Books! The mass market joins the hardcover, ebook, and audio editions!

Here’s a little about Noir Fatale from Baen’...

It’s no secret I’ve spent most of my career working counterespionage and counterintelligence (it’s in all my bios and I appear publicly as a Special Agent of the FBI). i get asked what my favorite espionage/spy novels are enough that I thought I’d share a few. I’m also adding a couple of non-fiction titles. This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but off the top of my head (so don’t rake me over the coals if I left off one of your favorites!). Plus, I’m always on the lookout for other title...

I thought since we were headed into a weekend, it’d be neat to look at screwball comedies and their continued relevance, especially today. Now, before you dismiss this because I’m talking about “old” movies, or “black and white” movies, or movies with a bunch of dead people I’ve never heard of, consider this question: What was the first film to sweep the 5 major categories at the Academy Awards?

Answer: It Happened One Night, a screwball comedy starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, and di...

I was interviewed by the wonderful PatZi a couple of weeks ago. I met PatZi at Bouchercon in Dallas back in November and was invited to be a guest on her radio program. Her syndicated radio program, Joy on Paper, is for writers and those who dream of writing. She’s interviewed over 500 authors and VIPs of the publishing world. Some of the writers she’s interviewed are Lee Child, Sue Grafton, David Baldacci, Sara Paretsky, and Lawrence Block!

She’s an engaging host with great energy and was a...

I’ve become pretty good friends with James Ellroy over the past couple of years, and it’s something I don’t really talk or write about too much. We both have a love of the past, and more specifically, film noir and crimes taking place in other eras. I wouldn’t mention my friendship with Ellroy (since I respect his privacy) other than it’s been outed in a magazine!

There’s an article about Ellroy in the JUNE/JULY 2019 issue of The Economist: 1843 magazine. 1843 is The Economist's ideas, culture...

Noir Fatale was released in early May and I’ve been looking forward to this anthology for a long time! I had the good fortune to be invited into this anthology. All those years of wearing hats, pocket squares, and loving film noir finally paid off!

The story I wrote for the anthology (the theme being femme fatales which, if not the main character of the story had to be present) is called A String Of Pearls. It’s about a woman carrying precious cargo on a train barreling into a world of trouble...

Back in January I was invited to write a story for an anthology which will be called Noir Fatale, edited by Kacey Ezell and Larry Correia and published by Baen Books. I've held off posting about the anthology, since when Larry announced it I had not yet turned in my story. But, I sent the story in, which is near future science fiction, and the editor loved it, so I feel okay posting about it!

People who know me even just a little bit know of my love for film noir, and hardboiled and noir fic...

My first exposure to the classic Universal Monsters came in the form of a card game.

Yes, in 1964 Milton Bradley released a monster version of Old Maid! I found this card game at my grandparents' house when I was a little kid in the mid-1970s. The game must have belonged to one of my aunts. I'd look at these cards and get scared and a few were creepy. I mean, they were mostly the disembodied heads of monsters, and when you're four or five years old it's scary!  I sometimes wonder what happen...

Right now I'm at Bouchercon, the annual crime/mystery convention, which is being held in Toronto this year. So why am I bringing up cross-genre fiction while I'm attending a mystery con?

So, I was chatting with David Morrell (his first novel was First Blood, and he's written so many great books!) after he signed a book for me, and he brought up how he likes to write in multiple genres as well as mixing genres in one book. And that got me thinking about how audiences used to a certain style fro...