NOIR VALENTINE IN THE HA-RA
The more or less official launch party for San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics takes place Saturday February 14 — Valentine’s Day — beginning at 8 p.m. in The Ha-Ra Bar in 875 Geary between Hyde and Larkin. If you’re over 21 years old and have had enough romance for the day, pop on in for readings by Don, Craig Clevenger, David Corbett, Sin Sorrocco, Domenic Stansberry, John Shirley and editor Peter Maravelis — free to get in, but Carl the Bartender may charge you a couple of bucks for drinks, you know how it is.
The next SFNoir2 affair Don will sit in on will be 7 p.m. Tuesday March 3 at “M” is for Mystery in San Mateo — where it looks as if advance copies of the new hardcover edition of The Dashiell Hammett Tour from Vince Emery Productions will be on sale, if the printing presses are running hot. Vince showed up for the Noir City event on January 31 with an advance reading copy in hand, and we’re plotting out a round of local signings — with a return to “M” is for Mystery on Thursday April 2 at 7 p.m. being a good one to put on your calendar, since Don will be doing a joint appearance with Ace Atkins, in town for the launch of his exciting new crime novel Devil’s Garden, which features Pinkerton’s op Dashiell Hammett sleuthing his way through the Fatty Arbuckle caper.
And after that April 2 signing wraps up, Ace and Don intend to return to the mighty Ha-Ra (everybody’s favorite dive bar) by 9 p.m. or so to drink with any Hammett fans that care to show up — consider that the first more or less official meeting of the Hammett Flash Mob. Bring books to get signed or just come on down to talk Hammett and the hardboiled until the swinging door slams shut.
BIG READ IN BOISE
Now, this doesn’t happen every day, but if you’re in Boise Tuesday February 17 you can catch Don doing a couple of talks in connection with that burg hosting a Big Read for a certain classic novel titled The Maltese Falcon. First round will be 11:45 till 1:15 in the Boise City Club, capped off by a 7 p.m. talk in the Boise Public Library. Never having been in Boise before, Don intends to be wildly entertaining, per norm.
MIAMI BLUES IN BERKELEY
As soon as he hops off the plane back from Boise, Don is set to introduce a screening of Miami Blues on Thursday February 19 in the Pacific Film Archive, based on the modern classic by the great Charles Willeford. Plus on Saturday February 28 Don’ll do the honors again for a showing of “The Woman Chaser” starring Patrick Warburton, based on one of Willeford’s wall-to-wall-fun paperback original novels. In ten minutes intro time per film, can Don tell you something you don’t already know about the cinema of Willeford? Sure.
TUCSON BOUND IN MARCH
In addition to whatever signings get booked for the thirtieth anniversary edition of The Dashiell Hammett Tour book, if you happen to attend the Tucson Book Fair you’ll find a few copies for sale. About 10 a.m. on the morning of Saturday March 14 Don is set to appear on a noir panel with Dennis McMillan and Lolo Waiwaiole, and he’ll be hanging around the rest of the fair, ready to talk books and sign anything you may care to haul in, from Willeford or long out of print copies of The Literary World of San Francisco, issues of Firsts: The Book Collectors Magazine or The Cimmerian.
