Tuesday, February 01, 2000
Jeff Marks makes more mayhem
BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
So maybe crime doesn't pay, but a tad of murder and mayhem sure can make you famous.
That's what's happening to Cincinnati writer Jeff Marks. Already established in the shadowy world of mystery (Canine Crimes and Canine Christmas, Ballantine; $5.95 each). He's had recent luck that will establish him still more.
• His short story “Under Reconstruction” won second place in New Works Review's annual Mystery Writer Contest. Set after the Civil War, it's about Ulysses S. Grant and a grisly White House murder.
• His “Long Arm of the Paw” is up for Best Short Fiction in the Dog Writers of America's annual contest. He travels to New York this weekend to see how he did.
• Mystery Writers of America (they hand out the prestigious Edgar Awards) has him judging its annual competition, short story division. Which is to say he's about to get bleary-eyed, with 800 to read.
Work on his next book is finished. Magnolias and Mayhem, due in June,is 14 mysteries by assorted writers, including Marks. “Right now, we're working on the cover. I saw a proof and told them, "More blood. Much more blood'.”
This mayhem business pays off.
SHIVERING: That's one way to deal with cold and gray February: Make it a party.
Like Tom Moehringer, who hates the month so much he calls it the "F' month. But he has found ways to cope.
First, there's “Friday dive night, where we go to a different bar every Friday. I have a mailing list of 75, but the party is usually 10 to 50. It's been eight years and we haven't hit the same place twice.
“This year, we're going to because it's — I won't use the word millennium — a milestone year. We're doing greatest hits: the Oasis (Fort Thomas), voted Best Second Hand Smoke with 8-foot ceilings; Sleepy Hollow Inn (Loveland), Best Naugahyde; Lebo's (California, Ohio), because that was our first ever.”
The other way he copes is a Bowl With Elvis (If He Shows) Party. “It's midnight, the last Saturday in February.” Bowl With Elvis comes with accoutrements: Elvis tunes; Moehringer's treasured bust of Elvis lamp; guests in fake sideburns, some in full Elvi. They bowl and munch, what else? peanut butter and banana sandwiches and sing “Hunka Hunka Burnin' Pinbustin' Love.”
AND NOW A WORD . . .: How about a round of applause? Clap it for Greg Hahn, whose EDS (Electronic Data Systems) commercial scored in Sunday's Super Bowl.
Hahn lives in Minneapolis and works for Fallon McElligott, but parents Jack and Barbara Hahn live here. He's 31, a grad of Indian Hill High School and quite the success in the ad world. He's worked for such outfits as Lee Jeans, Honda and Nordstrom.
But EDS got him to the Super Bowl. The 60-second spot he wrote and directed showed cowboys, covered with scratches, participating in a house-cat roundup. It's based on the expression “like herding cats,” techno speak for a waaaay difficult task.
In his honor: ClapClapClap.
Knip's Eye View appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
