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August 11, 2013
Reviewer: Howard in Georgia
Shotgun is an effective pre-workout drink. It gave me lasting energy, better focus and intensity in the gym. The taste wasn't bad , BUT, you need to use a shaker cup to get it all mixed with cold water. Trying to stir it with a cup and spoon didn't work that well. It will also give you a nice warm, feeling which will increase your pump and reduce warm up time. VPX hs a real winner with this one and I have been using supplements since 1977.
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Florida Blue - Home
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Advantages of Health Insurance

Individual and Family health coverage can protect you and your family from high, unexpected medical costs.  Consider these costs:

  • Fixing a broken leg can cost up to $7,5001
  • The average cost of a 3-day hospital stay is around $30,0001
  • Comprehensive cancer care can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars1

Health coverage limits the amount you pay for covered medical care and your plan pays the rest. Plus, Florida Blue has people, programs and services to help with your overall health care needs.  Just call us!

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May 07, 2015 Paul Kluding , 904-905-3404

Florida Blue and Tampa Bay Integrated Healthcare Network Form Accountable Care Arrangement

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- May 7, 2015 -- Florida Blue and Tampa Bay Integrated Healthcare Network (TBIH) announced today the launch of an accountable care program to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care in the Tampa Bay area.

An accountable care program allows an insurer to collaborate with a network of providers, sharing in the medical and financial responsibility for a group of patients. The coordination of care helps ensure that patients get the right care at the right time, and focuses on improving the health care experience.

The partnership between Florida Blue and TBIH provides care to patients with the goal of improving their health status, and eliminating unnecessary spending by seamlessly sharing information and meeting quality targets.

This type of physician-centric arrangement that does not include a hospital as part of the agreement is the first of its kind for a Florida Blue accountable care program. Launching in April, this Tampa-focused program serves as another example of Florida Blue’s innovative approach to transforming the way patients receive their medical care. To date, Florida Blue has established 19 commercial accountable care partnerships with leading health systems and physician groups in Florida - more than any other insurer.

“We are honored to work with organizations like Tampa Bay Integrated Healthcare Network that share our goal of creating new care and reimbursement models that directly benefit our customers,” said Brian Kiss, M.D., vice president of healthcare transformation for Florida Blue.

“Tampa Bay Integrated Healthcare Network is proud to partner with Florida Blue in its Accountable Provider Organization program,” said Mona Boghdadi, M.D., president of TBIH and president of University Community Independent Practice Association (UCIPA). “Our physician network is committed to providing high quality, cost effective care to our patients to achieve improved results and patient satisfaction. Our goal is to reduce hospital readmissions, eliminate unnecessary emergency room visits, and eliminate duplication of services. Our team is committed to support our patients towards better health and we will strive to minimize costs by sharing information and meeting superior targets.”

About Florida Blue

Florida Blue, Florida’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield company, is a leader in Florida’s health care industry. Driven by its mission to help people and communities achieve better health, Florida Blue has more than 4 million health care members across the state. An additional 15.5 million people in 16 states are served through its affiliated companies. Florida Blue is a not-for-profit, policyholder-owned, tax-paying mutual company. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., it is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an association of independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies. For more information, visit www.floridablue.com.

About Tampa Bay Integrated Healthcare Network (TBIH)

TBIH is a physician-led clinically integrated network, founded and established by University Community Independent Practice Association, Inc. (UCIPA) and Tampa Bay Provider Group, Inc (TBPG). UCIPA and TBPG have provided excellent cost-effective medical services for over 500,000 members in the Tampa Bay area for over 22 years. TBIH physicians will follow the footsteps of their predecessors, take medical care to the next level, and continue to be leaders in their communities for providing high quality care to patients in the Tampa Bay area. For more information contact TBIH at mbowne@ucipa-tbpg.com or call 813-615-2520.

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Return to: UMC Home
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Golden Eagle Women’s Volleyball “Digs for the Cure” on Saturday, October 18th
October 6, 2008

Contact: Mitch Bakken- Sports Information Director (218) 281-8414

(Crookston, Minn.)- The University of Minnesota, Crookston women’s volleyball team announced today that the Golden Eagles will host a “Dig for the Cure” match on Saturday, October 18th in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. U of M, Crookston will host the Dragons of MSU Moorhead at 7 p.m. that evening in Lysaker Gymnasium. Remember to wear something pink to show your support for breast cancer awareness.

The volleyball team and staff will be soliciting pledges throughout October.  There are two ways that you can pledge your support to the “Dig for the Cure”.

1.     You can pledge a flat rate amount.  $25.00 is the recommended pledge, but any dollar amount is welcome!  This is a great option if you want to know exactly how much you’ll be pledging or if you want to pay your pledge amount up front.

2.     You can pledge per dig that the Golden Eagles tally during the match with MSU Moorhead.  UMC is currently averaging about 13 digs per game. If you pledged $1.00 per dig and the team is consistent in their defensive performance, a three-game match would equal $39.00, a four-game match $52.00, and a five-game match $65.00.  (Please remember that these numbers are an approximation and that your total amount pledged can vary if we tally more or less digs than our average and it will also depend on how many games the match goes—it could be anywhere from three to five games). 100% of the proceeds raised by the volleyball team during this community service project will be donated to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s Minnesota affiliates.  The Golden Eagle Volleyball team will also accept donations at the gate on the night of the match.

For more information on “Dig for the Cure”, contact assistant volleyball coach Heather Grieser at 218-281-8410 or by email at If you choose to support our efforts by pledging per dig, the player or coach who solicited your pledge will contact you in the week after the match to inform you of your total pledge amount and to make arrangements to collect your donation.  Dig for the Cure is a breast cancer fundraising and awareness effort that originated with collegiate volleyball in 2003.  If you’re curious about Dig for the Cure, you can learn more about the program here:

For more information, visit the Golden Eagle Athletics website at:


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You are hereHantsweb HomeHealthy Schools Team

Inspection and Advisory Service (HIAS)

Healthy Schools Team

The Healthy Schools team is a multi agency team which consists of both health and education colleagues. The team are able to offer support and guidance to schools across Hampshire.

Glyn Wright – County Inspector/Adviser for Personal Development Learning

Tel: 023 9244 1442

Stephen Morton

Teaching and Learning Advisor for Personal Development Learning
Tel: 023 9244 1442 / 07721 128906

Julie Thompson – Senior Public Health Practitioner

Tel: 023 8038 3312

Ian Wright – Healthy Schools Co-ordinator (School Meal Uptake)

Tel: 07833 247585

Sarah Cook, Support Officer to Glyn Wright

Tel: 023 9244 1442
Fax: 01962 834552

Glyn, Stephen and Sarah are based at:

HIAS, Alton Local Office
Alton Health Centre
Anstey Road
Alton  GU34 2QX

Julie is based at:

Public Health Department
First Floor
Elizabeth II Court South
The Castle
Winchester  SO23 8UJ

Ian is based at:

HC3S (Hampshire County Council Catering Services)
Enterprise House
27-29 Market Street
Eastleigh SO50 5RG


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Welcome to our new website...
Northwoods Directory Member Listing Become a Member
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Region Brainerd Lakes Area
Organization Name: Crisis Line & Referral Service
Name:  Shannon Worden
Position: Executive Director
Address: PO Box 192
City: Brainerd
State: MN
Zip: 56401
Phone: (218) 828-4515
Fax: (218) 822-3135
Organization Email shannon.crisisline@integra.net
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  • Description: The mission of the Crisis Line and Referral Service is to provide confidential and anonymous telephone support to people in distress and crisis, and to serve as a lifeline for positive change by connecting our clients to area resources. We do this through the dedicated efforts and precious time of trained, well-informed volunteers. Our service area covers Aitkin, Cass, Crow Wing, Morrison, Todd, and Wadena Counties.
    Web Site Address: http://
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Disclaimers: * No claims found on our web pages or in print have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. No claim or opinion on these pages is intended to be, nor should be construed to be, medical advice. Please consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet or exercise program. Netrition and its associates are not responsible for product claims made by manufacturers on this web site. Netrition, Inc. is not responsible for typographical errors. Prices and information on these pages are subject to change without notice.

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November 29, 2011

China’s Problems Still Manageable, Says Nobel Laureate

China has significant problems, including rising debt and increasing inflation. But Michael Spence, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics, argues that these challenges are manageable.

Stan Luxenberg

Racing to modernize, China has accomplished an unprecedented feat, expanding its economy 10 percent annually for three decades. Now the country faces slower export sales to customers in Europe and the United States. Some economists fear that problems in the developed world could disrupt China’s boom. But Nobel Laureate Michael Spence is confident that the Beijing government will be able to steer through the difficult times, he said at a November event sponsored by the Chazen Institute of International Business and the Social Enterprise Program at Columbia Business School.

“I tend to be an optimist on China,” he said. “There are people who have bet against China every year for the last 31 years, and they have lost money every single time.”

A decade ago, China relied heavily on exports to the developed world, he noted. But now much of China’s trade comes from emerging economies such as Brazil and India. Those countries should continue growing even if Europe stagnates. “Emerging markets can sustain growth when the advanced countries are flat,” he said.

To be sure, China has significant problems, including rising debt and increasing inflation. But Spence argued that these challenges are manageable. The aggregate sovereign debt is still well under 50 percent of GDP, a figure substantially below that of the United States and most developed countries, he noted. In addition, the government is raising interest rates to cool the economy and keep inflation under control.

In the coming years, China is likely to enjoy continual rapid growth as the economy enters a new phase that will rely on domestic consumer spending instead of export sales, he said. As part of the 12th Five-Year Plan, the Beijing government will seek to boost wages and profits by making factories more efficient and capable of producing sophisticated products. The aim is to move workers from low-skilled jobs to positions that require higher skills and pay better wages. “The labor-intensive sector of the economy will be exported to countries that are at lower stages of development,” he said.

By emphasizing sophisticated manufacturing, China is following the successful course taken by other developing countries, including Japan and Korea, he said.

“The economy is starting to change very fast,” said Spence. “They are moving in the direction of increasing their productivity and competitiveness.”

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Meet the HP technology experts

Connect with an HP technology expert to help move your business forward.

Support experts

Connect with HP for a single point of contact for support for your IT infrastructure. Talk with experts about how the personalized, proactive HP support experience can help you keep your technology up and running.

Patrick Hines

What I can do for you

In the technology industry, all systems aren't always go. When disruptions occur, I offer solutions. As an HP Customer Engineer, I connect you with the vast and deep expertise of the HP team to restore your business continuity quickly and efficiently.

My experience and expertise within the HP Services Team ensures that the right resources are always deployed.

Who I am

I support the entire HP Enterprise portfolio as well as multivendor equipment anywhere in the country, whether onsite at a client's location or at an HP data center. First, as your point of contact with HP Technology Services, I help clearly set expectations and effectively communicate the resolution process. Second, my experience and expertise within the HP Services Team ensures that the right resources are always deployed. Problem solved. That's my number one goal for each and every client I serve.

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What I have learned

There's no bigger thrill than helping my clients get back online. Often the issue at hand has caused considerable in-house frustration. My troubleshooting experience in a wide variety of environments gives me 2 key advantages. I've learned not only how to quickly provide fixes for disruptions but also the know-how to spot where best practices may have broken down. Restoring operations is important, but demonstrating how best practices can proactively avoid further disruptions is critical.

My background

I have accumulated more than 16 years of experience in Technology Services. My work in data center planning, system administration, network administration, hardware support, project support and infrastructure installation provides me with a deep understanding of all areas—and potential problem areas—of today's technology.

HP Technical Support Services blog

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Call Centres: A Decade of Research

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Title Call Centres: A Decade of Research
Author Russell, Bob
Editor Steve Armstrong
Year Published 2008
Publisher British Academy of Management
Citation International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 10(3), pp. 195-219
Peer Reviewed Yes
Published Yes
Alternative URI
Faculty Griffith Business School
Publication Type Journal Articles (Refereed Article)

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Restricting Weights in Supplier Selection Decisions in the presence of Dual-Role factors

File Size Format
64344_1.pdf 147Kb Adobe PDF View
Title Restricting Weights in Supplier Selection Decisions in the presence of Dual-Role factors
Author Farzipoor Saen, Reza
Journal Name Applied Mathematical Modelling
Year Published 2010
Place of publication Netherlands
Publisher Elsevier
Abstract One of the uses of data envelopment analysis (DEA) is supplier selection. Weight restrictions allow for the integration of managerial preferences in terms of relative importance levels of various inputs and outputs. As well, in some situations there is a strong argument for permitting certain factors to simultaneously play the role of both inputs and outputs. The objective of this paper is to propose a method for selecting the best suppliers in the presence of weight restrictions and dual-role factors. This paper depicts the supplier selection process through a DEA model, while allowing for the incorporation of decision maker's preferences and considers multiple factors which simultaneously play both input and output roles. The proposed model does not demand exact weights from the decision maker. This paper presents a robust model to solve the multiple-criteria problem. A numerical example demonstrates the application of the proposed method.
Peer Reviewed Yes
Published Yes
Alternative URI
Copyright Statement Copyright 2010 Elsevier. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version.
Volume 34
Issue Number 10
Page from 2820
Page to 2830
ISSN 0307-904X
Date Accessioned 2010-08-13
Language en_AU
Faculty Griffith Business School
Subject Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services
Publication Type Journal Articles (Refereed Article)
Publication Type Code c1x

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Griffith University copyright notice


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Monday, 20 December 2010

Peter James the New Thomas Harris

I was delighted to read renowned US Thriller Critic Patrick Anderson state in his review of the Minotaur Books US release of ‘Dead Like You’ at The Washington Post

Peter James's novels about Detective Superintendent Roy Grace have been bestsellers in England but have had little impact in this country. That could change with the publication here of the sixth in the series, "Dead Like You." It's a remarkably inventive story of sexual obsession, possibly the most engrossing thriller since Thomas Harris's "The Silence of the Lambs."

At its most obvious level, the novel is a realistic police procedural in which Grace heads the investigation of a series of attacks on women in and around Brighton, England. The narrative alternates between past and present, as the younger Grace investigates a series of rapes - and a murder - from a dozen years ago, and also similar attacks in the present that may be the work of the same criminal. As we move between past and present, we also move between Grace and his fellow officers, the rapists (for there prove to be two or more at large) and the victims of the attacks. We see the police frustrated by a lack of clues, even as the criminals methodically stalk their victims.

Read the full review here

I especially enjoyed the closing comments, due to my love of existential themes in crime fiction -
Finally, when all is revealed, he pulls a switcheroo as unsettling as Dennis Lehane's at the end of "Shutter Island."

James also plays games inspired by American crime fiction and movies. One woman, seized by a rapist, recalls the horrors in "The Silence of the Lambs" - and, when she escapes, her captor pursues her while wearing night-vision binoculars, just as Buffalo Bill pursued Clarice Starling in a pitch-black basement. And is it pure coincidence that one of the possible rapists is named Starling? One of them dresses in women's clothing to better stalk his victims, calling to mind Brian De Palma's "Dressed to Kill." Other scenes recall Norman Bates in Hitchcock's "Psycho" and the amusement-park murder in "Strangers on a Train."

The complexity of James's narrative sustains suspense in a long novel, even as his occasional fun and games offer relief from its tensions. As with "The Silence of the Lambs," we sense a formidable intelligence at work, conjuring up a novel that's riveting, perverse and potentially as objectionable to some readers as it will be fascinating to others.

So if you have yet to explore the work of Peter James, Shots Ezine have a feature on how James wrote ‘Dead Like You’ – here, as well as comprehensive interview with him - here

Photo © 2010 Ali Karim “Peter James’ annual Christmas Dinner with UK literary Critics at The Ivy in London”

Tuesday, 14 December 2010

Big push for C J Box in the UK

On 10th December 2010 Corvus announced an unprecedented roll-out of twelve new books by the multi award-winning US crime writer C.J. Box in a single year.

Corvus is set to publish one book a month from Box’s New York Times bestselling ‘Joe Pickett’ series in 2011. Together with the paperback publication of the 2009 Edgar award-winning Blue Heaven in January and a new stand-alone novel in August, the ground-breaking venture shows a major commitment by Corvus to publishing C.J. Box in the UK. It will be supported by an intensive year-long publicity and advertising campaign and major book trade promotions.

C.J Box is the winner of the Anthony Award, the Prix Calibre 38, the Macavity Award, the Gumshoe Award, the Barry Award and the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Novel. His novels are US bestsellers and have been translated into 21 languages. Box lives with his family outside of Cheynne, Wyoming. He can be found at

Publisher Nicolas Cheetham says: ‘Every crime writer needs a series character, and Corvus has the great pleasure of introducing Joe Pickett to the growing number of C.J. Box’s British fans. The Joe Pickett books are addictive, each instalment surpasses the last, and that’s saying something when the first book, Open Season, won nearly every crime writing award in the USA. You shouldn’t have to wait for something this good, so we’re publishing the Pickett novels in quick succession. The best way to watch a hit TV series is to buy the box set and watch them all at once… Why shouldn’t it be the same for books? In more ways than one, this is the ultimate Box set.’ Cheetham first introduced C.J. Box to the UK, acquiring three stand alone novels, when he launched the Corvus list in 2009. Box’s use of very normal everyday characters placed in extraordinary situations has already proved a big hit with male and female readers in the US. Now, his captivating, morally complex and exceptionally written series featuring Wyoming game-warden Joe Pickett should find a broad and dedicated fan base – and as Cheetham says ‘should catapult him into the major league of thriller writers in the UK.’

C.J. Box will make his first ever UK tour in July 2011 and will appear at Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate in the run up to the publication of his new stand alone book, Back of Beyond.

A review of his standalone novel Three Weeks to say Goodbye can be found here on the Shotsmag ezine along with the accompanying feature on the book by the author.

January 2011 - Blue Heaven [paperback] £7.99

February 2011 - Open Season [Joe Pickett #1] £7.99

March 2011 - Savage Run [Joe Pickett #2] £7.99

April 2011 - Winterkill [Joe Pickett # 3] £7.99

May 2011 - Trophy Hunt [Joe Pickett #4] £7.99

June 2011 - Out of Range [Joe Pickett #5] £7.99July 2011 -

In Plain Sight [Joe Pickett #6] £7.99

August 2011 - Back of Beyond [hardback] £7.99

August 2011 - Free Fire [Joe Pickett #7] £7.99

September 2011 - Blood Trail [Joe Pickett #8] £7.99

October 2011 - Below Zero [Joe Pickett #9] £7.99

November 2011 - Nowhere to run [Joe Pickett #10] £7.99

December 2011: - Cold Wind [Joe Pickett #11] £12.99

For all media enquiries please contact Annabel Robinson at FMcM Associates on 020 7405 7422 or email

Friday, 10 December 2010

Win exclusive MILLENNIUM prizes
You can tell we've gone Christmas mad. We're giving you the chance to win fantastic prizes in conjunction with Quercus Publishers and Momentum Pictures! To help celebrate the phenomenal international success of Stieg Larsson we are offering a top prize of: One LIMITED EDITION Box Set of the Millennium series, DVD (UK and Europe Region) of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and a must for the fashionista inside – an exclusive promotional T Shirt.

PLUS we are also offering a second prize of the DVD, T-Shirt and the complete paperback Millennium Trilogy. Think that is all? No way.
We have a further three sets of DVD & T-Shirts to give away.

Sound like your perfect prize?
To be in with a chance of winning, just answer one simple question:
In which country does The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo take place?
Enter for FREE now.
Competition ends on Midnight 15 December 2010.
SHOTS’ Online's competition Terms And Conditions apply see below

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  • Closing date for entries is 15.12.2010
  • All correct entries will be entered into a prize draw and will be picked at random on 16.12.2010
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  • The judges decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

Thursday, 9 December 2010

Robin Jarossi's CRIMINAL ACTS December 2010

Thursday, 16 December, 9pm, BBC Four

Christmas in TV land in not the season for ground-breaking new crime series. But lighter detective fare is allowed, and so this year we have a glut of new Agatha Christie dramas from ITV1 and the BBC’s sprightly Dirk Gently adaptation.

Green Wing’s Stephen Mangan follows in the footsteps of performers such as Harry Enfield (on Radio 4) in playing the holistic sleuth whose MO is to examine evidence in terms of the ‘connectedness of all things’.

And Mangan has the right blend of charlatan and inspired amateur to bring author Douglas Adams’s oddball detective to life – not that he bears much physical relation to the pudgy man with thick metal-rimmed glasses described in the two published books.

But that, and other changes from the novels, should only upset Adams obsessives. This hour-long adaptation is slick, succinct and has a very watchable cast.

Helen Baxendale has a great sitcom track record with Cold Feet and Friends on her CV, as well as straight roles in crime dramas such as Lewis and Marple. She plays Susan, the no-nonsense voice of reason, believing Dirk’s theories to be ‘crap’.

Richard MacDuff, Gently’s old uni friend and Susan’s on-off boyfriend, is played by Darren Boyd (Rev, Whites), while Doreen Mantle is Mrs Jordan, the old dear who gives Dirk his first case.

Finding Henry is the mission – ‘He’s all I have,’ says Mrs J. Henry is, of course, her moggy. How are Henry, Susan and her long-ago boyfriend Gordon, MacDuff and Mrs Jordan all interconnected?

It takes the chaotic, disreputable Gently and his theory that ‘every particle in the universe affects every other particle’ to form the incoherent clues into a case that wouldn’t stand up in a court, but should amuse fans and newcomers to the world of Douglas Adams.

Agatha Christie Galore

No one could say ITV1 hasn’t celebrated 2010’s glut of Agatha Christie anniversaries in style.

To continue Julia McKenzie and David Suchet’s residencies as Marple and Poirot – and bring cheer to the Dame’s huge fanbase on the 120th anniversary of her birth, the 80th anniversary of Marple’s first appearance and the 90th for the Belgian sleuth – the network has three new adaptations in the run-up to Christmas.

The stand-out drama is definitely Murder on the Orient Express, one of Christie’s best-loved mysteries.
(C) ITV Plc.
ITV1 has lavished on it a good production and international cast, including Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) as Edward Masterman, David Morrissey (Thorne, State of Play) as Colonel John Arbuthnott, and Barbara Hershey (Portrait of a Lady) as Mrs Hubbard. Serge Hazanavicius (I’ve Loved You So Long) is Xavier Bouc, Denis Ménochet (Inglourious Basterds) is Pierre Michel, and Dame Eileen Atkins (Cranford) is Princess Dragomiroff.

Suchet, after 22 years in the role, finally gets to play Poirot in his most iconic case. And the actor says, ‘It's an honour to have such a wonderful international cast on board for this world famous murder mystery. Writer Stewart Harcourt, has created an exquisite script. His attention to detail is impeccable.’

And a sign of just how big a deal this is in the Christie firmament comes from the Chairman of Agatha Christie Ltd, Mathew Prichard, who says, ‘It’s high time that Agatha Christie fans had another interpretation of my grandmother’s wonderful Murder on the Orient Express to enjoy, and I’m delighted that this one has attracted so many well known names.’

Of this adaptation, Suchet adds, ‘We’re not doing it as a remake of the film, Stewart [Harcourt] has approached it from a very interesting and tantalising point of view.

‘This is more of a psychological drama. We are, right from the beginning, faced with Poirot in a different frame of mind to how we’ve ever seen him before.’

Murder on the Orient Express is ITV1’s two-hour blockbuster for Christmas night, going out at 9pm.

And then there are the two Marple mysteries. The first is The Secret of Chimneys (Monday, 27 December, 9pm), with Edward Fox (Lord Caterham), Ruth Jones (Miss Blenkinsopp), Dervla Kirwan (Bundle) and Michelle Collins (Treadwell) among the star-studded suspects.

Chimneys is, of course, a grand house once known for its diplomatic gatherings. Lord Caterham is planning to sell it, but an important guest, Austrian Count Ludwig, is found shot dead. To solve the crime, Miss Marple has to weigh up the dead man’s long affair with a mystery woman at Chimneys and the discovery of the bones of a young servant murdered there two decades before…

Finally, there’s Marple’s investigation of The Blue Geranium case (Wednesday, 29 December, 9pm). Here she needs the help of Sir Henry Clithering (Donald Sinden) to stop a court hearing because she has new evidence about the death of wealthy, unpopular Mary Pritchard, who died when the geraniums in her wallpaper turned blue.

(C) ITV Plc.

At least Julia McKenzie feels she has cracked the mystery of how to play Marple. She says, ‘I feel pleased with the way my Marple has been received. I’m enjoying it immensely. I was rather in shock in the first couple of films because I did take over the role very quickly. I was just so surprised to get the part, added to which was the trepidation of taking over such an iconic role. I feel now that I’m much more secure in the characterisation.

‘Obviously, it was a bit worrying when the first few films came out. I wasn’t sure how they would be received. But now I feel I’ve settled into it and would like to play her for the rest of my working life if there are enough stories to go round.

The Blue Geranium is a short story and it’s the first time anyone has adapted an Agatha Christie short story for television. Stewart Harcourt [the screenwriter] has done it brilliantly. It’s quite an intriguing tale. One of the treats of playing Marple is that you get new inspectors all the time and finding a way through how they accept Marple. And I had a lot of fun with Kevin McNally [Detective Inspector Somerset]. His detective was, as Miss Marple points out, a bit of a drinker and she gets round him that way. She always finds their Achilles heel.’

2011 Will Be Murder

It all gets more edgy once the New Year has been toasted. January promises fewer cosies and laughs, more drama and gore. Here’s a round-up.

Zen – Vendetta
(C) BBC/Left Bank Pictures
(BBC1, first week of January, date and time to be confirmed) is Rufus Sewell’s much-anticipated debut as Michael Dibdin’s Italian detective, Aurelio Zen. Italian actress Caterina Murino is his love interest. In this opener, Zen has to investigate a multiple murder, that of flash millionaire Oscar Faso and his guests.

Forensic drama Silent Witness is back for series 14 (BBC1, again first week of January, but date and time to be confirmed). In a two-part story, A Guilty Mind, three patients die suddenly on the same ward of a London hospital. Emilia Fox, William Gaminara and Tom Ward return.

Hustle, the light-hearted and frothy take on a gang of scamsters who dish out expensive retribution to the corrupt and powerful, also returns (BBC1, first week of January, date and time to be confirmed). This time Albert, played by Sixties smoothy Robert Vaughn, has three new marks for the tricksters – an arrogant aristo, a bent MP, and a shady judge.

Four Weddings actress Andie MacDowell will be Patricia Cornwell’s District Attorney Monique Lamont in a couple of new US dramas on the crime channel Alibi. Patricia Cornwell: At Risk is on Sunday, 2 January at 9pm, and Patricia Cornwell: The Front on Saturday, 8 January, 9pm.

Looking further ahead, the Beeb has announced a new thriller starring Damian Lewis called Stolen. It’s a story of modern child slavery and Lewis, taking a break from his US projects such as the TV series Life, plays Detective Inspector Anthony Carter, who works in the Human Trafficking Unit and tries to save stolen children.

With new ITV crime dramas later in the year, such as Vera and The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, 2011 could be a bit special, if bloody.

Happy New Year!

• Robin Jarossi is a TV journalist and the editor of

The Icemen Cometh

In case you missed The Rap Sheet’s alert on two rather interesting TV specials focusing on Scandinavian and Italian Crime Fiction, we have the information for your diaries. We were alerted by critic Barry Forshaw who appears on both shows giving a critical perspective of the importance of translated crime fiction -

BBC4, Dec 20th at 9pm

Draw the curtains and dim the lights for a chilling trip north as Timeshift investigates the success of Scandinavian crime fiction – and why it exerts such a powerful hold on our imagination.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ is a literary blockbuster that has introduced millions of readers to the phenomenon that is Scandinavian crime fiction – yet author Stieg Larsson spent his life in the shadows and didn’t live to see any of his books published. It’s one of the many mysteries this programme investigates as it travels to Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland in search of the genre’s most acclaimed writers and memorable characters.

The programme looks at Henning Mankell’s brooding Wallander series, with actor Krister Henriksson describing the challenge of bringing the character to the screen, and it asks why so many stories have a political subtext. Nordic Noir finds out how Stieg Larsson based the bestselling ‘Millennium’ trilogy on his work as an investigative journalist and it reveals the unlikely source of inspiration for his most striking character, Lisbeth Salander. The programme also meets Jo Nesbo, the Norwegian rock star turned writer tipped to inherit Larsson’s mantle, and Karin Fossum, an author whose personal experience of murder has had a profound effect on her writing.
Producer/Director: ROBERT MURPHY

BBC4, Dec 27th at 9.30pm

Timeshift profiles a new wave of Italian crime fiction that has emerged to challenge the conventions of the detective novel. There are no happy endings in these noir tales only revelations about Italy’s dark heart – a world of corruption, unsolved murders and the mafia.

Italian Noir features exclusive interviews with the leading writers from this new wave of noir including Andrea Camilleri (Inspector Montablano Mysteries) and serving Judge Giancarlo De Cataldo (Romanzo Criminale) who explains how his work as a real life investigating judge inspired his work. From the other side of the law, Massimo Carlotto talks about how his novels were shaped by his wrongful conviction for murder and years spent on the run from the police.
The film also looks at the roots of this new wave. First Carlo Emilio Gadda (That Awful Mess) used the detective novel to expose the corruption that existed during Mussolini’s fascist regime and then after the Second World War Leonardo Sciascia’s crime novels (The Day of The Owl) tackled the rise of the Sicilian mafia. They established the rules of a new kind of noir that draws on real events and offers no neat endings.

Shot on location in Rome, Bologna and Florence, the film also features Italian writers Carlo Lucarelli and Barbara Baraldi and uses rarely seen archive from Italian television.
Produced and Directed by Francis Welch

Photo © 2009 Ali Karim “Hakan Nasser, Eva Gedin [Stieg Larsson’s Editor], Mark Lawson, Barry Forshaw and Lynda La Plante at The Swedish Embassy London

Wednesday, 8 December 2010

Mulholland Books UK Publishing Schedule 2011

I really enjoy the output of Mulholland Books and their US website / Blog; which for a publisher is excellent. Instead of a hard-sell of their own published authors, they feature interesting articles from many writers from other houses. Recently we’ve seen posts from Michael Marshall [Smith], Roger [R.J.] Ellory, Joe Lansdale, Maxim Jakubowski, Mike Robotham, Lawrence Block and many others, which you can access here – this resource is regularly updated thanks to the work of Mulholland’s hard working Miriam Parker. I would urge you to bookmark this superb site if you like crime and thrillers.

We are also delighted to see Mulholland cross the Atlantic joining forces with Britain’s Hodder and Stoughton with an exciting series of novels. Though we have to also report that Mulholland Editor Anne Clarke leaves at the end of the year for pastures new, as Editorial Director of Orbit, the SF Imprint. Ruth Tross takes over duties as Editor of the Mulholland UK imprint and has her work cut out with a new list for a new year.

And finally we have the Mulholland UK publishing schedule which features some very interesting books -

The first release from Mulholland UK is Guilt by Association by Marcia Clark who will be coming to the UK in May for the release.

Los Angeles D.A. Rachel Knight is a tenacious, wise-cracking, and fiercely intelligent prosecutor in the city’s most elite division. When her colleague, Jake, is found dead at a grisly crime scene, Rachel is shaken to the core. She must take over his toughest case: the assault of a young woman from a prominent family.

But she can’t stop herself from digging deeper into Jake’s death, a decision that exposes a world of power and violence and will have her risking her reputation–and her life–to find the truth.

MARCIA CLARK is a former Los Angeles deputy district attorney who was the lead prosecutor on the O.J. Simpson murder case. She co-wrote a bestselling non-fiction books about the trial, Without a Doubt, and is a frequent media commentator and columnist on legal issues. She lives in Los Angeles.

Next up on the list is Fun and Games by Duane Swierczynski, in which Charlie Hardie, ex-cop-turned-house-sitter, is about to have the worst day ever. His new job comes with a B-movie actress squatter who thinks that people are trying to kill her… unfortunately for Charlie, she’s right. We’re publishing Fun and Games in June, with its sequels following in August and September. Once you’ve read the first one, you’ll understand why we couldn’t make anyone wait for too long to find out what happened next! It’s a real rollercoaster ride of a novel.

Triple Crossing, by Sebastian Rotella, is out in August – it’s a gritty, fast-paced thriller set on the US-Mexico border. Undercover cop Valentine Pescatore, US agent Isabel Puente and Mexican police chief Leo Mendez have the same aim: to bring down the drug cartels. But in a world built on lies and corruption, how do you know who you can trust? As Pescatore gets drawn ever deeper into the criminal underworld, the stage is set for an explosive showdown.

And last but by no means least, The Revisionists by Thomas Mullen is scheduled for November. Leo, a disgraced former spy, and Tasha, a lawyer grieving for a brother killed in Iraq in mysterious circumstances, don’t realise the impact their actions will have on the world, but the man known as Zed does. He’s been sent back from a future utopia with a single mission: to ensure that a cataclysmic event takes place which will ensure never-ending peace in his own time. But there may be things Zed’s superiors haven’t told him… Recalling dystopian classics like 1984, The Revisionists is a page-turning, mind-bending read.

Mark your 2011 diaries accordingly

Enjoying the High Life

I was first introduced to Ryan David Jahn thanks to both Roger R.J. Ellory and my Welsh colleague – The Crime Fiction Reader. They both raved about his debut novel ‘Acts of Violence’ with Roger providing a blurb for Jahn. I was fortunate to meet Jahn earlier this year at the CWA Dagger Awards, and over a flute of champagne we discussed Harlan Ellison’s The Whimper of Whipped Dogs, which also used the Kitty Genovese case as the backdrop.

I just heard that Pan Macmillan has bought three novels by Ryan David Jahn, winner of this year’s CWA New Blood Dagger.

Will Atkins, Editorial Director for fiction, has acquired world rights in three new novels direct from US crime writer Ryan David Jahn, in a six-figure deal. Jahn won this year’s CWA New Blood (John Creasey) Dagger for his Macmillan New Writing debut, Acts of Violence.

Atkins described his new novel, The Dispatcher (July 2011), as ‘one of the most exhilarating, original and exquisitely written thrillers I’ve read in years.’ The first book in the new contract is scheduled for 2012.

Ryan David Jahn grew up in Arizona, Texas and California. He left school at sixteen to work in a record store and subsequently joined the army. Since 2004 he has worked in television and film. He currently lives in Los Angeles.

Photo (c) 2010 Ali Karim

Monday, 6 December 2010

Book Launch of Tom Clancy's Dead or Alive

At the Tower of London today a spectacular book launch took place. It was the launch of Tom Clancy’s new book Dead or Alive. On hand to make it an exciting promotion were Yeomen from the Tower along with some Red Devil Paratroopers.

As his publishers (Michael Joseph) stated a crack team of Red Devil paratroopers stormed the Tower of London today to launch the long-awaited new thriller by best-selling author Tom Clancy.

Four members of the world-famous Parachute Regiment display team have performed the dangerous stunt to deliver the first copies of the book, Dead or Alive, to Yeoman Warders at the Tower, where they will be guarded in the Yeoman Gaoler’s office overnight prior to its official release on Tuesday, 7th December, tomorrow.

Lance Corporal Jimmy Graham, of the Red Devils, said: “We are thrilled to have the rare opportunity to jump into one of our greatest historical landmarks, something which has not been attempted for many years. As fans of Tom Clancy, the Red Devils Freefall Team are honoured to be involved in the launch of Dead or Alive.” Unfortunately due to the severe weather conditions they were unable to parachute in, however, made an impressive entrance through clouds of orange smoke in the moat of the Tower.

The armed paratroops have carried the first four copies of the novel, which have been signed by Tom Clancy and will become part of four special military editions with items chosen by the Red Devils.

Enclosed in an aluminium case, given to the Yeoman for safe keeping, was a copy of Dead or Alive signed by Tom Clancy, a Victorinox Swiss Army knife, an engraved silver bullet and customised Army dog tags. Each will be auctioned online in order to raise money for the Parachute Regiment charity. To make a bid please click here.

Publishers claim the book is one of the most heavily embargoed titles of all time, with its launch occurring simultaneously in Britain and the US on 7th December.

Today marks the live thrilling conclusion of an adrenaline-fuelled online video trailer and television advert. This features members of the Red Devils team as Parachute Regiment soldiers on a mission to deliver the books. The trailer for the book is below.

Dead or Alive by Tom Clancy is published by Michael Joseph, £20.

Penguin will be donating 500 copies of Dead or Alive to the Parachute Regiment currently serving in Afghanistan as an early Christmas present. Tom Clancy is well known for his admiration and respect for the military forces, whom he holds in the highest esteem. Donating copies of his new thriller to Parachute Regiment soldiers is a way to pay tribute to the men and women serving their country away from home.

Dead or Alive by Tom Clancy will be published in hardback by Penguin Books in the UK and its territories (Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and Europe) and simultaneously by Penguin Books in the US.

(photographs © Ayo Onatade)

The video of the Red Devil Parachute Regiment exciting entrance can be seen in the video. Despite the cold weather it was a fantastic launch.

The 2010 “Notables” in Publishing

PW has issued its 2010 ‘Notables List’ and is certainly interesting as it mentions The IPAD as one 2010’s notables –

It may seem surprising to name a device among our publishing people of the year, but this has been a surprising year, especially where devices and their impact on publishing are concerned. The iPad has had a colossal impact on the book business in 2010, both in terms of what's already happened because of it, and the promise it holds for the future of books. Everybody wants to be on the iPad, and, for the most part, everybody is: the iPad lets users read books from not just iBooks but from all the e-book stores—Kindle, Kobo, Nook, and, soon, Sony—via each company's apps. And then there's the App Store itself, which is brimming with stand-alone enhanced e-book apps as well as games and utilities based on books. Plus, all kinds of straight-to-iPad publications are debuting all the time: we can only assume we'll see more and more built-for-tablet books. And with Google in the e-book game, forget about it—it'll be all about the iPad.Of course, iPad won't be the only tablet in town come 2011, but it has set the bar: every other tablet that hits the streets will be an iPad competitor, though almost certainly not an iPad killer. Whether or not E-Ink e-readers survive the tablet revolution remains to be seen, but you hardly hear anyone talking about the Kindle these days without comparing it to the iPad.

Read More

While Sonny Mehta of Random House US has benefited from spotting the potential of Stieg Larsson Trilogy making him once again listed as a 2010 ‘notable’ at PW -

Today Random House is predicting that Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, launched with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, will sell 15 million copies in all formats in 2010 alone. Larsson has become an American publishing phenomenon, and it's largely thanks to Sonny Mehta.Mehta, who's been at Knopf since 1987, is certainly no stranger to big authors, big books, and big deals. Although Larsson came to U.S. shores with a track record—when I spoke to Mehta in 2008 Knopf said Larsson had sold over two million copies in his native Sweden alone—there's no telling what would have happened if his books had landed in the hands of a different publisher. For Mehta, it was all about Larsson's punk hacker-with-a-heart, Lisbeth Salander. "I knew [the books'] potential success rested squarely on Lisbeth's shoulders and was banking on American readers being as captivated by her as I was," Mehta says in an e-mail last week. (In a letter by Mehta inserted in ARCs for Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, he called Salander "one of the most original heroines to come along in years.")

Incidentally, the Larsson novels are the most downloaded ebooks currently, and were the first to break the 1,000,000 download barrier.

Christopher Fowler’s Paperboy Recognized

One of my favourite horror / thriller writers is Christopher Fowler, now renowned for his surreal Bryant and May Detective series. So I was delighted to learn that his superb memoir has won the Green Carnation Award

The Guardian reports –

Fowler's memoir recounts the tale of a suburban London boy who divides his time between the cinema and the library, devouring stories and taking refuge from a tense family environment in the world of words. The prize panel called the book "beautifully written", and "a rich and astute evocation of a time and a place", recalling a childhood "at once eccentric and endearingly ordinary." Chair of the judges, novelist Paul Magrs, said Paperboy was "about the forming of a gay sensibility – but more than that, it's about the growth of a reader and a wonderfully generous and inventive writer".

Magrs, who is also a lecturer on the Manchester Metropolitan University's creative writing MA, helped set up the Green Carnation prize earlier this year after realising there was no literary award for gay men's books in the UK. He described the lack of such a prize as "scandalous", saying: "There ought to be something that celebrates and publicises the breadth and variety of their work. Writing by gay men can be funny, exciting, harrowing, uplifting and challenging – and it can range right across the genres. It can also be created by men from all classes and races."

Read more from The Guardian Here and from Chris Fowler’s Blog Here while here’s a short clip of Chris Fowler speaking at Frightfest 4 about ‘Paperboy’

Friday, 3 December 2010

Newsy Stuff - Lee Child: Adventures of an over-reacher

An excellent interview in the Independent with Lee Child by Andy Martin who teaches French at Cambridge University; his latest book is 'Beware Invisible Cows' (Simon & Schuster). Andy Martin talks to Lee Child about his roots in Birmingham and his character Jack Reacher. The interview is below and the link to the interview is here ----

It was a classic Lee Child moment. A yellow cab is parked one fine night on Broadway and 19th. The cab driver is a small Sikh guy and his passenger is a big drunk fratboy who is bad mouthing the driver, refusing to pay, and at the same time sticking like glue to his seat. Our hero marches across the street, yanks open the door, and orders the unruly passenger out. No ifs or buts. Fratboy meekly obeys and staggers off down the street.

No, this was not Jack Reacher, the unreasonably well-built and overwhelmingly powerful protagonist of Lee Child's novels, but the author himself – the UK's No 1 bestselling hardback novelist of 2010, with not just one but two new books this year, 61 Hours (Bantam, £7.99) and Worth Dying For (Bantam, £18.99. Both were also No 1 hits in the US).

Another time, 1.30am in Manchester, he stops at a cash machine, withdraws £100 and turns around. Suddenly there is a semi-circle of three likely lads in front of him. Child fixes his gaze on the ringleader – the one in the middle – and shoots him down, verbally: "You have got to be fucking joking!" They part, like the Red Sea, and let him pass. It's true that Reacher is capable, in one recent novel, of cowing a throng of approximately 100 bad guys, like Jesus quelling the storm, but this was close.

"It's all down to confidence," says Child. "That, and being brought up in a rough neighbourhood of Birmingham and having to go home in my grammar school blazer. Violence was the default setting." Child is close to Reacher in height: 6ft 4in to Reacher's 6ft 5in. But he is no hulking 250lbs and doesn't wear cheap shirts and chinos from the local hardware store. "Male authors always take care to make their heroes at least one inch taller than they are, and considerably more muscular," he says. "Just as female authors give their heroines better hair and slimmer thighs."

Lee Child and I are having coffee at his hotel in London (if you have the finely-honed intuitions of Jack Reacher, you should be able to look at a map and pin him down to within a block). Or rather he is knocking back a jug of black coffee, just like the highly caffeinated Reacher, while I am sipping a latte. He considers this to be "suspect", but agrees not to beat me to a pulp for the time being.

Child famously re-invented himself after he was sacked from Granada Television, aged 39. And rebranded himself. The origin of his name goes back to a mid-1970s train ride in the US. He and his wife fell into conversation with an American who told them that he owned a "European" car. It turned out to be a Renault 5, marketed in the US – to give it a certain Parisian chic – as "Le Car". But the friendly American said: "Lee Car". After that, "Lee" became their surrogate definite article: "Can you pass lee butter, please," and so on. When he and his wife had a baby, the kid was inevitably nicknamed "Lee Child". "I was looking for a name that was short, crisp and memorable," he says. Lee Child (Snr) was born.

Child reckons you only need two qualifications to write a decent book. First, "you must have had word-games in the family when you were growing up." Second, "you have to have read a few books beforehand." One of the first books he read at the public library, aged only four or five, was the beginning of his "love-affair with the US". The 12-page board book was called My Home in America. Its last page showed an apple-cheeked boy looking out of his apartment building across the Manhattan skyline. "It was a revelation," Child says. "Just as Jan Morris used to say she was 'a woman trapped inside a man's body', so I had this feeling – I knew – that I was this New York boy trapped inside a boy living in Birmingham, England."

He went to Sheffield University, married a visiting American student and fully expected to decamp to the US on graduation. "But she turned out to be an Anglophile, and I had to wait another 20 years." Now he lives in an apartment across from the Flatiron Building in New York, with a view out over the Manhattan skyline, and supports the Yankees (while following the fortunes of Aston Villa from afar).

All of which might help to explain why it is that Jack Reacher is a fairly complex figure. He is to muscles what Bill Gates is to money. But he is also a liberal-minded guardian angel trapped inside the almighty body of a US army MP (rtd) turned lone-wolf drifter. He really hates bad guys – that is for damn sure, to use one of his catchphrases. And he tends to make mincemeat out of them in unarmed combat.

Beloved of paratroopers and GIs, he is the hard man's hard man, a monster of machismo. But when he gets tired of kicking teeth in, he is quite capable of quoting Nietzsche and coming up with the etymology of "Xerox" and "vagrant". And his mother is French, so he has the outsider's sensitivity to the infra-ordinary details that the natives are liable to miss. "He is like a gorilla that can paint," says Child.

Child reckons he may have been inspired by certain hypertrophic rugby players who are meek and mild when not in shorts. There is no comparison with James Bond. "Bond is not enough of a maverick – he is employed, he has an office and a secretary." Child sees Reacher's precursors stretching back into our mythic past, to the knight errant, the grail quest, and the saviour. He certainly saved Child's bacon, just when he was running out of redundancy money. "The thriller is not a recent invention," he says. "It probably goes back to the dawn of storytelling."

The point about Reacher (evoked in the novels' recurrent refrain, "back in the day") is that he is a Rousseau-esque noble savage, a hunter-gatherer wild man who happens to have wandered into town. He only wants coffee and a square meal, but he can get riled. All conflicts arise out of the collision between the rootless nomad and the settled community. Or, as Child puts it, "it's a naked exploitation of people's frustrations". Reacher appeals to women readers as much as to men. "They love the idea of walking out of the door and not looking back."

The high body-count is balanced by a seductive minimalism of style. In Reacher's latest outing, Worth Dying For (his 15th), a villain comes through the door armed with a belt-sander, "already loaded with a fresh loop of coarse-grain abrasive". Child has applied something similar to the pulp vernacular. The Philip Marlowe wisecrack has got the chop. The hard-boiled has been boiled down to "a sullen, sardonic humour". The most frequent sentence is "Reacher said nothing". Amid this zero-degree discourse, a little can count for a lot. "In Without Fail the vital clue was a hyphen" Child recalls. In Killing Floor (the first novel), it's a possessive apostrophe.

Despite being handy with all sorts of weapons as well as his bare fists, Reacher is not the pin-up boy of the National Rifle Association. They suspect him of being a closet leftie. Child stirred up a "shit storm" in the US with Nothing To Lose, which brings the fallout from Iraq to the foreground. When Reacher discovers the escape route of American deserters, he turns a comradely and sympathetic blind eye. Child was able to point out that everything Reacher says that is critical of the American military was lifted direct from all the emails sent him by serving soldiers.

Child's grandfather was wounded at Gallipoli and his father fought his way across Europe in the Second World War. "But I started out knowing no more about military life than anyone else," he says. Now he has become a "conduit" for the innermost thoughts of frontline troops. "They can't tell their superior officers and they can't tell their families either. So they tell me."

Child recently found himself sitting next to Martin Amis at an awards ceremony. It was a showdown between popular fiction and literary fiction. In a straight fight I would bet on Child to knock out Amis in the first round. "He is ferociously intelligent, of course," says Child, benevolently. "Classic academic." Child likes to write "spontaneously, without prior thought, blindly". Ironically, he is now an honorary doctor of letters and a visiting professor at Sheffield but, he insists, "only in exchange for the usual old boy donation" (He generously funded 52 "Jack Reacher scholarships" – the only requirement is that you have to take on six heavy hombres in a bar.)

I first came across Reacher in a seemingly innocent bookstore in Pasadena. Now I'm hooked and one day my habit of snarling, "You can walk out – or they can carry you out in a bucket!" is going to get me into trouble. Other addicts will be relieved to know that rumours of Reacher's imminent demise are premature. "It's not in my hands," says Child. "So long as readers keep reading and my publishers keep publishing, I plan to keep on writing. I'd have to be an idiot to be burnt-out in this job."

But even if he is not about to have Reacher go over some American Reichenbach Falls, where Arthur Conan Doyle pushed Sherlock Holmes, Child has a cardinal rule: "You mustn't fall in love with your own hero." He feels it has happened to certain writers with disastrous consequences. Child tries to keep his alter ego at arm's length. "I never succumb to the temptation to stop Reacher doing something unpleasant."

Before Lee Child was Lee Child, when he was growing up in Birmingham, it was still a manufacturing city, full of small artisanal workshops with a lathe and a drill. "They did it all by eye then. But they still managed to make things to a fantastically high degree of precision. They did their job with a certain pride but also modesty." Child sees himself as carrying on that almost forgotten tradition. "I'm an artisan," he says. "I'm making useful things. With a degree of pride." It might also explain why there are so many tools in his books, lathes, drills, screwdrivers, wrenches and cutting equipment. Child reckons he should have gone to technical college, not grammar school. A fine-tuned sense of mechanical precision permeates his writing, where you can hear the hum of engines and the grinding of gears, and bodies can be expertly taken apart. And Reacher always knows the time, without reference to clock or watch. "I could have made head of engineering at London Underground, given the chance," Child sighs. "I would have been happy with that."

Tom Clancy Dead or Alive Book Trailer

With the forthcoming Tom Clancy book launch due to take place on Monday 6 December 2010 at Tower Bridge in London have a look at the video book trailer!

Red Devils’ novel stunt for UK launch of latest Tom Clancy thriller

Time and date: 12 noon on Monday, 6th December, 2010

Place: The Tower of London

A crack team of Red Devils paratroopers will skydive into the Tower of London for the first time ever next week (Monday, December 6) to launch the long-awaited new thriller by best-selling author Tom Clancy. Four members of the world-famous Parachute Regiment display team will perform the dangerous stunt to deliver the first copies of the book, Dead or Alive, to Yeoman Warders at the Tower, where it will be guarded in the Yeoman Gaoler's office overnight prior to its official release on Tuesday, 7th December.
Lance Corporal Jimmy Graham, of the Red Devils, said: "We are thrilled to have the rare opportunity to jump into one of our greatest historical landmarks, something which has not been attempted for many years. As fans of Tom Clancy, the Red Devils Freefall Team are honoured to be involved in the launch of Dead or Alive."

The paratroops will carry the first four copies of the novel which have been signed by Tom Clancy and will become part of four special military editions with items chosen by the Red Devils. Each Red Devil member, armed and in full military uniform, will carry a canister of green smoke and carry a 200ft flag as they descend from the sky into the Tower's dry moat.
Enclosed in an aluminium case will be a copy of Dead or Alive signed by Tom Clancy, a Victorinox Swiss Army knife, an engraved silver bullet and customised Army dog tags. Each will be auctioned online in order to raise money for the Parachute Regiment charity.

The Press release is below -

No 1 international bestselling author

Bestselling videogame presenter

One of the pre-eminent and most prescient storytellers of our time

Tom Clancy’s modern-day techno-thriller is like nothing he has ever done before…

For the first time ever, Clancy brings together 26 years of unforgettable characters, including Jack Ryan, Jack Ryan, Jr., John Clark, Ding Chavez, and Mary Pat Foley to jointly face their most difficult challenge yet: modern-day terrorism.

Tom Clancy’s latest novel, Dead or Alive, sees a team of his greatest characters waging an unofficial and highly effective campaign against the terrorists who threaten Western civilization. Working at the Campus, a secret U.S. counter-terrorism organization, Jack Ryan, Jr., John Clark, Ding Chavez and latest recruits, twin brothers Dominick and Brian Caruso, are on the trail of The Emir, a sadistic terrorist who has masterminded many of the world’s most vicious attacks. So far The Emir has eluded capture by the world’s armed forces and law enforcement agencies. With those at the Campus determined to catch The Emir, there is every hope that he will be brought in…dead or alive.

Clancy has created some of the best known characters in contemporary fiction and mesmerized tens of millions of readers worldwide with his frighteningly real scenarios. Dead or Alive is sure to enthral fans and new readers alike with its thrill and pace.

Tom Clancy has written thirteen Number 1 New York Times bestselling novels including Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, and Rainbow Six. Clancy’s New York Times bestselling non-fiction books include Into the Storm: A Study in Command and Battle Ready.

Co-writer Grant Blackwood is a U.S. Navy veteran, who spent three years aboard a guided missile frigate as operations specialist and pilot rescue swimmer. He is the author of the Briggs Tanner series and co-author of Spartan Gold and Lost Empire with Clive Cussler.

For more information please contact

Jo Wickham - / 020 7010 3259

Thursday, 2 December 2010

SHOTS of the Year announced

SHOTS Magazine – the UK’s leading e-zine dedicated to crime, mystery and thriller fiction – has announced its SHOTS of the Year awards for 2010 in the December issue of the Getting Away With Murder column.

The awards for books published in the UK in calendar year 2010 are as follows:

*Crime Shot of the Year: Started Early, Took My Dog

by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday).

*Thriller Shot of the Year: Our Kind of Traitor

by John le Carre (Viking/Penguin).

*Historical Shot: Spies of the Balkans

by Alan Furst (Weidenfeld).

*Shot In Translation: Thirteen Hours

by Deon Meyer (Hodder)

{translated from the Afrikaans by K.L. Seegers}.

*First Shot (debut novel): Eye of the Red Tsar

by Sam Eastland (Faber).

*Comic Shot: Dr Yes

by Colin Bateman (Headline)

Block is Back!

One of the delights of Bouchercon Baltimore 2008 was seeing Hard Case Crime Publisher and author Charles Ardai interview Larry Block [pictured above]. One of Ardai’s questions to Larry Block was considering the economic crisis, would he be writing anything new? Well it seems that Larry Block is penning something special, and for publisher Ardai too boot.

Charles Ardai kindly sent me some information that will be great news for Crime Thriller Fans -

Lawrence Block, one of the most decorated and popular authors in the crime fiction firmament (four-time Edgar winner, four-time Shamus winner, MWA Grand Master, New York Times best seller), is writing a brand new book for Hard Case Crime, and it's going to be our debut title when we re-launch the series in September 2011.

Titled GETTING OFF: A Novel of Sex and Violence, the book tells the story of a beautiful and self-confident young woman who sets herself a mission and carries it out with ruthless single-mindedness -- to track down and murder every man she's ever slept with. (And it's not a small number, especially since she finds herself sleeping with a few more along the way.) The character is one of Block's most memorable, the first new series character he's introduced since J.P Keller in HIT MAN a dozen years ago. Like Keller, she first appeared in a short story Block found himself writing, and after she'd stuck around for a second tale and then a third, he realized he had a novel-length story to tell about her.

Thus was GETTING OFF born.

These days, it's hard to describe any book as shocking -- it's 2010, sex doesn't shock us anymore, nor even, really, does violence -- but I promise, this book is shocking. In the best possible way. There are moments in the story when I predict even the most jaded reader will find his or her jaw dropping.And in recognition of the fact that the book is, shall we say, somewhat...spicy...the author has decided it's appropriate to revive a pseudonym he hasn't used in nearly 40 years, under which he wrote seven highly erotic novels in the 1960s and 70s. Accordingly, GETTING OFF will be published as by "Lawrence Block, writing as 'Jill Emerson'." As a long-time fan not only of Larry's work but of Jill's, I have to say it's exciting to see her return after too many after decades of Salinger-like silence...Couple of other bits: GETTING OFF will not only be our re-launch debut title but also our first ever hardcover original. We plan to bring it out in paperback as well, of course -- but it felt like an occasion like this deserved a hardcover to commemorate it. The cover is being painted by Greg Manchess, winner of multiple gold medals from the Society of Illustrators and creator of such iconic cover images for Hard Case Crime as FADE TO BLONDE and THE VENGEFUL VIRGIN.

The book will be the first published under our new collaboration with UK-based Titan Publishing and will be distributed in the U.S. and Canada (as all of Titan's books are) by Random House.This is easily one of the most thrilling announcements I've had the privilege to make since creating Hard Case Crime. I grew up reading and loving Larry's books, and the idea of getting to collaborate with him to bring a new one into the world is...beyond words. We're honored that he chose us as the home for this book and look forward to giving GETTING OFF the kick-off it so richly deserves.

More information on the world of Hard Case Crime available here and the dark world of Lawrence Block is available here


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Brian Wilson, Jeff Beck Announce Co-Headlining Fall Tour

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Jeff Beck (L) and Brian Wilson

Jeff Beck (L) and Brian Wilson (photo courtesy CO5 Media)

Brian Wilson and Jeff Beck, two of the most revered rock artists of the past half century, will combine forces for a co-headlining North American tour this fall.

Wilson, cofounder of the Beach Boys, and Beck, a prolific solo guitarist as well as a former member of the Yardbirds, will kick off an 18-date run starting in Florida at the end of September. The tour will travel through the United States and Canada up until exactly a month later, when the musicians hit Akron, Ohio, on Oct. 27.

Beck, a multiple GRAMMY winner who has earned Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions both as a solo artist and through the Yardbirds, performed guitar on Wilson’s upcoming studio album. The 69-year-old Englishman’s last album, 2010’s Emotion & Connection, debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard 200, with “Nessun Dorma” earning a GRAMMY win for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.

Wilson more recently reunited with the Beach Boys for the group’s 50th anniversary, eventually spawning the album That’s Why God Made the Radio, which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 album chart when it was released last year. However, Wilson was unceremoniously booted from the band later that same year.

Read more and see the full list of cities and dates on

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Fender Foto Flame Telecasters and Stratocasters

The “Foto Flame” series was a short-lived, inexpensive attempt by Fender to compete with a growing “flame top” market such as PRS and Dean guitars. The “Foto Flame” is an thin piece of photographic film of some very highly figured wood laminated to the guitar, (thus the name Foto), developed by Fender, in connection some photographic corporation. (I have heard both Polaroid and Kodak, but most likely Fuji). The Foto Flame guitars, with the flame on top, usually have a Basswood cap on Alder or, in the case of the Foto Flame being on front and back, the whole body can be made of Basswood. When the “Foto Flame,” film is applied to the Basswood top, it makes the guitar appear as if it had high-end matchbook, figured Maple. The way they shrink wrapped this film around the guitar is amazing and it is hard not to think it is real wood. The Japanese are masters at copying, as these guitars testify. In fact, the Fender USA guys "almost cried" when they saw the MIJ quality as Fender USA was trying to get back up on its feet after the CBS buyout in March of 1984.

The Foto Flame Series was made by Fender Japan through the 1990’s and they stopped production about 1998
(there has been a few 1999 and 2000 Foto Flames floating around in the Japanese markets, so a few were made after the 1998 date.) Many of the Foto Flame models were Reissues of classic Fender guitars. To know more about Foto Flame Reissues and the accuracies of how they were crafted, click here.
They always have the “Made in Japan” or “Crafted in Japan” sticker under the finish the heel of the neck by the body, so they do not hide where they are made as do some over-seas companies.

Sometimes they were the brunt of jokes—"want-a-be flame-tops," some said. And then there is the Hambugular conspiracy which says someone who worked at the Fuji Gen Gakki factory actually placed this McDonalds Hambugular's face in the film as a joke! And then he was supposedly fired over it! A myth or a reality? Who knows? But the little faces are there—joke or no joke. One thing is for sure, the quality of these is no joking matter. It is important to reiterate that these MIJ and CIJ Fender guitars were made at the Japanese Fuji Gen Gakki factory, which is the same factory making the $2,000.00 Ibanez guitars. The craftmanship is amazing. As with any guitar, if not set up right, can play like junk. The MIJ and CIJ guitars, with the correct set-up, will rival most USA models and it is said that was one of the reasons Fender moved a plant to mexico and stopped importing the MIJ models. Simply put, they created too much competition with the US models. Hand down, MIJ is much better than MIM (Made in Mexico).

Some of the Foto Flames had a Quilted Maple look (above left) while others had just the Split Flame Maple look (above right). Some come with Foto Flame on the necks. The way this film is wrapped on very authentic looking. Many of the Strats are 62 Reissues (like the 2 above) and many of the Teles are Reissues as well (like 52RI, 69 Thinline RI and others.) If you want to see other Foto Flame models, check out this page: MIJ 96 Ann Tele DX. There are a whole lot of them on that page! Also, some of the Strats came with the Floyd Rose bridge and nut locking systems (which I have always disliked).

This is a Fender 52 Reissue Tobacco Flamed (front and back) 1997 CIJ Tele Foto body and neck with all USA parts. Every aspect of this body is built to the specifications of a 52 Telecaster right down to the routing in the body and the straight edge screws. This Foto model has a Tobacco flame on front AND back with an Alder body. The neck is the 52 chunky V shape made from Maple with the skunk stripe on back. This has a set of Fender Custom Shop 52 RI Pickups with Custom 4-way switching which does the following: Position #1 is the bridge, which delivers that true 52 biting Tele sound. Powerful. Position #2 is the 52 pickups together just like on a regular 52 Tele with that wonderful Tele rhythm sound. Position #3 is the 52 the neck Pickup with the powerful, full rich 52 sound. Position #4 is the neck and bridge pickup in a series, with make both pickups act as a combined humbucker and give a really powerful, full Les Paul sound.

If you want to know more about 1952 Reissues, check out this page!

This is a 1996 MIJ 50th Anniversary Honey Burst 1962 Foto Flame Telecaster Reissue. The Anniversary Sticker is still on the back of the neck. (Serial #U021887) Like the DX Custom Anniversary Teles, these were only made between late 1995 through early 1997. Thus every one you will find has a serial number starting with a T or a U. The neck is solid Maple with a ROSEWOOD fret board with a radius is like a 60’s Teles with the small/medium frets.

Once again all the electronics on this guitar were replaced with USA parts. The pickups are
Lace Sensor, which were also used by Fender in their high-end production models from 1988-1998 in what was called the “Plus” series. (Click here to learn more) The NECK pickup is a is a Chrome Model TN-100. It has all the traditional vintage tone and clarity but without the noise. Smooth attack, glassy warmth with full sweet sustain and a thick, fat neck characteristics, with more power. It many ways it has a classic 50's P90 humbucker sound. (Similar to the Blue Lace Sensor pickup) and the BRIDGE pickup is a HIGH OUTPUT T-150 LACE SENSOR. Brilliant clarity, bite and attack running at a hot 12.8k resistance, which is 2 times hotter than your stock Tele pickup. (It is similar to the Red Lace Sensor pickup. To learn more about Lace PUs click here.) The tone control is wired with Fender TBX tone system. It give you more control over the tone as it does not simply bleed off the treble, thus making the guitar muddy sounding.

This is a 1962 Reissue Wine Red 1995 MIJ Stratocaster Foto Flame. (serial #U006438). Completely original except the electronics. Every aspect of this guitar is built to the specifications of a 62 Strat, right down to the routing in the body and the shape of the neck.

The electronics were again converted to all USA parts: The neck pickup is a DiMarzio Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues (DP403) stacked humbucker. This Pickup is louder and fatter than a single coil. It is rich and full and stands out when playing Lead for blues or Jazz. Turn it down and it creates a great rhythm sound. Use distortion and you get a sweet sustain - heavy and powerful! The highs are rounded and really cuts loose when cranked up! The middle and bridge pickups, are Fender 62 USA Reissue Pickups. These give the wonderful traditional historic Strat sound made famous the old 1962 Strats. This Foto-Flame has a Wine Red Foto-Maple finish on a Basswood cap laminated to a Wine Red tinted Alder body. The neck is a really cool Foto-flamed with a mahogany fret board. Because it is a 62RI the finish is a little darker to give it an aged look. The radius is your standard 62 C Shape with medium frets.

This is a NOS Blonde 1996 MIJ 1962 Reissue Telecaster Foto Flame. (serial #T023467). This Foto-Flame is one of my favorite colors and is rarer than the many Wine Red models floating around. The back is once again made from Alder.
The neck pickup is a Seymour Duncan Vintage Rhythm Stack (STK-T1). This rhythm pickup is designed to compliment the tone and output of the Vintage and Hot Stack lead pickups. Specially calibrated for the neck position, it gives you the sound of an early model Telecaster neck pickup all without the noise and hum inherent in single coils.
The bridge pickup is a Seymour Duncan Hot Lead Stack Tapped. (STK-T2 b). By stacking two coils with extra windings around a bar magnet, the output is boosted without altering the pure single coil sound. You get a hotter, brighter sound with more emphasis on the midrange and greater sustain. When "tapped" it has all the bright crispness and bite of the old traditional Tele. This Tele has 4-way switching: Position #4 is the neck; position #3 is the Neck and the Bridge in parallel (standard Tele configuration); position #2 is the Bridge Pickup tapped as a single coil; and position #1 is the Bridge as a stacked single coil with almost double the output of a standard Tele pickup!)

Speaking of Blonde Foto Flames, this is a New Old Stock 1996 Blonde 62 Reissue Strat that I converted to be like a Strat Plus DX. It has the Red, Silver, and Blue Lace Sensor pickups, and the TBX tone control system, just like on the Plus DX modles. This guitar was bought new in 1996, played 2 times and then was put away in the case till I bought it. The original strings were still on it when I received it. A true 62 Reissue as you can find in a very stunning finish! The back is made of an even grained Alder wood. And to think that in Seattle, WA they eat Alder wood smoked fish and chips! LOL! The Foto Flame top sits in nice contrast with the rest of the body.

This is a 1995 New Old Stock 1962 Deluxe Foto Flame Telecaster—BRAND NEW. It has a ridiculously low serial number (#T000264). This was found a few months ago in an unopened box in the back of a well know music store in New York. I bought it and tucked it away in my collection. I just peeled off the plastic on the pickguard while customizing it with all new high-end USA electronics a few weeks ago. The color is called an Autumn Burst.

Here is where this guitar gets more interesting: I have improved on
Fender’s secret 5-way Jerry Donahue's switching. This Tele is extremely versatile in sound. Unlike a JD Tele, which has a Strat pickup in the neck, this one has a chrome Tele pickup in the neck. Also, the JD Tele’s had a feature that I liked, but wanted to expand upon. Position #5 in the stock JD simply had the neck pickup bypassing the tone control. I felt this was a waste of a switch position! I put in a USA Fender “No-load” tone control so one can still have this feature but now on both the neck and bridge pickups. Want the full screaming power of the pickups with no resistance? You got it! Position #4 is now replaced with the pickups in a series, ile one big spread out humbucker, (instead of the standard parallel wiring) for that “fat” Gisbson-ish sound and position #5 is the neck PU alone. Also there is a special tone taper Capacitor wired into the volume control that prevents the guitar from getting muddy sounding while rolling back the volume.

The NECK and BRIDGE pickups are matched Seymour Duncan set (STR-1 and an STL-1) which are exact replicas of the 1954 Fender Telecaster pickups. In 1954, Leo Fender made some changes in the Telecaster lead pickup using smaller diameter magnets. The result was a strong, clear response to high notes, thus creating a bright, biting sound. The STL-1 Neck pickup also duplicates this vintage model in every exacting detail. I have found the sound of these pickups work better that the Strat/Tele Combo on the JD Teles. It creates more range of sound; not so thin in the out-of-phase mode, fat and driven in the series mode, and still retaining that sweet vintage sounds that Telecasters are famous for.

Here is how the switching works:
Position 1) The Bridge PU give that vintage Tele bite. Position 2) The Bridge PU and the Neck PU out-of-phase. This gives that unique hollow, honking Strat sound. A really cool JD trick. Position 3) The Bridge PU and the Neck PU in parallel, creating a sweet full Standard Tele rhythm sound. Position 4) The Neck and Bridge pickups in series, which is like creating one large spread-out humbucker! Great for a fat, full, Gibson-ish sound. Want some over drive? You can tell when this kicks in! Position 5) The Neck PU which gives a true-to-life vintage Tele neck sound. Remember at any time you can totally bypass the tone control by simply turning it wide open.


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Yale Earns 10th Straight NCAA Team Championship Bid

Bulldogs Are Defending Varsity Eight Champions

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's crew is heading back to Lake Natoma. The Bulldogs received a berth in the NCAA Championship for the 10th straight year when the 16-team field was announced on Tuesday. The three-day championship begins on May 27 in Gold River, Calif. Yale will field two boats of eight rowers each one boat of four rowers.

"For this team to reach the NCAA Championships, it's a heck of an accomplishment. I'm really proud of their effort." said Yale head coach Will Porter. "It's what we've worked for as a program since day one. We're excited to go to California and put our best foot forward."

Four other Ivy League teams – Princeton, Brown, Harvard and Dartmouth – also qualified. The rest of the field is California, Clemson, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Southern California, Stanford, Virginia, Washington, Washington State and Wisconsin.

The Bulldogs, ranked ninth in the latest CRCA-US Rowing national poll, are coming off the Eastern Sprints on Sunday. Yale finished fourth in the varsity eight, second in the second varsity and third in the varsity four.

Yale is making its 11th overall appearance in the team championships. The Bulldogs' best finish came in 2004 when they were second. Yale has had at least one boat win a grand final in each of the last four years. The varsity eight finished first in 2007, 2008 and 2010 and the second varsity won in 2009.

Virginia is the defending champion. The Bulldogs placed sixth last year.

The Lake Natoma course has been very kind to Yale over the years. The Bulldogs' second place team finish and two of their varsity eight titles have occurred there.

Report filed by Tim Bennett, Yale Sports Publicity


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November 14th, 2010 | Uncategorized

Monday’s Buzz: 11.15.10

  • New Haven Promise will not likely affect the number of public school graduates who attend Yale, according to New Haven Public School administrators. Emily Byrne, Founding Interim Director of New Haven Promise, said the initiative does not make getting into college any easier, so she does not expect a significant rise in New Haven Public School students attending Yale.
  • With less than eight months until the end of the University-wide “Yale Tomorrow”development campaign, donations have accelerated. Yale raised $159 million between July and September 2010 — the first quarter of fiscal year 2011 — compared with $89 million during the same period last year. The improvement results from national economic recovery and a final wave of giving from donors in the last year of the five-year campaign, said Inge Reichenbach, vice president for development. Yale had raised nearly $3.2 billion toward the goal as of the beginning of November, she said, keeping Yale ahead of schedule to reach its goal of $3.5 billion.
  •, an online gift website founded by Andrew Swick SOM‘11,helps avoid the holiday nightmare of receiving the same gift twice.

    The idea for the business began when Swick’s older sister, Rebecca Hyatt, the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of the site, received three identical Robert Frost anthologies in the holiday season of 2002. But born from the disastrous gift situation was a new business idea – an online gift registry to ensure that no one else would receive duplicate presents. Users register on the site to coordinate gift-giving, which provides links to items on

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Sending: Weekend Danish action
By: David Smith
Published: Sunday, August 5, 2012
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Sending: Gaziantepspor - Bursaspor
By: Andy Schreur
Published: Friday, February 22, 2013
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Contact Us Reporting Form Photo Gallery Grant Guidelines Meet The Advisors Meet The Staff About Us Apply for a Grant Video Defining-at-risk Newsletters

of the Youth Advocacy Project for Routt County (YAP) is to enhance the effective services of Routt County agencies serving special needs, at-risk, and/or low income youth through financial and hands-on support.


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Monday, May 2, 2011

Bird nests....and such

I made this little nest for April's YOE ornament...

I wanted it to look camouflaged like a real nest would. I crocheted the nest using 2 types of yarn held together.
Then I wove in beads, tinsel, embroidery thread, feathers, scraps of muslin and even tufts of rug fiber.

I whip stitched it around a pretty branch I found covered in lichen.
I really LOVE it. This photo doesn't show how pretty it is!
If you click on the photo, it will enlarge

I used some teeny wooden eggs and painted them to go in it.

Since the other nest is in my foyer, I made a teeny one using just something I made's tutorial.

It is small (not quite an 1 inch across) so I can't get a good photo of it with my camera....but here it is...

and here it is on my YOE tree...cute!

Then, I crocheted a nesting material bag and filled it up with dryer lint, yarn and feathers.

I hung it on the fence where birds sit between feeding and taking baths....

I'm pleased to say that the bird's are flocking to our yard this year. .maybe we'll have some real nests soon....keeping my fingers crossed!

jillytacy said...

I still need to put out my nesting materials. I haven't done that yet. I'm so excited for Melinda to get her package so I can post pictures. I just got my package from Melinda today but haven't opened it yet.

Lindsay-ann said...

Your nests look lovely Val. The tiny wire one would look good as a necklace. Love your flower fairy too. The birds in your garden are very lucky this year.

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Welcome to the home for York College Athletics.

Baseball Sweeps UMW to Secure #2 Seed

FREDERICKSBURG, VA – The York College baseball team closed out their Capital Athletic Conference schedule with a doubleheader sweep of the University of Mary Washington Saturday afternoon in Fredericksburg, VA. The Spartans won game one 5-0 and concluded the day with a 4-3 victory in eight innings.

York improves to 16-17 overall and finish the conference slate with a mark of 11-7 as they will be the two seed in the upcoming CAC Tournament. The Eagles will miss the CAC Tournament for the first time in school history with a conference mark of 4-14 while they are now 11-18-1 overall.

In the opener, freshman Dan Gurganus continues to impress as he tossed a five-hit shutout in the victory. He struck out two and walked three as he improves to 4-1 for the season. Gurganus has a sterling 2.59 ERA in a team-high 41.2 innings pitched.

The Spartan offense got Gurganus the lead early, striking for one run in the first and two more in the second to give York a 3-0 advantage. York's run in the first came on a Justin Cohen two-out RBI single. York's first run of the second came when Andrew Hershey singled and scored on a double error by the Eagle defense. The second run came courtesy of a Steve Tretter RBI single to center.

The Green and White tacked on single runs in the fifth and seventh innings to provide for the final score.

Matt Abramson took the loss as he allowed five runs, four earned, on 13 hits with eight strikeouts and no walks. He falls to 2-6 with the loss.

The Spartans had five players record multiple hits in the 13-hit attack. Tretter was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored while Drew Frankenfield added two hits and a run scored. Cohen and Justin Pitzer each went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Connor Finnerty had two hits for the Eagles.

In game two, the squads each had a multiple run inning to start the contest. The Spartans started the game with a two-spot courtesy of a pair of bases loaded walks.

The Eagles answered with three runs of their own in the bottom of the first to take the one run lead. York tied the game in the third on a Cohen RBI single.

The teams then went scoreless over the next four innings before York got the game-winning run in the eighth. Pitzer doubled down the line and was replaced by pinch runner J.J. Oleniacz who promptly moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on another wild pitch to give the Spartans the 4-3 lead.

Senior Brandon Ullom came into the game in the bottom of the eighth and recorded his seventh save of the year with a perfect inning of work.

David Walker earned the win in relief of starter Josh Miller as Walker worked five stellar innings, allowing just one hit and striking out three in a nearly flawless outing. Walker improves to 1-0 with the win. Nick McGovern took the loss as he allowed a run on one hit with three walks and two strikeouts in his three innings of action. Starter Michael Straub got a no-decision for the Eagles as he allowed three runs on two hits with six strikeouts and three walks in five innings.

York scored four runs on just three hits while they did manage to coax six walks from Mary Washington pitching. Cohen was 1-for-4 with an RBI while Frankenfield scored twice for York.

Jake Rudman led the Eagles with three hits and a run scored. Brent Steffey added a hit, an RBI and a run scored for UMW.

The Spartans return to action on Tuesday when they host Stevenson, the fifth seed, in the opening round of the Capital Athletic Conference Tournament. First pitch from Jaquet Field is set for 3:30 pm.

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