Noir Magazine features Parker, Reacher…

…and me!

This one’s so hot off the presses, the website isn’t even live.

This is Noir Magazine, a new magazine for tablets. I downloaded it for my iPad today, the day of its debut.

I just got the iPad a few weeks ago. I won it in a drawing of all things, the first time that’s ever happened to me. Which is my long way of saying, I’m still figuring out how to work the gadget. So navigating this newfangled tablet magazine presented a bit of a challenge at first.

But once I figured it out (something longtime users and smart people should have no trouble with), I was enthralled.

Here is some background on the magazine. The short version is that a couple of folks from the LA Times Magazine, who always took their crime fiction seriously, did a Kickstarter project to make a dedicated tablet magazine devoted to crime. They raised the funds, and here we are.

The first thing I read was Jake Rossen’s piece on the upcoming Parker flick. He interviewed me for it, and I’m quoted a couple of times. It’s an excellent quick hit for folks not familiar with Parker, covering the books and previous adaptations with a focus on how that all relates to the movie coming out in about a month. It’s great short, topical magazine writing. Know nothing about Parker but are curious about the upcoming film? Well, here’s some background, including comments by Paul Westlake and director Taylor Hackford.

Of course, if you’re reading this, you probably don’t need that background. You’ll enjoy the piece anyway.

On a similar topic is Lee Child’s piece on the new film adaptation of his own Jack Reacher. I picked that as my second piece to read because I’ve read a few Reacher books and the movie opens tomorrow. Child worked in television before becoming a novelist, so he knows the sausage factory that is filmed entertainment, and has some great insight into how it works in general and how it worked in particular with his own creation. I will probably quote vast chunks of it if I get a chance to see the movie and write it up.

I hope to do a fuller overview of this fascinating new magazine once I get a chance to read it all. But if you’ve got an iPad, take a look. I didn’t have a lot of time to spend with it today, but on first glance it looks like it’s well worth the $4.95.