Tessera

alissa m.@alissadmc.bsky.social · 3h ago

An unbelievable honor to get to do such an in-depth and personal interview with Paul Westlake! He was so kind and gracious and shared so much with us. I guarantee there's a lot here you wouldn't have ever heard before even if you're a Donald Westlake expert!

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · 3h ago

New on Tough Business is an exclusive interview with Donald Westlake’s son, Paul, who was gracious enough to chat with us not only about Parker, but about his own life and Mr. Westlake’s. Check it out at the link below: toughbusiness.neocities.org/paulwestlake...

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · 3h ago

This interview blew both of us away, and we’re so thankful we had the opportunity to talk to Paul, who has been incredibly kind and generous! It’s such an unimaginable opportunity and we’re amazed not only that we’ve learned what we did from this interview, but that we get to share it with everyone.

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · 3h ago

New on Tough Business is an exclusive interview with Donald Westlake’s son, Paul, who was gracious enough to chat with us not only about Parker, but about his own life and Mr. Westlake’s. Check it out at the link below: toughbusiness.neocities.org/paulwestlake...

Tough Business recently had the incredible opportunity to sit down for an in-depth and intimate chat with Paul Westlake, Donald Westlake's son and one-time caretaker of his official website. We're delighted to have gotten the chance to talk to Paul about his early life, his favorite Parker adaptations, Mr. Westlake's personality, his writing process, his influences, and more.

Paul also kindly shared a number of family photos that we have the honor of publishing here for the first time.

1) There used to be a post about Levi Stahl's The Getaway Car on the Donald Westlake website where you mentioned not really appreciating his career until adulthood, what's the first Westlake book you remember really enjoying?

Why Me? was the first one that made me laugh out loud and appreciate my father's clever plotting. I was probably in my mid-to late-teens. Dortmunder is a good entry to Westlake for younger readers. Don had a habit of giving us signed copies of his latest book every Christmas, and most of us put them on the shelf and forgot. Two or three of my older brothers would start reading them on the spot, but for the younger ones, it was like getting another deck of cards in the stocking every year. I would often dutifully start reading them at some point and invariably trail off because my head was in fantasy and science fiction at the time. Then I got a hard copy of Why Me? and finished it in an afternoon. It still wasn't my preferred genre, but I got it. When Don figured out I was into sci-fi some, he offered up Anarchaos and his collection of sci-fi shorts. The deeper I read into his style, the more I realized the setting could be anywhere. New York City or a mining operation in the asteroid belt are just backdrops to him. The story is about the people and their machinations. They could happen almost anywhere.

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · 11h ago

i’ve never once felt patriotic but i imagine it’s similar to how i feel as a homosexual watching a visconti film

alissa m.@alissadmc.bsky.social · 4d ago

beautiful exciting things coming to the world of tough business

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · 4d ago

went to barnes and noble to admire tough business on the outfit blu-ray in the wild

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · last wk.

i love grofield’s emotions and him thinking about kissing all of these men out of pure relief and children’s book character al bear so much

alissa m.@alissadmc.bsky.social · last wk.

I love the Grofield novels more than anyone else has ever loved the Grofield novels & I think the kidnapping sequence from The Blackbird is still one of the most exciting things Mr. Stark ever wrote. I was cleaning out my phone gallery & came across it again:

@thaycraft.bsky.social · last wk.

@lilyslabo.bsky.social ...my copy arrived yesterday!!! Great job with your special feature!!!

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · last wk.

watched the night caller tonight what a totally insane amazing film. couldn’t expect anything less from henri verneuil

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · 2w ago

We just posted some news about the new French illustrated edition of The Handle and the French graphic novel adaptation of Deadly Edge, with a translation and script by Doug Headline and illustrated by Kieran. Check it out at the link below! toughbusiness.neocities.org/handlenews

Back in 2016, IDW Publishing and Darwyn Cooke released a hardcover, gorgeously illustrated edition of The Hunter as the first of what was supposed to be a series of illustrated Stark novels. Unfortunately, the project never did get completed but luckily for Parker fans everywhere, it looks like the creative team behind the brilliant new French graphic novel Parker 1969 - La Proie is picking up where Cooke left off once again - this time with an illustrated edition of The Handle (1966) and a graphic novel adaptation of Deadly Edge (1970)!

priscilla page @priscillapage.bsky.social · 2y ago

Raymond Chandler on what people really care about in a story

"A long time ago, when I was writing for the pulps I put into a story a line like ‘he got out of the car and walked across the sun-drenched sidewalk until the shadow of the awning over the entrance fell across his face like the touch of cool water.’ They took it out when they published the story. Their readers didn’t appreciate this sort of thing: just held up the action. And I set out to prove them wrong. My theory was that they just thought they cared nothing about anything but the action; that really, although they didn’t know it, they cared very little about the action. The things they really cared about, and that I cared about, were the creation of emotion through dialogue and description; the things they remembered, that haunted them, were not for example that a man got killed, but that in the moment of death he was trying to pick a paper clip up off the polished surface of a desk, and it kept slipping away from him, so that there was a look of strain on his face and his mouth was half opened in a kind of tormented grin, and the last thing in the world he thought about was death. He didn’t even"

"hear death knock on the door. That damn paper clip kept slipping away from his fingers and he just wouldn’t push it to the edge of the desk and catch it as it fell."

Neil Snowdon @neilsnowdon.bsky.social · 2w ago

Copies are getting out there and busting down doors... Pleased with how this turned out and glad we could go some way to doing it justice. :-)

alissa m.@alissadmc.bsky.social · 2w ago

I just got my copy of @arrowvideo.bsky.social 's new blu-ray of The Outfit (1973) and I couldn't be more proud to be a part of this incredible group of contributors, it's such an honor to have a featurette with @lilyslabo.bsky.social on here & to see how far out little Parker site has made it!

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · 2w ago

So proud of this!!! What an incredible opportunity to be part of a wonderful group of contributors!

alissa m.@alissadmc.bsky.social · 2w ago

I just got my copy of @arrowvideo.bsky.social 's new blu-ray of The Outfit (1973) and I couldn't be more proud to be a part of this incredible group of contributors, it's such an honor to have a featurette with @lilyslabo.bsky.social on here & to see how far out little Parker site has made it!

alissa m.@alissadmc.bsky.social · 2w ago

I just got my copy of @arrowvideo.bsky.social 's new blu-ray of The Outfit (1973) and I couldn't be more proud to be a part of this incredible group of contributors, it's such an honor to have a featurette with @lilyslabo.bsky.social on here & to see how far out little Parker site has made it!

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · 2w ago

this is what we’ve got so far. it’ll be more by the end

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · 2w ago

and grofield is there

alissa m.@alissadmc.bsky.social · 2w ago

I'm always in favor of starting a book series with the first book but for the specific purpose of communicating the pleasures of these novels in a sort of standalone story I'd say The Score!

Steve@snark.bsky.social · 3w ago

Donald Westlake lovers (and I know you're out there), bouncing off a discussion with @sifu.tweety.fish—if you were going to recommend a single Parker book to communicate the joys of the series to someone who hadn't read any, what would it be? I kind of lean towards "Breakout", weirdly!

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · 2w ago

My wonderful gal always does the absolute best job maintaining the site and making it the best it can be! Check out the link here to see the updated interviews section/sidebar.

alissa m.@alissadmc.bsky.social · 2w ago

Tough Business update: our interviews section is now part of the sidebar links for easy access! We've been lucky enough to have gotten the chance to talk about Donald Westlake's life & career with so many wonderful authors, artists, and creatives. toughbusiness.neocities.org/interviews

alissa m.@alissadmc.bsky.social · 2w ago

Tough Business update: our interviews section is now part of the sidebar links for easy access! We've been lucky enough to have gotten the chance to talk about Donald Westlake's life & career with so many wonderful authors, artists, and creatives. toughbusiness.neocities.org/interviews

interviews | tough business: a parker site

toughbusiness.neocities.org

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · 2w ago

dortmunder and kelp would be gay if they weren’t straight, and parker and grofield would be straight if they weren’t gay

Neil Snowdon @neilsnowdon.bsky.social · 3w ago

Fucking love our marketing team and the trailers they make 😍 youtu.be/Ibi36rJO1cI?...

The Outfit | Official Trailer

YouTube video by Arrow Video

youtu.be

alissa m.@alissadmc.bsky.social · 3w ago

I'm totally obsessed with @lilyslabo.bsky.social 's portrait practice pieces... look at this wonderful young Errol Flynn. absolutely insane work to me personally

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · 3w ago

more practice

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · 3w ago

more practice

alissa m.@alissadmc.bsky.social · 3w ago

Extraordinary portrait of Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo in Borsalino... my favorite obscure wildly homoerotic film. I adore the b&w era appropriate photograph feel of this and the extremely on brand expressions here... SOOOOO GOOD

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · 3w ago

i’ve been practicing likeness, so if you can tell who this is then i’ve succeeded

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · 3w ago

i’ve been practicing likeness, so if you can tell who this is then i’ve succeeded

alissa m.@alissadmc.bsky.social · 3w ago

The sheer delight of seeing this piece come into existence is beyond anything... the bright vivid vibrant colors, the body language, the composition, the sheer joy of this piece has me totally obsessed! @lilyslabo.bsky.social 's art is the most exciting thing on the planet as far as I'm concerned 🌈

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · 3w ago

sunshine lollipops and rainbows

shay d.@lilyslabo.bsky.social · 3w ago

sunshine lollipops and rainbows

DVDBeaver @dvdbeaver.bsky.social · last mo.

John Flynn's "The Outfit" Blu-ray - Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker, Robert Ryan, @ArrowFilmsVideo US: amzn.to/4y14LNW CAN: amzn.to/4444LiF UK: www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/... BONUS CAPTURES: www.patreon.com/dvdbeaver/po... OUR COMPARISON: www.dvdbeaver.com/subsite/film...

Slant @slantmagazine.com · 3w ago

John Flynn’s 1973 adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s 1963 Parker novel THE OUTFIT, starring Robert Duvall, is brutal and ruthlessly efficient. It’s the epitome of hard-boiled. Available on Blu-ray from Arrow Video on July 28. tinyurl.com/ybv5y7m8