All the news that’s fit to capsulize!

FLY AIR HOFF!
David Hasselhoff has a book out. It’s an autobiography called DON’T HASSEL THE HOFF. Don’t care? What if I told you publisher St. Martin’s celebrates said release with your very own printable David Hasselhoff paper airplane? Yeah, I thought so!

SHE MUST BE STOPPED!
For anyone else who has long suspected that Amazon’s “#1 reviewer” Harriet Klausner doesn’t even read the books she reviews, this Dayton Daily News article is a must-read.

‘LOOK’ WHO’S CLICKING
To promote Michael Connelly’s new Harry Bosch novel THE OVERLOOK, publisher Hachette Book Group USA has created a nifty interactive map that allows you to click and explore your way around the real-life Los Angeles locations that figure into the plot. There’s also a trivia quiz to test your Connelly IQ.

ON THE EIGHTH DAY, HE CREATED DVD
Recently, Microsoft lord Bill Gates predicted the death of the book in paper format, saying it won’t be long before we’ll all be reading on screens. I take umbrage with that statement, but that hasn’t stopped new media companies from trying. Example: HOLY BIBLE: COMPLETE KING JAMES VERSION on DVD. Narrated by Alexander Scourby, the double-disc set features narrator Alexander Scourby reading the entire work aloud, with synchronized text and onscreen graphics. But will it include deleted scenes and alternate endings?

COMICS GETTING ‘ODD’
Dean Koontz’s ODD THOMAS is being turned into a graphic novel, to be published next summer by Del Rey Manga. In charge of scripting and art will be Queenie Chan, author of the popular mystery-horror series THE DREAMING. Taking place before the events of ODD THOMAS, the graphic novel will follow the fry cook who sees the dead as he tries to stop a child murderer.

HINT: GET YOUR DRINK ON!
Need a step-by-step guide on how to write the great American novel? This amusing video short from Morris Hill Pictures tells you how.

NOVEL LOOKS BACK … AND TO THE LEFT
Another serial novel only available on the Internet (did Gates put you up to this?) is WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT: THE IMPEACHMENT AND TRAIL OF JOHN F. KENNEDY by Bryce Zabel and Harry Turtledove. New chapters from the alternate history novel – wonderfully what would happen had Kennedy survived the Dallas shooting – are posted weekly. Zabel said they’re going to “let the market decide what happens next. … Why do this? The answer is simple: We just didn’t believe the agent representing us actually understood and supported the project enough to properly advocate it. Out here in Hollywood-land, people always talk about passion – we had it, and we weren’t prepared to see our project get quietly buried. We figure the material is controversial because of its premise, relevant given all the impeachment talk about Bush (and Clinton’s experience), and one of the best unexplored “what-ifs” we’ve ever touched.”

SELF-PROMOTION CORNER
To celebrate its one-year anniversary, crime-lit blog The Rap Sheet asked more than 100 authors and critics to pimp a genre novel they think deserves more attention than it got. Our own BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS columnist Bruce Grossman was asked to chime in, and his pick was 1941’s SOLOMON’S VINEYARD by Jonathan Latimer. You can read his rationale alongside names like Max Allan Collins, Ian Rankin and Sara Paretsky here. Warning: Be prepared to compile a shopping list. –Rod Lott