Last week, we told you that Andrew Vachss' latest, That's How I Roll, would be released as an audiobook. But what you may not know is that both Shella and The Getaway Man have been adapted to audio recently, by Audie Award winner Phil Gigante. Click here for information on both.
(Updated 12-14-11)

The new year is almost here, and we have at least one thing to look forward to: the return of Geofrey Darrow's Shaolin Cowboy!
(Updated 12-07-11)

We've had a few questions as to whether or not Andrew Vachss' latest, That's How I Roll, will be released as an audiobook. Here's the answer.
(Updated 12-07-11)

Georg Schmidt, my good and great friend as well as my true German translator, has moved on. I won't know where to until I join him, but I do know Georg ... so I expect he'll have the place sorted out by the time I arrive.
(Updated 11-30-11)

Climbing into the rings that she's climbed into, you couldn't have anything but respect for Professor Ruby Andrew, JSM. But her latest knockout punch? All of America will be feeling the aftershocks for years to come.
(Updated 11-30-11)

Rep. Sam Johnson just authored a bill that would eliminate Social Security's publicly released Death Master File, which (he points out) has been used by thieves to commit identity theft of dead children "for at least a decade." A decade, of course, bring us back to 2001. But ... wasn't Flood published in 1985? Just another politician who isn't connected to the whisper-stream....
(Updated 11-30-11)

In a New York Times Op-Ed, Penn State Professor Michael Berube tried to put the Jerry Sandusky/Joe Paterno abuse story in perspective—his perspective, the one that benefits him. Read Dr. Joel Dvoskin's response to Berube's Op-Ed.
(Updated 11-23-11)

According to the news, forthcoming elections in Congo will likely escalate violence in that African country. What? Even with all those UN forces on hand?
(Updated 11-23-11)

A week later, and the Jerry Sandusky/Joe Paterno abuse story has all but forced the Texas judge William Adams abuse story out of the news. Meanwhile, the real story is the one we've been telling for decades: that the overwhelming majority of child sexual abuse is not committed by the kind of roving serial perpetrators who can be "profiled" for trash TV. Read Andrew Vachss' latest Tumblr column on the subject.
(Updated 11-16-11)

"Colorado Supreme Court: Neglected and abused kids shouldn't trust their lawyers." This headline out of Denver would shock you ... if you haven't been listening to the whisper-stream.
(Updated 11-16-11)

Between the release of the video of Texas judge William Adams beating his child and the revelation that Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky was raping kids, and the administration knew of it for years and did nothing ... we've been deluged in the past week with requests for our thoughts. And what we think is, this is nothing new. We made a name for it, more than a decade ago: Circle of Trust. What is new is that the phrase has just had its first official citation, in a brief submitted to the Supreme Court (pg. 15 of the document, 29 of the PDF). And that brief is bigger news than either of the previous revelations: 40 states joined in support to argue that interviewing a child who is suspected of being abused should not require a warrant, court order, parental consent, or anything else that could interfere in the timely protection of that child. So when someone tells you that the judge-freak or the Penn State coach are signs that "the world is going to hell," you can tell them that it has been hell, for a lot of kids, for a long time. And point them to that Supreme Court brief as evidence that it's getting better.
(Updated 11-09-11)

This week, Vintage/Black Lizard released The Weight in trade paperback. Click here to order a copy!
(Updated 11-02-11)

Sure, you already knew that Andrew Vachss' next novel, That's How I Roll, is due in March. But did you know he has a Cross novel coming in July?
(Updated 10-26-11)

"The real occupation of Wall Street began when Bush took office and sowed the seeds now being reaped." If you haven't been following Andrew Vachss on Twitter, it's not too late to start.
(Updated 10-19-11)

Arnie Green was with us, all the way, with every step. And we were with him. He left our world on October 4, 2011. We last mentioned Arnie in conjunction with the Safe House soundtrack ... but he never stopped his work until the last heartbeat. Click here to read Myron Schreck's tribute to Arnie Green.
(Updated 10-12-11)

Reflecting on his two years of columns for Comic Book Daily, Brent Chittenden characterized his conversation with Andrew Vachss as the "Interview that Scared Me," and his meeting with Geofrey Darrow as his "Favorite Convention Moment." You can read the full accounts here. We wonder, then, if Mr. Chittenden will be scared or delighted to learn that the pair will be working together on some releases from Dark Horse in the coming month. And how he'll feel about the bag he gets when he shops at Open Books in Chicago in March....
(Updated 10-05-11)

Back in August, we told you about Using Social Science to Reduce Violent Offending, the latest textbook by Dr. Joel Dvoskin, one of America's leading forensic psychologists and a frequent contributor to The Zero. Less than two months later, we have another textbook by Dr. Dvoskin to tell you about: Evaluation for Personal Injury Claims: Best Practices in Forensic Mental Health Assessment. We don't expect that anything more than a small percentage of The Zero's visitors are litigators are law-school students; but every one of you who is should get this book.
(Updated 10-05-11)

A little girl was raped, and Texas Governor Rick Perry could have prevented it. Since 2007, Protect has been telling politicians about "the map": an image of the US lit up with 500,000+ red dots, each dot representing an identifiable human trading in child porn. We (because all of us at the Zero are members of Protect) have demonstrated through crime statistics that more than 40% of the humans who trade in child porn are themselves victimizing one or more children. And we have been summarily ignored. Politicians have not provided the ICAC programs with the funds they need to investigate these humans trading in child porn. Now one of them—Rodney Williams of Houston, Texas—has been arrested. For raping and sodomizing a 5-year-old girl. Williams was on that map; Texas politicians should have taken action in 2007. But they did not commit the funds to investigate him. They could have prevented the rape of that little girl. Click here to read Grier Weeks' op-ed, "Blood on their Hands."
(Updated 09-28-11)

Chicago-area teens interested in Heart Transplant will have the chance to discuss the book at the Garfield Ridge Chicago Public Library on October 13, as part of the "10 Teen Books Discussions," celebrating ten years of One Book, One Chicago. Click here for more information.
(Updated 09-28-11)

One of the latest from Andrew Vachss' twitter-feed: "I'd like Michael Vick to have to play by the same rules he made his dogs play by—if he wins, he lives; if he loses, he's tortured to death."
(Updated 09-21-11)

Congratulations to Professor Joe R. Lansdale, who was inducted into the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame for developing the Shen Chuan system!
(Updated 09-21-11)

Here's what Barbara Hoffert at Library Journal wrote about That's How I Roll: "Born of a supremely abusive father and his own sister, Esau Till is trouble from day one—a self-taught explosives expert and hired killer for rival mobs who ends up on death row. He's also seriously smart, while younger brother Tory is a little slow. This book unfolds as Esau's effort to tell his life story in a bid to protect Tory after his own death. A lawyer who represents children exclusively, Vachss writes raw, eye-opening works that deserve our attention."
(Updated 09-14-11)

"Until recently, courtroom dogs faced little more than preliminary objections from defense attorneys. But earlier this summer, a New York lawyer became the first in the nation to appeal his client's conviction of raping and impregnating a 15-year-old girl because a dog was used to comfort her during her testimony at trial." Click here to read the complete Reuter's story, including Andrew Vachss' view of the appeal.
(Updated 09-14-11)

If he'd read Choice of Evil, this headline could have turned out differently: "Connecticut man thrown in jail after breaking into pound to free his dog."
(Updated 09-07-11)

This past Sunday, the Chicago Tribune reported that the state of Illinois has been paying sex ofenders to babysit children. Where do you think those sex offenders learned that this was a safe (and profitable) way to access victims? If you've been listening to the whisper-stream, you'd know.
(Updated 08-31-11)

Dr. Joel Dvoskin is one of America's leading forensic psychologists, and a frequent contributor to The Zero. His latest textbook, Using Social Science to Reduce Violent Offending, is a survey of practices that have successfully changed human behavior. When this tool is put into practice, the world will be a better and safer place.
(Updated 08-24-11)

From Andrew Vachss' Terminal: "Hobbyists troll the Internet pretending to be children to attract pedophiles. Some pathetic first-timers actually show up at the 'girl's' house, looking for the hot underage action they've been promised. Naturally, the camera crews are waiting. Nobody ever goes to jail, but it makes for nice low-budget TV. Another public service, brought to you by the network." And now ... "Accused pedophile sailor kicked out of Navy after 'To Catch A Predator' sting has case tossed out."
(Updated 08-24-11)

We're seven months away from the release of Andrew Vachss' next novel, That's How I Roll. That's a long lead time. But it's already up on Amazon, and at 34% off cover price, with one of those guarantees that if the price gets lower before the release, your price will also drop. So ... click here to read about the book and get a first look at the cover.
(Updated 08-17-11)

If you haven't been following Andrew Vachss on twitter, you've been missing his thoughts on the US financial crisis: People are supposed to eat promises while Congress is getting fat on bribes ... Americans need a true "stimulus"—the only way to "bail out" our country is to throw Congress out of the boat ... I have yet to meet a raise-taxes liberal who gets it: fundamentalists will drive a bus off a cliff even when they're the only passengers. Click here to follow Andrew Vachss on twitter.
(Updated 08-17-11)

If Caylee Anthony is to leave any legacy aside from floral tributes and notes, Florida must do for her now what it did not do during her life: appoint a law guardian to protect her interests. Click here to read "Getting to the truth about Caylee Anthony's death," a dispatch from Andrew Vachss, originally published August 07, 2011, on The Zero's Tumblr page.
(Updated 08-10-11)

It all started with Sheba, back in 1989. Then Sheba led to Vachss, Vachss to Ellie, and Ellie to Buddy. So who is the latest dog in a line of courtroom canines? Click here to read about Rosie, the golden retriever who helped a 15-year-old girl testify at a rape trial.
(Updated 08-10-11)

Wayne D. Dundee (see Righteous Reading) has been nominated for more awards than you could imagine, but few know that he was the innovator in giving new writers their chance to be read ... a little magazine called Hardboiled that was hand-typed, mimeographed, and mailed with stamps. Yeah, that was eons ago ... all the way back to 1985. Even ... wait for it ... before the Internet. But although Wayne made his bones with so-called "PI fiction," his real love has always been the West. And now, with the publication of Dismal River, Big Wayne is where he belongs, and doing it just right. Anyone who believes there's no such genre as "Hardboiled Western" would be well-advised to check it out for themselves.
(Updated 08-03-11)

Over on our Facebook page, our gal Shawna suggested that maybe Burke has been composing Andrew Vachss' tweets lately. We'll let you decide. Here's one of the latest: "The only difference between the Oslo pervert and the Unabomber is that the internet enables much longer manifestos."
(Updated 08-03-11)

Congratulations to Phil Gigante, winner of a 2011 Audie Award! His next work: audio adaptations of Shella (Brilliance, October 25, 2011) and The Getaway Man (Brilliance, December 01, 2011).
(Updated 07-27-11)

The way our business usually works, you throw a punch, then another punch, then another ... and you keep throwing, until you get a result. But our man Trey Bundy threw a knock-out punch last week. Five days later, he had his result. We talk a lot about the death of journalism; Mr. Bundy is one of the few who gives us hope.
(Updated 07-20-11)

There's been some confusion, so here's the straight story: This is our official page on Facebook. If you're on Facebook and you've liked this page instead, you're "liking" the wrong page. So get on the right page. (And, yes, you can still be "friends" with "Andrew" and "Pansy"; those are "real" pages.) And while we're at it, this is our official Twitter feed, and we tumbl here.
(Updated 07-13-11)

The jury in the Casey Anthony case found she was "not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." If you want to know what that actually means, you can listen to the bobbleheads polluting the air with their "insights," or you can click here....
(Updated 07-06-11)

There's an email making the rounds, offering "five simple rules to be happy." Andrew Vachss has his own five rules. Click here to read them.
(Updated 06-29-11)

If you haven't yet checked our Twitter-feed or Tumblr links ... jump in here.
(Updated 06-29-11)

The trade paperback of The Weight will be released November 01, 2011, by Vintage/Black Lizard. Click here to see the color cover.
(Updated 06-22-11)

"[Vachss'] characters are anti-heroes. If they do good or noble deeds, it's usually just a side effect of something that blossomed from revenge, anger or a good con-job. They don't care if we like them or not." Click here to read the entire interview with Phil Gigante, the actor who has performed the vast majority of Andrew Vachss' audiobooks. (And if you consume your books in audio ... almost all of Vachss' books have now been adapted, and Shella is coming in October.)
(Updated 06-15-11)

A few weeks ago, we told you about the crime-fiction videogame L.A. Noire, and how the producers commissioned eight authors—including Andrew Vachss—to contribute stories to an anthology. That anthology is now available, for free, for a short time, from Amazon.com, BN.com, iTunes, and Sony. And if you want to know what Mr. Vachss thinks about "noir" ... click here.
(Updated 06-08-11)

In his 2000 Burke novel, Dead and Gone, Andrew Vachss fired the warning shot: "[The Catholic church] know exactly how to play it. First, you make up some 'syndrome' or 'disorder' that covers the crime. Then you give it some fancy-sounding name, and count on the whores and fools to spread the word." Click here to see how the whores and fools have been spreading the "gospel."
(Updated 06-01-11)

Diane Millman Beck, the widow of Iceberg Slim, checked in with this message: To loyal fans of Iceberg Slim, and to a new generation of readers, my late husband's books have a new publisher, Cash Money Content. Slim's first book, Pimp: The Story of My Life, launched this month. Trick Baby will be released in September, with the rest of the books to follow. There also exists a spoken word CD if anyone wants to hear his voice. It's called Iceberg Slim: Reflections.

If you've never read Iceberg Slim, you should. Andrew Vachss describes his books as "Raw, innovative, and ringing with blue truth." And if you already know the books ... you'll want to check out the packaging on these re-issues.
(Updated 05-25-11)

If you read The Weight, you know that "Sugar" is a name you earn. Here's a Sugar that's earned in, all the way.
(Updated 05-25-11)

Folks are always emailing us links to blogs that mention Andrew Vachss. Every once in a while, there's one that really cracks us up. Here's the latest: "Burke and his world view are so bleak I feel like reading some Jim Thompson afterwords to cheer myself up."
(Updated 05-04-11)

Mikey's got a brother, and we've got a new Dog of the Zero. Everyone, please welcome May Fly!
(Updated 05-04-11)

Anytime anyone wants to know why the National Association to Protect Children exists ... show them this.
(Updated 04-27-11)

In case you're wondering ... no, we never used GoDaddy.com to register our domain names or to host our websites. But our SSL certificate (which ensures the security of the server that accepts all email coming in to The Zero) was purchased from them, and just renewed a couple months ago. So we ate the renewal fee and instead purchased a certificate from DomainDiscover.
(Updated 04-27-11)

This week, Mandy Ginsberg, president of Match.com, said the company would start running background checks on its members, using sex-offender registries. But Ginsberg "does not [want to] provide a false sense of security to [her] members." Maybe she picked that up in the whisper-stream.
(Updated 04-20-11)

In response to the outrage over his killing of an elephant, GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons claimed he was on a mission to save the people of Zimbabwe. But ... maybe he should have cleared his Twitter account before claiming to be a humanitarian. Of course, all those people who were outraged about the dead elephant should probably have been angrier about the connections to Robert Mugabe. And if you're with us on this, click here to show it.
(Updated 04-13-11)

A couple weeks ago, we linked you to an audioclip of Andrew vachss speaking about Heart Transplant, from back when the book first came out. Now, from the same conversation between Andrew Vachss and Zak Mucha, here's an audioclip about The Weight.
(Updated 04-13-11)

There's been a lot of talk in the media about GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons shooting an elephant—and it's all been a bunch of PETA nonsense. Boycott? Hell, yes. But ... this is not about elephants, or even about narcissistic twits with elephant-sized egos. It's about how journalism continually fails to ask the right questions and confuses press releases with fact-finding. Click here for the story all of the media missed.
(Updated 04-06-11)

Back when Heart Transplant first came out, Andrew Vachss and Zak Mucha had a conversation about it. We've (finally) got a clip from that conversation. Click here to listen to it. And while we're on the subject, check out the latest endorsement for the book—from Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jim Borgman.
(Updated 03-30-11)

Andrew Vachss first wrote about online child molestation occurring in "real-time" in his 1998 novel, Safe House. The overwhelming reaction from the public was disbelief, and the same accusations of a "sick mind" that he heard when he wrote about modem-trafficking in kiddie porn back in 1987's Strega. But evidence in the press has been mounting since 2003, proving that what Vachss wrote about wasn't from his imagination at all, but what he saw down here. Check it out....
(Updated 03-23-11)

Stephen never expected to have one dog; now he has two. And we're proud to welcome both Sandy & Bear into the Zero Pack!
(Updated 03-23-11)

Zak Mucha—who wrote the anchoring essay in Heart Transplant—will present two more 90-minute programs on bullying for teens, parents, and educators for the Chicago Public Libraries. Click here for details about the March 26 & 28 events. And for a look at some of what you can expect, click here to watch a video of Mucha from an appearance last November.
(Updated 03-23-11)

Now you can have your very own Dog of the Zero! Lou Bank is fostering a Shepherd-mix named Mister Waffles, and we're proud to welcome Mister Waffles to the Zero Pack. Check him out ... and if you want to welcome him into your own, personal pack, follow the links on the page.
(Updated 03-16-11)

Andrew Vachss' brother Joe R. Lansdale has a new Hap & Leonard novel out this week: Devil Red. Click here to get the book and ... to show everyone you're a Hap-and-Leonard insider, click here to get the T-shirt from Hanson Investigations, the detective agency where the pair work. (And, of course, 100% of the profits from the shirts go to the National Association to Protect Children.)
(Updated 03-16-11)

In Louisiana, a convicted pedophile has volunteered to be castrated in exchange for early release from prison. To read the whole story—what was printed in the Daily News, and what was left out—click here.
(Updated 03-09-11)

How intrafamilial pregnancies affect the DNA ... advances in eliminating spina bifida ... those are some of the things we've seen in the news recently. But before we ever read those stories, we picked up the current in the Whisper-Stream.
(Updated 03-09-11)

Andrew Vachss' 2004 Parade article referenced former Oregon governor Neil Goldschmidt's rape of a 14-year-old girl. That girl died recently, and Fred Leonhardt wrote an obituary to the woman. It's an important piece of journalism, naming many who were complicit in Goldschmidt's crime. It will break your heart and bring you to tears, and cause your anger to overflow. Click here to read that obituary.
(Updated 03-02-11)

In Terminal, Andrew Vachss wrote, "It's just a matter of time before some marketing degenerate wires up a halfway house for sex offenders and makes a reality-TV show out of it." And just two weeks ago, that degenerate surfaced.
(Updated 03-02-11)

In his 2005 novel, Two Trains Running, Andrew Vachss speculated about how exactly Al Capone contracted syphilis. Now a report about medical experiments conducted by US government doctors between the 1920s and 1970s brings to surface some of the information that reached Mr. Vachss through the whisper-stream. Click here to read it for yourself.
(Updated 03-02-11)

From a 1990 interview with Andrew Vachss: "Are [court-appointed advocates, such as guardians ad litem, useful in protecting a child's rights and guarding against what might be called judicial child abuse]? The answer is, they can be. Are they ever a substitute for actual representation by lawyers? No. Underline no. Repeat, NO. ... There are states—and Florida is an excellent example—where a child who is the victim of abuse will not be represented by a lawyer but will be represented by a 'court-appointed special advocate' [CASA]. These people are not lawyers. Because they're not lawyers, they can't represent a child in terms of the totality of that child's needs. They can't file a motion. They can't argue before a court with any kind of force. ... You look at a state like Florida that could provide a stream of attorneys for a Ted Bundy and can't provide one attorney for an abused child. I think there's such a moral difficulty with that, that it's unresolvable." Now, from a story in this week's Miami Herald, we see the very real consequences of Florida's failure to hire lawyers for child-abuse victims: State agency had many warnings during abused girl's life.
(Updated 02-23-11)

Andrew Vachss' books have always been popular in prisons. Turns out, some of those inmates continue to read after they're released.
(Updated 02-23-11)

Next time you hear a story about government corruption—a story that sounds so absurd that it could never happen—just refer back to this Daily News article about Colonel Nyati Bolt, one of Andrew Vachss' clients from the mid 1970s through 1992. It can happen, it does happen, and it will continue to happen, until we make it stop.
(Updated 02-16-11)

Animal Planet's "Pit Boss" show has Andrew Vachss listed as the eighth most popular pit bull advocate. Eighth?!? Click here to see the page ... and check out the column to the right of it, where you can vote to make Andrew Vachss number one.
(Updated 02-16-11)

"Rippling with the whip-smart dialogue we have come to expect from Vachss, The Weight is yet another classic from the master." Click here to read Ian O'Doherty's complete review, as published January 25, 2011, by the Irish Independent.
(Updated 02-02-11)

If you read Andrew Vachss' Two Trains Running back in 2005, you might also want to read "Paper names ex-Klansman in civil rights murder article," published by CNN on January 12, 2011.
(Updated 01-26-11)

"Advice [for children who are struggling with issues of abuse in all forms]? How would I get access to such children? I've not been offered a slot on 'Sesame Street.' If you mean teenagers, I have no generic advice ... and would not trust anyone who presumed to hand it out. Believe it or not, children are individuals, and any 'advice' must be individualized to be worth transmitting. What I would avoid is garbage like, 'To heal, you must first forgive.' That's in the same class as 'Just Say No.' And, thus, simple-minded enough to be 'popular.' " Click here to read the entire interview, published by The Damned Interviews on January 21, 2011.
(Updated 01-26-11)

Eric Holder was appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia by Bill Clinton. He was later elevated to Deputy Attorney General in 1997 ... and, thus, was in office when Clinton shortened the sentence of Mel Reynolds, who sexually assault/abused a 16-year-old campaign volunteer. When Clinton suggested a pardon for Marc Rich—who fled the US after being convicted on 65 counts of tax evasion—Holder's response was "Neutral, leaning towards favorable." And now? For two years (and three budgets) Holder's Justice Department has refused to so much as ask Congress for the full funding of law enforcement authorized under the PROTECT Act of 2008. How do you convince Congress of the urgent need for child rescue funding, when the Obama administration doesn't even care enough to ask for it? Here's what Grier Weeks writes, in his piece in The Daily Caller:

Congress needs to fully investigate what the Justice Department knew and when it knew it. It needs a full accounting of what evidence resides in Justice Department-sponsored databases that could locate both child predators and their victims. It needs to demand that the full resources of the federal government are immediately deployed for child rescue in every community across the U.S. Every child victim who has been, or can be, identified should be brought to safety now, before they come to further, grievous harm.

Click here to read Mr. Weeks' entire article ... his call for justice from Attorney General Eric Holder and his U.S. Justice Department.
(Updated 01-19-11)

Last month, we pointed you to a 1996 article Andrew Vachss wrote for Expo at the request of then-editor Stieg Larsson. If you found that interesting, you might also find this comment from last week's New Yorker interesting: "[S]ome critics ... say that, under cover of condemning violence against women, [Larsson] has supplied, for the reader's enjoyment, quite a few riveting scenes of violence against women. There are indeed many such scenes, the most vile being the sex murders in the first book. It should be noted, however, that we never see those crimes. They are in the past—they are told to Mikael and Lisbeth, and hence to us." [Emphasis ours.] Click here to read the article from the January 10, 2011, issue of the New Yorker.
(Updated 01-19-11)

Anyone who has read A Bomb Built in Hell, written in 1973, knows what we think about Baby Doc. For that matter, if you read 1987's Strega, you know that Burke's answer to the Mole's question, "Who goes to prison in Haiti," was, "Anybody Baby Doc wants to put there." So imagine our disgust when we read "Ousted Dictator 'Baby Doc' Duvalier Returns to Haiti."
(Updated 01-19-11)

Richard McLeese checked in with some nice memories about Son Seals. Click here to enjoy them yourself, including a couple of great videos.
(Updated 01-19-11)

"I expect there will be more Sugar stories—he's too good a character for Vachss to leave behind. And I expect to overcome my resistance to series to have a look." Click here to read Robert Birnbaum's review of The Weight, published January 11, 2011.
(Updated 01-12-11)

"Queens woman facing infant kidnap rap posed as film casting director to lure tots" and "Mayor Bloomberg under fire for handling of blizzard"—both recent headlines, and both totally predictable, to anyone listening to the Whisper-Stream.
(Updated 01-12-11)

"Vachss is an attorney specializing in child abuse and neglect. He's capable of dragging the reader through the horrors of that world on trips that leave scars. He doesn't go there this time. But Sugar keeps you turning pages and The Weight is a good, bumpy ride." Click here to read Bo Petersen's review of The Weight, published January 02, 2011, by The Post and Courier.
(Updated 01-12-11)

"Few plumb the relativistic integrity of the 'honourable' criminal mind like Vachss, but these brutal insights provide only the lexicon for what is really a battered and bruised romance — a salvation, of sorts, for those who shoulder life's true weight." Click here to read John Sullivan's review of The Weight, published December 18, 2010, by the Winnipeg Free Press.
(Updated 01-05-11)

Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, said, "Based on the work for animals [Michael Vick] has undertaken since his release from prison, I don't believe he should be forever banned from adopting a dog for his two daughters." We couldn't disagree more with Pacelle, and so long as he has anything to do with the Humane Society of the United States, we'll have nothing to do with them. But the Humane Society of Canada? That organization is completely unaffiliated with HSUS, and is run by our great pal, Michael O'Sullivan, one of the most valiant protectors of animals ever to walk the earth! Click here to read Macleans' interview with Michael O'Sullivan!
(Updated 12-29-10)

An article Andrew Vachss wrote in 1996 is suddenly making the rounds again. Why? He wrote it for an anti-fascist magazine in Sweden, Expo, at the request of the editor ... Stieg Larsson. Click here to read the article in English, and click here to read the article in Swedish.
(Updated 12-29-10)

Last week we told you about the story of the US courts bankrupting and silencing Siobhan Reynolds and the Pain Relief Network. That shook loose some things we didn't know about, including this 2003 review of Pain Management by the CSAM News, the quarterly newsletter of the California Society of Addiction Medicine.
(Updated 12-29-10)

We made one statement——about people in absolute agony getting babble about "the war on drugs" instead of pain relief——in Pain Management. And anyone who has read Heart Transplant knows how we feel about bullies. So here's a story——an important story——that brings those two elements together. Siobhan Reynolds founded the Pain Relief Network, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of pain patients and physicians, when her late ex-husband Sean was denied pain medication for his congenital connective tissue disorder. Her advocacy has earned her some seriously dedicated fans ... and the scorn of the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. Laws that were established to protect people like Reynolds are being used to instead silence her. And the result is that these bullies are going to bankrupt her nonprofit. Read the whole story here.
(Updated 12-22-10)

From Terminal (2007): "The Wall Street Journal had a little squib about some big players in the Netherlands—neutral territory?—putting together a consortium to run a natural-gas pipeline from the Russian icelands all the way down to a Y pipe. One channel to go to countries where they paid in euros, the other to one that paid in anything you wanted, from warplanes to harvested organs." And from The Daily News (2010): "Prime Minister of Kosovo is head of organ harvesting and drug ring in Eastern Europe." Check it out.
(Updated 12-22-10)

"I don't meet a whole lot of people without an agenda, so I don't know what's really in their mind. All I can do is be consistent and truthful. Am I shocked that the NAMBLA bulletin called me a fascist? No. But do I think they're objective reviewers? Of course not. Any more than I think most book reviewers could be objective, I don't know how they could be. The whole concept of book reviewing is, 'You people are a bunch of sheep and I know what's best and I'll point you in that direction.' What are the qualifications for being a book reviewer?" Click here to read the entirety of Rob W. Hart's interview with Andrew Vachss, published by The Cult, the official website of Chuck Palahniuk, on December 15, 2010.
(Updated 12-22-10)

From Blossom (1990): "He was the kind of man who'd use vanity plates on a getaway car." And from Boston's WCVB-TV (2010): "A Hooksett woman was arrested and charged with robbing a pharmacy after a witness jotted down the vanity plate on her car as she left the area." Check it out.
(Updated 12-15-10)

"A lot of people have asked me why I care so much about the issue of child abuse, since I don't have kids and am not really close to any other children. Part of it is sociological. ... Part of it is hatred, pure and simple. ... The real reason, though, stems from an experience I had when I was 22." We didn't all take the same path to get here. To read about the path Roland Murphy took, click here.
(Updated 12-15-10)

Our rule is simple: If you've got our back, you're in our Pack. And even by his choice of reading material, Blanco has proven in.
(Updated 12-15-10)

Okay, so now the Chicago Tribune has joined the New York Times in recommending Heart Transplant as a top holiday gift pick. Of course, that doesn't make it any easier to find the book in your local bookstore—the solicitation and distribution have been failed since the start. So if you're looking to give Heart Transplant as a gift, what to do? Well, here's one solution: buy the book online. Buy.com, Amazon.com, and BN.com all list the book as in-stock, will ship it wherever you want, giftwrap it, even include whatever note you want, and all for around $20 (for a book with a cover price of $25). Don't get us wrong—we're big fans of brick-and-mortar bookstores, especially independent bookstores. And you have options if you're near Colorado Springs or Lincoln (NE). But until the books are available in stores, we're going to promote those forms of distribution that we're aware of. (And if you're in the UK, try Page45.com.)
(Updated 12-08-10)

From Two Trains Running (2005), page 269: "What is it this time? Nazi scientists, working in a secret lab to send rockets to the moon?" And from the Associated Press last month (11/15/2010): "Arthur Rudolph, one of hundreds of scientists brought to the U.S., told investigators in 1947 he had attended a hanging of inmates accused of sabotage at a German V-2 rocket plant he ran. U.S. immigration officials knew he had been a Nazi party member, but he was admitted to the U.S. anyway. Rudolph became father of the Saturn V rocket, enabling the U.S. to reach the moon." Click here for the complete article.
(Updated 12-08-10)

You might have read about the cell phone in Charles Manson's prison cell earlier this week. Or you might have picked it up from the whisper-stream last month, in The Weight.
(Updated 12-08-10)

"Across the globe criminals are using technology to facilitate the sexual exploitation of children. Police are overwhelmed and outnumbered. These Oak Ridge scientists are the good guys we've been waiting for. Their computers will become child-rescue engines." That's from Grier Weeks, Executive Director of Protect. Click here to read what he and all of us are excited about.
(Updated 12-01-10)

"We can rail against the system until the cows come home. But until our elected officials take ownership of the never-ending failures at [Texas' Family and Protective Services], nothing is going to change. How many more children have to die until our state leadership accepts this responsibility?" Click here to read Randy Burton's latest Guest Dispatch, "Texas shares the blame for foster care tragedy."
(Updated 12-01-10)

In his column in BookPage, Bruce Tierney says The Weight is "exceptionally well written and should appeal to longtime fans and new readers alike." Click here to read the entire review.
(Updated 12-01-10)

In the November 20 issue of the Los Angeles Times, Paula Woods gave Andrew Vachss' latest novel, The Weight, five stars, writing, "To read Andrew Vachss at his best is to take a ride on the dark side, where the plight of the oppressed and vulnerable—most notably abused children—becomes the catalyst for revenge-fueled street justice." Click here to read the entire review.
(Updated 11-24-10)

"A lot of anti-bullying work says, Let's teach bullies empathy. But a lot of people actually enjoy hurting other people. So we're not talking to the bullies, we're talking to the targets. We're saying we think you can stop this, we think we all can." Click here to read all of Zak Mucha's interview with Jonathan Messinger, published November 18, 2010, by Time Out Chicago.
(Updated 11-24-10)

Last week we sent out thanks to a number of Zero regulars and Facebook friends who have helped get Heart Transplant into libraries. That list of Heart Donors has been growing all week, and we continue to add names as they reveal themselves to us. This being Thanksgiving and all, we thought it appropriate to point everyone back to that list, so you know who we're thankful to. Click here to see our list of Heart Donors, people who have gone to their public libraries and requested that they order the book.
(Updated 11-24-10)

We've often said that there's no greater factor in the success of a book (or any other product) than word-of-mouth. That's been proven in the most extreme way over the last couple weeks, by Zero visitors and Facebook friends. We asked for your help in getting Heart Transplant into libraries. You responded, and now copies are getting into libraries. Click here to see our list of Heart Donors, people who have gone to their local libraries and requested that they order the book.
(Updated 11-17-10)

Tom Nolan at the Wall Street Journal weighs in on Andrew Vachss' latest novel, The Weight, here.
(Updated 11-17-10)

The New York Times named Heart Transplant one of its 2010 picks for graphic books in its annual Holiday Gift Guide. Check it out here!
(Updated 11-17-10)

A few weeks ago, our man Trey Bundy hosted a Heart Transplant launch concert in San Francisco. He sold out of the 50 books he had, did a great job of helping to recode the cultural software, and proved that "one can find a bully anywhere—even at an anti-bullying event."
(Updated 11-17-10)

Zak Mucha—who wrote the concluding essay in Heart Transplant—was a featured guest last week on NPR's "Eight Forty-Eight." You can listen to the podcast here.
(Updated 11-17-10)

To mark the release of A Bomb Built in Hell as a Kindle exclusive, Amazon.com asked Andrew Vachss to be the guest blogger on their Kindle site. You can read his entry here.
(Updated 11-17-10)

Andrew Vachss' latest novel, The Weight, was released yesterday. Read what two great authors—Ken Bruen and Chet Williamson—have to say about the book.
(Updated 11-10-10)

You can hear what Andrew Vachss has to say about The Weight—and you can have your own say. He'll be a guest on Dave Marsh's political call-in show, "Live from the Land of Hopes and Dreams" (Sirius Left Channel 146), this Sunday, November 14, from 2:00 to 5:00 pm Eastern.
(Updated 11-10-10)

In his weekly column in The Bay Citizen, Trey Bundy calls Heart Tansplant "a gloves-off indictment of culturally sanctioned bullying." Click here to read Trey's column.
(Updated 11-10-10)

We need your help! The distribution of Heart Transplant has been hosed from day one. On the one hand, the distributor is trying to tell us that no library wants this book. On the other hand, our man Trey Bundy sold out of all 50 copies he had available at the punk-rock show he held last Friday. Not only do we believe this is a book people want to read, but also, we have the evidence of Trey's one-day success that proves it.

We're not asking you to buy a copy. What we are asking you to do is make a bigger commitment than that. We want you to go to your local public library and ask to speak to the person in charge of purchasing books for the library. Ask that person if they were offered Heart Transplant; give them a copy of this brochure; then check in with us to let us know who you contacted and what they said.

The goal of this book is—always has been, since Andrew, Frank and Zak conceptualized it—to recode the cultural software as it pertains to bullying. It's an effective tool for doing that, and the timing couldn't be better. But any tool left in a drawer can't get the job done.
(Updated 11-03-10)

If Heart Transplant is your kind of book ... if you're the kind of person who wants to stand up to bullying ... let people know by making this your avatar on Facebook.
(Updated 11-03-10)

A Bomb Built in Hell is available now as a Kindle, with an original cover by the one-and-only Geofrey Darrow. For years you've been telling us you wanted to see it as a hardcover, a limited, a trade paperback ... voting has always been split. This is the only egalitarian way we could see to make it available. Costs you $5, and you can download Kindle software to any computer.
(Updated 11-03-10)

Italian readers will want to check out this interview with Andrew Vachss on Liberi di Scrivere, conducted by Giulietta Iannone.
(Updated 11-03-10)

Original Andrew Vachss short story! "A dog is like a person—he needs a job and a family to be what he's meant to be." Mulholland Books—a new crime-fiction imprint at Little, Brown and Co.—is offering free on their website a new short story by Andrew Vachss. Read "As the Crow Flies" by clicking here.
(Updated 11-03-10)

You can never let your guard down. The second you do, you could find yourself in serious danger. That's the lesson we hope everyone takes away from this fake "casting call" for a film adaptation of Andrew Vachss' Flood.
(Updated 10-27-10)

Don't just deplore bullying—fight it! That's the message from our man Dave Marsh (yes, that Dave Marsh). And it's also how he starts his endorsement of Heart Transplant!
(Updated 10-27-10)

"As a society, we're taught not to intervene in emotional abuse; to look the other way. People who do pick up [Heart Transplant]—when they see the lesson that Pop teaches Sean—the hope is that the message is just going to click for them; that they'll begin to understand how to better handle those types of situations." Click here to read John Geddes' entire article, "Heart Transplant a passionate lesson about bullying," as published by USAToday on October 20, 2010.
(Updated 10-27-10)

"Somewhere between graphic novel and picture book, Heart Transplant is aimed at the victims of bullies with the intent of helping the victims and their parents, family and friends deal with the situation effectively." Click here to read John Seven's entire article, "Andrew Vachss: Fighting Bullies One Book at a Time" as published by Publishers Weekly on October 19, 2010.
(Updated 10-27-10)

Thee Parkside (1600 Seventeenth St., San Francisco) is hosting a Heart Transplant launch party, featuring live music from Grass Widow, the Bar Feeders, and Lou Lou & the Guitarfish. On Friday, October 29, the Bay Area's best punk bands will celebrate the release of the book, and help us get copies into circulation. None of the authors will be in attendance, but actual copies of the book will be available. The $8 cover will get you access to a night of great music, and you'll be able to purchase a copy of Heart Transplant. More information here.
(Updated 10-27-10)

Zak Mucha on the radio this morning! On Wednesday, October 27, Zak Mucha will join "Doctor Radio" host Dr. Carol Bernstein for an on-air disucssion about bullying. Dr. Bernstein, who is also President of the American Psychiatric Association and Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education at New York University School of Medicine, hosts her weekly show on Sirius Channel 114 and XM Channel 119. Mr. Mucha will be on from 9:00 to 9:30 am Eastern.
(Updated 10-27-10)

Heart Transplant went on sale yesterday ... and promptly sold out, both online and, from what we're hearing from Zero visitors, at many brick-and-mortar locations, too. We're grateful for all the support, and apologetic for the frustration many are experiencing. To be sure, everyone is working hard to rectify the situation, and we expect the pipeline to reopen in a couple of days. In the meantime, if you're willing to wait until the end of November to read the book, you can get a copy signed by Andrew Vachss for cover price here. And below are two more opportunities to get copies. Again, our apologies—and our gratitude, for making this book such an overwhelming success.
(Updated 10-20-10)

On September 22, 2010, 22-year-old Rutgers student Tyler Clementi committed suicide. Two other students had taped Clementi having sex with another man, and posted that video on the Internet. In the wake of that tragedy, youtube was flooded with "It Gets Better" videos. The movement was well-intentioned, if not entirely on target. In a guest dispatch to The Zero, Zak Mucha explains "The Problem with 'It Gets Better.'"
(Updated 10-13-10)

"Perhaps the baddest car in detective fiction belongs to Andrew Vachss' outlaw protagonist, Burke." Those aren't our words—they belong to Bruce Tierney, from his column on BookPage. Click here to read the whole round-up!
(Updated 10-13-10)

From Ingram's iKids newsletter: "It seems that every year one graphic novel stands out in my mind from all the rest. ... This year it's Heart Transplant. ... Although not completely a graphic novel or a self-help book this gripping story crosses both formats and categories in an attempt to get to the heart of the complex type of abuse known as bullying. It examines it from all sides and gives parents and teens the real facts. Some pages are completely wordless; others contain much text. Regardless, the striking color illustrations dramatically expose the full range of developing emotions in Sean, ultimately revealing a heart inside. ... Highly recommended for all school and public library YA collections." And while Ingram's recommendation carries a lot of weight with public libraries, it doesn't carry as much as your recommendation. (That's why they call them public libraries.) So click here to print a request you can bring to your public library. With Heart Transplant less than two weeks out from its on-sale date, now is the time to hit.
(Updated 10-06-10)

Another update on the Death of Journalism: In an interview in 2005, Andrew Vachss said, "I consider journalism, investigative journalism, to be THE maintainer of democracy. If you take that out of the picture, then we have no chance. As a society, as a people, we have no chance whatsoever." So this article about journalism in Mexico is giving us great pause....
(Updated 09-22-10)

Here's an update for audiobook fans: MPformance.com has added three new short-story performances to their offerings: Daniel Boice performs Andrew Vachss' "Cripple" and "Value Received," and Chet Williamson performs his own story, "A Lover's Alibi." These audio shorts cost less than a dollar each, so ... check them out!
(Updated 09-22-10)

For some time now, we've been telling people that the key word in public library is public. That word tells you who funds the library ... and therefore who gets to decide which books should be purchased: you. To make it easier for you to tell your public library which book you want ordered, we put together this Library Request Form for Heart Transplant. Please print it out, fill it out, and take it to your public library—and help us recode the cultural software regarding bullying.
(Updated 09-15-10)

Although the book is not due to be released until October 19, our sample copy of Heart Transplant arrived recently. Take a look at the photo of the package—a beautiful presentation of Frank Caruso's stunning artwork—by clicking here.
(Updated 09-08-10)

An anonymous blogger is given up by Google for libeling a former model. An 18-year-old woman is jailed in Britain for posting death threats to another young woman on her Facebook page. And a 17-year-old girl is found guilty of aiding and abetting the death of a young man for filming her friend delivering the fatal beating. Cyber-geeks are crying "censorship." But Andrew Vachss responded to that outcry back in 1994.
(Updated 09-01-10)

In a 2006 interview with Protect, Andrew Vachss said, "Why do I feel 'simple possession' [of child pornography] is so critical? ... [C]rime chases dollars. Although the huge networks grab all the headlines, without individual customers ... the networks are out of business. They run continuing criminal enterprises which are rooted in the desire of individuals to possess certain images. If those individuals were facing felony convictions, with actual prison time, and were forced to register as sex offenders, some deterrence would immediately ensue. For every 'collector' deterred, less money goes to the syndicates. If we don't stop the buyers, there will always be sellers." One of those buyers—Gerald Aumais—has been stopped. In October 2009, he was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary L. Sharpe to ten years prison. Then, in August 2010, U.S. Magistrate Judge David R. Homer ordered Aumais to pay $48,483 to one of the victims photographed in several of the thousands of images he collected.
(Updated 08-25-10)

Vintage's trade-paperback edition of Haiku will go on sale November 2, 2010. Click here to go to the Haiku page and see the cover of the trade paperback—and click on that cover if you want to see how it looks front and back.
(Updated 08-18-10)

Our mission at The Zero is to change behavior that threatens our species. One of the ways we try to do that is by changing the language people use. That can be like planting a firecracker and waiting for it to grow to a bomb. Well, one of those bombs was just harvested. Check out our "Sick vs. Evil" page, and be sure to scroll down to the bottom, to read about how this bomb blew up all over a child rapist named William Irey and U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell.
(Updated 08-11-10)

Remember "noir verite," from Andrew Vachss' 2002 novel, Only Child ? Then you won't be surprised by this article from last week: "Three NJ Teens Charged in Immigrant's Videotaped Death."
(Updated 08-04-10)

One of Italy's major newspapers, Il Giornale, interviewed Andrew Vachss on that country's publication of The Getaway Man. If you read Italian—or just want to see the illustration they made of Mr. Vachss—click here!
(Updated 08-04-10)

"Kiddie porn on the Internet serves the same two major purposes it serves in any other forum ... and one unique to the medium. First, kiddie porn tells the child molester viewing it that he or she is not a freak, not alone in his degeneracy. ... Second, kiddie porn is used to desensitize potential victims." That's what Andrew Vachss said in 1998, in his testimony before the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. Now compare that to this, from a New York Times article published this week: "[Stacey] Springer [a vice president at Caleris, a firm that is hired by social networking sites to review photographs for inappropriate content] says she believes that content moderators tend to become desensitized to the imagery, making it easier to cope. But she is called on to review the worst material, like sexual images involving children, and says that she finds some of it 'hard to walk away from.' "
(Updated 07-28-10)

Back in May, we dissected the article "2nd Circuit Faults Pornography Enhancements, Vacates Sentence" (Mark Hamblett, New York Law Journal, May 14, 2010). It wasn't a one-shot deal for that Second Circuit Court. Read "2nd Circuit Vacates Enhanced 14-Year Sentence for Child Pornography" by clicking here.
(Updated 07-28-10)

"If you choose to share child pornography and victimize our children in the Bay Area, we are coming after you." That's a quote from San Jose police chief Rob Davis, at a press conference announcing the arrest of 11 suspects for possession of child pornography. How'd they find the suspects? The Web. Click here to read the full story by Trey Bundy, published July 19, 2010, by The Bay Citizen. Then click here to see how you can be part of a movement that will have every police chief echoing Chief Davis.
(Updated 07-21-10)

Diana and Jack from Rome checked in to share with us their piece of art: "The Getaway Man in 300 Words." Thanks, Diana and Jack!
(Updated 07-21-10)

Yes, we heard the Swiss have refused to extradite Roman Polanski. And here's what we wrote back in September: "You think Polanski went to Zurich by mistake? Come on! If you had to pick one country on the entire planet where money talks, where would you go? Switzerland, remember, is "neutral" ... they are equally willing to take money from anyone, whether it's drug cartels or Nazi-looted artworks. The whole thing feels very engineered to us, set up way in advance."
(Updated 07-14-10)

Here's an update on the Death of Journalism: John Conroy has been on the story of police torture in Chicago since 1990. His articles are credited as sparking the Police Dept. Review Board investigation that led to the 1993 firing of Jon Burge as Commander of Chicago's Area 2 police force. But Mr. Conroy didn't close his file there; he saw more to the story. He continued writing, and the revelation that so many people had been convicted based on confessions obtained through torture resulted in former-Governor George Ryan declaring a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois. That was 2003, and Mr. Conroy kept writing. Just over two weeks ago, on June 29, Burge was convicted. Not of the torture itself—the statute of limitations expired decades ago for those crimes. He was convicted of perjury—lying about not torturing suspects, in testimony during civil cases. More than twenty years after Mr. Conroy's articles began seeing print. And, again, all of it credited to those articles. So ... how is this about the death of journalism? Mr. Conroy was laid off as a reporter in 2007. Even without the regular paycheck that should come with this kind of work, Mr. Conroy has continued reporting on police torture, on his blog at vocalo.com. That's a Journalist, following a story to its end. And when someone like that is replaced by AP wires and interns who just print press releases, we should all be worried. Mr. Conroy has our deepest respect and admiration.
(Updated 07-14-10)

In his 2007 interview with PulpPusher.com, Andrew Vachss said, "How come the same people who demand the government stay out of their personal business when it comes to gun ownership are so silent about the government telling people what they can do with their own bodies?" Now check out "Basis of Ruling on Gay Unions Stirs Debate," from the July 10, 2010, edition of the New York Times.
(Updated 07-14-10)

Can a tongue be registered as a lethal weapon? Join us in welcoming Maggie Estep's Mickey the Pit Bull to the Zero Pack!
(Updated 07-14-10)

Speaking of Maggie Estep ... her audio performance of Andrew Vachss' short story "Reaching Back" is the latest offering from MPformance. Joining Maggie is longtime Zero visitor Dan Boice with his performance of "Dead Game." At less than $1 each, you can't ask for a better MP3 value!
(Updated 07-14-10)

In False Allegations, Andrew Vachss wrote, "[T]he whisper–stream vacuums up everything, gold to garbage." Sometimes, it can be a bit of both. Read Lynda Edwards' article, "Myths Over Miami," from the June 5, 1997, edition of the Miami New Times.
(Updated 07-07-10)

Now you've got one place to go to get updated on Andrew Vachss' forthcoming projects.
(Updated 06-30-10)

We've got two treats today for our Italian visitors: an interview between Andrew Vachss and Thriller Cafe, and ... the release of The Getaway Man in Italian.
(Updated 06-30-10)

From the June 29 edition of the Daily News comes this great example of a protective parent ... and a lousy judge: "Judge frees mom [he] jailed for keeping son from rapist dad."
(Updated 06-30-10)

Andrew Vachss, Frank Caruso, and Zak Mucha collaborated on an antidote to bullying: it's called Heart Transplant. We announced the project back in April. But since then, we've been sending preview copies around and getting back some endorsements that demonstrate that leaders in the fields of psychiatry, child development, child protection, education, social work, journalism, self-defense, and community policing agree with the solution. Click here to read the endorsements, a description of Heart Transplant, and an excerpt from the book.
(Updated 06-23-10)

Heart Transplant is all about helping, and there's always ways that you can help. If you bought this book and donated it to a library, that would be huge. If you bought it and gave it to a kid who is being bullied, that would be fantastic. If you simply buy it, that would be a great help. But if you can't do any of that, here's something you can do that won't cost a dime: go to Amazon.com and "tag" the book (in the section immediately beneath Andrew Vachss' picture) as "bullying," "school bullying," "parenting," "young adult," "bullies," "bullied," "emotional abuse," and "bully." This will help put the book in the top rankings when someone searches these various tags. An antidote doesn't mean anything if it doesn't get to the person who needs it—your tags will help ensure it does.
(Updated 06-23-10)

Here are Andrew Vachss' words from 1983: "This is the type of kid who will kill three people on separate occasions for no apparent reason, commit a subway robbery, do a push-in mugging, blow somebody away because they 'looked at him wrong.' He will show no remorse, and then come into the office of an institution just enraged, veins bulging out of his neck, sweat pouring off his forehead, eyes wild, incoherent almost to the point of tears . . . all because someone broke his portable radio. And he'll see no contradiction whatsoever. He simply does not feel anyone's pain but his own. . . . To this kid, life is a lottery. Everyone rolls the dice, but not everyone pays the price." Compare those words to this June 3, 2010, story from The Washington Post: "The Southeast Washington drive-by shootings: Prelude to a tragedy."
(Updated 06-16-10)

You probably know Alison Arngrim as Nellie Oleson, once voted the meanest child star ever for her infamous nastiness on one of the most beloved shows in TV history: "Little House on the Prairie." We know her as a truly valiant warrior for PROTECT. And now you can know all about her—and see the reality behind the glitz of TV hits—because her take-no-prisoners memoir, Confessions of a Prairie Bitch, is about to hit bookstores. And we do mean hit!
(Updated 06-09-10)

Federal Judge Jack B. Weinstein thinks the law is too harsh on kiddie-porn collectors. New York Times reporter A.G. Sulzberger portrays Weinstein as a hero. And Dr. Joel Dvoskin summarily takes them both to task in "Poor Judgement and Bad Journalism," a Guest Dispatch to The Zero.
(Updated 06-09-10)

Chet Williamson's performance of Andrew Vachss' "Hit Man" has just been added to MPformance.com. If you're an audiobook fan looking for some quick hits, check out these less-than-a-dollar shorts. And if you haven't submitted your performance ... what are you waiting for?
(Updated 06-02-10)

Anyone who has read the books of Andrew Vachss knows how we feel about journalism: it's our only real form of protection. But journalism has been sadly degenerating in the last couple decades. So we're really glad to see that Trey Bundy—as serious a journalist as we've ever read—not only has a new regular, weekly column in The Bay Citizen, but that its focus is child welfare. Click here to read the first column, "The 'System' and its Discontents," and check in every week for the latest!
(Updated 06-01-10)

For years we've been saying that the sex-offender registries are useless—and, in fact, are downright dangerous. The latest story of the damage these registries can do hits close to home: frequent Zero visitors may recall the story of Kamau Marcharia. If not, you can read his story by clicking here ... and you can read how these registries are inhibiting his ability to represent his community by clicking here.
(Updated 05-26-10)

"When police fired off a flash grenade and stormed into an east-side flat, film was rolling. Now some are questioning whether that influenced the events that led to the death of a 7-year-old girl. The killing of Aiyana Jones during a police raid being filmed by a camera crew for the show 'The First 48' raises concerns for some over the relationship between police departments and reality television shows, a relationship that trades exciting video for the promise of positive publicity and improved morale." Read the whole story, from the May 18, 2010, Detroit News, by clicking here. Then go read Andrew Vachss' 2002 warning: Only Child.
(Updated 05-26-10)

We've been hearing from a lot of people who are celebrating the Supreme Court's ruling that 'sexually dangerous' inmates can be imprisoned indefinitely. Well, we're here to tell you: stop the celebration. The ruling has made matters worse. The poison pill is that the inmate can only be detained if s/he "suffers from a serious mental illness, abnormality, or disorder." This means we don't win; they do. Because the Court has not ratified the concept that one can "suffer" from a "mental illness." GUARANTEED: this will become the new defense strategy. If the U.S. Supreme Court says that the "disease" exists, no lower court can refuse when the same conduct is offered as an INSANITY DEFENSE! The perfect irony: what keeps some freaks in will let many more off the hook. Too bad the Justices never read "The Difference Between 'Sick' and 'Evil,' " huh?
(Updated 05-26-10)

Two Trains Running, when you boil it down, is about the importance of journalism. Same case with the Underground short stories. So when we see articles like "Pornland, Oregon: Child Prostitution in Portland" (Dan Rather, Huffington Post, May 18, 2010), it makes us angry. Why? Well, we can forgive Rather for not reading Pain Management (2001), in which Andrew Vachss writes about Portland's trade in child sex. But as a "journalist," you'd expect Rather to at least have read Vachss' article "Watch Your Language," which appeared in every major newspaper in America (including The Oregonian) via Parade in 2005. Here's part of what he would have learned:

"Years ago, I participated in the rescue of a child from bondage. Destiny (not her real name) was 13. She had been repeatedly raped by a pair of predators to 'educate' her. Then, along with several other young girls, she was forced to sell herself to strangers. ... What was wrong with calling Destiny a 'child prostitute'? After all, she was a child, and she was engaged in prostitution. First, the word itself implies a judgment of character. Don't we call people who sell out their moral convictions in exchange for personal gain 'whores'? More important, prostitution implies a willing exchange. Ultimately, the term 'child prostitution' implies that little children are 'seductive,' that they 'volunteer' to have sex with adults in exchange for cash (which, of course, the children never see).

"The difference between calling Destiny a 'child prostitute' and a 'prostituted child' is not purely semantic. It is more than the difference between a hard truth and a pernicious lie. It not only injures the victims; it actively gives aid and comfort to the enemy."

So Rather writes, "We all [emphasis ours] are ... in denial [about sex trafficking in children in America]," and that he "ran across [this story] late last year." Well ... thank goodness Dan Rather is on the job. And he proceeds to contribute to the problem by using the term "child prostitute" and using salacious images with his "story." Rather isn't a journalist—he's a guy selling advertising. And selling advertising isn't a crime. But posing as a journalist and (further) prostituting children for the purposes of ad sales ought to be.
(Updated 05-19-10)

Every so often, a news story strikes us as so wrong that we have to dissect it. That's what we've done with "2nd Circuit Faults Pornography Enhancements, Vacates Sentence" (Mark Hamblett, New York Law Journal, May 14, 2010). The emphasis throughout the story is that "mere possession" of child pornography could result in a higher sentence than the actual sexual assault of a child (for pleasure and/or profit). But the emphasis should be on why the latter are not eligible for much longer sentences. Click here to read our view of what this story misses.
(Updated 05-19-10)

Maybe you read Andrew Vachss' 2007 novel, Terminal? If so, it won't surprise you to read this quote from the April 12, 2010, Connecticut Law Tribune: " 'Tony' Bryant ... a private school classmate of [15-year-old Martha] Moxley and [the person convicted of killing her, Michael] Skakel ... said his friends told him a few days after the murder that they assaulted Moxley. Defense attorney Sherman did not introduce Bryant’s statements during the 2002 trial." Click here to read the rest of the article ... or click here to read the end before it's written.
(Updated 05-12-10)

"Forgiveness is not a substitute for justice." If we told you that quote came from Andrew Vachss, you'd believe us, right? But it comes from the Pope, in response to the latest wave of news about predatory priests. Here's an actual quote from Vachss that frames the Pope's quote: "[P]eople's reality lies way south of their rhetoric. And if I had to sum up the most important lesson of my life, it would be that behavior is the truth."
(Updated 05-12-10)

When we talk about people who are homeless, we tend to talk about them like they are a singular population: they came to be homeless the same way, and there's a single solution to resolve their homelessness. That's what Haiku is about—and that's what this story from WPIX.com demonstrates. Until we start talking about the different ways people come to be homeless—and until we stop juxtaposing "homeless person" with "good samaritan"—we won't be able to talk about real solutions.
(Updated 05-05-10)

And speaking of Haiku, click here to check out Vintage's cover to the trade-paperback edition of that book, scheduled for release on November 2, 2010.
(Updated 05-05-10)

Two more audio performances of Andrew Vachss' short stories have been added to MPformance.com: "Witch Hunt," performed by Zak Mucha, LCSW, and "Dress-Up Day," performed by Chet Williamson. That brings the 99-cent offerings to five. If you haven't checked them out, now's your chance—and if you haven't submitted your performance ... what are you waiting for?
(Updated 04-28-10)

The Supreme Court says it's legal to make movies of animals being tortured. That was their ruling yesterday, by a count of 8 to 1. So what we want to know is, if we make a film of ourselves killing a couple people who are making a film of themselves torturing an animal, is that legal? Because those torturers are lower than animals.

Our regards to Samuel Alito for being the only judge to vote humanely. As for the rest of them ... our motto is Replace All Eight.
(Updated 04-21-10)

Last week, as a response to the latest wave of news about predatory priests, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said "[T]here is a relation between homosexuality and pedophilia. That is true. ... That is the problem." We've been saying our piece for years—and have interlineated some of it into the Daily News article from April 13. Click here to read the whole deal.
(Updated 04-21-10)

For over a decade, Dr. Frank Ascione has been writing about the connection between animal abuse and child abuse, and we've been honored to publish some of that writing here on The Zero. But we weren't the only ones paying attention. Click here to read about the passage of Senate Bill 80 in Colorado, which will allow people to get orders of protection for animals. And to sweeten the pot, we're also proud to offer Dr. Ascione's latest article: "The Human-Animal Connection: Exploring Our Complex Relationships with Animals," as published by the University of Denver's Graduate School of Social Work, where Dr. Ascione is the American Humane Endowed Chair and the Executive Director of the Institute for Human-Animal Connection.
(Updated 04-14-10)

If you like to consume your Andrew Vachss stories via audiobooks, we've got a bunch of good news for you. First, Brilliance has announced that, by the end of 2010, they'll have adapted all but two of the Burke novels. Check out most of the covers and listen to excerpts from half of them here. Secondly, Ten Angry Pitbulls has added two new audio adaptations to MPformance.com. For less than a dollar each, you can download Maggie Estep's audio performance of "Sure Thing" and Chet Williamson's performance of "Cain." And they promise there's more to come.
(Updated 04-07-10)

"Just weeks after Chris Goehner, an Iraq war veteran, got a dog, he was able to cut in half the dose of anxiety and sleep medications he took for post-traumatic stress disorder. The night terrors and suicidal thoughts that kept him awake for days on end ceased. Aaron Ellis, another Iraq veteran with the stress disorder, scrapped his medications entirely soon after getting a dog — and set foot in a grocery store for the first time in three years. The dogs to whom they credit their improved health are not just pets. Rather, they are psychiatric service dogs specially trained to help traumatized veterans leave the battlefield behind as they reintegrate into society." Click here to read the rest of Janie Lorber's story "For the Battle-Scarred, Comfort at Leash's End," as published April 2, 2010, by the New York Times.
(Updated 04-07-10)

Andrew Vachss' next novel, The Weight, isn't coming out until November. But since Amazon is already listing it, we thought we'd better give you a more complete first look. Click here to read an excerpt from The Weight.
(Updated 03-31-10)

Amazon is also now listing Vintage's trade-paperback edition of Haiku, due to ship November 02, 2010. A large-print edition of that book was published March 02 of this year by Thorndike Press. And ... there's another book by Andrew Vachss due out in October 2010, and that's not listed on Amazon. Head back here next week for a first look at that book, a collaboration with cartoonist Frank Caruso. The target: bullying.
(Updated 03-31-10)

Did you read Andrew Vachss' 2005 novel Two Trains Running? You can bet Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood wishes he had. Check out "Ex-Klansman convicted in '64 slayings sues FBI," published February 25, 2010, by the San Francisco Chronicle.
(Updated 03-31-10)

"Andrew Vachss writes with compelling immediacy about the darker side of human behavior. His narratives have a streetwise sensibility about them that bring into sharp relief societal issues that most people don't consider. He makes visible what many people would just as soon stay invisible." Click here to read Robert Moyer's entire review of Haiku, titled "Sensei sums life in a few phrases," as published March 21, 2010, by the Winston-Salem Journal.
(Updated 03-24-10)

In her article "Another girl's death, another law" (Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2010), Cathleen Decker quotes a January 2010 report by California's Sexual Offender Management Board: "The hypothesis that sex offenders who live in close proximity to schools, parks and other places children congregate have an increased likelihood of sexually re-offending remains unsupported by research. On the contrary . . . there is almost no correlation between sex offenders living near restricted areas and where they commit their offenses." Ms. Decker writes, "California spends an estimated $80 million annually on ankle-bracelet monitoring of high-risk offenders, but the report suggested that there is no indication that the public is safer from felons monitored by global positioning systems than from those unmonitored. 'The law was passed with little information about how it would be implemented or evidence of whether GPS technology would protect Californians from sex offenders,' the report said."

If you caught the Family of Choice webcast back in January 2009, you would have heard Andrew Vachss say the former; if you missed it, watch that clip by clicking here. As for the latter, here's what appeared in the 2007 Burke novel, Terminal: "Some other geniuses are pushing GPS cuffs for the freaks. Won’t stop them from doing what they do, but it’ll save a lot of money on cadaver dogs."
(Updated 03-17-10)

"As sex abuse scandals rock the Vatican, the results of an investigation into a rich, ultra-conservative and secretive Roman Catholic order founded by a priest accused of pedophilia and incest are due to be filed in Rome on Monday." That's from an AOL news story published March 14, 2010. And if it sounds familiar, go grab your copy of Andrew Vachss' 1996 novel, False Allegations, and read about "the Gospel of Job's Song," beginning on page 150.
(Updated 03-17-10)

"The school board held one of their little coffee-klatches and decided they're going to ban what they call 'bullying' at the high school. Maybe if they spent a few hours in the real world, they'd understand that what they're all hyperventilating about is nothing more than Darwinism. The strong are always going to assert themselves over the weak—that's what keeps a species viable. Look at a wolf pack. If one of them's too weak to pull his weight, it's better the rest find out while he's still a cub."Click here to read more of Roger's pontifications in "Choice of Weapons," an original short story by Andrew Vachss.
(Updated 03-10-10)

"A former Ohio emergency room physician was convicted of aggravated murder Friday in the 2005 poisoning death of his wife. .. One female juror noted that throughout the trial, Essa did not display any emotion, not even when a picture of his wife and children was shown in court. 'When your kids ain't there, you're gonna miss them. You're gonna cry. [But he had] no expression at all. He hadn't seen these kids in five years, no expression, no tears, no nothing,' she said." That's from CNN from March 5, 2010. This is from Andrew Vachss' 2007 novel, Terminal:

Jurors were being interviewed. Must have been some kind of major case. They all agreed it was just disgusting that the killer hadn’t shown the slightest trace of remorse. “He never shed a tear for her, not once,” one blobby woman in a blue dress with a white Peter Pan collar said. Her own piggy eyes dutifully welled up as she reached for her personal Oprah moment.

I didn’t know if the guy they were talking about was guilty or not, but I felt a wave of disgust for that jury, anyway. TV trials have turned jury service into a media opportunity, and the slugs know their lines by heart: If the poor bastard says he’s innocent, they want to fry him because he’s not “sorry.” And if he blows any chance of appeal by admitting he did it, any tears that come out of his eyes are dismissed as phony.

Language is a tool: one that predators use to weaken their victims, and that we use to fight predators. Like many other tools, the more you use it, the more effective it is. Back in 1996, Andrew Vachss wrote, "If we allow the term 'child prostitution' to gain a sufficient foothold in our language, we surrender precious, hard-won ground to the enemy. There is no such thing as 'child prostitution.' That term contradicts itself, 'proving' a lie. Trafficking in prostituted children ... is slavery—any other description is a grotesque euphemism or an outright lie." In 2005, he wrote, "The difference between calling Destiny a 'child prostitute' and a 'prostituted child' is not purely semantic. It is more than the difference between a hard truth and a pernicious lie. It not only injures the victims; it actively gives aid and comfort to the enemy." This past October, in The New York Times, reporter Ian Urbina wrote, "[M]any child welfare advocates and officials in government and law enforcement say that while the data is scarce, they believe that the problem of prostituted children has grown, especially as the Internet has made finding clients easier." Add to that a headline from the February 27, 2010, edition of The Washington Post: "Two charged ... with prostituting girl." The cultural software is being recoded....
(Updated 03-10-10)

For decades, Andrew Vachss has been asked: "Who would you like to play Burke on the screen?" His answer has never varied: "I'd want an open casting call, because I know there are better 'undiscovered' (meaning 'unconnected') actors out there than you've ever heard of. Me, I'd want the best. And I know I'd have the best chance of finding the perfect dog in a shelter than I would at an AKC show." We've now set up that "open casting call." Ten Angry Pitbulls is selling mp3 audiofiles of performances— not "readings"—of short stories by actors who may not be household names ... yet. For openers, they present Andrew Vachss' "Step on a Crack," as performed by Ean Sheehy (Law & Order: Criminal Intent). It's a 99-cent commitment for you to check out this first one. And if you want to participate in the open casting call, click here to get details.
(Updated 03-03-10)

In a story last week about the military coup in Niger, the BBC reports, "[Under overthrown President Tjanda] ... China National Petroleum Corporation signed a $5bn deal in 2008 to pump oil within three years." A year earlier, in his 2007 novel, Terminal, Andrew Vachss wrote, "The teleprompter-reader announced that Nigeria and China had just signed some sort of treaty, the centerpiece of which was cooperation between their governments. Nigeria announced it was irrevocably committed to a 'one-China' policy, meaning, the day the Chinese decide to attack Taiwan, they could count on Nigerian oil to keep flowing to their war machine. Nice two-way street: if Biafra—or any other separatist movement—ever tries to rise again, and the Nigerian generals go back to their genocide program, China’s going to veto any UN Security Council vote to intervene."
(Updated 02-17-10)

"A patient at the Bronx Psychiatric Center claims he was molested by an employee who was a registered sex offender in Florida when he was hired." That's the first line from a February 5, 2010, article published by The (New York) Daily News—click here to read the whole piece. And then compare it to Lou Bank's guest dispatch, "Are Children Safe in Our Hospitals?," originally published on The Zero back in 2000, which begins, " 'Volunteer accused of molesting children at Doernbecher!' That headline has not yet run on the front page of The Oregonian, but it will. It's just a matter of time." Nobody uses these sex-offender registries in a way that truly protects the public. Unless and until we make institutions, agencies, and organizations strictly liable for any crimes committed by those they hire (or allow to volunteer), nobody will.
(Updated 02-17-10)

In his February 2006 Parade article, Andrew Vachss wrote, "[W]e must begin to treat so-called 'simple possession' of child pornography as the heinous crime it is. Every purchase of child pornography encourages further growth of this evil business: from 'custom' child pornography—the sale of images of child rape created to order for the consumer—to 'real-time' child pornography, where subscribers pay to watch the streamed online rape of children as it occurs." He clarified that statement in an interview with Protect, saying, "I specifically want the federal government to be able to sue, because it has both the resources and the mandate. I am not advocating 'class action' suits on behalf of unidentified victims. The goal is not enrichment of individual lawyers. The goal is to benefit child pornography victims, penalize the profiteers, and add assets to the agencies charged with enforcing the law." Now, four years later, someone is doing exactly that. Read "Child Pornography, and an Issue of Restitution," from the February 2, 2010, edition of the New York Times, by clicking here.
(Updated 02-10-10)

"MSNBC is reporting child abuse rates in the U.S. have dropped sharply. ... [A]buser-apologist group the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform wants to use the reduction as an excuse to gut investigation and prosecution of abusers." To read the rest of Roland Murphy's guest dispatch, click here.
(Updated 02-10-10)

This Sunday is Valentine's Day, a day that's all about love. And anyone who understands that love is behavior will also understand why this day is ruled by Honey Pit Bull. Click here for your Honey Valentine!
(Updated 02-10-10)

Last week's update took a square shot at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (see second update below this one). This week, the National Association to Protect Children steps into the ring. Click here to read their piece on the matter.
(Updated 02-03-10)