There’s always time to spy! But, No Time to Spy: The John Sand espionage trilogy from Quad-Cities authors Max Allan Jr. Collins and Matthew Clemens has hit the virtual and physical bookshelves! The John Sand Series invokes the best of the original spy thrillers as it follows a recently retired British secret agent in the early 1960s. His real-life exploits inspired a very famous series of best-selling novels by a friend in the spy game…If you love James Bond you can’t afford to miss this fast action, brutally tough, taut, and thrilling box set…Contains three full length... Read More

The 28th novel collaboration of local authors Max Allan Collins and Matthew V. Clemens comes out today! It’s “To Live and Spy In Berlin,” a new thriller from the best-selling duo! The world thinks John Sand’s retired. No longer heading into the MI6 offices, he’s an energy company executive. He’s got a nice corner office, lavish dinners to attend, and no bullets flying at his head…yet. The truth is much deadlier. Sand’s hunting stolen uranium, and he knows if he doesn’t find it soon, he’ll be hunting something very different…a nuclear bomb. Deep in... Read More

This weekend, YouTube and the National Independent Venue Association are doing an awesome thing for local music venues nationwide, and I’m sure many of you have heard about the star-studded Save Our Stages Fest. It’s the kind of huge, publicity-grabbing event that gets a ton of attention with people in markets across the country. Which is a good thing, because it’s for a good cause, and it needs to get in front of a large group of people to make that positive impact. I do not begrudge that at all, and I wholeheartedly encourage people to check it out, and any other event of that... Read More

It was a cold and stormy day. We met at Elly’s. Little coffee joint down by the river. My associate and I walked in, took a look around. Waitress smiled her way over. “Hi. What can I get you?” “Nothing right now, doll, thanks,” I said. “I got business.” He was waiting at a corner table. Back to the hard brick wall, mafia style, eyes on the door, like a guy who doesn’t want to get hit without a chance to go down with some cold steel in his mitts. He wore dark shades. Dark shirt. Drank coffee black as the devil’s heart. Gave us a nod. Yeah. He was the guy we were there to meet. The... Read More

I want to give kudos to Rein Razer. In our story earlier this week on QuadCities.com on her upcoming burlesque show, Rein Razer’s Court of Royalty, coming to Village Theater tonight, she said the following:   “I got the idea from how the Speakeasy was doing their booking for shows.”   Seems simple, right? Just actually acknowledging that you got the idea for something from someone else on the local arts scene. But you’d be surprised at how little this is done. More often, much more often, people have an incredible selective amnesia about things others in the scene... Read More

Saturday In The Arts offers an in-depth look at a person or subject of interest in the local arts and entertainment scene. It runs every Saturday on your site for fun, free, local entertainment, QuadCities.com.   Max Allan Collins’ success is no mystery. The man in black has proven to be a maestro at making people’s lives full of stress, misery and murder — and people love him for it. It helps that the people are fictional, characters in the canon of the Muscatine-based author, who, this month, was nominated for a Scribe Award for his 2019 novel, “Murder, My Love.”... Read More

We’re looking back on a great year of entertainment, sports and features here at QuadCities.com, and QC Scene is here to display some of the images of the year, featuring the places, people and events that made the year great! Here’s part one of our look back in pictures:  Read More

Have you ever dreamt of seeing your name on the front cover of your very own publication? Or maybe you already have and want to network and expand your horizons with other local authors. Whatever your personal situation may be, if you have a love for the written word, you cannot miss the 2017 David R. Collins Writers’ Conference. The Midwest Writing Center (MWC) will be holding this year’s annual David R. Collins Writers’ Conference June 22-24 at St. Ambrose University, McCarthy Hall (518 W Locust St Davenport). The David R. Collins Writers’ Conference will include intensive three-day... Read More