Max Allan Collins's Blog, page 52

The Big Showdown

[Nate here:] Before we get to M.A.C.’s pre-written blog update, I have a quick update on M.A.C. Dad’s recovery has been going great (aside from the food, but they got the important things right, at least!) and he should be on his way home today. Here’s a picture from this weekend:

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Hardcover:

E-Book:

THE BIG SHOWDOWN, second of the Caleb York westerns – there will be at least three – will be published April 26.

This is the first time I’ve published a novel where I share a byline with Mickey Spillane despite there being no Spillane content. As regular readers of these updates (and my novels) know, I have been completing Mike Hammer manuscripts (and a few other novels) that were unfinished in Mickey’s files. He specifically directed his wife Jane and me to do so.

But also in the files were three unproduced screenplays. Two are noir horror pieces that I hope to find a home for, but one was THE SAGA OF CALLI YORK, a screenplay written for John Wayne. I took Mickey’s script and essentially novelized it (could I hate that term more?); I changed “Calli” to “Caleb,” which Calli was short for, though I never use that nickname in the novels, and “Saga” to “Legend,” because the latter term plays better for the narrative at hand.

The trouble was, my terrific editor at Kensington, Michaela Hamilton, wanted at least three books. Rather than leave Caleb hanging (so to speak), I said yes…then for many months drove my wife Barb crazy as I speculated on what to do with the other two novels.

Mickey’s backstory indicated York was a famous detective for Western Union, and I considered doing prequels to THE LEGEND OF CALEB YORK, possibly focusing on real desperados. But it was Barb who rode to the rescue (sorry), suggesting that instead I write a sequel (possibly a series of them) utilizing the setting, characters and conflicts Mickey had created – taking Mickey’s story and letting it really play out. That made it feel more proper to share byline with him.

“Stay in his world,” Barb advised.

So that’s what I did. I had a blast writing it and have already plotted the third, again playing off of what Mickey wrote. Again, I tried to do a western in the Hollywood tradition of Randolph Scott, Joel McRea and Audie Murphy, but with the violence ratcheted up a notch.

I just read the galley proofs and liked it a lot. You may, also.

M.A.C.

[Nate here for the review round-up:]

A nice review for Murder Never Knocks showed up from across the pond on Crimetime, originally posted on Irresistible Target. (“one of the best of the Max and Mickey Mike Hammers.”)

Halifax’s (The) Chronicle Herald gave Kill Me, Darling a much appreciated mention in a recommended reading list for winter vacation, which is apparently a thing. (“Not just a great Mike Hammer novel; a great crime novel, without qualification.“)

The Open Book Society posted a flat-out rave for Quarry’s List. (“The plot is Mickey Spillane and Mario Puzo balled into one and spit out faster than the gout of flame from a jet engine.“) It’s been fun seeing the earlier Quarrys get some nice attention lately, especially since I’ve been reading them again, too, for the first time since pulling them out of my father’s basement library when I was younger than I should admit here.

J. Kingston Pierce’s Killer Covers blog gave a shout-out to The Consummata. Definitely click that link (here it is again) because he features some supremely cool covers there.

The X-Files anthology, Trust No One, got a nice review from the Lawrence Public Library blog, with Max’s short story “The House on Hickory Hill” garnering a special recommendation. (“[Trust No One] brings new life into an area that bookish fans of the program have sorely missed.“)

N.A.C.

Murder Never Knocks

[Before we get to this week’s post, a quick update from Nate: Dad has graduated from the ICU to the step-down unit and now on to the inpatient rehabilitation unit where he’s working hard to get back on his feet. Thank you everyone for your outpouring of support, which gave us something we could always turn to when we needed a boost.]

Hardcover:

E-Book:

Audio MP3 CD:

Audible:

As some of you may know, MURDER NEVER KNOCKS was originally announced – and even listed at Amazon, including cover art – as DON’T LOOK BEHIND YOU. I was asked to come up with a different title, more overtly noir/PI, when the Titan sales force noted that sales were better for LADY, GO DIE! and KILL ME, DARLING than for COMPLEX 90 and KING OF THE WEEDS.

Stacy Keach pointed out to me, when we were doing the radio-play-style novels-for-audio, THE LITTLE DEATH and ENCORE FOR MURDER, that all of the Hammer TV movies he starred in had “murder” in the title. That steered me toward the title I finally picked for this novel…or I should say that Titan finally picked, as I gave them half a dozen possibilities.

Mickey’s title, DON’T LOOK BEHIND YOU, was in part a tribute to his favorite crime writer, Frederic Brown, who wrote a famous and wonderful story of that title about a demented typesetter. Mickey had two alternate titles, THE CONTROLLED KILL and THE CONTROLLER, which I didn’t think were right for the novel as it developed. Mickey devised some of the greatest titles in mystery fiction – hard to top I, THE JURY and KISS ME, DEADLY – so it’s important that I go with titles that serve him well. I happen to like both COMPLEX 90 and KING OF THE WEEDS as titles – both were Mickey’s choice – but I understand that neither one immediately suggests mystery or suspense. Still, terrific titles, I think.

This time I worked from around thirty pages of Mickey’s, plus some plot notes and the ending of the book. Mickey often spoke about writing the ending first, but this is only one of two times (the other being THE GOLIATH BONE) that I found those endings. By the way, Mickey’s ending for THE GOLIATH BONE was reworked into that of the second-to-the-last chapter of that novel; the actual last chapter is mine, as Mickey’s manuscript was a thriller and did not contain a murder mystery aspect…and I felt it necessary to add that.

On the other hand, several of our collaborative novels reflect endings that Mickey told me about – THE BIG BANG and KING OF THE WEEDS in particular.

It’s also necessary for me to try to figure out when Mickey’s partial manuscripts were written, so that I can set them properly within the chronology, as well as know what books of Mickey’s to read to get me in the right mind set. Initially, I thought MURDER NEVER KNOCKS/DON’T LOOK BEHIND YOU was a ’50s manuscript. But interior evidence – for example, mention of certain NYC newspapers that had recently gone out of business – indicated the late ’60s. That allowed me to do some Greenwich Village characters and scenes that reflect the hippie era.

The basic plot has Hammer up against a Moriarty-type villain (as was the case in KING OF THE WEEDS). This time Hammer has been selected by the superstar hitman among hitmen, preparing to retire, for the honor of being his last kill.

MURDER NEVER KNOCKS will be out March 8 – in time for Mickey’s 98th birthday on March 9.

In celebration of that, here’s a fun excerpt from a great interview with Woody Allen in the January issue of WRITTEN BY, the Screen Writer’s Guild magazine. The interviewer notes that the filmmaker became a great reader, despite a lack of a university education. Woody says:

“I read because the women that I liked when I was a teenager lived down in Greenwich Village and they all had those black clothes. The Jules Feiffer women with the black leather bags and the blonde hair and the silver earrings and they all had read Proust and Kafka and Nietzche. And so when I said, ‘No, the only thing I’ve ever read were two books by Mickey Spillane,’ they would look at their watch and I was out. So in order to be able to carry on a conversation with these women who I thought were so beautiful and fascinating, I had to read. So I read. But it wasn’t something I did out of love. I did it out of lust.”

M.A.C.

[Nate here:] Two early reviews came in for MURDER NEVER KNOCKS this week. One from the great Mike Dennis (“Score another winner for Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins,” and another from the Garbage File that was decidedly not garbage (“Very enjoyable indeed!”).

Heart-Felt Pt. 7

It appears, at long last, that I will be going in for the open-heart surgery – scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 17, a day after this update is posted. I suppose anything could happen, but right now this seems carved in stone.

I have complained here about the various postponements, but I have to admit that some part of me always relished them. I am scared shitless, frankly. Not afraid to admit that. I think Heller and Quarry would feel the same. But I have great confidence in my surgeon, and as for the aftermath, my wife and son will be there to prove my point that there are no two better examples of those roles.

Barb has been both a soft shoulder and a rock, and everything in between, as needed. I am very, very lucky, as those of you who’ve met her already know. Whenever fans come around to get to know me, and encounter Barb at my side, they go away saying, “What an incredible woman! Max Allan who?”

Now I want to thank you for your patience with this ongoing soap opera/Republic serial. Barb had warned me about posting information about this surgery, rather wisely advising me to wait till after-the-fact. And I didn’t write about it, till I knew the update would appear on the day of the surgery…and then it got postponed again, when I had complications from the initial surgery, an unclogging of a carotid artery.

But the upside is that so many of you – from close friends to acquaintances to fellow writers (many of the latter not knowing me personally at all) – have approached me with support and good wishes, which are gratifying and warmly received. I am something of a loner – only child that I am. Barb is similarly a loner, though she is one of seven. So we are loners together, not terribly social, though I like social situations, if they relate to my work and interests. What I dislike is being at a social event and, once people find out who I am and what I do, having to play performing monkey.

When I look back, my closest friends have been my bandmates and other writers, and various collaborators of assorted kinds. Not a week goes by that I don’t think of my late friend Paul Thomas, my musical collaborator for decades; or my late friend Michael Cornelison, who was at my side on all of my features and both of my documentaries, as well as my short films. Writers like Ed Gorman and Bob Randisi, and of course my longtime collaborator Matt Clemens, represent friends made through the writing trade, though they are certainly not alone.

But the nature of my business, and my personality, make me a loner. Even the names mentioned above I rarely socialized with – get-togethers tended to be work-related. So it comes as a very nice shock to me to get the support and even love of those whose paths have crossed mine, even in minor ways or sometimes just through the pages of my books and stories.

So thank you, everybody. As I’ve mentioned, I wrote several updates in advance, dealing with upcoming book releases, and they will appear over the early weeks of my convalescence. Nate will post updates here and on Facebook about my progress, and I’ll get back to my weekly updates as soon as possible.

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I’m pleased to share with you this great dual review of QUARRY’S DEAL and QUARRY’S CUT at the review-site-among-review-sites, Bookgasm.

And here’s a nice review at the San Francisco Book Review of QUARRY’S LIST.

M.A.C.

Heart-Felt Part 6

Yes, let’s get on with it already! I should very soon (today or tomorrow) get test results that will immediately pave the way for the heart surgery. In that case, a good chance I’ll be going in yet this week. If that happens, my son Nate will start posting weekly the four updates I wrote in advance, and I should be in shape to get back to the regular stand after that.

Watch here and at Facebook for health updates from me or Nate.

Everybody has been great. Thanks for the love and support. Back at ya.

* * *

Publication of the ROAD TO PERDITION novel appears to be happening. As I was looking for a project to keep me busy while waiting for test results, I decided to prepare the manuscript for Brash Books. For those who came in late, in 2002 I wrote a 70,000-word movie tie-in novel (okay, novelization) of the script for the movie that was based on my graphic novel. In my novel, I attempted to be true to the screenplay while weaving in material from the graphic novel as well as historical material about the real John Looney and his era.

The DreamWorks licensing department put me through hell, making me cut anything – including dialogue! – that wasn’t directly from the script. They could not have cared less that I was the creator of this story and its characters. Even after they had accepted my 40,000-word debasement of my original novel, they kept cutting – if, in the film-editing process, director Sam Mendes dropped a scene or even a few lines of dialogue, they removed that from my novel as well. One chapter was reduced to a page and a half.

I’ve always felt I did really good job on the book, and it really paved the way for my sequels, ROAD TO PURGATORY and ROAD TO PARADISE. So I’ve looked for a way to get the novel into print. Now, enough years have passed that nobody at Paramount (who control DreamWorks) seems concerned about my original version finally being seen.

Quick anecdote. I was told by the DreamWorks licensing people that Mendes himself was making the requests for my drastic cuts of the novel. That he wanted it exactly like the movie. Then when I talked to Mendes at the London premiere, he said, “I hear you’ve written the movie novel – can’t wait to read it!”

So, anyway, back in 2016, I was faced with looking at my 2002 manuscript and dealing with it. Making decisions, doing tweaks, ferreting out typos and missing words. This was my original manuscript, after all, not any published version.

My first decision was to change the slightly revised movies names of several central characters back to my version of them – “Michael Sullivan” was restored to “Michael O’Sullivan” and John (and) Connor “Rooney” again became “Looney.” (The change from “Looney” to “Rooney” was done when either Mendes or the screenwriter assumed the former was a comic-booky name provided by a graphic novelist, when of course the latter is historically accurate.)

My second decision was to get rid of two major plot changes. (SPOILER ALERT: skip this paragraph if you haven’t read the graphic novel and/or seen the film). In the graphic novel, as in history, John Looney is not killed. And in the graphic novel, the boy Michael kills the hitman who has shot Michael’s father. In the film, Looney memorably dies in the rain, and a Hollywood ending has the boy unable to shoot the hitman and the dying father being pleased. I had already restored the envelope of first-person narration by the grown Michael, Jr., and a last-page revelation of what became of him.

So I spent a day rewriting those scenes, taking them back to my original intention. But it didn’t work. The screenwriter had done too good a job of laying the groundwork for his version of my scenes. And I had done a really good job in the novel of doing the same, including fixing some plot holes in the script. Re-doing those scenes to make them consistent with the graphic novel created a domino effect of terrible proportions. The next work day, I restored the scenes as I’d originally written them (faithful to the movie script).

It quickly became clear that I had no business doing any significant rewriting. The point of the exercise was to get what I wrote in 2002 into print. This is not to say that I didn’t do some tweaking, but it was mostly a few word choice changes. I did fix a couple of things that bothered me in the movie that I had let pass in the novelization.

An example – in the film, Mike Sullivan has just offered his services to Frank Nitti if Nitti will give up Connor Rooney. Nitti turns Sullivan down, then after Mike has gone, we find that in adjacent room both Connor and John Looney are waiting. In what I think of as the Dr. Evil and Scott scene, Connor tells his father that they should take Mike down right now – he’s in their grasp! Rooney, again like Dr. Evil in Austin Powers, says something like, “You just don’t get it, do you son?” As much as I love the film, this makes me cringe. So I revised it with the father telling his son why it would be unwise to kill Sullivan, specifically that in a busy hotel during the day, the resultant melee would be a disaster. Those who’ve read the graphic novel know that I did have O’Sullivan shoot his way out of the hotel. Not staging that scene was a rare misstep and a missed opportunity.

On the whole, I was very pleased by what I wrote in 2002, and again I did very little rewriting or additional writing. Since Brash Books also intends to bring out ROAD TO PURGATORY and ROAD TO PARADISE in new editions, I feel confident that the prose novel of ROAD TO PERDITION will be a good lead-in – that it forms with the two sequels a trilogy that will please readers, particularly those who became familiar with PERDITION via the film.

One final note: one of the trickiest things had to do with converting between word processing programs. You want to know how long ago 2002 was? The book was written in WordStar! I had to convert it to Word Perfect, my preferred program, after which my revised manuscript had to be converted to Word. That meant, as a final step, going through and eyeballing each of around 400 pages, looking for glitches.

* * *

Check out this nifty cover of the mass-market edition of KILL ME, DARLING. By the way, I don’t recall whether I’ve mentioned it or not, but several goofs in the hardcover of COMPLEX 90 were corrected in the paperback version – making it the author-approved text of that novel.

The DARLING paperback will be out this month (the 23rd).

Speaking of my collaborations with Mickey Spillane, I urge you to check out the article at Great Writers Steal that happens to be one of the smartest examinations of either my work or Mickey’s that anybody has ever written.

Less smart is the favorable but patronizing review at the normally more reliable UK site, Crime Fiction Lover. Once again, it turns out that a book written in the ‘70s includes some ‘70s attitudes. And once again, the reviewer troubled by that doesn’t mind at all Quarry killing people.

Speaking of smart reviews, here’s a great one about the Heller novel ASK NOT, from Frank the Movie Watcher.

Let’s wind up with a great piece on THE MALTESE FALCON, from a writer smart enough to quote me.

M.A.C.

Heart-Felt Pt. 5

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. The day this is posted I will be getting an out-patient procedure that will determine whether I will finally get my heart surgery, which if so, will likely (pause while I laugh hysterically) be next week. I never dreamed that I would be so eager to get an operation like this, but this has been going on since last June.

I will continue to keep you posted, and either Nate or I will provide updates here and on Facebook (our weekly ones will continue to be posted each Tuesday morning).

My apologies for this unintentional cliffhanger serial – I’m usually not quite this corny – but I continue to appreciate the support from my readers, friends and acquaintances. It’s been a great boost to the spirits.

Perhaps in honor of my inevitable surgery, the Quarry reprint out this month is QUARRY’S CUT. Also coming out this month are mass-market paperbacks of ANTIQUES SWAP and KILL ME, DARLING.

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A piece of good news for longtime readers of my stuff: my complete novel version of ROAD TO PERDITION the movie is due to be published along with reprints of ROAD TO PURGATORY and ROAD TO PARADISE. You may recall that my PERDITION novelization was reduced to a pale shadow of itself back in the day – a 40,000 word condensation of the 70,000-word novel is what was foisted upon the public (it even made the New York Times best-seller list). As a great man once said, “Pfui.” But we appear to be on the verge of vindication.

In addition, new editions of BLACK HATS and RED SKY IN MORNING are in the works, to be published under my own name for the first time (R.I.P. Patrick Culhane).

All five of these books will be published by Brash Books, which is in part the brainchild of my buddy Lee Goldberg.

I now have in hand all five Hard Case Crime reprints of the first five QUARRY novels, each with a stunning Robert McGinnis cover. Or I do, assuming this isn’t an hallucination, which is kind of what it feels like. This latest publication of QUARRY continues to stir up reviews of a novel that was first published in 1976 – that’s forty years ago – and written a few years before that.

For example, there’s a splashy QUARRY review, featuring the McGinnis cover, in the second issue of the amazingly slick and colorful (and expensive) UK magazine, CRIME SCENE. On your newsstands now. Nice write-up, but one that includes the now-usual complaint about Quarry’s non-PC gender attitudes – again, a forty-year old book is accused of being somewhat “dated.” No one seems to mind that he’s an assassin. I guess some things just never get old.

Check out this QUARRY review from Col’s Criminal Library.

And this one from the San Francisco Book Review.

QUARRY’S DEAL is given a fine review at Everything Noir.

Finally, here are a couple of splendid reviews from Bill Ott at Booklist that you may have missed:

QUARRY.

Collins, Max Allan (Author)

Oct 2015. 271 p. Hard Case Crime, paperback, $9.95. (9781783298839).

Originally published in 1976 as The Broker, this first novel in Collins’ series starring the Vietnam-vet-turned-hit-man finds Quarry five years into his career as an assassin for hire, getting his assignments from a middleman called the Broker. Trained to kill in Vietnam, Quarry finds he quite likes the work and has no trouble distancing himself emotionally from what he does. But he doesn’t like complications, and when the Broker adds a wrinkle involving drugs to Quarry’s latest job, the hit man protests. So begins the severing of the Quarry-Broker connection, a relationship that we learn much more about in succeeding novels in the series.

Collins didn’t know Quarry would lead to a series when he was writing it, but he set the table perfectly, even so. Quarry was the first hit-man antihero in crime fiction, and, unlike most of his successors, he remains the most “pure,” in the sense that he isn’t somehow a good guy who only kills those who need killing (Dexter, et al.); no, Quarry kills for money and tells you so. Yes, he has his own sense of justice and will sometimes kill (pro bono) those he feels are on the wrong side of his very personal scales of right and wrong, but he’s still a killer more than a knight errant. And, yes, Collins makes us root for Quarry, or he draws us so completely into Quarry’s world that rooting for anybody becomes beside the point. That, after all, is the real trick to creating a compelling antihero.

Collins also pairs his antihero with a writing style that is perfect for the man and the premise: mainly straightforward, no-nonsense declarative sentences, more Hammett than Chandler, more Spillane than Hammett. Killers shouldn’t be fancy talkers, especially those who work the drab mean streets of places like the Quad Cities, spanning the Mississippi and connecting Illinois and Iowa, where the action in Quarry takes place. And, yet, just to keep us off balance, Collins will occasionally show some Chandlerian chops, as when he describes a cluster of trees “bent over green and graceful in the less than gentle afternoon breeze, like oversize, out-of-shape ballet dancers trying in vain to touch distant toes.” Even hit men can wax poetic now and again.

Although Collins originally saw Quarry as a stand-alone, he did leave his protagonist in a major pickle at the end of the book. The implication seemed to be that Quarry was doomed—a fitting end for a one-off noir—but when an editor asked the author to write more about the character, Collins was happy to find a way to get Quarry out of his pickle. When Hard Case finishes its reissuing of the first five Quarries, there will be a total of 11 pickle jars on the shelf (the original five plus the six Collins has written since he brought back the series in 2006)—and plenty of room for more.

QUARRY’S LIST

Collins, Max Allan (Author)

Oct 2015. 219 p. Hard Case Crime, paperback, $9.95. (9781783298853).

His relationship with the man known only as the Broker irretrievably broken in Quarry, the first in the series, Collins’ hit-man-for-hire hopes to develop a new business plan. Without the Broker to act as middleman, setting up clients for Quarry and others to kill, it could prove difficult to find marks, but Quarry has grown disenchanted with working through someone else and wants to go another way. But before that can happen, he must deal with the other hit men he knows will be coming for him, as various lethal entrepreneurs vie for the prize of taking over the Broker’s business. Quarry is ready when they come and dispatches a pair of killers with little trouble, but that’s only the beginning. Tracking back to find the man who wants him killed, he falls hard for a blonde in a swimming pool, only to discover that she’s the Broker’s wife and, further, that the man he is hunting is setting up a hit on Mrs. Broker. A plan is forming in Quarry’s mind: the killers in the Broker’s employ will all contract with other brokers eventually and go back to work. If Quarry can find the Broker’s list of killers, he can start his own business by tracking them to their next jobs and hiring himself out to their would-be victims: pay me, and I’ll kill the guy hired to kill you. It’s an ingenious scheme, but there’s lots of preparatory killing to do first.

Hats off to Collins: he needed a scheme to keep his series going, and he found a doozy. As Quarry puts it, “I’d still be killing people, but for the most part it would just be other hit men, like myself, and that seemed a step up somehow.” Originally published in 1976 as The Broker’s Wife, Quarry’s List is being reissued by Hard Case Crime along with the four other early Quarry novels (Collins took a 30-year hiatus from the series before bringing Quarry back in 2006). This one shows Collins developing the storytelling skills that eventually will define his long career as a genre writer. His plots are tricky but never overly so; like the late, great Ross Thomas, he knows how to build a maze but not lose his readers in it before showing them a way out. So it is here, as Quarry must juggle various pieces on a moving chessboard: the list, the widow, the killers, the plan. Fortunately for genre fans, Quarry (and Collins) are up to the challenge.

M.A.C.

Heart-Felt Pt. 4

I apologize. I really do. But there’s been another postponement of the surgery. I was supposed to go in for the operation on Jan. 26 (the day this is posted), but now I have to take another pre-op test that day. With some luck, the surgery will be rescheduled yet this week – maybe Thursday, but that’s a guess.

Barb had warned me not to post about my pending surgery until after-the-fact. She is always right. Still, it’s nice to find out people prefer you to be alive. I’ll see what I can do.

Since I am in total limbo as I write this, I can only say that I – or possibly Nate – will be providing brief updates here and on Facebook, as we know more.

Many thanks to all of you for your support and patience.

* * *

Throughout these fun and games, I have continued working – not at my usual pace, but working. As I may have said, I’ve done two TV scripts as well as a Hammer novel, MURDER NEVER KNOCKS. I received advance but finished copies of that over the weekend, and it’s a handsome book. What’s more, I like the story within the handsome covers.

In addition, I’ve done various short projects, including a Sherlock Holmes story with Matt Clemens, one of two we were asked to do (the other one I may be working on this week, depending on how things go down). A few of you may recall that Matt and I, a few years ago, collaborated on short stories to accompany and supplement various puzzles, including some famous licenses, like CSI and its spin-offs, THE MENTALIST and NCIS. The Holmes stories will be attached to jigsaw puzzles, as well.

I’ve always wanted to do a Holmes story – well, a Holmes novel, really – so this has been fun. On the other hand, I did not have time to re-read any Doyle, which I would certainly have done had this been a novel project. As usual, Matt and I plotted both tales together, and he has written rough drafts. As indicated, I have completed a final draft of one, entitled “The Adventure of Professor Moriarty’s Notebook.”

One of the other small projects I’ve done in recent months is a Mike Hammer story for THE STRAND, “A Dangerous Cat.” I believe it will be in the next issue.

That story completes eight that represent short but useful Hammer fragments from Mickey Spillane’s file of unfinished stories and novels. One of these became “So Long, Chief,” which was Edgar-nominated and Shamus-winning. With all eight completed, I have a book, the first ever Mike Hammer short story collection (Mickey wrote very few short Hammer tales). I have assembled these in roughly chronological order, and written an introduction discussing how the stories came to be. Otto Penzler, who published THE GOLIATH BONE, THE BIG BANG and KISS HER GOODBYE when he was at Morrow, is going to publish the collection later this year, as A LONG TIME DEAD: A MIKE HAMMER CASEBOOK from his Mysterious Press.

The book will have a very limited print run of perhaps 1000 trade paperback copies before going into POD status (and will obviously be available as an e-book). In addition – pay attention, fanatics – a limited hardcover edition of only 100 copies (signed by me and Jane Spillane) will also be available. This will quickly become the hardest-to-find hardcover first-edition in the Spillane canon.

M.A.C.

Heart-Felt Pt. 3

I know, I know – those of you kind enough to be following the saga of my heart surgery must be saying, “Enough already! Get it over with!”

That’s roughly my own sentiment, as Barb and I have been dealing with this since late May 2015, and have been told seemingly countless times that the surgery was two weeks away, or even days away. I would estimate at least half a dozen postponements.

On the other hand, the doctors have always had good reasons for doing so, and I certainly want to undergo this procedure at the optimal moment. This postponement, as I mentioned on Facebook, has to do with the need for me to recuperate more fully from the initial carotid surgery. I am doing much better and feel confident that I’ll be ready for the scheduled Jan. 26 (a week from the day I’m posting this) surgery.

Recovery time is hard to judge, but I won’t be able to attend the Iowa Democratic caucus, although Barb probably will. We are, not that it matters, Hillary supporters. Bernie is a one-note candidate (mean evil nasty billionaires) and a self-avowed socialist (and the Republicans are salivating to have that to go after in a Democratic nominee). Either way, I am almost convinced we will have Donald Trump as a President (it’s a lock if Bernie gets the nomination). If Bernie thinks Americans hate billionaires, he’s just not paying attention – many of them love money-bags Trump, and just look at the recent Powerball mania. We don’t hate billionaires. We want to be one!

My apologies for the mini-political rant. But whichever, whatever political views you hold, the more rabid among you will understand my frustration at being benched on the night of the big game.

I continue to be grateful to my friends and readers (again, lots of crossover there) for the show of support and even love. Barb had discouraged me from posting here and at Facebook about my medical follies, having been through all of these postponements and fearing more. She was, not surprisingly, right about the postponements. But I don’t mind the support and love one little bit. It’s encouraging. Those of you who want to read more books by me are in line with my desire to write them for you.

If all goes as planned, a week from now – when the next update is posted – I will be in the operating room, getting fixed (not in the veterinarian way, one would hope). I may write another update prior to that, but as things stand, my son Nate has four updates I’ve provided, each looking at a different upcoming book. I may add to some of these, depending on how my recovery goes. The first week will be in the hospital and I’ll definitely be out of pocket, and I’m told the second (first at home) will be rough, and I’ll likely be even more goofed up than usual, on pain meds. At some point I may be able to report in and add to these written-in-advance updates.

And in the meantime – particularly the day and day after the surgery – Nate will post updates here and on Facebook.

Good thoughts and vibes, prayers and positivity, all appreciated. Speaking for the entire gang – Nate Heller, Quarry, Brandi and Vivian Borne, Mike Hammer, Dick Tracy, Mommy and Jessica Ann, Ms. Tree, Nolan, Mallory, Eliot Ness, Jack and Maggie Starr, Joe Reeder and Patti Rogers, and all the rest – we love the lot of you.

M.A.C.

Heart-Felt Pt. 2

Last week I anticipated going in for my heart surgery on Tuesday, but time is being allowed for me to recuperate from my carotid surgery first. I may be going in this coming Thursday (Jan. 14), but won’t know till Wednesday. If it doesn’t happen then, it will likely be Jan. 25.

Since we’ve spent many months having this surgery face one postponement after another, Barb warned me not to do a posting like the one I did last week. She said I didn’t want to sound like the Little Boy Who Cried Surgery. I had wanted to keep my situation to just family and a small handful of friends, until the surgery was literally under way, not wanting to put people in a position where they had to comment or show support or feel concerned.

In retrospect, while Barb was (typically) right, I am not sorry I posted last week, because I found myself – recuperating somewhat uncomfortably at home – comforted and complimented and touched by the messages here and on Facebook (and some e-mail ones, too). It’s nice to know that people prefer you alive.

Among the joys was hearing from long-out-touch friends going back decades, and from folks – particularly in the writing game – who know me only in passing but who nonetheless showed support and indicated the mystery genre would be a lesser place without me. I happen to agree with that, but it would be ungracious of me to say, wouldn’t it? Anyway, it’s nice to know I’m not entirely delusional.

I will keep you nice people posted here and on Facebook, and if I’m not able to – the first several days after the surgery are tough, I’m told – my son Nate will. You may have already guessed that Barb and Nate have been incredible in this situation. I think when you’re faced with something like this, which is (let’s face it) a matter of life or death, you realize – at least if you’re lucky like me – that there’s a wonderful, boring little existence waiting for you that you do not want to let go of.

My thanks and love to all of you who took time to send support. Those who didn’t can make it up by buying books.

* * *

Here’s a delightful review of QUARRY – described as a “classic.” I begin to suspect that the word “classic” might be a synonym for “f**king old.”

The QUARRY TV series – not yet scheduled by Cinemax, with summer 2016 looking more and more likely – has its own Wikipedia entry.

Here’s a very positive and, I think, intelligent take on my BATMAN issues, as reprinted in BATMAN: SECOND CHANCES.

The great Jeff Pierce at Killer Covers shows off the cover of QUARRY IN THE BLACK here.

Finally, here’s a really smart review of Mickey’s 10th Mike Hammer novel, THE BODY LOVERS.

M.A.C.

Heart-Felt

I have mentioned in passing some health issues I’ve been dealing with, and perhaps I’ve even been a little coy about it. It’s not been my intention to burden my friends and readers (not mutually exclusive categories) with a boring account of what we’ve been dealing with. I say “we” because Barb has been at my side throughout, as you might imagine, but your imagination cannot do justice to just how fantastic she’s been.

I’m going to make this brief, because even if you’re concerned – and if so, thank you – you shouldn’t have to be bored with the details of somebody else’s health problems. Still, I’m a novelist, so this will most likely go into the situation in more depth than I should.

We’ve been dealing with this for a good eight months. I first got sick (somewhat ironically) when we visited the set of QUARRY in New Orleans late last May. The path has been torturous and frustrating, as it took a while to get this diagnosed, and it really shouldn’t have been. The roughest patch was a period of three weeks when I couldn’t sleep – couldn’t find a position that was comfortable enough – and for that period, I was getting maybe an hour a night.

The problem is a heart valve that needs replacing. There’s also a bypass, and before any of that can happen, I need to get one of my carotid arteries unclogged. The latter appears to be a fairly routine procedure. Open-heart surgery, however, is rather more sobering. But I have top-notch surgeons for both operations, and I feel confident I’ll be back at the old stand before too long.

This has stretched out maddeningly because when the condition was discovered, I was already in pretty bad shape. I needed to get myself back in shape, which consisted of medication and a few preliminary procedures (i.e., getting a jump start to correct an irregular heartbeat that had presented itself). For frustrating reasons (but good ones), I’ve had this surgery postponed on me something like eight times. In fact, Barb wishes I weren’t writing this, because that could happen again.

But right now the plan is for me to go in for the first of the two surgeries on Monday, January 4 (tomorrow, as I write this). And the heart surgery is set for January 5. If you are one of those loyal souls who check out this update the moment it appears each Tuesday morning, it’s likely I’ll be in the operating room as you read this.

There’s a chance – I honestly think not much of one – that my heart surgeon may postpone again, if he thinks I need more time to recover from the first procedure. If that’s the case, my son Nate will update this. He will also post updates on my status here and on Facebook in the several days following the procedures.

[Update from Nate: (Monday Jan. 4, 10 PM) Dad did have a minor complication after the first, successful procedure, and the docs are erring on the side of caution by (again) postponing the second surgery until some time next week. He is doing well and should be back home Tuesday to begin recuperating for the main event.]

You are welcome to post encouragement here and on Facebook, but I held this back so things wouldn’t get out of hand. I also accept prayers and positive thoughts and cash money.

The heart valve/bypass procedures will be followed by some rough weeks of recuperation – the first several, obviously, the most challenging. My next novel deadline isn’t till April 1 (no fooling), so I intend to take my first protracted “vacation” from writing in, well, as long as I can remember. I have been healthy as a horse my whole life (I was asked if I’d ever had surgery before, and I said, “Just my birth”) so there’s no precedent. Before you feel too sorry for me, know that I will be watching a lot of Blu-rays and reading a good number of the books that have piled up around here, and will be given even better treatment than usual by my lovely wife.

It’s possible I may get back to work sooner than the projected six weeks. I’m proud of myself that during this nasty period, I still wrote two episodic TV episodes (one of them for QUARRY) and the Mike Hammer novel, MURDER NEVER KNOCKS. And you may have already realized that I never missed one of these weekly updates.

Okay, we all know what’s important here – these weekly updates. I am going to write another three updates, in advance, dealing with forthcoming books. At that point, I am hopeful that I will be back doing this.

I am told I am “low risk.” Like anybody, I don’t hear the “low,” just the “risk.” So without getting too sentimental (or for that matter pessimistic) about it, I want to give all of you my heart-felt thanks. This has been a great career, and it will continue to be.

* * *

My pal Ed Gorman has been kind enough to pay tribute to Quarry by reviewing two of the recent books in the series. The review of THE WRONG QUARRY is a reprint, but the QUARRY’S CHOICE write-up is brand-new and a real corker.

The first novel in the series, QUARRY, got itself onto this fun top-reissues-of-last-year list. I’m on it with one of my favorites, the late great Ted Lewis. As usual, I deplore all such lists…unless I’m on them.

Here’s a nice (if somewhat guarded) Kindle Taproom review of FATE OF THE UNION.

Now check out this even-better FATE OF THE UNION review.

* * *

Finally, I need to mark the passing of actor Wayne Rogers, who provided one of the best classic PI performances of all time in the too-brief CITY OF ANGELS TV series (1976). That series, and the Huggins/Cannell-created character Jake Axminster, had a huge impact on Nate Heller. Rogers, despite the short run of ANGELS, made such an impact as a private eye that he wound up playing a similar recurring character on MURDER SHE WROTE. He also portrayed real-life private eye Raymond Schindler in PASSION AND PARADISE (1989), about the Massie case, which I wrote about (including Schinder) in DAMNED IN PARADISE.

M.A.C.

The Beatles For Christmas

Let’s start with a subject that doesn’t seem to have much if anything to do with the heading here.

Barb and I recently bought a new car, an Equinox. But I had already signed the papers before I discovered that it did not include a CD player. I told Barb, meaning every word of it, that had I known – and learned that no CD player is available for that or any GMC model – I wouldn’t have traded our several-years-old Equinox for this shiny new one. That I would have driven the older model until either it or its CD player sputtered and died.

We do a lot of short-hop traveling – food and fun in the Chicago suburbs, visiting Nate and Abby and Sam in St. Louis, getaways to Galena IL, shopping trips to Des Moines. A good part of what makes these trips fun is listening to music or an audio book, to and from. Like a lot of you, I would imagine, I have a big collection of audio books on CD, including Rex Stout, Agatha Christie, and for that matter a lot of my own stuff. The pleasure of hearing Stacy Keach read one of the Mike Hammer novels of Mickey’s and mine is a truly transcendent experience for me.

And my CD collection of music, as you might imagine, is ridiculously large.

But the automobile manufacturers have decided I don’t need a CD player anymore (just as a few years ago they decided I didn’t need a cassette player). They give not a single shit that I have a large library of CDs, or that millions of others also have similar libraries. After all, they provide ports for flash drives and input access for your smart phone and so on.

I have mentioned this to others, and not just baby boomers, and they are appalled to learn their next new car will be CD-player-less. Right now on PBS Membership drives, CD packages are being offered to participating viewers, often with a direct pitch about the joy of listening to these classic tunes in their car. Infomercials do the same. Vintage radio outfits continue to offer their product exclusively on CD, and Best Buy and other retailers continue to sell the little silver discs (albeit giving them less real estate).

Only now, if I want to listen to one of my CDs, I have to use a fairly ancient Sony Walkman that I can play through the AUX of my “infotainment center” (God help us!), which requires various wires being snaked here and there, cluttering up that shiny new car.

That I can play my phone through my radio (yes, radio, that’s what I call it) has turned out to be as close to a saving grace as I’m liable to find in this sorry situation. My son taught me to load a bunch of albums available “free” as an Amazon Prime member. Also, the purchase of some CDs at Amazon provides a free “auto-rip,” which is to say a digital version that plays on your smart phone. Wistfully, I remember a day when my phone wasn’t smarter than me….

This solution is less than ideal, because other than the “free” downloads Amazon Prime provides, and those CDs that have included digital versions, I am left with countless CDs that no longer have a home in my dashboard.

So. One of my Christmas presents (from my lovely wife) was a $100 gift card at Amazon. This I spent buying nine albums I already own so that I could download them onto my phone. Bobby Darin, the Zombies, Paul Williams, and so on. Scratching the surface (like my needle used to on vinyl) of my CD collection.

As for the Stout, Christies and even Collins books that I have on CD, I have to make use of Amazon’s Audible, which is not free…though their yearly membership gives you quite a few credits for a decent price. That same evening I spent my hundred bucks on albums I already own on CD, I used up half of my credits buying Nero Wolfe books that, yes, you guessed it, I already own. And by the way, not every Wolfe novel is available.

Wasn’t this supposed to be about the Beatles?

Well, as you may have heard or read, Beatles albums are finally downloadable on multiple platforms. Almost everything of the Beatles is “free” (I insist on the quotes) if you’re an Amazon Prime member (not free, no quotes required). So I gorged myself on Beatles. Filled my digital library with ‘em. (Make that “library.”)

I love the Beatles, at least up through and including REVOLVER. After that, it gets spotty for me, possibly because I think LSD conspired with that Indian guru to at least partially ruin the Beatles. I have a few friends – terribly confused individuals, like the otherwise sane Ed Gorman – who hate the Beatles, and prefer the Stones. (Nothing against the Stones, and for that matter I like pretty much all of the British invasion bands from clean-cut Herman’s Hermits to scruffy Them, from the power-pop Dave Clark Five to the growling Animals. And the Zombies, my lord, the Zombies….)

Here’s the thing. If you were in junior high or high school when the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan, and like everybody on the planet you saw those appearances, your life changed. A rock band playing their own instruments. Memorable pop tunes and smart covers. Four immediately strong personalities. Infectious humor. Lead singing and harmony that thrilled even while eschewing the slickness of what professional singing was supposed to sound like.

As for the Stones, the Beatles wrote their first hit for them (a UK one, “I Wanna Be Your Man,” if I recall correctly). They would have never made it into the culture without the benefit of the Beatles. No British group would have.

The current Beatles CD and Blu-ray release “1″ was another great Christmas present from my lovely bride, and that’s why all of its songs turned up instantly in my downloadable library at Amazon. I got the most tricked-out version, with a CD but also two Blu-rays of performances and music videos. I will admit to you that I have a sentimental streak, and it was glowing as I watched the boys grow and change, and as all those memories flooded back in. I’d been involved in music my entire life, but never would have dreamed of being in a band…until the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.

Do I have to say that the world changed, too, because of these four? That hair styles – my father bribed my barber to cut off my Beatle-length hair – would symbolize the generational rift even before Vietnam was a Thing? That they were at the forefront, for better or worse, of psychedelia? That they were always several steps ahead of their competition? That they quit while they were way, way ahead?

So much more could be said, but I have to mention the poignance of seeing how much Paul and John liked each other, how they laughed and interacted. They were lads. By the time they were men, it was over. One last rooftop mini-concert and out.

It was rock ‘n’ roll, yes, but it was so much more. If you were there, and didn’t notice it – or refuse now to recognize it – you don’t quite understand the second half of the Twentieth Century.

As for the Twenty-first Century, I now have to listen to the Beatles, baby, when I drive my car…listening to them, that is, on my phone.

I will have something a bit special to say here next week, but until them…Happy New Year.

M.A.C.