Lawrence Block's Blog, page 11

Booklist on A TIME TO SCATTER STONES

Block’s unlicensed New York City investigator Matt Scudder debuted 40 years ago but has been absent for the last decade… Block has never been predictable, as this novella demonstrates… A superb book and a reminder to his longtime fans that this crime-fiction master hasn’t lost his touch.

Click here to read the starred review

 

Yo! It’s pre-order time!

Do you have to shout?

[image error]Sorry about that. Good things are happening, and it’s hard for me to contain my enthusiasm. And I wanted to make the most important point in the header, and it’s that hardcover and ebook editions of the new Matthew Scudder novella are now accepting pre-orders.

What’s the hurry? IIRC, the release date is two months away.

It’s January 31. But why wait? If you order now, you lock in the best price and the earliest delivery. And, if you want Subterranean’s $45 signed-and-numbered limited edition, well, it’s already almost fully subscribed. Odds are it’ll be sold out before publication, and that might well be true of the $25 hardcover trade edition as well. It’s unusual for Subterranean to go back to press, so why risk getting shut out?

Oh, you think? It’s a real hot ticket, is it?

It seems to be, and the trade reviews are adding fuel to the fire.“Block’s unlicensed New York City investigator Matt Scudder debuted 40 years ago but has been absent for the last decade,”writes Wes Lukowsky in a starred review in Booklist. “Block has never been predictable, as this novella demonstrates. A superb book and a reminder to his longtime fans that this crime-fiction master hasn’t lost his touch.”

I guess he liked it.

As does Publishers Weekly: “The well-crafted novella from MWA Grand Master Block follows an entertaining path to the satisfactory conclusion. If brevity keeps all the usual supporting characters from returning, some nice nostalgic mentions will reassure fans that they haven’t been forgotten. It’s good to see Matt back in action.”

Okay, you sold me. What happens if I click on those links up above?

They’ll get you to Amazon’s pre-order pages for the ebook and hardcover. If you want the limited edition—assuming there are still copies left—you’ll need to go to the Subterranean Press site. Or, if you’d prefer to pre-order the ebook from someone other than Amazon, this link will direct you to half a dozen other popular platforms.

Will there be an audiobook? And have they lined up somebody half-decent to voice it?

Yes to the first question. Brilliance Audio will bring out their edition end of January. As to the voice artist, it’s not my place to assess his merits.

Because, um,  he’s me. I’ll be spending a couple of days next week in a sound studio, giving voice to Matthew Scudder. I’ve done this before a few times, with Eight Million Ways to Die and The Night and the Music, and of course I’ve narrated other books of mine, most recently Catch & Release and Keller’s Fedora. And I’ve read parts of the novella to audiences at NYC and Bouchercon readings, and nobody hooted me off the stage. So I’m looking forward to voicing A Time to Scatter Stones, and hope it works for those of y’all who enjoy reading with your ears.

Cool. I’m a big fan of deferred gratification. But I wish there was something new that I couild order right now…

Today’s your lucky day. Not long ago I passed the word about Hollywood vs. the Author, in which eighteen writers recount their experiences with the world of film and TV. My own essay concerns the casting of Whoopi Goldberg as Bernie Rhodenbarr in Burglar, and it’s in very good company. (I got my copies of the book just the other day, so all I’ve had time to read are the pieces by Diana Gould and Lee Goldberg, and Stephen Jay Schwartz’s interview with Jonathan Kellerman. But I look forward to the rest—Michael Connelly, Gregg Hurwitz, Andrew Kaplan, Tess Gerritsen, James Brown, Alexandra Sokoloff, Ron Roberge, T. Jefferson Parker, Alan Jacobson, Max Allan Collins, Peter James, Naomi Hirahara, and Joshua Corin. Gee, I hope I didn’t leave anybody out…)

You know, I’m a little skittish about using the C-word, but I do believe this book’s likely to become a Classic. Writers and readers alike seem more inclined to talk about film and TV treatment of their work than anything else, and Hollywood vs. the Author manages to combine hilarious anecdotage with no end of essential tradecraft and sneak peeks inside the studio walls. A couple of panel discussions are already taking shape, and I expect to participate in one next fall at Dallas Bouchercon. Ebook and paperback are available right now—but if you really want to pre-order something, the audiobook won’t be ready to ship until December 5. So go for it!

And it won’t be too long before you get to pre-order At Home in the Dark.

I’ve mentioned this anthology before—a cross-genre collection of stories from the dark side of the street. The date’s not set yet, but early spring seems most likely for Subterranean’s release of a 500-copy signed and numbered deluxe edition. And this limited printing will AHITD’s only hardcover edition.

Isn’t the cover outstanding? It’s the work of Ken Laager, who supplied the great cover art for Resume Speed, and also for the new Joe R. Lansdale collection, Driving to Geronimo’s Grave.I’ll be offering AHITD in trade paperback and ebook, and as soon as the book’s open for pre-orders, I’ll be sure to let you know.

And, just as I was about to hit the SEND button, I found something else for y’all to pre-order. Nor will you have long to wait, as the release date is November 26.) The book is Skin & Bones, and the book’s 21 stories are all about cannibalism.

Showing uncharacteristic restraint, I won’t say a word about each story whetting your appetite for more of the same, or putting you off your feed, or, well, never mind. Dana C. Kabel’s the editor, and he has a story of his own in the book, as do Patricia Abbott, Charles Ardai, Joe Clifford, Angel Luis Colón, Bill Crider, Glenn Gray, Tim Hall, Rob Hart, Tess Makovesky, Terrence McCauley, Marietta Miles, Richie Narvaez, Stuart Neville, Thomas Pluck, Ryan Sayles, S.A. Solomon, Jason Starr, Liam Sweeny, and Dave Zeltserman. A rather impressive lineup, I must say, which I could call a menu, but won’t. I’m in there, too, with “Sometimes They Bite.”

Are there recipes?

It wouldn’t surprise me. I haven’t seen the book yet, I just saw the Amazon listing ten minutes ago, and it’s all new enough so that the ebook and the paperback are listed on different product pages.

Bon appetit!

November? Already?

Really? How did that happen? I’d ask where the time went but I’m afraid someone might tell me, and there are certain things we’re better off not knowing.

If you’re about to wax philosophical…

No, I’ll rein myself in. What I’d rather do is tell y’all about a batch of items. Some of them should have been in the last newsletter, but, um, I forgot. Others are new, and the first one’s a local New York event that’s taking place today or tomorrow, depending on when you opened this email. So let’s lead with it.

Florida Happens is a dandy anthology of crime stories set in the Sunshine State; it was compiled by Greg Herren in conjunction with this year’s Bouchercon in St. Petersburg, and has been very well published indeed by my friends Peter and Kat at Three Roms Press. My contribution is The Burglar who Strove to Go Straight, abstracted from one of my Bernie Rhodenbarr novels, and Bernie’s in good company here.

And I’ll be in good company myself the evening of Friday, November 2 (which is a day away as I write these lines) at the Cornelia Street Café, on the program with Hilary Davidson, Eleanor Cawood Jones, Debra Lattanzi Shutika, and Reed Farrel Coleman. (Address is 29 Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village. The program gets going at 6 pm; there’s $10 cover charge but it includes a drink.) Not sure what I’ll be reading. Possibly the piece from the book, but possibly something new. If you’re in the neighborhood, come say hello.

And now shall we switch from Bernie to Keller? We can cross an ocean while we’re at it.

Keller, the Urban Lonely Guy of hired killers, has starred in six books to date, most recently Keller’s Fedora. While he’s developed a strong following at home and abroad—in France and the UK and throughout Asia—most of the EU has yet to meet up with the fellow.

But, through the 21st Century miracle of self-publishing, that’s beginning to change. El sicario, Maria Carmen de Barnardo Martinez’s Spanish translation of Hit Man, has been well received, and MaCa’s at work on the sequel. In Italy, Luigi Garlaschelli’s having great success with Il Sicario; he’s completed his work on Hit List, and we expect to have it available by the end of the month.

And Sepp Leeb, who together with Stefan Mommertz has managed to make Matthew Scudder a household word in Germany, has turned his attention to our wistful assassin with Kellers Metier. We’re excited about this one, confident that German readers will respond strongly to Keller once they make his acquaintance, and Sepp, already at work on Kellers Liste, is very enthusiastic about the series.

Kellers Metier is eVailable from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, and Thalia. It’s also on sale in a handsome trade paperback edition. And if you read it and like it, could you do us a favor? Dash off an online review, and even more important, tell your friends about it. The biggest challenge with self-publishing books in translation is getting the word around.

OTOH, some books don’t need to be translated.

But they need to be published. And the word does need to get around.

The English-language ebook and paperback editions of all eight Evan Tanner books and ten of eleven Bernie Rhodenbarr books are very effectively published in the US by HarperCollins. But in the rest of the English-speaking (and English-reading) world, I hold the rights, and for some time now I’ve been publishing ebooks in both series. They’re steady sellers in Australia and the UK, as you’d imagine, but find their way to readers throughout the world.

And I don’t know why it’s taken me so long, but I’ve finally brought out the Tanner and Burglar books in paperback editions. You can’t buy them in the States, though. That’s HarperCollins territory.

Are we done now? Is that all you have to report?

[image error]Well, yes, I guess it is.

Except that I was thinking of floating a notion to all of y’all. Lately I’ve found myself ruminating wistfully on the vision of myself ensconced for a while on a college campus, serving as the institution’s writer in residence. I don’t know how realistic a fantasy this might be, nor am I sure to what extent the attraction is attributable to autumn leaves and football season, but it does feel like something I might want to pursue.

Now I don’t even have a bachelor’s degree, but I can claim six decades of street cred as a professional writer, and I’ve written more books on the subject than anyone should have to read.

So why am I telling y’all about it?

Well, a dozen years ago I was setting up a tour in aid of The Burglar on the Prowl, and it struck me that I might be able to speak at libraries for a fraction of my usual fee if I could fit them into my book tour. So I wrote something to that effect in my newsletter, and some librarians read the item and told other librarians about it, and, well, one thing led to another. And I wound up driving all over the country and presenting a program at over sixty libraries.

(I drove all over the place in a rented Chevy Blazer. I’d hoped for a Ford SUV, so that I could be the Schnorrer in the Explorer, but it didn’t work. Never mind.)

So, if an idle remark in a newsletter could net me sixty speaking gigs, who’s to say it won’t lead me to a spell of camping out in one of the Groves of Academe?

One never knows…

Among Other Things… A HORROR MOVIE!

Yes, you read that right. I have a batch of things to recount, and rather than bury the lede I’ll come right out and lead with it. (Lede with it? Never mind.)

Years ago, before any of us were born, I wrote a story called “Bride of Violence” and sold it to Two-Fisted Detective Stories, in whose pages it appeared in December of 1959. It brought me a penny a word, so I got something like $25 for it. That doesn’t sound like much now, but believe me, it wasn’t much then, either.

Who knew it would wind up on the screen a mere 59 years later?

A couple of years ago, writer/director Travis Mills read it and saw possibilities, and now my little pulp story has been transformed into a feature-length film, and you can see it for yourself on Amazon Prime Video—for free, if you’re an Amazon Prime member.

My Frequent Companion and I watched it last night, and while I rather doubt it’ll grab up a double handful of Oscar nominations, there’s a lot to like about Bride of Violence. It’s gripping and fast-moving, and delivers a good measure of shock and awe. So far six viewers have reviewed it on the Amazon site, and every one of them has given it five stars.

Over at the UK site, Eye For Film, Jennie Kermode weighs in with a thorough and thoughtful review. “Travis Mills’ adaptation of Lawrence Block’s short story is his strongest film to date,” she reports, “evoking a particular strain of Seventies horror rarely encountered today...This oddly atmospheric film suggests that Mills has finally found his voice.”

As the author of the original story, and as an Executive Producer of the film, I’ve every reason to urge y’all to see Bride of Violence. And if you’re a Prime member, it’s free.

And if you’re not, well, just click here and you can get yourself a free trial membership. (Given the amount of things I find to buy on Amazon, my own Prime membership pays for itself many times over, and that’s not counting the free video or other perks. But your mileage may vary—so a free trial takes all the risk out of the enterprise…plus you get to watch Bride of Violence.)

Hey—I’m an Executive Producer, remember? It’s part of my job description to urge you to watch the movie. Here’s a trailer. Here’s another. Enjoy!

There! That’s the lede, definitely uninterred. Now let’s follow it with what Paul Harvey might have called The Rest of the Story—a string of essentially unrelated items which I’ll number to provide the illusion of order and purpose:

1. Kit Tolliver goes Italian!

Kit Tolliver is the homicidal heroine of Getting Off; Hard Case Crime’s edition bore the subtitle “A Novel of Sex and Violence,” and nobody ever decried that as false advertising.

And now I’ve teamed up with translator Annalisa Passoni to offer Kit’s story as  Godimento.  While the ebook won’t be available for a while, the paperback is on sale on  Amazon sites worldwide .

Meanwhile, readers of Italian have been keeping busy with Luigi Garlaschelli’s splendid translations. Along with his Scudder and Burglar titles, Luigi has turned his attention to Keller. The reception of Il Sicario has included an urgent call for more about the wistful hit man, and Luigi’s now at work on a translation of Hit List.

Meanwhile, Annalisa has moved on to another Hard Case original,The Girl with the Deep Blue Eyes…

2. I’m on the radio with Wallace Stroby!

…and if you opened this newsletter as soon as it arrived, you may be in time to hear us. We’ll be on Pam Stack’s program, Authors on the Air, live at 2pm Eastern time Friday, October 26, which as I write this is 24 hours in the future.

I don’t know what Wallace and I will be talking about, but we’re fond enough of each other’s company to find something to say. He’s done a brand-new Crissa Stone story for my upcoming Subterranean Press anthology, At Home in the Dark, and if you know his work you won’t be surprised to hear that it’s terrific. (His new book is a stand-alone,Some Die Nameless, and it’s excellent, but I’d rather show you the cover of one of his Crissa Stone books, because I am absolutely crazy about its title.)

3. Keller’s coming to Germany!

Well, to the German language. Sepp Leeb, whose most recent Matthew Scudder translation is Die Blumen, sie sterben alle (aka All the Flowers Are Dying), has just delivered Kellers Metier (aka Hit Man). Within the next couple of weeks we hope to have it available for you in ebook and paperback form…and while my Goddess of Design and Production busies herself with making this [image error]happen, Sepp’s already moving on to the second book in the series. (That’s Hit List in English; we’ll have to decide on a title for the German edition.)

4. Sagen Sie etwas auf Deutsch, Herr Scudder!

In a recent newsletter, I seem to recall mentioning that I’d found a voice artist to launch Matthew Scudder into German audiobooks. Well, Richard Heinrich has delivered the first portion of Die Sünden der Väter, and I don’t have to understand German to appreciate the spot-on quality of his narration. I hope we’ll have the audiobook available for you soon, perhaps by the year’s end. And I hope Richard enjoys the process—and Matthew’s company—enough to work his way through the whole series.

5. I’ll be reading Sunday evening in Kew Gardens.

It’s a special Noir at the Bar project in aid of Duane and Meredith Swierczynski’s daughter, who’s recovering from a bone marrow transplant, at Kew and Willow Books, 81-63 Lefferts Blvd. I’ll be joining Megan Abbott, Rob Hart, Jason Starr, Alison Gaylin, Jordan Harper, Jill D.Block, Kellye Garrett, and there’ll be other events in other cities, so just click on the link and find a way to be there.

6. Oh, r@s, I buried the lede after all…

Well, not quite. But there’s another movie coming, based on another of my early short stories, and you’ll be able to watch it as of November 5 on iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, and Google Play. It’s entitled If Something Happens, and you can click and watch the trailer now.

And I’m ending this here and now, in the hope that I can actually get it to you before all of the above turns into Old News.

You call this retirement???

Let me tell you about my week.

[image error]A couple of days ago I subwayed a few stops uptown on the #1 train to the Automedia Production studio, where I narrated “The Burglar on the Screen,” my contribution to Hollywood vs. the Author. Edited by the estimable Stephen Jay Schwartz, the book’s a cooperative venture that brings together a bevy of writers—Lee Goldberg, Michael Connelly, Diana Gould, Jonathan Kellerman, Alexandra Sokoloff, and T. Jefferson Parker, plus a dozen more, myself among them, all assembled to echo the lament of the late Rodney Dangerfield. We don’t get no respect—but we’re writers, so what we do get is the last word.

My essay concerns the casting of the film Burglar. I had a good time writing the piece, and can but hope you’ll have as good a time when you get to it. I also enjoyed reading it out loud, in front of God and everybody, and was greatly pleased that the session went so well. [image error]

The printed book’s publication has been postponed until November to coincide with the audiobook; you can preorder now, although the Amazon page shows the book as “temporarily out of stock.” Well, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Just click and order the book, and it will all work out just fine.

Will there be an eBook?

Probably, but I don’t see it listed yet. Hey, this is the joint effort of a roomful of writers. Think of it as eighteen cats banding together to herd themselves.

You say the recording session went well?

Very well, and this made me very happy, because it bodes well. I’ve narrated a batch of my own works over the years, starting way back in the bad old days of audio abridgements. More recently I’ve recorded The Night and the Music, Catch & Release,and Keller’s Fedora, and they were fun to do and got a good reception.

[image error]But I wondered if I might have aged out of the pursuit, and when it was time to bring out an audio edition of Writing the Novel from Plot to Print to Pixel, I found the prospect daunting. While it was the sort of book that really ought to be author-narrated (as I’d done some years ago with Telling Lies for Fun & Profit) I turned it over to Mike Dennis, who’d done such good work with Borderline, Sinner Man, and The Girl with the Deep Blue Eyes. The resultant audiobook is one we can all be proud of, but it still felt to me like an abdication of responsibility.

Now I have a couple of other books that ought to be in audio—two writing books (Spider Spin Me a Web and Write For Your Life) and a pedestrian memoir (Step By Step). I’ve been reluctant either to engage narrators or elbow my way into that role myself. So I’ve done neither.

[image error]I just know this has to be going somewhere…

But in a roundabout fashion, I admit. So let’s cut to Bouchercon, just a few weeks ago in St. Petersburg. I had a marvelous time, highlighted by the chance to interview Guest of Honor Ian Rankin, who’s been a friend for almost as many years as Matt Scudder and John Rebus have roamed their separate fictional worlds. And one morning, listening as a panel discussed the world of audio, I realized just how much I wanted to narrate the forthcoming Scudder novella, A Time to Scatter Stones.

[image error]Now I’d already read portions of it to an audience—once at KGB Bar in Manhattan, a second time at Kew & Willow Books in Queens, and most recently at a Bouchercon edition of Noir at the Bar. I went straight from that panel to my computer and emailed my agent with a request. Could he could persuade Brilliance Audio to give me the role?

He could and did. I rejoiced—and then wondered if I’d be up to it. So recording “The Burglar on the Screen” was a trial run, and it went smoothly and pleasurably, and I still had a voice at the end of it.

So in a few weeks I’ll take a train to Michigan, sit in front of a microphone, spend a couple of days giving voice to Matthew Scudder, and…

You’ll take a train?

Right.

To Michigan? Don’t they have planes that fly there?

They do, and they can keep them. Look, I took a train to St. Petersburg. The next two Bouchercons are slated for Dallas and Sacramento, and Amtrak goes to both of those cities, and consequently so shall I; I’ve already registered for Dallas.  I’m not afraid to fly, but I’ve certainly grown to hate it, and I’ve always loved trains. I’m just three or four train rides short of an Asperger’s diagnosis, and I have to say I’m way more comfortable with that than I’d ever be in a middle seat in Coach, or even a comfy window seat at the front of the plane.

I suppose riding trains is something the elderly can do in retirement. With all that time on your hands…

[image error]Yeah, that’s what I’ve had lately, sonny. Time on my hands.

Did I mention that I’ve got two anthologies in the works? Both coming together at the same time? From Sea to Stormy Sea, coming next year from Pegasus, is art-based, in the manner of In Sunlight or in Shadow and Alive in Shape and Color. This time all 17 paintings are by American artists, among them Grant Wood, Mark Rothko, Thomas Hart Benton, Harvey Dent, Winslow Homer, and Helen Frankenthaler. I won’t mention the writers until the book’s available for pre-order, but I will say that one of them, alas,  wound up unable to deliver.

[image error]Now these things happen. (It’s a mathematical certainty, in fact; station an infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of typewriters, and sooner or later one of them will be at a loss for words.) I had a couple of choices—go with 16 stories (because where is it written that I have to have 17?) or page through my address book and call in a favor from an eleventh-hour replacement. But I thought about it, and I remembered that ISOIS and AISAC had each contained a story of mine. (And, come to think of it, the one I forced myself to write for ISOIS won me an Edgar.) I certainly hadn’t planned on writing one for FSTSS, but now I found myself feeling obliged.

And then I guess you were struck by an idea, right?

If only. What I did was sit down at the computer and open a  Word document that was every bit as blank as my mind, and then I started writing about a woman standing in front of a Roy Lichtenstein painting at the Whitney. And a man spoke to her, and one thing led to another. Don’t you love it when one things leads to another? This past Monday I wrapped up a 5000-word story, “The Way We See the World,” and your mileage my vary, but I think it’s outstanding.

“He said modestly.”

Well, I’ve always taken a lot of pride in my modesty. But just as it was reassuring to find I could still narrate effectively, it was no less so to learn I could still write fiction, and a piece of fiction rather different from anything else I’d ever done.

But now let me tell you about the other anthology. It’s called At Home in the Dark, and Subterranean Press will publish it sometime early next year in trade and limited hardcover editions; as with A Time to Scatter Stones, I’ll ePublish it around the time the hardcover goes on sale, and follow some months later with the paperback.

Crime stories, I presume?

For the most part, but the crime fiction canopy’s a broad one,with room to give shelter to writing of all sorts. And some of the stories have one or both feet planted in another genre. James Reasoner‘s story is a period western, Joe Lansdale‘s is bleakly dystopian, and Joe Hill‘s novelette slithers through a little doorway into another world. And now that I’ve singled out those three, I suppose I should go ahead and list the rest of the gang: N. J. Ayres, Laura Benedict, Jill D. Block, Richard Chizmar, Hilary Davidson, Jim Fusilli, Elaine Kagan, Warren Moore, Joyce Carol Oates, Ed Park, Nancy Pickard, Thomas Pluck, Wallace Stroby, and Duane Swierczynski.

Wow.

Exactly. If you’re looking for a common denominator, two come to mind. They’re all dark stories, with nothing cozy or comforting about them. And every last one of them packs a punch.

As with FSTSS, I have all the stories in hand, and just last night I wrote an introduction for the volume. I also knocked out what’s called an ad card, the “other books by” page.

You got all your other books on one page?

[image error]Just my anthologies, along with the books I’ve published with Subterranean. Hard to believe I’ve edited fifteen anthologies. One of them just got reissued—Blood on Their Hands, compiled in 2003 to benefit Mystery Writers of America, and I added a new foreword to buttress my original introduction. Neither the foreword nor the intro constitute a reason to buy the book, but the stories are reason enough, esp. those by Henry Slesar and Jeremiah Healy.

BoTH (if you will) is part of a program of reissuing MWA anthologies. They’ve appeared regularly over the years, and have always contained some outstanding short fiction, much of it unavailable anywhere else. And one of them, Merchants of Menace, led to an assignment that landed on my virtual desk only last night. The book, edited by Hillary Waugh, came out originally in 1969; Hillary wrote its introduction, and would now have been asked to add a foreword for the new edition, but for the fact that he was born in 1920 and died in 2008. Standing in for him wouldn’t be ghostwriting, I was assured, as I’d be using my own name, but could I come through with a foreword? And, um, could I deliver it in the next week or so?

Well, why not? Hillary was a real gentleman and good company, a Grand Master and an ardent supporter of MWA, and arguably the father of the police procedural. When I looked at a PDF of the book, the first thing I read was a Donald E. Westlake story that I’d never encountered before. That was a treat, and the table of contents suggests there’ll be more goodies in the box. And I’ve got the time, haven’t I? Being retired and all…

Maybe you should take up shuffleboard. Or learn to crochet. Something to pass the time.

I was thinking mah-jongg, but you may be on to something. Meanwhile, some news briefs—

[image error]Audio: Theo Holland, whom some of you know as the Voice of Evan Tanner, has wrapped up Resume Speed and Other Stories; next up for Theo will be Tanner’s Tiger. Dana Roth is at work on 21 Gay Street, while Barbara Nevins Taylor tackles Of Shame and Joy, and Michael Cleary has a go at 3 is Not a Crowd. And, across the ocean, Richard Heinrich takes on the first Scudder novel, Die Sünden der Väter.

[image error]I’ll be self-publishing all of the above as soon as they’re ready. And I’ll also have to figure out what to do with the 20 audiobooks published by Audible via Open Road on a five-year license; the term is up, the rights are mine again, and the books are off-sale for the time being, and asterisked accordingly on my audiobooks blog page. I may republish with the existing recordings, I may look for new narrators—there are a few possibilities, and you’ll know as soon as I do.

[image error]Graphic novels: John K. Snyder III’s adaptation of Eight Million Ways to Die continues to win the hearts and minds of mystery and comic book fans alike. Many of you have asked what book he’ll tackle next and a few of you have offered suggestions. John and I both hope to be able to answer those questions soon. Stay tuned!

Translations: They continue apace. Between them, Stefan Mommertzand Sepp Leeb are within a book of completing Matthew Scudder’s adventures in German, and Sepp’s at work on the firstKeller book. Luigi Garlaschelli (Il Sicario) and Mª Carmen de Bernardo Martínez (El Sicario) have each moved on from Hit Man to Hit List. Enriqueta Carrington is rendering The Burglar in the Closetin Spanish, while a gentleman in Portugal has climbed upon the Keller bandwagon, and I suspect O Sicario is not far in the future. And any day now will see the publication of Godimento, Annalisa Passoni’s Italian rendition of Getting Off. And—

[image error]

Stop!

Stop? Isn’t that the whole point, that I apparently can’t stop, that I’ve made an utter dog’s breakfast of retirement?

No, because I’ve figured out your secret, LB. You sit around while other people do things for you. They write stories for your anthologies, they narrate and produce audio versions of your novels, they translate your night-school English into fluent German and Italian and Spanish. And what do you do? You toil not, and neither do you spin. 

Ha! Pinochle!

Say what?

Mah-jongg’s way too daunting. I’m not even sure I can spell it. So I’m thinking maybe pinochle’s the answer…

The Long Weight is Over!

Hi. David Trevor here, subbing for LB, who is packing for his crews. I’m in a rush so this may be poorly written but at least their won’t be any typos as I’m running Spell-Czech.

The point of the title is that the Eight Million Ways to Die graphic novel, John K. Snyder’s adaptation of LB’s classic novel (which some have called the lynch-pin of the Matthew Scudder series), after a long time on pre-order, is now shipping. If you’ve been weighting out the pre-order period because your like me and feel that instant gratification is too slow, well, order it now and get it in a hurry!

LB is crazy about the book and I can see why. The art is terrific and the storyline follows the book’s plot as closely as a mugger follows his victim. (That’s LB’s line, which he says he swiped from Marttin Cruz Smith, talking about the movie based on his novel, Gorky Park. Which I never read but I’m tolled its excellent.)

One other thing before I sign off. The flip side of instant gratification is delayed gratification, and LB was quoting somebody who said (or wrote, probably) that the ability to delay gratification is the truest test of human maturity.

So if your mature enough you’ll want to pre-order the fourth coming Matthew Scudder novella, A Time to Scatter Stones. In fact that may be the only weigh to get it, especially if you want the $45 signed-and-numbered limited addition. It’s selling out in a hurry.

And it’s a new Matthew Scudder story so what are you waiting for? Its set in present time, so Matt’s older than he was in the last novel, A Drop of the Hard Stuff. (Plus he’s a full forty-five years older than he was in the first book, The Sins of the Fathers.)

I think you’ll like it. I think Ill like it myself, because no, I haven’t got around to reading it yet. I’m mature enough to postpone gratification, but only for sew long. My plan is to reed a PDF of the book while LB is off on his crews.

Whew! That’s enough from me. Thank God for Spell-Czech!

David Trevor for

Scudder’s back!

Scudder’s back? What about his back? Is it bothering him? Well, he’s a little long in the tooth to be a spring chicken, so—

You know, I could spend a thousand words clueing you in, but this is way easier:

That’s Patrick Faricy’s cover for the brand-new Matthew Scudder novella, coming fom Subterranean Press in January 2019. I’m rushing this newsletter because I want to give all of y’all the earliest possible heads-up. Subterranean’s gorgeous editions are apt to sell out in a hurry, especially the signed-and-numbered limited editions. Even for the trade hardcover editions, the books are often sold by the time they’re off press, and it’s very rare for Subterranean to go back for a second printing. So if you want to catch up with Scudder, I’d advise you to click here and place your pre-order.

I suppose the limited edition is prohibitively expensive.

It’s limited to 500 signed-and-numbered copies, and the price is $45. The trade edition is $25. Given the production quality of Subterranean’s books, and the tendency of the limited editions in particular to appreciate in the aftermarket, I’d say it’s a pretty good deal.

But then I’m hardly an unbiased reporter. I’m happy with the way the novella turned out, and delighted that Subterranean is publishing it. I had a good time writing A Time to Scatter Stones, and it was satisfying to be once again seeing the world through Scudder’s eyes and speaking in his voice.

Just between us, I never expected to write more about Matt Scudder after A Drop of the Hard Stuff. I surprised myself once, with a final short story (“One Last Night at Grogan’s”), which closed out The Night and the Music, and in a way that certainly suggested there’d be no more.

And, really, how could there be? Matt’s the same age I am, and just as he’s way too old to leap tall buildings in a single bound, so am I a little old myself to be hunched over a keyboard, trying to coax cogent thoughts out of what remains of my mind.

I guess you had enough brain cells left to do the job.

And precious few to spare. I think it’s highly unlikely that I’ll be able to recount further Scudder adventures, though one never knows. But I wouldn’t be hugely surprised if I find other stories to tell about other characters.

Really? Bernie? Keller? Somebody brand new?

I don’t have a clue. Time will tell—or it won’t. Whatever. But let’s stay with Mr. Scudder for now, because this is definitely his moment. And once again I’m going to provide you with a picture rather than grind out a thousand words:

There you have it, John K. Snyder III’s brilliant graphic novel adaptation of Eight Million Ways to Die. And if you think this looks good wait until you turn the pages and see the art. And then, when you get around to reading it, you’ll find JKS3 somehow managed to be faithful to the story and character and mood of the book, even to getting the look and fee of 1982 New York on the page. I don’t know much about graphic novels, but I know what I like, and this is it.

It was just about two weeks ago that I first met John. We had joint signings on consecutive days at The Mysterious Bookshop and Midtown Comics, and we met a lot of nice people and signed a slew of books. The Mysterious Bookshop sold out of the twice-signed books in a hurry; they’ve reordered, and when the new books arrive I’ll go sign them, but I don’t know how many they’ve ordered or how long they’ll be around. If you want one, I suggest a call to Tom at (800) 352-2840.

Midtown Comics have a few double-signed copies left—or did when they last updated their website. I can’t find a phone number for them, and recommend ordering on line at their website. As you’ll see, they have a one-copy limit on the signed books. No limit on the unsigned ones.

The signings were fun for me, but the real joy was spending some time with John. We connected for dinner one night, and hit it off wonderfully. We agreed that we’d love to see more of Matthew Scudder in this format, and we’re hoping sales of this book will be strong enough to move IDW to greenlight a sequel. (And no, I don’t know which book we’ll do next.)

You say you enjoyed the signings?

Very much—and it’s a good thing, as I’ve got a couple of appearances coming up. In a few days—Friday and Saturday, July 13 and 14, I’ll be at Thrillerfest, held as usual at the Grand Hyatt in New York. I’m on panels each day—one on film and tv Friday at 2:40, one on location-location-location Saturday at 4:20, with signings scheduled after the panels.

And I’ll be at Bouchercon in early September, in St. Petersburg. (That’s Florida, not Russia.)

And what else? Don’t tell me there’s a new Scudder movie coming up.

Not to worry. I’ll tell you no such thing. But I do want to direct your attention to a new page on my website. It’s all about film and TV—my own writing for the two media and various adaptations of my prose work.

Let me give you a taste with a few lines about two films with which I had nothing to do, although they keep turning up in lists of my work. The man involved was an actor named Lawrence Joel Block, who got a pair of writing credits, one as Larry Block and the other as Lawrence J. Block. For years we sort of disliked one another from a distance, and then I actually met him face to face once—although he never knew it:

“I was walking with a writer friend, Thomas Cook. We’d been at a group dinner in midtown, and I was walking Tom home to his apartment in Hell’s Kitchen, and would then walk myself home to my place in the Village. Tom had previously mentioned that he had a friend with the same name as I, actor Larry Block, and as we walked west on 46th Street he said, ‘Oh, there he is now.’

“I forget what LJB was doing. Lugging garbage cans to the curb, I think, or lugging them back. Never mind.

“’I’ll introduce you,’ Tom said. And, as we drew up to where my namesake was lugging something or other, he said brightly, ‘Larry Block, meet Larry Block.’ Larry Block the actor assumed Tom had just said his name twice, and had not bothered saying the name of his companion, and I don’t think he cared a whole lot anyway. Whereupon Tom and I continued our walk, and Tom clearly thought he’d successfully introduced the two of us, and I didn’t care enough to let him know what had happened.

“Then a couple of years later Larry Block died.

“But his work lives on, at least to the extent that it keeps turning up in lists of my work. I don’t believe for a moment that this blog post will straighten things out. But, you know. We do what we can.”

If you’d like to read more, a simple click will get you there.

And what else is keeping me busy? Well, I’m compiling two anthologies, one for Pegasus in the mode of In Sunlight or in Shadow and Alive in Shape and Color, the other more in the vein of Dark City Lights. I’ve mastered the most important trick of an anthologist, which is to enlist superb writers and get out of their way, and I think you’ll be happy with the results. I’ll tell you more when there’s more to tell.

But first, if you’ve no objection (or even if you do), I’m gonna get out of everybody’s way—on a Holland America cruise of the North Atlantic. Can’t wait!

Cheers,

FILM & TV

Given the number of comments and questions I get on this topic, a website page dedicated to it would seem long overdue. So let’s see how it goes. (And Joe, I know you’re getting anxious to close…) I’ll start, if it’s all the same to you, with two films with which I had no connection whatsoever. I didn’t write them, nor were they based on my work.

Matter of fact I’ve never even seen either of them. Nor am I likely to. They’re the work of—

LAWRENCE JOEL BLOCK  (October 30, 1942 – October 7, 2012)

[image error]This Lawrence Block was an actor who lived in New York and appeared frequently in films, on television, and on the stage. He almost always used the name “Larry Block.” You can find out more about his acting career on his Wikipedia page. He’s on this page because he was also an occasional writer, and two films of his were produced. First was The Funhouse (1981), which he wrote as Larry Block. Second was Captain America (1990) where his credit is for the story, not the screenplay, and the name is given as Lawrence J. Block.

My own middle initial, which appears few places besides my tax returns and passport, is R. Friends do call me Larry, but I’ve never used it on a piece of writing. It’s always plain old Lawrence Block.

So there.

I first became aware of LJB in the early 70s, when I had an apartment on the Upper West Side. We both had listed phones, and each of us occasionally got a call meant for the other. “No, you want Larry Block the hack writer,” he told at least one caller, who reported as much to me with something approaching glee. I decided to tell the next clown with a wrong number that he wanted Larry Block the ham actor, but I never got the chance.

[image error]I saw him once on stage, in some off-off-Broadway effort on West 42nd Street, and I saw him on the screen, in a non-porn role in a porn film, The Devil in Miss Jones. (A good friend of mine, the late Patrick Farrelly, also had a non-porn role in the film. I can’t find either of them listed in the credits, so they may have used other names, or been in another film altogether. Never mind.)

And I once met him face to face, although he never knew it…

Thus begins a new page on the website. To keep on reading, just CLICK HERE.

Springtime for Scudder

…and a glorious season it is for the man. As I reported a couple of weeks ago, I’ve finished the first new book about him since A Drop of the Hard Stuff in May of 2011. (Later that same year came a short story, “One Last Night at Grogan’s” in The Night and the Music.)

And since then, nothing. Not a word. He never writes, he never calls…

Until last month, when A Time to Scatter Stonesshowed up on my hard drive. It’s a 30,000-word novella set in present time, with Matt and Elaine enjoying a well-earned retirement. Until…well, never mind.

Subterranean Press will publish a hardcover edition early next year, probably in January or February. Go ahead, have a look at Patrick Faricy’s terrific cover painting. Once the cover’s finished, Subterranean will greenlight the book for preorders—and if you want a copy, you’ll be best advised to take them up on their offer ASAP. Typically, Subterranean’s editions are all spoken for by the time they go to press, and a single press run is all a book gets. (Their Signed & Limited editions usually sell out well in advance of publication.)

That’s a word to the wise, and I can but hope it’s sufficient. I’ll let you know when you can place your preorders.

And I’ll be on it like a mongoose on a cobra. But what’s with the Springtime for Scudder bit? It’ll be the middle of winter when the book comes out.

Very true, and won’t it be a fine way to warm and brighten your days?

Well, I’m sure it will, but—

But why wait until then? The good news is you don’t have to, because it truly is a Matthew Scudder spring, and the highlight is John K. Snyder III’s perfect-pitch graphic novel rendition of Eight Million Ways to Die.

When my agent made the deal with IDW, I have to admit I wasn’t expecting much. I’ve precious little familiarity with graphic novels, and the experience I’ve had with having my work adapted for film has been, well, uneven. (I liked what Scott Frank and Liam Neeson brought to A Walk Among the Tombstones. I pretty much hated everything else.)

But I figured the graphic novel would be something I could live with. Sheesh, if I could survive Burglar and Nightmare Honeymoon, how bad could a comic-book version be?

Well, I flat-out love what JKS3 has done.

That’s comforting. But you just told us you don’t know much about graphic novels, so why should we take your word for it?

You don’t have to. Here’s what J. C. Vaughn had to say in the comics newsletter Scoop:“A masterpiece of crime fiction. Eight Million Ways To Die may well be Snyder’s magnum opus, and it is unquestionably the best work of his career. His art and colors flow together in stunning fashion, blending into a gritty, well-researched New York City of the early 1980s with a distinct cast of characters. From bars to back alleys, from high-end hookers to AA meetings, the atmosphere in this adaptation is more than just a mood or a setting; in Snyder’s hands it’s another character.”

I get the feeling he liked it.

Hang on, there’s more: “He captures the nuances and subtleties of Block’s story in a way Hollywood should study (they completely missed it) and brings together text and art seamlessly.”

Okay, I’m sold. How do I get a copy?

Click on the link and preorder. That way you lock in a first edition hardcover at a good price. Or, if you’re in New York, come to either of two signings the last week of June.

Who’s signing? You? Mr. Snyder?

Both of us.

On Wednesday, June 27, we’ll be at The Mysterious Bookshop, 58 Warren Street, New York NY 10007. (800-352-2840 or 212-587-1011)

On Thursday, June 28, we’ll move a couple of miles north to Midtown Comics, 200 West 40th Street @ 7th Avenue, New York NY 10018. (800.411.3341 or 212.302.8192)

I’m looking forward to both of these gigs, not least of all for the pleasure of JKS3’s company; we’ve bonded online but have yet to meet. It should be interesting to see what kind of gatherings we get. Mysterious may well be full of people who don’t have a clue who John is, while Midtown Comics is likely to overflow with staunch fans of his who’ve never heard of me.

What I want is a book signed by both of you. What I don’t want is to schlep all the way to New York.

That’s why the store listings have phone numbers. Both stores can furnish signed copies—until they run out, which is a possibility. Order early and you should be good.

A friend of mine has declared a moratorium on printed books. Will there be an eVersion?

There will indeed, and you can preorder it now. And while no one has yet figured out a way to make a graphic novel into an audiobook, the novel itself is available in unabridged audio. (Have a look. Some listeners might find the narrator objectionable, but I think he brings a certain je ne sais quoi to the enterprise.)

And for now that should do it for now as far as Matthew Scudder is concderned.

And what non-Scudder news do you have to report?

It’s not only non-Scudder. It’s non-Me.

Non-Block? Really?

I didn’t say non-Block. In fact the next two items are the farthest thing from non-Block. But I had precious little to do with either of them.

Do tell.

My pleasure. June 4 was the release date for The Truth About Parallel Lines, the debut as a novelist of one Jill D. Block. Her proud father had invited you to preorder the book, and I guess some of you did, because it’s off to a good start, selling briskly and gathering endorsements and bouquets along the way. It’s now available in both ebook and paperback form, and an audio version is in production.

Last week Jill got her first media review from Tom Callahan of BookReporter.com, a lengthy paean of which I’ll quote only the following:

How can you not read a novel that starts with this first line: “Holy shit. You’re having sex with Mr. Peanut?” Beth asked, just a little too loud, leaning forward in her chair. “Get out of here.”

…Jill D. Block is a serious novelist. I look forward to her second book and all that follow.

As do I. And may Jill and I both put in a word for our honorary cousin, Buffalo’s own Sandra Block? Her new novel, It Happened One Night, has been piling up great reviews on Amazon, which comes as no surprise to this reporter.

Whew. A relief now to get back to tooting my own horn. In the last newsletter I announced the paperback publication of Resume Speed and Other Stories, which the Amazon page tells us “assembles seven works of fiction written over a period of sixty years.” I said enough about it earlier, but this seems like an appropriate time to thank you for snatching up so many copies.

I also told you about two readings in which I participated last week, Noir at the Bar—Queens and the MWA reading at KGB Bar. I don’t know how or why I managed to book myself into two events on consecutive nights, but it worked out okay. I read the same selection each time, the opening pages of A Time to Scatter Stones, and people seemed to like it. And I had a good time.

And now you’ve once again booked yourself into two events, one right after the other.

Crikey, so I have! Whatever was I thinking of? All I can say is I hope a good many of y’all can come see me and John. Should be great fun.

A Graphic Giveaway!

As some of you know, later this month IDW will bring out John K. Snyder's graphic novel interpretation of my Matthew Scudder novel, Eight Million Ways to Die. I've had a few books filmed, some them lousy (Eight Million Ways to Die), some of them good (A Walk Among the Tombstones) but the best of them trouble me somewhat.

Not so with this graphic novel—and the form is one to which I don't generally respond. JKS3 has managed to get the entire story into his treatment, using some passages straight from the book; more to the point, in both his text and his terrific illustrations he renders the tone of the book and the whole feel of 1982 New York.

These are reasons why I'm happy to urge you to buy the book. But, for a lucky octet of y'all, you can get it for free. Just click on this link https://tinyurl.com/yawcunhn to enter the drawing.

I suspect more than eight Goodreaders will enter. If you miss out on the freebie, I invite you to use this link to order: https://amzn.to/2sSVic3 IDW's taking preorders now, and that's your way to lock in the best price and be sure of a first edition and early delivery.

LB