Lawrence Block's Blog, page 20

I'll be brief...

I’ll be brief.I know, I know. I’ve said that before, haven’t I? But this time I’ve got only two things to tell you, and then I’ll leave you alone.[image error]First I’ll tell you about Ehrengraf.

His name is Martin H. Ehrengraf. (The H stands for Harrod, like the London store. Or for Herod, the king in the Bible. Sources disagree.) He’s the dapper little lawyer who takes criminal cases on a contingency basis. He never loses a case, and hardly ever darkens a courtroom with his presence, as his clients always turn out to be innocent.

I’ve written a dozen stories about him since the first appeared in Ellery Queen some 37 years ago. The twelfth tale, “The Ehrengraf Fandango,” appears for the first time in a new collection, Defender of the Innocent: The Casebook of Martin Ehrengraf, and the Publishers Weekly review is so heartwarming I wouldn’t dream of leaving out a word:

“The clients of Mephistophelean DA Martin Ehrengraf are always innocent, even when they recall committing murder, as shown in this collection of 12 dark, twisted tales from MWA Grand Master Block (Catch and Release). The urbane lawyer charges only if clients are exonerated—and they always are, though his hand is seldom seen. Apparent crimes of passion prove to be serial killings in “The Ehrengraf Defense,” which introduces the tie he wears to celebrate victories. Clients who try to renege on payment discover he’s a dangerous ally whose sinister ingenuity works as effectively against as for them, as miserly Millard Ravenstock learns in “The Ehrengraf Settlement.” In “The Ehrengraf Obligation,” the attorney represents penniless poet William Telliford, whose work he admires, but when freedom diminishes William’s creative output, the poet finds himself back in prison for murder. While Ehrengraf initially seems amoral, he follows his own code, far from socially sanctioned mores but sacred to him. Sophisticated, surprising, charming, and relentless, he’s a compelling antihero.”

The book’s coming in September from Subterranean Press—exclusively in hardcover, with cover art by Phil Parks. Subterranean’s productions are always outstanding, and the complete press run is not uncommonly sold out before the book is off press. At $30, I don’t think these will be around for long. If you want to guarantee that you get a copy, your best bet is to pre-order it directly from the publisher.

You can go ahead and do that right now, if you’d like. I’ll wait.

Okay, that’s done. Now did you have something else? And how much is it gonna cost me?

I do, and curiously enough it won’t cost you a dime. It’s “Out the Window,” the first Matthew Scudder short story—although, properly speaking, it’s a little long for a short story, and might more properly be classified as a novelette. It was first published in 1977 in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and it’s appeared in various collections since then, most recently (and most notably) in The Night and the Music, my self-published collection of all eleven Scudder stories.

It’s also available singly, exclusively on Kindle, for $2.99. But right now and for the next five days it’s yours free. Just click to get it at the appropriate site: amazon.com amazon.co.uk amazon.de amazon.fr amazon.es amazon.it amazon.co.jp amazon.in amazon.ca amazon.com.br amazon.com.mx amazon.com.au

Again, you can go ahead and grab it right now. I can wait.

That was pretty simple. Now what happens? I’m on some sucker list and I’ll be swamped with invitations to Matt Scudder benefit dinners? Because I just know you’ve got a motive, and it would almost have to be ulterior.

Well, sure. What other kind is there? It’s my hope that you’ll like the first story so much you want to read the other ten. While they’re available individually on Kindle, you’re much better off picking up the collection, The Night and the Music; it’s just $4.99, less than the price of two of the stories. (Or, for not too much more, you can put the handsome trade paperback on your shelf.)

For your convenience, there’s a link to the collection at the end of the free story. And there are individual links as well to the 17 Scudder novels, just in case there’s one you missed, or have been longing to read again. They’re all there, including A Walk Among the Tombstones—which, as you may possibly recall, has been filmed for September release with Liam Neeson as Matt.

And one more thing, before I forget:

There’ll be a paperback tie-in edition of AWATT, published by my good friends at Hard Case Crime, and featuring the movie poster on its cover. The release date is August 26, and if you don’t expect to be near an airport newsstand around that time, you can play it safe and pre-order it now from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

A purist might contend that that's three things, and I promised to limit myself to two. I'd apologize, or try to explain myself, but I'd only wind up taking still more of your time, and what's the point of that?

Cheers,



PS: As always, please feel free to forward this to anyone you think might find it of interest. And, if you've received the newsletter in that fashion from a friend and would like your own subscription, that's easily arranged; a blank email to lawbloc@gmail.com with Newsletter in the subject line will get the job done.

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Pumpkin time!

It's that time of year, isn't it? Leaves turning, pumpkins ripening in the field, and children creeping like snail unwillingly to school. I was going go treat you to a picture of a pumpkin patch, one that puts a nice seasonal spin on the notion of crop circles, but Vertical Response furnished this properly autumnal template, and not for the first time I chose to take the Easy Way Out. It's a character defect, and I'm working on it...

That's the first paragraph of a newsletter that just went out to subscribers. And here's a link to read it online. (To get on the subscription list, just send a blank email with "Newsletter" in the subject line to lawbloc@gmail.com.)

Cheers!

LB

How work gets done. Around here, anyway...

A week or so ago I started a short story, and I put in a few hours here and there, and it's coming along well enough. I figure another week or two should see it through to the end.

But it seems to have hit...well, not exactly a snag, but for the past few days I've been sitting down at my desk first thing each morning, whereupon I open the file and look at the story, and then I go and Do Other Things. All of this, I have learned over the years, is part of what we like to call the Creative Process. The subconscious is busy mulling things over, and in due time the results will show up on the computer screen.

But not just yet...

Today, for example, I opened the file and promptly closed the file, and then I cleared a ton of email, tended to my tweeting and facebooking, updated my agent on an editing project that's in the works, booked a phone conversation with another party to discuss that project, and came up with a couple of good ideas for additional projects. And in the course of all of this, I came to a seminal conclusion.

A conclusion I'll happily share with you: Nothing so spurs one's creative energy as the need to avoid essential work. In fact I suspect most of the world's most important work has been done by people who've had other things they know in their hearts they really ought to be doing.

Why else, really, would I clean the crud out from between the keys of my computer keyboard? Or arrange my books in alphabetical order?

Or write blog posts like this one?

Well, not all the work that gets done this way is useful or important, as you can see. But it's my pleasure to share it with you. And, in order to better justify it to myself, and to deftly split an infinitive, I'll add these useful links which will enable you, wherever you may be, to waste some time with the eBook or paperback of Catch and Release in what I trust will be a pleasant and perhaps even useful fashion:

Amazon.com Barnes & Noble Smashwords Kobo

United Kingdom France Germany Brazil Mexico Spain Japan Italy India Canada

Look at that, will you? Aren't you impressed that you can order this wonderful book almost anywhere in the world? And do you have any idea how much time it takes to gather up and post all those links?

You can thank me later...

LB

Well, here's an interesting site...

It's called eReaderiQ, and it tracks titles on Kindle. If you want, it'll notify you when a title you're interested in drops in price. I did an EgoSearch, naturally, and found it fascinating to see all my titles listed, with price reductions chronicled wherever they applied. (I was also puzzled to note, among my titles, Block by Block: The Post Register Looks at the Neighborhoods of Idaho Falls. I don't know that I want it, but I have to admit it seems quite reasonable at $2.99.)

Even without Idaho Falls—or another intriguing eVolume about Knitting Block by Block, which I can only suppose is about tying those Idaho neighborhoods together—I've got a whole lot of titles listed.

Collect them all! Win valuable prizes!

LB

Pssst...

This'll be short and sweet.

Catch and Release, my new short-story collection, is on sale. The Subterranean Press hardcover edition is essentially sold out, although you can still find booksellers with copies available. (I signed stock at the Mysterious Bookshop, and they may have a few left; call Ian Kern at (800) 352-2840. Signed copies are also available, while they last, from VJ Books at (503) 750-5710).

The eBook has been out for about a week, and you can pick it up for $9.99 at Amazon for Kindle, B&N for Nook, or Smashwords for everything else.

And just yesterday the trade paperback went on sale at Amazon, where it's in stock for immediate delivery. As you can see, it's a beautiful book, in the same format and with the same cover art as the hardcover. The price is $14.99, but at the moment Amazon's discounting it slightly to $14.24.

And Dreamscape's Catch and Release audiobook is coming soon and available for pre-order. (I did the narration, with a little help from the former Lynne Wood.)

See? I told you it'd be short.

And here's the sweet part, for the Kindlers among you. Starting at midnight Pacific Time (or 3am Eastern) I'll be giving away "Dolly's Trash & Treasures," a story about a woman who likes to hang on to things. It was originally written for a UK audio anthology, and will give you a free taste of Catch and Release.

Didn't you write a new novel this summer? I suppose we'll have to wait a year and a half for it.

Not quite that long. Can you hold out for three months? Because I expect to publish it before the first of the year.

You're kidding. What's it about? What's the title? Who's in it?

I'll have an announcement in less than a month. And you'll be the first to hear. That's a promise.

LB

Hello, I must be going...

Open Road has just made Grifter's Game part of a special promotion, dropping the price all the way down to $2.99 for a limited time. (How limited? I don't know, but you can see for yourself at Kindle or Nook. If the ePrice is still $2.99, you're in luck.)

I wrote an afterword especially for the eBook:

This turned out to be the first book published under my own name, although I assumed it would be pseudonymous soft porn when I started it. A couple of chapter in I decided it might be a cut above what I'd been writing, so I wrote it as a crime novel with the hope it might work for Gold Medal. They were the first house to see it, and Knox Burger bought it. I can't recall that he asked for any changes.

But they changed the title. I'd called it The Girl on the Beach, because that was such a Charles Williams/Gil Brewer/Peter Rabe title, perfect for Gold Medal. Knox didn't like it. Go figure. Then somebody, he or I or my agent, came up with Grifter's Game, and that was one everybody liked.

Next thing I knew, it was published as Mona. Years later I learned from Knox that this was publisher Ralph Daigh's idea. He'd bought a painting of a woman's face from an illustrator, and wanted a chance to use it on something. If he’d used a portrait of himself, I might be the author of Horse’s Ass.

The book's had various titles over the years. Someone used the phrase "sweet slow death" in a cover blurb, and Berkley made that the title of their reprint edition. When Hard Case brought out the book a couple of years ago, we finally got to call it Grifter's Game...

There's more, and I've posted the afterword in full on the Afterthoughts page. Moving right along, it's my pleasure to tell you about the newly available adventures of a very naughty young woman:

Kit Tolliver, whose totem animal is clearly the Black Widow spider, debuted in a short story, "If You Can't Stand the Heat." (Keller got a similar start, in "Answers to Soldier.") The Kit Tolliver stories coalesced into a novel, Getting Off. A year ago I made the first three stories available on Kindle, and their reception showed that many of you like to consume them one at a time.

Well, now's your chance. All twelve Kit Tolliver episodes are now available for Kindle. They're live on Smashwords as well for Apple, Kobo, Sony Reader, and everything else. (And, after having been stalled in the B&N pipeline, they're live on Nook. )

They're sequentially numbered, which does make it easier to read them in order. They get more violent and erotic as they go along, and Kit's not everybody's dream girl, but you might want to give her a whirl...

This will be my last blog post for a while. I'll be woodshedding—as the jazz musicians used to say, and perhaps still do. I'll be off the grid, deprived of (or spared, as you prefer) email, Facebook, Twitter, and even such old-time agents of connectivity as snail mail and the telephone. LB's eBay Bookstore will be closed while I'm gone. Enjoy the summer—and if you feel deprived of my presence, well, I've got a few books out there. And I've always been at my best on the page...

LB

And while you're at it, go and catch a falling star

Here's a newsletter that went out to subscribers a few hours ago. Some of the material will be familiar to followers of this blog—but not all of it. There are, for example, three books free to Kindlers for the next several days, and the lowdown on Smashwords:

I don't know how this happened, but a glance at my calendar tells me that 2013's half gone. (I suppose that makes me a pessimist, seeing the calendar half empty, when an optimist would see it half full.) But where did the past six months go? I ask in vain; "Tell me where all past years are," John Donne implored, and as far as I can make out, nobody told him.

I don't know where the time goes, but I know where I'm going, and that's Out Of Dodge. I'll be away from mid-July until late August, with my internet access hovering somewhere between Slim and None. So, as this'll be my last newsletter for the next two months, I'll devote it to answering your questions...Yes, you in the back, with the silly hat.

Today's Tuesday. Does this mean there won't be any more Orange Wednesdays until the fall?

It does, but can't you see a hint of orange on today's horizon? As a parting gift, I've made three Kindle titles yours for the taking for the next several days. I'll tell you more in a moment. Yes?

I saw the great PW review for Catch and Release. Will it be possible to get signed copies?

Catch and Release, a new collection of short fiction, is a joint effort of Subterranean Press and Hard Case Crime. Tony Daniel gave the book as great a review as I've ever received, and I gather there's been a surge of orders. If first printings are important to you, you might want to pre-order now.

As for signed copies, I don't expect to be offering them in LB's Bookstore. I suspect some mystery booksellers will have them available, and know you can pre-order a signed copy from the Mysterious Bookshop (ian@mysteriousbookshop.com, 800-352-2840).

I don't see an eBook offered on the Subterranean site. Will there be one?

There will indeed. I'll be ePublishing it around the time that the hardcover is released. And you can be sure I'll let you know about it.

You just mentioned LB's eBay Bookstore. I went there a week or so ago and it seems to be closed.

You're an observant young woman. The online bookshop is indeed closed for renovations, and will reopen sometime around Labor Day, with a big Back To School sale and auctions of some rare and one-of-a-kind items. There'll be announcements, so stay tuned.

What's up with JWW?

I assume you're referring to John Warren Wells, under whose euphonious name I wrote 18 works of sexological nonfiction back in the day. I ePublished JWW's entire backlist as Kindle Select titles, and now, as they come out from under the umbrella of Amazon exclusivity, I'm making them eVailable as well for Nook and other platforms. Four titles are already up and running: Versatile Ladies Nook Smashwords The New Sexual Underground Nook Smashwords Beyond Group Sex Nook Smashwords and Sex and the Stewardess Nook Smashwords. The other fourteen books will have to wait until I come home. Some of you look confused. Yes?

What's Smashwords?

Smashwords is a site that enables self-publishers to cater to all varieties of eReaders. In my own case, while I can upload efficiently on my own to Kindle and Nook, Smashwords allows me to make my work accessible for Kobo, Apple, Sony Reader, and just about any eGadget on which you might wish to read it. Besides the JWW titles shown above, here are some books and short stories you can pick up from Smashwords: The Burglar Who Smelled Smoke, The Burglar Who Dropped In On Elvis, Keller in Dallas, Generally Speaking, The Night and the Music, A Stab in the Dark, A Walk Among the Tombstones, A Long Line of Dead Men, Matando a Castro, Ehrengraf For the Defense, Collecting Ackermans, Clean Slate, Let's Get Lost, Batman's Helpers, and By the Dawn's Early Light.

Go ahead, load up your eTruck. I can wait...

What's next after Catch and Release?

Another collection, with the likely title of The Murders in Memory Lane. It'll consist of my newspaper and magazine nonfiction—critical essays, introductions, appreciations, and remembrances, all of them centered on the mystery genre. And it'll be followed by a similar volume, as yet untitled, assembling pieces about New York, about the rest of the world, and about, well, me.

Both of these will be eBooks which I'll publish myself, and I'll probably bring out trade paperback editions as well. And there's a good possibility there'll be a small hardcover edition of The Murders in Memory Lane for collectors. The books will most likely be published in the late fall. Rest assured that I'll let you know the details in plenty of time.

Okay, I've been patient. Now tell us about the free stuff.

Fair enough. If you've got a Kindle, you can download two of my short stories and one full-length book at no cost during the next several days.

Which stories? Which book? Where are the *@#$%&!!! links?

Hey, y'all are resourceful. You don't need no stinking links. You don't even need titles. Go to Amazon and hunt them down for yourselves. Think of the fun you'll have!

Meanwhile, let me share some cover art I'm particularly fond of. Mulholland's trade paperback edition of Hit Me is scheduled for October release, and the cover's a complete departure from the hardcover. I loved that one, and I'm just as keen on the paperback version:



And Shanghai Translations is bringing out the four Chip Harrison titles in Simplified Chinese, and how do you like this approach?



Great covers, but how good are the translations?

I'll let you know after I've given them a close reading.

Yeah, right. What about audio? Didn't you blog about audio recently?

I did, and thanks for reminding me! A reviewer said something really nice about my own work as a narrator, and how could I possibly keep that to myself? It turned out that I had a lot to report about audiobooks, and those of you who follow my blog don't need to wade through it all again. But this newsletter reaches more folk than subscribe to the blog, so one mouse click and you can catch up for yourselves.

You know, I'm beginning to get an idea where the time goes. A fair amount of it goes into putting these newsletters together. But I can't say I regret a moment of it, and can but thank you for your part in the process, and wish you well until we meet again in early September.

LB

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Twitter: @LawrenceBlock

PS: As always, please feel free to forward this to anyone you think might find it of interest. And, if you've received the newsletter in that fashion from a friend and would like your own subscription, that's easily arranged; a blank email to lawbloc@gmail.com with Newsletter in the subject line will get the job done.

By: Lawrence Block

Nancy, you can find the stories online as eBooks @$2.99 each. Or you can find them in my omnibus short story collection, Enough Rope.

LB

By: Nancy

Dear Mr. Block:

You say a day rarely passes without someone asking when you will write the next book about our favorite burglar, Bernie Rhodenbarr, so here I am to ask. It has been a long time since your last burglar novel. I have read them all. I miss Bernie and Carolyn: their comfortable, loyal friendship; their great sense of humor; and their fondness for cats. These heartwarming novels have given me hours of upbeat enjoyment and some good laughs, for which I want to thank you.

I love the Bernie Rhodenbarr burglar novels–except at the end. Bernie stops being fun in the last few pages when he sets up a meeting to expose the criminals and gives a lecture. I challenge you, instead, to include us readers in Bernie’s discoveries as the adventure unfolds. I vote to bring back Bernie and Carolyn for many more fun burglar novels.

I just learned that you have written three Bernie Rhodenbarr short stories. The titles are: “Like a Thief in the Night” (1983), “The Burglar who Dropped in on Elvis“ (1990), and “The Burglar Who Smelled Smoke” (1997). I could not find them under their titles. I wonder if you could give me the names and dates of the publications that include them, so I can find them at the library.

Thank you,

Nancy

Can y'all come to my party?

Well, it's been a long time coming.

I finished writing Hit Me in November, 2011. I was booked for two events a week or so apart in Southern California, and I had about a week's worth of work to do on the book, so I took my laptop along, holed up in a hotel on Beverly Boulevard, just down the street from CBS, and Got It Done.

What I truly want, when I finish a book, is to take a shower, drink a cup of coffee, then walk around the corner to find the book nicely displayed in a proper bookstore. An hour or so strikes me as an appropriate interval; fifteen months, OTOH, is a lot like eternity.

Well, fifteen months (if not eternity) is up this coming Tuesday, February 12. I've been blogging and blathering about it sufficiently to leave you feeling as though you've already read it. But you probably haven't, and in a couple of days you'll get your chance.

If you can hold out an extra two days, and if you're in the New York area, you can pick up your copy at a ***BOOK LAUNCH PARTY*** —to which you are hereby invited.

Where: Otto Penzler's MYSTERIOUS BOOKSHOP, 58 Warren Street, New York NY 10007. Warren Street is one block below Chambers; the bookshop is two doors east of West Broadway.

When: Thursday, February 14, from 6 to 8 pm. (Yes, that's Valentine's Day. And what's a better way to say I love you than with a novel about a stamp-collecting hit man?)

Why: As far as why you might want to attend, well, I wouldn't presume to say. Instead I'll explain why, for the first time in what feels like a lifetime of book parties, I've chosen to publicize this one on Facebook and Twitter and my blog and newsletter. In all the time I've been on Facebook, I've never before set up an event page and sprinkled the cybersphere with invitations. So why should this night be different from all other nights?

It just seemed appropriate, given book's dedication. See, all of y'all are the dedicatees:

This one’s for all my Tweasured Tweeps & FeeBee Jeebees
all you Wild.Web.Workers & Cyberzerkers
and especially for Jaye & Julia

There was a time when I found myself wondering why we called it the Social Media; ever since I got started with Facebook and Twitter, I never seemed get away from my desk. But what I've since discovered is that eRelationships are no less valid than the more traditional sort, and that I've somehow acquired a few thousand friends with whom I share as much as or more than I ever will with the folks I nod at every day in the elevator. I've never met the great majority of you, and might be hard put to pick you out of a crowd, but so what? I'd be delighted if you could come to my party.

Still, despite what you may have heard, I'm not entirely deranged. I realize that most of you won't be able to come—and, while Otto's store is a fine and commodious space, he'd be hard put to fit 20,000 of you in there all at once. If you're in the area, and if you don't have a conflict with your niece's ballet recital, come by and say hello. It's from 6 to 8, so even if it runs a few minutes late you'll still get home in plenty of time to watch Elementary. (And isn't it a great show? I may be delayed, what with all those books to deface with my signature, but rest assured we'll be taping it.)

But let's suppose you can't join the crowd. How can you be a part of it? Is some sort of Virtual Attendance a possibility?

Hmmm.

If you've acquired a copy of Hit Me, either the hardcover or the eBook, you could make a point of dipping into it sometime between 6 and 8pm Thursday night. Read a few pages, silently or right out loud. That'd work.

Or you could pick up the phone and buy a copy. Otto's taking orders, and if you call the bookshop at (800) 352-2840, I'll sign a copy for you that night. (And if you want a personal inscription, just tell the good soul who takes your order.)

What else? Well, I leave it to your imagination. Y'all have proven to be a resourceful lot, and I'm sure you'll think of something, whether it's posting or tweeting in support of the book and event, or reviewing it enthusiastically, or passing on the invitation to NYC-based friends, or—but wait, why am I offering suggestions? You'll do fine on your own.

Just a warm thought from you, wafting upon the ether Thursday evening, is more than enough.

LB