Lawrence Block's Blog, page 26
November 7, 2011
LB w/ Craig Ferguson!
Tomorrow night (Tuesday, November 8th) I'll be Craig Ferguson's guest on The Late Late Show on CBS. I'll be there in aid of Getting Off and The Night & The Music, but what we'll wind up talking about is an open question.
I always have a good time on Craig's show. He's such a brilliant performer that one can forget what a fine writer he is. But I'm not sure he'll be able to hold up Getting Off without putting the CBS censors to work. Perhaps a well-placed thumb might save the day...
Tune in if you're up late and so inclined, or program the TiVo and watch at leisure. And if all else fails, and you really want to see what we get up to, searching YouTube for "Lawrence Block Craig Ferguson" will very likely work.
I always have a good time on Craig's show. He's such a brilliant performer that one can forget what a fine writer he is. But I'm not sure he'll be able to hold up Getting Off without putting the CBS censors to work. Perhaps a well-placed thumb might save the day...
Tune in if you're up late and so inclined, or program the TiVo and watch at leisure. And if all else fails, and you really want to see what we get up to, searching YouTube for "Lawrence Block Craig Ferguson" will very likely work.
October 14, 2011
Ready to ship!
Just this morning I received the first copies of the trade paperback edition of THE NIGHT AND THE MUSIC. It looks every bit as pretty as its picture, and we’ll be shipping signed copies right away. If you’ve ordered from us, you shouldn’t have long to wait.
if you’ve been thinking about ordering, there’s a reason to act sooner rather than later. I just had a wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee conversation with my accountant, and he made it very clear to me that I have to raise my retail price for signed copies. It’s not a huge increase—from $15 to $17—but he says it’s necessary to cover costs I hadn’t taken into account.
This $2 price hike will go into effect sometime next week; you’ll know it’s in force when the new price is displayed online at LB’s Bookstore. Until then, you can buy copies at the $15 advance orders price. It’s not an enormous difference, but if you’re going to buy the book anyway. . .well, a word to the wise and all that. Here’s where to click: http://tinyurl.com/3ncpdjs
The eBook is still $2.99 at Kindle and Nook and Smashwords, and we’re still waiting for it to go on sale at Apple.
if you’ve been thinking about ordering, there’s a reason to act sooner rather than later. I just had a wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee conversation with my accountant, and he made it very clear to me that I have to raise my retail price for signed copies. It’s not a huge increase—from $15 to $17—but he says it’s necessary to cover costs I hadn’t taken into account.
This $2 price hike will go into effect sometime next week; you’ll know it’s in force when the new price is displayed online at LB’s Bookstore. Until then, you can buy copies at the $15 advance orders price. It’s not an enormous difference, but if you’re going to buy the book anyway. . .well, a word to the wise and all that. Here’s where to click: http://tinyurl.com/3ncpdjs
The eBook is still $2.99 at Kindle and Nook and Smashwords, and we’re still waiting for it to go on sale at Apple.
October 7, 2011
Ends & Odds, Pieces & Bits
When I add a new post to this main page, it goes out instantly by email to subscribers, and gets automatically posted to Facebook and tweeted to the Twittosphere...
But when I add posts to other pages on my blog, they just stay where I put them. Unless you happen to drop by to check out one or more of those pages, you’ll never know about them.
Which may be just fine with you. But I figure you might find something of interest in these recent additions:
After a quick one-paragraph bio, About Lawrence Block has evolved into an ongoing page of reading recommendations under the header of What LB Likes To Read. A couple of nights ago I had dinner with Dan Wakefield, and we discovered we were both major Somerset Maugham enthusiasts. So today I added a couple of paragraphs on Maugham, picking some favorites and providing live links. (And while I was at it I tossed in a link to my favorite novel of Dan’s.)
Read the rest at http://tinyurl.com/3gaf59t
But when I add posts to other pages on my blog, they just stay where I put them. Unless you happen to drop by to check out one or more of those pages, you’ll never know about them.
Which may be just fine with you. But I figure you might find something of interest in these recent additions:
After a quick one-paragraph bio, About Lawrence Block has evolved into an ongoing page of reading recommendations under the header of What LB Likes To Read. A couple of nights ago I had dinner with Dan Wakefield, and we discovered we were both major Somerset Maugham enthusiasts. So today I added a couple of paragraphs on Maugham, picking some favorites and providing live links. (And while I was at it I tossed in a link to my favorite novel of Dan’s.)
Read the rest at http://tinyurl.com/3gaf59t
October 2, 2011
By: Lawrence Block
Howard, first thought reading your comment was that it was long enough ago for the delivery to have been by fax rather than email—followed by the realization of what a game-changer fax was in its day. But the music's a constant, isn't it? Good to hear from you…
By: Howard Mandel
Thanks for the shout-out in The Night and The Music afterward, Larry — I recall with great pleasure sitting in my office as a new Scudder story that I myself had commissioned came magically over the Fax. It's the single best assignment I ever made and it was a perfect soupçon for readers of the program guide to one of George Wein's JVC Jazz Festivals. Elaine was so right to dig jazz, with Scudder beside her.
September 30, 2011
Alert the Media—LB GOES INDIE!
Pretty, isn’t it?
It’s the cover of my new book, THE NIGHT AND THE MUSIC, a complete collection of the Matthew Scudder short stories, including one brand-new one never before published anywhere. I could natter on about the book at great length and with considerable enthusiasm, and in fact I’ve done just that in a newsletter. If you subscribe to my newsletter, it should be landing in your email box before long; if not, I’ll be posting the newsletter on my blogsite’s new Matthew Scudder page.
The newsletter’s designed to tell you all about the new book, and induce to you part with $2.99 for the eBook or $14.95 for the trade paperback, as you prefer. This blog entry, on the other hand, will be less about the book and more about my decision to publish it myself.
It’s not as though self-publishing were my only option. I’ve been writing professionally for over fifty years, and if all the folks who’ve published my work were laid end to end, it’s probably no less than they deserve. (Rim shot!) In 2011 alone, I’ve had five new books published: three books for writers (The Liar’s Bible, The Liar’s Companion, and my early–days memoir, Afterthoughts), all eRiginals from Open Road; A Drop of the Hard Stuff, the new Matthew Scudder novel from Mulholland Books; and—just out—Getting Off, from Hard Case Crime.
I think it’s likely that one or another of these excellent publishers would have given THE NIGHT AND THE MUSIC a home. But I never looked in that direction.
See, the idea for the book grew out of my experiences in eBook self-publishing...
read the rest at http://tinyurl.com/3lhgt6b
It’s the cover of my new book, THE NIGHT AND THE MUSIC, a complete collection of the Matthew Scudder short stories, including one brand-new one never before published anywhere. I could natter on about the book at great length and with considerable enthusiasm, and in fact I’ve done just that in a newsletter. If you subscribe to my newsletter, it should be landing in your email box before long; if not, I’ll be posting the newsletter on my blogsite’s new Matthew Scudder page.
The newsletter’s designed to tell you all about the new book, and induce to you part with $2.99 for the eBook or $14.95 for the trade paperback, as you prefer. This blog entry, on the other hand, will be less about the book and more about my decision to publish it myself.
It’s not as though self-publishing were my only option. I’ve been writing professionally for over fifty years, and if all the folks who’ve published my work were laid end to end, it’s probably no less than they deserve. (Rim shot!) In 2011 alone, I’ve had five new books published: three books for writers (The Liar’s Bible, The Liar’s Companion, and my early–days memoir, Afterthoughts), all eRiginals from Open Road; A Drop of the Hard Stuff, the new Matthew Scudder novel from Mulholland Books; and—just out—Getting Off, from Hard Case Crime.
I think it’s likely that one or another of these excellent publishers would have given THE NIGHT AND THE MUSIC a home. But I never looked in that direction.
See, the idea for the book grew out of my experiences in eBook self-publishing...
read the rest at http://tinyurl.com/3lhgt6b
September 23, 2011
BEST. REVIEW. EVER.
By Tom Callahan @ BookReporter:
“Fans of Hard Case have come to expect quality entertainment, both reprints of the greatest of past crime fiction and terrific original stories that prove that hardboiled writing is still very much alive and well in the early years of the new, all-too-bloody-so-far, century. Now this is saying something, but GETTING OFF just might be the best book HCC has ever published. Lawrence Block (writing as Jill Emerson) does not just push the boundaries of fiction, he blows them away. This is a book you are never going to forget reading…
“First, the obvious: the sex. There is a lot of explicit sex here, just about in every chapter. Indeed, this might be the most sexually explicit book ever published by a mainstream American publisher. And it is plenty violent as well. But it is also a noir masterpiece. Block has written a book equal to anything ever written by noir masters like James M. Cain or Jim Thompson. His work now resides among the giants of the genre. GETTING OFF is a heck of a wild ride and loads of fun. Once you pick it up, you are not putting it down. Just remember to pay for it first in the bookstore…”
And that’s just the beginning. Read the rest on Jill Emerson’s page…
http://tinyurl.com/4xha7js
“Fans of Hard Case have come to expect quality entertainment, both reprints of the greatest of past crime fiction and terrific original stories that prove that hardboiled writing is still very much alive and well in the early years of the new, all-too-bloody-so-far, century. Now this is saying something, but GETTING OFF just might be the best book HCC has ever published. Lawrence Block (writing as Jill Emerson) does not just push the boundaries of fiction, he blows them away. This is a book you are never going to forget reading…
“First, the obvious: the sex. There is a lot of explicit sex here, just about in every chapter. Indeed, this might be the most sexually explicit book ever published by a mainstream American publisher. And it is plenty violent as well. But it is also a noir masterpiece. Block has written a book equal to anything ever written by noir masters like James M. Cain or Jim Thompson. His work now resides among the giants of the genre. GETTING OFF is a heck of a wild ride and loads of fun. Once you pick it up, you are not putting it down. Just remember to pay for it first in the bookstore…”
And that’s just the beginning. Read the rest on Jill Emerson’s page…
http://tinyurl.com/4xha7js
September 20, 2011
Getting Off's published, and Jill's over the moon!
Lawrence Block: You're all smiles today. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. This very morning, Nicholas Pell at Made Man called Getting Off "the dirtiest book in America."
Jill Emerson: Oh, right. Nicky.
LB: Is something wrong?
JE: I gave him a hot interview and he went and called me a beastess.
LB: Um...
JE: The kind you keep on a leash. Which can be fun under the right circumstances, but still. Look read it yourself:
“Fortunately, for those of us who like our literature dark, dirty and way over the top, Lawrence unleashed the beastess for this gripping tale...”
Click to read the rest of this exchange on Jill Emerson's Page
Jill Emerson: Oh, right. Nicky.
LB: Is something wrong?
JE: I gave him a hot interview and he went and called me a beastess.
LB: Um...
JE: The kind you keep on a leash. Which can be fun under the right circumstances, but still. Look read it yourself:
“Fortunately, for those of us who like our literature dark, dirty and way over the top, Lawrence unleashed the beastess for this gripping tale...”
Click to read the rest of this exchange on Jill Emerson's Page
September 19, 2011
Afterthoughts in Hard Cover!
When Afterthoughts first launched as an original eBook, many of you let me know that you were far more interested in a printed book. And some of you bought the eBook only to write me that you wanted a printed copy as well for your library. I’m happy to report that Open Road has a Print-on-Demand paperback on the way, and it should be up and ready in a matter of weeks. The price is not set yet, but my best guess is that it will be somewhere between $9.99 and $14.99. As soon as I have more information, I’ll post it here.
But If you want this book in a truly outstanding edition, you can order it right now and receive it sometime in October. The legendary Otto Penzler of The Mysterious Bookshop has arranged to publish a deluxe hardcover edition of Afterthoughts, with a very limited press run. In an uncharacteristic burst of enthusiasm, I agreed to sign all the copies. The price is $35, and that’s a tad higher than the 99¢ eBook, but I’ve a feeling the edition’s going to sell out in a hurry. Best bet: order toll-free at (800) 352-2840. Or contact the bookshop via email— info@mysteriousbookshop.com…
Click here to read the rest of the post on the Afterthoughts page:
http://lawrenceblock.wordpress.com/lb...
But If you want this book in a truly outstanding edition, you can order it right now and receive it sometime in October. The legendary Otto Penzler of The Mysterious Bookshop has arranged to publish a deluxe hardcover edition of Afterthoughts, with a very limited press run. In an uncharacteristic burst of enthusiasm, I agreed to sign all the copies. The price is $35, and that’s a tad higher than the 99¢ eBook, but I’ve a feeling the edition’s going to sell out in a hurry. Best bet: order toll-free at (800) 352-2840. Or contact the bookshop via email— info@mysteriousbookshop.com…
Click here to read the rest of the post on the Afterthoughts page:
http://lawrenceblock.wordpress.com/lb...
September 17, 2011
By: Jake
Mr. Block I'm surprised at just how happy I feel at having given you something to feel good about. It's the least I could do after all the years of enjoyment I've gotten from you, so the thanks is all mine.
