Lawrence Block's Blog, page 27
September 16, 2011
LB's email newsletter
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LB
September 15, 2011
By: Lawrence Block
Jake, what a sweet comment—I can't tell you how much better I feel for having read it.
By: Jake Walsh
Mr. Block, I was introduced to your work by my father when I was just a kid and every new release was occasion for a call to my Dad announcing a new Block book was coming out, and hopefully it was a Scudder story. My father was a recovering alcoholic and intellectual thug from South Boston and he identified with Scudder on many levels. He passed away not long ago and when "A Drop of the Hard Stuff " came out I felt that familiar urge to call him and discuss our two favorite subjects, your books and boxing. While "A Drop" had some bittersweet elements for me it had one enduring joy, Matt Scudder's voice has always been and remains to be my father's voice in my head. Thanks for letting him tell me another great story and please keep them coming.
September 3, 2011
WHITHER THE SHORT STORY?
Good morning, sir.
Our subject today is “Whither the short story?” I’ll begin with a quick historical summary, and all I really need to do toward that end is drop the question mark from the end and the H from the first word. Because for the past sixty years or so, short fiction has indeed been withering on the vine. I could suggest causes—television, mass-market paperback books—even as I could point out symptoms—the demise of the pulps, the decline of general-interest magazines. It all adds up to a pretty interesting tale, and an instructive one in the bargain, but as we’re discussing the short story, it seems only fitting to keep my preliminary remarks short.
Arnold, did you say something?
No, sir.
I could have sworn you just said, “Well, it’s too late for that.”
It may have crossed my mind, sir. Perhaps you heard me thinking it.
That must be it. So I’ll just summarize: After half a century or more of cultural dominance, short fiction largely disappeared. What magazines no longer published and readers no longer cared to read, writers stopped producing. When I began writing in the mid-1950s, the shrinking market still had enough depth for me to get started there. Like most of my contemporaries, I’d published a dozen or more short stories in magazines before I even attempted a novel...
to read more: http://lawrenceblock.wordpress.com/
August 23, 2011
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Reading
The Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society Gets Off on Getting Off:
“Our first meeting last Friday in Sheep’s Meadow in Central Park was a success. Everyone started reading Getting Off, a new novel by Lawrence Block that hasn’t hit the shelves yet. When you’re topless, even book publishers will make special allowances…”
Click to read more—and to see the photos, which we can't show here! http://lawrenceblock.wordpress.com/ji...
August 20, 2011
By: Lawrence Block
A very good chance, actually, Matthew. Hal King passed away late last year, I'm sorry to report; I only learned this recently, and wound up talking with his son about an eFuture for Code of Arms. There's every likelihood that it will indeed be an eBook before long.
And you can be sure I'll write an afterword for it. The writing was a complicated process, and worth a trip down Memory Lane.
By: matthewasprey
LB: Any chance your 1981 collaborative World War II spy novel Code of Arms (written with Harold King) will turn up as an ebook? And naturally we'll want an afterthought on it.
Matthew Asprey
http://www.matthewasprey.com
August 15, 2011
By: Lawrence Block
Seems unlikely. My own files are sparse. I don't know what Don may have kept, but suspect there's nothing the world can't live without.
By: matthewasprey
I've enjoyed dipping into the Afterthoughts E-Book tonight, LB, and there's one sentence about Westlake in the intro to Hellcats and Honeygirls that made me bolt upright:
"We stayed very much in touch. I don't think it ever occurred to either of us to pick up the phone; long distance calls were for emergencies, or when somebody died. We wrote letters and probably put more creativity into that correspondence than into our work."
Is there any chance of a collected LB-DW correspondence one day? Please!
Loved Grifter's Game, by the way, and am working my way through Enough Rope.
Matthew Asprey
http://www.matthewasprey.com
August 14, 2011
By: Lawrence Block
Thanks, Eydie. I trust you weren't scarred for life for having read Ronald Rabbit at an impressionable age. As for your question, you might want to have a look at my recent blog post, DON'T ASK.
