Lawrence Block's Blog, page 7

Of short stories, short attention spans, & a magic word—FREE!

A while back, I shared a reading list I’d prepared for a Newberry College course in mystery fiction. It was a pretty decent list, I’d say, but a couple of weeks into the course, I tossed it. My class was supposed to be Reading Crime Fiction for Pleasure, and it became very clear to me that asking undergraduates to read a book a week for pleasure was unrealistic. My students were bright and eager, but they were also burdened with full schedules, and they’d been schooled out of reading for enjoyment. Assigned reading was something to be polished off as quickly as possible, with the hope of retaining enough of the text to write a quick paper on it or answer a question or two if it turned up on the final.

I realized, too, that attention spans today are rather different from my own youth (which I recall clearly, if not accurately). Back when I was busy carving out an undistinguished college career, I could plop down in a chair or sprawl on a bed and read without interruption for three or four hours at a clip. And I was not unusual in this regard.

I don’t think many young people read that way nowadays.

Ah, kids today—

That’s an easy response, isn’t it? But here’s the thing—neither do many older people.

And neither do I. Part of it is that I’m nowhere near as likely to get caught up in a book these days. But even when I do, even when a first-rate work of a favorite author comes into my hands, I can’t really give it my undivided attention. I’ll sit there, and every five minutes I’ll pick up my phone, or deal out a hand of solitaire, or find something else to take me out of the book.

Rats. The whole world is going to hell.

Probably, but that’s beside the point. The only constant is change, remember? Things change—and how we read is one of the innumerable things that have been changing.

“Kids don’t read.” That’s what I hear, that’s what everybody says, and it’s nonsense. They’re reading all the time—on their phones or on their computers. They’re checking their Twitter feed, keeping up with texts and emails, and dipping into no end of fiction and nonfiction in one form or another.

And I know of at least one doddering octogenarian who’s not all that different in his reading habits.

I think that’s one reason I reinvented myself as an anthologist—not through calculation of a groundswell of enthusiasm for shorter fiction, but because I myself find short stories more engaging and less daunting than full-length novels. Thus In Sunlight or in Shadow and Alive in Shape and Color and At Home in the Dark and, most recently, From Sea to Stormy Sea. (Plus The Darkling Halls of Ivy, with stories set in the academic world, to be announced any day by Subterranean Press.)

That’s a lot of anthologies.

And a lot of stories by a lot of superb writers. At Newberry, when I realized I had to scrap the syllabus for my crime fiction course, I gave my students eCopies of two of the anthologies, AHITD and FSTSS.

Gave? In other words, you made them buy them.

No, I already felt guilty for having made them spend money on all those unread novels. What I did was send them free files by email, and it was worth it—the stories turned out to be a much better fit for their academic workload and reading habits. And they led to some lively discussions.

That’s kind of interesting. So what’s your point? Short stories are the wave of the future? And you’re poised to make your fortune as an anthologist?

Some fortune. Believe me, it’s a slow way to get rich. I blush to admit that the anthologies are closer to a labor of love; I do them for my own pleasure and satisfaction, and trust that ongoing ebook and paperback sales will bring me out ahead in the long run. But that’s not the point, either.

So what is?

That for a lot of us reading is going to be done in installments. And that I for one intend to cash in on the trend by giving my work away.

I was wondering what the all-caps word FREE was doing in the headline.

Drawing attention, I can but hope. But for years now I’ve made a good deal of my work available FREE—but only to those of y’all with Kindle Unlimited or Amazon Prime memberships. Along with short stories in Italian and Spanish, this bounty of free reading includes several episodic books offered piecemeal.

The Keller books, for example. They’re episodic novels, and indeed many of the episodes were initially published as magazine stories. For some time now I’ve made quite a few of those stories individually eVailable, including Keller in Dallas, Keller the Dogkiller, Keller’s Adjustment, and Keller on the Spot, and they’ve proved quite popular. They’re priced at $2.99, which makes them a convenience but hardly a bargain; you’d be better off buying complete ebooks for anywhere from $4.99 to $11.99, depending on the publisher.

But if you’re already a member of Amazon Prime or Kindle Unlimited, they’re free. You can certainly sample Keller, and I’m already in the process of making more episodes available, with the goal of offering the entire Keller experience.

And it’s not just Keller. Getting Off, that winsome little tale of sex and violence, is similarly episodic; it began as short stories that surprised me by growing into a novel, and while there’s an ongoing storyline, each of the chapters can stand alone. You may well want to own Hard Case Crime’s gorgeous edition, but you might also want to read the individual Kit Tolliver stories that make up the book—especially since you can do so at no cost.

Same goes for Martin Ehrengraf, the little lawyer who never loses a case. I’ve self-published the complete Ehrengraf, Defender of the Innocent, and I’d be delighted to sell you an ebook or paperback, but all 12 of the stories are available individually.

And you’re just giving everything away out of the goodness of your heart?

The goodness of my heart, if it even exists, rarely comes into play. As always, my chariot is drawn by the twin horses of Ego and Avarice. See, you get to read the stories for free, but when you do, I get a royalty from Amazon. Admittedly, it doesn’t amount to much.

But if enough people read enough of your stories—

It still won’t amount to much, I’m afraid. But that’s okay. Something is more than nothing, and you can read my work for free without feeling you’re taking advantage of me. And if this sounds like a win-win situation, well, what’s so bad about that?

It’s only win-win if I own a Kindle.

Not necessarily. You do need a Kindle for Kindle Unlimited, but Amazon Prime members can read for free on a variety of devices, including your phone or  tablet or computer. (Or your Keurig coffeemaker, I’ve been told, but maybe not.) I don’t understand all the nuances of the two systems, but it won’t be hard for you to find out whatever you need to know. Here are a couple of links for free trials of Amazon Prime and Kindle Unlimited, a good way to find out if they’re advantageous for you.

Meanwhile, I can feel like a fossil if I sit down with a novel and read it all the way through.

Hey, I’m not a cheerleader for short attention spans. But neither am I an ostrich. I know what James Patterson taught us: that most of us get through a book faster when the chapters are short. I know that many of us pick up a book of short stories, scan the table of contents, and read the shortest ones first. I know that flash fiction—stories of no more than 1000 words—is very definitely a thing.

I’ll take your word for it. And what about your  newest book, Generally Speaking? It’s got forty chapters, and a person should be able to jump in anywhere, so suppose I want to read it on the installment plan?

That’s easy. Buy the book, read a short entry or two, and have you still got the business card that pesky realtor gave you? If so, just use it as a bookmark.

Oh, it’s like that, huh?

Uh-huh. But I’m glad you mentioned Generally Speaking, because it’s now available not only as a trade paperback and an ebook but also as a hardcover book with a library binding. The hardcover makes for a more durable addition to a philatelic library, and a more imposing gift for a philatelic friend.

And in all its editions, the book is moving rather more briskly than I’d dared to hope. Michael Baadke’s solid notice in Linn’s Stamp News didn’t hurt a bit. Right now Amazon shows it as its #1 new release in Antique & Collectible Stamps, and the #59 bestseller in Historical Essays. And all this without a single Amazon review!

I suppose it would be nice if some of us took a moment and reviewed it.

It would be very nice indeed.

Well, with all the free things you’re giving us these days, I guess it’s the least we can do. And did you say there’ll be more Keller stories free for the reading?

As soon as we can get them formatted and work up covers for them, which should be fairly soon indeed. I’ll try to let you know, but check for yourself from time to time; do an Amazon search for “Lawrence Block Keller” and see what comes up.

Meanwhile, as I’ve learned to say at the end of class, “Time’s up!” There’s more I could tell you, had I but world enough and pixels. Two of my translators delivered within a day of each other, so I’ll soon be announcing the publication of the German edition of Scudder #18, A Time to Scatter Stones, and the Italian rendition of Keller #5, Hit Me—but that’ll have to wait. So will the official announcement of an intensive writing workshop I’ll be leading here in New York in April-May. And of course there’s more to report in the world of audiobooks, and POD paperbacks, and—

Remember what you were saying about short attention spans?

Oh, right.

I think you should stop now.

You know what? I think you’re right.

A Vision for 2020

That’s what you’re gonna go with? “A Vision for 2020?”

Kind of lame, huh?

I think the preferred phrase is “locomotionally challenged.” But it could be worse. You could have an exclamation point at the end. Or a string of dots.

I took them out.

Oh. Maybe you should just, um, cut to the chase.

You’re probably right. I’ve got a lot to get to, and I’ll start with the party at 6:30pm this Wednesday, January 8, at the Mysterious Bookshop. It’s to launch From Sea to Stormy Sea, my new art-based anthology just out from Pegasus. Jerome Charyn‘s coming, as are Janice Eidus and Warren Moore. They may read from their splendid stories. They’ll definitely sign copies of their splendid books as well as FSTSS, and I’ll be signing my own latest release, Hunting Buffalo with Bent Nails.

And it’s a party?

Well, that’s a hard word to pin down, isn’t it? At Mysterious Bookshop, a party means they set out some folding chairs so the partygoers can sit down. And sometimes they even hand out bottles of water, and the occasional saltine.

Sounds festive.

The books are the real draw. They’ll have copies of the hardcover edition of Hunting Buffalo, and that’s not all. To make Wednesday’s event even more of a party they’re offering quite a number of my scarce backlist titles at 50% off. See, I sold them my own entire stock of books a couple of years ago. They’ve been the go-to source for my work ever since, and if you can fill in the gaps on your shelves at half price…

We’d be fools not to, wouldn’t we? But I have a feeling the store’s in Manhattan.

At 58 Warren Street, in Lower Manhattan, and easily accessible by subway.

For you, maybe. I live halfway across the country. What can I do?

You could move, but there’s an easier solution. Call (212) 587-1011 and they’ll take good care of you. Even if you’re planning on attending, it might be a good idea to call ahead and lock in a copy of Hunting Buffalo; they should have a good supply, but might very well run out.

But to get back to the headline, my sense of 2020 is that it’s going to be a very busy year. The last day of February—Leap Day, that is to say—will see the release of the Subterranean Press hardcover edition of The Burglar in Short Order. The signed-and-numbered Limited Edition sold out in a hurry, and the $30 hardcover trade edition will be gone by the time the book goes to press. (I’ll be bringing the book out as a paperback and ebook, and I’ll let you know as soon as we’re

able to accept pre-orders. But if you want the hardcover, jump on it now.)

While I was teaching at Newberry College, I made some contacts at the University of South Carolina in nearby Columbia, and arranged to donate my papers to their library. Rounding up everything has been a continuing adventure, treating me to more than a few trips down Memory Lane while steering me to works of mine I’d largely forgotten. I turned up around a dozen out-of-print early novels that have every right to join Campus Tramp and Kept in my Collection of Classic Erotica.

Hey, what’s with all the stamps?

It’ll be nice to have those early books back in print, but I also encountered some works that have never been published at all. One’s fiction, one’s nonfiction, and a third falls somewhere in between the two. I can’t go into too much detail now, but they should make for an interesting second half of 2020.

The stamps, man. What’s that about? Sheesh, there’s another one!

And there’s a new crime novel I completed last spring. After shopping it around some, I concluded that it’s not a sufficiently commercial work to do well with a traditional publisher. It’s dark, it’s repellant, and not every reader is going to like it.



But some will. Friends who’ve read it tell me it’s one of the very best books I’ve written. And in the next breath they wonder if it’s actually publishable.

I know that I like it, and that it came out the way I wanted it to, and I’ve reached an age where I don’t really have to give a tinker’s dam about anything else. So I’ve made the decision to publish the book myself. I’m not sure when it’ll come out, but probably not before June, and all I can tell you right now is the title—The Colors of the Night.

Not a bad title. No idea what it’s supposed to mean, but it does have kind of a nice ring to it. But will you please explain this parade of stamps?

Oh, the stamps. I’m glad you asked. Well the first is Martinique #2, and then you have a 5 Rupees stamp from Zanzibar, and then a US stamp issued in 1938. It’s a 19¢ stamp, and it has Rutherford B. Hayes on it, and he was our 19th President.

What a coincidence.

No, they planned it that way. And that’s how Keller learned to name the presidents in order.

Wonderful. But what on earth are they doing here?

Looking good, don’t you think? You really don’t have to be a stamp collector to admire the bits of paper one affixes to envelopes—or used to, back in the days when people wrote letters. Look at the Kaiser’s yacht, will you? It’s on the 5 Mark stamp of a series issued by all the German colonies. This one’s from the Caroline Islands.

Be still my heart.

But they’re also here to introduce a new book of mine that’s just been released; the ebook and paperback are already on sale,and there’ll be a hardcover edition with library binding available soon. The book is Generally Speaking, and there’s a subtitle: All 33 columns, plus a few philatelic words from Keller.

And here’s what it looks like:

Very nice.

It’s attractive, isn’t it? A few years ago I wrote a column for Linn’s Stamp News, then as now the world’s preeminent philatelic publication. It was a popular monthly feature, and two years in I made an ebook out of the first two dozen columns, but never did much with it. After another year  I felt the column had run its course, and I decided it was time to give it up.

And the time came when the combination of advancing age and declining interest led me to sell my stamps. Keller, my fictional hitman, still collects with undiminished enthusiasm, but he’s younger than I am, and has quite a bit more in the way of discretionary income.

So now you’ve published all your columns? And included some of Keller’s thoughts on the subject?

Not just his thoughts. I’ve chosen six excerpts from the various Keller books and interspersed them among the columns. And my Goddess of

Design & Production, whose cover you admired, sprinkled stamp illustrations—including the ones shown here—throughout the text. Some of them are referenced in the columns, while others illustrate Keller’s adventures. That 24¢ Air Mail, for example, is how Keller’s daughter got her name.

The airplane’s upside down.

Spotted that, did you? Now I think you owe it to yourself to buy the book. It’s at Amazon, of course, and from all these on-line retailers as well. The ebook, with color illustrations throughout, is $7.99. The hefty paperback is $16.99. If you’re a philatelist yourself, you’ll probably want this book.

I’m not.

But do you have friends who collect? Here’s a wonderfully appropriate gift for any and all of them. And you can be sure they don’t already have it, because it’s just been released.

Let me think…

And you really don’t need to be a stamp collector to get a lot out of Generally Speaking. One can’t write about stamps without exploring history and geography. There’s a chapter called “How Much is That Dachshund in the Fenster?” that deals with the runaway inflation that paved the way for Hitler’s rise to power. Another, “If You Turn Me Down Once More I’ll Join the Czech Foreign Legion,” examines a little-known aspect of the First World War and the Russian Revolution. I could go on…

And evidently did. But I have to admit it does sound like a painless way to get a history lesson.

It’s also a natural for Keller fans. I hear frequently from readers who tell me the wistful assassin has managed to make stamp collecting interesting for them; they may not feel the urge to become collectors themselves, but they’d like to know a little more about these objects of Keller’s desire.

So people who like Keller will buy Generally Speaking.

Well, I hope so. I think they’d enjoy it.

And the excerpts in Generally Speaking will lead stamp collectors to your Keller novels.

Gee, I never thought of that. You think it might happen? Because it would certainly be nice if it did. You look puzzled. Is something wrong?

I was just wondering. What’s the word I’m looking for, do you happen to know? Is it disingenuousness or disingenuity?

I think they’re both acceptable words, and share the same meaning. Why?

Oh, no reason. You really want people to buy this book, don’t you?

I want people to buy all my books. But yes, I’d like to see a run on copies of Generally Speaking. So here are the links again: Amazon  Barnes & Noble  Kobo  Apple  Scribd

And that, I daresay, is more than enough from me. I’ve got to go rooting in storage bins. If I’m lucky, I’ll find something of passing interest. And if y’all are lucky, I’ll ship it straight off to South Carolina instead of, gulp, publishing it.

BARGAIN TIME!

“>

























BARGAIN TIME







Well, isn’t that special? What’s the deal today, 50¢ off on a new Lexus?

No, we’re doing a little better than that. We’re running a four-day special with substantial price cuts for eight books—two each in English, German, Italian and Spanish.

That’s the ebooks, right?

Ebooks and paperbacks. Reductions on ebooks are around 50%. A bit less on paperbacks, because our margins are narrower, but it’s still—what’s the word I’m looking for?

Beats me. The word you used a minute ago was “substantial.”

Fair enough. We can stay with that. Substantial. And I’ll get right down to specifics, because you don’t want to dawdle. Prices are guaranteed through Christmas, but on 12/26 they start to pumpkin.

So here we go:

Random Walk is a novel that defies description, so why should I knock myself out trying? Some readers wish I would write another book like it; others wonder why I wrote it in the first place. For $2.99 ebook or $11.99 paperback, you can find out where you stand. You can get the ebook at Amazon or these platforms; the paperback’s at Amazon, and you may be able to find it elsewhere as well.

Defender of the Innocent is the complete collection of stories about Martin Ehrengraf, the little lawyer who never loses as case because all his clients are innocent. $2.99 ebook at Amazon and elsewhere; $10.99 paperback at Amazon for sure.

Und jetzt aufgepasst, bitte…

I’ve been self-publishing my work in several languages, and the German translations by Stefan Mommertz and Sepp Leeb have been going nicely. The full Scudder series is now available in both pixel and paper, Keller is moving along, and Bernie Rhodenbarr is next on the horizon. Here are the first books in each series, and I can but hope they’ll prove süchtig und unwiderstehlich.

Die Sünden der Väter—$2.99 ebook, $9.99 paperback, at Amazon and other platforms. Kellers Metier—$2.99 ebook, $10.99 paperback, Amazon and elsewhere.

Um, attenzione, per favore!

Luigi Garlaschelli has been turning out superb Italian translations of my books, ranging across several series, and if you type my name and his into the Amazon search engine, you’ll see what’s available. But here are his renditions of The Burglar in the Library and Hit Man to acquaint you with his fine work.

Il Ladro nella Biblioteca—$2.99 ebook, $10.99 paperback, at Amazon and elsewhere. Same prices for Il Sicario—at Amazon and other platforms.

Y finalmente, dos gangas para los lectores de español …

Well, I’ll be. That’s Keller again, isn’t it? Or at least his shadow on the ominous brick wall.

That’s the man himself. You know how some works of fiction are said to be untranslatable? Not so with Keller. He seems to win hearts and minds no matter what language he’s translated into.

So here we have Bernie’s debut, Los ladrones no pueden escoger, $2.99 in ebook, $9.99 in paperback, from Amazon and other sellers as well. And, casting a large shadow, El sicario—$2.99 ebook, $10.99 paperback, available at Amazon or elsewhere.

And that, meine Freunde, miei amici, and mis amigos, is it for today—and, I suspect, for 2019. Pick up some bargains, and if you’re moved to buy something else while you’re at it, well, who am I to talk you out of it? I’m looking forward to 2020, and wish you all the joy and success of the Year of the Metal Rat. (Make mine silver, will you? And ruby eyes would be nice.)

Cheers,

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

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Hunting Buffalo with Bent Nails…

Again with the Buffalo? Again with the bent nails?

I’m afraid so. The book’s published, and I wanted to let everybody know about it.

It’s on sale now? Available for purchase?

It is.

Then why are you showing us a picture of From Sea to Stormy Sea?

Because the good people at Pegasus would have a fit if I didn’t. And I can understand their position. They knocked themselves out to produce a genuinely beautiful volume, made sure all of the art works are faithfully reproduced, and feel they’ve come up with the season’s ideal gift book. And the book’s contributors might be similarly disinclined to take a back seat to a herd of stampeding bison. Their sixteen never-before-published stories are all quite wonderful, as reviewers have delighted in pointing out, so why shouldn’t they be entitled to pride of place in this humble newsletter?

Sixteen stories? It says seventeen right on the cover.

The seventeenth story is mine.

Last and least, right?

Yes, and I’m fine with it. And I’ll be happy to join a few of the contributors at 6:30 on Wednesday, January 8, at the book’s only official promotional event, a signing at Otto Penzler’s Mysterious Bookshop at 58 Warren Street in downtown Manhattan. So far three contributors have said they’re coming—Janice Eidus, Jerome Charyn, and Charles Ardai.

And in addition to From Sea to Stormy Sea—

Oh, dear. I do believe I hear hoofbeats.

I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s my great pleasure to announce that Hunting Buffalo with Bent Nails is widely available even as we speak in ebook and paperback form—and, remarkably enough, in a library-binding hardcover edition as well.

Down the line, the collectors among you will also be able to preorder the signed-and-limited deluxe edition from Subterranean Press. But you don’t have to wait for the ebook, paperback, or hardcover. Order them now and you’ll have them in time for Christmas.

What a gorgeous cover!

Isn’t it a beauty? Wouldn’t you feel confident giving such a fine-looking book to anybody on your Christmas list? And wasn’t I admirably forward-looking myself when I commissioned Albert Bierstadt to paint it for me back in 1888?

Words fail me. Dare I ask what’s in the book?

Do you remember The Crime of Our Lives? In that volume I collected all the nonfiction pieces I’d written over the years dealing with crime and mystery fiction. Ever since I’ve wanted to do the same with the rest of my nonfiction—travel pieces, odes to New York, introductions to this and that. My introduction to Dave Van Ronk’s memoir. An appreciation of my mother. A numismatic view of Raymond Chandler, a piece about my collection of old subway cars—

I must have misheard you.

That happens all the time. The book’s a thick one, with twenty-nine pieces—including, of course, the title essay, which first appeared in American Heritage. Sheesh, there’s even a poem. If you want to know more about what’s in the book, just check out the product description on the Amazon page.

And while I’m there, buy the book. Is that what you’re getting at?

Well, I certainly wouldn’t try to talk you out of it. The links above are to Amazon, but you can also find the book’s various editions on offer at Barnes & Noble and other online retailers. You may not spot it on the shelf at your local bookstore, but they can certainly order it for you. So can your library.

Or, if you can bear to wait until January 8—

I can pick it up at the signing at Otto’s.

You can indeed. And if you don’t feel like flying in from Denver or Salt Lake City for the signing, you can call (212) 587-1011 and order a copy.

Denver? Salt Lake City?

Wherever. There’s so much else to tell you, but it’s going to have to wait. I’ve got a new novel coming soon, and a book full to the brim with all my writings from Linn’s Stamp News plus some philatelic snippets from Keller. And I had such a good time conducting a fiction workshop at Newberry College that I expect to offer an OK Boomer version in the spring—probably in April and May, probably in Brooklyn.

But that’s all for a future newsletter or two. Dress warm, enjoy the holidays, and don’t leave the house—except for something important. Like, you know, to buy a book…

LB’s Rabbits! Rabbits! Newsletter

Oh, really?

Is something wrong?

“Rabbits Rabbits?” Look, I get it. It’s the first of the month, and you always tweet that curious phrase because you seem to think it brings a month’s worth of good luck. Do you honestly believe it makes a difference?

What could it hurt?

Well, it might keep people from taking you seriously.

If only. But I’ve been busier than the proverbial one-armed paperhanger—

The one with the hives?

That’s the very chap. I’ve been busier than your average bee, speaking of hives. I’m wrapping up the semester here at Newberry, packing for a return trip to New York, and up to my pupik in writing projects. So if I can combine my monthly greeting with my long overdue newsletter, why not?

And could you cool it with the interruptions, at least for a little while? I’ve got a batch of things to tell you, and I’m all too easily sidetracked.

1. This teaching gig. As many of you know, I’ve been serving for a semester as Writer-in-Residence at South Carolina’s Newberry College, conducting a Fiction Writing Workshop and a Lit course in The Pleasures of Crime Fiction. I don’t even have a bachelor’s degree, and I was sure I was in way over my head without a clue what I was doing, and that may well have been the case.

Nevertheless, I persisted.

The crime fiction course didn’t work terribly well, although students discovered some new writers and enjoyed much of what they read. Reading for enjoyment is a neat trick for college students, who are already saddled with no end of things they have to read whether they like it or not. There are also inescapable differences in average attention span in our internet age. (And it’s not only true for the young. Years ago, I could sit down with a thick novel and be entirely absorbed by it for hours on end. Nowadays, even with something I’m really enjoying, I can’t seem to go ten minutes without picking up my  phone.)

More to the point, I found out I’m not comfortable sitting in front of a class and imparting information to them. I think a good informative lecture is a wonderful thing, and I can enjoy it from the audience, but I don’t want to be the guy at the podium. So, while my students liked the class well enough, or were diplomatic enough to say they did, it’s not something I’d care to repeat.

The fiction workshop, on the other hand, was a triumph—perhaps because I did almost nothing. We met twice a week, and began each session with 15+ minutes of free writing—by hand, with pen and notebook. (I supply a one-sentence prompt to get them started. A favorite was Since nobody’s going to read this crap anyway, I’m just going to run on about everything I can’t stand about my life.) I set a kitchen timer, and when it rings we share some about how it went, but nobody reads aloud, and I never see what they’ve written.

Then I may have them do an interactive process from Write For Your Life, or talk about their ongoing projects. And then they’ll boot up their laptops, and for a half hour or so they’ll peck away at the keys, working on whatever that project may be.

And then you read and critique their work?

Rarely. Only if they ask. See, what difference could it possibly make if I like or don’t like their work? And what could be more liberating than knowing they can write whatever they want without having to risk anybody’s disapproval?

At first it felt odd, just sitting there and watching them work. Wasn’t it an abdication of professorial responsibility? And maybe it was, but here’s the thing—they really pounded away at those keys, really got words down. The dirty little secret about most writing courses is that most students don’t get much written. My students were writing like crazy.

One young man began and completed a full-length play, and one woman came to class with the start of a novel and is now nearing the end of her first draft. Another fellow, with a work ethic that would impress Stephen King, has been toiling away at what he sees as the first volume in an eight-part series.

But what’s important is that everybody’s been writing. I bring some expertise to the table, I’ve been writing professionally for over sixty years, but all I can really do is provide the space for them to begin the lifelong process of discovering themselves as writers. And they’re doing just that, and I don’t have to look over their shoulders to know they’re doing exactly what they should be doing.

It all sounds kinda Zen.

You want to know something? I still wonder whether or not I’m doing anything useful. But my students are happy. In fact a couple of them got Humanities Department approval and classroom space for a once-a-week workshop this coming spring. No leader—since I won’t be here, they’ll stage it themselves.

In other words, who needs Professor Block?

Exactly. Which may make it awkward when I come back next fall.

You’re coming back?

Like a coal to Newcastle. Like a bad penny to Capistrano. Lynne and I surprised ourselves by falling in love with the college and the town, so much so that we’ve leased an apartment on Main Street just blocks from the Newberry Opera House. We’ll show up in mid-February to furnish it and get an early start on spring, and I’ll be able to use it as a one-man writer’s colony if I ever feel like writing something.

Which, knowing you, seems likely.

It does, doesn’t it? And come fall I’ll offer the fiction workshop again, along with an experiment, a writing course for non-writers. Self-Realization Through Writing is what I’m calling it, and like the fiction workshop, it’s one where what the students get out of it is in direct proportion to what they put into it.

“Professor Block, he’s one weird dude.”

And a busy one, as I said, so let’s ease on out of the Groves of Academe. Which brings us to:

2. Hunting Buffalo With Bent Nails. A few years back I gathered up the bulk of my nonfiction writing dealing with crime fiction, slapped it between real and virtual covers, and called it The Crime of Our Lives. I did this mainly to give the work a slightly longer shelf life than newspapers and magazines could provide, and to my great satisfaction it’s received a good critical reception even as it’s become a steady seller. (In fact, Richard Neer has completed his very engaging narration of TCOOL, and as soon as it clears ACX’s quality check I’ll let y’all know how to order it.)

While I was putting it together, I was planning a companion volume—a very mixed bag of my essays and articles that didn’t concern fictional crime. If I hadn’t had a back burner, I don’t know where I might have put this for the past several years, but that’s where it was when I finally Got To It. I’ll be bringing it out sometime in early 2020 as an ebook and POD paperback, and the title article is my American Heritage piece on the Homeric quest Lynne and I embarked on 30 years ago to visit every town, hamlet, and wide place in the road named Buffalo. We were indeed Hunting Buffalo and we still haven’t quite bagged our limit.

Okay, I get that part. But where do the bent nails come in? How did the buffalo bend their nails? Or why did bent nails become your weapon of choice?

Hey, don’t get me started. I had enough trouble explaining all that in the foreword. That’s my title, and the contents range far and wide, almost as if they were bison back in the day. Travel pieces, odes to New York, a numismatic article entitled “Raymond Chandler and the Brasher Doubloon…”

You’re making that up.

No, it’s in there, along with 27 other examples of imperishable ephemera. I don’t need to say more about it, not now, because what’s the point? It’ll be a while before you can order it, and I’ll make sure y’all know about it when the time comes. First, though, there’s something else:

3.  Generally Speaking was the title of a column I wrote for three years for Linn’s Stamp News. When I had 25 columns written I made them into an ebook, added A Philatelic Patchwork as a subtitle, and made it eVailable. Eight columns later I found my enthusiasm for a columnist’s life had somehow vanished, so that was the end of that. I still collected with a passion, albeit with less discretionary income than my philatelic hitman Keller brings to the pursuit, but eventually that too faded with the years. When it did, I realized it was time to let my stamps light up the lives of other collectors, and I arranged for the sale of my holdings.

I should publish an expanded edition of Generally Speaking, I told myself. Add those eight columns, and write a decent introduction, and this time offer it as both ebook and paperback. Wouldn’t that be a nice thing to do?

It would also be an extremely easy thing to put off doing, and that’s the course I took—until putting HBWBN together freed up space on that back burner. The new edition will have all 33 columns, and it will also have some pertinent philatelic extracts from the five Keller novels, because the lad’s still at it, and he’s always been a more dedicated philatelist than I ever was.

Sounds as though the book has a lot going for it.

Everything but a title. I’m sure I’ll come up with something, and as soon as I do I’ll let you know—along with information ordering it. As I said, there’ll be a paperback and an ebook, and a hardcover is not out of the question.

It’s also going to need a cover, and the one on the current ebook is too lame to show here. My Goddess of Production and Design will help me come up with something irresistible. Meanwhile, I thought we’d usher in December with these rabbit stamps.

But before I forget…

4. There’s more coming. I mentioned Richard Neer’s audiobook of TCOOL; his narration of Spider, Spin Me a Web has been very well received, and if you read with your ears you’ll want them both. Same goes for Michael Bonner’s superb narration; his rendition of Step By Step, my pedestrian memoir, has sparked good sales and great reviews, and he’s finished work on The Liar’s Bible, which should clear quality check at ACX any day.

German readers will be happy to know that Sepp Leeb’s translation of the third Keller book, Kellers Hitparade joins Kellers Metier and Kellers Konkurrent in ebook and paperback. And Stefan Mommertz, who led things  off with Scudder #1, Die Sünden der Väter, has delivered his translation of the long-awaited Scudder #17, A Drop of the Hard Stuff; Ein Schluck vom harten Stoff is the German title, and it should be on sale in a matter of days.

5. I’ve mentioned The Burglar in Short Order, and if you wanted the Subterranean Press signed limited edition I hope you got your pre-order in on time. The limited’s sold out. There are still copies to be had of the equally handsome trade hardcover, but I don’t know how long they’ll last. (We’ll be doing the ebook and paperback ourselves.)

I’ve got other projects with Subterranean, but nothing ready for pre-order yet.

6. And I should close by letting you know that my friend Terry Zobeck has completed work on a bibliography of my work. Jim Seels’s A.S.A.P. Publishing brought out a bibliography in 1993, but Terry’s is a much more ambitious venture; he built on the preliminary work of Ed Kaufman, the late attorney-turned-mystery bookseller, and has somehow compiled a definitive work that lists 199 books, 88 stories and articles that made their initial appearance in books, and an astonishing 409 pieces that first appeared in newspapers and magazines. I suggested the title The Man Who Wrote Too Much, and perhaps I’ll use that for the foreword or afterword Terry has asked me to contribute. (And it’ll raise that second number from 88 to 89, won’t it?)

Terry will probably self-publish the bibliography. When that happens, I’ll let y’all know.

There’s more, but we’ll all have to wait for another newsletter, and I’m not sure when I’ll get around to it. I’m not the first person to make this observation, but I doubt there’s anyone to whom it applies more: The harder I work, the behinder I get.

News from Newberry…

Is this going to be like one of those Garrison Keillor reports from Lake Woebegon? Kind of folksy and droll?

Probably not. It’s true that if I had a couple of elves named Folksy and Droll I could probably find work for them. But for now I just want to share a few items of possible interest, and I’m here in Newberry until mid-December, so…

Never mind. I get it.

Glad to hear it. And the first two items are of local South Carolina interest—if they’re of any interest at all. I have two events scheduled, both free and open to the public.

First is Noir at the Bar: Newberry, on Thursday, October 10, at 8pm. I’ll be reading, as will my Newberry colleagues Warren Moore, John Carenen, and David Rachels, along with area authors Shawn A. Cosby, Eryk Pruitt, Kasey Schroer, and Karina Tarbell. (And, flying in from New York, the irrepressible Jill D. Block.) Venue is Bar Figaro at 944 Main Street, right in the heart of Newberry’s genuinely charming and historic downtown.

Four weeks later, at 7 pm on Thursday, November 7, Warren and I will do an on-stage interview a scant stone’s throw away. An Evening with Lawrence Block is what they’re calling it, and while it’s listed on the Newberry Opera House calendar, you can’t buy a ticket. Happily, you won’t need one. Admission’s free.

I’m trying to figure out which event is worth a trip to South Carolina.

Neither of them would be my guess, but if you’re in the area, come say hello. If you’re not, well, I’ve got some news that won’t require any travel on your part. You don’t even need to lace up your shoes.

Wow. Is that what it looks like?

I dunno. What does it look like?

It looks beautiful.

That’s Jeff Wong’s doing, and I agree—it’s a really fine cover.

But can we tell the book by it? Is it a new Bernie book? A new novel about everybody’s favorite gentleman burglar?

Not exactly.

Not exactly? Not exactly??? What does that even mean?

Well, it’s not a new novel. But parts of it are novel, and parts of it are new. And it’s all about Mrs. Rhodenbarr’s son Bernard.

Who sells books and steals stuff.

Right.

But?

The title holds a clue. The book’s a complete collection of Bernie’s short appearances; its fifteen chapters include four short stories, three extracts from novels, five op-ed columns, and an essay—well, some would call it a rant—about Bernie’s experiences in Hollywood.

That’s only thirteen.

There are two more pieces that haven’t been published anywhere before. One’s the foreword, “A Burglar’s Origins,” in which I recount in detail how Bernie came to be, and how I came to be writing about him. The other’s an afterword, “A Burglar’s Future,” in which I drop in at Barnegat Books and the two of us discuss his future prospects.

On February 29, Subterranean Press will publish a $45 Collector’s Edition, bound in leather and limited to 250 signed and numbered copies, and a $30 clothbound Hardcover Trade Edition. You’ll want to pre-order his one, as Subterranean’s limited editions typically sell out in advance of publication. Their trade editions, too, are generally one-and-done, so a pre-order is recommended.

I assume you’ll be self-publishing the ebook and the paperback. Will they also be out on Leap Day?

That’s the plan. They ought to be available for pre-order fairly soon, and when they are I’ll let y’all know. But there’s something else you may want to pre-order, and the time to do that is right now.

Oh? What’s that?

From Sea to Stormy Sea: 17 Stories Inspired by Great American Paintings, coming in two months from Pegasus. This was originally set for September release, then pushed back clear to February for lack of available press time. And then a printer found room in his schedule, and November 19 is the release date.

I assume this is in the tradition of In Sunlight or in Shadow and Alive in Shape and Color. Are the paintings as beautiful this time? And are the stories as good?

Yes and yes. The painters include Harvey Dunn, Reginald Marsh, Thomas Hart Benton, Helen Frankenthaler, Winslow Homer, Rockwell Kent, Grant Wood, and Andy Warhol, with stories by Sara Paretsky, Jan Burke, Warren Moore, Patricia Abbott, Christa Faust, Jerome Charyn, Barry Malzberg, Scott Frank, Brendan DuBois, Tom Franklin, Gary Phillips, Charles Ardai, Micah Nathan, Janice Eidus, John Sandford, and Jane Hamilton.

That’s only sixteen stories. You said seventeen.

Oh, right. I forgot to mention myself. I wrote a new story for the book, to go with a painting by Raphael Soyer. And, of course, I supplied the usual self-serving introduction.

I’m really proud of this anthology, and am very happy the pub date has been moved up in time for Christmas, as I’d be hard put to come up with a better book for the Holiday season. Pre-ordering will guarantee you have books in hand in timely fashion.

Oh, and here’s a little something to pique your interest. One of the paintings is by the father of one of the writers. Yes, really.

Well, that’s enough for me. I’m sold. Or should I say pre-sold? A pity, though, that I have to wait until November. I’m the kind of guy who thinks instant gratification takes way too long.

[image error]I know what you mean. One thing that’s taken far too long is the audiobook for Spider, Spin Me a Web. A sequel to Telling Lies for Fun & Profit, it’s been a popular book for fictioneers ever since its initial publication, and Richard Neer‘s brilliant audio version has only just become available this past week.

Both Telling Lies and Writing the Novel from Plot to Print to Pixel have proved popular in audio, and Spider is already off to a good start. I think you’ll like Richard’s narrative style, and if so you’ll be glad to know he’s already at work on another non-fiction book of mine that never made it into audio, The Crime of Our Lives.

Meanwhile, another of my books for writers is soon to be ready for your ears. Michael Bonner, who’s been getting raves (really!) for his narration of Step by Step, will once again be speaking in my voice with The Liar’s Bible. I’m not sure when it’ll be on sale, but as soon as it is, rest assured I’ll let y’all know.

All non-fiction? You think that’s more successful than fiction in audio?

I know instructional books have a certain edge in the medium. You don’t have to struggle to keep the characters and plot points straight while you’re waiting to make a left turn or passing a sixteen-wheeler. And you can also profit from repeated listening; it’s a good way to internalize what you’re listening to.

But fiction is no less popular in audio, a medium that some people tell me takes all the work out of reading. I have a batch of novels I’ll be publishing in audio when I can, and Theo Holland, who’s been making new friends left and right for Evan Tanner, will be wrapping up that series and following up with a few more novels, including Ronald Rabbit is a Dirty Old Man.

I guess your teaching gig will keep you in South Carolina for the whole semester—and away from Bouchercon.

You would think that, wouldn’t you? Fortunately I’ve mastered the subtle art of bilocation. I’ll be in Dallas for the annual conclave, and even have a panel assignment on Saturday, November 2, 1-2pm. Bad to the Bone is its name, the indispensable Janet Rudolph is the moderator, and my fellow panelists include Colin Campbell, Connie Dial, Thomas Perry, and Alex Segura.

And then, before anyone even notices my absence, I’ll be back in Newberry and prepping for the November 7 event at the Opera House.

Aren’t you the busy little boy? I suppose you’ll wrap this up by plugging some of the books most of us have thus far managed to avoid.

What a nice way to put it. As a matter of fact, I’ve been thinking lately of my first three books as Jill Emerson. Ms. Emerson, it should be noted, has had a diverse career…

Checkered, some might call it.

I suppose some might. Jill’s books range widely, with her body of work including 1970s cutting-edge erotica (Thirty, Threesome, A Madwoman’s Diary), road-company John O’Hara (The Trouble With Eden) and Marjorie Morningstar (A Week as Andrea Benstock), and what might be the ultimate Hard Case Crime thriller (Getting Off).

But the first three books, while occasionally shelved with erotica, are far more properly categorized as Lesbian Romance. Shadows was my very first novel, written in 1958. Warm & Willing and Enough of Sorrow followed six years later.

Now you may be asking yourself why on earth you would want to read Lesbian Romance Fiction, even as you may well wonder whatever prompted me to sit down to write it. Never mind. I have a special fondness for all the Jill Emerson novels, not least of all these first three volumes,and can but hope they find their ideal audience.

Cheers,

3 ebooks for writers at a deep discount!

As part of a Labor Day promotion, three of my books for writers are eVailable for the next couple of days for the not-too-hefty sum of 99¢ apiece. Here are the Kindle links:

The Liar’s Bible: https://amzn.to/2L2RWgQ

The Liar’s Companion: https://amzn.to/2ZtAY2Z

The Crime of Our Lives: https://amzn.to/2MGwzUr

And here are links for most other platforms—Kobo, Nook, Apple, etc:

The Liar’s Bible: books2read.com/u/mvYgO2

The Liar’s Companion: books2read.com/u/bQZ8yE

The Crime of Our Lives: books2read.com/u/3L0j20

I was going to tart up this post with cover art and blurbs, but let’s keep it simple. Click the links and go to the product pages to see the covers and read detailed book descriptions. But don’t dawdle—the prices are good for this weekend only. Then they all pumpkin right back up to $6.99.

Cheers,

[image error]

Go Wolves! My Newberry Reading List

This won’t take us long.

As many of you know, I’ve accepted a position as writer-in residence at Newberry College in (duh) Newberry, South Carolina. And I’m glad I did—the campus is lovely, my colleagues are engaging company, and my students are bright-eyed and wolf-tailed.

I have two courses to conduct—a general fiction writing workshop, and a literature course, “The Pleasures of Crime Fiction.” For the latter, I’ve selected a string of books which we’ll be reading. I’m not certain we’ll cover them all, it may weigh them down them with more reading than they can conveniently manage, and this course is about reading for pleasure, so I certainly don’t want it to prove burdensome.

We’ll see.

But earlier I promised you all a look at the reading list, and here it is. The titles IN CAPITAL LETTERS are the assigned books; after each in italics is a second book by the same author, suggested for those who like what they’ve read and want to keep at it.

The links, for convenience, are to Amazon listings, but none of these books should be difficult to find in either ebook or printed form.

Agatha Christie: THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD, The Body in the Library

Dashiell Hammett: THE MALTESE FALCON, The Glass Key

Ellery Queen: THE ROMAN HAT MYSTERY, Queens Full

Raymond Chandler: THE LONG GOODBYE, The High Window

Erle Stanley Gardner: THE CASE OF THE SULKY GIRL, Crows Can’t Count

Fredric Brown: THE FABULOUS CLIPJOINT, The Wench is Dead

Craig Rice: THE RIGHT MURDER, Home Sweet Homicide

Evan Hunter: LAST SUMMER, Let’s Hear It for the Deaf Man

Walter Mosley: DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS, John Woman

Ross Thomas: THE FOOLS IN TOWN ARE ON OUR SIDE, The Eighth Dwarf

Donald E. Westlake: DROWNED HOPES, The Rare Coin Score

Sue Grafton: A IS FOR ALIBI, K Is For Killer

James Sallis: DRIVE, The Long-Legged Fly

Ian Rankin: KNOTS AND CROSSES, The Black Book

I’ve also suggested, for general observations on the genre and specific material on some of the listed writers, my own THE CRIME OF OUR LIVES.

I might have picked different titles by any of these writers, and in fact I could easily have substituted 14 other writers altogether. So please don’t email me with suggestions, or take me to task for leaving out one of your favorites, or for including an author the mere thought of whom causes your gorge to rise. I don’t want to seem uncaring, but, well, I flat don’t care.

Isn’t that a hell of a thing for me to come right out and say? But there, I went and said it. And I don’t even have tenure.

And now for a quick change of subject…

In the last newsletter I offered FREE reviewer downloads of 20+ of my ACX-published audiobooks. FREE is a magic word, esp. when it’s in all caps, and your response was heartening.

So why don’t I repeat the offer? Downloads of the five starred titles (*) are in short supply in the US, at least for the time being, but we can furnish them to readers in the UK. (And if you ARE in the UK, please say so—no matter which titles you want. There are different sites for US and UK downloads, and we want to be able to steer you to the right place.)

21 GAY STREET
BORDERLINE
DEFENDER OF THE INNOCENT
ENOUGH OF SORROW
FOUR LIVES AT THE CROSSROADS
*KELLER’S FEDORA
ME TANNER, YOU JANE
OF SHAME AND JOY
*RESUME SPEED & OTHER STORIES
SHADOWS
SINNER MAN

*STEP BY STEP
TANNER’S TWELVE SWINGERS
TANNER’S VIRGIN
THE ADULTERERS
*THE CANCELED CZECH
THE SCORELESS THAI
*THE THIEF WHO COULDN’T SLEEP
THIRTY
WARM AND WILLING
WIDE OPEN

*WRITING THE NOVEL FROM PLOT TO PRINT TO PIXEL

You’re very likely more familiar with some of these titles than others. The links above are to the Amazon product pages, where you can read descriptions and get an idea what you might or might not be, um, music to your ears. So to speak.

And that’s that. Didn’t I tell you? It didn’t take us long at all. And all I can really say is…Go Wolves!

Cheers,

The Joys of Retirement

“The Joys of Retirement,” eh? That’s really big type you used there.

So?

It’s almost as if you don’t believe it yourself.

You know, if there were a special font for Irony I’d be on it like a mongoose on a cobra. My putative retirement’s been drawing raised eyebrows for quite a while now, and it’s starting to look like a joke, and an old one at that.

It’s been a while since the last newsletter, but I seem to remember you talked about behaving like a real trollop and knocking off a little bit every day. Why are you making a face?

That was Anthony Trollope, you ninny. The British novelist, not some lady of easy virtue.

But I got the rest of it right, didn’t I? And I bet you finished that novella you were working on. Am I right?

Not quite. I finished it, but it’s not a novella. Like Topsy, it growed…and wound up tipping the scales at 52,000 words. That makes it a novel. Not a lengthy one, but longer than my early ventures in erotica.

Like Campus Tramp ?

Or Trailer Trollop, as far as that goes. It’s even longer by 5000 words than Matthew Scudder’s debut in The Sins of the Fathers. But shorter than, say, A Long Line of Dead Men.

So it’s a real book.

Right now it’s a a mere PDF, being read by my daughters and my agent. But yes, if all goes well, it’ll be a real book soon enough, with the several things it lacks at the moment: Ink, paper, cover art, a publisher’s imprint. And, come to think of it, a title.

How come it doesn’t have a title?

Because, come to think of it, I haven’t come to think of it.

Duh. The thing is, I thought you were done writing novels.

So did I.

I thought you felt you’d aged out of it, and a full-length book would take too much energy for a man your age, and besides you’d already said pretty much everything you had to say.

Ah yes. It seems to me I reported as much, to you and to others. That’s what I’d been led to believe.

So what happened?

The book happened. And my wife, whose eagle eye spots what SpellCheck overlooks, has read it and tells me she loves it, for all its uncompromising darkness. So we’ll see. All I know is I sat down sometime last year to write a short story or a novella, whatever it might turn out to be, and I abandoned it after 15,000 words, never expecting to come back to it. And then I picked it up again, and couldn’t seem to put it down…

Got it.

Do you suppose we could  talk about something else? Something I wrote and published a few years ago? It’s called Step By Step, and the subtitle is A Pedestrian Memoir. It had a respectable sale as a HarperCollins hardcover and trade paperback, and picked up a nice following in the community of runners and racewalkers. (Benji Durden, the Olympic marathoner, has championed the book ever since he came across it, and we’ve since become online friends; I’m hoping a face-to-face meeting is in the cards before too long.)

It’s never been done in audio, and I waited because I felt it was the sort of personal book that ought to be author-narrated. But narrating audiobooks is something I’ve truly aged out of; by the end of even a medium-long session at the microphone, my voice has fallen apart and my energy level’s just this side of comatose. (I did manage to narrate A Time to Scatter Stones, and am happy I did, but it was no walk in the park. And it’s only a quarter the length of Step By Step.)

So I had the good fortune to team up with accomplished narrator/producer Michael Bonner, and I’ve published the result via Audible’s ACX division, and now that it’s up and running (well, maybe that should be walking) I can but wonder why I waited this long. I think you’ll like what Michael has done; just click the Audible Sample arrow on the Amazon page and see what you think.

I gather you’re pleased with his performance.

He’s already at work on narrating another personal book, this one for writers: The Liar’s Bible, a Good Book for Fiction Writers. So yes, you might say I’m happy with his approach to my work.

I understand you sent links for free downloads to fans who might want to review Step By Step. But they’re all gone now.

True. ACX gave me a generous batch of links, and audio fans snapped up every last one of them. If you got one, and if you liked what you heard, I’ll look forward to your review. And if you missed out, well, all is not lost.

It isn’t?

Not really. I’ve been self-publishing audiobooks via ACX for a few years now, working with a variety of excellent narrator/producers, and I can furnish FREE download reviewers’ links for all of the following titles:

21 GAY STREET
BORDERLINE
DEFENDER OF THE INNOCENT
ENOUGH OF SORROW
FOUR LIVES AT THE CROSSROADS
KELLER’S FEDORA
ME TANNER, YOU JANE
OF SHAME AND JOY
RESUME SPEED & OTHER STORIES
SHADOWS
SINNER MAN
TANNER’S TWELVE SWINGERS
TANNER’S VIRGIN
THE ADULTERERS
THE CANCELED CZECH
THE SCORELESS THAI
THE THIEF WHO COULDN’T SLEEP
THIRTY
WARM AND WILLING
WIDE OPEN
WRITING THE NOVEL FROM PLOT TO PRINT TO PIXEL

These links are to Amazon, so that you can check out each book description on its Amazon page and determine what may or may not appeal to you. If you’d like any of these free audio downloads, email your request to me at lawbloc@gmail.com. Choose up to three titles and I’ll reply with your personal free codes, along with a direct link to the page where you can access the downloads.

If you’re in the UK, please mention that little fact in your email; there are different codes and a different access link, for UK listeners. In fact, I still have a few UK downloads available for Step By Step…

And now you’re about to tell us that these won’t last long, so hurry. Right?

I don’t really know how long they’ll last. But FREE is as seductive a four-letter word as any I know, so they may go quickly. That’s what happened with the Step By Step codes, and they didn’t have the clout of this mighty newsletter spurring them on.

I should probably emphasize that grabbing a freebie doesn’t obligate anybody to review the book on Amazon or Audible or Goodreads or any other media, social or otherwise. But, ahem, if you should happen to like what you hear…

It’s the right thing to do.

Some would say so. Meanwhile, see those falling leaves coming up on the right? They’re a sure sign that the end of this epistle is in sight, and not a moment too soon. But I still have a batch of things to mention, so  I’m just going to rattle them off one after the other. I’ll number them, if only to endow the enterprise with the illusion of organization.

1. Hit Parade has just gone on sale in Italian. Luigi Garlaschelli has been working his way through some of my more popular series, and he’s followed up Il Sicario(Hit Man) and Il Sicario nel Mirino (Hit List) with Il Sicario Ritorna(Hit Parade). His translations have received superb notices, and if you read Italian, well, ti sarà tutto chiaro. The new title’s broadly available in both ebook and paperback form.

2. You can call me professor now.As I believe I’ve mentioned, I’ll be spending the fall semester as Writer-in-Residence at Newberry College in South Carolina, where I’ll be leading a writing workshop and presenting a literature course on crime fiction. A colleague tweeted this photo of my office door, and another pointed out I’m lucky they didn’t put quotation marks around the word Professor.

Gosh, my mother would be so proud…

And no, you can’t enroll in either class, or attend as an auditor. Both are for Newberry undergraduates only. I’ve been asked if I could post the reading list for the crime fiction course, and I’ll do that, probably in the next newsletter. You can read along—and you might want to get in the mood by wearing a Newberry sweatshirt, and shouting Go Wolves! on Saturday afternoons…

3. From book to screen in only 60 years! Well, that may be a trifle optimistic. But the good news is that Grifter’s Game, the first book I ever published under my own name, has been optioned for filming. I’ve signed and returned the contracts, and with a wee bit of luck it’ll wind up on TV or in a theater a year or two from now.

You may recall the book as Mona, which is the title Fawcett Gold Medal slapped on it when they brought it out in 1961. (Ralph Daigh, a guiding genius at Fawcett, had bought a cover painting of some woman’s face on spec. He changed the title so he could cut his losses by using the painting as cover art. But don’t get me started.) Hard Case Crime restored the original title for their edition, and now, if all goes as I hope it will, we may get to see it on a screen.

Fingers crossed! And in the meantime, the book’s abundantly available as ebook and paperback. And all of y’all who read with your ears will want to treat yourself to Alan Sklar’s narration for Blackstone Audio.

And that’s enough for now. I’ve got a manuscript to edit and a trip to pack for. Go Wolves!

Cheers,

Trailing Trollop(e)…

Earlier this week, I told you all about the indefatigable Anthony Trollope, and how he filled whole library shelves by writing 250 words a day, day in and day out.

I remember.

As did I, but what I remembered turned out to be wrong.

Which is to say that I stand corrected.

By the estimable Fred Glienna, who provides the following quotation:

“It has at this time become my custom—and is still my custom, though of late I have become a little lenient of myself—to write with my watch before me, and to require of myself 250 words every quarter of an hour…This division of time allowed me to produce over ten pages of an ordinary novel volume a day, and if I kept up through ten months, would have given as its results three novels of three volumes each in the year.”

That’s a little different from what you wrote.

No kidding. “Trollope is alleged to have worked in quarter-hour increments,” Fred explains, “but he certainly cranked out more than 250 words a day.” Indeed he did, and just imagine how much the bloody man could have accomplished if he hadn’t stopped every fifteen minutes to count words.

Never mind. For as long as I can remember, I’ve known about Trollope and his 250 words, and what I knew now turns out to be false. Ah well. Can’t win ’em all, can we?

Evidently not.

On the other hand, one does come out ahead now and then, and the June 23 New York Times Book Review contains the following from its “By the Book” Q&A with Scotland’s Denise Mina:

“Who’s your favorite fictional detective? And the best villain? Best detective: Matt Scudder. Best villain: Rodion Raskolnikov.”

I am, as they say, not half chuffed; Scudder, who never expected to find himself mentioned in the same breath with Raskolnikov, is over the moon. (Well, perhaps I exaggerate. Scudder is not the sort to get over the moon about much of anything, is he?) If you’re new to Denise’s work,Conviction is brand-new, and an excellent place to start. And click here to read the whole piece in the Times.

And now, while I’ve got your attention—

Oh? You actually think they’re still paying attention?

I live in hope. I wrote a foreword to my cross-genre anthology, At Home in the Dark, and I’ve seen it quoted in reviews and cited here and there, and thought some of you who haven’t picked up AHITD might welcome a look at its introduction. It’s way too long to tuck into a newsletter, so I’ve posted it on my website, where you can see for yourselves.

And if it should induce some of those who read it to dig deep and buy the anthology…

So much the better. But it’s certainly not a requirement.

And that’s it, and not a moment too soon. I wouldn’t be sending  this out to you but for the need to pass along Fred’s correction of my Trollopean error. I don’t know whether I’m turning lemons into lemonade by so doing, but I have to say I feel better already.

Cheers,