Ed Gorman's Blog, page 213

Pro-File:Crippen & Landru

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"The specialty publisher with the most star-studded list is Crippen & Landru, which has produced short story collections by some of the biggest names in contemporary crime fiction."
- Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

How was Crippen & Landru formed?

Back in 1994, my brother and I sold at auction our Oz book collection in order to pay for our children's college education. I had $3000 or so left over, and knowing nothing about being unde-capitalized, decided to buy a computer and start Crippen & Landru. There was at that time no small-press specializing in the mystery field -- (some had been started but vanished -- there are, however, plenty now).

I collect short story volumes, and I knew of many important series that had never been "bookformed" so decided to emphasize that sub-genre. Our first book was by John Dickson Carr, followed by a big success with Marcia Muller's The McCone Files. We have since published books by such contemporary authors as Ed Gorman, Ed Hoch, Margaret Maron, Peter Lovesey, HRF Keating, Lawrence Block, Liza Cody, Michael Collins, Max Allan Collins, Joe Gores, Jerry Healy, Bill Pronzini, Edward Marston, Clark Howard, and others

Volumes by classic authors include Ross Macdonald, Mickey Spillane, Margery Allingham, Stuart Palmer, Michael Innes, Craig Rice, Ellery Queen, Hugh B. Cave, Ellis Peters, Georges Simenon, and others.

We have 2 series -- "Regular Series," which is available both in trade softcover and in signed, numbered clothbound; and "Lost Classics (also cloth and paper) -- great authors of the past who specialized in traditional mysteries.

We named the company after 2 early 20th century murderers H. H. Crippen and Henri Desiree Landru -- the name was supposed to sound like a publishing house while indicating that we published mysteries. In the event, we were too clever by half -- we still e-mails addressed to Mr. Landru or Ms. Crippen.

If you had to state the mission of your company in a sentence what would it be? Single-author short story collections by important mystery, spy, and crime writers.

Was the company successful from the start? Generally yes, and to the surprise of friends who said we would lose our shirt. We have never made any money to speak of, but that has never been the point.

Have their been difficulties along the way? Sometimes we haven't been able to obtain the necessary permission from rights-holders, and the shutting down of independent bookstores has been a bummer.

Tell us about some of your forthcoming books. Oh, let's see -- we are again working with the Black Mask people to do collections under a joint imprint (we earlier did one by Raoul Whitfield -- long out of print). We plan more books by the late Ed Hoch. He was the premier writer in the short form, and we have already published 6 volumes by him. We also expect to do more collections of stories by Erle Stanley Gardner -- we have published 3 so far, and would like to do about 4 more. Loren Estleman's Valentino: Film Detective is now in proofs, and we have collections forthcoming by Melodie Johnson Howe and Marilyn Todd,

How do you think the emergence of e books will effect you and other small print publishers? Speaking of bummer -- I love the physical nature of a book -- the feel, the design, even the smell -- and if e-books take over, we shall quietly bow out.

Will you share with us some of the highlights along the way for Crippen & Landru? Primarily meeting and working with so many great authors, but one of the highest of high points was publishing a book for London's famed Detection Club in honor of Harry Keating's 80th birthday (Verdict of Us All). As part of an elaborate scam, I was the speaker at the Club's annual ceremony, and used the time to present Harry with the book. He was gobsmacked. When a book contains an introduction by Dick Francis, and stories by (among others) Len Deighton, P.D. James, and Colin Dexter) -- well, it is something special.

Another big event was publishing a collection of original short stories by Bill Link, the co-creator of Columbo. Bill is of course famous for his TV work, but his short stories about Columbo are just as fine.

e

Stark House Newsletter

(Ed here: A little late with this one. Sorry, Greg.)

Hello Everyone,



We're just a week or so away from shipping Peter Rabe's wonderful pair of previously unpublished novels, The Silent Wall and The Return of Marvin Palaver. About The Silent Wall, Keir Graff of Booklist said that "It's a claustrophobic noir, at times almost unbearably tense, and would certainly have a following if it had already been published."



Cullen Gallagher's blog, Pulp Serenade, has been revisiting some already classic Rabe books, and regarding The Return of Marvin Palaver, he says: "Funny and inventive, The Return of Marvin Palaver shows us a new side to Rabe. His hardboiled novels were always a shade witty, but here he fleshes out the humor and runs with it. A really enjoyable, quick read."



And with the bonus of the rare Rabe short story, "Hard Case Redhead," this volume offers not only the trademark Rabe style but different shades of this wonderful talent. It won't disappoint. To paraphrase Frank Sinatra, "If you don't like these books, you don't like ice cream."



A question: What kind of books were written by some of the paperback era's most popular and prolific writers, that featured elements of crime, an (un)healthy dose of violence, and an even bigger dose of larger-than-life fantasy women? Here's a hint: sometimes you wrap a Hemingway cover around them when you ride the train or take them to the doctor's office.



Yes, they're books that have come to be known as "sleaze" novels. While that may or may not be a good label, there is some truly entertaining fiction hiding under that umbrella that deserves to be read. The genre seems to be undergoing a bit of a resurgence lately, with books by Lawrence Block, Donald E. Westlake and others coming back into print.



We offer you a pair of books by Don Elliott, the not-so-secret pseudonym of the one and only Robert Silverberg, author of such books as Dying Inside, Nightwings, Lord Valentine's Castle, and many, many more. Silverberg may be known primarily for his science fiction work, but he has written everything from history books to crime fiction to yes, sleaze.



The original books, Gang Girl and Sex Bum, have long been sought after by collectors and those avid few who have been working through the years to uncover and identify who wrote which of these "sleaze classics." They're being reprinted here together for the first time.



As entertaining as these books are, the introduction to the book by Silverberg himself is a brilliant evocation of the times and the circumstances that gave rise to this genre. The intro itself will make you want to read these books and perhaps look for more by other favorite writers of the time. If you felt perhaps a bit uncomfortable picking up a sleaze title, Silverberg puts the books into a context that is both fascinating as a historical snapshot and gives the reader a non-apologetic enthusiasm to dip a toe in these once "forbidden" waters:



"…And because we all worked under pen names, we were free to let our inhibitions
drop away and push our characters to their limits, without worrying
about what anyone else — friends, relatives, book reviewers — might
say or think about our work. We had ourselves a ball, and got paid nicely
while we were doing it.
And also we never forgot that we were doing the fundamental thing that
writers are supposed to do: providing pleasure and entertainment for
readers who genuinely loved our work."
-Robert Silverberg, from his introduction to the Stark House volume of Gang Girl/Sex Bum, "Those Good Old Soft-core Days"


Exciting stuff--undiscovered Rabe and re-discovered Silverberg (er, make that Don Elliott). We hope you give both a try.



And as always, you can receive these books and every new Stark House Press book fresh from the printer with our own Crime Club. See our website (www.starkhousepress.com) for details (including info on a limited time discount special for new subscribers), or shoot an e-mail to griffinskye3@sbcglobal.net. And to subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter, use the same address.



Cheers,

Greg Shepard, publisher

Stark House Press

Sick day(s)

I've been getting progressively sicker this week so haven't been doing much. When my temp hit 102 I went to the doc. She told me that I have the flu and a very bad case of sinusitis. And my lower blood pressure number is 54. I'm pretty weak and working to bring that back up. What she's worried about, because I don't have much of an immune system because of the cancer, is that it'll turn into pneumonia, which has happened twice before. So she gave me some kind of neutron bomb anti-biotic and said to call her on Tuesday.

Remember The Fugs song River of Shit...when everything goes wrong? Last night my electric blanket gave out. Years ago at Mayo I became a big electric blanket guy. So when I left the doc's office I drove to the nearest store that sold them. Turned out to be Sears. Got it home and it doesn't work.

I wanna say right here and now that when I become President I plan to model myself after the Steve Carrell character on "The Office." I'm going to terrify congress into going along with every law I want passed. And every law I want passed will be rooted in personal grudges and pique. Starting with Sears. :) I probably won't be back for a few days.

PS I'm well aware that there are children starving all over the world. And people living under the iron fist of dictators. But I bet they at least have electric blankets.

Fascinating Kristine Kathryn Rusch: Midlist in The New Publishing

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The Business Rusch: More About Midlist Writers

(Changing Times Part Thirteen)

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Two weeks ago, I promised you that I'd tell you why midlist writers will benefit the most from the changes in publishing that we've been discussing. Last week, I stepped out of the model to discuss the rapid change that happened over the holidays and this week, I am refraining from discussing the possible loss of a wonderful indie bookstore (LA's Mystery Bookstore). Rapid change continues, so those of you in publishing should read the trade journals every single day. (For example, check out the cool changes in university publishing here.)

But I don't want to leave you hanging. I ended that first post on midlist writers on what we in the trade call a cliffhanger. Then I used thriller writer techniques and moved to a completely different section to distract you. Now I've returned. (And yes, I know, thriller techniques really don't belong in nonfiction, but I ran out of space.)

If you haven't read the previous post on midlist writers, please do so now. In that post, I explain what the midlist is and why it will never disappear.

I also said that midlist writers will benefit the most from the changes in publishing.

Here's why.

Remember the publishing business model? The one I discussed in the second post in this series? Until electronic publishing, online bookstores, and rapid print-on-demand publishing made their impact all of two years ago, the only viable way for a writer to get her books to readers was this:

Writers provide content (product) to Publishers.

Publishers distribute that content to Distributors.

Distributors distribute books to Bookstores.

Bookstores distribute that content to Readers.

for the rest go here:
http://kriswrites.com/2011/01/12/the-...

Joe Gores, R.I.P.

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From Vince Emery Productions:

Joe Gores is one of the world's best-regarded mystery writers. He is a three-time winner of the Edgar Award (the highest honor for mystery writers), and has also won the Maltese Falcon Award (Japan's highest award in the mystery field), and he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America.

Gores worked as a logger, a carnival roustabout, a teacher at a boys' school in Kenya, and for twelve years, as a detective. Gores' popular novels and stories about detective agency Daniel Kearney Associates are based on his own experiences as a San Francisco private eye. I regard them as the best-written and most enjoyable detective series by any current writer.

Gores has written scripts for Kojak, Columbo, Magnum P.I., Mike Hammer, Remington Steele, and other television series. Francis Ford Coppola produced a movie based on Gores' novel Hammett. Mr. Gores is currently writing the novel Spade & Archer, which will be the authorized prequel to The Maltese Falcon.

Ed here: I worked with Joe Gores on a number of occasions. What a gentleman and what a good guy. I hold his work in great esteem. He was something few writers ever are--an original. The Daniel Kearney stories and novels are linear descendants of Hammett and many of them are, to me, just as good. So long, Joe.

ROUGH AVAILABLE AGAIN

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Ed here: Last night Cullen Gallagher at Pulp Serenade was kind enough to review my first novel, Rough Cut, which I wrote with the encouragement of my wife an Al Collins. Al even tried to get me an agent. I got something like seven turn-downs and the reason was all the same. One agent said, "The most psychotic character in the book is the protagonist." Finally a young editor at St. Martin's named Brian DeFiore (now an agent) bought it after finding it in the slush pile. The Ramble House edition also includes New, Improved Murder which is the first Jack Dwyer novel, a lighthearted mystery by my standards. Buy now. We only have six thousand copies in the warehouse (I'm not sure but I also believe that there's an alien being hidden there too.)


"Rough Cut" by Ed Gorman by Cullen Gallagher Pulp Serenade


"There aren't any heroes in this," he said.

"I know."

Looking back on Ed Gorman's first novel, Rough Cut, originally published in 1985, it's remarkable not only for how assured the writing is, but also because so many of the themes and motifs that would come to haunt his work are already evident. No heroes, just broken men who've broken the only home they knew, and who try and find compensation in their work. You can see shades of it in the tragic titular character in The Sharpshooter, in the troubled brothers on the police force in The Midnight Room, and especially in political consultant Dev Conrad in Sleeping Dogs and Stranglehold. The seed of all these characters is to be found here, in Rough Cut.

Advertising executive Michael Ketchum is the first of many jaded, world-weary, emotionally damaged protagonists that would come to populate Gorman's fiction. He knows that his colleagues are opportunists, cheaters, and sometimes just plain assholes – but murder is something he didn't expect. Office tensions are pushed to the max as bodies pile up and deceptions come to the surface, and Ketchum wonders if there will be anything left of his business to run – assuming he's not next on the killer's list.

A highly entertaining thriller, there's something of the novel's driving plot and unsentimental tone that reminds me of the best qualities of the first generation of paperback writers. Yet the book is anything but a throwback, and Gorman brings a lot of original ideas to the page. The poisonous advertising setting (inspired, no doubt, by Gorman's own experiences in the field) is distinctive and ripe with bitterness, drama, and potential violence.

Among the most defining – and gratifying – characteristics is Gorman's protagonist, Michael Ketchum, an average joe who unwittingly becomes an amateur detective, as many of Day Keene's or Harry Whittington's characters had to do decades earlier. But unlike his predecessors, Ketchum isn't driven by his hard-on radar, or a need for self-preservation, but instead by a mature sense of responsibility. He doesn't seem scared so much by death as by the all-too-real threat of losing his main advertising client, and having his business go under. There's so much dead inside him already that if the business went, he's not sure there'd be anything left of himself. I think he's also aware that no matter how big a jerk his colleagues can be, they all need that paycheck at the end of the day – and as one of two heads of the company, Ketchum doesn't want to let them down. At least that is how I read the office as a surrogate family.

Gorman's prose is never lacking in empathy – it's what gives his thrillers the overtones of tragedy, and it's what gives the story an extra punch. Infidelity and duplicity are what gives so many of Ketchum's colleagues hope to get through the day. I'm not sure whether Ketchum is better off seeing through the charade, or if his lack of illusions makes him all the more hopeless.

Strong plot, strong characters, strong writing – Rough Cut is one helluva debut novel, and the start to a wonderful career that only grows richer with each new book.

Rough Cut is available from Ramble House books, paired with New, Improved Murder.

And here is an interview I did with Ed when The Midnight Room came out.

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

"When you get that sense of isolation, that sense that you can confide in no one, then you're easing open the door of madness and peering inside."

"You reach a certain age, or state of mind, and what you find yourself doing is clinging–clinging to things that you once would have scoffed at as mediocre, things that are now embarrassingly important."

"My life pushed in on me like walls meant to crush."

Wow to the highest power-e book sales

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E-Book Sales


Robin Sullivan on Teleread (part of a longer article by Jason davis)


The "JA Konrath is selling a lot of ebooks because of his traditional publishing background" presumption has practically become an internet meme, being parroted by both my detractors and indie authors. This misconception makes it easy to dismiss me as an anomaly, which means people don't have to actually examine the issue and seek more data.

So I'm happy to provide that data.

These are DECEMBER sales figures for some indie authors. In other words, they account for only 31 days of sales.

Are you ready to be blown away?

Blake Crouch – 2500+
Nathan Lowell – 2500+
Beth Orsoff – 2500+
Sandra Edwards – 2500+
Vianka Van Bokkem - 2500+
Maria Hooley – 2500+
C.S. Marks – 2500+
Lee Goldberg – 2500+
Lexi Revellian – 4000+
Zoe Winters – 4000+
Aaron Patterson – 4000+
Bella Andre – 5000+
Imogen Rose – 5000+
Ellen Fisher – 5000+
Tina Folsom – 5000+
Terri Reid – 5000+
David Dalglish – 5000+
Scott Nicholson – 10,000+
J.A. Konrath 10,000+
Victorine Lieske – 10,000+
L.J. Sellers – 10,000+
Michael R. Sullivan – 10,000+
H.P. Mallory – 20,000+
Stephen Leather – 30,000+
Amanda Hocking – 100,000+

No need to hurt your neck in a doubletake – these are alarmingly high figures. But it's the growing length of the list that I think will worry traditional publishing the most. Twenty-five self-pubs who are making more than $5k a month from their work.

Amanda Hocking – if she sold ever books at $2.99, taking home 70% of that, she's pocketing more than $209,000 for the month. NOw I don't know what YOU earn, but, well … you get the point.

I wonder what the real length of the list is. These are just the ones that Konrath and co. know about.

http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/the...

Spree by Max Allan Collins

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I'm just about finished with my third or fourth reading of Max Collin's SPREE. This is not only one of my favorite of Al's books, it's one of my favorite books period. This is how you do it.

The Nolan series features a man formerly a man associated with the mob, though reluctantly, now trying to go straight with a restaurant in the Quad Cities on the Mississippi River. Things are going along nicely until Cole Comfort and his dim son catch up with him. They hold him resposible for some of their serious bad luck.

To fully appreciate Cole you have reach back to William Falkner and Erskine Caldwell. Outwardly he's something of a stereotype hayseed, right down to his flannel shirts and bib overalls. But he's hard to peg, as one of his early victims learns. She wonders about a man who says "ain't" then a few sentences later uses the word "conduit." Go figure.

Cole Comfort is one of the great bad guys of hardboiled fiction. A man who has used his family to help him run every kind of scam, con and robbery you see on those WANTED posters in the post office. And not a sentimentalist. Oh, no. If he has to lose a loved one in the process of getting what he wants so be it.

Son Lyle is a twenty-three year old pretty boy who is in effect his father's robot. He doesn't want to kill anybody but just as the book opens he's about to off his sixth victim. He has flashes of remorse but they don't last longer than any of his other thoughts, around thirty seconds.

In broadstroke the story is a confrontation between Nolan and the Comforts. They are nasty sumbitches and make some of the mob men who tried to kill Nolan years earlier seem like nice guys.

What makes the book memorable is its successful balance of hard boiled suspense and wit. No easy task. Nolan is just detached enough to function as a mercenary when he goes after the Comforts for kidnapping his woman (Collins partially modeled him after Lee Van Cleef) but believable enough to really care about her. Collins' description of their relationship is winning and unique.

But the Comforts take the book. Loathsome as they are--Cole is a combination of Bubba and Richard Speck--you can't look away no matter how grotesque they become. Most of the Comfort scenes have me smiling all the way through. Several have me laughing out loud.

Spree is pure twisty pleasure and a major book in Collins' career.

Robert Duvall: Don't Mourn the Good Old Days of Hollywood

Robert Duvall: Don't Mourn the Good Old Days of Hollywood
Published: January 07, 2011 @ 12:40 pm

FROM THE WRAP
By Brent Lang

They may not make them like they used to, but Robert Duvall is still optimistic about the future of movies.

"There's still room for all kinds of films. Going into the 21st century, this is such an in-medium that you're getting all kinds of people to do it -- African Americans, Spanish -- it's open to all," Duvall told a capacity crowd at a showing Thursday night of his acclaimed new drama "Get Low," part of TheWrap's ongoing Academy Screening Series.

Unlike other actors of his generation who mourn the passage of the decade when "Easy Riders" and "Raging Bulls" took over the studios, Duvall said he believes that film's future is bright.

"What's been pushed to the outside can still be seen by the public, and the public can benefit," Duvall said.

In fact, the Oscar winner mentioned one movie that is even better today than four decades ago, when he first rose up the acting ranks with memorable roles in screen classics such as "The Godfather," "Apocalypse Now," and "The Great Santini": the Coen Brothers' remake of "True Grit." The actor played Ned Pepper in the 1969 original, squaring off against John Wayne.

"The old guys were more authoritarian," Duvall said. "It's been a while since I've seen the first one, but I think maybe this 'True Grit' is a little better."

for the rest go here:
http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-...

FORGOTTEN BOOKS: SHARP PRACTICE, HARRISON HIGH by John Farris

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Let's see. Sharp Practice by John Farris is a slasher novel. And it's also a police procedural of a very British kind (though written by an American). A love story (the long-suffering wife of a cheating husband; the brother and sister who just can't keep their hands off each other; numerous people lonely and neurotic in very modern ways). A gentle spoof of the hierarchy of academia. A look at the frustrations of a writer trying come up with another novel as good as the first one. And of course a look at one of the most savage murderers in modern suspense fiction, though Farris is wise enough not to give us an autopsy. He's Hithcockian in his belief that less is more. Praise the Lord.

And that's just a partial list of the novel's elements.

It is also one of the most sophisticated, elegantly told and perverse novels of terror ever written. The surprises are so stunning that two or three times I had to put the book aside and take a little rest. There are three twists in this novel that are so cunningly wrought they will shock even the most jaded reader.

That's all I'm going to say about Sharp Practice. Read it and you'll see that I've understated my enthusiasm for its suave brilliance.

So instead of a book report I'd like to turn to Mr. Farris himself.

Here's a quote from Steve Lewis that introduces Farris very well:

"It has just occurred to me that John Farris has one of the longest careers of any mystery writer still active. His first novel, The Corpse Next Door, was published by Graphic Books, a small but solid line of mostly paperback originals, in 1956. Farris was born in 1936, so if the book wasn't published until he was 20, the odds are the most of it was written when he was still nineteen.

"He switched to the pen name of Steve Brackeen for his next few books, typical Gold Medal thrillers, except that Gold Medal didn't do them. One of them, Baby Moll (Crest, 1958), will be reprinted by Hard Case Crime later this year under his own name, a mere 50 years later.

" Farris eventually became the author of the "Harrison High" books, which sold in the millions, and he became an even bigger seller once he started writing horror fiction that was invariably tinged with the supernatural. Books like The Fury (1976) and All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes (1977) are as close to classics in the field as you're going to get, and yet … even though Farris has averaged close to a book a year since those two books, unlike Stephen King, Dean R. Koontz and mystery-wise, Ed McBain, who came along about the same time he did, it is as if no one's ever heard of him. Nobody knows his name."

If you were a reader in the early 1960s it was impossible not to know the name of John Farris. Harrison High, the novel Lewis refers to, was popular for two reasons. First because it was a fine true novel about high school life. The aspects that were judged scandalous by some critics were in fact the truest parts of the book.

What set it apart from all the other high school novels was that it was very much like the literary novels of the time, especially those of the unjustly forgotten Calder Willingham. Harrison High remains rich in dealing with its era (the late 1950s), its people (generally middle-class whites) and its social problems (back alley abortions were still common). But with all that it's the characters I've kept with me. And having gone back to the novel several times over the years I'm aware of how carefully and honestly Farris drew them.

The second reason for the book's popularity was that it was written by an ambitious young man who wasn't long out of high school himself. The Dell paperback edtion (much like Peyton Place just before it) seemed to be everywhere. Farris' photo on the back cover depicted a thoughtful man who might have played football at one time or another.

John Farris went on to write many more novels, a number of them true and lasting masterpieces. But for people my age that thick Dell paperback version of Harrison High was an especially important novel.