Guess who's back? (Hint—he's on Amtrak #58 to Chicago...

...but while he's relaxing, we've got ground of our own to cover. There's a lot to tell you, so let me Hop To It.1. Those books at ridiculous prices. Earlier this month David, my Indispensable Assistant, tipped you off about a close-out offering of three books we'd stocked at Amazon—the hardcover edition of The Crime of Our Lives, the limited collector's edition of The Burglar who Counted the Spoons, and Jerrold Mundis's Break Writer's Block Now!—all at giveaway prices while they lasted.

Well, they didn't last—not the latter two. In a matter of hours, the entire Amazon supply of SPOONS and BWBN sold out. I think we could have moved five or ten times as many of each, and at those prices ($10 and $5 respectively) it's not hard to see why.

It's not as though we don't have copies in our storeroom. What we sold were the ones at Amazon, which we'd otherwise have had to remove. And I'd like to make them available to you—not at those rock-bottom prices, but as close as we can come, in what you might call our Friends and Family Sale. It's limited—but if you're reading this, and if you have a US shipping address, you're a friend, possibly even a cousin. At any rate, kith or kin, you qualify.

First, The Burglar who Counted the Spoons, #11 in the Bernie Rhodenbarr series, and published in a limited hardcover edition, and bound in leather. Orig. $79.95, and we sold plenty at that price, but we printed too many, and a while ago dropped the price in LB's eBay Bookstore to $29.99. That's still the price in the store, but our price to newsletter recipients is just $19.99 with free shipping within the US. To get it at this price, all you have to do is remit $19.99 per book by PayPal to lawbloc@gmail.com. You'll have the opportunity to add a note to us, and in it be sure to include both the shipping address and your own email address. And designate your payment as "payment to friends and family" to avoid having to pay a commission.

Second, BREAK WRITER'S BLOCK NOW. This slim hardcover book by Jerrold Mundis is the last word on the subject, and belongs on every writer's bookshelf. We've sold it at various prices over the years, and our special price to y'all is $7.99 with free shipping in the US. Again, pay by PayPal to lawbloc@gmail.com, list it as payment to friends and family, and be sure to provide your shipping address.

As for The Crime of Our Lives, Amazon still has an abundant supply. These are hardcover books, from a total edition of 1000 copies, and they're priced at $9.99, with free shipping to Amazon Prime members. (As the paperback sells for $14.99, this is, duh, a pretty good deal.) Click the link and order from Amazon, because the same book would cost you $24.99 in our eBay bookstore.

Can you fill overseas orders?

Not on this deal. I'm afraid this has to be for our US friends and family only. When the bookstore re-opens in May, we'll be able to accept international orders.

2. Our translation program. Well, it continues apace. Stefan Mommertz's Matthew Scudder translations of Die Sünden der Väter and Aus dem Fenster will shortly be joined by Mit leichtem Gepäck, which you may know as Resume Speed; in English it's still enjoying a bestselling run as a Kindle Single, and we're hoping for a similar reception from German-speakers. Next on Stefan's list is the second Scudder novel, Time to Murder and Create, and the second short story, A Candle for the Bag Lady. (I'm not sure what they'll be called, but Stefan prmises each title will contain at least one umlaut.) Die Sünden der Väter, I should probably add, has been moving nicely in both ebook and paperback; Aus dem Fenster, a short story, is only available as an ebook. Note that the links are to amazon.de; the titles, however, are available on all Amazon sites. And meanwhile, if you read German, check out my answers to a string of unexpected Bloody Questions for Krimi-Welt.

Ana and Enriqueta Carrington's El hombre peligroso is now also available as both ebook and paperback, with a cover placing it securely in the Biblioteca clásica del crimen—i.e., the Classic Crime Library. (The link is to amazon.es, the Spanish site, but all Amazon sites have it. The original Englsh title, as you may have figured out, is Such Men Are Dangerous.) And what's next for las hermanas Carrington? All the Matthew Scudder stories in The Night and the Music, none of them previously translated into Spanish. Coming soon—and I'll keep you posted.

And now the question raised at the very top of this newsletter—

3. Who's back? Keller's back, that's who's back!

Last day of February I holed up in an Undisclosed Location —which I can now tell you was an Airbnb apartment in the Riverside neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida. I started a book, wrote a chunk of it, and decided it ought to spend some time on a shelf. I then started a novella and wrote a decent chunk of it, too, only to have it stall out. You know how one thing leads to another? Well, sometimes it doesn't, and that's when it's time to come home—and I did, figuring I'd just wasted three weeks.

Shows what I know. I decided to give the novella a week or so to sit, and then look at it again. It sat, and I looked, and I liked what I saw. I took a few days to think about it, and worked out how to wrap it up, and did so.

The title is Keller's Fedora.

And yes, it's about our favorite assassin for hire, and he's Chicago-bound on Amtrak's City of New Orleans, ready to do what he does best. Once I wrapped it up, things happened quickly. Amazon wants to bring it out as a Kindle Single, which worked so well with Resume Speed, and Subterranean Press had the same reaction and signed on to publish a hardcover trade and limited edition of Keller's latest adventure.

And when does all of this happen? Hard to say, but my guess is you'll be able to download Keller's Fedora to your Kindle sometime in late May or early June. Rest assured that I'll let you know the minute it's eVailable. As for the Subterranean Press hardcover, I've no idea when they'll schedule it, but you should be able to pre-order it a few months from now, and I'll keep you posted.

4. Speaking of Subterranean Press and pre-orders... their hardcover trade and limited editions of Resume Speed are available for pre-order right now, in advance of publication in late 2016. It's early days, but not too early at all if you're gonna grab one of the $40 leatherbound limiteds before they're all gone, and the $25 trade edition may well be fully subscribed as well by the time the book's published. Have I shown you the stunning cover by Ken Laager? I can't remember, but I'm delighted to show it again.

Of course you don't have to wait to read Resume Speed. Click here for the Kindle edition, just $2.99 to buy or a free borrow for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

I have the nagging feeling that there's more I wanted to tell you, but it'll have to wait. May I close with a word about an organization my Frequent Companion and I have just joined? Lately I've been taking more trains than Keller—two trips to Florida and back, one on the Silver Meteor and the other on the Silver Star, plus upcoming excursions on the Crescent and the Adirondack. And it took me until now to find out about the National Association of Railroad Passengers. "Passenger trains create a better world," their literature proclaims, and I couldn't agree more. If you're an enthusiast of Amtrak and wish they went more often to more destinations, you may want to check out NARP.

Cheers,



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Last edited by LB on April 16, 2016 at 12:53 pm