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NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
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Scary lookin'
guy, isn't he? If you're a
Mystery Scene
subscriber, he'll be turning up in your mailbox
any day now. (If not, well, the magazine
shouldn't be too hard to locate. The better
magazine retailers have it, and so do mystery
specialty bookstores. Or click on
Mystery Scene Magazine
and there you go.) Ichiro Okada's photos are
there to illustrate a really good piece by Kevin
Burton Smith, and I'd say both men did great
work, esp. when you consider what they had to
work with.
Many of you were kind enough to say nice
things about my appearance on
The Late Late
Show with Craig Ferguson. This was
my fourth time, and it was a lot of fun; a small
part of Craig's genius is his ability to make
his guests look good. Now, through the miracle
of YouTube, those of you who were asleep when it
aired can snooze through it on your home
computer screens. (I'll tell you, everything
winds up on YouTube. It makes a person think
twice before peeing in the elevator.) But see
for yourself:
YouTube - Lawrence Block on Craig Ferguson June
24/08
The big news here is
Hit & Run,
which is selling nicely and getting some very
generous reviews. I'm not going to quote them
here, but that's laziness operating, not
modesty. (What I will do is give you a link to
Tom Callahan's particularly gratifying online
review at
Bookreporter.com
)
But why take any reviewer's word for it, even
Tom Callahan's? Maybe he's my cousin. Maybe I
bribed him. Pick up your own copy from a local
or online bookseller and decide for yourself.
If you've already ordered the Philatelic
Edition, you've probably received your
book---they all shipped on June 24, publication
day---although the Post Office does not always
have the precision of a fine Swiss timepiece, so
your copy may not reach you for another week or
more. As you may have noted, each copy of the
Philatelic Edition is accompanied by a note
explaining that the book is no longer
available. We did that to avoid getting
swamped---but as it turns out we do still have a
small number on hand. It's hard to guess how
long they'll last, but as soon as we sell out,
we'll stop accepting orders on the web. So if
you can find the book for sale on our site, that
means we can still fill your order.
Some of you have inquired about the limitation.
Our numbered copies run from 1 to 700. We'll
also have 100 author's presentation copies,
essentially identical to the numbered copies
except that they're designated A/C 1 through A/C
100. Most of those are earmarked for friends,
family, and folks at HarperCollins, but if we
have some
left we may offer them for sale later on.
Aside from my quick trip to LA for the Late Late
Show, I'm not touring for HIT & RUN. I do have
a few area appearances coming up the middle of
this month One's at 7:30 pm Tuesday, July 15,
at the public
library in Westport, Connecticut, the other at 7 pm the following
evening (Wednesday July 16) at
Partners & Crime
mystery bookstore at 44 Greenwich Avenue in New York. And come
Friday, July 18, I'll be in my old hometown of Buffalo, New York,
for the
Buffalo Book Fair, where I think
they're giving me some sort of award, though I
can't imagine why, or what for. Hope to see
some of you at one or another of these events.
Come mid-August, I'll be the featured speaker at
the Tiffany dinner of the American Philatelic
Society, in Hartford CT. I
suppose I'll talk about Keller's stamp
collection, as it's rather more advanced than my
own. And then I'm out of here---for two weeks
in Paris, and a ten-day Adriatic cruise, calling at ports in
Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and Albania. We'll be back in plenty of
time for Bouchercon; it's in Baltimore this year, and again they're giving
me some sort of award, and again I'm hard put to
tell you why. Some kind of Life Achievement
award, I believe; my title is something along
the lines of Very Old Guest of Honor, and it's
further proof that my future is largely in the
past.
The bookstore will be closed from mid-August to
mid-September, so if there's anything you want,
get your order in. David has asked me to remind
you that we're continuing to offer the set of
three philatelically-enhanced Keller paperbacks,
that he's added some interesting new items to
the For The Collector section, and that he can
supply $5 reading copies of all books in the
Scudder, Tanner, and Burglar series, and others
as yet unlisted.
So now you know. The Glorious Fourth will have
come and gone by the time this gets out---my
fault, I've been dawdling---but have a Glorious
Rest-of-July.
LB
LawrenceBlock.Com |
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Don't they look splendid? They're the two
English-language editions of
Hit & Run,
with HarperCollins on the left and Orion on
the right, and they'll both be on bookstore
shelves in about a week. And flying off
those shelves, if the pace of advance orders
is any indication. If you want to make sure
of a first printing, well, you know what
they say. He who hesitates is second. Or
even third.
If you've ordered the Philatelic Edition
from us, you're sure of a first---signed,
limited, imprinted, and bearing the special
Hit & Run
postage stamp. Your copy---along with
others of its ilk---is making my living room
impassable even as we speak. Come June
24th, everything goes in the mail, and we
get our living room back. That'll be a
great moment, and I won't be here to see it,
as I'll be in Los Angeles celebrating my
70th birthday that very night on the
Late Late
Show with my friend Craig
Ferguson.
The Philatelic Edition found a host of eager
buyers from the two worlds of book and stamp
collecting (and there's more of an overlap
there than you might have guessed.) If you
haven't ordered yet,
there's still time by clicking here, but
we based our book order on orders in hand,
with just a small reserve for late orders,
and when they're gone, they're gone.
The set of signed and stamped
Keller paperbacks remains
available, and we should be able to furnish
these for months, if not indefinitely.
I see some hands, so let me take a few
questions. Yes, you, in the back of the
room.
Speaking
of Los Angeles, is anything happening in
Hollywood?
Well, that's always hard to say
with any assurance, but the prospects for a
Keller TV series are looking up again.
There was a deal in the works when the
writers' strike came along and put the whole
industry on hold, but now things once again
look promising. I'll keep you posted.
There are some other possibilities, but then
there always are, and it's far too early to
talk about them. It's probably too early to
have mentioned Keller's prospects, as far as
that goes. Ah well. Me and my big mouth.
Or, for the grammarians among you, my big
mouth and I.
When does
the collection of early work come out? I
read December one place and November
another.
ONE NIGHT STANDS & LOST WEEKENDS
was originally scheduled for December, and
HarperCollins decided to move it up a month
to reap holiday sales. So you can look for
it in November---but if this slips your
mind, be assured that I'll have occasion to
remind you.
Are you
going to edit any more anthologies? I loved
MANHATTAN NOIR.
Well, count your lucky stars.
MANHATTAN
NOIR TWO: The Classics is coming
from Akashic Books in September. The first
volume, you'll recall, consisted entirely of
original stories. This one's all reprints,
as you might guess from the table of
contents, which includes works by O. Henry,
Stephen Crane, Jerome Weidman, Irwin Shaw,
Damon Runyon, and Cornell Woolrich. It's
hard to get these folks to write something
original these days. I read whole shelves
of books to pick the stories, and they're
all noir and all set in Manhattan. There's
a gem by Edith Wharton, a very dark crime
story, which I was amazed to encounter. Who
knew?
Three poets are represented, as well---Poe,
natch, along with Horace Gregory and
Geoffrey Bartholomew. Poetry? In a noir
anthology? You betcha, and I think you'll
find their presence a big plus. One of
these days I'd like to compile a whole
anthology of dark poetry, not geographically
determined like Akashic's wonderful series,
but noir verse from all over. That may wait
a while; I'd need to find endless hours to
devote to it, and a publisher deranged
enough to deem it a Sound Commercial Idea.
I still have signed copies of the first
Manhattan Noir
available in the
bookstore, though they're running low. And
yes, we'll probably be able to supply the
new one come fall.
KILLING
CASTRO? Huh?
Ah, yes.
Early books of mine have been appearing
regularly at Hard Case Crime, including noir
Gold Medal titles (Grifter's Game, The Girl
with the Long Green Heart) and others that
were originally pseudonymous (Lucky at
Cards, A Diet of Treacle). Come January,
Hard Case will bring out
Killing
Castro, which first saw life with
another title, and under a pen name I never
used before or since. You can learn more,
and even read the first chapter,
About Killing Castro;
I'll wait until closer to pub date to
recount the circumstances.
So what's
the schedule for the big HIT & RUN book
tour?
Alas, there is none. My birthday
trip to L.A. is a quick out-and-back. I'll
be doing a signing in New York after I come
back, but am not sure of the date---I'll put
it in a newsletter if time permits. And my
only other appearance this summer will be in
mid-August, as the keynote speaker at the
American Philatelic Society's Tiffany Dinner
in Hartford.
Really?
What on earth are you going to say to them?
Sheesh, I dunno. I'll be in the
presence of philately's foremost dealers and
collectors, so I can't waste their time
talking about my very ordinary collection.
So I guess I'll talk about Keller's.
Okay, I'll take one more question. The
woman on the far aisle.
I was
wondering about the Comments section on the
bookstore order blank. Do you ever get to
see what we put there?
David Trevor, my indispensable
associate, brings all of your comments to my
attention. I don't have time to respond
individually, but I do see them, and am
heartened by them. Well, by most of them. .
. .That's it. I'm out of room, out of time,
and outta here---
LB
LawrenceBlock.Com |
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Hello, hello, hello. Spring does
seem finally to have sprung, though
every time I think so, we get yet
another cold snap. Spring will be a
little late this year, Frank Loesser
wrote, and the man was ahead of his
time.
Oh, never mind. You didn't open this
email to get the weather report. But
I do have some news to impart, and
I'll number the items to give what
follows the merest suggestion that
it was prepared by a man with an
organized mind:
 1.
The publication date of HIT AND
RUN, the fourth Keller novel, is
fast approaching---too fast, it
sometimes seems around here, with
all we have to do between now and
then. One of my tasks will be
signing copies for booksellers who
have pre-ordered signed firsts via
Kim Gombar (kim.gombar@harpercollins.com).
If you're a bookseller, well, that's
how to get them; if you want a
signed copy, well, tell your
bookseller to get his/her order in.
2. Meanwhile, we're busy handling
orders for the Limited Philatelic
Edition of Hit & Run, and they've
been coming in at a heartening clip.
If you've ordered, remember that the
books can't ship until after the
June 24 publication date. If you
haven't ordered yet, there's still
time; we can guarantee that we'll
fill all orders received by June 1.
After that date, check the website;
as long as it's listed as available,
we'll be able to get you a copy. But
when they're gone, they're gone.
3. On August 14th I'll have the
great honor of speaking at the
annual Tiffany Dinner of the
American Philatelic Society, to be
held in Hartford, Connecticut. (I
suspect I'll be talking about
Keller's collection, as it's a good
deal more impressive than mine. But
then he's the one with more in the
way of discretionary income. And,
come to think of it, more free time,
too. You know, I think I may have
picked the wrong line of work. . .)
I'll be signing books there, too,
probably the day following the
dinner---but I should point out that
I won't be able to furnish copies of
the Philatelic Edition, as those
will all be long gone by then. (I
can't even guarantee that the books
available in Hartford will be first
editions, as there's every
likelihood the book will have long
since gone into a second printing.)
If these are important
considerations, order now.
4. We've had a lot of orders in
response to our ad in Linn's
Stamp News, and to publicity
we've received throughout the
stamp-collecting media. Some of you
might have wanted the three Keller
paperbacks as well, but we didn't
have room to explain exactly how
they're "philatelically enhanced."
Very simply, each book is signed,
and bears a mint stamp from the 1938
Presidential series (the 1˘ for Hit
Man, the 2˘ for Hit List, the 3˘ for
Hit Parade) affixed to the title
page and canceled with a three-line
(KELLER / MMVIII / CANCEL)
cancellation. There's no looming
cutoff date on orders for these, and
we've already been filling orders
and should be able to do so for a
long time---or until our Mint Sheet
dealer runs out of stamps. And these
books do make nice (and reasonably
priced) gifts.
5. One more thing about Hit & Run,
and then I swear I'll move on to
Other Things. One fellow who ordered
the Philatelic Edition wanted to
know if he could buy three copies of
the Hit & Run postage stamp,
so that he could put them in his own
hardcover copies of the early books
and get his local postmaster to
cancel them. I had to think about
that one. We had the stamps produced
for a particular purpose, and resale
wasn't in our plans. (Nor was
mailing letters with them. They're
bonafide 42˘ U.S. postage stamps,
but they cost us a lot more than 42˘
apiece.) Still, I like to oblige a
collector when I can, so I sold him
three stamps for $5 postpaid. I can
offer you the same terms, but don't
want to create a website listing or
fill orders just for the stamps. So,
if you really want them, and you're
ordering something else from the
bookstore, just put the following
sentence in the Comments section of
the order blank: "Send me three
Hit & Run stamps and charge me
$5."
6. At last, another subject. When I
was starting out, I wrote a lot of
short fiction that sold to Manhunt
or, more often, its imitators. In
1999 Crippen & Landru published 24
of these stories, all but one
previously uncollected, in a very
attractive limited hardcover
edition. (C&L typically publishes a
trade paperback edition as well, but
I ruled that out because I wasn't
sure I wanted these stories widely
disseminated. They're early work,
and no one would call them
masterful.) The book, called ONE
NIGHT STANDS, sold out in a
hurry, and commands a good price in
the aftermarket.
A couple of years later, I gathered
up three other early works,
novelettes all featuring Ed London,
the private detective hero of my
second novel, Coward's Kiss
(aka Death Pulls a Doublecross).
Crippen & Landru published them,
once again hardcover only, under the
title THE LOST CASES OF ED LONDON.
Well, time went by, as it has a
habit of doing, and I realized that
it didn't seem to be hurting me to
have any of that early work
available. All things being equal
(whatever that means) I'd rather
have my work being read than not. So
I'm very happy to report that
HarperCollins will be bringing out
both these works in a combined trade
paperback edition in November, with
a dandy retro cover and the happy
title of ONE NIGHT STANDS AND
LOST WEEKENDS.
I've had a small quantity of copies
of both books in storage ever since
they were published, but have
avoided offering them for sale; I
didn't like the idea of charging a
premium collector price to those of
you who simply wanted to read the
stories. But now, with the stories
soon to be available at a low price,
I've added the original Crippen &
Landru editions to the website
bookstore. The prices are
substantial---$125 for ONE NIGHT
STANDS, $75 for LOST CASES---but
if you're a collector, well, these
are highly collectible. You'll find
them in the new bookstore section,
For the Collector, along with some
other goodies.
7. You'll find other new offerings
in the bookstore, too. A lot of you
have asked about firsts of the early
Keller novels; we don't have many on
hand, but we've got enough to list,
and they're up there now, along with
a couple of UK firsts. And, after
endless prodding on the part of a
fellow with the initials DT, we've
acquired a scanner, and have begun
the process of showing what our
various items look like, notably the
very attractive UK hardcovers
published by Orion. We'll keep
adding art, as time permits.
8. You know, it seems to me there's
more to report. But seven is plenty,
so we'll stop here. The sun's out,
believe it or not. I think I'll go
for a walk.
LB
LawrenceBlock.Com |
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**Block, Lawrence. Hit and Run.
Morrow. . . . He leads a sedate
life-bounded by his own apartment
with its state-of-the-art TV and
TiVo, the newsstand with the Times
every morning, and his stamp albums
all arranged on their shelves. When
his neighbors come to be questioned
by the police-and they will-he'll be
described as "a quiet kinda guy. He
kept to himself." The life of a hit
man's not an easy one, and it's
never seemed tougher than in this
latest appearance (following Hit
Parade) of premier hit man Keller.
Although he's looking forward to a
well-deserved retirement, Keller
just can't say no to a job in Des
Moines, of all places. While he's
there, the governor of Ohio is
assassinated in town, and the
evidence points to Keller. He's been
set up, and despite having millions
in a bank account, he doesn't have
the cash to buy clean underwear and
has to drive a hot car toward New
Orleans with a Homer Simpson cap
pulled down over his face. What a
way to spend the golden years.
Before it's all over, though, the
old guys (both Keller and Block)
show they've still got what it takes
to teach the youngsters a thing or
two in this brisk, suspenseful, and
funny romp. A sure bet for all
public libraries. -Bob Lunn,
Kansas City (MO) Public Library
As I said, too nice for this old guy
to keep to himself. And I was going
to write anyway, as I've a couple of
things to tell you. First off,
several of you who've ordered the
Philatelic Edition of HIT & RUN
have asked about the promised
"philatelic enhancement" of the
companion offer of three signed
Keller paperbacks. Each will carry a
U.S. postage stamp from the 1938
Presidential series---a 1˘ stamp on
the first book, Hit Man, a 2˘
stamp on Hit List, a 3˘ stamp
on Hit Parade. (Keller
collected these stamps as a boy,
you'll recall; that's how come he
can name the presidents in order.)
Each stamp will be tied to the title
page by what stamp collectors call a
"killer" cancel---although we'd
rather call it a Keller Cancel. And,
of course, they'll be signed, and
ready to ship in early May, not late
June when the new book comes out.
(The idea was to give those new to
Keller an advance chance to meet
him.) Here's a link:
http://www.lawrenceblock.com/content_shopping.htm.
I also need to tell you that the
bookstore shelves are overflowing
with new listings. David Trevor,
having nagged me into letting him
put a slew of new items on offer,
has greatly expanded the sections of
Audio Books and For the
Collector, added a section
called Odds & Ends with
anthologies and ARCs, and sprinkled
in new titles throughout the store's
other sections. I was reluctant to
list some of these because we only
own one or two copies, but he
convinced me that's no reason to
withhold them from you---so have a
look, and if you spot something you
want, well, don't dawdle.
In the meantime, this old guy's in
Utah, watching the clock tick down
before the start of the Salt Lake
City marathon. I’ll be racewalking
it, and I'll try to keep the
dawdling to a minimum.
LB
www.lawrenceblock.com
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David Trevor here, with the
observation that subscribing to LB's
newsletter is like waiting for a
bus. You stand there for an hour,
and then three of them show up one
after the other. First LB tells you
about the Philatelic Edition of
Hit & Run, and then he brags
about My Blueberry Nights,
and now here I am, trying to sell
you something.
I'll tell you, that last is the easy
part. Selling the man himself on
listing some of his treasures took
some doing. But he actually listened
to reason, and I'm in the process of
making some big changes on the site.
For starters, there's a new section
called For the Collector.
Here's the link:
http://www.lawrenceblock.com/content_shopping.htm.
For the Collector has some
particularly collectible items.
Here's what we've got so far:
---The Dark Harvest First Hardcover
Editions of the first two Scudder
novels, THE SINS OF THE FATHERS
and TIME TO MURDER AND CREATE.
We're offering both the trade
editions (scarce enough) and the
genuinely rare limited editions,
boxed and numbered and signed by LB
and the author of the intro, Stephen
King and Jonathan Kellerman
respectively.
---Orion's hardcover first edition
of EVEN THE WICKED, Scudder
#13. This is the true world first,
published in the calendar year
preceding US publication, and had a
very small printing.
---THE BURGLAR WHO STUDIED
SPINOZA, the Random House first
from 1981. The early Burglar books
are hard to find in their original
editions, and even the Dutton
reissues are commanding a premium.
---THE SPECIALISTS. This
Cahill Press hardcover first has
been a steady seller for us; now
we're finally offering our copies of
the boxed Limited Edition.
---AFTER HOURS. It's possible
you haven't even heard of this one.
A collaborative venture in which
Ernie Bulow interviews LB at length,
published by University of New
Mexico Press.
There will be more collectibles
added to this section. Meanwhile, in
Short Story Collections, I've added
LIKE A LAMB TO SLAUGHTER and
SOME DAYS YOU GET THE BEAR.
The contents of both are included in
Enough Rope, but some of you will
want first editions of the
individual volumes. And in Matthew
Scudder Novels, I've added later
hardcover printings of A DANCE AT
THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE; we sold out
of our first-printing copies a while
ago, but have these---identical in
appearance---at a very reasonable
price.
We've dropped our listing of the
TELLING LIES audiobook. Ever
since we began offering it in tandem
with the trade paperback edition for
$20, we stopped getting orders for
the audiobook alone @ $19.95.
Amazing, isn't it? LB says people
just don't understand the value of a
nickel these days. And we've slashed
a couple of prices, because we've
got too many copies on hand.
ARIEL, LB's novel about a spooky
young girl in Charleston SC, is a
Limited Edition (only 500 copies
printed) and was good value at $50,
but we dropped it all the way to
$25. (My prediction: one of these
days somebody's going to film this
one, and if we've got any left we'll
be pricing them at $100.) And we're
also oversupplied with TANNER'S
TIGER, the hardcover first from
Subterranean Press, and have reduced
the price of the trade edition to
$20 and the Limited to $50.
That's it for now. If you want any
of the newly listed collector's
items, I'd advise against delay.
They're in short supply, and might
get snapped up in a hurry. (Or not,
but do you want to leave it to
chance?) Have fun, and check the
bookstore listings again from time
to time. I'll be adding titles
whenever I get the chance---and the
green light from LB---and I won't
always manage to get out an email
alert. Any questions, just ask---
DT@lawrenceblock.com
Thanks!
David Trevor for Lawrence Block |
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Well, hello there, and welcome to
Spring! The days are getting
longer, the air is getting
warmer---but let me stop right there
before someone accuses me of
Northern Hemispheric chauvinism.
For those of you below the Equator,
it's the nights that are getting
longer, and the air's getting
colder, and---
But you know all that.
If
you read the most recent newsletter,
you also know that I've worked up
plans for a philatelic edition of
Keller's fourth adventure, HIT AND
RUN, coming in June from
HarperCollins. Keller, as you also
know, is a stamp collector. He
returned to the hobby of his boyhood
in the final chapters of HIT MAN,
when he was contemplating retirement
and figured he'd need a hobby.
Stamp collecting ate up much of his
retirement fund---does that sound
familiar to those philatelists among
you?---so he's gone on working, but
killing people is just what he does
for a living. Stamp collecting is
his life.
I'm a collector myself---how's that
for coincidence?---and it's been
gratifying for me to see the Keller
books develop a following in the
philatelic community. With
HIT
AND RUN imminent, I felt
it might be fun to create a
philatelic and bibliophilic
collectible to mark the book's
publication. So let me see if I can
explain what I've come up with.
The Philatelic Edition of
HIT
AND RUN will consist of a
copy of the hardcover First Edition,
bearing on the flyleaf or title page
(I haven't decided yet) an imprint
identifying it as such. All copies
will be serially numbered and
hand-signed by the author---that's
me---and each will also bear a
special genuine U. S. personalized
postage stamp showing the cover of
the book, tied to the page with a
hand-applied cancellation bearing
the book's official publication date
(June 24, 2008, my 70th birthday,
and how's that for timing?) and the
city (that'd be New York, duh). And
there may be some further philatelic
enhancement elsewhere in the book.
Hmmm. I see a lot of hands out
there, so let me take your
questions. Yes?
What's it going to cost?
A mere $35 plus
shipping. That's ten dollars above
the regular retail price of the
book, so if all you want is a
reading copy, you're better off
picking it up from an online or
brick-and-mortar bookstore. But the
$10 surcharge isn’t much for a
collector's item. I wanted to keep
the price low, so that anyone who
wants it will be able to have it.
How limited is it?
Quantities are limited to
the number of orders we receive, and
to the number of First Printing
copies the publisher makes available
to us. Again, our goal is to make a
collector's item available to a full
range of collectors, rather than to
create a super-rarity.
May I order more than one copy?
Order as many as you
like. However, there's no quantity
discount, no wholesale pricing,
which pretty much rules out buying
for resale. You may order extra
copies as gifts, or with an eye
toward investment---although I can't
say I see this as the next Google.
However, if we get more orders than
we're able to fill, we reserve the
right to limit quantities.
All right, I'm sold. How do I
order?
Here's a link: http://www.lawrenceblock.com/content_shopping.htm. (Click
on the John Keller Novels link to
get to the books!) You'll probably
want to do this sooner rather than
later, as we'll be filling orders in
their order of receipt. We won't
process your order or charge your
credit card until the books are
ready to ship, which should be
shortly after June 24th. In the
next few weeks our ads and notices
will be appearing in stamp collector
publications, and the order volume
may be a trickle or a gush, it's
impossible to predict. As a
newsletter subscriber, you're
getting the word first---so if you
want to make sure of a copy, well, a
word to the wise and all that. . .
That's
HIT
AND RUN. What about the
first three books?
Hey, thanks for reminding
me. If you want hardcover firsts of
HIT MAN, HIT LIST, or
HIT
PARADE, you'll have to
look in the aftermarket. We don't
have copies for sale. But what we
are going to do is offer a set of
the three books in paperback. Our
price for the set is $35 postpaid,
and I should point out that you can
get them cheaper from a retailer, as
they list @ $7.99 each. However,
we'll furnish signed copies, and
each will carry a slight philatelic
enhancement. If that's worth the
difference to you, the same link
will take you to that offer. For
convenience, here it is again:
http://www.lawrenceblock.com/content_shopping.htm.
What about overseas orders?
We welcome them. The
price is the same---$35---but of
course we have to charge a little
more for shipping, as always.
I don't have any more questions
right now, but suppose I think of
one later? Then what?
David Trevor will
probably be able to answer them.
The fellow's a mine of useful
information. Email him at
DT@lawrenceblock.com
I have more news---that book I just
finished, which I promised to tell
you about. But it's going to have
to wait for the next newsletter. I
know, I know. I'm an awful tease. .
.
LB
www.lawrenceblock.com
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Hi there! It's been a while, I
know, but I've been like the little
boy who never said a word for the
first five years of his life. "This
oatmeal is lumpy," he said finally,
breaking his long silence. "You can
talk!" his mother cried. (Or
perhaps it was his father. Never
mind.) "You can speak! How come
you never spoke before?" "Up until
now," he replied, "everything was
fine."
Well, everything's still fine, but I
have something to report, although
my news will have little actual
impact except for those of you
living in Australia. From March 28
through April 12, the Henry Lawson
Theatre in Werrington, New South
Wales, will be presenting, under the
omnibus title "Guilty or Not", an
evening of four one-act plays. One
is by William Saroyan, another by
Anthony Stirling Edgar, and the
remaining two by, uh, me.
Both of my offerings are based on
short stories of mine,
How
Far on a story called
"How Far It Could Go," and
One
Day I'll Plant More Walnut Trees
on a story called, well, duh, "One
Day I'll Plant More Walnut Trees."
Neither has ever been performed
before, and in fact nothing of mine
has ever found its way to the stage,
and I really wish I could be there,
but the royalties I'll be collecting
would just about cover a cab to JFK,
with nothing left toward the long
flight to Sydney. But perhaps some
of you can attend; if so, do let me
know how it goes.
Here are the dates and times: March
28th and 29th and April 4th, 5th,
11th and 12th at 8 pm; March 30th
and April 6th at 2 pm. Details are
to be found at the Henry Lawson's
website,
www.hltheatre.com.au.
You didn't know I wrote plays?
Well, I didn't, until a theatrical
producer in LA wanted to adapt "How
Far," and I offered to adapt it
myself instead. It never did get
staged, but then I found myself in
correspondence with David Attrill,
an actor and radio personality down
under as well as a friend from a
message board for distance walkers.
(David has recounted his experiences
at an Australian event called the
Six-Foot Track, which sounds like
one of the shortest races ever,
doesn't it? Turns out that's the
width of the thing, and it's
actually quite long, and arduous.
Who knew?) Anyway, one thing led to
another, as it sometimes does, and
the good people at the Henry Lawson
are going to do the plays.
Which could, if anyone cares, lead
to yet another thing---which is to
say that, if anyone out there, in Oz
or the States or, really, anywhere
at all, wants to look at these plays
with an eye toward staging them,
well, I'm all for that. You can
learn all you really need to know by
having a look at the original
stories, both of which appear in my
omnibus collection,
Enough Rope. These are,
I should mention, easy plays to cast
and stage---three actors, simple
sets. If you're interested, well,
LB@lawrenceblock.com will do for
inquiries.
Hit and Run is due June
24th, and I'm planning a special
philatelic edition for stamp
collectors or anyone else who wants
a copy of what should be an
interesting collectible. Details
soon. Details too about another
book I'm very close to finishing.
But all of that can wait, and will
have to. So stay tuned. Don't
change the channel…
LB
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Well, that was quick!
The Matt Scudder broadsides, which I
told you about in the last
newsletter, sold out completely in
less than twenty-four hours. We
amended the website accordingly as
soon as they were gone, but two
orders slipped through before we
could shut the door, and I had to
tell two regular customers that we
couldn't fill their orders. (I hate
when that happens. I disappoint
people enough in my personal life.)
I mentioned this before, but LB says
I should say it again: We're not
entrusting these to the postal
people until after the first of the
year. If you've ordered a broadside
and something else (a book, for
instance) as well, the two parts of
your order will ship separately.
And, before I forget. . .
EIGHT MILLION WAYS TO DIE has
just been reissued by HarperCollins
in hardcover, as a 25th Anniversary
edition, with a special afterword by
LB. This book is an expensive item
in the collector market—we've seen
listings of $1000 or more for a nice
first edition, and even the dreaded
Book Club Edition commands a
premium. Evidently booksellers
sensed this might go nicely, and the
first printing is already gone with
a second on order, well before the
on-sale date of December 26. The
first printing has a rather
startling typo—one of the five
dedicatees, Mark the Dwarf, has been
rechristened "Mark the Dwark" in the
first printing, which rhymes nicely,
even if it doesn't make much sense.
(I hope it'll be corrected in the
second printing, but LB says not to
count on it. We'll see.) We're not
offering the book for sale, since we
can't get firsts either, but you can
probably find one on a bookstore
shelf without too much trouble
Merry this and that, and Happy
everything.
David Trevor for Lawrence Block
DT@lawrenceblock.com |
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MICK BALLOU LOOKS AT THE BLANK
SCREEN
Now
there's a provocative
thought, don't you think?
It's also the title of a
limited edition broadside, a
companion piece to the
Bernie Rhodenbarr broadside
we offered last year. That
one didn't last long; we
sold out virtually
overnight, and could have
shipped many more—but that's
the trouble with limited
editions: they're limited.
The new broadside, as you
might have guessed by now,
is a Matthew Scudder item.
Like the Bernie Rhodenbarr
piece, it's the work of Mark
Lavandier's splendid small
press, has been skillfully
printed on heavy 16" x 20"
stock, bears a woodcut
illustration by the renowned
Alan Avery, carries the
signatures of author and
illustrator, and is (doh!)
eminently suitable for
framing. The Rhodenbarr
broadside bore an op-ed
piece that was never
reprinted since its initial
appearance in a local
newspaper; the Scudder
broadside, remarkably
enough, consists of a brief
but telling (and
surprising!) conversation
between Matt and Mick at
Grogan's, written
specifically for broadside
publication and not
scheduled to appear anywhere
else. (Although one never
knows; it might find its way
into a magazine—or into the
next Scudder novel, if LB
ever writes one.)
Aside from increasing the
limitation from 150 to 200,
we've held the line—which is
to say the price remains $35
for the numbered edition (of
which we have only 55) and
$100 for the relative
handful of lettered copies
(of which there are 26, one
for each letter, and of
which we have 13) and the
even smaller handful of
Presentation Copies.
These won't last. That won't
much matter to you if you
don't want one to begin
with, but if you do, well,
you know what to do.
JUST CLICK HERE.
If you were able to get one
of the Bernie Rhodenbarr
broadsides, and if you're
sufficiently compulsive to
want the same number or
letter, we'll do what we can
to make you happy; just note
your number or letter in the
Comments space on the order
form. No guarantees in this
regard, but we'll do our
best.
Click here for LB's
Bookstore. |
We'll be filling orders in the order
of receipt, and reserve the right to
limit quantities. Please note that
we will not be shipping anything
until after the first of the year. I
don't want to get caught up in the
Christmas maelstrom (or should that
be mailstrom?) and neither should
you.
David Trevor for Lawrence Block
DT@lawrenceblock.com
www.lawrenceblock.com
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Autumn 2007
Hello there! I hope you all had a
splendid summer. Mine included a
small-ship cruise of the Aleutians
and the Bering Sea, with a visit to
the Russian Far East. Back on dry
land here in the Lower Forty-eight,
it's also included a lot of walking;
I have a twenty-four hour race
coming up in mid-November, and I've
been busy wearing out my shoes—and
my feet, and my legs, and, oh, never
mind—as I prepare for the ordeal.
HIT AND RUN, the fourth
installment in the Keller trilogy,
will be coming from HarperCollins
early next summer. (On my birthday,
as it happens: June 24.) And this
December H-C will publish a 25th
Anniversary hardcover reissue of
EIGHT MILLION WAYS TO DIE. The
book is genuinely scarce in its
first edition—I've seen copies in
decent condition going for as much
as $1500; if you don't care about
firsts, but want an attractive
hardbound copy on the shelf, here's
your chance. Dealers will be able to
order signed copies, so your
bookseller may be able to supply you
with an autographed one; failing
that, I'll try to offer signed
copies on the website. If I do, I'll
let you know.
HarperCollins has done very nicely
by the Tanner series, and the last I
looked, six of the eight books were
back in print in handsome
mass-market paperback editions.
(They came out at the rate of two a
month, an ideal way to publish a
series, so by the time you read
this, all of them may well be
available.)
But what I want to do now is tell
you about another book of mine
that's going to be available shortly
in a high-quality limited edition.
The book is RANDOM WALK, and
if you don't know anything about it,
well, I have to say it's not typical
of my work. Or, come to think of it,
of anybody else's, either.
But rather than tell you about it,
here's
a link to the magnificent foreword
Spider Robinson has
written, for the new edition to be
published shortly by Pete Crowther's
PS Publishing. There'll be two
editions available, a 500-copy
self-covered hardcover edition ($40)
signed by me and a 200-copy jacketed
and slipcased hardcover edition
($100) signed by both Spider and me.
Pete aims to have the book out
before Christmas, and I wouldn't be
surprised if all copies are spoken
for well ahead of publication. If
you're interested, you might want to
act promptly.
If Spider's introduction intrigues
you, but all you want is a reading
copy, that too can be arranged.
RANDOM WALK is in print as a
trade paperback from
iUniverse. Or, if you're a first
edition collector, we have a few
mint copies on hand @ $100
in LB's Bookstore.
Click here to visit PS Publishing.
Meanwhile, I've been keeping busy
during those occasional hours when
I'm not out walking. Specifically,
I've been putting together a sequel
to MANHATTAN NOIR, an
anthology I edited for Akashic
Books. That book consisted entirely
of original stories written for the
book; the new volume will bring
together dark Manhattan-based
fiction (and some poetry!) covering
a span of over a century. I'll give
you a preview a little later, when
we've made the final decisions on
the lineup.
If you missed the original
MANHATTAN NOIR, well, it's
still in print.
If you want a signed one, well, I
only have a few on hand, and the
price is higher than you'd pay
elsewhere; if that doesn't
discourage you, go to:
LB's Bookstore
It's fifty years since I sold my
first short story—"You Can't
Lose," published in Manhunt and
reprinted in ENOUGH ROPE. In
the next couple of years I wrote and
published a batch of other stories,
but for years I held off collecting
them. Then in 1999, Crippen & Landru
brought out ONE NIGHT STANDS,
a collection of those early stories,
in a limited hardcover edition that
sold out almost immediately. Two
years later, the same publisher
followed with THE LOST CASES OF
ED LONDON, containing three
novelettes about a private detective
whose one book-length appearance was
in COWARD'S KISS (aka
Death Pulls a Doublecross).
Again, the sole edition was a
limited one in hardcover.
My feeling was that collectors and
the like ought to have access to
these stories, but that I didn't
want them more widely available. But
when nobody wrote me to tell me the
stories were terrible, I began to
change my mind. (Then again, maybe
nobody read them. Maybe collectors
bought the books, admired the cover
art, read the introductions, and
placed the books on their shelves.
Who knows?) Eventually I sent copies
of the two books to my editor at
HarperCollins, and it is now my
pleasant duty to tell you that all
of the stories will be published in
a single volume (or a double volume,
as you prefer) in trade paperback
format in the fall of 2008. The
title of the new book is ONE
NIGHT STANDS AND LOST WEEKENDS,
and I do hope you'll enjoy it. (Or,
at the very least, you can admire
the cover art, smile at the
introductions, and place the book on
the shelf.)
Be well, and enjoy the autumn.
LB
Lawrence Block
LB@lawrenceblock.com |
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Lawrence
Block's Alaska Report
Well, hello there, you folks down
there in the Lower 48, and all the
rest of you throughout the world.
I'm writing from Anchorage, where
I've completed the Mayor's Midnight
Sun marathon, though why they call
it that, given that the race begins
at 8 in the morning and the finish
line closes down at 4:30 pm, is
beyond me. I was asleep well before
midnight, and I don't suppose I was
the only one. But here I am, and in
a few days Lynne will be joining me,
and then we're off for two weeks on
the Bering Sea. I hadn't planned on
filling the time between the race
and the cruise with a newsletter, I
figured I'd just loll around and eat
salmon, but it struck me that
there's something I've neglected to
tell you.
Well, there are probably lots of
things. But the one that comes to
mind is the imminent republication
of the entire Evan Tanner series.
HarperCollins is bringing them all
back into print at the speedy rate
of two a month, with the first two
volumes, THE THIEF WHO COULDN'T
SLEEP and THE CANCELED CZECH,
due to hit bookstore shelves any day
now. TANNER'S TWELVE SWINGERS
and THE SCORELESS THAI will
follow the last week in July, with
TANNER'S TIGER and
TANNER'S VIRGIN the end of
August and ME TANNER, YOU JANE
and TANNER ON ICE emerging a
month later.
I've seen proofs of the covers, and
they're really beautiful. For these
new editions, I've written a special
afterward for each volume,
recounting the development of the
series and the specific
circumstances attending each
individual book. (The first page or
two of each of the afterwards is
identical, serving as a general
series intro for anyone who happens
to hit that volume first; the rest
of each afterward is specific to the
particular volume. So if you start
reading an afterward and feel a rush
of deja vu, well, hang in there.
It'll pass.)
Many of you know Tanner—indeed, I
get regular requests for a new
Tanner novel—but some of you may not
have encountered him before, so let
me say a word or two to either whet
or deaden your appetite. Evan
Michael Tanner (and I include the
middle name because Google will tell
you, if you let it, about one Evan
Lloyd Tanner, who's a prominent
figure in the field of mixed martial
arts) is a veteran of the Korean War
who lost the ability to sleep in
that conflict and has been awake
ever since. He has a passion for
lost causes, ranging from the
restoration of the House of Stuart
to the Flat Earth Society, and his
facility for languages (plus all
that extra time to study them) has
rendered him fluent in just about
everything. He earns his living by
taking tests and writing theses for
collegians with more money than
brains, and functions as a sort of
free-lance spy / secret agent under
the nominal control of an agency so
secret that the CIA doesn't even
know it exists.
I wrote seven books about him during
the 1960s, and caught up with him
again in 1998. If you're meeting him
for the first time, I hope you find
him good company. And if you're
hoping for a new Tanner adventure,
well, a month ago I'd have told you
not to hold your breath. But lately
I find myself wondering. . .
Oh, before I forget.
The bookstore is closed until we
return in mid-July, but it's open
for orders in the meantime; you'll
probably receive, in addition to the
usual automatic system-generated
acknowledgement, an email from David
Trevor telling you as much. Orders
will be processed in order of
receipt, so in the case of items in
short supply, the early bird will
get the worm. And of course your
credit card won't be charged until
David is ready to ship your order.
LB
Lawrence Block
LB@lawrenceblock.com |
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I don't know that it's really time
for a newsletter, but I'll use any
excuse to tell you that I logged
70.21 miles at the 24-hour race in
Minnesota June 2-3. That's almost
four miles more than my previous
record, and the attendant sense of
accomplishment has already outlasted
the aches and pains. I've got a
marathon coming up in Alaska in two
weeks, but it's only a marathon.
(Perhaps the best thing about doing
longer races is that you get to drop
the phrase "only a marathon" into
your conversations.) End of July
there'll be another 24-hour race,
this one in Massachusetts. And after
that. . .
 Still,
I do have a couple of other things
to tell you. First, we've got a new
item available at the website
bookstore. Back in 1999, Lynne and I
were invited to contribute a short
story to Till Death Do Us Part,
an anthology of stories by crime
writers and their spouses. Lynne
said we should do it, and I said
fine, think of a plot, figuring that
would be the last I'd hear of it. So
she came back with a story idea, and
I had to admit it was a good one,
with a brand new murder method. Now
do the research, I said, and damned
if she didn't do that, too. So I
really had to write the story, and I
called it
"The
Burglar Who Smelled Smoke,"
by Lynne Wood Block and Lawrence
Block. It turned out to be a Bernie
Rhodenbarr locked-room puzzle, and
before it appeared in the anthology
I placed it with Mary Higgins
Clark's Mystery Magazine, of
blessed memory. Later I tucked it
into Enough Rope, and Mike
Ashley chose it for a UK anthology
of locked-room mysteries. So it's
been well received, and has had a
decent run.
It also had an overrun. The magazine
published it as a pamphlet, roughly
5" x 8", which was bound into the
center of the magazine as a special
bonus. Eventually the magazine
failed, and the editor, in the
course of cleaning out a storeroom,
came across a box of copies of the
pamphlet and was thoughtful enough
to send them to me. I thanked her
sincerely and effusively, stuck the
box in the closet, and forgot about
it altogether.
Well, I came across it recently, and
realized I had a dandy item here,
and am pleased to offer it for your
consideration. The price is a mere
ten dollars, and for that you get a
copy of a genuine collaborative
effort signed by both of the
collaborators. I have a good supply
of these, thanks to that thoughtful
editor, but I thought I had a good
supply of the broadsides, and they
were gone in twenty-four hours
(about as long as it takes me to
walk 70.21 miles, come to think of
it). I doubt these will disappear
that quickly, but a word to the wise
and all that. . .
Speaking of short stories, one of
you wrote to say it would be nice if
I could give you all a heads-up when
I've got a new one coming out. Well,
I did place three with Ellery
Queen's Mystery Magazine
recently. One, "A Vision in
White," appeared a month or two
ago, but the others should turn up
in print in the next few months. One
is a chapter from HIT PARADE
that everybody seemed particularly
fond of—"Keller the Dogkiller."
The other is new, and called "A
Chance to Get Even."
My writing plans for the coming week
include an afterword for EIGHT
MILLION WAYS TO DIE. The book
was first published twenty-five
years ago, and HarperCollins is
celebrating with a new edition of
the book in hardcover. It's targeted
primarily at libraries, but there'll
be copies distributed to stores, and
I'm going to see if we can offer
signed copies through
LB's Bookstore. This
particular novel is tough to find,
and I've seen nice copies of the
first edition priced in excess of
$1000, with even second printings
and bookclub editions commanding a
hefty premium. While a new hardcover
printing won't suit the hard-core
first edition enthusiast, it'll do
fine for those of you who would just
like to have a well-bound hardcover
volume for your shelves. I'll keep
you posted as to pub date and
availability.
I'm going to turn the podium over to
the invaluable David Trevor, who has
some things to tell you about new
developments at the bookstore.
LB
Click here for LB's Bookstore.
Invaluable? I don't think anybody
ever called me that before.
Now what new developments can I tell
you about?
Well, the reading copies we listed
in the last newsletter turned out to
be very popular. These are UK
paperbacks at $5 apiece, and we're
already sold out of two titles,
THE BURGLAR IN THE RYE and
THE BURGLAR WHO TRADED TED WILLIAMS.
I expect titles will come and go on
this list, disappearing as they're
sold out, popping up when more
copies come to light in a darkened
corner of the warehouse. Check in
from time to time and see what we've
got.
One thing LB pointed out was that
when one of you orders a whole batch
of titles, the shipping costs mount
up apace. Here's what we're doing:
when our standard shipping costs
strike me as inequitably high, I'll
reduce them. There's no
hard-and-fast formula for this, but
let me just say that if you order
ten reading copies at $5 each, we
won't charge you the prescribed $50
to ship them.
CLEVELAND IN MY DREAMS—DVD We
were backordered on this item, but
our supplier came through, and we've
filled all our orders and have stock
on hand. If you've been waiting for
your copy, rest assured it's on its
way. If you've been meaning to
order, well, now's a good time.
LB IN TRANSLATION For a few
years now we've been offering copies
of LB's books in other languages,
but without giving you much choice.
You could specify the language, and
I'd pick out a title, and our price
was $10 a book. We did in fact sell
some books this way, but we thought
about it, and decided you shouldn't
have to buy a pig in a poke. (Or a
cochon, or a schwein, or a sertés,
or a cerdo, or. . .oh, never mind.)
So I've started listing individual
titles in various languages, and
while I was at it I decided the hell
with it and cut the price in half to
$5. It's going to be a job listing
everything, but for now I've got
titles listed in French, Polish, and
Japanese, and there'll be more added
whenever I can find the time.
(Actually finding the time is easy;
taking the time is something else
again.) Most of these titles are in
very short supply, so you might want
to include alternates when you
order. Again, if your order is
large, we'll be giving you a break
on the shipping charges.
I can't think of anything else, and
maybe that's enough for now. I have
a feeling I'm going to be very busy
all week shipping "The Burglar
Who Smelled Smoke." Oh,
well. It's all just part of being
invaluable.
Gee. Invaluable. . .Wait until I
tell my Mom.
David Trevor for Lawrence
Block
DT@lawrenceblock.com
www.lawrenceblock.com
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BROADSIDES REVISITED
That sounds like an Evelyn Waugh novel, doesn't it?
I refer, of course, to the limited edition broadside
from Lavendier Press that I offered in a recent
newsletter, and which astonished me by selling out
in both editions, numbered and lettered, in less
than twenty-four hours. I had no idea the little
darlings would fly out of here that quickly. The
publisher and I have been talking about another
broadside, perhaps next year, perhaps featuring
Matthew Scudder. I'll let you know if it happens.
Meanwhile, let me turn this over to David Trevor,
who processes and packs your orders and has some
things to tell you.
LB
WOULD I LIE TO YOU?
LB was genuinely surprised when the broadsides moved
so quickly. I have to say I was not. They're a great
item at a reasonable price, and you're bright folks,
so why wouldn't you all snap them up in a hurry? We
also had a heartening response to the
Telling Lies deal—a trade paperback and a tape
set, all for $20—but we still have a good supply of
the book and the tape, so feel free to order. And
you might want to add a copy of the Mundis
Writer's Block book while you're at it.
READING COPIES
Most of the books we offer are first edition
hardcovers; some of them are scarcer than others,
but all of them have collector value to one extent
or another. But we've got
a fair amount of shelf space devoted to books
that we never get around to listing, because they're
reading copies—nice clean new editions, but with no
collector value. I've been badgering LB to let me
try to move some of these, and I've finally worn him
down. These are all UK paperbacks—come to think of
it, I believe one of them is an Australian
edition—and the format is slightly larger than US
mass-market paperback size, and yes, of course,
they'll all be signed. Most of the Scudder series is
represented, along with a couple of Burglars, and
I'll add more titles if and when other treasures
turn up in the warehouse.
The price is $5 apiece plus shipping. I don't know
that they'll ever be worth a farthing more than
that, but you'll never see them cheaper, and they do
make splendid gifts. Some of the titles, I should
add, are in fairly short supply.
Click here for LB's Bookstore.
THIS JUST IN. . .
LB just asked that I let everybody know that the
mass market paperback edition of
HIT PARADE is a June release from HarperCollins,
and should be on bookstore shelves now. My thought
is that all of you already own the book in
hardcover, but I may be wrong, and you may want a
copy for a friend—or copies for friends, if you've
got more than one. There—you've been told. And buy
all you want of these, as I won't be stuck with
packing and shipping them, will I?
David Trevor for Lawrence Block
DT@lawrenceblock.com
www.lawrenceblock.com
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I know, I know. I never
write, I never call. I can
explain. It's a lame excuse,
I know, but here it is:
I've been busy.
Back in early February I was
a guest on
Craig Ferguson's Late Late
Show on CBS. I'd
just finished racewalking a
marathon in Huntington
Beach, California, and that
was all I wanted to talk
about, Craig's valiant
efforts to talk about my
next new book
notwithstanding. (We did
talk some about
LUCKY AT CARDS, just
out from Hard Case Crime,
but I had nothing to report
on what I'd be doing next,
or when it might appear like
Athena, sprung full-blown
from the head of moi.) "Stop
walking," Craig demanded,
"and write the damn book."
Well, I didn't stop walking.
End of February Lynne and I
flew down to New Orleans,
where I completed the
marathon. It was, let me
just say, something of an
ordeal. Back at our
lodgings, Lynne packed for
her flight home while I
pulled off my bloody socks
and wrote the book. (UK
readers take note: "Bloody"
in the previous sentence is
descriptive, not
pejorative.)
It went, I'm pleased to tell
you, remarkably well.
(Better, I assure you, than
the bloody marathon.) I was
determined to be a good
Spartan soldier and come
back with my shield or on
it. I came back with it, and
its title is HIT AND RUN,
and it will be published
next spring by William
Morrow in the States and
Orion across the pond.
As the title might lead you
to suspect, it's the fourth
volume of the Keller
trilogy. As you might be
less likely to guess, it's a
departure for the series.
The earlier books,
Hit Man and
Hit List and
Hit Parade, have all
been episodic in structure,
to one degree or another.
While I tend to think of
them as episodic novels, I
don't start banging my head
when some readers describe
them as linked short
stories. But HIT AND RUN
is just one single story,
and those who've read it
tell me it's more involving
and suspenseful than its
predecessors. (I can't
actually tell, you know. I'm
the one writing the thing,
so I'm not gnawing my nails
worrying about what might
happen to the characters.
I'm more likely to worry
about what might happen to
me if I don't get the thing
written, which is all the
suspense I require, thank
you very much.)
 So
that's the story,
and you'll have to
wait twelve months
or so for it. You'll
have a shorter wait
for
MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS,
the film I wrote
with and for the
brilliant director
Wong Kar-Wai. It's
completed, and
should open before
the year is out. But
you don't have to
wait that long; just
pop over to France
the week after next,
when it's slated to
be the opening event
at the Cannes Film
Festival.
Yeah, honestly. It's
WKW's first
English-language
film, and it's just
loaded with a cast
of unknowns like
Norah Jones, Jude
Law, Rachel Weisz,
David Strathairn,
Tim Roth, and
Natalie Portman. The
actors in WKW's
films—2046, most
recently—always wind
up looking gorgeous,
and these people are
eye candy to begin
with, so we know
it'll be beautiful
to look at. As for
how much of what I
wrote will wind up
on the screen, well,
I won't know until I
see it. WKW has
never really worked
with a formal script
before, he tends to
let the story evolve
during the filming
process, so I'll be
eager to view the
finished product.
But not in Cannes.
I'll wait and see it
when it opens here,
because I've got a
24-hour race coming
up the first weekend
in June, and I can't
convince myself that
jet lag would add
anything to the
experience of
walking endless laps
of Lake Nokomis.
Anything good, that
is.
Click here for
IMDB's My Blueberry
Nights listing.
What else? There are a
couple more things I could
tell you about, including a
limited-edition broadside
we'll have available
shortly, but they'll wait
for the next newsletter. For
which, I assure you, y'all
won't have to wait as long
as you did for this one.
LB
Lawrence Block's Winter
Newsletter
Hello
there. Back in the day (which we used to call
something else, but what was it? Back in the old
days? Back in the Pleistocene Era? Way back when?
Never mind) I used to send out a Groundhog's Day
newsletter, it being a favorite holiday of mine.
Well, it's that time of year again, isn't it? So,
whether what we get six more weeks of is winter or
football, I want to wish you the joys of the day.
And, while I'm at it, why don't I pass along a
couple of announcements?
1. I'm
off to California, where I'll be walking in yet
another marathon. (The one in Mississippi in
mid-January went very well, thank you. I had a good
time, and I had a good time. The only problem lay in
the fact that my motel was adjacent to a Waffle
House. Someday I'd like to come home from a marathon
weighing no more than I did before the race.) After
the marathon I'll be
guesting on Craig Ferguson's Late Late Show on CBS
on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, Feb 7 at 12:30
am.
Click here for more info on LUCKY AT CARDS.
2. And what will I be doing on the show? Well, I
have a feeling we'll mostly be talking about
marathons and ultras, but you may be sure that I'll
be plugging the latest book,
LUCKY AT CARDS, just out in mass-market
paperback from Hard Case Crime, with a glorious
noir-era cover and some remarkable reviews. The
first printing sold out before the book went on
sale, but you shouldn't have trouble finding copies.
It was first published under a pen name and with a
terrible title a little over forty years ago. (I was
only eleven years old, and disgustingly precocious.)
How nice to see it get a second chance—hope you get
hold of a copy, and that you enjoy it.
LB
Lawrence Block's Summer 2006
Newsletter
WFYL is Write
For Your Life, the
revolutionary seminar
for writers (think
Inner Game of Writing)
that LB developed and
presented back in the
day. It's also the book
version of that seminar
he self-published to
make the material
accessible for everyone,
and in that form it's
very much a collector's
item—we still have a few
copies in
LB's Bookstore @ $100.
And now (flourish of
trumpets, clash of
cymbals) it's a
HarperCollins e-book,
and you can get it for a
very low price. It lists
at $9.95, which isn't
all that high to begin
with, and right now it's
on special at $7.96.
Best place to get it is
HC's own
perfectbound.com.
While you're there,
check out LB's other
titles available in this
format. Perfectbound's
offering thirty Lawrence
Block books, all at low
prices. If e-books work
for you, here they are.
And if you've been
thinking about this
medium, maybe now's a
good time to get your
feet wet.
What else can I tell
you? I'll be adding a
batch of titles to LB's
Bookstore, but they're
not up yet; I'll let you
know when that happens.
CLEVELAND IN MY
DREAMS, the
29-minute DVD, is back
in stock here after a
rash of orders left us
back-ordered for a week
or so there. In answer
to a batch of recent
emails, I should tell
you that LB's not
touring for
HIT PARADE,
as he's very busy with
the film he's been
writing (My Blueberry
Nights, to be
directed by Wong Kar-Wai,
starring Norah Jones and
featuring Rachel Weisz,
Natalie Portman, Jude
Law, and a few others of
their ilk). He'll tell
you more as soon as I
can get him to write a
newsletter.
His only appearances
for HIT PARADE
will be a pair in
New York on July 5 (Bryant
Park in the
afternoon,
Partners & Crime
in the evening) and
one in Los Angeles on
July 8 (The
Mystery Bookstore
at 4 pm). LB will be
on
The Late Late Show
with Craig Ferguson
the night before his
LA event, so catch him
on the tube if you can't
get to the store.
Click here for LB's
Bookstore.
I was supposed to make this
short, so I'll stop now. We
just wanted to let you know
about the e-book.
David Trevor for Lawrence
Block
DT@lawrenceblock.com
www.lawrenceblock.com
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Lawrence Block's Spring 2006
Newsletter
I
What can I say? I seem to have gone longer between
newsletters than Mick Ballou between confessions.
I'd say I've been busy, but, see, I haven't, not
really. I'm busy right now, busier than I've been in
ages, as I'll explain in a little while. But you
know what they say—if you want to get something
done, assign the task to a busy man. So here I am,
busy as a toothless beaver, with plenty to report:
1.
HIT PARADE, the third Keller novel, will be out
July 4 from Morrow/HarperCollins. The first trade
review, from Booklist, is a rave, but why
take their word for it? Buy the book and judge for
yourself. (And, if you'd like a preview, check out
the Ed McBain novella collection, Transgressions,
or the June issue of Playboy.)
Click here for more Keller novel info.
 2.
You don't have to wait until July for
MANHATTAN NOIR, my new anthology with all-new
stories by Charles Ardai, Carol Lea Benjamin, Thomas
H. Cook, Jeffery Deaver, Jim Fusilli, Robert
Knightly, John Lutz, Liz Martinez, Maan Meyers,
Martin Meyers, S.J. Rozan, Justin Scott, C.J.
Sullivan, Xu Xi, and, well, moi. It's in bookstores
now, and here's where I'll be to celebrate:
Thursday, April 6, 7 pm
Barnes & Noble, Union Square
33 E 17th Street
New York NY 10003
with Carol Lea Benjamin, Tom Cook, Jim Fusilli, and
SJ Rozan
Wednesday, April 12, 7:30 pm
Barnes & Noble, Park Slope
267 Seventh Avenue
Brooklyn NY
with Tom Cook and Marty & Annette Meyers
It's a remarkably good anthology, and a worthy
addition to Akashic's celebrated Urban Noir series—Brooklyn
Noir, Baltimore Noir, DC Noir, Dublin Noir. .
.can Grover's Corners Noir be far behind? I
hope some of you can make it to one of the signings,
and that the rest of you enjoy the stories.
Click here for more
info on all the anthologies LB has edited.
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