Lawrence BlockLawrence Block News Update January 1999
Here’s a schedule for a week of readings and signings in Florida. What better place to run around signing books in January?

I’ve included phone numbers, and it’s a good idea to call the stores to confirm time and date. I’ll be signing Dutton’s reissue of THE BURGLAR WHO PAINTED LIKE MONDRIAN, the fifth of the Bernie Rhodenbarr books and the final volume in Dutton’s series of hardcover reissues. (MONDRIAN is the series favorite of several readers, including Ann Romeo and Charles Ardai.) I’ll also be signing the three (!) new books published in 1998 --- HIT MAN, TANNER ON ICE, and EVERYBODY DIES.
Which makes this a good time to tell you (or remind you) about my policy at signings. If you’re a collector with a sack (or a box or a handtruck) full of copies of my work, or if you’re a dealer serving the aftermarket with a trunkful of remainders, I’ll be more than happy to accommodate you---but here are the rules:
1. I’ll happily sign any books, hardcover or paperback, purchased that day from the dealer sponsoring the signing.
2. For everything else, I’ll sign three (3) items for every new hardcover book of mine purchased from the sponsoring bookstore the day of the signing. If you’d like those three old paperbacks signed, fine. Just buy a book. If you’d like those forty copies of THE BURGLAR WHO THOUGHT HE WAS BOGART signed, glad to oblige. Just buy 14 books.
AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND. As many of you know, Lynne and I are enthusiastic if not compulsive travelers. September took us to Central Asia, where we had a wonderful time visiting the Five Stans. (A humbling experience, too; one of our fellow travelers visited his 226th country when we all crossed into Turkmenistan, and went on to log three more after we gave up and went home. Made us feel like stay-at-homes.) And since then I managed some promotional travel to Belfast, London and Manchester, where I got a heartening reception and had, as always, a terrific time.
We want to go everywhere, and the lands Down Under have been high on our list for several years now. This May, thanks to a couple of invitations, we get to do it. We’ll be at the Sydney Writers Festival May 17-23 and the Auckland Writers Festival the following week, and plan on a couple of weeks of sightseeing beforehand. When I have some more information on times and dates and places, I’ll send it on --- in a mailing to newsletter subscribers in Australia and New Zealand, and in a posting right here.
The next new book will be THE BURGLAR IN THE RYE, coming in July from Dutton in the US and No Exit in the UK. The Dutton catalog heralds it as "Lawrence Block's only new book for 1999!" which makes me wonder if I might not have been a tad overproductive lately. Never mind.
Actually, there are a couple of other books coming, with Crippen & Landru's edition of ONE NIGHT STANDS expected sometime in February. It's a collection of my early stories, those which I did not include in any of my three collections. They're early work, and probably not very good, and I wasn't sure whether I ought to publish them at all. I decided a volume of them might be of interest to collectors and specialists, so I authorized a limitied edition but not a paperback reader's edition. There will be approx. 400 copies printed, and the price will be approx. $40-45. To find out more, or place an order, or both: CrippenL@pilot.infi.net This publisher's limited editions always sell out, so, if this sounds like something you have to have, I'd suggest quick action.
THREESOME, Jim Seels' long-awaited edition of an early pseudonymous work, is still long-awaited. Should be out sometime in June. I'll keep you posted.
Bookmark this page for future postings. If you'd like to get announcements of this sort by e-mail, just e-mail me at LawBloc@aol.com. If you'd like the full snail-mail newsletter once or twice a year, include your name and snail- mail address.

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