Lawrence Block News Update May 1999
Hello there! It's been a while, and I'm a little rushed, trying to get ready to leave for Australia and New Zealand in early May, and at the same time scheduling a book tour in the States for The Burglar in the Rye. Here are a few things I need to tell you. (Whether or not you need to know them, of course, is not for me to say. . .)
I'll be at the Sydney Writers' Festival May 19-21, with the following events scheduled: Thu, May 20, 3 pm, Dymocks Bookstore. I'll be doing a reading. Thu, May 20, 6-7:45 pm, The Basement, 29 Reiby Place, Sydney. On-stage conversation with Stuart Coupe. Sat, May 22, 10-11:30 am, Sydney Dance Company, Studio 4. No fear, I won't be dancing, but will be on a panel with Garry Disher and Dave Warner. For further info about any of these events, contact Meredith Curnow (Tel 02 9566 4108, swf@zip.com.au)
I'll be making a couple of appearances in Melbourne immediately after the Sydney festival: Sat, May 22, 7 pm. Reading/signing at Borders Books, 500 Chapel St, South Yarra Sun, May 23, 2 pm. Readings Bookstore event, discussion w/ Shane Moloney @ Comedy Club, 380 Lygon St, Carlton. For further info contact Catherine Swan (catherines@allen-unwin.com.au)
I have the following scheduled at the Auckland Writers' Festival: Fri, May 28. Panel discussions at 7:30 am, 2:30 pm and 8 pm, all at the Princes Ballroom of the Hyatt Regency, Auckland. Sat, May 29, 3:45 pm. On-stage talk with Gordon McLauchlan at Old Government House, University of Auckland.
For further info contact Penny Hansen (Tel 64.9.630.0335, hansen@prolink.co.nz)
The collection of my hitherto uncollected early stories, One Night Stands, came out in late March from Crippen & Landru. I don't know that the stories are any good at all, but the book is lovely. It is also, alas, gone; available only as a limited edition hard cover, it sold out before it was printed. This doesn't mean it's unobtainable, as some copies sold to dealers, who will very likely be perfectly happy to sell one to you. If this is something you have to have, check with your mystery bookseller.
Another limited edition, long overdue, is Threesome, an anonymous erotic tour de force I originally published under a pen name. It's due any day now as a joint venture of Jim Seels' ASAP Press and Bill Schafer's Subterranean Press. There'll be a limited edition at $75 and a deluxe collector's edition at $150. For info or to order, contact Seels (Tel: 949.455.1319, fax: 949.455.1359, Email: asap-publishing@home.com)
The next book out, due in July from Dutton, is The Burglar in the Rye. (Their catalog has been heralding the book as "Lawrence Block's only new title for 1999!) which gives one pause. Are they trying to tell me something? Have I of late been a tad too prolific? Never mind.)
Just to give you an inkling, the book concerns a woman who had an affair as a teenager with a charismatic but reclusive American novelist. And this same writer's agent has now decided to offer his personal correspondence with at public auction. (Some of you may think of Salinger, others of Pynchon, but the man in question is actually Gulliver Fairborn, who's first novel, Nobody's Baby, changed the life of every seventeen-year-old who ever read it.)
Does this sound like a job for Bernie? You bet it does, and I had fun with it, and wish you the same. I'm going to be touring for the book, and, because anything worth doing is worth doing to excess, I'll be on the road for most of July and September, driving back and forth across America and concentrating largely on smaller cities and places I haven't been before. I'm still working on the schedule even as we speak, but I'll let you know about it well in advance, probably in early June as soon as I'm back from Down Under.
There'll be a full snail-mail newsletter right around that time, too, with a certain amount of stuff that doesn't fit in these e-mail (web) updates. The snail-mail newsletter goes out once or twice a year, and it's free. If you've already received it, you'll keep getting future issues as long as I have your current address. If you don't get it but would like to, here's how:
(A) If you've received this update by e-mail, hit Reply and send me the following message, along with your name and address: "I am on your E-list and would like to be on your snail-list."
(B) If you're reading this on a web site, post this message to LawBloc@aol.com: "I read your April update on line and would like to be on your E and snail lists." And enclose your name and address.
Speaking of web sites, here's a link to mine: Tangled Web UK Author Profile Directory
Other things I've been meaning to mention: Avon had great success with Hit Man --- five printings so far, and the book had a nice run on several national bestseller lists. I never thought I'd be writing a second book about Keller, but then I never thought I'd be writing the first book. He started out as the protagonist of one short story, and I never expected to meet him again. Go know. I'm happy to say that a sequel to Hit Man is in the works, and ought to be out of the works in time for publication sometime in 2000.
Ronald Rabbit is a Dirty Old Man, an epistolary erotic comic novel (oh, right, yet another epistolary erotic comic novel) was published in a limited edition by Jim Seels a few years ago. It'll be reissued by Subterranean Press as a trade paperback sometime soon --- details when I have them. And two Matthew Scudder titles are coming out in trade pb format from Avon --- A Long Line of Dead Men and The Devil Knows You're Dead.
Enough! Hope to see some of you in Oz or En Zed, others during the summer tour we're calling The Burglar On The Road, and the rest of you somewhere in cyberspace.
Larry