When I hear those words, I generally figure the speaker’s good for another hour and a half, minimum. But I really will be brief. Just a few points to cover:

1. The Hard Case Crime / Subterranean Press double volume of Strange Embrace and 69 Barrow Street, two early pseudonymous efforts of mine, no sooner came off press than the publisher ordered another 2000 copies. The books should ship June 25-6. They may all be spoken for—the pair of cover paintings by Robert McGinnis does make the book hard to resist—but mystery specialty booksellers should have copies, and I believe Amazon is still taking pre-orders.

2. For years now, Jerrold Mundis’s Break Writer’s Block Now! has been the bestselling item in LB’s Bookstore. At the prodding of my occasionally annoying assistant, I’ve dropped the price from $14.99 clear down to $5.99. That may be all you need to know to order this invaluable little book, but I’ve plenty more to say on the subject, newly posted on the A Few Words for Writers page.

3. Bookstore titles keep coming (as we add new ones) and going (as you snap them up). We held the special price of After Hours at $4.99 until the last one was sold, and I hope you were able to get a copy. We still have a good supply of The Specialists at $4.99. Several of our $9.99 Large Print books sold out right away, so we cracked another box and put up some new ones. The hardcover first edition of The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza drew a lot of orders when we dropped the price to $9.99; that’s prompted us to offer another special, one that deserves a number of its own:

4. The Burglar in the Rye is the favorite Bernie Rhodenbarr book for a lot of people; it’s the one with our hero acting on behalf of a writer who might remind you of J. D.Salinger, with an ex-girlfriend who might remind you of—oh,never mind. We’ve had it listed at $24.99, reasonable enough for a signed hardcover first, but we’re overstocked and I’ve just dropped the price—as of this moment, actually—to $9.99.

5. Last week’s free one-day Kindle download of an Ehrengraf story got a good response, and the complete eBook of 11 stories, Ehrengraf For the Defense, is selling at a gratifying pace. You can expect more free downloads from time to time; just Follow LB’s Blog and you’ll always know what’s coming.

And that’s a wrap. See? I told you I’d be brief…

LB