Who, Linda Shepard? She’s actually a real person?
If only. No, the book’s heroine, Linda Shepard, has always been the product of a 21-year-old’s overactive imagination. The book she starred in, Campus Tramp, was my first novel for Nightstand Books and marked the debut of Andrew Shaw. It became a cult classic at Antioch College, if nowhere else in the world, and brought a high price at senior sales in Yellow Springs until the era of self-publishing allowed me to make it available in ebook and paperback form.
But now—well, see for yourself:
Now it’s a T-shirt.
And a fine-looking one at that. Harold W. McCauley was Nightstand’s go-to cover guy in their early years, and his art brightens many of Andrew Shaw’s covers; always excellent, he really brought his A-game to Campus Tramp. And either he or his art director must have been familiar with Antioch College, because he painted a surprisingly accurate rendition of the college’s Main Building.
If I hadn’t decided to reserve the adjective for examples of Greek and Russian religious art, I’d call the cover iconic.
So it’s a great T-shirt, and P.J. Morgan really rocks it—just as she rocks the long-awaited audiobook of Campus Tramp.
Really? Campus Tramp’s available in audio?
It is, and it’s outstanding. That’s no great surprise, as this is the fourth book of mine voiced by P.J.
The others are—?
Two Jill Emerson titles, Shadows and A Madwoman’s Diary, and Passport to Peril, by Anne Campbell Clarke.
Wasn’t Shadows first published under a different name? Lesley Evans, IIRC? You know what that means, don’t you?
No, but I have a feeling you’ll tell me.
She’s been all your female pen names. Wait, there was another, wasn’t there? You republished it in the Collection of Classic Erotica, although I don’t know that it’s classic, or particularly erotic. “I Sell Love,” that’s the title, but I disremember who wrote it.
Um, I wrote it.
I meant—
I know what you meant. The pen name was Liz Crowley.
Well, I think you ought to get P.J. to narrate it.
I’m not sure it’s good enough to merit such treatment.
So? That’s never stopped you in the past.
Oh? Let’s move on, shall we? And we’ll keep the focus on audio for a paragraph or two. In the last newsletter, you’ll recall, I was delighted to let y’all know about Barbara Nevins Taylor’s splendid interpretation of A Week as Andrea Benstock. It’s moving nicely and picking up strong reviews, and I love when that happens.
Meanwhile, Theo Holland’s audiobooks of my Evan Tanner adventures have gone on finding their way into the hearts and minds—and ears!—of an ever-increasing audience. Now he’s getting some official recognition, and 
it’s about time. The eighth and final Tanner novel, Tanner on Ice, was shortlisted for Audio Thriller of the Year for the Audiobook Adrenaline Awards.
Is that a big deal?
I’d say so. Remember, I teamed up with Theo—as I’ve done with P.J. and Barbara and a batch of talented voice artists—to self-publish the audiobooks through Audible’s ACX division. It’s a marvelous opportunity for all concerned, but we can’t kid ourselves that we’re on an equal footing in the marketplace with major audio publishers like Recorded Books and Tantor. So when a self-published audiobook gets shortlisted for a prestigious award—yeah, I’d say it’s a big deal.
And it’s the final Tanner novel? Wait a minute, I remember the book. You wrote seven books about Tanner between 1966 and 1970, and in 1998 he returned in Tanner on Ice. He came back after 28 years!
I know. The man has the life cycle of a cicada.
That would make him due for a reappearance sometime in 2026. I can hardly wait!
Well, don’t hold your breath—or go without sleep. I have to say, though, that I suspect my future publications will be limited to ones that require no new writing on my part. Playing Games, an anthology to be published by 
Subterranean Press as a deluxe limited hardcover (and by Your Humble Anthologist as an ebook and paperback) is wrapping up nicely, with all the stories in hand and an artist at work on the cover. I’m proud to bring you new stories from Patricia Abbott, Charles Ardai, S.A. Cosby, Jeffery Deaver, Tod Goldberg, Jane Hamilton, James D.F. Hannah, Gar Anthony Haywood, Elaine Kagan, Avri Klemer, Joe R. Lansdale, Warren Moore, David Morrell, Kevin Quigley, and Wallace Stroby. And I’m also reprinting stories by two writers who are no longer inclined to sit down and write something new.
I’ve a feeling you’re one of them. Who’s the other?
The illustrious Robert Silverberg, with a haunting story about turtle races and precognition.
A natural combination. It’s nice the way you find ways to avoid writing anything. But you’ll have to provide an introduction, won’t you?
Don’t remind me. It’s in the works. But everything I try to write takes longer and uses up more energy than it used to. I noticed that in full measure writing an introduction for Otto Penzler’s American Mystery Classics edition of The Fabulous Clipjoint, Fredric Brown’s Edgar-winning first novel. It’s a book I’ve read several times over the years, and a few years ago I could have knocked out a solid intro in a couple of hours, and this time around it took three days. I guess it turned out all right; “As a tasty bonus,” Bill Ott wrote in Booklist, “this delicious reissue includes a charmingly anecdotal introduction by the inimitable Lawrence Block.”
Inimitable, eh?
Oui, c’est moi. And yet another way in which I can go on publishing without writing anything is by teaming up with translators and self-publishing books in translation.
Sort of like what you’ve been doing in audio with ACX.
Sort of. Due to the efforts of Stefan Mommertz and Sepp Leeb, my entire Matt Scudder series is now available in German in both ebook and paperback form, as are a growing number of books in the Keller and Bernie Rhodenbarr series. The latest Keller novel is Sepp’s Kellers Katastrophe (Hit and Run), while Bernie’s represented by Stefan’s Der Einbrecher, der sich für Bogart hielt (The Burglar who Thought he was Bogart).
Meanwhile, Luigi Garlaschelli has been doing his damnedest to make me a household name in Italy; Un Campo di Fiori Morti (All the Flowers Are Dying) has been well received, and he’s just delivered Aspettando il Buio (A Time to Scatter Stones); it’s in the pipeline now, and should be widely available within the next couple of weeks.
All of the German and Italian translations are readily available on all the Amazon sites, and on most other online platforms as well. The best way to find them quickly is to enter “Lawrence Block Sepp Leeb” (or, duh, “Lawrence Block Stefan Mommertz” or “Lawrence Block Luigi Garlaschelli”) into the online bookseller’s search bar.
And that’s it. It’s my pleasure to wish all of y’all a Happy Thanksgiving—and, given the ever-widening temporal gap between newsletters, I might as well extend wishes for a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, a Gleeful Purim, and an Ecologically Meaningful Arbor Day.
Cheers,
PS: As always, please feel free to forward this to anyone you think might find it of interest. And, if you yourself have received the newsletter from a friend and would like your own subscription, that’s easily arranged; an email to lawbloc@gmail.com with Newsletter in the subject line will get the job done.
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