Here’s a newsletter that just went out to subscribers:

Ah, hello there. I hope your Thanksgiving was joyous, and that you fortified yourselves sufficiently at table to perform heroically on Black Friday. And CyberMonday—Open Road marked that occasion by dropping prices on 40+ backlist titles of mine by an astonishing 80%. Quite a few of you backed up the eTruck and loaded up, esp. on those early pseudonymous titles that are easily overlooked.

And here it is, Orange Wednesday. The prices, alas, are back to normal, but they’re still reasonable enough. Here are links to Kindle and Nook, and you can find them on all other eBook platforms as well.

Quite a few of you have found a moment to order the Limited Philatelic Edition of Hit Me. The book’s at the printer, and should be coming off press soon; if you’ve placed your order, you’ve probably already received your complimentary souvenir sheet, Stamps from the Keller Collection, and I trust it’s sharpened your appetite for the actual book.

Some Hit Me news: (1) I announced early on that the Philatelic Edition would be limited to a maximum of 1000 copies. By the time we put in our order to the printer, we reduced that limit to 500, and more than half of those are gone. (2) When we had to abandon our initial plans for a slipcase in order to stay on schedule, we decided to include a second specimen of the souvenir sheet, this one favor-canceled with a custom “Keller Cancel.” It’s our gift to you, and you’ll find it when you open the book.

We’ve been getting a steady stream of orders, and the generous plug in Michael Baadke’s editorial in the December 3 Linn’s can only increase sales. Advance reviews keep coming in, including (minutes ago as I write this) a starred review in Library Journal: “VERDICT: In the fifth entry in the Keller series, the appealing antihero with his own moral code continues to dig into the motives of his distant employers and make his own decisions about who deserves to die. But stamp collecting is more than just a secondary theme here, and Block’s discourses about the history behind stamps are vivid enough to pique the interest even of those not at all inclined toward the hobby. Master mystery writer Block is at the top of his form.”

The blogosphere is taking notice, too. So, while we have plenty of books left, I don’t know how long they’ll last. You might want to order now.

For a change of pace, why don’t I give something away? For two days only, beginning at 3am Eastern time Thursday, November 29, 3 is Not a Crowd by John Warren Wells is absolutely free on Kindle. It’s regularly $4.99, and that’s the price it will return to at 2:59am Saturday, but you can download it at no cost during that 48-hour window.

The book consists of detailed interviews with the members of four threesomes. John Warren Wells is not everybody’s cup of tea (or five-hour energy drink), but a free book’s the best way to find out for yourself, and this particular book is a personal favorite. I had occasion to read it prior to its Kindle publication a few months ago, and found the four stories more involving than I would have guessed.

Here’s a link to amazon.com. The free deal’s good worldwide, so look for it as amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.es, amazon.fr, amazon.it, or amazon.jp; rather than post endless links, I’ll leave it to you to find your way to the appropriate site and page. You are, after all, a resourceful lot.

There’s a lot more about JWW, including a list of the 17 books now eVailable and the surprising afterword to Different Strokes, at John Warren Wells’ Page. Different Strokes is $6.99, all the others are $4.99, and any of them may be “borrowed” at no cost by Amazon Prime members. Grab the freebie first, natch, before Orange Wednesday pumpkins out early Saturday morning. And if you like 3 is Not a Crowd, well, there’s plenty more where it came from.

I’ll wrap this up and get it into the eMailstream, if only because I like the title. Orange, after all, is the only word I know that rhymes with Wednesday…

LB

PS: As always, please feel free to forward this to anyone you think might find it of interest. And, if you’ve received the newsletter in that fashion from a friend and would like your own subscription, that’s easily arranged; a blank email to lawbloc@gmail.com with Newsletter in the subject line will get the job done.