Ah, hello there! I hope you like this template. I found it irresistible, perhaps because it reminds me of our storeroom, piled high with books. For months now the inestimable David Trevor has been alternately threatening and promising to offer up some of our choicest items at auction, and wouldn’t you know it? He’s finally come through, and a thief’s dozen of our very best went up for bids Tuesday evening. There’s plenty of time, the eBay auctioneer’s gavel doesn’t drop until sometime Sunday—but there’s no time to waste.A thief’s dozen? Eleven items? Oh, I get it.I’m glad to hear it. I got the phrase from Donald Westlake, who coined Thieves’ Dozen for a collection of 11 Dortmunder stories. But let’s steal our way back to the subject at hand. Here’s what David found for y’all:
The Burglar in the Closet and The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, first printings of the Random House first editions. First editions of each of the three Paul Kavanagh novels, Such Men Are Dangerous, The Triumph of Evil, and Not Comin’ Home to You. The Dell first edition of Scudder #3, In the Midst of Death. The Gold Medal first edition of The Specialists. A library reference volume from the Contemporary Authors Autobiography series, with a 10,000-word memoir of mine that has appeared nowhere else. A first edition of my first hardcover novel, Deadly Honeymoon. A signed-and-numbered small-press limited edition of Random Walk.
That’s only ten.
What did I forget? Oh, right. A mint first printing of Eight Million Ways to Die.
Follow the links to the individual listings for full and precise descriptions. All books are autographed, as you very likely imagined. And all lots are offered without reserve, with a 99¢ opening bid.
Well, I’ll probably have to pay more than 99¢ for Eight Million Ways to Die. But that’s okay. What’s next? Audio?
Sure, why not? I’ve begun self-publishing audiobooks through Audible’s ACX division, and I’m sure I’ve told you about Mike Dennis’s iconic rendition of Borderline, which went on sale the end of June. It’s since been joined by Thirty, the first of three Jill Emerson ventures in literary erotica for Berkley in the form of a diary covering a woman’s thirtieth year. Voice artist Emily Beresford loved the book, and it shows in her sensitive and spirited narration. (Emily’s current project is Jill’s first book, Warm and Willing, and I’ll be eager to see—no, better make that hear—what she does with it.)
I blogged recently about Jill Emerson’s entire body of work, and won’t repeat that here. But I will say, as I said a few days ago to my Goodreads followers, that Thirty has been largely neglected by reviewers. ACX furnished me with a small batch of one-time download codes, and I’m happy to distribute them while they last. You’ll get the audiobook free of charge, and all I ask in return is that you contrive to review it somewhere—at Amazon, at Audible, on your blog, or all of the above. (I wouldn’t presume to tell you what to say about the book, or how many stars to give it—though I’d certainly hope you’ll elect to err on the side of enthusiasm. Jill’s one of my favorite people, and she’s flat-out mad for stars.)
We gave away free downloads for Borderline, and they didn’t last long. I don’t expect these will either. For your free download of Thirty, just send an email requesting it to lawbloc@gmail.com. Either David or I will get your code to you….while supplies last, that is.
[[[Note: They didn’t last, but were all snapped up within 90 minutes!]]]
Also coming soon is Defender of the Innocent: The Casebook of Martin Ehrengraf. Subterranean Press will publish their handsome hardcover edition on September 30th, and right around that time we’ll be releasing ebook and audio versions. (Don Sobczak has already delivered the audio, and I think you’ll enjoy how he’s voiced the little lawyer.) The stories in the new book are neither a thief’s nor a baker’s dozen; there are twelve of them, and two make their first appearance here.
Great. Two down, one to go. Tell us about the film, will you? Puh-leeze?
Unless you’ve spent the past month in one of those sensory-deprivation tanks, floating your troubles away, you’ve probably been blitzed to a fare-thee-well by lobby cards and trailers and bus-and-subway posters and TV commercials, all in aid of A Walk Among the Tombstones, which we insiders call AWATT to save a few pixels. It’s based on the tenth Matthew Scudder novel, it’s the brilliant work of writer/director Scott Frank, and stars Liam Neeson; the supporting cast includes Dan Stevens, Boyd Holbrook, Seb Roché, Brian “Astro” Bradley, David Harbour, and Danielle Rose Russell. It opens worldwide Friday September 19, and a week or so later Liam Neeson will present AWATT in the Gala Premieres section of the Zurich Film Festival.
And yes, it’s very exciting. I like everything about the picture, not least of all the outstanding score. The opening’s over three weeks away, and it’s already driving book sales. Hard Case Crime’s mass-market tie-in edition, with the movie poster on its cover, went on sale yesterday, and should be all over supermarket and airport racks as well as chain and indy bookstores. Trade paperback and audio editions are selling briskly, and the ebook is striding toward bestseller status on Kindle and Nook. (If an autograph’s important to you, we’ve got a limited number of signed trade paperbacks in LB’s eBay Bookstore, for the list price of $14.99.)
I bet they’re talking about a sequel, aren’t they?
Liam has said he’d like to do another, and Scott’s been thinking series all along, even as a number of Gentle Readers have stepped up to urge their favorite books on us. At this stage, however, it all seems a bit previous; how AWATT does at the box office will be the chief determinant as far as sequels are concerned.
Meanwhile, I’m off to Los Angeles soon for a guest spot on The Late Late Show on CBS with Craig Ferguson. That’ll be Wednesday night, September 10, and after a couple of days talking to film and TV people, I fly back home for the AWATT opening. This is as close as my life gets to glamour and excitement, and I intend to enjoy every minute of it until my limo turns back into a mouse-drawn pumpkin.
Cheers!
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.
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