are for kissing and to sing with
who cares if some oneeyed son of a bitch
invents an instrument to measure Spring with?
It was my introduction to E. E. Cummings. in 1954 I was killing time in my high school library, and I read those four lines in an article in either The Atlantic or Harper’s.
And they stayed with you.
Through thick and thin. I read a lot of Cummings over the years, but somehow I never could find the poem with that quatrain in it. It’s called “voices to voices, lip to lip,” it’s in a well-thumbed book of Cummings’s poems I’ve owned for decades, but I somehow never read it until I broke down and googled it earlier today.
Never mind. If there was a point to this, I’ve forgotten it. It’s spring, and it’s been a long time coming, and I don’t expect it’ll last as long as we might like.
So we should gather us rosebuds while we may?
Cumming, Suckling. “I’ll take Risqué Poetic Participles for $200, Alex.” Still, not a bad idea. I’d be out gathering some myself, as long as the rain holds off, but I’ve got a thing or two to share with y’all. It’s been ages since the last of these newsletters—
Because you’ve been busy gathering rosebuds?
Lately I’m more apt to sit pondering a book title of mine. You can probably guess which one.
Bingo. But rosebuds and dead flowers aside, and E. E. Cummings and Sir John Suckling back on their virtual shelf—
He’s not, is he? “And death I think is no parenthesis.” Look, I could go rewrite that paragraph, but you know what? The hell with it. Right now I want to let you know about what Dick Lochte said in the new Mystery Scene about the audiobook of A Time to Scatter Stones:
“It’s been a while since Block’s last Matthew Scudder novel, A Drop of the Hard Stuff (2011), but before fans of the unlicensed private eye rush to sample this new entry, they should be made aware of a few things. This is a novella, lacking the complex plotting and events of a longer work. It finds Scudder late in life (70s?), enjoying his retirement with Elaine, his wife of 20 years. And it is mainly about them, how they’re spending their golden years, rather than the crime element. The latter has Matt offering to help a young friend of Elaine’s whose attempt to curtail her call-girl career is being thwarted by a resourceful, dangerously obsessive former client. Though this allows Matt to demonstrate that he still has some hardboiled cred, listeners preferring the author in his darkest, most noirish mood may be disappointed. Others should be more than satisfied with this update on the current, comfortable state of the well-grounded, likable Scudder and his whip-smart, handsome wife, not to mention this being one more opportunity to sample Block’s elegant style and witty dialogue. Actually, the novella could easily be adapted into an appealing stage play. Most of it takes place in the Scudders’ Manhattan apartment. The cast is small. There’s a lot of conversation, most of it clever, some of it surprising. (Readers have complained that Matt’s disclosure of his and Elaine’s bedroom activities is TMI, but those of us in the couple’s age bracket may find it cheery news.) Block’s delivery is a bit dry and nasal, especially if one is expecting, say, cinema Scudder Liam Neeson’s rugged brogue, but there is a playfulness as well as moments of subtle irony, concern, and, ultimately, the proper emphasis that only an author can bring to his own prose.”
You’ve quoted the entire review.
I know. I couldn’t bear to leave out a word.
Its various mixed reviews notwithstanding, I think as highly of A Time to Scatter Stones as of anything I’ve written. It came out the way I wanted it to, and told the story I wanted to tell. I don’t expect to find further things to write about Matthew Scudder, and if this is the capstone, well, I’m fine with it.
It was all of the above that led me to make a dealbreaker of my narrating the audio version, and happily the folks at Brilliance Audio agreed. I’m pretty sure this’ll be my last foray at narration, as I feel I’ve aged out of the game, even as Matt has aged out of detecting. And that’s okay.
I haven’t listened to A Time to Scatter Stones. I have trouble listening to audiobooks, I don’t absorb information well that way, and I can’t bear to hear to my own audiobooks—but Dick Lochte’s review pleases me beyond words.
If you enjoy reading with your ears, I hope you’ll try A Time to Scatter Stones. If you do better using your eyes, on the printed page or the screen, you have your choice of hardcover, paperback, or ebook editions. And if you’d prefer not to disturb your memories of a younger Scudder, well, that’s okay, too.
You don’t care if they read it or not, do you?
The nice thing about getting old, as my late mother observed when she was a full 15 years younger than I am now, is that every year there are a few more things about which one no longer gives a hoot.
She didn’t actually say hoot, did she?
No, the woman was given to plain speech. And, happily, she didn’t have to worry about spam filters.
Care to name a few other things you don’t give a hoot about?
Why don’t I pick a few that I do? It’s a shorter list.
1. 
Sepp Leeb, whose fine translation of the first Keller book (Kellers Metier) has won German fans to the eponymous hit man, has followed with Kellers Konkurrent. (English title—Hit List.) Like its predecessor, the new book is available worldwide in ebook and paperback form. And while these links are for Amazon, you can find both German Keller titles on Apple, B&N, Kobo, GooglePlay, Thalia, and more.
2. A couple of days ago I signed the limitation sheets for The Burglar in Short Order, a complete collection of Bernie Rhodenbarr’s less lengthy efforts. Short stories, op-ed pieces, essays—a twelfth book to keep the eleven novels company. As with most of my recent efforts, TBISO will be published by Subterranean Press as a deluxe signed-and-numbered hardcover—limited, IIRC, to a mere 250 copies. I’ll be self-publishing the ebook and paperback editions.
You’re probably wondering how the book came about.
I’m sure you’ll tell me.
Well, as you may know, Luigi Garlaschelli has been doing heroic work translating my books into Italian. In recent years I’ve been able to publish Italian ebook and paperback editions of various titles featuring i signori Keller, Scudder, e Rhodenbarr. A great fan of my burglar, he suggested that the four Bernie Rhodenbarr short stories might make a short ebook for Italian readers.
Way too short, I thought, and then I began looking for a way to make the book longer, and by the time I finished searching I had a table of contents with fifteen items in it—and Luigi went to work, and not too long ago I made Il Ladro in Poche Parole available in ebook and paperback.
And now you’re bringing it out in English?
Well, why should the Italians have all the fun? I don’t yet know the publication date, and it’ll be a while before the book’s available for pre-order, but when I have that information I’ll share it. The Subterranean edition’s a small one, but the number of people who want the book may turn out to be even smaller. We’ll have to see.
So your little venture of self-publishing in other languages is paying dividends?
Well, it’s a slow way to get rich. But we’re starting to get a little traction in German and Italian, and it’s gratifying. And the same is true of my co-op ventures with voice artists. Theo Holland’s latest Evan Tanner audiobook, Me Tanner You Jane, is up and running, and like all of Theo’s work in the series, it’s been getting great reviews on Audible.com.
Besides the Tanner adventures, Theo’s brought several other titles of mine to life: Resume Speed & Other Stories, Four Lives at the Crossroads, and The Adulterers. I hope to keep him busy for a long time to come.
And I gather you’re still in the anthology racket.
Do you think racket is the right word for it? It’s nowhere near profitable enough to be a racket.
The anthology business? Is that better?
It’s not terribly business-like, not the way I do it. Never mind. I am indeed still compiling anthologies, with At Home in the Dark getting a lot of good ink—which I won’t share with you because I already devoted all that space to Dick Lochte’s audio review. Suffice it to say that the hardcover—a typically gorgeous Subterranean Press volume—was sold out in advance of publication. The paperback and ebook are eminently available.
And in a matter of months, my third art-based anthology is coming from Pegasus. Like In Sunlight or in Shadow, for which 17 writers wrote stories inspired by Edward Hopper’s paintings, and Alive in Shape and Color, with 17 different painters each giving rise to a story, the 17 paintings in From Sea to Stormy Sea are all the work of American artists, among them Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, Winslow Homer, Rockwell Kent, Reginald March, Andy Warhol, Daniel Morper, and Harvey Dunn. The writers include crime fiction stars like John Sandford and Sara Paretsky and distinguished mainstreamers Jane Hamilton and Janice Eidus, and you’ll see more of the names on the Amazon page. (There’s even a new story of mine, “The Way We See the World,” but nobody says you have to read it.)
While you’re there, you might want to pre-order the book for delivery October 1. You’ll lock in a very good price. (The book’s available for Kindle, too, but as with ISOIS and AISAC, the illustrations are a powerful argument for buying the physical book—and with the ebook pegged at $20.15 and the hardcover on sale for only $1.06 more, well, it seems like a pretty easy call.)
And, even as I type these lines, 17 writers are at work on stories for yet another anthology. (Well, actually, three of them have already delivered. And my guess is that some of the others are goofing off.) Publication’s set for a year from now, and I won’t drop the names of the participating writers, or tell you the title or even the theme, because it’s way too early.
So why bring it up in the first place?
Good question. I’m just spinning my wheels, aren’t I? Hmmm. You know what? I think I’ll wrap this up and get out of here.
Cheers,
