About LB’s Fiction
HERE’S WHAT’S IN PRINT OR eVAILABLE…
Series fiction is listed in the order it was written and published. So are the eight Jill Emerson novels. Other works are listed alphabetically.
For each of the listed titles, I’ve included links to both amazon.com and bn.com, where you’ll be able to find eBooks as well as bound-and-printed books.
Many of my books are available in audio, narrated by some of the industry’s outstanding voice artists. (Or, in a couple of instances, by The Author Himself.) If you want to purchase a physical audiobook, in cassette or CD form, the Amazon and B&N links will get you there; if you want to download an audiobook, I’m pleased to recommend audible.com, and have included specific links to Audible’s listings where available.
If it’s not here, it’s out of print…but that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to find it. The first place to check is my eBay store; I’ve accumulated great quantities of my own works over the years, and now it’s time to share them with the world. Everything we sell in LB’s Bookstore is autographed, and the stock changes constantly, as many one-of-a-kind items come and go. If you subscribe to my newsletter (a blank email to lawbloc@gmail.com, with LB-NL in the header, will get you on the list) you’ll stay informed about new additions (and editions) and special bargain prices.)
If we don’t have it, there are other places to look for it. Bookhunting used to be challenging, but several internet sites make it relatively simple. Alibris is one of the best.
THE MATTHEW SCUDDER NOVELS
THE SINS OF THE FATHERS Amazon B&N Audible
TIME TO MURDER AND CREATE Amazon B&N Audible
IN THE MIDST OF DEATH Amazon B&N Audible
A STAB IN THE DARK Amazon B&N Audible
EIGHT MILLION WAYS TO DIE Amazon B&N Audible
WHEN THE SACRED GINMILL CLOSES Amazon B&N Audible
OUT ON THE CUTTING EDGE Amazon B&N
A TICKET TO THE BONEYARD Amazon B&N
A DANCE AT THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE Amazon B&N
A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES Amazon B&N Audible
THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD Amazon B&N
A LONG LINE OF DEAD MEN Amazon B&N
EVEN THE WICKED Amazon B&N Audible
EVERYBODY DIES Amazon B&N Audible
HOPE TO DIE Amazon B&N Audible
ALL THE FLOWERS ARE DYING Amazon B&N Audible
A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF Amazon B&N Audible
THE NIGHT AND THE MUSIC Amazon B&N Audible
and these shorter works, all included in The Night and the Music, but available individually as well:
OUT THE WINDOW Amazon Audible
A CANDLE FOR THE BAG LADY Amazon Audible
BY THE DAWN’S EARLY LIGHT Amazon B&N Audible
BATMAN’S HELPERS Amazon B&N Audible
THE MERCIFUL ANGEL OF DEATH Amazon Audible
LOOKING FOR DAVID Amazon Audible
LET’S GET LOST Amazon B&N Audible
A MOMENT OF WRONG THINKING Amazon Audible
MICK BALLOU LOOKS AT THE BLANK SCREEN Audible
ONE LAST NIGHT AT GROGAN’S Amazon Audible
KELLER’S GREATEST HITS
HIT MAN Amazon B&N Audible
HIT LIST Amazon B&N
HIT PARADE Amazon B&N Audible
HIT AND RUN Amazon B&N Audible
HIT ME Amazon B&N Audible
and these shorter works:
KELLER IN DALLAS Amazon B&N
KELLER ON THE SPOT Amazon
KELLER’S ADJUSTMENT Amazon
THE BERNIE RHODENBARR MYSTERIES
BURGLARS CAN’T CHOOSERS Amazon B&N Audible
THE BURGLAR IN THE CLOSET Amazon B&N Audible
THE BURGLAR WHO LIKED TO QUOTE KIPLING Amazon B&N Audible
THE BURGLAR WHO STUDIED SPINOZA Amazon B&N Audible
THE BURGLAR WHO PAINTED LIKE MONDRIAN Amazon B&N Audible
THE BURGLAR WHO TRADED TED WILLIAMS Amazon B&N Audible
THE BURGLAR WHO THOUGHT HE WAS BOGART Amazon B&N Audible
THE BURGLAR IN THE LIBRARY Amazon B&N Audible
THE BURGLAR IN THE RYE Amazon B&N Audible
THE BURGLAR ON THE PROWL Amazon B&N Audible
and these short stories:
A BAD NIGHT FOR BURGLARS Amazon B&N
THE BURGLAR TAKES A CAT Amazon B&N
THE BURGLAR WHO DROPPED IN ON ELVIS Amazon B&N
HE BURGLAR WHO SMELLED SMOKE Amazon B&N
LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT Amazon B&N
THE ADVENTURES OF EVAN TANNER
THE THIEF WHO COULDN’T SLEEP Amazon B&N
THE CANCELED CZECH Amazon B&N
TANNER’S TWELVE SWINGERS Amazon B&N
THE SCORELESS THAI Amazon B&N
TANNER’S TIGER Amazon B&N
TANNER’S VIRGIN Amazon B&N
ME TANNER, YOU JANE Amazon B&N
TANNER ON ICE Amazon B&N
THE AFFAIRS OF CHIP HARRISON
NO SCORE Amazon B&N Audible
CHIP HARRISON SCORES AGAIN Amazon B&N Audible
MAKE OUT WITH MURDER Amazon B&N Audible
THE TOPLESS TULIP CAPER Amazon B&N Audible
and this short story:
AS DARK AS CHRISTMAS GETS Amazon B&N
NON-SERIES NOVELS
AFTER THE FIRST DEATH Amazon B&N Audible
ARIEL Amazon B&N Audible
CAMPUS TRAMP Amazon B&N Audible
CINDERELLA SIMS Amazon B&N Audible
COWARD’S KISS Amazon B&N Audible
DEADLY HONEYMOON Amazon B&N Audible
A DIET OF TREACLE Amazon B&N Audible
EHRENGRAF FOR THE DEFENSE All eleven stories about the dapper little lawyer, available only as an eBook Amazon B&N Smashwords
GETTING OFF Amazon B&N Audible
THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART Amazon B&N Audible
GRIFTER’S GAME Amazon B&N Audible
KILLING CASTRO Amazon B&N Audible
LUCKY AT CARDS Amazon B&N Audible
NOT COMIN’ HOME TO YOU Amazon B&N Audible
RANDOM WALK Amazon B&N Audible
RONALD RABBIT IS A DIRTY OLD MAN Amazon B&N Audible
SMALL TOWN Amazon B&N Audible
THE SPECIALISTS Amazon B&N Audible
SUCH MEN ARE DANGEROUS Amazon B&N Audible
THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL Amazon B&N Audible
YOU COULD CALL IT MURDER Amazon B&N Audible
BY LAWRENCE BLOCK WRITING AS JILL EMERSON
WARM AND WILLING Amazon B&N
ENOUGH OF SORROW Amazon B&N
THIRTY Amazon B&N
THREESOME Amazon B&N Audible
A MADWOMAN’S DIARY Amazon B&N Audible
THE TROUBLE WITH EDEN Amazon B&N Audible
A WEEK AS ANDREA BENSTOCK Amazon B&N Audible
GETTING OFF Amazon B&N Audible
BY LAWRENCE BLOCK WRITING AS JOHN WARREN WELLS
BEYOND GROUP SEX Amazon Nook Smashwords
COME FLY WITH US the sequel to Sex and the Stewardess Amazon Nook
DIFFERENT STROKES or How I (Gulp!) Wrote, Directed, and Starred in an X-rated Movie Amazon Nook
DOING IT! Going Beyond the Sexual Revolution Amazon Nook
EROS & CAPRICORN: a Cross-Cultural survey of Sexual Techniques Amazon Nook
LOVE AT A TENDER AGE Amazon Nook
THE MALE HUSTLER: Seven Midnight Cowboys Tell Their Stories Amazon Nook
THE MRS. ROBINSON SYNDROME: Older Women and Younger Men Amazon Nook
THE NEW SEXUAL UNDERGROUND: Crossing the Last Boundaries Amazon Nook Smashwords
SEX AND THE STEWARDESS Amazon Nook Smashwords
THE SEX THERAPISTS Amazon Nook
SEX WITHOUT STRINGS: A Handbook for Consenting Adults Amazon Nook
THE TABOO BREAKERS: Shock Troops of the Sexual Revolution Amazon Nook
3 IS NOT A CROWD Amazon Nook
TRICKS OF THE TRADE: A Hooker’s Handbook of Sexual Techniques Amazon Nook
VERSATILE LADIES: The Bisexual Option Amazon Nook Smashwords
WIDE OPEN: New Modes of Marriage Amazon Nook
THE WIFE-SWAP REPORT Amazon Nook
BY LAWRENCE BLOCK WRITING AS LESLEY EVANS
STRANGE ARE THE WAYS OF LOVE Amazon B&N
BY LAWRENCE BLOCK WRITING AS ANNE CAMPBELL CLARKE
PASSPORT TO PERIL Amazon B&N Audible
IN COLLABORATION WITH DONALD E. WESTLAKE
A GIRL CALLED HONEY Amazon B&N Audible
SO WILLING Amazon B&N Audible
SIN HELLCAT Amazon B&N Audible
LB’s MIDCENTURY EROTICA
APRIL NORTH (as Sheldon Lord) Amazon B&N Audible
CANDY (as Sheldon Lord) Amazon B&N Audible
CARLA (as Sheldon Lord) Amazon B&N Audible
COMMUNITY OF WOMEN (as Sheldon Lord) Amazon B&N
GIGOLO JOHNNY WELLS (as Andrew Shaw) Amazon B&N Audible
69 BARROW STREET (as Sheldon Lord) Amazon B&N Audible
STRANGE EMBRACE (as Ben Christopher) Amazon B&N
A STRANGE KIND OF LOVE (as Sheldon Lord) Amazon B&N Audible
COLLECTED SHORT STORIES
EHRENGRAF FOR THE DEFENSE All eleven stories about the dapper little lawyer, available only as an eBook Amazon B&N Smashwords
ENOUGH ROPE Amazon B&N
ONE NIGHT STANDS AND LOST WEEKENDS Amazon B&N
THE NIGHT AND THE MUSIC Amazon B&N
VARIED NON-FICTION
AFTERTHOUGHTS: A Piecemeal Memoir Amazon B&N
GENERALLY SPEAKING: A Philatelic Patchwork Amazon B&N
STEP BY STEP: A Pedestrian Memoir Amazon B&N
BOOKS FOR WRITERS
AFTERTHOUGHTS: A Piecemeal Memoir Amazon B&N
THE LIAR’S BIBLE: A Handbook for Fiction Writers Amazon B&N Audible
THE LIAR’S COMPANION: A Field Guide for Fiction Writers Amazon B&N Audible
SPIDER, SPIN ME A WEB: Tips for the Fictioneer Amazon B&N
TELLING LIES FOR FUN & PROFIT: A Manual for Fiction Writers Amazon B&N Audible
WRITE FOR YOUR LIFE: The Seminar in Book Form Amazon B&N
WRITING THE NOVEL FROM PLOT TO PRINT Amazon B&N
ANTHOLOGIES EDITED
MANHATTAN NOIR Amazon B&N
MANHATTAN NOIR 2: The Classics Amazon B&N
GANGSTERS, SWINDLERS, KILLERS AND THIEVES Amazon B&N
INDIVIDUAL SHORT FICTION AS eSINGLES
#A BAD NIGHT FOR BURGLARS Amazon B&N
#ALMOST PERFECT Amazon B&N
#AS DARK AS CHRISTMAS GETS a Chip Harrison story Amazon B&N
#THE BURGLAR WHO DROPPED IN ON ELVIS Amazon B&N
#THE BURGLAR WHO SMELLED SMOKE (with Lynne Wood Block) Amazon B&N
CATCH AND RELEASE Amazon
A CHANCE TO GET EVEN Amazon
DOLLY’S TRASH AND TREASURES Amazon
#THE EHRENGRAF DEFENSE (#1) Amazon
#THE EHRENGRAF PRESUMPTION (#2) Amazon
#THE EHRENGRAF EXPERIENCE (#3) Amazon
#THE EHRENGRAF APPOINTMENT (#4) Amazon
#THE EHRENGRAF RIPOSTE (#5) Amazon
#THE EHRENGRAF OBLIGATION (#6) Amazon
#THE EHRENGRAF ALTERNATIVE (#7) Amazon
#THE EHRENGRAF NOSTRUM (#8) Amazon
#THE EHRENGRAF AFFIRMATION (#9) Amazon
#THE EHRENGRAF REVERSE (#10) Amazon
THE EHRENGRAF SETTLEMENT (#11) Amazon
#HEADACHES AND BAD DREAMS Amazon
#IN FOR A PENNY Amazon
KELLER IN DALLAS Amazon B&N
#LIKE A BONE IN THE THROAT Amazon
#LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT Amazon B&N
SCENARIOS Amazon
SPEAKING OF GREED (the novella) Amazon B&N
SPEAKING OF LUST (the novella) Amazon B&N Audible
#SWEET LITTLE HANDS Amazon
#TERRIBLE TOMMY TERHUNE Amazon B&N
#THREE IN THE SIDE POCKET Amazon
A VISION IN WHITE Amazon B&N
WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD Amazon
WHO KNOWS WHERE IT GOES Amazon
#YOU DON’T EVEN FEEL IT Amazon
And a one-act play:
HOW FAR (LB’s stage adaptation of his short story) Amazon B&N
July 27, 2012
Back in ePrint: The Works of John Warren Wells
From the mid-1960s into the early 70s, I wrote around 20 books on various aspects of sexual behavior under the pen name (or alternate self) of John Warren Wells. JWW has his own page on this blogsite, and soon his complete works will be eVailable for Kindle. (For now at least they’ll be Kindle exclusives, though I may eventually choose to make them available for other platforms as well.)
Just today, the first of the books went live: Different Strokes, or How I (Gulp!) Wrote, Directed, and Starred in an X-rated Movie.
You can read about the book on JWW’s page. I mention it here to call your attention to a new section on this page, in the list of titles below. I’ve listed all of the books, though it’ll be a while before they’re all available for purchase; if the Kindle link is live, the book is good to go. (You can always find them grouped on the Amazon site by searching for the series title, John Warren Wells on Sexual Behavior.)
June 22, 2012
Twelve Stories from the Dark Side
Some months ago I blogged about the eWorld’s potential to enliven the long-moribund market for short fiction. I’m not sure that’s happening, but neither am I sure that it’s not. What I do know is that I’ve ePublished a few dozen short stories, and while some of them have been about as much in demand as ice in Antarctica, others have performed in a spritely manner.
More recently I tried an experiment, making all the Ehrengraf stories exclusive to Kindle, and enrolling them in Amazon’s Kindle Select program. (There were ten of them at the time, written over a couple of decades, featuring the poetry-loving defense attorney who never loses a case.) I took them down from Nook and Smashwords (where they scarcely sold at all) and took the opportunity to give away the first story (“The Ehrengraf Defense”) for a couple of days. A lot of people downloaded it, and many liked the sample enough to go on to some of the other stories.
I’d already begun work on an eleventh Ehrengraf story, and when “The Ehrengraf Settlement” was finished, I immediately made it a Kindle Select title. And, with the great formatting assistance of Jaye Manus, I bundled all of the stories into a book, called it Ehrengraf For the Defense, and priced it at $4.99. (The bad news is it’s put the brakes on sales of the individual stories. The good news, which utterly trumps the bad news, is that Ehrengraf For the Defense is flying off Amazon’s virtual shelves. At the moment it’s my most popular title.) Besides selling a slew of copies, EFTD has been borrowed a dozen times by Amazon Prime members, who can borrow one book a month at no charge as a perk of membership.
As of today, I’ve moved a dozen other short stories to Kindle Select, available there and nowhere else. In the weeks to come I’ll be making some of them briefly available as free downloads, and if you follow my blog you’ll know when something’s up for grabs.
Because the stories I picked are all of the darker sort, I each “A Story From the Dark Side”, and if you pop that phrase into Amazon’s search engine, they’ll all show up on one page. Once again, I was lucky enough to get Jaye Manus to format them, and give them a uniform series-type look, and I think you’ll like the way they turned out.
And even as I write these lines, I know that some of you are furious at me for depriving Nooksters of the chance to read these stories.
So let me explain.
I’ve got nothing against Nook, and indeed I sell a lot of novels there. But I’ve never done well with short fiction for the Nook, and I’m not the first writer to notice that Nook readers just don’t seem interested in short stories. I’m not sure why this should be so, but the empirical evidence is persuasive. Whether my goal is to increase income or maximize readership (and the two are by no means mutually exclusive) it’s in my interest to do business where business is done. If I’m selling ten times as many stories for Kindle as for Nook—and the spread’s probably even higher than that—I’d be a fool not to focus on Kindle, where I can take advantage of the several benefits reserved for Kindle Select authors.
Along with the Nook partisans, there’s a small tribe of Amazon haters out there, who see that company as conspiring to take over the world. And perhaps they are, and so is Google, and so is Facebook, and so is eBay—and so is every other highly successful enterprise. Those of you who are appalled at the growth of Amazon, and want to save Barnes & Noble, might take a moment to remember a couple of years ago, when you were appalled at the increasing dominance of B&N, and wanted to save the great independent bookstores that they and Borders were putting out of business.
And, if you’ve been around a while and have a good memory, you may recall how those great independent stores became great in the first place—by doing everything possible to choke out the small neighborhood bookshops and dominate their local markets entirely.
End of rant.
I should point out, for anyone who doesn’t have a Kindle and doesn’t want to be pressured into buying one, that almost any electronic device other than a competing eReader (like the Nook) can be equipped with a free Kindle app. You can download one for your Mac or PC, your iPhone or Android, your iPad or iPod, and quite possibly your toaster oven. My eldest daughter reads everything on her iPhone, she prefers it to anything else including a printed book. The Amazon Prime borrowing feature is limited to Kindle owners, but a free app gives you access to everything else.
And here’s the list of Stories From the Dark Side:
A Chance to Get Even
Catch and Release
Dolly’s Trash & Treasures
Headaches and Bad Dreams
In For a Penny
Like a Bone in the Throat
Scenarios
Sweet Little Hands
Three in the Side Pocket
Welcome to the Read World
Who Knows Where It Goes
You Don’t Even Feel It
May 6, 2012
Reading LB around the globe
The international readership my work has gained is one of the great satisfactions of my writing life. My books have been widely translated, while many overseas readers are able to enjoy them in English.
But they’re not always easy to find. Here are some links to make it a little easier; they’ll take you to pages with a wide selection of my books and short stories, in English and in translation, in eBook and in printed form. Click on any of them to see what’s available:
For convenience, you can find these links at any time at the bottom of the long list of links at the righthand side of every blog page.
Hashtagged (#) stories have appeared in Enough Rope; others are uncollected.
LB's BLOG 
Have ‘Some Days You Get the Bear’ & ‘Sometimes they Bite’ been superseded by other collections?
Indeed they have. I had three collections published over the years, the two you mention and Like a Lamb to Slaughter. All three were subsumed (a word I don’t get to use very often) into Enough Rope, along with a batch of newer work. And One Night Stands and Lost Weekends consists entirely of early work which does not appear in Enough Rope.
Thanks for asking!
Subsumed definitely wins over superseded.
The true collector will want to have all of them, even if they are reprinted. ‘Some Days You Get the Bear’ has long been one of my favorite collections.
What are the chances of someone ever doing with Matt Scudder what was done so well with the Dexter series? I think a similar concept would be a great way to give the character the screen life he deserves. Not that Eight Million Ways to Die wasn’t entertaining, but that was a long time ago.
Collecting’s a different matter altogether. David Montgomery tweeted earlier about buying books of some authors that he knows he won’t ever want to read, but just to complete the series. He wondered if that was weird. I tweeted back that it didn’t seem weird to me; I buy stamps all the time, and not because I have letters to mail.
This isn’t the place for collector’s items, but I’ve got a batch—incl. firsts of “Bear,” as it happens—at my website bookstore. The LB’s Online Bookstore link (below or top right, either one) will take you to them.
About films and TV, I don’t even want to speculate. There’s always something about to happen, and it almost always doesn’t, so you won’t hear a peep out of me until the contract’s signed and the check clears.
Well I have a big English book (wch I bought in big England) called The Collected Mystery Stories, and into it I assume everything is subsumed — only hope I don’t presume.
To resume… in that volume is a longish story set in Africa which I cannot find right now. I love that story. Everyone should love that story. Where’s the novel? Where’s the series?
Thank you, btw, for your note on eBook prices. You are right; they are too high. They make no sense.
Tom, the story you’re looking for is “Hilliard’s Ceremony” and I have to admit I’m fond of it myself. Orion’s The Collected Mystery Stories lacks ten or a dozen stories to be found in Enough Rope, which was published later; “Hilliard’s Ceremony,” however, is in both volumes.
I’d Nook-and-Kindle publish it if I had it in digital form, but it was written in the old typewriter times. Eventually it’ll be scanned and I’ll make it eVailable.
I know A Drop of the Hard Stuff came out in May in USA, but so far have not seen a copy in England. Is there a reason for this?
There is, Barney. Orion, my UK publishers, elected to schedule the book for September. As to their reason for so doing, I haven’t a clue.
Regarding volatile prices of ebooks – there’s a site that will notify you of price drops for Kindle books – http://www.ereaderiq.com/
I haven’t used it myself (my Kindle is in the mail as I type this), but it received a positive review on a tech site I frequent.
Good to know, Kosmo. Thanks!
I happened to pick up the Hard Case Crime edition of Killing Castro on a whim about a year ago. It was my first ever Block book and I’ve been hooked ever since… Now he’s my favorite author in the field. Thanks Mr. Block and thanks Hard Case Crime (I’m probably the only person to be introduced to LB via Killing Castro!) And while I’m at it, I think he’s the best short story writer in the business, too.
Chris, you may very well be the first person to find your way to my work via Killing Castro. Thanks for the kind words, and thanks indeed to Charles Ardai and Hard Case Crime for hauling that one back from the gates of Limbo. I had written it under a one-time-only pen name, Lee Duncan, and nobody, not even ardent pseudonym sleuths like Lynn Munroe, ever sussed out that one. I showed it to Charles, he packaged it brilliantly, and people ate it up. Go figure.
OK, I just downloaded all the .99 short stories from Amazon that were not in
Enough Rope. I have a DOS application in which I record all the books in
my library. One of the things I enter is original published date. Where can
I find that info for these short stories. Or how about a generic-pretty close to-
somewhere around the time that I can use for all the stories?
Sure would appreciate it. Thanks.
Ed, here’s the page on the Thrilling Detective site that I go to for publication data on my stories. They’re records are better than mine!
I’m reading Afterthoughts, which I kindled after Keller in Dallas, and I’ve ordered about six other titles from Amazon since I started reading. So one of your goals with the Afterthoughts collection has been realized in me.
Now I’m hunting down the Ehrengraf stories and your books with Donald Westlake. I started with you guys and John D MacDonald in the 60s, but I love my Kindle and all the new ways to find old and new titles.
Thanks for making all of this available.
Jack G
Jack, I’m glad you’re enjoying Afterthoughts, and that it’s working! Re the Ehrengraf stories, seven or eight of them were published years ago in a small-press book called “Ehrengraf for the Defense.” It’s expensive and hard to find. All its contents and a couple of stories written since then can be found in Enough Rope, but they really ought to have a book to themselves, and that may be a future project.
The three books I did with Donald can be difficult to find in the labyrinth of Amazon’s search engine. The links here on this page will get you there.
Any chance of making some of your novels/short stories available on Smashwords in the near future?
As a reader from Hungary I don’t really want to fill Amazon’s pockets with the international surcharge (+ $2 + another 15% on the whole), which they apply to most of your e-books…
Stefan, I’ll have to look at it. But does that surcharge also affect you if you order from amazon.de? Everything of mine available on amazon.com is on the German site as well, and the prices seem to be the same, or close to it. (Of course I’m unable to tell what charges might apply to amazon.de orders from Hungary.)
Lawrence, I can’t order from amazon.de – only customers based in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein are allowed to buy e-books there (and they also check your IP address). David Gaughram wrote a blog post about the whole nuisance a couple of weeks ago: http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/amazon-hold-back-the-growth-of-e-books-around-the-world/
What I couldn’t figure out so far is why some books escape the surcharge – like your “The Liar’s Bible”, which I enjoy very much by the way.
Stefan, thanks for this. David Gaughram’s post is illuminating. My guess is that the surcharge will go away in time,but it’s certainly a nuisance now. Baffling, the whole business.
Love my Kindle, love your books and stories, but right now I hate your publisher. What’s the deal with not allowing any of your e-books to be loaned? It used to be that you could loan a book once to somebody for 14 days. Seemed reasonable to me. So I go and talk two friends into buying a Kindle and figured I’d get them hooked on Bernie (personally, I’m a Scudder man, but these are women and I think they’d lean toward Bernie). Then I find that your books are locked up tight. What a rip!
BTW, Neil Scott says “Hi”.
Steve
Nothing I have any control over, Steve.
I understand. Just venting. I have issues in my work environment that are out of my control, too.
Steve
Running through your list of books reminds me of the first time I met my wife’s Mother. She arrived very late from Vegas to Boston and wanted to lie down for a while. She asked me if I had read any good books lately. Small Town had come out the day before and I had read the first two pages. I gave her the book with the same glowing review I would give any of your books, even though I hadn’t read any of it yet. I didn’t want to make this nice, prim, elderly, saint of a woman think she was taking the book from me before I had a chance to read it so I claimed I had already read it and how much she would love it!
Don’t get me wrong Mr. Block, it is a great book but the night after my Mother in Law left my wife and I were lying in bed reading aloud some of the most inventive, kinky, graphic sex scenes either of us had ever read, weeping with laughter imagining her Mom reading it.
That’s priceless. Did the good woman ever say anything about the book?
Yes, we had a big laugh about it a few years later when we were a lot closer. It turns out I’ve got a bad habit of doing this. My father in Law was visiting and asked for a book, I had recently picked up The Terror by Dan Simmons and believed it was a fairly accurate recounting of the horrible icy trip of the good ship Terror. Being a cold war Nuclear Submarine Commander, no kidding, I imagined this would be right up his alley. After he left I read it only to find it is an accurate account of a real maritime tragedy, until a giant supernatural polar bear, complete with a weird supernatural sexual component, is introduced. I can only imagine what the Commander made of this because we’ve never discussed that one. I am rethinking my recommendation methods.
Mr. Block, I don’t know how many times I’ve told people that I’d read everything you had written. After looking at this list I can see I wasn’t just lying to people, I was lying a lot!
When I was a kid my family would stay at my uncle’s place on Sebago Lake in Maine, and like every great summer cottage there was a collection of musty paperbacks. Zane Grey, John D. Macdonald, Alistar Maclean all those perfect summer beach books. My absolute favorite though was Such Men are Dangerous by Paul Kavanaugh. I read that and Jaws every summer from the age of twelve to seventeen. I read and reread that mothball smelling copy till it literally fell apart. I am so happy to learn that my favorite grown up author also happens to be my favorite author from my teen years. I can’t wait to download a copy on my kindle and lie out by the pool with it, should be like time travel.
Mr. Block,
I’m sorry if this is a question that’s been asked over and over, but why was In the Midst of Death published before Time to Murder and Create if they were written in the opposite order?
Clay, someone at Dell wasn’t paying attention. Thus they were published out of order.
LB
Ah…thanks for clearing that up. I wanted to read them in order to make sure I wouldn’t miss anything. I read Sins of the Fathers late last year, so I’ll probably reread it before moving on to Time to Murder and Create. By the way, congratulations on being the first author to have a hardcover with Hard Case Crime – Getting Off was a fun read, but I’m still partial to Grifter’s Game.
I just watched your appearance on Late Night with Craig Ferguson. You were great! Any plans for future talk show guest shots?
Thanks! Craig has been very generous and has had me on with each new book for several years now. HIT ME, the fifth Keller novel, is scheduled for February 2013 publication, and perhaps I’ll be able to guest on the Late Late Show when it hits the stores.
Thanks for trying to flag up special offers, it seems ridiculous that the down load price of books is the same, or in a lot of cases higher, than buying a hard copy. I’d be interested to know which sites give you the best percentage, I’d like to think that my single click habit actually benefits the author, and if I knew who passed on what then I’d download accordingly! I’m in the UK, but I’m not really sure why it should cost twice as much here as in the US. But then I’m a bear of small brain…..
Have a nice cruise by the way!
Thanks, Chrissie. The author’s share is pretty much the same irrespective of the retail site. EBook prices tend to be high when the traditional publisher sets the price. I think it’s remarkably shortsighted of them, but they see it differently. And I’ve no idea why prices are higher in the UK. The whole business is extremely volatile right now, and change s the only constant.
In that case I’ll refrain from encouraging them to raise prices and buy the cheapest! I’ve only recently started paying for downloads having a penchant for Trollope (Anthony not Joanne) and he slips through the ether free of charge. Enjoying Small Town very much. Thanks!
Heah… The Specialists is a series ! I’ve always wanted a hardbound copy that I could put on a 4 foot long shelf between two large ornate bookends…so I could answer every rube that takes the bait, ” That’s a complete hardbound series,’ The Specialists’.”
I bought a used copy of Telling Lies for Fun and Profit off the internet last week. On the bibliography page, I saw a listing for a book called Where the Good Food Is. I think you co-wrote it with someone else?. I had never heard of this book. Doesn’t sound like your normal genre?
Craig, that’s not quite the title. I think it was The Real Food Guide, or something like that. It was a guide book to natural and vegetarian restaurants, and a bad idea all around; by the time it was in print, most of the reviewed establishments were out of business. I co-edited it with my friend Cheryl Morrison.
Hi, Lawrence.
The link for Tanner’s Virgin doesn’t work – goes to an unknown page at Amazon.
Anyway, I’m happy to see all the Tanner kindle versions at such a great price. A little story – I bought about 6 Tanner paperbacks that looked fairly oldish at a Safeway (!) book sale about 8 years ago. Probably 25 cents each! I hadn’t heard of Tanner but I had read some of your books and thought what the heck! I loved them!!! Then, like a real dummy I gave them away! GRRRR…….. Anyway, I’m not a collector but I was worried I’d never find copies again. So I’m happy to now be able to reacquaint myself with Tanner. 🙂
Thanks, Judie. I’ve replaced the link in the list. No idea when/why the old one got corrupted, but if any of y’all come across similar bad links, just let me know via comment or email. It’s a minute’s work to correct these glitches, but first I have to know about them.
Tanner at Safeway, eh? Not in the frozen food locker, I hope?
Gotten himmel! That’s a helluva list there, Larry. Don’t suppose I’ve read more than 10 or 15% of it — which is excellent news, actually. It warms my heart to know that there is a veritable feast of “Blocks” in the kitchen just waiting to be savored. And since you have announced another “Keller” in the offing, am I to assume the reports of your retirement have been greatly exaggerated? Please say yes…
David, there’s no getting around it. I’ve made a complete dog’s breakfast out of retirement.
Well, I’m encouraged. If it’s good enough for Lawrence Block, it’s good enough for me. I’m not ready to give up on traditional publishing entirely, but I like the idea of being in control of the process.
Thanks, Kate!