Mystery Blogs
Last night I was reading through the blog of mystery writer Lawrence Block, who's driving a rental car all over the east Coast promoting his new book. There's some fun stuff there about the meaning of bestseller lists, getting comfortable with self-promotion and booking rooms on Priceline. Here's an excerpt:

In PROWL, I referred to the song about loving the girl one's near. And I---or Bernie, if you want to be technical---identified it as being from My Fair Lady. Well, it's from Finian's Rainbow, and I knew that. I suspect Bernie knew it as well. But somehow it got past both of us, and my editor and copy editor and proofreader, and indeed everybody who saw it, and the book came out that way.

And so far six readers have let me know about it. Boy, do I ever know about it. We'll fix it in the paperback, and we may even fix it in future printings of the hardcover, although that's not as easy to manage as you might think. But one thing I don't need is to hear any more about it, and I know I will. Sheesh, the book's only been out there for two and a half weeks.

Since I'm on the topic of mystery writers who are bloggers, I'll mention Roger Simon. I just finished his book "The Big Fix," - which coincidentally I bought while at Block's book signing a couple weeks ago. The book just reeks of Raymond Chandler so much that I often found myself thinking I was reading about Philip Marlowe, not Moses Wine. It's kind of Chandler with a bit of a Kesey/Wolfe-sentiment thrown in. It's a fun read. (And it even has a few pointless Bakersfield references thrown in for good measure.)
- posted by Amy @ 4/06/2004 08:58:00 AM