Deadly Pleasures Editorial Spring 1997

Spring 1997-Deadly Pleasures Editorial
by
George Easter

Don Sandstrom. Don, whose words you have been reading for the last three years in Deadly Pleasures (DP), has been battling leukemia for the last several months. After a long stay in the hospital, his doctors allowed him to go home for a few weeks. His leukemia is considered in remission, but he has had to go back to the hospital recently for a second round of scheduled treatments. I have talked to him on the phone. He seems to be in good spirits and is planning to go to Malice Domestic in May. Many of you have showered him with cards and letters, for which he immensely grateful. Mar and Carol Lachman traveled from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Indianapolis, Indiana to visit Don in the hospital, which just show you what great people they are. Don was overwhelmed. To show you what a trooper he is, he sent his reviews immediately upon returning home from the hospital. Don, we wish you the best.

Marvin Lachman. We all want to congratulate Marv on his being given the Raven Award for his contributions to the mystery genre by the Mystery Writers Association. A more deserving person does not exist.

Store Wars. About three years ago the American Booksellers Association filed antitrust suit against several major publishers because independent booksellers were complaining of the anticompetitive advantage that large bookselling chains had over the independent booksellers in their discount practices. The upshot of this will be that the price of books will go up slightly in the chains (I have noticed that fiction hardbacks at Barnes and Noble are no longer 20 per cent off, but only 10 per cent). Our own local Sam Weller's Books, the venerable Sal Lake bookstore, was one of the five bookstores that brought the case on behalf of al independent booksellers. this is certainly good news for mystery bookstores, who have been having a difficult time competing with the large chains on the prices of some titles. Of course, mystery bookstores generally carry many, many more titles in hard and soft cover than the chains, so customer loyalty has always been there for them because of their inventories and their expertise.

Signed First Editions. The Ballantine Publishing Group will issue individually autographed first editions of new hardcovers by three acclaimed crime novelists in its Fawcett and Ballantine imprints. The first personally autographed volume, Verdict Unsafe by Jill McGowan, will be released in June followed by Julie Smith's Crescent City Kill in August, and Sharyn McCrumb's Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Other Stories in September. An announced 20,000-copy, first printing is planned for each of the three titles in this program. A wave of the future? I feel sorry for the writers who have to sit there for hours and personally sign 20,000 copies of their books. I wonder if their health insurance will cover them for carpal tunnel syndrome.

Mary Will Walker-Susan Wade Connection. Subscriber Sandra Renak asks what is the connection between Mary Willis Walker, author of the Edgar-winning The Red Scream and Susan Wade, author of the much-praised 1996 paperback original Walking Rain? The cover of Walking Rain has a blurb by Mary Willis Walker which states: "Wade is a spellbinding storyteller who fused language with merciless suspense, Walking Rain is one of the best debut novels of the year." Then inside the book each chapter begins with a passage attributed to Molly Cates writing for Lone Star Monthly in the two books in the series. Both authors are from Austin [Texas]. Sandra was wondering if Mary Willis Walker and Susan Wade were the same person. I told her that I doubted it very much. Has anyone out there ever met Susan Wade? If so, tell us a little about her.

New Features. There are two new features in this issue of DP. One is contributor profile of Marvin Lachman. When Barry Gardner died, I realized that many of us knew precious little about his non-mystery life. To avoid the same thing happening in the future, I have asked the DP contributors to submit a short biography to let us get to know them a little better. My biography will be next. Another new feature is the DP Classic Corner, where I invite any of you to submit pieces on some of your "oldie but goodie" favorites in a similar format to what you will see in this issue. The next classic which will be so treated is Hake Talbot's Rim of the Pit. I welcome any comments you may have on this underappreciated work.

Books Across My Desk. One of the perks of being an editor of such a magazine as this is that publishers send all sorts of esoteric "stuff" for review. The following are some of that esoterica:

Detecting Men Pocket Guide by Willetta Heising, Purple Moon Press, $16.95. contact Kate Bandos, 616/676-0758 or look for it at your favorite mystery bookstore. Willetta is showing her broad-mindedness and is now doing for male mystery writers what she did so well for the female mystery writers. The handy little book contains lists of series books for readers and collectors and includes many British titles that are not available in the US for the British collector/reader.

The Deadly Directory, 1997-1998, International Edition, Deadly Serious Press, $25.00. I was very happy to get this in the mail for review because I was about to buy a copy. It is my telephone/yellow pages for the mystery world. A comprehensive list of new and used bookstores, organizations, fanzines, on-line home pages, and much, much more. Worth every penny that I would have spent. If you cannot find this at your local mystery bookstore, call 212/473-5723.

The Third Degree, Crime Writers in Conversation, No Exit Press, 7.99 £. Expanded interviews which first appeared on the pages of Crime Time, and English magazine which treat crime fiction. The book contains the likes of Patricia Cornwell, James Ellroy, Gwendoline Butler, Walter Mosley, Michael Dibdin, Lawrence Block, Andrew Klavin and James Sallis. This book can be obtained directly from it's American distributor, Firebird Distribution, 1945 P Street, Eureka, CA 95501. Telephone 707/444-1434. Contact Greg Shephard.

AZ Murder Goes...Classic, Edited by Barbara Peters and Susan Malling, Poisoned Pen Press, $11.95. Contains the papers read at the eponymous mystery conference held in 1996. Contributors include Catherine Aird, Justin Scott, Laurie King, Joe Gores, Michael Connelly, Val McDermid, Edward Marsten, Harry Keating, Steven Saylor, Susan Moody and Janet Laurence. topics are all over the board from Arthur Conan Doyle and Raymond Chandler to Oxford Detectives and Collecting Erle Stanley Gardner. This is excellent bedside reading material and promises to be an excellent series as the Poisoned Pen prints the results of each yearly conference.

Crime & Mystery: The 100 Best Books by H.R.F. Keating, Carrol & Graf, $9.95. An informative and fascinating overview of the history of crime fiction from 1845 to 1986. Harry Keating chooses 100 classics of the genre (and since he limited himself to 100 has left out many deserving candidates) and gives us a short exposition on the merits of each. Certainly worth the price.

The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler (Illustrated version) Simon & Schuster, $15.95. Raymond Chandler may very well be turning over in his grave. Isn't Chandler's prose the reason we venerate his works? Hence, isn't the whole point to Chandler in the reading of his works, not seeing the stories illustrated in color cartoons? It's the language, stupid. Oh well, in this day and age of children raised on television, it is the visual that seems to be favored over the written.

St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery, 4th Edition. In the last DP I heaped profusive praise on this valuable and weighty reference work. Perhaps my recommendation was too effusive because shortly after DP #15 was mailed I receive a letter from Al Hubin in which he stated that he had gone through the St. James Guide with a sharp-toothed comb and found a number of bibliographic errors. I am not printing them herein because of space considerations (five pages worth), but if anyone would like a copy of them (offered to US subscribers only), please send me a self-addressed stamped envelope and I will mail a copy to you. It is still a very helpful reference work inspire of these faults.

Left Coast Crime Convention. My experience with this convention was enjoyment from start to finish. It started with a "booking" expedition with my newly acquired friend, Rick Robinson. We both found some books, but the best part of the experience was the getting to know one another. (By the way Rick is working on a new masthead for DP. Thanks, Rick). One of our stops was Killing Time Mystery Books, near the University of Washington campus. The store is graced with the best photographs of mystery authors I have ever seen, all taken by one of its employees, Teresa Salgado. She has promised me a print of the photo of Sparkle Hayter, which I will use in an upcoming issue. You'll love it, trust me.

Once again, I didn't get to too many panels, but had great time smoozing. Memorizing events: the book signings in the book room where Jonathan Kellerman rubber stamped his signature because of carpal tunnel syndrome. Needless to say, the line for his wife's signature was a lot longer. Faye Kellerman told a story of receiving a number of letters critical of a passage in one of her earlier books. The protagonists went to Brooklyn in mid-March and she described the temperature in the 50s. She was told that it never gets that warm in March. So she had her publisher add a sentence to the paperback edition when it was printed. "Don't you think it is unusually warm for March?"

Some of use were bemoaning the fact that Stephen Greenleaf (who was scheduled to appear) didn't show up. A bookseller said that he had recently reconciled with his wife and had moved from Seattle to Ashland, Oregon to be with her. Terry Kleba said with some indignation. "He could reconcile with her any time...." You get the idea.

I was on a panel with Gary Niebuhr as moderator and Maggie Mason and Christine Burke, co-owner of Clues Unlimited in Tucson, Arizona. The topic was Who Do You Recommend. The time passed quickly and we all had more to say than time allowed, so at least for the participants, it was fun. Of course, anything involving Gary and Maggie usually has a high "fun" quotient. It was food to get to know Christine Burke a little, since she is a good customer and sells DP in her store.

The convention ended with another short " booking" expedition with my buddy Gary Niebuhr. I told one bookseller that I was particularly interested in some vintage paperbacks, such as the Dell Mapbacks. He said that he had recently gotten quite a few of them from a person who at one time bought out a paperback exchange thinking of opening a similar business. Alas, the paperbacks sat in a storage shed for 30 years. When he opened the shed, he discovered serious damage to the books on the top and bottom of the pile, but the stuff in the middle was OK. I got some great stuff at very reasonable prices. Gary found a couple of good things also. I came away with the impression that Seattle has some very good used bookstores--and a lot of them.

Bouchercon. I am going to be on two panels at the upcoming Bouchercon in Monterey, California. the first is one on mystery magazines, which I will be moderating. In the past, this has been a show-and-tell panel, where each participant holds up his/her magazine and tells everyone about it. It is my intuition not to repeat the past. I haven't finalized any ideas about to go about that so if any of you have suggestions, please forward them to me. The other panel is one that Gary Warren Niebuhr (my evil twin) has invited me to participate on and I will treat the subject of Walter Mosley's Los Angeles and how it differs from other authors' treatment of that city. I'll try not to put you to sleep. It is a real treat for me to meet subscribers, so if you see this middle-aged, bald guy wandering the book room with a name tag bearing my name, please feel free to approach. I will be neither armed or dangerous.

Mystery Connection

Magnifying Glass

Over My Dead Body! Online

TurnPike(tm) Emporium

Spring 1997-Deadly Pleasures Editorial by George Easter

Spring 1997-Deadly Pleasures Editorial
by
George Easter