Monday, November 06, 2006

Blurbs

For the first time, I have gone after blurbs with a vengence. This is for my book next year - The Concrete Maze. This is a book so good, Russel McLean gave it several thumbs up. It is not a Precint Puerto Rico novel. Instead it is the novel I'd been asked to write for years. It is the hardboiled, noir novel about the place I grew up in - Da Bronx.

Anyway, so far, I've got a dozen blurbs. I think this is enough. I think that the praise is warrented (okay maybe not everything Ken Bruen said, but he's Irish so there's got to be some sort of way to discount some of it).

Interestingly, though the book is a paperback original and I don't know half the people I asked, no one turned me down. And, maybe more importantly, no one wrote to tell me that they couldn't in good conscience give me a blurb AFTER they'd read the book. Because I tried to explain to people that if they didn't like the book, they could still say something which I would creatively edit...

Here's a list of people who have responded so far. I'll be sharing bits of what they had to say as the month progresses.

Russel McLean
Ken Bruen
Wallace Stroby
Reed Farrel Coleman
Megan Abbott
Jennifer Jordan
Sara Gran
James Sallis
Sean Doolittle
Jason Starr
Manuel Ramos
and
Richard Aleas who ironically doesn't have a website unless I just link to Hard Case Crime.

Now guess which of these fine people used the phrase "f***ing Hell" in discussing a scene late in the novel. Only one guess per customer. First to get it right, gets a copy of the ARC for the book when they're ready (which should be about another week). Of course, if you're on this list, then you can't play.

9 Comments:

Blogger pattinase (abbott) said...

Ken Bruen.

November 07, 2006 3:14 PM  
Blogger Steven said...

Patti,
Sorry. Good guess though. (It's the one I'd have gone with, but I know better...).

November 07, 2006 5:36 PM  
Blogger Mystery Dawg said...

I'll go with Sean, ya know those Nebaraska boys...

November 08, 2006 4:49 AM  
Blogger Steven said...

Sorry Aldo, 'twasn't Sean. I guess this is harder than I thought it would be. Good guesses though.

November 08, 2006 9:42 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I gotta go for Sara. It's always the girls with the potty mouth. I'm looking at you Patti!

Who's bringing out the book? SMP or another house?

November 09, 2006 12:25 PM  
Blogger Steven said...

Bryon,
Sorry. Not Sara. Geez, I didn't think this would be that hard. I'll give it another day before the reveal.

Anyway, the book is coming out as a PBO with Dorchester Publishing/Leisure Books. In the mystery world, Dorchester's better known for also bringing out the Hard Case Crime books. In fact, I would have shopped the book to Hard Case, but the editor at Leisure Books got back to me in about a day (no joke). Made the offer after seeing the first three chapters in an email attachment. That's a bit on the rare side.

November 09, 2006 12:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well if it's not Sara then it's got to be Jen.

November 10, 2006 8:19 AM  
Blogger Steven said...

Bryon,
First, it's only one guess per person. The idea is that if you go down the list you'll get it. I wouldn't be able to declare you the winner even if you had gotten it right this second time around. Sorry...

Secondly, it wasn't a woman at all...(That means leave Megan Abbott out of it).

It was Russel. Russel McLean of Crime Scene Scotland.

However, as a thanks for playing, I can offer the three of you, Bryon, Patti, and Aldo a copy of the ARC if you'll email me an address. The hope is, of course, that you'll talk it up to friends and family...if you like it...

November 10, 2006 8:55 AM  
Blogger Russel said...

You know what this says to me - that people see me as a nice, polite and quiet sort who wouldn't dare use naughty words...

Fuckit, I gotta do something about that!

November 10, 2006 1:17 PM  

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