Newsletter 03/11

March 2011

Happy St. Patrick’s Day and happy spring.

My good friend Mary Higgins Clark has been chosen to be the Grand Marshall of this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City. This is quite an honor, and I look forward to seeing Mary leading the parade, and also look forward to sharing a few cocktails with her afterwards.

Years ago, I used to watch the parade from the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral as an invited guest of the church. If you read my book, Cathedral, which is about the Irish Republican Army taking over St. Patrick’s Cathedral and seizing hostages during the parade, you’ll understand why I’m no longer an invited guest.

Some repeat announcements: I will be making an appearance at The Southwest Florida Reading Festival in Fort Myers on Saturday, March 19. I’ll be doing a presentation with bestselling author Ted Bell at 12:30 pm, followed by a booksigning, then a presentation with Scott Brick at 2:15 pm, followed by another booksigning. Scott, as you may know, is the narrator of many of my Audiobooks. For more information on this event, click here. Hope you can be there.

Also, as reported, I was invited to be the editor of the 2011 Mystery Writers of America Annual Anthology, titled The Rich and the Dead, to be published on May 2 by Grand Central Publishing. I’ve collected short stories from twenty of the most outstanding mystery writers in the country, myself included, and in my unbiased opinion, this is a superb collection of new and original mysteries. Pre-order it now online or through your bookstore. The proceeds support the Mystery Writers of America, a great organization that is dedicated to bringing you the finest mystery stories by the best writers in America, myself again included. Check out their website.

To kick off the publication of the The Rich and the Dead, there will be a book signing at the Mysterious Bookshop at 58 Warren Street, NYC, on Tuesday, April 26, 6-8 pm. I’ll be there as will many of the other authors who have contributed short stories to the anthology. The deal is, buy a book and all the authors present will sign their stories and/or the title page of the book. This will become an immediate collector’s edition.

The owner of the Mysterious Bookshop is Mr. Otto Penzler, an old and dear friend of mine who has promised some wine and cheese for the occasion. The Mysterious Bookshop is a revered New York institution and one of the last mystery bookstores in the city. Please join us on April 26 for a nice evening. Admission is free, but you need to buy a book to get out.

On June 1st, three of my earlier novels—Mayday, Cathedral, and By the Rivers of Babylon—will be published in the trade paperback edition for the first time, with new Forewords by the author. That’s me.

Also in June, my most recent novel, The Lion, which was published in hardcover in June 2010, will be published in trade paperback on June 7th.

And don’t forget, all of my novels are available as Audiobooks, eBooks, and in various print editions. As I’ve said, I’m not trying to get you to read my books; I’m trying to get you to buy them.

And now on to new news: I have a tentative title for my new John Corey novel—The Panther. You may recall that my last John Corey novel was titled The Lion. As Corey might say, it seems to be his fate to get attacked by big cats. I’m sure he wishes his next adversary is named Kitty. But John can handle it.

The Panther is coming along well and should be published in the spring of 2012.

Most of The Panther is set in Yemen, and as I mentioned, I was planning to go to Yemen in February for research, but it looks a little unsettled there at the moment, and I might get more research than I bargained for. So, I’ve put the trip on hold until the Yemenis get on with their revolution, or call it off. I’m afraid if I went now, my presence might be a destabilizing influence. Or I might get killed.

No news on the movie front since my February Newsletter, but my agent assures me that the inertia that has existed since The General’s Daughter was made into a movie in 1999 will continue in full force.

As reported last month, Bradley Cooper was reading the screenplay for The Charm School to see if he wanted to play the part of the main character, Sam Hollis. Brad must be a slow reader because I haven’t heard anything since then. Come on, Brad. If you read only three pages a day for thirty days, you’ll finish the whole script, including the title page. Try coffee.

In conclusion, as you may have noticed, I’ve closed down my website e-mailbox. This is temporary and it will reopen as soon as I finish my novel.

 

Sincerely,