The day this update goes live, the new Barbara Allan – ANTIQUES CON – will be available. You should be able to find it at your favorite bookstore (and if they don’t have it, ask – but Barnes & Noble has been a big supporter of the series, so that’s a safe bet). And of course you can get it on line.
Those of you who got advance reading copies can now post a review on Amazon (and elsewhere).
One of the fun things about this one (commented upon by several reviewers) is that we begin with Chapter Two. The conceit is that our editor made us drop Chapter One because that chapter – dealing with the attempt to recover the paperweight that beloved Aunt Olive’s ashes had been turned into – had nothing to do with the mystery plot.
Well, you can read Chapter One, and for free, by going to our Barbara Allan web site.
The web site is a work in progress, with lots of fun stuff to come, but for now it’s already very cool (thank you, Nate!) with individual pages for each Barbara Allan book, including BOMBSHELL and REGENERATION. Many of the books have sample chapters, for those of you who haven’t dipped into the world of Barbara Allan as yet. Check it out!
To further celebrate, read this fantastic review from one of our favorite people (and favorite writers), Bill Crider.
Speaking of great reviews, here’s one that is about to appear in Booklist for SUPREME JUSTICE:
Collins (Ask Not, 2013), perhaps best known for his Nathan Heller novels, has crafted a spiky thriller with a fine inside-the-Beltway sensibility. His politics are transparent enough to cost him conservative readers, but the sense is that Collins is probably OK with that.
Here’s a LAST QUARRY review – better late than never.
Craig Zablo has posted a pic of Mickey and me. I wonder if he knows it was shot outside the Tower of London?
Here’s an interesting love/hate evaluation of series fiction in the mystery genre, with a brief but nice QUARRY mention.
Speaking of Quarry, our images this week include shots of the structure honoring me as one of the authors on Iowa City’s Literary Walk (I am part of the Northside Marketplace expansion). This is particularly sweet to me, since as many of you know, I was kind of a black sheep at the Iowa Writers Workshop because of my insistence on writing crime fiction. Quarry was created when I was in the last semester of my MFA work at the Workshop, and the opening three chapters were “workshopped” to mixed reviews, mostly negative, including my instructor. My champion at the Workshop was the great mainstream writer Richard Yates – and his pedestal with quote was added to the walk at the same time as mine…how sweet is that? Writing well is the best revenge.
M.A.C.
Tags: Antiques Con, Barbara Allan, Photos, Reviews, Spillane, Supreme Justice, Trash 'n' Treasures
Oh my God, Max, that pedestal is so cool! Congrats! Poor Barb, though– there will be no living with you now. ;)
Actually, this went up a year or two ago, and I hadn’t seen it till the other day when we sort of stumbled onto it (it’s across from the Hamburg Inn, where presidents…and a young college student named Collins…are among the celebrated diners).
This past Saturday was the Windy City Pulp & Paper convention, at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center.
I did pretty well, particularly at Martin Grams’s table.
From there I proceeded to Barnes & Noble at Oakbrook, where I bought ANTIQUES CON, among others.
(Now if we can just get them to bring in the other books …)
Amazon has also come through for me, with Jane Spillane’s book.
So as far as “retirement” (or as I call it, “paid unemployment”) goes, so far, so good.
Later today, when I have some extra time, I’ll visit Barb’s new site.
*Extra time my left foot – all I GOT now is extra time!*
See ya on the wheel.
Congratulations, Max! Proving once again that not only is the pen mightier, but also a way of expressing “up yours” to your literary detractors.
That pedestal is pretty neat. Are they highlighting all Iowa writers or local(ish) people?
Thanx and a hat tip for my prize copy of KING OF THE WEEDS.
I presume that this is my “confuser-warming present” – and I am hugely grateful.
And I pledge to be first in line to get the newer ones just as soon as they become available.
Fact is, I was on my way out the door to C&S just to see if anything was out yet … and lo and behold, there was a package from Muscatine, right up against my door!
It’s good to have friends.
… but you know that already, don’t you?
Mike, you’ve been so supportive, it was a small gesture to “congratulate” you on your retirement….
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