What’s Up with Robert B. Parker?

The author himself answers that question, in his new Amazon.com blog. As Lee Goldberg noted earlier, Parkers writes:

What’s ahead? At the moment Blue Screen (Sunny Randall) is the most recent book. In October will come Hundred-Dollar Baby (Spenser), in the Spring will appear a Young Adult novel called The Edenville Owls (my first try at this), and in the fall of 07 will come Jesse Stone again (High Profile). We start shooting the next Jesse Stone movie, Seachase (Tom Selleck as Jesse), this October, and it will be on CBS sometime during the 06/07 season. When I know, I’ll tell you. Incidentally, I think Tom has absolutely nailed the role. Ed Harris is developing my western novel Appaloosa for a feature film. He plans to star (as Virgil Cole) and to direct. So far he has Viggo Mortenson attached (Everett Hitch) and Diane Lane (Allie). I’m very pleased with the casting choices, and have a lot of confidence that Harris will get the movie made (as you may know, most movies don’t get made). He should be wonderful in the role. I’ve seen the script and it seems flawless. Stay tuned.

Parker has only been working this blogging beat since late last month. He promises to respond occasionally to questions ... which must be why there are so dang many comments dangling from his posts. Some of those comment writers make observations about his past novels and suggestions about the future of his series protagonists. It would be interesting to have Parker reflect, sometime, on what he’s learning about his readers and his writing from this electronic interaction. Or is the Amazon gig simply a gimmick, a one-way P.R. street, with fans of Spenser, Sunny, and Jesse learning mere tidbits from the author, but being coaxed into buying his forthcoming books? Maybe a question for the future.