• Author-poet Edgar Allan Poe, who died under mysterious circumstances on October 7, 1844, is finally receiving a proper burial today in Baltimore, Maryland. More here, here, and here.
• Few recent Rap Sheet posts have generated as many comments as Friday’s mention that NBC-TV is canceling the cop drama Southland. Now I know why. There’s an aggressive campaign being mounted via the Web to save this John Wells-produced series, if not on NBC then on some other network. Blogs such as this one are encouraging fans of the show to voice their support of the series--anywhere and everywhere they can. We’ll see if it can all make a difference.
• That’s the bad news from NBC. The good news is that Chuck fans may not have to wait until March 2010 for the return of their show. TV Squad says Chuck may be back as early as the end of October.
• The latest bit of short fiction at Beat to a Pulp comes from Stephen D. Rogers. His story is called “The Year of the Dragon.”
• Happy 84th birthday, Elmore Leonard!
• “Veteran crime reviewer” and Rap Sheet contributor Dick Adler has launched a new blog. Called ARCs ’R’ Us, it’s a site that offers uncorrected page proofs of forthcoming books to readers who don’t want to wait for months until those works are finally released in hardcover. And the blog boasts one of the best standing heads I have seen in a long time.
• While we await the publication later this month of Quarry in the Middle, the eighth installment of Max Allan Collins’ series featuring the hired killer known only as Quarry, Ed Gorman sits down for an interview with the author. They talk about Collins’ start in book publishing, Quarry’s unexpected longevity as a series player, and Quarry’s leap onto the silver screen. Their whole exchange is here.
• Blogger Uriah Robinson (aka Norman Price) has posted the fourth entry in his terrific interview with British crime novelist Philip Kerr (If the Dead Rise Not). The best news from this new portion is that Kerr is already at work on a seventh Bernie Gunther book. To read their conversation straight through, use these links: Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV. The concluding fifth part of this interview, Robinson promises, will be posted this coming Tuesday.
• We’re still a year away from the release of Damn Near Dead 2, the sequel to Busted Flush Press’ first anthology of “geezer noir,” Damn Near Dead (edited by Duane Swierczynski). But the lineup of contributors has recently been announced. Author and blogger Bill Crider, whose short story from that first volume, “Cranked,” won a Derringer Award, will edit this new anthology.
• Dig it, man, The Mod Squad.
• Irish novelist Ken Bruen has won the Grand Prix de la Littérature Policière 2009 for his novel Priest, or as it’s known in France, La main droite du diable. More here.
• Jeri Westerson runs her second Crispin Guest medieval mystery novel, Serpent in the Thorns, through Marshall Zeringue’s revealing Page 69 Test. Results here.
• Have you been reading Rafe McGregor’s series about Sherlock Holmes associate/chronicler John H. Watson? If not, you should be.
• Keeley Hawes is heading back to the 1980s for one more season of Ashes to Ashes, the sequel to the UK version of Life on Mars.
• If any of my family members are reading this, let me just mention that the five-season DVD set of Foyle’s War would make a dandy Christmas present.
• Sara Paretsky has been making the rounds of newspapers, talking about her new, 13th V.I. Warshawski detective novel, Hardball. She’s already been in the Chicago Tribune, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Where in the world will she turn up next?
• More radio adventures for private eye Sam Spade.
• HBO has renewed Bored to Death for a second season.
• And CBS-TV seems committed to launching a new version of the 1968-1970 crime drama Hawaii Five-O. Variety reports that a pilot script has already been ordered. No word yet on who might star, but I’m hoping that better choices will be made than Stephen J. Cannell made for his unsold 1998 remake of the series.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
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7 comments:
Isn't it a little off to sell ARCs? I mean, didn't Mr Adler get them for free?
Yeah, I'd agree. If I can't place my extras with another blogger/reviewer then I donate mine to a local cancer center for the patients undergoing chemotherapy and have to spend hours there.
It says right on arcs that they aren't to be sold, so yeah, it's off. There have been these debates before, and not all will see eye to eye on it, but in light of the FTC regulations that have been discussed at blogs (It's a Crime) recently, this is an interesting move. When the regulations take effect this is like providing a list for the FTC to cross-check, and prove what you've received for free, isn't it? Never mind the obvious interest the IRS will take.
On the flip side of the coin, there is a potential advantage to authors. Readers who are prepared to buy an arc from someone who got it for free, and take the trouble of ordering it, are probably more likely to be vocal about the book, to review it on amazon or tell friends if they liked it. I'm prepared to acknowledge that, while saying that personally, I could never sell arcs, and Brian's already mentioned what happens to ours when we're done with them. We didn't even sell all the leftover books from B'con last year -we donated them.
I of course donate a lot of books to libraries, but they won't take ARCs. The idea about giving them to cancer patients is a very good one. And even though it does say they're not for sale, ABE and Alibris have no compunctions about listing ARCs.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the site?
Southland is a great show. I really hope it can find a new home.
Most folk that have ARCs spend a lot of time and energy reviewing and promoting them.
Unless the author objects, I see no problems.
Southland's John Wells is talking to TNT. Hopefully that deal gets done.
Save Southland? You're kidding right? Check Out the LA Eastside Blog.
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