{"id":1164,"date":"2011-09-03T08:48:51","date_gmt":"2011-09-03T08:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/?p=1164"},"modified":"2011-09-03T21:01:15","modified_gmt":"2011-09-03T21:01:15","slug":"guest-blog-lawrence-block-jill-emerson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/guest-blog-lawrence-block-jill-emerson\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Blog – Lawrence Block & Jill Emerson"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Lawrence Block: It\u2019s so nice to be working together again.<\/p>\n

Jill Emerson: Oh, is that how you see it?<\/p>\n

LB: Well, don\u2019t you?\u00a0 We\u2019ve got a book coming out together from Titan. Getting Off<\/em>, by Lawrence Block writing as Jill Emerson. It\u2019s Hard Case Crime\u2019s first book since they hooked up with Titan, and their first hardcover book ever.<\/p>\n

JE: Blah blah blah.<\/p>\n

LB: You know, I don\u2019t get your reaction at all. I thought you\u2019d be excited.<\/p>\n

JE: You always think women are going to be excited. And then you think its their fault when they aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

LB: But\u2014<\/p>\n

JE: I\u2019m not even going to mention the fact that your name is like huge<\/em> on the cover, and you need a magnifying glass to read mine. Lawrence Block writing as Jill Emerson.<\/p>\n

LB: I thought you weren\u2019t going to mention that.<\/p>\n

JE: I\u2019m not. What I will mention is a book that\u2019s coming out September 1. A Drop of the Hard Stuff<\/em>.<\/p>\n

LB: Oh, right.\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s nice of you to mention it, actually.\u00a0 It\u2019s the seventeenth Matthew Scudder novel, and Orion\u2019s bringing it out in the UK.<\/p>\n

JE: On the first of September.<\/p>\n

LB: Right. Oh, I think I see what you\u2019re getting at.<\/p>\n

JE: Oh, do you?<\/p>\n

LB: It\u2019s just three weeks before Getting Off<\/em> comes out.<\/p>\n

JE: Two weeks and six days, actually.<\/p>\n

LB: Well, that\u2019s almost three weeks.<\/p>\n

JE: When did it come out in the States?<\/p>\n

LB: Uh, that would be May 12.<\/p>\n

JE: That was three and a half months ago.\u00a0 Or, as you might put it, almost four. Why should it take them so long?<\/p>\n

LB: The book got exceptionally good reviews in the U.S. I suppose Orion wanted to be able to splash them all over the cover.<\/p>\n

JE: I saw the cover.\u00a0 There\u2019s an old generic Scudder blurb by Elmore Leonard and an even older one from Jonathan Kellerman. They haven\u2019t used the new reviews at all.<\/p>\n

LB: Well, they could have.<\/p>\n

JE: Right. So there are four names on A Drop of the Hard Stuff<\/em>, aren\u2019t there? Yours, of course, Mr. Famous Writer.\u00a0 And Elmore Leonard\u2019s and Jonathan Kellerman\u2019s.\u00a0 And, of course, Matthew Scudder.<\/p>\n

LB: I think I see where this is going.<\/p>\n

JE: Oh, do you?\u00a0 I don\u2019t see my<\/em> name on the cover, Larry.\u00a0 You don\u2019t mind if I call you Larry, do you?<\/p>\n

LB: No, that\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n

JE: Oh, that\u2019s a relief.\u00a0 I was afraid you might insist on being called Mr. Block.<\/p>\n

LB: Oh, come on now.<\/p>\n

JE: Or possibly Your Worship. Or maybe Your Grace, that has a nice ring to it. But as I was saying, they didn\u2019t put my name on the cover, not even in itsy bitsy teeny weeny letters.<\/p>\n

LB: Well, Jill, uh, how shall I put this? You didn\u2019t write it.<\/p>\n

JE: So?\u00a0 You didn\u2019t write Getting Off<\/em>, but that hasn\u2019t stopped you from grabbing the lion\u2019s share of the credit. But don\u2019t you see what\u2019s bound to happen? UK readers have been waiting for A Drop of the Hard Stuff<\/em> for months now, and the day it comes out they\u2019re gonna pounce on it.<\/p>\n

LB: Let\u2019s hope so.<\/p>\n

JE: Oh, they will. Don\u2019t get a swelled head over this, Larry, but even I have to admit it\u2019s a pretty good book. I won\u2019t go all dewy-eyed over it, like the reviewers at Time Magazine and the Washington Post and the New York Times and, well, pretty much everybody\u2014<\/p>\n

LB: Reviewers were very generous.<\/p>\n

JE: Maybe.\u00a0 Or there\u2019s always the possibility that you paid them off.<\/p>\n

LB: You\u2019re not suggesting\u2014<\/p>\n

JE: Hey, I\u2019m just sayin\u2019.\u00a0 Point is, everybody in the UK and the Commonwealth countries is going to be holed up with Matthew Scudder, and where does that leave Kit Tolliver?<\/p>\n

LB: Kit, of course, is the protagonist of Getting Off<\/em>.<\/p>\n

JE: Duh. Kit just happens to be the star of the hottest book either of us ever wrote, and she\u2019s going to get eclipsed by Orion\u2019s edition of A Drop of the Hard Stuff<\/em>. Why are you shaking your head?<\/p>\n

LB: Because I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n

JE: You don\u2019t?<\/p>\n

LB: I think the books will sell each other.\u00a0 I think you\u2019re right, UK readers will grab Orion\u2019s edition the day it comes out.\u00a0 And I also think they\u2019ll finish it in plenty of time to be eager for something a little different from the same author.<\/p>\n

JE: Even if the Same Author is writing as Jill Emerson?<\/p>\n

LB: I think so, yes. In fact\u2014<\/p>\n

JE: In fact what?<\/p>\n

LB: In fact, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if a lot of them pre-order both books right now, just to make sure they don\u2019t miss out.\u00a0 If they click here<\/a> they can order A Drop of the Hard Stuff<\/em>.<\/p>\n

JE: Even better, they could click here<\/a> and nail down a copy of Getting Off<\/em>. You really think this is gonna work, Larry Boy?<\/p>\n

LB: Let\u2019s hope so\u2026<\/p>\n

Note from DB. <\/em>It’s a pleasure and privilege to have a guest blog from Larry Block, one of my all time favourite crime writers. Since he wrote the above, Getting Off<\/em> has been put back from September to January (update: seems the UK release date was always January, Amazon’s UK listing was misleading, but it’s already out in the US and Canada – see the comments), but you can still pre-order it and savour the thrill of anticipation for an extra 13 weeks. Meantimes, I asked Larry to choose our song of the week for this week and he suggested two by the Irish tenor, John McCormack<\/a>, both of which are referenced in the new Scudder novel, which I’m looking forward to immensely. Here they are:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

John McCormack – The Minstrel Boy<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

John McCormack – The Rose of Tralee<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawrence Block: It\u2019s so nice to be working together again. Jill Emerson: Oh, is that how you see it? LB: Well, don\u2019t you?\u00a0 We\u2019ve got a book coming out together from Titan. Getting Off, by Lawrence Block writing as Jill Emerson. It\u2019s Hard Case Crime\u2019s first book since they hooked up with Titan, and their first hardcover book ever. JE: Blah blah blah. LB: You know, I don\u2019t get your reaction at all. I thought you\u2019d be excited. JE: You always think women are going to be excited. And then you think its their fault when they aren\u2019t. LB: But\u2014 JE: I\u2019m not even going to mention the fact that your name is like huge on the cover, and you need a magnifying glass to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-songs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1164"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1194,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164\/revisions\/1194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}