Required Reading
This weekend I took on and wrote the introduction for a book of short stories Stark House is putting out of the the great Andrew Coburn. That was a break between working on an intro for the prolific Ed Gorman; last night I finished reading the 22nd book by Mr. Gorman--that's as many as I read for the Charles Williams intro I wrote, which came in at a ridiculous length (I tried to be scholarly and definitive--you'd have to judge the results for yourself). Anyway, the Williams piece led to a newspaper interview which turned out pretty nice.
Today I begin working on an intro for a Peter Rabe collection, his first three "Daniel Port" books. The good news is I get a much-welcome Peter Rabe fix. The bad news is I've never really worked on multiple introductions at the same time by reading the subjects' books. It's like mixing research and I'm not sure how well I'll be able to keep stuff in my head. I suspect the key will be lots of notes.
After that I'm supposed to write something for my own two-in-one volume that's coming out in September. The books were both titled by other people: "Turnabout" and "Shallow Secrets." Rabe never titled his books, either. He tried but the publisher changed almost all of his (they kept "The Box") so he eventually gave up trying.
I was a guest on the Mystery Writers podcast and that will be posted next week. Unfortunately, I'd only slept for about two hours the night before so I probably blather and blither all in my usual laryngitic frog voice.
We've been trying to set up a time to do a radio and newspaper interview for a guy in Oklahoma. Stark House did a book by Clifton Adams who wrote about Oklahoma, and while my involvement in that project didn't go much beyond researching an intro that I didn't write, as well as proofreading the books, I have a slight Oklahoma connection. Back when the U.S. National Skydiving Championships were held in Muskogee, that's where I'd be. In the middle of an otherwise empty field, crammed full with the best of the sport for this one time a year, out in the middle of cattle country. And my aunt and uncle, writers, poets and artists, lived in Oklahoma when my uncle was a professor at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. He was also the editor of the magazine "World Literature Today."
So there are some ramblings. Too much going on to be calm, relaxed or peaceful. I need to learn to meditate and burn incense or something so my coping skills can, um, stop hiding and help me out once in a while.
Anyway, there are some ramblings. I need to turn this into an actual website at some point so when my books come out if anybody cares to look me up there's more than... this.
Thank you for your attention. Now back to work for all of us.
Today I begin working on an intro for a Peter Rabe collection, his first three "Daniel Port" books. The good news is I get a much-welcome Peter Rabe fix. The bad news is I've never really worked on multiple introductions at the same time by reading the subjects' books. It's like mixing research and I'm not sure how well I'll be able to keep stuff in my head. I suspect the key will be lots of notes.
After that I'm supposed to write something for my own two-in-one volume that's coming out in September. The books were both titled by other people: "Turnabout" and "Shallow Secrets." Rabe never titled his books, either. He tried but the publisher changed almost all of his (they kept "The Box") so he eventually gave up trying.
I was a guest on the Mystery Writers podcast and that will be posted next week. Unfortunately, I'd only slept for about two hours the night before so I probably blather and blither all in my usual laryngitic frog voice.
We've been trying to set up a time to do a radio and newspaper interview for a guy in Oklahoma. Stark House did a book by Clifton Adams who wrote about Oklahoma, and while my involvement in that project didn't go much beyond researching an intro that I didn't write, as well as proofreading the books, I have a slight Oklahoma connection. Back when the U.S. National Skydiving Championships were held in Muskogee, that's where I'd be. In the middle of an otherwise empty field, crammed full with the best of the sport for this one time a year, out in the middle of cattle country. And my aunt and uncle, writers, poets and artists, lived in Oklahoma when my uncle was a professor at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. He was also the editor of the magazine "World Literature Today."
So there are some ramblings. Too much going on to be calm, relaxed or peaceful. I need to learn to meditate and burn incense or something so my coping skills can, um, stop hiding and help me out once in a while.
Anyway, there are some ramblings. I need to turn this into an actual website at some point so when my books come out if anybody cares to look me up there's more than... this.
Thank you for your attention. Now back to work for all of us.
posted by Rick Ollerman at 9:05 AM
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