Latest from Lawrence Block

Two intriguing tidbits from Lawrence Block's latest newsletter:

I'm one of three writers of a new ESPN dramatic series that's set to air weekly for nine weeks starting Wednesday, January 13. (Officially, I'm an executive story editor.) The show is called TILT!, and the background is big-time poker in Las Vegas; my friends Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who wrote ROUNDERS and wrote and directed KNOCKAROUND GUYS, created the show and will be producing it; Roberto Benabib (of Ally McBeal) and Nick Kendrick (Law & Order: SVU) and I worked together to develop story lines and outline episodes, and now we've each got an episode to write in the next two weeks, and then we go back to the office for more of the same. I don't know that I've ever worked harder or had more fun, and I think the show's going to be outstanding. I will keep you posted on this, but meantime you can mark the date in your book. January 13—TILT!

That's one of the things you've got to love about Block...he always keeps you guessing what he's going to do next. This sounds like it might be good. I really enjoyed Rounders. Who'da thunk it -- LB writing for TV!

Let me get back to ALL THE FLOWERS ARE DYING. I didn't mention this before, but some of you sussed out on your own that it is in fact a Matthew Scudder novel, and I think that's as much as I want to say about it. The book will come out in March (from Morrow/HarperCollins in the US and Orion in the UK) and I'm afraid you'll have to wait until then to know more. In fact it's our intention not to publish Advance Reading Copies of this one. There are some surprises in this book, and I'd just as soon avoid having some largemouthed jackass spoil them for you three months ahead of time. All I'll say is that those people who've read it tell me it's one of the darkest Scudders to date, and the most suspenseful.

I was one of those who suspected this new one might be a Scudder -- and I'm very pleased to learn it's true. This series definitely represents the best of Block's work. It ranks as one of the top PI series ever created. I'm already looking forward to it!

I regret the lack of ARCs, but understand why they're doing it. (Mike Connelly did the same thing with his last book, The Narrows.) I'm actually surprised this isn't done with more books.