new York – Lawrence Block has come a long way in his long career.

“There are a lot of dead ends there,” said one mysterious novelist.

The best-known block in its Matthew Scudder and Bernie Rodenber series has published dozens of popular works through HarperCollins and Dutton among other mainstream publishers. He has won several Edgar and Anthony Awards for Outstanding Fiction, and his lifelong accomplishments include the Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger Award and Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster status. ..

But it has also supplemented dozens of other names, long after it was forgotten, and in some cases legally questionable, by editors and publications. Recently I have published my own books such as “Dead Girl Blues” published in 2020, Rhodenbarr’s novel “The Burglar In Short Order” and my current dissertation “A Writer Prepares”.

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“One of the great things about the vanity press is how quickly you can handle it. If you post something yourself, you can cut your wait time by at least a year, ”he explains.

“The downside is not to shrug your shoulders. Vanity Press books are rarely reviewed and rarely appear in bookstores. “Dead Girl Blues” didn’t make me rich, just like “AWriter Prepares.” “don’t. But what I’ve written won’t do it no matter who publishes it, and everything I self-publish is always available in electronic and print, and you’ll likely find an audience that Deserves that. “

Brock has lived in Greenwich Village for many years, is fully vaccinated and returns outside, enjoying a nice big plate of Brussels sprouts during a recent interview at his favorite cafe. Passers-by and fellow diners seem to ignore anything special about this bald, rustic-robed man with a gravel voice, but at least some have his book. You will know.

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“A Writer Prepares” is a bit of an unfinished business for Block, who turned 83 this summer and first worked on a memoir for an “actively enthusiastic week” at an Illinois artist’s hideout in the United States. 1990s … But he had other plans at the time. I left a brief in a Manila envelope in the cupboard near my desk. When he came across the manuscript last year, he saw it again and was happy with what he saw.

In “Writer’s Preparation,” Brock looks back on his childhood in Buffalo, New York, which was his biggest skeptic. In Grade 11 English he received a treatise on what his future profession would be. He recalled that his theme was “uncertainty”. He confessed that his father’s dream of becoming a doctor would never come true, and when his mother told him his job would ruin his hands, his early desire to become a garbage collector was over. ..

He closed the job with a warning. “Reading this composition reveals one thing. I cannot be a writer.

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Replied Miss Jeppesen, her teacher who gave her an A: “I wouldn’t be sure.”

Brock attended the University of Antioch, part of his ultra-pulpy novel “Campus Trump,” but never graduated and eventually settled in New York. Ambitious and prolific, he undertook a type of mission that was not commonly discussed at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop or proposed by the Revue de Paris.

Before Lawrence Block became a publishing brand, it was introduced to readers as Uncampbell Clark, or Chip Harrison, or Jill Emerson, or Sheldon Road. He wrote an erotic and lesbian novel and named it Dr. Benjamin Morse when he finished “Female Sexual Surrender”. John Warren Wells conducted a field survey titled “Business Tips: Hooker’s Handbook”. He has written for magazines that cut out his story, change titles and rename characters. They can submit a story under a pseudonym and find that it has been replaced by another pseudonym.

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“A Writer Prepares” captures pre-internet pre-big box businesses, including publications such as Manhunt, Trapped and Keyhole, as well as some institutions that only the most ironic writers would have imagined. Brock worked briefly as a copy manager for the Scott Meredith literary agency. Its founder was as elusive as the ethics of his business.

“All the letters we wrote were designed to be manipulated and were overwhelmed by the Knights, ignoring the truth,” Brock wrote. “My pricing report praises the talent of the unskilled writer, blames the plot of the story with a completely satisfying plot, forces poor Muchi to submit another story and does another honorary a pony. Written for the sole purpose of. “

When Meredith passed, Brock remembered in his interview, and fellow writer Evan Hunter called a friend and shouted, “Isn’t that great, is Scott dead ?!” Isn’t that the best you’ve ever heard? !! “

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Brock’s memoir captured exciting and affordable New York City in the late 1950s and early 1960s, enabling young writers to start their families there. The city has long been part of his work. Some readers consider his most famous scudder novel, “How to Die 8 Million,” to be one of the great books on New York. Matthew Scudder lives in downtown Manhattan, but his case takes him all over the city and honest citizens are not advised to visit him.

“I like to walk around town,” says Brock. “Until the pandemic happened, my wife and I had something. After a little research on Sunday, I found an ethnic restaurant in a suburban neighborhood that I didn’t know and found a way to get there. It was a great treat once. “

His memoirs lead to the end of his “apprenticeship” and the publication of his novel “The Thief Who Could Not Sleep” in the mid-1960s. This is the start of his groundbreaking mystery series Evan Tanner, about a veteran of the Korean War suffering from permanent insomnia due to his injury. Brock calls it the first book only he could write, a break from his “derivative work” in the early days, and the kind of novel he knew he intended to write. The start of.

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“(In detective novels) the stakes are higher than in the big story, ‘Will this professor get a job?’” He said with a smile.

He quotes a friend of the writer who is a “keen reader”. And she has the book she reads and she always reads to sleep at night. And for years, the book she settles in her bed must be a mystery. Because at this time of day she has to read something that is known to be the last to be resolved. I found it interesting. “