Lee Goldberg; Steve Hockensmith

Frm Lee Goldberg on my Parker comments:

But the Sunny Randall novels take all the worst aspects of the Spenser books...and make them even worse. Can't stand Spenser's constant talk about his dog? Sunny's relationship with her dog borders on psychotic. Can't stand another scene between Spenser and Susan? Wait until you read the Sunny and Susan scenes... yeah, that's right, Susan is in the Sunny books, too.

Ed here: Sunny & Susan! You had me laughing out loud. I tried two chapters of a Sunny book and gave up. I'm sure glad I did after you said there were Sunny AND Susan scenes in the book. "Unspeakable evi!" whispered Fu Manchu.

To clarify one thing I said in the Parker piece. I meant nothing personal when I said that all of his heroes were in masochistic romantic relationships. I know nothing about Parker personally but the men-women stuff in his books are certainly masochistic.

Listen, Spenser, Jesse--believe it or not there are a lot of women out there who can be giving, tender and downright FUN!!!

But to his critiics, I still say give Jesse Stone a fair read and you'll be surprised how good the books are.


From Steve Hockensmith

Ed,
Just saw this from you on Bill Crider's blog:

<Yeah, I always feel badly when a beginning writer asks
me for a blurb. When I tell him I'm nobody and that
the editor probably won't use it anyway, I always get
the same reaction--but you've published so many books.
Yes, friends, unsucccessful books. The marketplace
defines us by computers and nothing else.>>

Steve here:
I started to post a long reply...then stopped when I
remembered that my editor has asked me to keep our
blurb list under wraps for a while. I was going to say
something about how surprised I was to learn that
blurbs routinely go unused and how that makes me
appreciate all the more any established writer (such
as you and Bill) who'd keep helping out first-time
authors despite having seen their blurbs eighty-sixed
in the past. Since I didn't say it on the site, I
thought I'd say it in an e-mail.

So -- thanks again! Hopefully, it's not success in the
marketplace that defines a writer to other writers.
It's talent and class. You and Bill have both.

-Steve

Ed here: Most of my blurbs are used, I guess, but for a reason--they're always "Ed Gorman, Mystery Scene"

And that's fine. Publishing is a business. The object is to sell books. Thus you do what's necessary. They're not singling us out in any way. Nothing personal there at all.





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