Two of us riding nowhere: Lawrence Allan's February newsletter
Spending someone's hard earned pay
Hello, Friends!
Here in L.A., it already feels like spring has arrived, which will always feel weird to me. Hope you are doing well, staying warm where it’s cold and enjoying the weather where it’s warm.
News!
I can officially announce that I will be on a panel at Seattle’s Left Coast Crime.
Can Death Be Funny? will be on the first afternoon of the conference and moderated by Heather Haven. I’ll be joining Lina Chern, Libby Klein and Jo Perry, talented authors all.
Obviously, we’ll tackle the question, and also tackle uses of humor in mystery and crime. I haven’t talked much about it here — I should do a proper post on my website — but one reason why I love using humor; I think it helps drag characters into reality. It makes them more human because we’re not only seeing flaws, but we’re also seeing how they are unprepared for reality.
Unlike James Bond, we’re not always dressed properly when tragedy strikes. Sometimes we’re caught with our pants down.
Appearance!
If it’s on the radio, does it count as an appearance? You bet it does!
I just recently recorded a reading for Noir at the Bar Seattle. Other writers included Glen Erik Hamilton, Hal Glatzer, Cathy Ace, Marco Carocari, and Shelley Adina. Glen’s, Hal’s and Cathy’s will air on March 7th, while the rest of us will air on March 14th. The readings will be on KKNW 1150 AM in Seattle. If you don’t live in Seattle, you can also listen live through their website.
They will also air on the House of Mystery, which can be heard on KCAA 106.5 in Los Angeles and 1050 AM in Palm Springs.
You can find out more (and find more readings) over at Al Warren’s House of Mystery website.
Here’s a brief sample of yours truly:
Book Recommendation
Lee Matthew Goldberg’s The Great Gimmelmans is like if you mashed National Lampoon’s Vacation with Bonnie and Clyde. It’s the end of the 1980s and the stock market has just crashed and a stockbroker, who owes a lot of people a lot of money, goes on the run with his family in the only thing they have left, an RV. And that’s when the robbery starts.
Told from the perspective of the 12-year-old son, the book is about a family coming apart as the kids realize their parents maybe, just maybe, aren’t the best in the world. It’s funny, it’s moving, it’s harrowing and heartbreaking. All the good stuff.
And it’s been nominated for a Lefty — the award at Left Coast Crime — for Best Humorous Mystery Novel.
Check it out!
And a Bit of Housekeeping…
Next month, you’ll be getting a brand new version of the newsletter. As I mentioned last time, I’m moving it to a different hosting site, for a bunch of reasons.
If you want to continue receiving the newsletter, you don’t have to do a thing. It’ll be coming from hello@lawrenceallanwrites…. So, OK, there’s one thing you might have to do, make sure it doesn’t fall into your spam folder.
If you don’t want to continue the newsletter, take a moment and unsubscribe now down below. In the next few days, I’ll be exporting subscriber information over to the new host and I don’t want to spam anyone.
Take care everyone and see ya next month at the new place.
— LA