Thanks to EW!

It was very nice to see "So Cold the River" selected as one of the "most anticipated books of the summer" by Entertainment Weekly.



Release is -- finally -- drawing nigh, and I'll be blogging a little more about the book in the coming weeks, hopefully answering some reader questions that are sure to exist, such as, 1) How much of the history is true? (most of it) and 2)Why a ghost story? (Because they're fun!)

Anyone who followed my picks for favorite books read in 2009 will remember my high esteem for Dave Cullen's "Columbine." Today is the anniversary of that tragedy, and as I've read news articles about it I find my mind turning again to that fine piece of work. If you haven't read the book, you should. It's now out in an updated, paperback version. www.davecullen.com

Other, more recent, reading pleasures have included Alafair Burke's "212," and the Paris Review series of writer interviews, which is like candy to me. There's a four-volume set of them out now, featuring interviews about the craft with everyone from Dorothy Parker to William Faulkner to Ernest Hemingway and Stephen King. Wonderful stuff. And speaking of King, act fast to receive a limited edition new novella from the master: http://www.cemeterydance.com/

I also thoroughly enjoyed Larry McMurtry's memoir "A Literary Life" but I'm saving that one for a full blog entry at some point. Still trying to honor my promise to be more active on the blog this year!

So Cold The River promo widget Version 2.0

Many thanks to Miriam Parker and the others at Little, Brown and Co. who created this fun little guy.

Early reviews, good news from abroad, and go Butler!

Some nice things to report on this NCAA Championship Monday, less than 12 hours from tip-off of the unlikely Butler/Duke matchup. I don't want to jinx the Bulldogs, so I'll just say that even if they lose it's been an amazing run and people from Indiana can't complain about seeing two teams (Butler and the Colts) play for the championship in a two-month span. Ah, the Colts...(Hands team, Hank Baskett. Hands team! That's the only reason you kept a roster spot and then they give you ONE onside kick all season and you, a WIDE RECEIVER, cannot hold onto the...)

Ahem, sorry. As I said, we can't complain. Too much composure for that.

The first good news comes from the Netherlands. I just returned from a wonderful trip to Amsterdam, and can't thank the people at Boekerij enough. It's a great publishing house in a great country, and, as of last week, also the first publishing house to land a Koryta title on the national bestseller list, with the mass market edition of "A Welcome Grave" (or "Begraven") debuting at #16.
http://www.cpnb.nl/bs/nieuwsbrieven/2010/week-13.html

Back stateside, there's a starred review of "So Cold the River" in the current Publisher's Weekly that will hopefully whet appetites for the new book:

"In this explosive thriller from Koryta (Envy the Night), failed filmmaker Eric Shaw is eking out a living making family home videos when a client offers him big bucks to travel to the resort town of West Baden, Ind., the childhood home of her father-in-law, Campbell Bradford, to shoot a video history of Bradford's life. Almost immediately, things go weird. Eric uncovers evidence of another Campbell Bradford, a petty tyrant who lived a generation before the other and terrorized the locals. The older Campbell begins appearing in horrific visions to Eric after he sips the peculiar mineral water that made West Baden famous. Koryta spins a spellbinding tale of an unholy lust for power that reaches from beyond the grave and suspends disbelief through the believable interactions of fully developed characters. A cataclysmic finale will put readers in mind of some of the best recent works of supernatural horror, among which this book ranks.

International hospitality

Considering I still find it surreal to see a copy of one of my stories actually bound and jacketed and available to purchase – just like a real book! – it should come as no surprise that one of the strangest and most humbling experiences I have is the opportunity to see foreign editions come in. I’ve had the wild good fortune to be published in a number of languages and in a number of countries, and the idea that anyone believes the books will appeal to people a world apart from the place where I write them is endlessly fascinating to me. It suggests a lot about the power of story, I think, and the way we can connect to universal themes and struggles. To be a part of that on any level is special.

I spent the end of February and the early part of this month in Australia, with stops in Perth, Melbourne, and Sydney, and will close out the month in Amsterdam, having a great chance to meet people who publish and read the books in other places. Australia was a wonderful trip, and I owe deep thanks to the many fine people at Allen & Unwin for their gracious hosting. I also had the chance to meet local booksellers, and their excitement for So Cold The River’s release was beyond encouraging. At least a half-dozen people told me they’d had nightmares while reading the galley. Strangely, this news always pleases me.

The Perth arts festival was excellent, and I had the pleasure of meeting some wonderful writers, including a pair of personal favorites, David Finkel, author of The Good Soldiers, which was one of my favorite reads of 2009, and Elizabeth Kostova, the wildly gifted author of The Historian and The Swan Thieves. Elizabeth and I share a publisher in the US now, but she’s always eluded me here, so I had no choice but to chase her to an island in the Indian Ocean. She then agreed to sign a book and take a photo, but you can tell from the uneasy smile that restraining orders are being considered.

A few things I took away from my time in Australia:

1) It is very, very difficult for me to avoid attempting an Australian accent when I am in the presence of one. To make matters worse, I did two events and drank many more beers with the talented Adrian McKinty, who is from Ireland, has lived in Harlem, and now resides in Melbourne, all of which led me to want to attempt a hybrid Aussie/Irish approach that, when privately rehearsed, left me sounding like Paul Rudd’s attempted Jamaican accent in I Love You, Man.

2) One of the best elements of being around publishers and booksellers from other countries is getting a sense of writers who have slipped under the radar (or at least my radar) here. I did an event with Colin McLaren in Perth, who has had a truly fascinating police career, and can’t wait to read his work. Rebecca James is getting worldwide attention for her debut, A Beautiful Malice, and everyone I spoke with said it is most deserved. Again, on my reading list.

3) American football has its detractors down under. If I had spent nearly the same energy trying to sell books as I did defending the merits of the NFL versus rugby, it probably would have delighted my publisher.

4) Kangaroos are edible.

Farewell to two of the greats

Talk about a bad day in the mystery world: last week e-mails came through to me almost simultaneously informing of the death of Robert B. Parker and the pending closing of The Mystery Company, Indiana's only independent mystery bookstore and a place that has felt like home since I began to publish.

I'd offer a Parker tribute here, but I've read so many from writers far more eloquent than yours truly that I don't know what's left to say except that Robert B. Parker was for me, as for anyone who has touched the PI novel form in the last thirty years, a tremendous influence. Those first ten Spenser novels may well have saved the genre. It's scary to consider how many of the current detective novelists we love may never have A) tried the form; or B) found a publisher who believed money could be made from the PI novel without Parker.

Anyone well versed in mystery fiction pointed back to Parker at some point in their discussions, and nobody was -- is -- better versed than Jim Huang, owner of The Mystery Company in Carmel, Indiana. The store hosted my first signing, and the first signing of each subsequent book, and, were the world in the palm of my hand, it would continue to do so for as long as anyone publishes my work. It's closing, though, driven out of business by many factors that Jim articulates very well on his blog http://mysterycompany.typepad.com/jimhuang/2010/01/one-door-closes-.html and that won't surprise anyone familiar with the struggles of independent business or bookselling. I wish Jim and his family the best as they move on, but Indiana is the poorer for watching them go.

Lest this be an unrelentingly bleak entry, I'll add this: I spent last week teaching at the Eckerd College Writer's Conference. (Still Writers in Paradise, www.writersinparadise.com to me, but I gather they're in the midst of a name change). The conference was absolutely huge to me in my days there as a student, and it's a wonderful treat to be able to return as a faculty member. There were a lot of talented students, writing hard, and that bodes well for the future. Kudos to Dennis Lehane and Sterling Watson for creating, and maintaining, something so great.