Made in Philadelphia: 1918

Image from TavernTrove.com.

Beer of the Unknown

Over at the Big Adios message board there's an interesting thread about Mickey Spillane, and Max Allan Collins popped up this past weekend to explain why Spillane left some manuscripts unfinished, and why there aren't more Spillane novels out there:

[Spillane] did not need money and tended to only write when he felt like refreshing the coffers... The Miller Lite campaign cost us many Spillane books -- they were paying him to be a pitchman, and very well, so why write?

Yeah, another goddamned reason to hate "lite" beer.

Holmes Land Security

Yesterday I received an advance copy of The Crimes of Dr. Watson, the interactive Sherlock Holmes mystery I edited, and... holy shit, is it a stunner. See, I can say this because I had very little to do with the production of the book—the foxing of the pages, the luxurious illustrations, the period detail. All I did was work on the manuscript (purportedly written by Dr. John H. Watson himself), and add an intro and editor's note. The geniuses at Quirk Books did the rest.

Dr. Watson will be available at bookstores everywhere on November 15th; I'm happy to report that Barnes & Noble will be giving it special play at their holiday gift tables this season.

And since Dr. Watson is no longer with us, I'll be stepping in to do an exclusive discussion/signing at Murder By The Book in Houston, Texas on Saturday, December 1 at 4:30 p.m. (Where I'll also be pimping The Blonde, a book I actually wrote.) Hope to see some of you there.

There will also be a launch party here in Philly; every single one of you are invited. Check back later this week for details.