Jess Walter Interview
The Seattle Post Intelligencer ran an AP interview with Jess Walter this past weekend. Walter’s “Citizen Vince” grabbed the EDGAR despite the fact that the novel is not a classic mystery. I’ve enjoyed all of his novels. Jess Walter is published by ReganBooks, who may or may not be in Los Angeles at this writing. Walter’s earlier titles include “Over Tumbled Graves” and “Land of the Blind” both of which are very good. “Citizen Vince” is being released in paperback.
Jeff Povey’s “The Serial Killers Club” landed on my doorstep the other day. I noticed the blurb from Eric Garcia on the jacket cover, and in the dedication Jeff Povey mentions his agent, Barbara Zitwer, who I think, repesents Garcia. I wasn’t crazy about “Darkly Dreaming Dexter” and didn’t care for the opening pages of “The Serial Killers Club.” The same goes for the dinosaur detective in Garcia’s novels. This is weird because I am a demographic bullseye for this kind of material, but instead of reveling and rejoicing, I’m fidgeting and fussing.
Critical Mass has a post by John Freeman about lit bloggers earning money from ads. Freeman points out that reviewers for print media aren’t exposed to the conflict of interest that receiving a quarter from Amazon creates for bloggers such as Max McGee and Scott Esposito. Scott and Max have several comments on the subject. I don’t think most bloggers would be influenced to speak highly of a book for a quarter or even fifty cents ( not 50 cent.) if publishers raised the bar, say to seventy five cents, my integrity would be totally compromised, and on a sliding scale of corruption, if offered a dollar I’d be forced to sing the praises of Martha’s latest, or gush for Macauley Calkin. That’s why this blog has no advertisements. Okay, that’s not why. I haven’t figured out how to put live links in my posts, let alone how to dock with corporate motherships in cyberspace. You know, I’ve begged Rupert Murdoch to buy this blog for ten million dollars. CBS? Morgan Stanley? Brother, can you spare a dime?