BruenFest begins
That's what I'm dubbing the monthlong tour that Ken Bruen is starting on today in New York City with a PR lunch hosted by his American publishers, St. Martin's Press. Once that ends, the drinking begins...
Yes, there's a small -- OK, not so small -- part of me that is very sad and a bit jealous that I cannot be there, especially considering who will be around for the signing and, of course, the drinking afterwards. But for those who don't know about it yet and are in the New York area, get yourselves over to the Upper East Side tomorrow night and hang out with Bruen and his crew at Black Orchid Bookshop starting at 7 PM.
I'll just content myself with the stories to follow -- especially of rotten hangovers the next morning...
And to get you started, check out the outtakes from Duane Swierczynski's recent interview of Bruen with Mystery Scene:
SDB: It’s been said that hardboiled fiction has a limited audience, while suspense thrillers seem to do monster business. Is it smart to try to think of what we do as “suspense thrillers” more than crime novels? Do labels ultimately matter?
KB: If you can write your books to your own satisfaction and have them cross over to thriller market, all the better. I’m not precious about being noir, or whatever. I just want to sell books. I’ve had all sorts of labels—from the very limiting “caper” tag to procedural to that strange beast… “literary crime.”
The best solution seems to be to include, humour, tension, noir and suspense, and thus get the whole shebang—just as long as I don’t get tagged soft boiled or cozy, I’m easy.
Ha. Were it ever thus.
Let the drinking begin.
Gotta work on my drinking skills. I only got an "of" while Laura got the cool "drinking" link. I need to hang out with her a bit more ;-)
I'm really looking forward to tomorrow night. I had tried to get Wednesday off to recover, but my boss just called an 11am meeting. Guess I should be grateful that its not 9am.
Posted by: Mary | March 14, 2005 at 02:14 PM
I can't wait for him to arrive on West Coast leg of the tour. I have a surprise for him next week!
Posted by: Aldo | March 14, 2005 at 03:33 PM
I'll be joining the tour for one night on the 24th in Houston. I'm in training till then.
Posted by: JDRhoades | March 14, 2005 at 09:11 PM
I can report from the Bruen Front Line that the Pope of Galway has arrived in America in top form. There was a small gathering at his hotel last night including me, Ken, SJ Rozan, Reed Coleman, Jim Winter, Todd Robinson... Jim Winter's blog may have more details...Then Todd (a NYC bouncer) took Ken and me barhopping to some of the places where he works....I last saw Ken late last night at a bar on Houston Street and there was chatter about "after hours places"...so, for all I know, he's still out there somewhere....
Posted by: Jason Starr | March 15, 2005 at 09:54 AM
I will catch up with Ken when he'll be signing in San Mateo, CA this Sunday, March 20. "M" is for Mystery is three or four doors away from an Irish Pub and across the street from a sports bar.
Aldo, how far South are you again?
Posted by: John Schramm | March 15, 2005 at 05:18 PM
John, about 3 to 4 hours in Ventura.
Posted by: Aldo | March 16, 2005 at 12:56 AM
The last thing I remember from Monday night is Starr, Bruen, and the Todd dumping me into a cab. The next thing I remember was finding myself draped over a mailbox in downtown Trenton with a note pinned to my forehead (in Starr's handwriting) that said, "Thanks for the memories and the Moulin Rouge."
I'm never drinking Jaeger again.
Posted by: Jim Winter | March 16, 2005 at 03:02 AM