Around Blood Alley

Gary Carter at the 7-Eleven

2011-05-22T17:06:00.003-04:00

Gary Carter, the Mets' starting catcher on their highly entertaining mid- to late 1980s teams, has four small brain tumors. He joins an ever-lengthening list of people in my thoughts and prayers.

Back in the day, I ran into him once after a game a Shea Stadium. It was in the summer of 1987 in a 7-Eleven in Syosset, Long Island. By that point, Carter's offensive skills were diminshing, although he could still field the position, and the fans were starting to get on him. I attended a Mets-Cardinals with my brother, Andrew. Passions between the two teams ran high in those days, and the crwod was glum, if not downright surly, as the Cards took a 2-0 lead into the late innings.

In the top of the eighth, St. Louis had runners on first and second with nobody out. Doc Gooden was tiring, the Cardinals' pitcher was batting, and everybody who's ever attended a baseball game knew that he would try to bunt the runners over. That would have given the Cards runners on second and third, only one out, and a chance to pad their lead.

The St. Louis pitcher (I forget who it was) offered at a pitch and missed. Suddenly Carter sprang up and fired the ball to second. The Cardinals runner must have overly optimistic about his pitcher getting the bunt down, because he was way off the bag. So he took off for third. It wasn't a bad decision -- force the Mets to make a play. Anybody who's ever followed the Mets for a while knows that defense has rarely been the team's strong suit.

The runner was thrown out at third. And then, for reasons I will never understand, the runner on first took off for second. The Mets' third baseman made a strong throw to second, and that runner, too, was gunned down.

Two runners thrown out without the ball ever being batted into play. I've never seen that, before or since.

Anyway, the crowd roared back to life, the Mets started hitting the ball, and they went on to win, 3-2. And it all started because of a really alert play by Gary Carter.

I lived on Long Island at the time, and after the game I went to a 7-Eleven near my home to pick up a couple of things. As I was walking toward the cash register I heard the woman behind the counter yammering on and it sounded as if she was saying, "blah blah blah YANKEES ... blah blah blah YANKEES ... blah blah blah YANKEES."

I was coming home from a really good Mets win, and I was thinking, "The last thing in the world I want to deal with right now is some moronic Yankee fan."

There was a guy ahead of me at the register. I put my stuff on the counter and looked at him.

It was Gary Carter.

The man was huge. At least 6-foot-2, about 210 pounds and built like a block of granite. He was also buying the biggest bag of barbecued Doritos I've ever seen.

He said something to the woman behind the register about how the fans were getting on him because he wasn't hitting.

At this point I piped up and said: "I was at the game tonight! You made the play that turned the game around when you picked that runner off second!"

Carter was extremely gracious. He thanked me, then shook his head ruefuelly and said, "But the fans, all they want is offensive production."

I tried to buck him up: "There are plenty of ways to win a game, and you figured one out! That was a great play!!!!"

He thanked me again, took his 50-pound bag of Diroitos and headed for his car. As he did, I thought to myself, "I just tried to cheer up a guy who makes two million dollars a year."

And if I could say anything to cheer him up now, I would. He was a great player, and I wish him nothing but the best.

The Death of Bin Laden

2011-05-02T20:58:00.003-04:00

My feelings about the news are not ones of happiness, or even satisfaction. Rather, I have the sense that something that needed to be done, has been done.

The helicopters have been buzzing over downtown all day, as if the authorities are afraid he'll launch an attack on the fast-developing site he tried to destroy nearly ten years ago. Officials -- the Very Serious People we are all supposed to take Very Seriously -- are warning us once again that the Snidely Whiplashes of the world are about to tie us to the railroad tracks.

This attitude is what's wrong and perverse about our approaches to terrorism. The bad guys want to terrorize us, and we allow ourselves to be terrorized.

Jill, Skyler and I recently spent a few days in Washington. As we, members of the public, tried to gain access to our public buildings, it became painfully apparent that the people in charge of our security remain deeply afraid about the possibility of, well, everything.

This is no way to live. Security theater will never replace true security ... and true, absolute security is impossible to achieve, even in totalitarian states. The death of bin Laden will only have meaning if it brings about the death of an attitude: that we should be afraid, and that we can accomplish nothing worthwhile because the world is full of boogymen.

There are no boogymen. Except those we see in the mirror.

Reading on My Mind

2010-11-08T16:52:00.004-05:00

About 30 people attended the reading at the Cell Theater on Sunday, Nov. 7, that featured Charles Salzberg, Katia Lief, Mary Stasia Concannon and myself. The theme was murder, and I don't think we disappointed anyone. I enjoyed myself thoroughly (deep down, I believe I'm a ham), and I even sold a couple of books. It was a great experience to hear the other writers; their work was interesting and twisted. Sometimes it's nice to realize that my mind isn't the only demented mind one out there.

The space itself was intriguing. It's a small theater on 23rd Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, and the seats are all pews, which gives it a hushed, church-like feel. The ceiling soars and the space is open. We spent some time speculating about what it might have been before it became a theater -- a church, a Quaker meeting hall, a firehouse -- but we never did get an answer.

Besides the reading series, which is held once a month, the theater is also the site of plays, concerts and recitals, and performance art.

After the reading, we got a chance to mingle with the members of the audience while enjoying wine and nibbles. I even got into an interesting conversation with a man named Schuyler. What are the odds on that?

A Reading

2010-10-26T14:27:00.003-04:00

I'll be doing a reading with two other mystery writers at the Cell Theater in Chelsea on Nov. 7 at 5 p.m. The organizers are asking for a $5 donation to cover the cost of wine and nibbles at the event. That sounds reasonable to me, but then again, I'm not disinterested in this process.

Here's a link for more information: http://www.thecelltheatre.org/sunday-november-7-2010-5-7pm-tandem-reading-series/

Dennis Hopper, R.I.P. (or Something)

2010-05-30T21:27:00.006-04:00

I'm writing this at the request of my brother, Andrew, who reminded me of it upon the recent death of Dennis Hopper. The story, as I heard it, ran like this.

In the 1980s, when Hopper was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor nomination, he was called the morning the nominations were announced by a New York Times reporter. The conversation went like this (caution: all quotes are approximations and may, in fact, be apocraphyl):

Reporter: Dennis, congratulations, you've been nominated for best supporting actor.
Hopper: Thanks. To be honest, I've been expecting this. I've got something prepared, if you don't mind.
Reporter: Great. Go ahead.
Hopper (reading from a paper): I want to thank the acadamy for this honor. "Blue Velvet" is one of the greatest pictures I've ever worked on --
Reporter: Dennis --
Hopper: David Lynch is a genius, a true artist --
Reporter: Dennis!
Hopper: And one of the great directors of our time.
Reporter: DENNIS!
Hopper (nonplussed): What?
Reporter: You weren't nominated for "Blue Velvet."
Hopper (after a pause): I wasn't?
Reporter: No.
Hopper: Then what the fuck was I nominated for?
Reporter: "Hoosiers."
Hopper (incredulous): "Hoosiers"?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Reporter: That's right.
Hopper (increasingly incredulous): I was nominated for "Hoosiers"!??!?!?!? For that piece of crap?!?!?!? "Hoosiers"?!?!?!?!?!? I can't fucking believe it!!!!!! What a piece of shit!!!!!! "Hoosiers"!?!?!?!?!? Those fucking fucks in the fucking academy wouldn't know a good fucking piece of work if it bit 'em in the fucking ass!!!!!! Fucking "Hoosiers"?!?!?!?!!?!? Those fucking fucks ....

Apparently, it went on like that for a while. And, unfortunately, not a word of it could be related to the paper's readers.

The story, as I mentioned above, may be apocraphyl. But, for the record, if Hopper made that point, I think it was a really good one.

R.I.P. Dave Stern

2010-03-18T16:24:00.003-04:00

I should have posted about this a few days ago, but the press of events has prevented me.

My college roommate, friend and writing partner, Dave Stern, died suddenly of a heart attack last weekend in his hometown of Marblehead, Mass. His love and commitment to his community were evident on Monday at his funeral -- about 1,000 people attended the service at Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead.

Dave was 51, and left us all far too soon. We will always remember his humor, intelligence, energy, and innumerable kindnesses. In your thoughts and prayers please remember Dave; his wife, Sylvia; and their sons, Sam and Jeff.

Here is a link to Dave's death notice, which ran in The Boston Globe:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bostonglobe/obituary.aspx?n=david-m-stern&pid=140695622

Book Panel

2010-03-18T16:18:00.002-04:00

I hope to be blogging a little more about this as the date gets nearer. In the meantime, I'd just like to put out an alert that I'll be appearing on a panel titled "Hard-Boiled Mysteries: Killing With an Edge" at the Mid-Manhattan Library on Tuesday, March 23. The panel kicks off at 6:30 p.m.

Here's a link for more details:

http://www.mwa-ny.org/pdf_2010/FLYER%20-%20HARD%20BOILED%20MYSTERIES%203_24_10.pdf

Jane Jarvis, R.I.P.

2010-01-30T20:58:00.006-05:00

I'd be remiss if I didn't note the recent death of Jane Jarvis, the longtime organist at Shea Stadium back in the day. I have a lot of good memories of those games, and her organ-playing created a much better environment than the current insistence management has on inflicting eardrum-splitting noise on its paying customers.

Anyway, here's a link to the Times obit, which will probably tell you a few things you didn't know:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/arts/31jarvis.html?ref=obituaries

Deep Thought

2009-11-07T00:24:00.002-05:00

It seemed appropriate that the Yankees shared the podium at City Hall with Mayor Bloomberg today. This week the team and the mayor showed that the rich and the powerful can buy whatever they want in this country.

Evil Everywhere

2009-11-07T00:23:00.001-05:00

This is the point where I should be gracious and congratulate the Yankees on winning the World Series.

But I won't.

Another Gig

2009-10-27T16:36:00.002-04:00

I'll be participating on a panel sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America on March 23, 2010. The panel is titled "Hard-Boiled Mysteries: Killing With an Edge." It will be held at the Mid-Manhattan branch of the New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and 4oth Street.

I'll provide more information once I know more. Once we get close, I might get obsessive about it.

The Triumph of Evil

2009-10-26T16:02:00.003-04:00

Deep thought:

For a Mets fans, the upcoming Yankees-Phillies World Series is the baseball equivalent of Hitler vs. Stalin. (Okay, my analogy is a tad overblown. Mets fans will understand.)

NO GOOD DEED

2009-07-31T11:41:00.003-04:00

FWIW, I finished the second draft of NO GOOD DEED this morning. I'm going to let it sit for a bit, then tweak it after we get back from our August vacations (Cape Cod and Disney World).

Looks like I'll be hunting for a screenplay agent. Also looking for somebody to represent NEPTUNE, since Bill Contardi decided to pass on it.

Suggestions are welcome.

That Was Fast

2009-07-23T15:53:00.003-04:00

FWIW, I just finished writing the first draft of a screenplay titled NO GOOD DEED. I read it through this morning. It needs some work, of course. But the bones seem solid, and I was more pleased with the screenplay than I usually am with the first drafts of the stuff I write.

The script is noirish with comic overtones, a la the work of Elmore Leonard, Quentin Tarantino (back when he made movies) and the Coen brothers (sometimes).

My plan is to finish the second draft before our family vacation(s) start in the middle of August. Shortly after Labor Day, I'll look it over one more time, do some touch-ups, and start looking for an agent to represent it. (My literary agent, Bill Contardi, does not represent screenplays.)

If anybody knows a screenplay agent who likes this kind of material ....

Debits Field

2009-07-20T17:33:00.002-04:00

Following up on my previous post ...

Jill, Skyler and I made our inaugural visit to Citi Field on July 12. The Mets actually scored nine runs, a total they'll have trouble matching in their combined games the rest of the month.

The park is nice and, obviously, a big upgrade over Shea Stadium. The biggest advantage is that the fans are now much closer to the field. But .....

I had the feeling a family must have when it moves from its longtime house to nicer digs. The new spread is beautiful and everything, but the old place felt like home.

Yes, That's Me

2009-07-20T17:30:00.001-04:00

I got a mention in the newspaper I work for (The New York Times -- maybe you've heard of it) on Sunday. Here's the link: http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/castillo-takes-a-breather/?scp=2&sq=tom%20coffey&st=cse

Spooner

2009-07-03T11:30:00.007-04:00

Pete Dexter's new novel, SPOONER, is scheduled to be published in September. (Grand Central Publishing is putting it out.) In an advance word to potential readers and reviewers, Dexter noted that this MS. was in rougher shape than they might be accustomed to, and that many changes are possible before the book actually goes on sale. So take those words, and mine, for what their worth. (For one thing, he or a copy editor really needs to go through the book to clean up a raft of typos and grammatical problems.)

Dexter's career is an interesting one, especially to somebody like me. An ink-stained wretch who attracted attention as a columnist at the Philadelphia Daily News about thirty years ago, he then turned his energies toward writing novels. One of his earliest efforts, PARIS TROUT, won the National Book Award in 1988.

PARIS TROUT is a terrific book that I recommend without hesitation. I'm not so sure about SPOONER, a sprawling novel about a man who resembles Pete Dexter. I warmed up to it as I went along, but I don't know if readers will have the patience to slog through the first two hundred or so pages before they get to the good stuff.

The novel's arc is linear, beginning with the birth of Warren Spooner and following his childhood, coming of age and stuff like that. The spine of the novel concerns Spooner's relationship with his stepfather, the unusually well-named Calmer Ottosson.

As their lives unfold, it turns out that Calmer is a saint and Spooner is a fuck-up. Generally speaking, I don't like stories about fuck-ups, especially youthful ones. Usually they grow up to be George W. Bush. Probably the most famous literary fuck-up of the 20th century was Holden Caulfield. I may have been the only 1970s-era high school student who disliked THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, and I was delighted to read recently in The Times that modern high school students now take a dim view of the book's once-iconic protagonist. The young generation of today is a lot more sensible than many of its predecessors.

But I digress.

Somewhere along the line, for reasons that are never entirely made clear, Spooner straightens out and becomes as productive a member of society as a newspaperman can be. This is where the book begins to work. Spooner has a number of Pete Dexter-like adventures, including a near-death experience at the hands of a Philadelphia mob. Spooner's capacity for self-destruction borders on the staggering. It's a tendency that he's aware of, but can't explain. Through it all, Calmer is a rock who keeps his stepson's life anchored.

The bonds between stepfather and stepson gain strength as the two men grow older. Eventually Spooner holes up with his family on an island in Puget Sound, leading the Solitary Novelist life. Calmer, by now a widower, comes to stay with them. Roles are reversed (as they frequently are) as the old man's life winds down.

Given the obviously autobiographical nature of the material, I sometimes found myself wondering why Dexter didn't just give in to the great literary trend of the last fifteen years and write a memoir. At times the book meanders, as opposed to the airtight construction of PARIS TROUT. There's no plot; SPOONER is more a series of reminiscinces. On the other hand, calling it a novel avoids the now-nearly-inevitable charges of fabrication that cling like barnacles to top-selling memoirs, and it's a tribute to Dexter's intellectual honesty that he decided to put this book in its proper category once he determined he had to make up some stuff.

The pity, though, is that he has several taking-off points for a novel, but never follows through on any of them. Any one of SPOONER's several sections could have been amplified into a stand-alone book (with a plot), but instead the parts sail along on the strength of Dexter's sharp prose until they end, without much of a point being made. I felt as if I was reading the first or second draft of a book with a lot of potential. While nobody enjoys being edited, it is an essential process, and I felt that Dexter and his readers might have been better served if somebody at Grand Central Publishing had said: "Y'know, Pete, you've got a lot of interesting stuff here. Pick the one section that interests you the most, and write the hell out of it."

A Slogan for Our Times

2009-06-04T17:58:00.002-04:00

Given my success, and the success of my friend Tim Wendel, in handing out autographed books last week at the book expo, my wife and I have come up with a slogan that we believe truly captures the Zeitgeist of early 21st century America:

"FREE SELLS!!!!!!"

A New Project

2009-06-03T16:09:00.002-04:00

And so this morning, at around 11 a.m., I started working on my next project -- a screenplay titled NO GOOD DEED.

I have not written a screenplay in years, and I wonder if the Muses are screwing with me. The idea behind the script is strong, and even before I began working on it I had a good sense of what I want to do. (Rarely the case for me when I launch something.)

The truly great thing about screenplays is that you max out at about 120 pages. So I should have a first draft of this completed by the time we start our summer vacations in mid-August.

Stay tuned, as they like to say on TV ......

On the Nature of Fans

2009-06-01T17:21:00.002-04:00

Margery Flax's description of my fan Beatrice Weinberg as a "nice Jewish grandmother from Queens" got me thinking ....

My first novel, THE SERPENT CLUB, was a book drenched with sex and violence and violent sex. (I've calmed down a bit over the years.) The reaction to the book was eye-opening. A lot of woemn I would have described as grandmotherly or maiden aunt types really liked it. (He has problems, doesn't he?" one such woman said about the protagonist, as if she thought she could help him.) Although those observations surprised me, I was rocked even more by the responses from some of my colleagues in journalism, presumably jaded and cynical types who were appalled at what I had written.

It's ten years since THE SERPENT CLUB, and I'm still not sure what to make of that divergence. Except to note the wisdom of something my parents told me over and over again while I was growing up: Don't make assumptions about people. You have to judge them as individuals.

Where Have You Gone, Beatrice Weinberg?

2009-06-01T10:20:00.002-04:00

Just after my appearance at Book Expo America on Friday, Margery Flax of the Mystery Writers of America told me a fan story. Since I don't have many fan stories, I thought I'd relate it:

Margery got a message one day from an elderly woman at a nursing hime in Queens. The woman, a mystery fan, wondered if there any books the MWA had access to that it could send along to her. Margery liked the woman and wanted to help her out, so she put together a collection of about 40 titles and shipped them along.

It turns out that the woman was a "hard-boiled" buff, and she specifically asked Margery if she had any more books by Tom Coffey. She loved my stuff! At the time, I only had two books out.

Well, now there's a third. Unfortunately, Margery lost contact with the woman, whose name was Beatrice Weinberg. So if anybody knows where Beatrice is, please please please tell her about BLOOD ALLEY.

Deep Thought

2009-05-29T22:49:00.001-04:00

For an industry teetering on the edge of oblivion, there sure were a lot of people at Book Expo America on Friday ....

If You Give Out Free Books ....

2009-05-29T18:40:00.003-04:00

.... the world will beat a path to your door. That's what I found out today at Book Expo America. Toby Press, which published BLOOD ALLEY, sent me two cartons of books. I figure there were 50 to 60 copies altogether. I had a half-hour to sign them and EVERY LAST ONE DISAPPPEARED.

Margery Flax of the Mystery Writers of America, who did a terrific job organizing the MWA booth, told me that the MWA was one of the few exhibitors at the Expo that was giving away books, so the line in front of the writers was pretty much constant.

For further proof of Margery's thesis, consider what happened when my stint was over. I joined my friend Tim Wendel, who was signing copies of his book RED RAIN at a table in the basement of the Javits Center. Tim signed every copy he had, and had to turn away some people. At one point he had signed every copy he had, and word was put out to get more. People waited patiently for book swag, in surprisingly good humor.

My thanks to Shari and Matthew at Toby Press for providing copies of BLOOD ALLEY, to Margery and her colleagues at MWA for running a smooth operation, and to everyone who showed up to chat and get a copy of BLOOD ALLEY. It was a wonderful event, and I have to add one more thing:

PAPERBACK RIGHTS ARE STILL AVAILABLE!

Neptune (I Think)

2009-05-28T11:38:00.002-04:00

Just completed the revisions to my next novel, still tentatively titled NEPTUNE. I sent the ms. to my agent, Bill Contardi at Brandt & Hochman ... and we'll take it from there.

I slashed the first draft version, which exceeded 160,000 words, down to about 87,000 by the time I sent the ms. to Bill. And I have to say, the revised version is a lot better.

I'll be signing copies of BLOOD ALLEY at Book Expo America at the Javits Center tomorrow at 3 p.m. at the Mystery Writers of America booth. Let me give a special shout-out to my friend and colleague Tim Wendel, who'll be appearing at 3:30 to sign copies of his book RED RAIN. (It's a good read! Buy it! Tim's daughter is attending a really expensive private university!)

I want to give another shout-out to my friend and colleague Lew Serviss, who recently ordered a copy of BLOOD ALLEY and sent its sales rank on Amazon up by about 800,000 places.

Two Things Worth Mentioning

2009-05-14T16:03:00.003-04:00

Haven't done this for a while. Let's see if I remember how ...

For the first time in a while, I have a gig promoting BLOOD ALLEY. (The book came out about a year ago. To show you how swiftly and dramatically things can change, Dick Cheney was still influential back then.)

On Friday, May 29, I will be signing copies of BLOOD ALLEY at the Mystery Writers of America booth at Book Expo America. The expo is at the Javits Center in Manhattan. My gig begins at 3 p.m. and will last about a half-hour. I hope to see lots of people there, and to hand out lots of books. The cheerful and cooperative folks at my publisher, Toby Press, are sending me two cartons.

The second bit of news concerns my new novel, still tentatively titled NEPTUNE. I completed the third draft today, and will now enter the dreaded Finishing Touches phase. I still hope to have the book completed by Memorial Day.

More on the New Book

2009-02-22T16:37:00.002-05:00

The new book is actually progressing quite well. I'm whacking away at the unneeded verbiage, and something approaching a completed version is beginning to take shape.

I write on a computer (after years of resisting), and I've reached a conclusion: Writing on a computer does not make writing easier, but it certainly makes rewriting easier.

The Next Book

2009-01-27T16:46:00.002-05:00

I recently completed the first draft of my next novel, which I'm calling "Neptune" unless and until I think of something better.

The book has nothing to do with "Blood Alley," except, perhaps, certain thematic similarities.

It is wwaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy tttoooooooooooooo llloooooooooooonnnnnnngggggg right now. I'm trying to whack it down, smooth it out, buff up the characterizations, and do all that other neat stuff you're supposed to do while you're rewriting.

I hope to have the second draft completed sometime this spring. You'll notice that I'm giving myself a lot of wiggle room.

Thoughts on an What an Election Means

2008-12-16T17:16:00.003-05:00

It's been more than a month since Barack Obama was elected president.

(And we have more than a month to go before he actually becomes president. When contemplating the lag time between election and inauguration, I have to get in touch with my inner Mets fan and say, as loudly as I can: BOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!)

I spent much of the campaign in an unusual position: I, the uber cynic, kept comforting my liberal-leaning friends, family members and colleagues, telling them that, yes, Obama was going to win, that there weren't a gazillion closet racists out there lying to pollsters, and that you should just relax already. (My message to my conservative-leaning friends, family members and colleagues was more succinct: You have no chance.)

Readers and reviewers of BLOOD ALLEY have remarked about the blatant racism on display in the novel. It was uncomfortable for many people to read. It was equally uncomfortable to write. But it was all the product of research. By modern standards, the attitudes of many of the white characters were appalling. In the 1940s, those attitudes were widespread and, in fact, part of the mainstream.

For the record, on the advice of my editors and my agent, I wound up toning down some of the most blatantly racist material. The conversations went something like this:

THEM: You can't put that it in. You can't phrase it that way. Modern audiences won't stand for it.
ME: But that's the way it really happened.
THEM: We believe you. But it doesn't matter.

In the 1940s, you could have gotten very long odds on the the possibility of an African-American ever becoming president of the United States. At that time, it took the minor miracle of Branch Rickey to get African-Americans into major league baseball. That the people of this country elected an African-American, at what promises to be an epochal time in our history, says something about the long, uncertain but ultimately uplifting journey the United States has made.

There was nothing inevitable about Obama's victory. For that matter, there is nothing inevitable about progress. I'm not old enough to have lived through the events I described in BLOOD ALLEY, but the research I did for the book seared something into me -- before the 1960s, it was mind-bogglingly awful to be anything but white in the United States.

So what can we be most grateful for during this holiday season? I think we should be grateful that we are no longer that type of country.

I am not by nature an optimist. The forces of reaction are powerful, and always looking to come back. But as I survey the American landscape right now, I find myself thinking: Maybe we can.

The Best Communications School in America

2008-10-31T18:29:00.002-04:00

Michael's, on West 55th Street, is a well-known media hangout that I finally hung out in this week. (I think I need to get out more.) The event was a reception for Lorraine Branham, the new dean of the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University. Alert readers of this blog already know that the Newhouse School is my alma mater.

The restaurant served finger food, which was quite nice, and free booze, which was even nicer. Journalists will never pass up a chance to drink for free, especially in this economic climate.

I talked briefly with Dean Branham and mentioned that the sports department at The New York Times, where I've worked since 1997, is lousy with Newhouse graduates. She was already aware of that. I'm afraid that means she knows where to find us. Dean Branham struck me as intelligent and energetic, and I was reassured that my alma mater is in capable hands. Most of her professional background is in newspapers, so I am, of course, rooting for her.

Dean Branham has a tough act to follow. David Rubin has led the Newhouse School for a long time, and during his tenure a third building was added to Syracuse's communications complex. The university was talking about that building when I was a student there, so his success in bringing it to fruition was a bit like finding the Holy Grail, or constructing the Second Avenue Subway.

I had the opportunity to meet Dean Rubin about five years ago, during a weekend of festivities
marking the 100th anniverary of The Daily Orange, the student newspaper at Syracuse. I confess that whenever I read the material he wrote in alumni newsletters and university publications, I found it anodyne and forgettable. In person, he is an impressive man, and I left that weekend understanding why he was in charge of the school.

As an aside, I had the privilege of being the editor in chief of the Daily Orange during its 75th anniversary celebration. Those of you who are good at math will be able to figure out how old I am.

During the reception at Michael's, I had the chance to catch up with Mark Sullivan, one of my colleagues back in the day at The Daily Orange. We spent most of our time Monday night talking about the Mets.

New York Is Book Country, Part 2

2008-09-22T18:08:00.002-04:00

Central Park was beautiful on Sunday, and I was happy to be there. I felt I was in competition with the weather; only a few people were in the authors' tent, so I wound up schmoozing and signing instead of reading.

I followed Philip Lopate on the schedule. He talked to only a few people as well, and he's a Big Name Author.

I did sell a few books, and I gave away a bunch more. As always, it's a treat to talk to people about writing in general, and about BLOOD ALLEY in particular.

After I left the authors' tent, I wandered around for a while and picked up a collection of Hans Christian Andersen tales for my daughter, who just turned eight. As I was leaving the fair, I noticed that the authors' tent was full. The audience was for a group of children's book authors who were putting on a multimedia show, complete with music.

Next time I'll know how to attract a crowd ...

New York Is Book Country

2008-09-15T18:17:00.002-04:00

I'm going to be appearing at the New York Is Book Country fair on Sunday, Sept. 21, in Central Park, in the authors' tent near the Bandshell. I'm looking forward to the gig (my first one in a while) and I hope to meet some of BLOOD ALLEY's readers.

The gig begins at noon and is supposed to run until 12:40. I'll be reading from the book, signing copies and taking questions.

And then I'll have to run ... because my daughter's eighth birthday party will begin in a downtown location at 2:30.

If I survive the day, I plan to blog about it.

Jackie Robinson

2008-07-28T17:31:00.002-04:00

I had a few thoughts inspired by what is likely to be my last visit to Shea Stadium. I went with my wife and daughter on Sunday to see the Mets beat the Cardinals, 9-1. The victory ran my daughter's lifetime record at Shea to 5-0.

Rising next to the stadium is the Mets' new park, Citi Field, a mostly brick edifice meant to replicate Ebbets Field, the former home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Inside the new park is a space that will be called the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. It will celebrate the life and career of the man who broke the color barrier in major league baseball.

I allude to Robinson's impending arrival with the Dodgers several times in "Blood Alley," which is set in the winter of 1946-47. The book's protagonist, Patrick Grimes, has the "enlightened" attitude that Robinson should play in the majors if he has the ability. Seems like an uncontroversial opinion now, but back then it was radical. The misty eye of nostalgia makes it seem as if only a few die-hard reactionaries and bigots were opposed to Robinson's playing in the majors. In fact, just about the entire baseball establishment was against it, as were more than 80 percent of the fans. In "Blood Alley," several of the more unsympathetic characters take potshots at Robinson and the "radical" idea of integrating the majors. To modern eyes, those ideas seem malevolent, if not borderline insane. For that time, they were mainstream opinion.

In the end, the benefits all accrued to the Dodgers. Branch Rickey, the team's general manager, is regarded as a civil rights pioneer. (He was, but he was incredibly cheap toward his players. In fairness, so were all the other baseball executives of that era.)

Perhaps more important, by doing right, the Dodgers did well. The pipeline they established with African-American players enabled them to dominate the National League from the late 1940s into the mid 1960s.

And I'm looking forward to entering the Mets' new park through Jackie Robinson Rotunda, and talking to my daughter about him.

A Site I Like

2008-07-21T17:28:00.002-04:00

As I've talked to people about "Blood Alley," both on my book tour and in casual settings, I've found a considerable amount of interest in New York City history, and in finding links to the ever-vanishing past. Despite the efforts of preservationists, the force of change in New York is relentless.

For anyone interested in getting a good, long glimpse of long-gone parts of New York, please check out the Forgotten New York web site, which can be linked at http://www.forgotten-ny.com/.

One of the best things about this site is its refusal to indulge the obvious. There's a lot of stuff from the boroughs outside Manhattan, and from neighborhoods that never make the tourist guides.

I'm tempted to say that I've wasted plenty of time at this site, but that would be inaccurate, since I always find stuff that's offbeat and interesting. But I will say this: it's an easy site to be distracted by, and then to get lost in.

Hero Editor

2008-07-11T18:54:00.002-04:00

Early Wednesday morning, a 29-year-old man protesting something climbed partway up the New York Times building, where I work in the sports department. I had gone home by then ... but my wife, Jill, one of the night editors at the Daily News, received a call from the climber. She talked to the man long enough to develop a rapport with him, eventually came over to the Times building to talk to the dude in person, and wound up playing a big role in helping the NYPD get the climber safely off the facade of the building.

The full story, told by Jill in a much more entertaining manner, can be found at http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/07/10/2008-07-10_untitled__jill10m-2.html.

Some media attention has come our way as a result of all this. Like most journalists, Jill and I are much comfortable being on the newsgathering, and not newsmaking, side of the business. But, for the record, I'll state that I think my wife displayed a lot of moxie Wednesday morning, and I'm awfully proud of her. One of my colleagues at The Times, Carlos Ygartua, summed it up best: "It's like you're married to Nancy Drew."

Robert Moses

2008-06-30T17:32:00.002-04:00

One name keeps coming up unbidden during my appearances for BLOOD ALLEY. The name (as you've probably surmised from the title of this post) is Robert Moses, the longtime master builder and planner of New York City and State.

Moses did play a role in the development of the United Nations complex. After the Rockefeller family donated the land to the UN, Moses wrote up the legal agreements that were necessary to make the deal a reality. It took him only four days. By all accounts, the agreements were flawless.

Moses is mentioned a couple of times in passing in my book.

He is most widely known today as the subject of Robert Caro's monumental (in every sense of the word) biography, THE POWER BROKER. Caro's book came out in the mid-1970s, when New York had reached rock bottom, and it laid just about all of the city's ills at Moses's feet. In fact, while I was growing up, my parents always referred to him as "Robert Moses the Man Who Ruined New York," and for a long time I thought that was his full name.

As the years have passed, attitudes toward Moses have softened. (Mine included.) For all his faults -- which were, yes, monumental -- the man made some vital contributions to the New York area: Jones Beach, the UN, Lincoln Center, and lots and lots of parks. Although the city and state's elected leaders should never have let the man get anywhere near a road or a housing project.

Toward the end of his career, Moses's nemesis appeared in the unlikely form of Jane Jacobs, who called for a more organic, bottom-up method of urban development. Moses had the power, but Jacobs won the argument. Today her ideas are much more influential than this. And rightly so.

But still -- New York City has lost its capacity to get great things done. The city needs a new Penn Station. It can't get built. We're approaching the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and the Trade Center site is still, essentially, a hole in the ground. The latest news reports cast serious doubt that anything significant will be built on the site by the tenth anniversary of the attacks.

Robert Moses got things done. Sometimes it wasn't pretty. Sometimes people's feelings got hurt. But creating big public projects will inevitably create friction, and municipalities need a man or a woman who has technical expertise and a large amount of chutzpah to get the deed accomplished.

Seen from the early 21st century, Caro's book looks less like the last word and more like the case for the prosecution. It is a cautionary tale. Nobody should ever amass all the power that Moses had (numerous city and state positions at the same time, plus heading a number of unelected and unaccountable public authorities). Politicians should not abdicate their most important responsibility -- oversight over the people who are supposed to do the public's business.

But, writing as a resident of Lower Manhattan, it would really be nice to have somebody around who could get Ground Zero rebuilt.

The Next Book

2008-06-26T15:21:00.002-04:00

One of the joys/frustrations/pitfalls of touring is the question that somebody in the audience inevitably poses: What's your next book about?

Sometimes I feel like saying: "I'm not even thinking about my next book. I'm trying to sell this one!"

That would be rude, so I'd never actually say it. But I can put it on my blog.

And, of course, I AM working on a book. Right now, what it's about is 120,000 words, and I'm not even done with the first draft.

The book, still untitled, is a mystery-suspense thriller. It's set mostly in New York and its suburbs about a year and half after 9/11. The buildup to the Iraq war is going on in the background (a motif that worked well in Ian McEwan's "Saturday"). There are side excursions to Florida and California, and some of the action harkens back to events that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s.

Even from this brief description, you can see that the book sprawls a bit. I'll have to tighten it as it goes through subsequent drafts. I hope to have the first draft finished by the end of the year, and I should be shopping it around sometime next year. So 2010 is the earliest I can see it hitting bookstores and Web sites near you.

The Upstate Tour

2008-06-23T15:48:00.002-04:00

I spent part of this weekend at events in Skaneateles and Oswego. I went to college in upstate New York, and the weather was exactly as I remembered: it rained one minute, was sunny the next, and the next minute there were sun showers. At least it wasn't snowing.

The kickoff event occurred Saturday, at a Barnes & Noble on Staten Island. I grew up on Staten Island, and my parents still live there. The crowd was small but lively, and we had an interesting discussion that eventually centered on Robert Moses, the longtime roads and building czar in New York. Moses is mentioned in passing a couple of times in BLOOD ALLEY.

Moses's career was chronicled in exhaustive depth in Robert Caro's THE POWER BROKER. It's a terrific book, and when you've finished, you can use it as a door stop.

I had not been to Skaneateles in thirty years, and the town was as beautiful as I remembered. It's on the easternmost of the Finger Lakes and it is, in fact, picture postcard perfect. Erika Davis and the staff at Creekside Books & Coffee did an excellent job hosting my appearance. It's a charming store, and we had another small but lively crowd. (The early afternoon weather was beautiful, and it's hard to compete with that.) We wound up talking about the book I've just finished reading, Graham Greene's THE QUIET AMERICAN. It's an excellent novel, and a cautionary tale, but you won't be able to use it as a door stop.

It took me about an hour to drive to Oswego for my appearance at the Rivers End Bookstore. Bill Reilly and his wife, Mindy, were enthusiastic about BLOOD ALLEY, and proved to be gracious hosts. About a dozen people were there, and we, too, wound up talking about Robert Moses (among other things). I may have to do a longer post about him in the near future. Rivers End is a terrific store, and it recently celebrated its tenth year of operation. Hearty congratulations are due to Bill, Mindy, and the staff. BTW, I received a lovely tote bag that I now plan to display all over the New York City subway system.

As I left the store, Mindy gave me a couple of pieces of cranberry/pumpkin bread for my ride back home. I devoured all of it by the time I reached Binghamton.

Wednesday at the Police Museum

2008-06-18T16:07:00.002-04:00

I conducted a nice event around lunchtime today at the New York City Police Museum. One of the gentlemen in attendance -- Paul Statler, the museum's manager of visitor services -- grew up on the East Side of Manhattan near the Third Avenue El. As readers of BLOOD ALLEY know, the El figures prominently in the book. So I may have asked Mr. Statler more questions than he asked me. He had interesting recollections about the Ruppert brewery in the East 90s, and said he can still remember the smell of hops from the plant. He also talked about the allure of the Stork Club, and noted that he never set foot in the place.

The Stork Club figures prominently in BLOOD ALLEY, and I make a passing reference to the Ruppert brewery in the book. It's worth noting that the money from the brewery enabled Colonel Ruppert (as he was known from his service in the National Guard) to buy the New York Yankees.

The museum is an interesting place, with a lot of reference and archival materials available to writers and others with an interest in New York City police matters. And the people who run it are really, really nice. The museum is located in Lower Manhattan, and it can be found online at www.nycpolicemuseum.org

Welcome to Blood Alley

2008-06-04T10:38:00.000-04:00

This blog has been created to post my thoughts (and yours) about my latest novel, BLOOD ALLEY. I intend to check in from time to time, and post comments about my appearances and the reactions I've been receiving to the book.

I look forward to hearing from readers ... or from anyone who has an interest in New York City in the 1940s, especially in the years immediately after World War II. It was a fascinating time, and lately I've been wondering if I want to revisit it in some other novels, in much the way that Alan Furst keeps setting his novels in Europe in the late 1930s and early 1940s. After all, you've done all that research ... why not just keep going?