RARA-AVIS: Playboy-Our generation's slick of choice?

Kevin Smith (kvnsmith@total.net)
Tue, 10 Feb 1998 12:33:33 -0500 >Gee, no, I don't think it's off-topic. I was searching the web on
>"lawrence block" to see what I could find, and turned up
>
> <URL: http://www.totalweb.co.uk/tangledweb/authors/lblocknews1.html>
>
>which is his newsletter from February 1997. The last line is, "This
>now-and-then newsletter, free and worth every penny, is available to
>anyone who wants it. Send your address to Lawrence Block, 299 WEst
>12th #12-D, New York NY 10014 fax: 212.675.4341 or email
>lawbloc@aol.com." I've heard of other mystery writers doing this, but
>it always seemed to be those wretched cozy writers who'd tell you
>about their cats.

Well, I've checked out his newsletter, and I'm happy to report it's
cat-free! And it looks like there's a collection of stories featuring
Keller, Block's ambivalent hitman, coming out, for those of you who may
have missed them in Playboy. (So, if the old pulp writers aspired to the
"slicks", like the Saturday Evening Post et al., do AHMM and EQMM writers
aspire to Playboy?) An interesting notion-girlie mags as the last refuge of
mass market hardboiled crime fiction. I know many of the Cliff Hardy
stories by Peter Corris were originally published in the Australian
Penthouse, and Playboy here regularly publishes Block and Donald Westlake
stories.

I know there are other, more specialized crime mags out there (Hardboiled,
New Mystery, etc.), but the only other mass market "slick" I can think of,
besides the skin mags, is Mary Higgins Clark's Mystery Mag, which has (had?
is it still being published?) some good stuff.

Kevin Smith
Web & Graphic Design
mailto:kvnsmith@total.net

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