In a message dated 8/3/04 4:01:53 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
owner-rara-avis@icomm.ca writes:
<<
Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2004 18:27:54 -0000
From: "John Williams" <
johnwilliams@ntlworld.com>
Subject: RARA-AVIS: Ross Thomas etc
At the Harrogate Crime Fest the other week - which by
the way is shaping up
as a very nice annual UK event - I heard some great
stories about Ross
Thomas' one and only publicity trip to the UK back in
the late 70s. Suffice
to say there was no way any publisher was going to
invite him back after
that one. I had no idea Thomas was as wild as his
books.
>>
Tell us more! Thomas is my modern favorite. While others may
be technically superior, he gives me more satisfaction than
any other crime writer.
Thomas was a well-traveled book tour writer as witness the
extraordinary number of signed copies of his books. I now
have six or seven signed by him and that's without ordering
copies from abebooks where relatively inexpensive signed
copies of his last several novels abound. In fact I belatedly
discovered I had paid too much for one recent purchase but I
couldn't resist it once I held it in my hands. The early
novels and the Oliver Bleeck novels are, not surprisingly,
very pricey.
One curiosity is that the spy novel writer Wayne Wager
apparently had a complete run of personally inscribed Thomas
novels which are now for sale by a dealer in California who
lists each inscription by Thomas. There are dozens and I
wonder if he signed them all at once or in several bunches.
Wager died himself just a few weeks ago of a brain
tumor.
But please tell us anything you can, John, about what you've
heard. At the one Bouchercon he attended (and was interviewed
by Bill Crider) I know he played poker and from bookseller
Steve Stilwell (who entertained Thomas on several book tours)
I know he loved to drink and tell stories but I've heard
precious few details. For whatever dumb reason I didn't go to
the poker game that convention.
By the way, I very much enjoyed your book traveling to visit
some of the great U.S. writers popular on this list. I
recently pulled it out to reread a chapter or two.
Richard Moore
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