Thanks, for the inside information, Charles--interesting.
I'll definitely keep my eyes open for Distant Drum
references.
I want to reiterate, as been said on the list many times
before, these books are great, especially the two books from
you guys. Great stuff. Keep 'em coming!
Jeff
> Yes: Max and Elizabeth are friends, so the reference
to Carter and
> Sharp is an inside joke. (You are the first person I
know to have
> spotted it.) I don't recall any significance to
"Friendship Ranch,"
> though there might have been some.
>
> Another inside joke is the reference to a ficitious
movie called "A
> Sound of Distant Drums": "I make you now. William R.
Metz. Production
> design at Paramount. You were really up there for a
while...Catherine
> the Great's palace in 'Scarlet Monarch.' That big,
ah, that kind of
> desert fortress in 'A Sound of Distant Drums.' Lemme
think."
>
> Back in the PBO era, a number of writers, including
Donald Westlake
> and Lawrence Block, made an in-joke out of including
references to "A
> Sound of Distant Drums" in their books -- for
instance, in 361
> Westlake writes "A little after midnight, we went
down to 42nd Street
> and saw an important movie that had been made from a
Broadway play
> called 'A Sound of Distant Drums.' It was about
homosexuality and
> what a burden it was" and in GRIFTER'S GAME Block
writes "The movie
> was lousy, a historical epic called 'A Sound of
Distant Drums,' a
> technicolor cinemascope package with pretty girls
and flashing swords
> and people getting themselves killed flamboyantly. I
dozed through
> most of it." So when the time came for us to write
our books for the
> line, we carried on the tradition. (In LITTLE GIRL
LOST, when John
> Blake goes out to Flushing, Queens, he comments, "A
video store was
> promoting the latest Chow Yun-Fat import, a film
whose two-character
> Chinese title was translated as 'A Sound of Distant
Drums.' ")
>
> Here's a challenge for the experts on the list: What
other authors
> were participants in the great "Distant Drums"
conspiracy? (Our
> special guest this month once wrote a book called
DIE TO A DISTANT
> DRUM, but that's different enough that it may just
be a
> coincidence...)
>
> --Charles
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