Lawrence Block has been writing award-winning mystery and suspense fiction for half a century.  His most recent novels are A Drop of the Hard Stuff, featuring Matthew Scudder, and Getting Off, starring a very naughty young woman.  Several of his books have been filmed, although not terribly well.  He’s well known for his books for writers, including the classic Telling Lies for Fun and Profit, and The Liar’s Bible.

Are you a bookgeek?

No.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever been given (and do you follow it)?

Early on, an agent read something of mine and suggested I switch the order of the first and second chapter, thus beginning the story in media res. This has often proved worth doing.

Which authors do you find most inspiring as a writer?

Too many to mention.

Do you have an audience in mind when writing, or do you just write for yourself?

I suppose one could paint for oneself, producing something to hang on one’s own wall. But writing does imply communication, doesn’t it? I would say that I write for the reader I would be if I hadn’t written the thing.

Where do you write, and why?

I often go away to write, finding a change of scene and a finite period of seculusion useful. But not always.

Tell us the book you most wish you had written.

The DaVinci Code, of course. Made him a bloody fortune, didn’t it?

For Getting Off, you’ve revisited the pseudonym Jill Emerson. Did you feel a sense of nostalgia when writing it?

No, hardly that. The book was well along before I even entertained the idea of hanging a pen name on it.

At a signing, a former burglar once complimented the accuracy of your technical burglary know-how. Have you had any similar feedback from women on your lesbian scenes?

In an email exchange, the remarkable Ann Bannon observed that she and I and Marijane Meaker were the last of the old-time lesbian novelists. I was, as you may imagine, not half chuffed.

Kit is pretty disdainful towards a recovering sex addict. Why do you think that, in general, society sees sex addiction as less significant than alcoholism?

Envy.

You’ve written several books a year for half a century. Are you the hardest working man in crime writing?

More like the laziest.

If we may be so bold, you’re often very concise in interviews, and on one occasionyou mentioned they make you feel homicidal. At this point you could probably sell books without any additional marketing; do you still make yourself available purely as a gesture for fans?

Hardly that. As a motivator, noblesse oblige pales next to avarice.

Addition questions by Mike Stafford.

Bookmark to