- - -  Michael Z. Lewin  - - -

January 1, 1970

Hello again.

It's been a year since I last launched a newsletter at people's inboxes. I do try to contain myself until there is actually a bit of news. And now there is.

NEW LUNGHI NOVEL

It won't surface until the end of 2011 but a third Lunghi novel will be published in the US by Five Star. It's called FAMILY WAY. The earlier books were called FAMILY BUSINESS and FAMILY PLANNING.

What's FAMILY WAY about? Well, until recently Walcot Street in Bath closed one day each year for a big street party called Walcot Nation Day. Walcot declared itself independent from the rest of the universe under the banner "Walcot Waives the Rules". Thousands of people bought "passports" to take part.

My real life home overlooks the real life Walcot Street and Nation Day affected me by providing music, exotic street entertainers, stalls and big crowds. But for people who live and work on the street - like the Lunghi family of private detectives - Nation Day had a much greater effect. How are you supposed to run a business, or feed a family, or have a romance with thousands of strangers milling outside your door? Nation Day affected all eight members of the Lunghi family in various ways...

Even though it won't be out for more than a year, I'm pleased that the book will eventually be available for you. I'll post further details on the site as I get them.

ASK THE RIGHT QUESTION

I'm also pleased that a new paperback edition of my first Albert Samson novel has recently become available through the Authors Guild back-in-print program. Next year it will be 40 years since the book's first appearance - think of all that's happened in the last forty years... I'm delighted, of course, that there are people who are still interested in reading Samson's first story.

And - although it doesn't say so anywhere - the book's cover includes a photograph that I took. When I go to Indianapolis I take a lot of pictures, though usually they're of alleys, decaying buildings and funny signs. I was glad to find a more conventional picture - looking south along Meridian Street with Monument Circle in the distance - for use on the cover this time.

UNDERDOG IN FRANCE

This November a revised translation of UNDERDOG will be published in French. LES CHIENS SONT MES AMIS (Dogs are my friends) was last published in French under a different title some ten years ago.

There is much about UNDERDOG that I'm very proud of and I'm gratified that an editor in France likes the book enough to have bought it twice for two different publishing companies. Thank you M. Brument.

SAMSON SHORT STORY

I have short stories from time to time in magazines and make note of them on my website for those of you who are interested. For instance I hope to have information soon about a new Lunghi story in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. But "Who I Am" is unusual and I'm calling your attention to it here even though I don't yet know when it will be published.

That's because "Who I Am" is only the second ever Albert Samson short story and it is a longer and fuller Samson experience than the first, "The Wilt of Love," published last year. The new story will be in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. When I have the date I'll post it on the site.

EYE OPENER

Crum Creek Press published a new edition of EYE OPENER last October to coincide with the Bouchercon that took place in Indianapolis. If you've looked around my site you'll know about both the book and the Bouchercon mystery convention already, but in case you haven't... EYE OPENER is the most recent Samson novel and as well as being available as a paperback it's available from Amazon in a Kindle edition.

AND FINALLY

I've moaned before at the end of these newsletters about the fact that it seems that all I have to do is mention a restaurant or café I like in either Bath or Indianapolis for it to close. Well, it's happened again and I don't like it. A café and a restaurant mentioned in the new Lunghi novel and short story have both closed since I wrote about them. I'm a jinx. So I'm not going to tell you about places I like in the future. I hope you cope.

So instead I'll just hope you've had a good summer (or winter for those of you south of the Equator.)

All best wishes,

MZL 6 September 2010