Mystery Fanfare: Books for Sale: Marv Lachman

Mystery Fanfare: Books for Sale: Marv Lachman: Mystery Readers Journal columnist Marv Lachman is selling many of the books (about 5,000) from his 60 years of mystery collecting . This...

More Books For Sale From Barry

Barry is moving and selling off his books. Here are some more scans of various covers of books he has in his personal library for sale. 

Go check it out here and give some books good homes while also making Barry's move a little easier.

Want A Funny Read? Barry Has Books To Sell

I have mentioned before that Barry is selling off his personal library of books as he is getting closer to moving into a smaller place. He recently sent me the scans of the covers for a number of books he has for sale in the "humor" category.

 These and more are in addition to several Woody Allen books.

 As has been mentioned here before, his prices are lower these days. Barry has added more books having sold a bunch of stuff in recent weeks. So go here and check it out as he has got some good ones. 

BOOK SALE ALERT FROM BARRY ERGANG

Barry just sent me this and asked that I put it up on my blog. Barry is putting his house on the market and in coming days I will post information on that as well.

BOOK SALE PRICE REDUCTION

 

As anyone who reads Kevin's blog regularly is aware, for the past couple of years or so I've been selling some of the books I've accumulated over many years because I'm running out of space in my home, and will in the near future be looking to move to even smaller quarters.

 

Today I spent a few hours at http://www.barryergangbooksforsale.yolasite.com/ reducing prices on a majority of the offerings.

 

I also recently added two new categories: Humor and Collage Novels. What's a "collage novel," you ask? I don't know either. But visit the site, click on the Collage Novels category, and look at the scans for a visual explanation that surpasses any verbal one I can offer.  

 

Thank you.

 

--Barry Ergang

 

 

Barry's Books For Sale

Barry has books for sale and helps us out a little bit with every purchase you make.  It also helps Barry thin down his personal library. The picture below is just a small sample of what he has to offer.....

Since clicking on the picture above won't take you to Barry's site, please see the picture over to the left and click on that one. Things work with that picture and it takes you to the site.

Both Barry and my family thank you for your interest and support. Things are pretty rough here right now with the food stamps being delayed and everything else so anything at all really helps. Thank you and please spread the word.

Kevin

Ben LeRoy Has A Deal For You!

Ben has a neat offer for you over on his blog. I have read and reviewed Delta Blues and it is a good one.  Check out Ben's offer and spread the word.

Barry's Books For Sale--New Info

Barry Ergang, my friend who also occasionally allows me to post one of his book reviews, has some very neat books for sale. The correct main link is at http://www.barryergangbooksforsale.yolasite.com/   and you ought to check it out.

Kevin

Update From Barry---Barry's Books

I recently added quite a few books to my for-sale list (http://www.barryergangbooksforsale.yolasite.com/) in several categories, with an especially heavy concentration of poetry titles. Have a look if you're so inclined, and please alert any friends you think might be interested.

        Thanks! 

 

 

 

Barry's Book Sale

Barry has posted the below message elsewhere this morning. Since he has and things are very desperate I am reposting it here......

I've been adding (and will continue to add) to the lists of books I'm offering for sale at http://www.barryergangbooksforsale.yolasite.com/

Over the weekend I added quite a few in several categories, but especially in Poetry, which I'll be adding more to this afternoon. In case you've forgotten, I contribute 20% of the price of the books to Kevin Tipple's family's fund, so if you make a purchase for yourself, you're also helping out Kevin.

He and his family are down to crunch-time, folks. They're on the verge of being homeless. Try though they repeatedly have, they've been unable to get any assistance other than food stamps from the state of Texas. *Please* help them if you can either by buying some books from me or, preferably, by contributing directly to his fund, which you'll see on the left-hand side of his blog page:
http://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/

Thank you.

Best,
Barry

Barry Ergang's FFB Review: FAT OLLIE'S BOOK (2002) by Ed McBain

FAT OLLIE'S BOOK (2002) by Ed McBain

Reviewed by Barry Ergang

City councilman Lester Henderson and his staff are setting up in Martin Luther King Memorial Hall for a rally during which Henderson will announce that he's running for mayor. While Henderson is practicing a walk across the stage to a podium, multiple shots explode from somewhere in the building and he falls dead. Because the Hall is in the Eighty-Eighth Precinct, the foul-mouthed, obese, gluttonous bigot Oliver Wendell Weeks is the detective assigned to the case. Because the victim lived in the Eighty-Seventh Precinct, Ollie requests help from that quarter, and Detectives Steve Carella and Bert Kling are stuck with the task of working under his direction.

As excited as he is to be working his first high-profile case in a long time, Ollie is equally excited about his novel entitled Report to the Commissioner, which was written (on a typewriter) in the form of an official report. He has written it using the pseudonym Olivia Wesley Watts, who in her "report" is explaining to the Commissioner how she has come to be locked in a basement with over two million dollars' worth of diamonds. All but the last chapter has been revised, and Ollie has put the thirty-six pages of the preceding chapters into a dispatch case, intending to have it copied at a Kinko's. ("Less is more. That's an adage amongst us writers," he tells his sister when she questions whether he's really written a novel-length manuscript.)

When the dispatch case is stolen in a smash-and-grab from Ollie's car while he's inside King Memorial Hall, its recovery takes precedence over the Henderson murder, as far as he's personally concerned. Unbeknownst to him, the thief is one Emilio Herrera, a cross-dressing prostitute and drug addict who, upon reading the fiction, believes it to be a true but "coded" account, and who endeavors to break the code so as to get his hands on the diamonds.

Meanwhile, Detective Eileen Burke, who has just joined the Eighty-Seventh squad, is partnered with Andy Parker, a man whose attitude is as odious as Ollie's. One of Parker's informants tells them of a major drug deal that's going down in six days in the basement of a building somewhere in the city. What basement he doesn't know because the address keeps changing. He's only certain that the people involved aren't amateurs. He's somewhat wrong about that, however, as the reader learns soon afterward.

While Carella and Kling–and sometimes Ollie, when he's not trying to track down his manuscript–try to solve the Henderson murder, Burke and Parker's case becomes unwittingly entwined with Emilio's quest to locate the basement where Olivia Wesley Watts and the diamonds are held, resulting in some moments worthy of a good sitcom.   

The reader also gets to join Emilio in reading Ollie's book, sections of which are scattered throughout the broader narrative. These make for great comedy in themselves, loaded as they are with English usage uncertainties–e.g.:

"Because that's where Lock lost him because, you should pardon this, Commish–and this is just between you and I, or maybe even you and me–he had to relieve himself....So it was with considerably great expectations that I took the call from The Needle that morning. Hopefully, The Needle...

"Or perhaps I hoped The Needle...

"Or maybe I was even hopeful that The Needle...

Hopefully, The Needle would have some information on Grant or his missing wife Marie or his cousin Ambrose Fields."

I was fourteen when I first read an Eighty-Seventh Precinct novel, 'Til Death, and I've been a fan ever since. The fifty-second entry in the series, Fat Ollie's Book has at least as much verve as the earliest entries, and quite possibly more. Ed McBain's characters, including many of the minor ones, are three-dimensional figures. His narrative style is laced with wry humor. His ear for dialogue is and always has been impeccable and unerring. His pacing is flawless.

As is, or even like, nearly every Eighty-Seventh Precinct mystery, Fat Ollie's Book is superb entertainment.   

Barry Ergang © 2012

***************

Fat Ollie's Book is among the many 87th Precinct novels Barry Ergang has for sale from his personal collection at http://www.barryergangbooksforsale.yolasite.com/. He'll contribute 20% of the purchase price of the books to our fund, so please have a look at his lists, which have recently been added to in several categories. For links to material he's written that's available online, and fiction that's available for e-readers, see Barry’s webpages.

Read A E-Book Week at Smashwords and Barry Ergang

One of these days I really have to sit down and spend some time collecting all of my published work and create a collection of stories like Earl Staggs and others did such as Barry Ergang. Barry Ergang sends word about two of his stories. His message is:

For Smashwords' Read An E-Book Week, I've made two of my stories available for free that you can download to your computer or e-reader:
 

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/24377  <--use code GX49F at checkout 
  

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/24385   <--use code FS34V at checkout

If you read either or both of them, I'd appreciate it if you'd post a review. The stories are also available at Amazon.com (though for a small charge) but I hope you'll consider posting the same reviews there as well. Thank you.

Barry Ergang

http://www.barryergangbooksforsale.yolasite.com/

FFB Review: "God Save The Mark" by Donald Westlake (reviewed by Barry Ergang)

Today is Friday and that means it is time once again for Friday’s Forgotten Books hosted by Patti Abbott. Patti likes to do themes and today is no exception. Patti declared today in honor of Donald Westlake to celebrate his new novel THE COMEDY IS FINISHED  published by Hard Case Crime. So, later today, surf over to Patti’s blog at http://pattinase.blogspot.com/ to read various takes on his novels and to celebrate his works and latest release.

GOD SAVE THE MARK (1967) by Donald E. Westlake

Reviewed by Barry Ergang

Fred Fitch is a con artist's wet dream. He seems to radiate an aura of gullibility that any and every grifter can see or sense: "Con men take one look at me, streamline their pitches, and soon go gaily off to steak dinners while poor Fred Fitch sits at home and once again dines on gnawed fingernail." It has been this way for him since his childhood in Montana "when I returned home from my first day of kindergarten without my trousers. I did have the rather vague notion they'd been traded to some classmate, but I couldn't remember what had been given to me in exchange, nor did I seem to have anything in my possession that hadn't already belonged to me when I'd left for school, a younger and happier child, at nine that morning. Nor was I sure of the con infant who had done me in, so that neither he nor my trousers were ever found."

           

Now thirty-one and living in an apartment in New York City, fleeceable Fred works as a freelance researcher. Because he's been conned so many times, he's become a good friend of Bunco Squad detective Jack Reilly. Thus, when he receives a letter from a lawyer named Goodkind that says he's inherited half a million dollars (three hundred seventeen thousand after taxes) from his Uncle Matt, Fred immediately assumes that Goodkind is another scammer working an angle and calls Reilly to let him know about it.  

As it turns out, however, Goodkind is legitimate, and so is Fred's inheritance. He calls his mother and learns that he really did have an Uncle Matthew Grierson, a man who was the black sheep of the family. Jack Reilly tells him that Uncle Matt was a con artist who was known by the monicker Matt "Short Sheet" Gray. After the irony of the situation leaves Fred a little hysterical, Reilly voices concern about what will become of the money if Fred actually gets possession of it because he's afraid it won't remain in his possession for long.

Then he tells Fred that although Uncle Matt had cancer, it wasn't what killed him. A blunt instrument did.   

Things begin to happen rapidly and wildly after that, as Fred encounters an array of offbeat characters, among them lovely Karen Smith, who accosts him in the street and asks him to kiss her; Gertie Divine, the Body Secular, a stripper who was Uncle Matt's nurse and companion; Grant and Wilkins, the other two tenants in Fred's building; Homicide cops Steve and Ralph, who come across like comic vaudevillians but who, Gertie says, aren't candidates for sainthood; the elusive Professor Kilroy, Uncle's Matt's former partner; Dr. Osbertson, who goes to a wacky extreme to avoid talking to Fred; Gus Ricovic, who's always willing to trade information for cash; the menacing Coppo brothers, whose father Uncle Matt swindled during the years he lived in Brazil; and former senator Earl Dunbar, who began the Citizens Against Crime Organization.

Fred may be gullible, but he's not stupid. He realizes that he's suddenly become Mr. Sought-After now that he has money. When someone trails and then takes some potshots at him, and after he discovers another murder victim, he questions whether he can trust anyone, even the police, as he tries to decide what to do with the money, how to avoid being murdered himself, and how to determine who is behind all of the chaos.

Written relatively early in a long and illustrious career, God Save the Mark is a fine  example of why Donald E. Westlake is generally acknowledged as the all-time-greatest writer of comical crime stories. A well-plotted tale, its situations develop primarily from its  delightful cast of idiosyncratic characters. I highly recommend it to readers who enjoy a brief and breezy page-turner that will keep them smiling and sometimes chuckling aloud.  

                         

Barry Ergang ©2012

*****

God Save the Mark is one several books by Donald E. Westlake (including some written under his Richard Stark pseudonym) that Barry Ergang has available for sale at http://barryergangbooksforsale.yolasite.com/  He'll contribute 20% of the purchase price of the books to our fund, so please have a look at his lists. Formerly the Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine and First Senior Editor of Mysterical-E, winner of the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s Derringer Award for the best flash fiction story of 2006, his written work has appeared in numerous publications, print and electronic. For links to material available online, and fiction available for e-readers, see Barry’s webpages.

FFB Review: "The Ugly Princess" by Elizabeth Burton

Usually for Friday’s Forgotten Books hosted by Patti Abbott at  http://pattinase.blogspot.com/ mystery books are the theme. Between Barry and myself, we have covered a lot of mysteries over the years. Some of those Barry has for sale at  http://barryergangbooksforsale.yolasite.com/

Barry asks me to remind you of the following information……“Make a purchase and I'll contribute 20% of the total price of the books to Kevin and his family. Just indicate in your e-mail order that you're doing this for Kevin. If you want me to acknowledge you to him, say so. If you'd prefer to remain anonymous, I can simply let him know that an anonymous buyer contributed whatever the amount is. This way, you help one of our friends and colleagues, and come away with something tangible to show for it.”

A fantastic offer from Barry and I really appreciate Barry continuing to help us like this. Not only has he helped keep this blog going with supplying content and picking up the slack when I am in very bad shape---an all too frequent occurrence---but he has donated money from his sales as well as other money to the effort. I am very grateful to Barry for everything.

I absolutely hate being in this position. We need all the help we can get to pay the rent, buy meds, etc. I’m terrified of being homeless and we truly do need your help. Fridays are supposed to be about fun and the weekend, but I can’t help begging a little bit after about three hours of sleep last night. Back to the point of this post today.

This week I decided to do something a little different. Maybe that was because, after some serious arm twisting the last few weeks by Editor Dave Truesdale,  I have started trying to do a review here and there for Tangent Online again. Or maybe the constant worry about how we are going to pay our rent plus the searing Texas heat has fried what little is left of my brain. Or, maybe, every now and then, it is just good to do something different.

Chalk it up to what you will. By royal decree, it is Friday and I give you Fantasy!

"The truth might never have come to light had the King not gotten drunk at his wedding banquet and choked to death on a pheasant bone."

A funny opening sentence to be sure offered by Elizabeth Burton in The Ugly Princess. Those that know something of me from my reviews here and elsewhere know that I am not a big fan of fantasy. With the exception of Terry Goodkind, most fantasy seems to me to be redundant and boring. Then I received this very enjoyable novel from the author. She has penned a grand tale of palace intrigue and deceit, sinister forces unleashed in a world of fantasy, and more than anything, the power of romance. This novel works across all levels and a fantasy setting only serves in improve the novel as to have done anything else would diminish the work.

Simplifying greatly, King Edrick of Abernal died at the afore mentioned feast. The only reason King Edrick was even having a wedding feast was that the previous Queen, whom he could not divorce because of extreme financial penalties, has finally died. He banished her to the far reaches of the Kingdom years ago and with word of her death, it is time for another political marriage. He must have a son, legitimate, preferably since all the illegitimate children are dead, to take over his Kingly duties someday. Upon word of the Queen's death, plans are quickly made for King Edrick to marry Yolanthe of Nadwich, the young daughter of King Benifaz. Upon meeting King Edrick, she is clearly less than thrilled with the repulsive idea but is powerless to stop it.

As it turns out, she is spared consummating the marriage with King Edrick thanks to his sudden death. The only living heir, known as The Ugly Princess and the spawn of a previous political union is needed to keep the throne in the family. She is rumored to be hideously deformed but since killing her wasn't an option, she has lived for the last twenty years at the far edges of the empire in a keep high in the foothills. There she is attended to by trolls, the only ones who can deal with her vulgar appearance.

Knowing that the ministers of the Royal Court seek to consolidate their power and have her killed, the Royal Champion Sir Christopher Evergild, leaves to bring her back. As the next rightful holder of the throne, he will swear an oath of fealty to her and then return her to the castle and the throne that is rightfully hers. At the same time, Bartrim Ruford, Seneschal of House Rediman is left to deal with King Benifaz's attempt to claim King Edrick's vacant throne as his as well as the political machinations of traitors within the palace walls that seek their own power.

Shifting in viewpoint from Bartrim to Sir Christopher, The Ugly Princess  is an enjoyable tale of palace intrigue where the dark forces may not all be mankind's making. Featuring complex characters, plenty of action and twists, humor and romance, this novel keeps the reader enthralled as it works toward the inevitable confrontations on many different levels. While this review simply does not do the book justice, do not let that deter you from this very good read which appears to be the start of a possible series. 

The Ugly Princess: the Karlathia Chronicles

Elizabeth Burton

Zumaya Publications

http://www.zumayapublications.com

2003

ISBN# 978-1894942096

Paperback

216 Pages

Kevin R. Tipple ©2003, 2011

Online Book Sales

Thanks to Suspense Your Disbelief run by Jenny Milchman comes word that Lorie Ham of Kings River Life is running a book sale. I love book sales and used to haunt them. We did not have book sales at school when I was a kid so I never knew what I was missing. It was not until I was an adult and being dragged to garage sales by my wife Sandi that I realized that often one could find a book treasure amidst the old clothes, broken toys, etc. of a garage sale. I caught the fever. 

These days thanks to the wonderful world of the internet that keeps homebound folks like me plugged into a life beyond the four walls, one can do almost anything online. Including checking out the book sales. Nothing beats finding a good book at a book sale.

Surf over to Jenny Milchman’s neat site titled Suspense Your Disbelief and take a look at what is listed. Lots of good titles there for sale via Lorie Ham of Kings River Life. Take a look at her site too as there are lots of interesting articles, fiction, etc. on there of interest to folks in that particular region of California as well as the rest of the country.

And while you are at it, you might want to take another look at Barry Ergang’s ongoing book sales. In addition to his own works of fiction that he put up at Smashwords, he has his own library of books selling at http://barryergangbooksforsale.yolasite.com/  in a variety of categories including mysteries. For mysteries only, Barry set up  http://jdcarr.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6771  His stock changes frequently thanks to sales as well as adding more titles from his treasure trove of books. Usually, what Barry reviews for his posts for the Friday Forgotten Books segments come from his books for sale.

Now, as frequent readers of this space know as well as what Barry has posted on the various lists, he is helping me by donating funds to help my family out. As Barry has put it:

“Make a purchase and I'll contribute 20% of the total price of the books to Kevin and his family. Just indicate in your e-mail order that you're doing this for Kevin. If you want me to acknowledge you to him, say so. If you'd prefer to remain anonymous, I can simply let him know that an anonymous buyer contributed whatever the amount is. This way, you help one of our friends and colleagues, and come away with something tangible to show for it.”

I very much appreciate Barry’s offer and am very grateful for his help as well as the support of those who have bought books from Barry and donated funds.  Barry is not the only one to make such an offer.

Ben Leroy owner of Tyrus Books has offered a special incentive. In his words:

“We've got limited editions that I'd donate to the cause. If people put $200 in your account, I'll send them a copy of Delta Blues or By Hook or By Crook ($275/$250 suggested retail). The descriptions are on our website.”

I have read and reviewed Delta Blues here and it is a good one. Have not read “By Hook Or By Cook” (and no it is not in my TBR pile--I did look) but it sounds like a good anthology.

So, if you are looking for some good books and want to help out some folks, you have several different choices. The money is all going to good people who really appreciate it.

Kevin

Selling Stuff

As some of you know, my wife Sandi is now home on her own unpaid medical leave as we wait for her to have a MRI on Monday. One gets the impression that if the MRI confirms what the doctor suspects it looks like surgery will be needed along with physical therapy. That means we now have no income at all coming in and have no idea when she will be physically able to go back to work. 

Since I had not mentioned the stuff we have for sale in a couple of months, this seemed like a very good time to mention things again.  Donations are always helpful and very much appreciated, but if you would like to have something physical for your dollars, here are a couple of ideas.

Sandi has been making craft projects for years. What first was done as gifts for family and friends has expanded and she has some of her stuff at http://www.ioffer.com/users/sanditipple she has holiday as well as everyday items like quilts, baby blankets, stuffed animals, etc.

Last fall our son, Karl, set up a couple of deals for selling things under his online moniker of THUNDERCATSNYY. One is at Amazon where he has had decent success moving video games, movies, my old books¸ and other items. His store on Amazon is at: www.amazon.com/shops/thundercatsnyy and changes almost daily because he adds things to replace stuff he has sold. He also set up a deal on iOffer to help move some of his Mom’s stuff and other items such as comic books he can’t sell/list at Amazon via www.thundercatsnyy.ioffer.com

By the way, my good friend and occasional reviewer here, Barry Ergang has quite a few neat books over at his deal located at http://barryergangbooksforsale.yolasite.com/ He sells a few and adds a few a couple of times a week so even if you looked before and did not find anything that strikes your fancy, surf over and take a look. Barry is also now up with some of his older published stuff available on Smashwords. You can search under his name or go directly to his stuff by clicking http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/cassidy20

So, there you have it. A shameless plug for folks you know and their families.

On behalf of Barry and my own family, I thank you.

Kevin  


Also available as an e-book or paperback direct from me for $10.00 including media rate postage.

Holiday Goodies

If you are tired of fighting all the brick and mortar store crowds and sick of all the usual internet sales sites, and want to support your fellow writers and their families, I have a couple of links for you.

Barry Ergang just updated his books for sale at http://barryergangbooksforsale.yolasite.com/ He says he just added a bunch of mysteries yesterday so even if you looked before and did not find anything that strikes your fancy, surf over and take a look. By the way, Barry is also now up with some of his older published stuff available on Smashwords. You can search under his name or go directly to his stuff by clicking http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/cassidy20

My wife, Sandi, has been making craft projects for years. What first was done as gifts for family and friends has expanded the last couple of years into a business of sorts. She has started trying to sell some stuff on iOffer. Her store is at http://www.ioffer.com/selling/sanditipple?order=1

Barry’s efforts and my wife’s efforts got my son, Karl, thinking about what he could sell. So, using his online moniker of THUNDERCATSNYY, Karl set up an account over at Amazon to sell stuff and has had some decent success moving electronics, movies, and a couple of other types of items. His store on Amazon is at: www.amazon.com/shops/thundercatsnyy and changes almost daily because he adds things to replace stuff he has sold. He also set up a deal on iOffer to help move some of his Mom’s stuff and other items he can’t sell/list at Amazon via www.thundercatsnyy.ioffer.com

So, there you have it. A shameless plug for folks you know and their families. By all means, I am not saying don’t shop elsewhere or don’t give to your favorite charity. I am saying that if you want to buy from folks that you know and trust, and want to know that your monies definitely helped folks in need that you know, we are here and could use your help and support.

On behalf of Barry and my family, I thank you.

Kevin