Love for Pic

This is the reason why you all want to become professional writers. Because of the adoration, respect, unconditional love, and a readership that's not too proud to shower you with a little grateful attention.

This fan letter comes from our good friend D. Ford of Mnpls, MN. "Always looking for new mytery writers, hoping I'll find a gem to add to my favs collection. Bought your "Midnight Road" sight unseen from Amazon. Have tried to get into it 3 times. All failures. This is the most disjointed, unrealistic attempt @ writing a mystery novel I've tried in over 5 yrs. The character and his rambling 1st person problems make no sense at all. There's no cohesion or sense of danger or any tension. The dead dog!! Give me a break, don't know what you're trying for, and I don't think you do either. And the manufactured danger he faces from the police for no apparent reason, just makes this a VERY weak attempt. $$ wasted. Go back to Lit 101 & read Mike Connelly, John Sanford, Stephen Hunter, Robert Crais, and start all over!!"

Sure, I could've spent a half hour writing a resounding & insulting missive that would ring his ass like a bell, but what's the point? Here's what I wrote instead:

"Thanks for your generous compliments. Keep reading!

Love,

Tom Pic"

Haters. You know you want more of them in your life. Become a novelist now!

Pic & the Punisher plus Another of those Damn Memes

Been parceling out the info in drips and drabs the past couple of weeks, but the paperwork has been signed and things are official now.

My story "Dolls" will appear in Punisher #75, an oversized issue featuring 4 tales that's due out in October. I know brilliant crime novelists/comic writers Charlie Huston and Gregg Hurwitz will also be in this one, so that's a serious fuckin' honor right there.

Originally Marvel wanted a 4-6 page story but my terrific editor kept giving me more and more room. The final piece will be 10 pages long, about half the length of a regular issue. All the stories had to touch on the day in Central Park when Castle's family was murdered.

"Dolls" opens as Frank is about to take a sniper shot at a mobster when a little lost girl asks him to help her find her father. It's her birthday soon and she asks if he'll buy her a present. He buys her a doll that--ding ding--reminds him of his own dead daughter. Frank only has a certain amount of time to take out his target and is torn between helping the girl and leaving her and getting back to killing the guy.

The brilliant Laurence Campbell is slated to do the artwork. A sample of his work is up top.

Total fanboy geeking out here.

__

Got tagged with this four-shot meme which is going around to crime writers all over the place.

Four Movies You Can See Over and Over

Seven Beauties (fave film of all time)

The Wild Bunch

Sunset Boulevard

The Maltese Falcon

Four Places You Have Lived

There's only been two:

New York

Colorado

Four TV Shows You Love to Watch

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Dexter

The Odd Couple

Lost

Four Places You Have Been on a Vacation

Santa Fe, NM

Phoenix AZ

Quebec City, CAN

New York, New York (If I had my way this is where we'd always go).

Four of Your Favorite Foods

New York Pizza

New York bagels

Pasta Fasool (I make it better than your grandma does)

London Broil

Four Websites You Visit Daily

The Big Adios

Shocklines

Ed Gorman

Internet Movie Data Base

Four Places You Would Rather Be

Manhattan (okay, so it's a running theme)

Florence, Italy

Newport Beach, CA

1977 (so I could tell my younger self not to be such a dweeb)

Four Things You Hope to Do Before You Die

Have a New York Times bestseller

Have Hollywood woo me

Do film commentary for a film based on one of my novels

Celebrate my 83rd birthday with my 18-year old second wife Bambi (heart over the "i")

Four Novels You Wish You Were Reading for the First Time

THE DEAD FATHER by Donald Barthelme (fave novel)

SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving

CATCH-22 by Jospeh Heller