The Wait is Over!
(at least for me)
RED HERRING is done, being edited & is due out this fall!
As of last week, I wrapped up the first draft of Joe Gunther’s 21st adventure and mailed it to Keith Kahla, my esteemed editor at St. Martin’s Press (of course I say this before he’s gotten back to me, but the descriptors hold regardless.) There’s a lot going on in this one, including some quantum shifts among the cast of characters.
A couple of early reviews:
“You put the pedal on the floor around page 2 and keep it there right to the end. Very satisfying,” “It’s a 5 out of 5 star effort” and, “I loved it! [and] the ending was a blockbuster—your best yet.”
Chapter One is available now for your perusal.
Stay tuned for the fall.
More news!
As some of you have heard, a few colleagues and I have created a new company named Vermont Audio Drama Podcasting (VTADP.) Check out our website at http://www.vtadpodcasts.org/
The purpose here is to create an upgraded, high-tech variation of the old radio dramas some of we older types enjoyed as kids. Only this time, instead of being tied to the radio, as in those days, you'll be able to listen to 1/2 hour episodes of the Gunther stories on your iPods, featuring sound effects, music, and a multitude of actors playing all the characters. Once we get this project up and running, you'll have available a huge improvement over the traditional audio book format—it'll be movies for the imagination!
Want to learn more? Read about us in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Barry Newman of the Journal came to see us record the prototype first episode, put together by the fine folks of FinalRune Productions, and wrote about the experience at the end of February, 2010. That episode is a rough first draft, of course, done on the fly as a way to show potential investors what we're up to, but it clearly gives you an idea of our vision. Give it a listen ( and see the video) at the FinalRune website.
And finally.....
Grand Central Publishing has once more graciously lent their support to the little guy and reverted the rights of GATEKEEPER back to me and AMPress. What does that mean for you? It means that as soon as I can get it produced and printed (the next few months,) GATEKEEPER (#14 in the series, between The Sniper's Wife and The Surrogate Thief) will be the 14th Joe Gunther title published in trade paperback as part of the AMPress collection. Stay tuned for the publishing announcement, probably early in the spring.
How’s your Joe Gunther IQ?
The Joe Gunther Puzzler #4 is offered here thanks to the complicated minds at the Book Nook bookstore in Ludlow VT, who put together this brain teaser and gave me permission to run it on the web page. Pay close attention to the titles of my books if you want to hit a home run. Some of these are tricky....
BUT THERE’S MORE! The University of Georgia Press has just informed me that a scholarly history book that I wrote for them back in 1988 has just now been republished as a trade paperback. If you’d be interested in finding out something of my prior life as a historian, pick up a copy by contacting the Press directly. At the time, reviews were pretty good, to whit:
“Southern Timberman should interest a variety of readers, including conservationists, students of business history, and historians of the post-Reconstruction South. It is a rewarding and enlightening book.”
—Environmental History Review
“The physical aspects of the book, including the photographs, are excellent. The language is fresh, vivid, and convincing. It is a good book and true to our understanding of the cutting and rebuilding of the southern forest.”
—Journal of Southern History
Video clips of Archer Mayor appearances – recorded by Treasured Memories Video – Bedford, NH:
- “What’s wrong with Maine?”
- Hear about the reason behind why Joe Gunther’s next adventure takes place in Maine.
- “The Author as Hardware Store.”
- Why Archer took his inventory into his own hands.
- “We can do anything we want with this language.”
- Hear how Archer’s love of language impelled him to write.
- “This is a place I want to be a part of.”
- Why Archer Mayor and Joe Gunther call Vermont home.
- “Hi officer!”
- Would you like a doughnut?” The truth about cops and doughnuts.
- “I am not a math major.”
- Why Archer chooses the topics he writes about.
- “I wrote Open Season three times.”
- The importance of discarding your first drafts.
- “This is possibly the worst book I’ve ever read.”
- This author’s answer to working in a cubicle.
Finally, I’d like to thank you yet again for being a fan and supporting me and Joe. If you send an email with your mailing address in it to AMpress@archermayor.com, I will send you a very nifty Vermont Bureau of Investigation oval bumper sticker. Meanwhile, I will be immersing myself in Joe’s 21st adventure, as yet untitled, and editing THE PRICE OF MALICE with the fine folks at St. Martin’s. Thanks again, keep reading, and I’ll see you via the Gunther-Gram newsletter or on the road this fall, during my book tour.
Visit my Bookstore to see the new books and to order them.
Author interviews
Interview with Rob Caldwell on the 207 program on WCSH6.com, Portland, Maine. March, 2010.
Listen to Archer's interviews with Shelagh C. Shapiro, host of Write The Book. Write The Book is a radio show for writers and curious readers that airs on WOMM-LP 105.9 FM “The Radiator,” in Burlington, Vermont.
The Joe Gunther detective series
Archer Mayor's Joe Gunther detective series, 20 books in all, is one of the most enduring and critically acclaimed police procedural series being written today. For years, Archer has integrated actual police methodology with intricately detailed plot lines into novels that The New York Times has called “dazzling,” and Booklist has said are “among the best cop stories being written today.” Whereas many writers base their books on only interviews and scholarly research, Mayor's novels are based on actual experience in the field. The result adds a depth, detail and veracity to his characters and their tribulations that has led The New York Times to call him “the boss man on procedures,” and the Arizona Daily Star to write, “Few deliver such well-rounded novels of such consistent high quality.”
The Joe Gunther detective series began in 1988 with Open Season, and now includes Borderlines, Scent of Evil, The Skeleton's Knee, Fruits of the Poisonous Tree, The Dark Root, The Ragman’s Memory, Bellows Falls, The Disposable Man, Occam's Razor, Marble Mask, Tucker Peak, The Sniper's Wife, Gatekeeper, The Surrogate Thief, St. Albans Fire, The Second Mouse, Chat, The Catch, and The Price of Malice. The Los Angeles Times featured Scent of Evil in its 1992 year-end list of recommend readings and proclaimed The Skeleton's Knee “one of the best ten mystery books of the year” in 1993. That book also prompted the New York Times to call Mayor “one of the most sophisticated stylists in the genre,” and in 1997, to proclaim The Ragman's Memory one of only eleven “Notable” mysteries of the year—an honor it repeated in 2002 with The Sniper's Wife.
What the critics are saying about The Price of Malice
“Archer Mayor's Vermont police procedurals are the best thing going in regional crime writing because every one of his stories emerges from social and economic conditions that determine the criminal activities specific to the area.”
— Marilyn Stasio The New York Times
“The Joe Gunther series, set in Vermont, is one of the best around, so it's always a shock to me to discover how many readers haven't discovered it yet. With its excellent noir touches, terrific plots and really interesting central character, it ought to appear to be at the top of most lists. If you haven't already jumped on the Archer Mayor bandwagon, The Price of Malice is the perfect place to start.”
— The Toronto Globe and Mail
“Mayor takes us beyond the “calendar art” of Vermont into three-deckers, the life of the working poor, and the dark side of marginal lives in Gloucester. Through it all, Gunther remains steadfast, persistent, politically savvy and amiably reliable.”
— Sam Coale Providence Journal-Bulletin