It’s been a long time coming, and yet that time has gone by so fast it seems impossible that one week from today is the start of my tour for COTTONWOOD. So far the reviews have been terrific, and with a little luck I’m hoping to stir up some excitement on the road for my modest, wholesome tale of frontier sex and violence. (Two of its rejected titles might bear repeating here—“Little Slaughterhouse on the Prairie,” turned down for copyright reasons, and “The Bloody Benders,” already claimed by Peter O’Toole for his memoirs.)
I ended up planning this tour myself, with the considerable help of Jacqui Daniels of SallyAnne McCartin and Associates, and of course with the cooperation of all the booksellers on the tour. That they have been so enthusiastic and supportive of this book from the beginning has been a source of enormous gratification to me, and I look forward to seeing all of them—and presumably a goodly number of you as well—in the upcoming weeks. These independents are the backbone of the book business, and without them I would have had no opportunity to tour, and probably no writing career to speak of in the first place.
On this tour I’ll also be promoting the paperback edition of “The Walkaway,” as well as this year’s edition of “The Best American Mystery Stories" (see below), edited by Otto Penzler and Michael Connelly. To my great surprise they selected my story “Sockdolager,” which originally appeared in Dennis McMillan’s anthology “Measures of Poison" (also see below). My surprise stems mainly from the fact that I don’t consider the story a mystery, or even a crime story, but I still consider its inclusion a high honor. (I’m still waiting to hear from the editors of “Best American Sodomy Stories 2003.”)
That’s all for now. Hope to see thousands of you, books in hand, in the upcoming weeks.
Best,
Scott
February 2004
Scott hangs out with the likes of Joyce Carol Oates, Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosley, Pete Dexter, James Crumley and George Pelecanos in this latest edition of the bestselling anthology.
"Other brand names working at their peak include George P. Pelecanos ("The Dead Their Eyes Implore Us") and Scott Phillips ("Sockdolager"), both of whom probe the roots of characters from their respective novels." —Publishers Weekly
Legendary noir publisher Dennis McMillan presents a personal selection of 24 poisonously good noir tales from the authors with whom he's been associated over the years—from current bestsellers Michael Connelly and George Pelecanos to masters like James Crumley and the late Charles Willeford.
For more information on this and other Dennis McMillan publications, click here.