2021 Catch-up and Sneak Peak at 2022 Projects

Last year is a week over and I hesitate to do all the "Best Books" kinds of lists.  Instead I thought I'd explain my absence from frequent blogging towards the end of last year as well as a brief outline of how I plan to return to the blog for this year. So here goes...

• The Moonstone Press project devoted to reprinting Bruce Graeme's detective novel series with Theodore Terhune wrapped up in November. You'll see the final two books soon. Speaking of which -- The box of my copies of Ten Trails to Tyburn (Terhune book #5) which was released as a digital book back in October finally arrived.  The postmark on the battered box was October 27!  Two months and two weeks is a new record for extremely slow service from the Chicago Postal service. I told you it was nightmare living here and dealing with the mail. I'm still waiting for two books to turn up that were mailed to me in March 2021.  I may never see those.
  
• I read close to two dozen "new" books last year (classified, for me, as books published between 2019 and 2021). Only those that I deemed exemplary were reviewed on the blog. You will see a few more posts on the cream of the crop of new books that I read that capture the spirit of traditional detective novels or are retro-noir coming later this month and in February.
• "Left Inside" posts will return every Sunday for 2022!  Huzzah, huzzah! (I hear a handful of you crying)  This used to be a regular feature about pieces of paper and other objects I find in books that I've purchased. When I ran out of items in a  the box of ephemera I've amassed over 20 years of collecting books the feature disappeared.  But I've got a lot more stuff that turned up over the past year and a half.
  
• More "Moonlighters" will be featured at least once a month if all goes as planned. There were many that I composed last year and left in my Drafts folder for one reason or another.  I'll take a look at those essays again, polish them up, and post them throughout the year.
• If all goes well there will be some exciting reprint editions to consider for "ROY 2022."  I have received emails about one title in particular that I can't mention yet, but I am very excited about its being reissued. It may prove to be the hit of 2022 if I am allowed to play at being a seer. Other reissued book possibilities include long out-of-print and extremely hard to find titles from Edna Sherry, Reginald Davis,  S. H. Courtier, Libbie Block and Christopher Hale.
  
• I think I will retire from writing forewords in 2022. I don't seek out these jobs; they have always come to me. But in the future I will probably decline.  I prefer suggesting titles and helping seek out rights to the actual writing of introductory material. Besides, there are other experts out there who do it much better than I do.
  
• Good news for those who like free stuff -- the giveaway contests for the remaining three Terhune books will continue as the copies trickle in. Ten Trails... giveaway is coming next week. Additional good news -- I'll open the contests to everyone no matter where you live. Woo-hoo!
  
• My big goal is to have several short stories published in 2022. It has taken half a lifetime to get the courage up to return to a childhood dream that I had since I was 15 years old --  to be a published mystery writer. Wish me luck!

A very happy 2022 to all of you.  May we all get what we hope for this year!