A Ticket to the Boneyard (33 page)

Oh, I’ll get it off my chest sooner or later. After a particularly meaningful meeting, say, when I’m just overflowing with enough spirituality to drown a saint in.

But in the meantime the only people I’ve told are a career criminal and a call girl, and they seem to be the two people in the world to whom I’m closest. I don’t doubt that says something about them, and I should think it would say even more about me.

It’s been a cold winter, and they say we’ve got a lot more of the same coming. It’s hard on the street people, and a couple of them died last week when it went down below zero. But for most of us it’s not that bad. You just dress warm and walk through it, that’s all.

The prolific author of more than fifty books and numerous short stories, Lawrence Block is a Mystery Writers of American Grand Master, a four-time winner of the Edgar Allan Poe and Shamus Awards, and the recipient of literary prizes from France, Germany, and Japan. Block is a devout New Yorker who spends much of his time traveling.