It's time to put on your sleuthing cap feel nailbiting dread and face heart racing fear. This is Queer Writers of Crime, where you'll get book recommendations and hear interviews with LGBTQ authors of mystery, suspense and thriller novels. Here's your host, Brad Shreve.

Thank you Alshar for that lovely new intro. Hi, I am Brad Shreve and welcome to Queer Writers of Crime. And let's call this a special edition. My guest is Paul Oliver, the founder of crime and mystery fiction publisher Syndicate Books. Paul is going to share with us how he happened to stumbled upon a certain novel published in 1970, titled, Fadeout by Joseph Hansen. Some of you may be familiar with this novel. Paul will share his reaction to finding it and what happened after that. Hi, Paul.

Hi Brad. Thanks for having me on.

Great to have you on. I was given a nudge and was told, hey, you need to go look at this guy over there and see what he did. And it was a wise decision that I followed those instructions, because I'm very excited to hear your story. But before we begin, I hope you'll bear with me while I make a special announcement.

I'm all ears.

Okay, this is going to be no surprise for those of you who follow me on Queer Writers of Crime social media accounts or get my author newsletter. It's not been a well kept secret, because I can't keep my mouth shut. And neither can I keep my fingertip still. Maybe later, I should add a drumroll effect here before I make the announcement I'll decide later. So here it is, folks. Starting mid March, Queer Writers of Crime is returning as a weekly podcast. And here's something new, there will be two episodes every week. And that's all I'm going to say for now. If you want more details, hang on until the end of the show. Because right now, let's focus on our guest. Paul Oliver is the director of publicity at Soho press. And as I said at the beginning, he's the publisher of Syndicate Books, and Syndicate seeks to restore out of print authors with an eye towards completionism and legacy. His list of authors is impressive, but near and dear to my heart. He's currently releasing the complete Dave Brandstetter mysteries by the incomparable Joseph Hansen, a pioneering voice and LGBTQ crime fiction, and the recipient of two lambda literary awards, and the private eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award. Paul, I would like to start with your story of how you came across a copy of Fadeout, Joseph Hansen's first novel in the Dave Brandstetter series.

It was a 2018 September I was at Bouchercon, and a great place to find a crime writer.

Tell people what Bouchercon is.

So Bouchercon's existed for decades. It is it's a wonderful convention. It's a crime fiction, mystery. And kind of its various forms that it takes. And it's a place for where fans can come and your authors on panels, see, do events, all that kind of thing. And there are it's also where a lot of the mystery awards are given out. So it's this great kind of gathering point of writers, mystery fans, people involved in television, and you know, crime storytelling of all kinds. So it's just it's a fun convention. It's in a different city every year, I think last year was the first year in quite some time that didn't attend it.

And I'm very excited about next year because I live in California. And I know next year is in San Diego. So it will be the first time I attend.

Oh, that's really good. It's a really fun convention, the crime and mystery community is I find one of the most generous communities out there where you know, newcomers are always welcomed in, you pull up to the coffee shop or bar and you're standing next to Lee Child and you say hi, I like your books. And he says, that's great. What do you know, what are you here for? And you talk to him for a while. It's, it's just neat. It's an interaction you don't get to have a lot of other things.

So how did you stumble on the book What happened and what was your react so I

was actually just perusing the use book dealer and there's a giant book room where you know, new books of the authors there they host signings and stuff and I'm I'm a former bookseller I used to own a bookstore and and Phoenixville, Pennsylvania that was new and used and we had a used and rare component to it and I always kind of gravitate towards those books just I like the old covers and like the kind of leafing through that I was also you know, with Syndicate that's one of the things you know, that is the thing we do is we try and find these kind of lost books And I pulled up the hardcover of Fadeout. And read the flap copy, jaw kind of dropped. And I was like how I've never heard of this. And I just opened it up, read the first page and was like, Okay, I'm gonna buy this. And so I actually, the dealer actually had, I think three or four books kind of throughout the series, and I bought bought them all on, you know, just thinking that I would be potentially doing this as a project. And, you know, actually kind of funny ended I wound up at the bar afterward. And sitting there, I kind of asked people about them, if anyone knew. And some people Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, he did he wrote a gay detective, didn't he? Or something like that? And I was just kind of all it was. And they said, Yeah, that's, you know, that. That seems to be the case. And, and but it was, it was all kind of hazy. And then I talked to some, some more knowledgeable people. And then eventually, I kind of caught on that I'd really just accidentally stumbled on the perfect next project and inhaled Fadeout and went from there. I mean, they're just, it was very clear, you know, by the 10th page that this was a master at work, and it was going to be perfect thing to do.

It's easy to inhale Fadeout. And whenever I ask authors, what books inspire them? At least 50% of the time Fadeout comes up. At least 50.

And I think it's gonna be it's gonna, there'll be some new names on that list, too, as I'm hoping that as people discover this new edition and give it a read, they're gonna realize that someone did a really well, before, you know, that there's a there is a shadow that that no one was aware of, kind of. But yeah, it's also you know, the size of Hansen's books are in the Brandstetter series, especially are I find remarkable, they're slim, and he packs a lot into and we can talk about that later. But, you know, it's it's a he does, and 173 pages what and writers with double that space can never do, he gives you a personal life of his protagonists, he gives you, you know, cleverly plotted mystery, socio political interests, it's just it's a lot 170 pages and, and for it to have warmth, you know, those shorts, briny writers, usually, either icy cool stories that are, you know, think like Kambou, or any number of ladies kind of short writers that can that can do that. And he's not, though they're warm. There's a warmth and emotionality to the books that is amazing for the page count that he worked with?

Yeah, in a story that short, it would be easy, just be cut and dry. This is what happened and not get into depth of the individuals and the motives and that sort of things. And it is impressive.

I'll tell you this. I don't know who you know, there's not very many better world builders than Joseph Hansen in the mystery coming period. Full stop, you know, he doesn't very well.

So you read the it was a four books?

I had, it was kind of an odd collection, you know, and I bought Fadeout I believe it was The Boy Who Was Buried This Morning, Nightwork, and Skinflick. Were the the books that I bought that day. And then after reading Fadeout, I went ahead and ordered the rest of the books because I knew there was a good chance this was going to be the next Syndicate Books project. And yeah, so then I read, I read them in order from there, it seemed like it was the thing to do. And there's also there was enough writing about Hansen out there enough people had like occasionally, you know, popped online to write a long form piece about how important he is and where is he and shelves. And so there was just enough of that information out there that I was able to really it's one of those like galvanizing moments where you're like, Yeah, this is this is the right thing.

You sent me an old public radio interview, I believe it was a public radio station. With Hansen. I really enjoyed just great to hear him being interviewed.

Richard Wolinsky, just remastered a taped interview he did from 1990 as well, that is on KPFA out of San Francisco and that is I highly recommend that listenership it is a wonderful piece for crime writers for crime, you know, fiction fans, it's a wonderful snapshot of the decades that he was writing the series from, you know, an LGBTQ you know, life standpoint, like it's just, it's interesting to see what he went through as an author and it really lays a lot of that out in that interview. It's a great interview.

Since I can't interview Joseph Hansen myself, unfortunately, I'll put a link in the show notes and you can hear the interview. Obviously, you liked the books because you made the smart decision to make many in this world very happy and republish all 12 novels in the Brandstetter series. What's been released so far, and what's coming up?

The first four, so that's Fadeout, Deathclaims, Troublemaker, and The Man Everybody Was Afraid Of. And those four out and on shelves and we'll be doing one a month with Skinflick up next coming out once a month, basically until October pending some printing issues, you know, there there are some very serious supply chain issues going on and the publishing industry right now. And many industries right now. I mean, you can't buy cat food right now but it, it's affected glue and paper, all kinds of stuff. So far so good. But I will tell people that you know, maybe, maybe December on one of them who knows what happens but yeah, it's one a month, all the way through October and we're gonna do all 12 Same same artists designing them, my kind of other half at Syndicate is a guy named Jeff Wong, who's a crime fiction aficionados he actually has the world's largest private collection of Ross MacDonald. He did a book about book of his of his collection. It's very impressive. Also kind of apropos of working on these because it's, at one time, Hansen was anointed, you know, kind of an heir to MacDonald but yeah, so it's they have a great uniform look. And I'm proud of what what he's put together.

So if you're new to the LGBTQ crime genre, the Dave Brandstetter mystery series is an excellent place to start. If you're not new to the sub genre, and you haven't read it, shame on you. And if you are a fan of the sub genre, and you've read it, one, two, or 10 times, read it again, especially with the new covers a really cool. Paul, the word groundbreaking is frequently used when describing, describing Joseph Hansen. What makes the Brandstetter series so significant.

Well, obviously, you know, there was, you know, gay crime fiction before Joseph Hansen and he was a published author before the Dave Brandstetter series and writing queer fiction of various sorts, some gothic romance under a female pseudonym, all kinds of the things that writers were expected to do to kind of fit into the various niches, the pulps, the kind of, you know, pseudo porn, pornographic publications, that kind of thing. And,

and I don't, I don't think we've told people his first novel Fadeout, maybe I didn't actually, in the beginning, it was published in 1970. To give people a

Yeah, that's, that's a very good point here. perspective. Go ahead. Um, you know, Michael Nava, who writes the introduction to my edition of Fadeout. And it's a fantastic introduction, you know, very, pointedly states, you know, this is, that book is published from a mainstream publisher in the United States, at a time when homosexual love was illegal and 49 out of 50 states, you know, the kind of, it's a shocking thing to read. And to realize, you know, that this writer was writing something that was essentially, like, an endangered act. You know, it's it's a dangerous act in some ways. But for and we were still mentally ill at that time. Yeah. I mean, there's the the, the laws are, I mean, the Great Britain, you know, had obviously, there's a long history of how awful the legal situation is, then, but but that's kind of what he set out to do. You know, it was groundbreaking, because here was, you know, he referred to him, he used the term homosexual, homosexual man, is that how it was his preferred term, you know, writing an out character, who's perfectly well adjusted in every sort of way. He's a rich, tall, handsome, super competent Korean War vet, that who has - sorry, World War II vet, who has a, like, basically, every, everything going for him, except for one thing, and it's, he makes several jokes about that, because it's, you know, he makes him a death claims insurance investigator for, you know, insurance companies. And he did that on purpose, because of the long and sordid history of insurance companies denying, you know, the gay community, any sort of insurance if, you know, if they knew your lifestyle, they could deny claims, they deny claims deny coverage, so he wanted, you know, he wanted to purposefully make that joke, he made him you know, perfectly the only the only thing he has going on only bit of distress he has in his life is is a is a substantial, you know, bit of distress, but it's delivered in a way that's not you know, it's he's lost his longtime partner of decades of two decades. And he's heartbroken and he's dealing with that. But he's dealing with it in a way that's legible to anyone. And it's just, it's just that kind of matter of factness of Dave Brandstetter that are that, I think, transcends what had come before him maybe. And that's what I think makes it groundbreaking is that he's, he's just there. And it's like, and it's nothing. unapologetic, I think people's what is what people say often and, and before that, there are a lot of explanations and apologies being, you know, made in books, even by writers, you know, writing from the community.

Yeah, this was 50 years ago, and we have a gay character who didn't wallow in self pity, wasn't depressed, wasn't a psycho killer, and didn't kill himself at the end. I mean, that's pretty much what if you were a gay character back then that's pretty much what your fate was. And it is he this is a mystery. He's an investigator, and hey, you know what, he just happens to be a gay man or homosexual man, as you said. And I can only imagine what he would think of the use of queer today. But it gives you an understanding of Brandstetter's personal life, even though it wasn't the focus of the book. So we we get, we get to peer in both of those, which is wonderful.

Yeah, I mean, that's actually the thing that the mystery is excellent. It's classic. It'll scratch that itch of you if you're coming from, you know, Marlowe and Spade and Lou Archer, and you're looking for something else. And I mean, Dave will scratch that itch for you big time. He's, he's a West Coast detective in every way. But it's that personal life that makes these books. You know, it's a it's not that it's not that it's like, amazing that he's gay, right? I'm not saying like that. I'm not saying it's like that. It's like, there's a remarkable and groundbreaking this to when he wrote this, and what and what the characters lifestyles, but I'm just talking, it's just a really in depth portrayal of a person and his surrounding people that he knows, I'm not that kind of read, I gotta be honest, I'm not the kind of reader that I don't need to have, I don't need that feeling of like, oh, I can't wait to be back with the gang or, or I'm, I wonder what's happening with so and so in their private life. That's not the way I read books, usually. And I'll enjoy that. But that's not this is the first time in a long time probably since, you know, in my maybe I know, it's kind of bold, like in my adult life. I was reading a book and saying, I'm actually like, I'm looking forward to the next you know, Martini part in the book where they're hanging out at Max Romano's, the Italian restaurant that features throughout the series. And those those scenes are as exciting emotionally and, and the the like portraiture in them is is incredible. And I find myself longing to have those martini with Dave, I mean, it's kind of a funny thing. But it's, that's not the kind of reader and but I am now I guess

That says a lot. And you kind of brought it up. It's not only I would say groundbreaking because he's a gay main character. That was an era - and there's gonna be exceptions to this. So please don't email me and tell me there's exception to this. But as a rule up until that time period, it was hard boiled mysteries, tough guys, they drink and womanizing, or in there, there were spinsters and that sort of thing. And I am generalizing. But we really didn't start getting into their personal lives until about that time period. And the fact that he was part of that transition, and happened to be gay is to me, what is the icing on?

It really is. And I'd still say that, you know, like, it's not something that's perfectly done today even to you know, it's, and he did it at such a high level. You know, I think one of there was, in one of his interviews he mentioned, you know, that there was a, he liked Ross MacDonald and Lou Archer, right. And there's actually a lot of similarities between them, you know, Hansen was a poet. And I think MacDonald had a keen interest in poetry. And they both write with the, the language is very pretty, and the use of color and imagery and is all evocative, and if there's a similarity there, but it ends with Lou Archers a cipher, you know, he's, he's, he's, uh, you know, which, you know, what you're getting with an arch every time he's, he's on, you know, on, he's on his case, in there's, I love those books. But there's something that Hansen, actually, you know, wanted to do here is, you know, where's his private life who is Lou Archer, you know, so he wanted to explore the personal life, take a detective character, and explore the personal life as in depth as, you know, the, the, the mystery itself, and that's so they're kind of 50/50 in that sense that there's a, you know, I tried to do that in my copy too, for the books. I tried to put, you know, the here's the mystery part. And then here's Dave's private life part. Just so you know, what's going on? Who's the new love in his life? Whose is someone back? Who's this that other kind of it because all that stuff is actually in the end? Just as exciting as you know, the mystery in many cases? To be clear, the mysteries are great. I'm not trying to I'm trying to upsell the personal life, but more than more than degrade the mystery.

It has both, which is what makes it awesome. Many hold Hansen in high regards. And we talked about you mentioned to me before that critics really praised his work when it came out. But he struggled. It didn't. His life didn't reflect on the praise that he was getting. Can you elaborate on that?

Yeah, I think he knew he had done something special and every single outing became more of a point of frustration. To believe to be delivering something at that higher level for a mass audience, right? He's not writing avant garde. You know, this isn't for an limited audience. He's an unrealized genius. This is a genius who's writing, you know, for a mass audience and not finding, right. So he changed publishers a lot. He had, you know, Joan Kahn was his first publisher, and she was a visionary and mystery comedian, she published a lot of firsts. She was a very daring publisher and, you know, published inmates and kind of reached went all around to find different points of view. But even they, they had a falling out on the end over, you know, performance of the book and, and, you know, plot points and so on. And so he bounced around. He, I think, you know, again, Michael Nava in his introduction he cites how many TV shows came about from other crime writers that were his peers, Tony Hillerman, etc, etc. And yet, Dave, who's immensely filmable, never had a show. And it's no secret why right? And yet it is, right, it's it goes unsaid. And I think that just added up to him having a very frustrating career with sales, having to change publishers is never easy, especially when, if you're, you write your first four books for one publisher, and then you write your fifth book for another. And now that publisher only wants to sell that fifth book and doesn't care about the first four, and so on. And everyone wants you to start over with a standalone and all those things, and he stuck to his guns. And he told Dave story must be frustrating. I think you'll hear that in some of the interviews with him. You know, he comes off as warm and funny about it. He has a sense of humor about it to some extent. But my day job when I'm not working as publisher Syndicate is as a publicist, and I know how he really felt.

He died in the early 2000s? In 2003. Do you think he felt satisfied?

I can't speak to that. I don't know. i It seems that you know, it's a weird this is what's weird about these projects, you know, I kind of do, as you send me getting like, we try and be complete with our reissuing of an author. And you spend a lot of time with their work. And you learn a bit about them along the way. And some of them have, you know, one of my previous reissues, Ted Lewis, author of Get Carter famous, you know, Michael Caine adaptation of that was a very difficult person in life and hard to understand, right? Not a lot of biographical detail, until very recently. And Margaret Millar was another project worked on, unfortunately later known as the wife of Ross MacDonald. But there was a reason why Ken Millar changed his name because she was bigger a lot of information about her she was named a grandmaster at on very interesting interior life. But you know, but with someone like Joseph Hansen, there's, there's details out there, but it's not you know, that you just sometimes you spend a lot of time with the text, you get what you you learn what you can, but I couldn't, I wouldn't dare to speak to his feelings about his career, other than I assume, he would have loved to have seen a film adaptation and, and sales. And, you know, you know, when you read the books, you clearly understand he was a gourmand, and like, the finer things in life, and I'm sure, you know, movie deal, and some of the things would have made that easier to obtain. You know, Dave's always in a nice new car.

I can assure you that if they if he was approached to do a movie deal in the 70s, they would

want Oh, I believe that was the case. I believe that was the case. And he he, you know, it's, it's interesting, you know, he stuck to his guns across the board. He didn't write the expedient thing or, you know, he, he wrote, he maintained this character, maintain the series. And, you know, I, I think that warmth to hearing his voice and hear those interviews, and kind of the chuckles he gets out, he knows what he did, you know, I assume he did, you know, I like to think he knew what he achieved, because not all artists get that luxury. And it's not like, you know, this wasn't Vincent van Gogh, you know, it's, you know, it's, you know, he was well published just not not as successful as you know, he debuted on his the same list included Tony Hillerman. And, you know, Tony Hillman excellent writer had gets all the acclaim he deserves. Joe needed some of that too, you know, or all of it as well.

And he got two Lammy's. So,

did he did any he, you know, Private Eye Writers of America recognized him never won an Edgar didn't wasn't a grandmaster. Of for that wasn't, you know, these are like, what are this is? There's reasons, right. There's always a reason why it happens. But it, you know, it's kind of hard not to recognize what, what the headwind his career faced was, you know, and that's, that's tragic. You know, today, it's today he's entering, you know, we're reaching these books in the world. That's a lot more interested. And having these conversations Yes. And and looking at this and being interested in you know, there was a review from Book Riot, you know, kind of a big book aggregating website, they do a lot of reviews. And it's funny, they included it, and around up of What's New for the usual suspects newsletter, and it had all the, you know, kind of the coded language of like what's, you know, assumes a white POV has statutory included all this sort of stuff that occurs in the book. And it's kind of the, it's funny, that language, which when I was reading, I was like, Ooh, you know, statutory is rough. That's, that sounds so, you know, sounds so bad, but they included it. And they would no one would have ever included that on a on a site like that before. And it's because that people are concerned about how we use words and, and talking about these experiences. So it's kind of, you know, I was like a defensive parent when I saw that line that I was like, Well, it's kind of true or whatever. You know, who cares? But it uh, that's also the reason why he's, he's getting the attention he is now.

Well, I want to say it's not only great that you republish the books, I love the new covers. They are updated, yet reflect the era. And I didn't actually realize until late last night when I was looking at the new cover of Fadeout that he's standing on the bridge. Yeah. Which I'm not giving too much away. Because at the very beginning, the story involves a car going off a bridge, so I saw that that made me chuckle.

So it's, uh, yeah, I've realized that that opening, it's the he has all the trappings of you know, it's raining hat on, on the bridge. It's the Arroyo is flooding. It's West Coast Noir. Right? It's just, it's perfect. Just, and no, he does it so well. And so we had to go there. The the artist I work with his name is Jeff Wong. And he's a longtime graphic illustrator and does amazing work. He actually did. One of his biggest claims to fame he did the 50th anniversary of Sports Illustrated this big gatefold Sistine Chapel of sports and suggests really neat, he's also a mystery, you know, lover huge fan, Ross MacDonald. It was fitting when we work together on Margaret Millar, and then there was kind of this fitting thing here, too, with with Joseph Hansen and his thoughts on on his Jeff's love of McDonald. But Jeff found an artist that he wanted to kind of evoke a Cole Phillips is an American artist and illustrator who did a lot of magazine work and covers and advertisements, and one of the signature, kind of things he would do is very detailed portraiture or illustration, and then take a color and pull it through an interesting way. So we did that. And obviously, we wanted to evoke use rainbow imagery, and then grayscale as he ages at the end of it, so we're using kind of a chromatic display also on the books, but you'll see that color use Jeff was very upset when we were asked by some various accounts to on Skinflick, Jeff went for it. And we had a bare bottom seen on the cover, and they asked us to put underwear on them and added a added a pop of red to the cover that he was, which should all be blue. But it's it's fun. So Jeff, Jeff's just great to work. But He's ann old friend of mine. And if you can't hear the fondness and my voice, it's there. I'm proud of what he did with it.

Now you can hear it, I'm gonna step aside to give people an idea of what's coming up with this show, and then wrap some things up with you. So I promised before I end the show, I would explain what you'll hear. When queer queer rose to crime. I can't even say the name of my show. Queer Writers of Crime returns on a regular basis. And here's the deal, there are going to be not one but two episodes every week, there will be one episode that will be strictly a guest interview. So the show will start and I'll jump in and start talking to somebody. The second episode is going to be shorter. And you guessed it, it will be the book recommendation part of it. Now, these are all going to be the first three weeks of every month. A guest and a book recommendation. The book recommendations are going to be a rotating group of individuals that give the book recommendations. Now some of you may be asking or wondering what happened to Justene. And here's the deal, Justene and I had a very difficult time getting together. She's she's very busy, and I'm very busy. So when I told her the show is coming back, she said I can do it once a month. So one of the three weeks, it will always be Justene. So if you loved her recommendations, and I know a ton of you did, because you let me know, be happy to know she will be back at least one week of every month. Now for the fourth week of the month, you're just going to have to wait. And that will be a surprise. So it's a little bit different. There's only gonna be one episode on the fourth of each month. If you want to go to the blog on the website, I'll give a little more thorough description of what's going on. But really, I wouldn't suggest it because here's what I think you should do. Whatever app you're right on right now. Just hit the Follow button and then You don't have to worry about damn thing when there's a new episode - boop, there it is. So that's what I suggest to do, and not put up charts on the wall trying to figure out what what episodes are when. The other addition is there will now be a weekly Queer Writers of Crime newsletter. And you'll get info about the episodes, plus announcements of new book releases, and special promotions. So, Greg Herren was kind enough to offer an e book copy of Bourbon Street Blues, which is the first in his iconic Scott Bradley Mystery series. And for a limited time, you can get your copy when you sign up for the newsletter. And so folks know, this is the end of February of 2022. It's a limited time, the link is in the show notes and get your free book and you'll get in the newsletter. Let me take a deep breath. Here's another thing. You likely know Richard Stevenson. He is the author of The Donald Strachey series that started back in 1981. And is still going today. A while back, Richard emailed me because he was excited. And what he was excited about is Amble Press, which Michael Nava is the Managing Editor agreed to publish the first of a new Richard Stevenson series. Yes, it is 2022. And Richard is starting a new series. That's pretty amazing. So I was given a copy of Knock off the Hat. And it met my expectations, so I asked Richard to come back on the show. And he said he had such a great time before that, he'd love to come back. So he is going to be one of the guests in March. So here's something for you to do. Go to Queer Writers of Crime dot Com the website. And on the website in the bottom right corner, there's a little blue microphone, and you have to use a microphone, don't send me a message. Click on that mic, and leave a question for Richard Stevenson. And I will play as many of them on the air. And we'll have Richard answer your questions. And here's an incentive for you to do the microphone. As maybe you know, Michael Nava was the second guest on the show back in 2019. He's been back a few times. And he's been a big supporter of this podcast. And he was kind enough to send me a box of copies of signed editions of Lies with Man. So if you leave a message for Richard Stevenson, I will do a drawing. And two people will win a copy of Lies with Man autographed by Michael Nava. So you can't pass that up. However, because of the ridiculous shipping cost, this offer is only within the United States. I apologize. If you live outside the US. I haven't discussed it with Michael, but I'm sure he'll send you an eBook. Unfortunately, he can't sign the eBook, but we'll get one for you. So, I hope those get you in. And that said it was a lot. So if you didn't catch it all, go to the website and go to the blog. And there'll be more details. And, Paul, I gotta tell you, I just broke one of the big rules in podcasting. I don't know if you know what it is.

I don't know.

It's what we call a call to action at the end of an episode. And you're supposed to stick to one. And I just dumped a ton of them on there. It's only because I'm excited to bring this show back.

That's a lot, a lot.

So I'm going to leave the link also in the show notes to Syndicate Books. So they can pull up the website and see the beautiful covers of and you give a description of the different novels. They can also look at the some of the other authors that you have republished as well, because you've got some greats on there as well. I do want to thank you very much for your time. As I said, I'm thrilled that you're bringing back the series and I am going to start with one and read them all again.

Thanks, Brad. I've thanks so much for having me on. This was a pleasure.

It was my pleasure as well.