This is a huge deal. You have no idea. I have been reading his work for decades. He has been my favorite mystery writer for as long as I remember. Before Dick Francis, before Elizabeth Peters, before Robert B Parker, Sue Grafton and Diane Mott Davison.

And now, he has jumped feet first into social networking. He has a blog now, he’s on facebook, and posting regularly and is uploading his books onto kindle and nook. He has even blown the dust off some of the older short stories and psuedonominously published books from his archives and uploaded them as well. And now he is on Twitter.

My favorites of his mysteries are his Bernie Rhodenbarr series. I’m sure he won’t be adding any more to this series, asking him to do so is like going to a concert and complaining when the band plays their new stuff, but they were really fun and a little lighthearted. Bernie is a cat burglar by night and a book store proprietor by day. He has his own strict moral code and is surrounded by a variety of genuine, interesting characters. It really makes you question what morality means because he, an admitted thief, is frequently the most ethical person in the books.

Matt Scudder is another one of Block’s protagonists, he’s a bit darker. He is an ex-cop who lost his job, his family and pretty much everything that meant anything to him to alcoholism. He is much more complex that what I’ve shared here, but you’ll have to read the books yourself to see what makes Scudder tick.

Evan Tanner, Chip Harrison, Keller, Martin Ehrengraf are some of Block’s other protagonists.

He has also authored books about writing including Telling Lies for Fun and Profit and Writing the Novel from Plot to Print. I have of course, read these, because if there is one thing I do well, it’s procrastinating on actually writing by reading books about writing. Block is also very generous with his writing knowledge on Facebook and other social media.

I was tickled when I moved to Buffalo and Learned that he was born here, but now I’m really starstruck.