No to relate this to mysteries of the (at least moderately)
hard-boiled
sort. I was delighted to see on p. 3 of Lawrence Block's
TANNER ON ICE the
following phrase: "a skanky-looking tobbo shop." Why was I
pleased?
Because it's almost as if Block (who doesn't know me from
Adam's off ox) had
aimed the phrase at me. It's something I've stolen at least
twice.
Explanation: Years ago, prior to my publishing any fiction,
Block wrote a
column for WRITERS' DIGEST. In that column he mentioned
reading the galleys
for one of the Tanner books and running across something
about a "tobbo
shop." He had no idea what a tobbo shop was, and in fact he'd
written
"tobacco shop," or something like that. But he liked the
phrase, so he left
it in, hoping that someday he'd run across it somewhere
because someone had
read his book and thought that a tobbo shop was both real and
sinister. So
when I was writing house name men's adventure books, I used
the phrase in at
least two of them. Block, of course, doesn't know that, but
it was fun for
me. Call me a thief if you will
And I apologize for the long post.
Bill Crider
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