September 2nd, 2014 Hello Again, Brandon BlakeHey all:I’ve been immersed in McMorrow of late. Reviewing edits of ONCE BURNED (May 2015), beginning to write STRAW MAN (May 2016), rereading the early McMorrow novels that are due to come out in reissue (DEADLINE and BLOODLINE, November 2014). All of these courtesy of my good friends at Islandport Press.So it was good to hear from my old friend Brandon Blake (PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN, PORT CITY BLACK AND WHITE, PORT CITY KILLSHOT, to come).The carton was waiting on the back steps when I got home last week. The new trade paperback edition of SHAKEDOWN. A stack of them. I was glad to see my young cop friend from the Portland waterfront again. Brandon is an interesting guy, very different from McMorrow. How so? Blake’s flaws are closer to the surface than Jack’s. He’s not fully formed yet, especially in the first novel, so he tends to learn by trial and error (a dangerous method when he goes up against the bad guys in this one). Where McMorrow is brash and reckless, Blake is serious and considered. When McMorrow wades in first and asks questions later, Blake weighs the situation and then wades in, usually acting on principle. Blake is principled beyond his years.You can check out the new paperback here, though I’d rather you buy it at your local independent bookstore. If they don’t have it, tell them to order a few from Down East Books. Tell them Gerry sent you.ShareTags: Down East Books, Islandport Press        No Comments »August 17th, 2014 Savoring a Maine summerThings are heating up in the study. ONCE BURNED is in the pipeline, with copy edits in hand.  STRAW MAN is underway, the actual writing, I mean. And I’m making sure I enjoy everything that Maine offers. Hiking. Paddling. Boating. So while I have a moment, a few snaps from the iPhone. Just to let you know that McMorrow isn’t the only one who loves Maine’s outdoors. From the last couple of weeks …End of the day, on the lake.Low tide on the island.On the marsh, with apologies to Monet.Loon family, intact so far, watching for eagles.ShareNo Comments »July 8th, 2014 Imagine There’s No InternetIt is hard to do—unless you’re reading books from the early 90s or before, when calls were made from phone booths on numbers looked up in an actual phone book.That’s what @DirigoDuke has been doing. Reading DEADLINE, the first McMorrow mystery, published in 1993, he sent out this tweet: We forget just how much the world has changed since smartphones and the UbiquiNetDEADLINE, the Danish edition..My thoughts exactly, as I was reviewing the text for the reissue of DEADLINE by Islandport Press, coming out this fall. Jack McMorrow had to solve crimes the old-fashioned way. He didn’t track people down online; He knocked on doors, got his foot in the crack if they opened. When he was threatened it was by someone in his face, not on Facebook.  When he needed information, he went