Friday 16 December 2016

American Giveaway Extravaganza

Winterlong, the third book in the Carter Blake series (aka The Time to Kill in the UK) is being published in the USA on February 7 2017, and you can preorder it in gorgeous hardcover right now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Indiebound.

If you can't wait that long, you can enter the Goodreads giveaway right now to win a copy. My American publisher Pegasus is celebrating the new book by giving away copies of the first two books in the series at the same time. All you have to do is register for the giveaway before January 16th.

To enter, just click on the cover to go to the giveaway (enter individually for each book).
This is open to readers with a US address only, but I'll be running a UK giveaway very soon, so watch this space. If you want to kept in the loop for news and competitions, remember to join the Readers Club.

Good luck!

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/215116-winterlong-a-carter-blake-thriller
 
Win an exclusive advance copy of Winterlong

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/215114-the-samaritan-a-novel


https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/215112-the-killing-season-a-novel


Sunday 11 December 2016

What I've been up to, and what's happening with the next book, anyway?

 



Apologies for my lack of blogging lately, but I've been making up for it in other areas.

Getting out and about for one. I just completed the final date on a tour of WHSmith stores in central Scotland, taking in Hamilton, East Kilbride, Glasgow, Ayr, Livingston and Stirling. 


 It was a really fun experience getting out and chatting to people, some of whom I was even able to persuade to buy a book. Big thanks to the team at Smiths for organising everything and making me feel very welcome at every stop.


I also made a couple of other appearances, one at East Kilbride Library for Book Week Scotland, which was great, plus a talk to my old primary school (pictured below). Speaking to sixty ten-year-olds was hands down the most terrifying experience of my writing career to date, but it was also awesome. I didn't have to persuade them of the benefits of reading books and writing their own stories, because most of them were already doing both. Fantastic questions, too. 


What else...?

I got copies of the large print edition of The Samaritan delivered in hardback - another great job from Magna Books:


The Time to Kill picked up another nice review from Crime Review:

"In Blake we have a hero with questionable motives but one that is fundamentally likeable...The Time To Kill is an exhilarating and absorbing thriller making good use of fast-paced action, scenes of tension and convincing characters."

I guested on a couple of great blogs: a Q&A on From First Page to Last and Seven days in the book world for Cool Books, where I talk about everything I've read over a week. 

I put the finishing touches to the copyedit of the fourth Carter Blake book, which at the time of writing is still going to be called Don't Look For Me (preorder now! It's out 20th April in the UK). It's a change of pace from the epic scale of the last one, and I had a lot of fun writing it. I just hope everyone else will enjoy reading it.


I appeared at Noir at the Bar in Carlisle with an excellent lineup of crime writers including Jay Stringer, Matt Hilton and GJ Brown. If you're not familiar with the format, the title basically says it all: crime writers reading short pieces in a bar. 

This one took place in the Old Fire Station in Carlisle, which was a great venue. I decided at the last moment to read a really old story of mine called A Living. It seemed to go down okay, but for me the real pleasure was watching the other writers do their thing. 




Oh yes, and the only other minor part of news is... 

I've started work on the fifth Carter Blake book. 

Although I work mostly on computer, I've got into a tradition whereby I write the first chapter of a new book longhand in a pub. And that's just what I did last week. 

Wish me luck...