Showing posts with label CrimeFest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CrimeFest. Show all posts

Wednesday, 8 May 2019

See you at Crimefest?



It's that time of year again, time to head south to sunny Bristol for the annual Crimefest weekend.

If you want to see me (and other, more interesting people), here's where I'll be...

The Plot Thickens: Where DO You Get Your Ideas? | Friday, 13:40 – 14:30
J.P. Delaney
Clare Empson
Laura Shepherd-Robinson
M.B. Vincent
Participating Moderator: Mason Cross

Missing: Characters Who Aren’t There Anymore | Saturday, 12:50 – 13:40
Mason Cross
M.J. Ford
Cara Hunter
S.W. Williams
Participating Moderator: Steve Mosby

The full programme is available here, and as always there's lots of great stuff on.

I've been doing a lot of events for What She Saw Last Night (photos soon) and it seems to be going down pretty well so far. If you haven't got it yet, it's available at the fine establishments below.

If you've already read it and enjoyed it, posting a quick review is always appreciated and is a big help!


Trade paperback (large format)

ebook

Audio


Jenny Bowen is going home. Boarding the Caledonian Sleeper, all she wants to do is forget about her upcoming divorce and relax on the ten-hour journey through the night.

In her search for her cabin, Jenny helps a panicked woman with a young girl she assumes to be her daughter. Then she finds her compartment and falls straight to sleep.

Waking in the night, Jenny discovers the woman dead in her cabin ... but there's no sign of the little girl. The train company have no record of a child being booked on the train, and CCTV shows the dead woman boarding alone.

The police don't believe Jenny, and soon she tries to put the incident out of her head and tells herself that everyone else is right: she must have imagined the little girl.

But deep down, she knows that isn't the truth...

Thursday, 21 March 2019

What She Saw Last Night tour




If you'd like to see me talk about the new book, here's where I'll be over the next couple of months. Most events are free, and I've linked to ticketing pages or Facebook events where possible.

Looking forward to seeing what people think of my first standalone, so if you're in the neighbourhood for any of these, come and say hello!


April

Monday 15 April | Inverness
Waterstones Inverness, 5pm

Thursday 18 April | Glasgow (official launch)
Waterstones Sauchiehall Street, 7pm

Tuesday 23 April | Hamilton 
World Book Night Event: Banqueting Hall, Almada Street, Hamilton, 6:30pm

Wednesday 24 April | Dundee (with Tony Kent)
Dundee Central Library, 6:30pm

Thursday 25 April | Glasgow (with Tony Kent and Neil Broadfoot)
Waterstones Sauchiehall Street, 7pm

Tuesday 30 April | Lanark
Lanark Library, 6:30pm

May

Tuesday 7 May | Strathaven
Strathaven Library, 2pm

Tuesday 7 May | Saltcoats
Saltcoats Library, 6:30pm

Saturday 11 May | Bristol
Crimefest, 12:50pm

Monday 20 May | HalfwayHalfway Library, 11:30am

Tuesday 21 May | Larkhall
Larkhall Library, 2:15pm

Thursday 23 May | Airdrie
Airdrie Library, 7pm

Saturday 25 May | Durham
Waterstones Durham Crime Book Club, 10am

Tuesday 28 May | East Kilbride
St Leonards Library, 6:30pm


If you're at a library in Scotland (or are in touch with one), let them know I'm on the Scottish Book Trust's Live Literature database, which is a great programme to help with funding for author visits to libraries.

Friday, 15 February 2019

Noireland and Crimefest


On the road!

I'm looking forward to a couple of festivals over the spring. I'll be at Crimefest in Bristol as usual, and delighted to be going to Noireland in Belfast for the first time - hope to see some of you at one of these.


Noireland
Sunday 10 March | 9:30am

Twenty-First Century Bonds

James Bond has endured as one of the great icons of the thriller genre but how has he influenced modern thrillers and what are the challenges of writing about Secret Service agents for 21st century audiences? James Swallow is the bestselling author of Nomad, whose MI6 agent, Marc Dane, is more comfortable behind the computer than punching bad guys. Asia Mackay’s Secret Service assassin, Lex Tyler, is just returning from maternity leave, determined to prove she’s still up for the job . . . just as long as she can find her Glock under the pile of nappies. And Douglas Lindsay introduces us to DI Ben Westphall, an ex-MI6 agent with a knack for getting into people’s heads. Moderated by Mason Cross.

Tickets and weekend passes available from the festival website



Crimefest
Saturday 11 May | 12:50pm

Missing: Characters Who Aren’t There Anymore

  • Mason Cross
  • M.J. Ford
  • Cara Hunter
  • S.W. Williams
  • Participating Moderator: Steve Mosby
Tickets and weekend passes available from the festival website

Tuesday, 4 April 2017

Aye Write and Ian Rankin and Orkney Library

I haven't updated in a while, mostly because I've been busy writing the fifth Carter Blake book (Five? How did that happen?), but also because I've been busy on lots of other fronts.

For starters, last month I had the pleasure of chairing Ian Rankin at Glasgow's Aye Write festival. Ian is such a natural storyteller that he made my job very easy, and the hour flew by. We covered a lot of ground, from Rebus's recent healthy(ish) lifestyle change, to a French translator deciding that a Wizard of Oz reference meant that Rebus must be a fan of AOR giants Toto and Kansas. Glasgow Royal Concert Hall holds a slightly bigger audience than I'm used to...



But it was a brilliant crowd, and they had some great questions. It was nice to catch up with Steph Broadribb (aka Crime Thriller Girl) and Karen Sullivan of Orenda Books afterwards.

After that, I got to visit a radio station for the first time and Cat Gibson interviewed me about the books live on Camglen Radio - you can listen again here. She even let me pick a record to play halfway through, I went with Dead Flowers by the Stones. I think Rebus would have approved of that over Toto's Africa.

Audio-wise, I also appeared on my favourite podcast - Two Crime Writers and a Microphone. It was great to chat to my fellow authors Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste, and we discovered Luca's darkest secret -

he's never seen Die Hard.

I know. That's what we said. Don't worry, it's now rectified.

The following week, I was able to sign the northernmost copies of my books so far when I visited the famous Orkney Library to talk to their crime fiction group.

It was a hastily-organised event since I was going to be in Orkney anyway, so I was really impressed with how quickly they were able to pull everything together. I had a great evening chatting to readers, and even had time to sign some copies in the Orcadian Bookshop, and do some sightseeing.






Other stuff...

There's a nice American review of The Samaritan here:

I love that the detective in this story was a woman. It’s so much easier for me to relate to stories where there are strong female leads. Introducing the mysterious Carter Blake was a great touch because I kept trying to figure out whether or not he really was the serial killer. Once I started the book, I honestly could not put it down. When the ending came, it completely shocked me because it wasn’t what I expected at all.


And I'm published in Sweden, in a gorgeous hardback edition from Modernista



The big thing on the horizon is, of course, the publication of Don't Look For Me on 20 April. The official launch is going to be on publication day at Waterstones Argyle Street in Glasgow at 7pm. Ace tartan noir author Neil Broadfoot is going to be chatting to me about the new book, and there will be wine and all the usual launch festivities. If that sounds good and you're going to be in Glasgow on that day, you can register for free tickets here.

If you can't make it to the launch, keep an eye on my events page to see where else I'm going to be in the near future. More to be added soon, but I'll be at East Kilbride Library on 12 April, Cambuslang Library on 25 April, and Crimefest from Friday 19 - Sunday 21 May.

If you can't make it to an event, you can still buy a copy from your chosen outlet right here:




UK pre-order:

Trade paperback (large format)

ebook

Audio



Don’t look for me.

It was a simple instruction. And for six long years Carter Blake kept his word and didn’t search for the woman he once loved. But now someone else is looking for her.

He’ll come for you.

Trenton Gage is a hitman with a talent for finding people – dead or alive. His next job is to track down a woman who’s on the run, who is harbouring a secret many will kill for.

Both men are hunting the same person. The question is, who will find her first?

"Mason Cross is a thriller writer for the future who produces the kind of fast-paced, high octane thrillers that I love to read." - Simon Kernick


Monday, 8 June 2015

An overdue update

I've been uncharacteristically quiet of late thanks to general busyness and the small matter of finishing the third Carter Blake book, so it's time for a quick catch up, largely so I can take stock of what's happened and what's happening next.

I spent another great weekend in Bristol at CrimeFest, which involved two great panels: one on psychological and action thrillers with Sabine Durrant, Paul Hardisty and Rebecca Whitney moderated excellently by Stav Sherez; and one on psychopaths with James Carol, Clare Donghue, Stuart Neville and Caro Ramsay, moderated slightly more chaotically by yours truly.

It was great to finally meet fellow Orion rookie Steve Cavanagh and hang out with the usual suspects. I also got to meet Lee Child and thank him in person for the cover quote. He was very cool and gracious, saying even more nice things about the book and chatting about the new Reacher movie.

Just like last year (although with slightly less nice weather), it was a great chance to catch up with friends, meet some new ones, and drink way too much. I played it smart this year by not volunteering for Criminal Mastermind.



Some really great reviews of The Killing Season and The Samaritan were posted recently:

The Killing Season had a heart-stopping, thrilling ending and this was delivered again in The Samaritan and then some. Thriller fans looking for something fresh, and to feel that excitement you get upon discovering an author such as Mason Cross would be well-advised to check out this series.

[The Samaritan is] a sprawling American epic delivered with panache.
- Barry Forshaw, Independent
The thriller elements are really really well done, keeping you on the edge of your seat, there are some beautiful twists and turns, a gorgeous flow to the prose and generally speaking this is a damn good read. Definitively now one of the series I shall be following avidly and probably re-reading a lot, the Carter Blake series is one of those you can sink into, have a great time with, and re-emerge later wishing you had another 10 books featuring Carter on the shelf to read already. 


The Killing Season is a very exciting novel indeed, made extra tense by the mystery surrounding both prey and hunter. We move across locations, each vividly described, meeting potential victims and suspects, tripping over red herrings, getting sidetracked by false alarms. And then there are the twists. This is a very clever novel. It’s not going to be easy for Blake.

- Kate Atherton, For Winter Nights

This is without doubt one of the best debut thrillers that I've read in a long time - a fantastic page turner that left me totally hooked on Carter Blake and Mason Cross has left me wanting more. A highly addictive read and Mason Cross is certainly one to watch.
- Sam Everett, Tigerlilly Books
 
Book Addict Shaun also kindly interviewed me for the blog here, with some great questions, while Mario Acevedo grilled me for The Big Thrill.

Other stuff...

I'm delighted to be at Bloody Scotland again this year, on a panel with thriller maestros Simon Kernick, Tom Wood and GJ Brown - check out the events page for more details and some other upcoming events.

I'm equally delighted to be on the bill for the first-ever BritCrime online festival. The brainchild of Helen Smith, It takes place on a Facebook near you over 11-13 July and is completely free. Find out more at the Facebook page and BritCrime.com

My editor tweeted the cover proof of The Samaritan and it looks amazing.


Oh, and I sent a few spare proof copies of Killing Season out to known thriller fans... and Bill Clinton sent me a nice reply.

Monday, 23 March 2015

See you at CrimeFest


The old events calendar is starting to fill up nicely. I'm booked in for a few different 2015 festivals and events, but some of them I'm not allowed to announce yet.

I am both allowed and delighted, however, to announce that I'll be back at CrimeFest this year.

I'll be taking part in two panels: It’s A Dangerous Life: Thrillers From Psychology To Action, along with Sabine Durrant, Paul Hardisty and Rebecca Whitney (with participating moderator Stav Sherez), and Psychopaths: Not Very Nice, Or Just Misunderstood? with James Carol, Clare Donoghue, Stuart Neville and Caro Ramsay, and moderated by yours truly.

I'm really excited to be back at CrimeFest, where I had a fantastic time last year (yes, even taking into account Criminal Mastermind), and I know this year will be great.

CrimeFest takes place in Bristol from 14 - 17 May, and you can book day or weekend passes on the festival website. It's an excellent weekend whether you're an author (published or not) or a reader.








Sunday, 25 May 2014

CrimeFest - Part 2: 2 Fest 2 Furious

This is part 2 of my hazy recollections of CrimeFest 2014. If you haven't read it yet, you may want to check out part 1 first. If, on the other hand, you enjoy elliptical non-linear narratives, you should be fine starting here.

Saturday

Another early morning panel, but another great lineup of co-panellists to compensate.

Meg Gardiner did a great job moderating the panel on Name Your Price: The Hired Gun, featuring yours truly along with Hanna Jameson (Girl Seven), Mark Allen Smith (The Confessor) and John Gordon Sinclair (Blood Whispers), whose name may be familiar to some outside of crime writing.

we make a very thoughtful-looking panel here I think

We'd been gathered together, as the name suggests, because we specialise in protagonists who work on their own and have moral codes ranging from grey to pitch black. Lots of stimulating discussion about the ethics of vigilantism and the perks of writing a character who operates outside of the system. Everyone else on the panel was at least on their second book, but they were all gentle with the newbie, which was much appreciated.

John Gordon Sinclair probed me about Blake's 'black, white or grey' classification system for prospective jobs, and even tweeted the following later on:


...which was very nice of him, and I'm pleased he was intrigued enough to pick it up. Or maybe it was just the fact that as a fellow Glaswegian I was the only one whose accent he understood. I'd planned to read his anyway, and hopefully I'll make it along to his event in Glasgow in a couple of weeks, so maybe now we can compare notes.

After the panel, I caught up with Crime Thriller Girl for an interview following on from her fantastic review of The Killing Season earlier in the month. I can't remember every question we covered (hey - it was the morning), but there were some good ones I hadn't heard before. Discussion ranged from my favourite book to how and when I write, to who should play Carter Blake if there's ever a movie. I wouldn't dream of spoiling the interview by revealing the answers to any of these questions here. I did, however, reveal my nerdy attachment to Excel and PowerPoint as novel planning tools.

I walked back to the hotel for a quick rest and to do a bit of studying for my specialist subject on Criminal Mastermind the following day, then headed back to the convention hotel to hang out in the bar before seeing Mark Billingham in his guest of honour slot. Billingham was great value as always, and his new book sounds great. I've heard the anecdote of him stalking David Morrissey to play Thorne before, but it's a great story. And probably, as Craig Robertson said when I suggested following his example, the only time in history that approach has ever worked.

Having said that, if Hugh Jackman is reading this, drop me an email.

I caught up with Angela from Orion and Helen Giltrow again at our table at the gala dinner, and was also introduced to AK Benedict, whose supernatural thriller The Beauty of Murder has been on my to-read list for a while. The food was just okay this time, but the company was brilliant again, and we conversed about everything from the recent James Bond audiobooks to Eminem. Also the surprising number of great Keanu Reeves movies. There's more than you probably think...

Sunday 

I took advantage of my only day without an early panel to stay in bed a little later. If I'd known the full horror of what was to come, I might never have left the bed...

Okay that's putting it a bit strongly, but only a bit. A lot of regular CrimeFest-goers had been warning me that Criminal Mastermind was brutal, but until I was sitting in that black swivel chair being interrogated by Maxim Jakubowski, I didn't know what brutal was.

Courtesy of photographer / question-setter Ali Karim

I was on with three other writers: previous Mastermind champ Paul Johnston, who chose Dashiell Hammett as his specialist subject; Kate Ellis, who chose Josephine Tey; and Susan Moody who picked one of my favourite authors: Raymond Chandler. Needless to say, all three were lovely. I've yet to meet a crime writer I dislike, actually, at this or any other event I've been to.

Round one (specialists subjects) actually went pretty well for me. Fellow Reacher Creature Ali Karim had been in charge of setting the questions, so I knew I had to bring my A-game. I scored 9 points with 2 passes on Lee Child and the Jack Reacher novels, putting me into second place behind Paul. But that's when the trouble started. Because there was a round two. A general crime round.

Now, I'm reasonably well-read and retain useless information pretty easily, but these questions were tough. As I sat there racking up pass after pass after pass and shedding flop-sweat like a garden sprinkler, I actually started to worry that the powers that be were going to kick me out of being a crime writer for my base ignorance. It wasn't so much that I didn't know any of the answers, it was that I couldn't even make an educated guess at any of the answers.

The buzzer went, and Maxim had started so he'd finish, and thank God, it was a question I knew the answer to: the full names of the husband and wife team that make up Nicci French. Round over: 1 point and about a hundred million passes.

The only consolation is that everybody else found the general round fiendishly tough as well (with the exception of Paul, who managed to extend his lead handily). When the scores were totalled, the three non-winners were very close together. I tied for second-place with Kate, but was knocked down to third as she had accumulated less passes than me. Paul Johnston has my respect and awe for triumphing in his second Criminal Mastermind. As for me? Once is definitely enough.

I had a much-needed drink in the bar, caught up with Craig Robertson and Ali Karim, waved at Chris Carter and met Neil Broadfoot and James Oswald for the first time. I also chatted to Katherine Armstrong from Faber and discovered that we'd both been to the same university and that Faber publish Thomas Enger, who I'm going to be doing an event with later this year. She kindly sent me a copy of one of Thomas's books and also the debut novel of one of her authors... who happens to be one John Gordon Sinclair. Synchronicity is nice.

Thinking about it in the sun, holding a frosty pint, I realised that the greatest thing about CrimeFest is that for a whole weekend, it had been impossible not to get into interesting conversations with interesting people: writers, readers, bloggers, editors, publicists, agents. About books and publishing, of course, but also about movies, music, politics, sport, Keanu Reeves, the UK witness protection program, and all kinds of common interests besides. I learned tons and met some new friends, and I even got a few people to read my book. A worthwhile if occasionally humbling experience.

Friday, 23 May 2014

CrimeFest - Part 1

I had an awesome time at my first CrimeFest.

Wait... is it CrimeFest or just Crimefest? Let's go with CrimeFest, because I like camel case.

Anyway, I met lots of cool people, consumed more beer than I've managed in the rest of the year put together, and even flogged a copy of The Killing Season to a star of stage and screen. This is going to be a mammoth post for me, so I'm going to split it into two parts. The first one will cover Thursday and Friday, the second Saturday and Sunday.

Thursday


I flew down from Glasgow on Thursday afternoon, having to brave the airport bus link (seriously, how is it 2014 and we don't have a rail link to Scotland's major airport, or buses that take debit cards for that matter?). After a short delay, the flight down to Bristol was uneventful and smooth, which is just as well because I'm the world's worst flyer. After checking into my hotel (the Radisson Blu, very nice) and making fists with my toes on the carpet...


one for the Die Hard fans

 ...I made my way across the canal to the Bristol Marriot, venue for CrimeFest, and quickly located familiar faces Craig Robertson, Michael J Malone, Douglas Skelton and Ali Karim. It was great to relax with a beer, chat to familiar faces and meet some new ones.

The Bristol Marriot

I said hi to Mark Billingham, who'd given me some great advice when I was struggling with writing the second Carter Blake book, and then someone introduced me to Barry Forshaw, who was kind enough to say my book had something of a critical buzz around it. I also met Jake Kerridge of the Telegraph, the man in charge of my panel the following day. I took it easy on the bar, and headed back to my hotel around 12:30 for an earlyish night, because I was on at 9am the following day.

Friday


I hauled myself out of bed and got ready for the panel with several cups of coffee. I was amused later to see Lucy Santos of the CWA had tweeted that I was looking bright and breezy.

Jake Kerridge was moderating my panel (the second of three over the weekend) on Debut Authors: An Infusion of Fresh Blood, and I was on with four other newbies: M.J. Arlidge (Eenie Meenie), Kate Griffin (Kitty Beck and the Music Hall Murders), Colette McBeth (Precious Thing) and Jake Woodhouse (After the Silence). I quickly remembered that the best and worst thing about these book festivals is you end up with tons of new novels you want to read. I genuinely wanted to read all of these books after hearing their authors talk about them, but probably Kate's most of all, because I'm a sucker for Victorian-era mystery.

Of all of us, Jake Woodhouse and I were probably the freshest of the fresh blood, with our debuts coming out within a day of each other at the end of last month. It was great to chat to the others and hear about their backgrounds, their journeys to publication and their experiences of being published for the first time. I think I managed to be reasonably lucid for a non-morning person, and I talked a bit about getting an agent and thinking about the commercial appeal of my book. Jake (moderator Jake that is) got a big laugh from the audience when he read the current FAQ section from my website out in full:

Q: Do you have a lot of material for the FAQ section?
      
A: Not as yet, no.

Which reminded me I really need to update that now I'm getting actual questions.
 
After the panel there was a signing, during which I managed to write the wrong date while signing a copy of The Killing Season. The gentleman concerned was incredibly understanding, and magnanimously suggested the mistake just made his copy unique. I've been known to use this excuse myself: the Japanese call it a wabi: a tiny flaw that emphasises the individuality of the piece. Note to self: keep a calendar nearby at all times.

I visited the Foyles festival bookshop and was pleased to see a familiar cover on display...

the hardback version too!

Sorry, I'll get over taking pics of my book in bookshops someday. Perhaps. Okay, probably not gonna happen.

I settled back to be in the audience for another couple of panels after that: one on Death in High Heels: Women as Victims and another on The Modern Thriller. The first one was a heated but very well-behaved debate about the prevalence of young pretty women as victims in crime fiction and what it says about society (and readers of thrillers, I suppose). I was particularly interested to discover that the typical reader for books that feature young female victims is, perhaps surprisingly, young females. The panel on modern thrillers was also lively, with an eye-opening anecdote from Simon Kernick about being briefly kidnapped as a teen.

After that I caught up with an old friend for lunch and then headed back to the bar at the Marriott. On the way, my editor tweeted that I had been reviewed in the Daily Mail - my first review in a national newspaper, and thankfully they liked it.

The usual suspects were at the bar of course, and the supernaturally-organised Angela McMahon from Orion had arrived and introduced me to fellow debut Orion author Helen Giltrow - whose book The Distance has just been published - and Harry Bingham, who is more established than either of us, with a whole series of DC Fiona Griffiths novels. We went to dinner at the nearby Hotel du Vin where we spent a few hours over great food and wine and conversation. Again, it's always fascinating to note the similarities and the differences between how other authors approach writing a book. Also brilliant to talk to Angela about the exciting life of a publicist and just how many Ian Rankin enquiries she has to field on your average day even when he's taking a year off.

I would have loved to head back to the bar after dinner, but I had another 9am panel the next day.

Come back tomorrow to find out all about the Hired Guns panel and my bruising encounter with a certain black leather swivel chair in part 2...

Wednesday, 14 May 2014

See you in Bristol...



This weekend, I'm looking forward to my first trip to a book festival where I'm actually on the bill.

CrimeFest is the one of the biggest events in the UK crime calendar, and is listed by the Guardian and Independent as one of the world's best crime-writing festivals

This year there's a great lineup featuring Mark Billingham as guest of honour, and I can't wait to see some of the friends I've made already on the scene as well as some new faces.

If you're going to be in Bristol, you have not one but three chances to see yours truly on a panel:


Debut Authors: An Infusion of Fresh Blood Friday 16 May | 9:00am - 9:50am
Moderated by Jake Kerridge, featuring M.J. Arlidge, Mason Cross, Kate Griffin, Colette McBeth, Jake Woodhouse


Name Your Price: The Hired Gun
Saturday 17 May | 9:00am - 9:50am
Moderated by Meg Gardiner, featuring Mason Cross, Hanna Jameson, John Gordon Sinclair and Mark Allen Smith


Criminal Mastermind
Sunday 18 May | 1:00pm- 1:50pm
Quiz Master Maxim Jakubowski, featuring authors and specialist subjects: Mason Cross (Lee Child), Kate Ellis (Josephine Tey), Paul Johnston (Dashiell Hammett), Susan Moody (Raymond Chandler)

If you're going to be there, please come up and say hello. Outside of the above times, I'm likely to be in the bar.

Monday, 17 March 2014

Everyday, it's a-gettin' closer...

Just got back from London where I attended the annual Orion author party. It was a terrific evening in an absolutely beautiful venue: the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

Look: pretty.


There were something like seven hundred guests, including Orion staff and authors, various publishers, agents, reviewers and bloggers. It was a fantastic evening, great to catch up with my editor Jemima and to meet lots of other cool and interesting people, many of whom had not only read The Killing Season, but had really nice things to say about it.

Lots of other things seem to be happening as publication day gets closer and closer.

CrimeFest has unveiled its full programme at last, and I'm confirmed for three slots over the weekend: a debut authors panel on Friday, a discussion on hired guns and mercenaries on Saturday, and (most intimidating) the Criminal Mastermind quiz on Sunday. My specialist subject is Lee Child, so I'm going to need to spend some time cramming the Reacher Rules. You can find out more on the events page.

The second Carter Blake book has been through its (hopefully) final round of edits, and is going to be gradually released into the wider world, starting with some in-house people at Orion. Coincidentally, Waterstones has just listed a release date for this one of April 30, 2015, which seems impossibly far away. You can read the blurb for a sneak preview at the Waterstones listing page. It feels good to have the second book in the can before the first is released.

I'm still reviewing True Detective every week over at the Murder Room. The episode 4 review has just gone up, with the bonus of a video clip of the action-packed single-take finale.

Finally, I got a really exciting email on Friday to let me know that The Killing Season is going to be available as an audiobook, downloadable through Audible. Even better, it's going to be read by one of the best talents in the business: Eric Meyers, who's narrated a lot of Harlan Coben books, as well as the recent Wolf of Wall Street audio edition. As a huge fan of audiobooks, I can't wait to get a copy on my phone.

As someone said to me at the Orion party, you always have three books in your head: the one that's being published now, the one you're editing, and the one you're going to write next. Book three is already taking shape in my head. Then again, books four and five are also gnawing away at the outer reaches of my brain as well...

Saturday, 15 February 2014

The next one

If you're new to the publishing industry, as I am, you might be surprised at how far in advance things start to happen. Example: although it's still more than two months until The Killing Season hits the shelves, I've spent most of my time recently on the sequel, which won't be out for another year. I've just submitted the second version of this one to my editor.

Book 2 is provisionally called The Samaritan, and it follows Blake as he travels to Los Angeles to track down a prolific serial killer who may just be a long-forgotten figure from Blake's past. I'm looking forward to the feedback on this version, and I think it's a much stronger book after I've incorporated the thoughts of my editor and my agent, as well as some things I've decided to do differently on the second pass.

Although this one is going to be the second Carter Blake novel, calling it a sequel, as I did a minute ago, isn't quite correct: it's the second book in a series, and I think that's an important distinction.

The way I've approached the daunting task of writing That Difficult Second Novel, is in part to try to avoid writing a sequel to The Killing Season. It has the same protagonist, there are some ongoing plot threads that are picked up, and obviously it's in the same genre, but I've tried to approach The Samaritan as though it's the first Carter Blake book - i.e. one that someone who hasn't read the first book in the series can pick up and enjoy as though it were a standalone thriller.

This goes back to my thought process when I came up with Blake. I've always liked thriller protagonists who are not limited to any one location, from Travis McGee to Jack Reacher. Blake's background and profession means he can go anywhere he likes, take on any job he chooses. He's not tied down by authority or personal commitments. That means that every time I start a new book, I get to use a new location and create a whole new villain and a new supporting cast. It opens up a whole lot of possibilities for where the series can go.

The movie sequels I really love - films like Aliens, The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - are all examples of the creators deciding to do something distinctive from the original. None of them are simple retreads of the original, even though they feature the same key characters and similar themes. I've tried to do something similar here: Blake is pretty much the same as he was in The Killing Season, but he's in a new city, working with new allies, facing a new antagonist. If I've got the balance right, the people who liked The Killing Season should like The Samaritan just as much, without it being a carbon copy.

I had a lot of fun writing this new book. It was a totally different experience to that of writing my first novel. The biggest difference was knowing that I definitely had a publisher this time. That was a slightly strange experience, because while I felt more secure about a lot of things, at the same time I felt more pressure to get it right. Secondly, I had to turn it around in a much shorter timeframe. I had all the time in the world to finish my first novel; procrastinating and tweaking and researching to my heart's content, but the writing of the new one was much more like a job. An awesome dream job, I hasten to add, but writing to order as opposed to as a hobby was definitely a different experience.

If all goes to plan, we'll be including the first couple of chapters of the second book at the back of the first one to encourage my readers to come back for more.

I've been talking to people about lots of exciting developments and upcoming events, none of which I can talk about just yet, but I'm hoping to be announcing some things soon. In the meantime, if you check out the nifty new Events page, you'll see that I'm going to be at CrimeFest in Bristol in May. It will be my first time at one of the biggest crime events in the UK calendar, and I'm looking forward to a few days of hanging out with some cool people, authors and readers and industry people alike.

Okay. Time to start plotting the third one...


Friday, 17 January 2014

Ninety-six days

I had intended to blog on Monday to mark the point when it was exactly 100 days until The Killing Season is published on April 24th. Lots of things got in the way this week, so instead I'm going to mark the all-important 96 day point.

There are lots of things to keep me busy over that time. I'm currently doing the rewrite on the second Carter Blake book. Once I've finished that and sent it back to my editor, I think I'll blog about the experience of writing a sequel, and the unique challenges of writing That Difficult Second Novel.

The website is up and running now, and although it's fairly sparse at the moment it means I have somewhere to add news and events in the run-up to the end of April. Talking (typing?) of which, I've already been asked to come to a couple of crime and literary festivals, which will be fantastic. I'll post the details here and on the events page when everything's finalised, but for now I can say I'll definitely be in Bristol for CrimeFest in May. Looking forward to catching up with some of the readers and authors I've already met and saying hello to some new ones.

My editor got in touch yesterday to say that, several months after Orion put in the request, we've been granted permission to use a couple of Paul Simon lyrics in the book. I'd resigned myself to doing without and had stripped them out of the final version, but I'm happy to be able to include them after all. I've always liked song lyrics in crime fiction, I think that (used sparingly), they can really add something to a book. On more than one occasion, I've bought an album because I liked the way an artist's words were sampled in a novel. Which I think is a pretty sensible argument for allowing portions of songs to be used by authors free under fair use, but I guess this is where I differ with the record industry.

The final exciting thing on the horizon is unrelated to the book. After well over ten years of intermittently submitting short stories and having them politely rejected, I've sold my first story to Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. It's not a Carter Blake story, and in fact it's a story I only submitted on a whim, really not thinking it would get anywhere. Not for the first time I've realised that I have no idea what's going to work and what isn't. Just goes to show it's always worth throwing your hat in the ring, and that it pays to be persistent.

Long before I ever tried to write a full-length novel, my ambition was to sell a story to one of the big mystery magazines. EQMM has published so many legends from Agatha Christie to Stanley Ellin to Stephen King to Michael Connelly, and it's daunting (in a good way) to think I'll be joining that list.

When I know which issue it's going to be published in, I'll post the details here. It's beyond cool to be selected for a magazine with such a storied history, and I can't wait to see the story beneath one of those fantastic old-school pulp covers. Maybe even one a little like this classic: