Meeting Richard and Judy

It's the featured week for The Samaritan in Richard and Judy's Book Club this week, which means it gets top shelf promotion in WHSmith and seems to be on special offer for half price in some branches.

As my former boss and new head honcho of Uber Glasgow Chris Yiu reports, it looks like they're flying off the shelves...

Someone's popular at @EDI_Airport @WHSmith this morning @MasonCrossBooks #TheSamaritan #RandJBC pic.twitter.com/UNwl1lXHjz

— Chris Yiu (@clry2) February 15, 2016

It also means my Richard and Judy podcast is live, so you can now head over there to listen to my interview with R&J. There's a new post from me there on the inspiration behind the book.

You can still read Richard and Judy's reviews in full on the Book Club blog, check out their Q&A with me or read a free sample of the book.

It seems like ages since I recorded the interview, but I thought it would be good to record for posterity what it's like getting to meet Richard and Judy to talk about your book.

After arriving in London, I met Angela and Virginia from Orion for coffee before the interview. While I attempted to suppress my nerves, we chatted about the interview and lots of other things: the cover for Winterlong, the pronunciation of Eurydice (I had only recently discovered it's you-RID-uh-see, not you're-a-dice), and the fact Angela had passed by a guy dressed as an Imperial Stormtrooper at the railway station (guess what movie was coming out that day).

At the appointed time, we reported to reception at the upmarket hotel in Covent Garden where Richard and Judy were recording the podcasts, and I was ushered into a room to record some of the pre-interview material. This involved a short reading from The Samaritan, and talking briefly about how I write.

Laura Barnett arrived for her session after me - I had met her at a Hachette event a few months before and loved her novel The Versions of Us, so it was nice that we both made the list. I'm Facebook friends with Ruth Ware too, and although we didn't get a chance to see each other on the day, it was great to see In a Dark, Dark Wood on there too.

A helper came to tell us that Richard and Judy were ready and led me through to the room where they were recording. It was a strange but wonderful experience, like stepping inside a television. They were both lovely. When Richard kicked off his introduction, I was reminded why they've been a fixture of British TV and radio for so long. I kind of wish he could introduce me at all my events.

They asked me about the novel, about why we're drawn to violent crime stories, about how I came up with my pseudonym. I also learned that the hands are always set to ten past ten in wristwatch adverts. You can't unsee this once you're aware of it.

And then, before I knew it, we were done. We snapped a few pictures with me sitting on the couch with R&J (throughout which I couldn't stop thinking I am on the couch with Richard and Judy) and then it was downstairs to the bar to catch up with my editor Jemima and lots of the Orion team who had come along to celebrate. Judi Dench was there too. Although not part of our party, regrettably.

To say it was an insanely cool experience would be an understatement; it's the kind of wildly unrealistic ambition you dream about as an aspiring author. Since then, it's been wonderful to hear from new readers and to see the book alongside the other book club selections in pride of place in branches of WHSmith the length and breadth of the UK.

To quote Ferris Bueller, I highly recommend it.

Booksellers, burgers and buses

Quick update about my recent trip to London, where it finally dawned on me that despite visiting The Big Smoke more often than I've been to almost any other city, I've barely scratched the surface of the tourist trail. I've never been to the Houses of Parliament, or Big Ben. I've never been on the London Eye. I certainly haven't done any of the shiny new stuff, like the Shard. I didn't tick off many of those touristy things this time either, but I did do some other cool stuff. Like get on a London bus for the first time.

Even more exciting than that, though, I visited my publishers at Orion House and chatted to the sales team about The Samaritan. It was lovely to meet some members of the team I hadn't spoken to before, and to see how enthusiastic everyone is about the book. I also got a very early preview of the paperback cover of The Killing Season, which already looks great even in a rough draft. I caught up with my editor Jemima and got to meet my paperback editor Jo for the first time. I even got to meet David Young, the CEO of Orion, who said really nice things about the first two Carter Blake books.

Orion has its own building

Fancy foyer too...

and some good-looking books in reception

 

I also got to meet some of the local booksellers, guided by expert sales rep Linda. We zipped around central London on foot, by bus, by tube and by cab  (I've definitely ticked off the full public transport package) to some independent bookshops like Goldsboro Books (who have signed hardback first editions if you're in the market) and various branches of Waterstones, including Picadilly which is the biggest bookshop in Europe, and Trafalgar Square. Little did we know we were there mere hours before the #waterstonestexan would walk in and begin his spell in captivity.

 

The idea was to meet some of the people who'll be selling the book, and to hand out advance copies of The Samaritan. These were hot (well, warm by the time I touched them) off the presses, and were what is called 'rough proofs'. Every day is a school day - I didn't know about this before. The rough proofs are printed up locally on much heavier paper than standard books (they weighed a ton), so we could have super-early advance copies. Even in this format, though, they looked great. The cover really pops, and I'm really glad we decided to stick with the title.

 

We met lots of nice booksellers, including Chris at Piccadilly and Rowan at Trafalgar Square, and gave them advance copies.

I can't wait to see what the team comes up with for the proper advance proof, after the excellent ARCs for The Killing Season. After all that, I had a short window before my train home, so I managed to squeeze in some very basic sight-seeing:  

 ...as well as a lightning-quick stop at Five Guys, naturally...

Five Guys narrowly beats Shake Shack for me

...before it was time to head homewards. After trying out the plane and the hell that is the overnight bus in my younger days, I always take the train now. Door to door, it takes the same time as flying and there's a lot less waiting around / being frisked. It also gives you time to work on new projects.

Of which I hope to tell you more very soon...

Back at Glasgow Central

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...

London again

Last week I was in London again for my author photoshoot. I was booked in with some other authors who have recently signed with Orion to be photographed by Paul Stuart. He's good. Check out his website.

Basically, Orion needed some decent pictures of me for general publicity, the website, and of course the little thumbnail author pic on the back cover of the book. I always tell people I look bad in photos and they say everyone thinks that. Then they look at some examples of pictures of me, and are forced to agree that, yeah, I don't photograph particularly well. Something about the pained, tortured expression.

I took the train down, because door-to-door, it takes the same time as flying and you get to relax the whole time instead of wandering around airports praying your flight isn't delayed. The other great thing about the train is it gives you time to work. As my date for the photoshoot happened to coincide with the submission deadline for the second Carter Blake book, I was able to use the trip to make some last minute tweaks to the manuscript before emailing it off to Jemima, my editor at Orion.

The new one is called The Samaritan, and I'm looking forward to seeing what Jemima thinks. This one had to be turned around fairly quickly, in about six months, so I'm looking forward to a short break before I get the notes back and start editing again.

Anyway, back to the shoot. As someone who hates having his photograph taken, I was mildly apprehensive (okay, mildly terrified) about my first photo call, but the experience was surprisingly painless. Fun, even. It felt a little like I'd won a competition to be a famous person for a morning. Hair and makeup and somebody bringing me coffee and everything. The venue was a gorgeous loft studio in Shoreditch. Paul and his assistant Bradley did an excellent job of making me feel comfortable, and it looks like they accomplished the impossible and got some pretty good pictures of me.

I want to live here

After the shoot, I got the tube back into central London and met my old and new agents for lunch. It was a combination of introduction and goodbye, because my previous agent Thomas is moving on to a new career. I'm sorry to see Thomas go, because we had a fantastic working relationship and his input to the first two books has been immense. On the positive side, I don't have to look for a new agent because Luigi Bonomi (also of LBA) has taken me on. I've known Luigi for some time, and he was the first person to get in touch with me from LBA, but this was the first time we'd met in person.

Great food (I had the crab spaghettini), great wine and even better conversation. We talked about the books so far, what happens next, and generally had a great time discussing the movies and television shows and books we love. I think all three of us walked away with a list of things to read / watch.

After that, it was back on the train to head back to real life. Only 185 days to go until publication day...