Soundtracks - Winterlong (The Time to Kill)

The book with two names.

I've written in another post about how Winterlong came to be retitled The Time to Kill for the UK market, so if you're interested in the background to that, you can read about it here.

The third book ties up some of the loose ends about Carter Blake's past, and follows him on a breakneck journey from coast to coast, using planes trains and automobiles, as he tries to stay one step away of a team of military-trained killers.

Perhaps surprisingly, there are opportunities for musical interludes.

Winterlong | Pixies

I've waited for you, Winterlong
You seem to be where I belong

The Neil Young original is great too, of course, but I heard the Pixies cover first, and when I think of this song I always hear it in Kim Deal's voice.

When I was editing The Killing Season, I was trying to come up with a cool, evocative codename for the special ops unit of which Carter Blake was once a member. Something like Jason Bourne's Treadstone, or even shady real-world mercenary outfit Blackwater. Two-word concatenations seem to be popular in both the real life and fictional list of such names.

Winterlong seemed perfect when I thought of it. It evokes the Cold War, and also sparked the idea for the opening scene of Winterlong, which takes place in the depths of a Siberian winter.

Bring it on Home to Me | Sam Cooke




My favourite song by one of my favourite singers. From the first time I heard it I thought it would work great in a quiet moment in a movie, perhaps with two characters dancing in a motel room while it rains outside. I decided to put it in my own movie. Carol and Blake listen to this the last time they're together before he's called back to the war.

Fortunate Son | Creedence Clearwater Revival



No one actually listens to this song in the book, but Blake makes a throwaway reference to the title in one of the Afghanistan chapters. It's a standard in Vietnam movies, and it was a subtle way of drawing a parallel between the two conflicts, each intractable for different reasons.

Love Song from Apache | Coleman Hawkins




Credit to Ian Rankin for making me aware of Hawkins. Blake finds an old CD of his in the car given to him by Special Agent Banner for the final leg of his cross-country quest. It's a brilliantly atmospheric instrumental jazz piece, from the 1954 Burt Lancaster western.

Mark Billingham talks about how much he loves the moments in Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch books where there's a lull in the action and it's just Harry, on his balcony listening to jazz while looking out at the city. This scene was a nod to that. A quiet interlude before all hell breaks loose in a snowy corner of upstate New York...

• Buy the book here
  
  
• Buy 'Winterlong' by the Pixies
• Buy 'Bring it on Home to Me' by Sam Cooke
• Buy 'Fortunate Son' by Creedence Clearwater Revival
• Buy 'Love Song from Apache' by Coleman Hawkins

Next time: Eagles, Skynyrd and Swift in Don't Look For Me

Soundtracks blogs:

The Killing Season

The Samaritan

Winterlong / The Time to Kill

Win books!

In the run up to the US publication of Don't Look For Me on January 2nd, I'm running some book giveaways over the festive season, so if you fancy entering to win, all you have to do is register to win below.

Remember, you can sign up to the readers club for more competitions and an exclusive free short story: Expiry Date.

These are all available worldwide, so good luck and Merry Christmas!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Time to Kill

by Mason Cross

Giveaway ends December 30, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Killing Season

by Mason Cross

Giveaway ends December 31, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Don't Look For Me

by Mason Cross

Giveaway ends January 02, 2018.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Win a signed book by me and a doodle by Ava

Competition time again.

This time, you can be in with a chance of winning a signed copy of the third Carter Blake book The Time to Kill (aka Winterlong). You'll also get some nice chocolate and an inspirational doodle that my more-famous-than-I'll-ever-be daughter Ava has kindly contributed.

To enter, all you have to do is make sure you're signed up to my Readers Club by midnight UK time on Friday 25th August. The lucky winner will be randomly picked from the whole list (so if you're already a member, you're automatically entered) and contacted by email.

Go here to sign up!

I'll happily dedicate the book if you desire, and post it with the other goodies to wherever you are. It's open to anyone, anywhere in the world. Good luck!

The Time to Kill - UK Kindle deal

Just a quick update to say that The Time to Kill has been selected for the Mayday weekend 99p promotion in the UK, so if you don't have it yet, now's the time to remedy that situation!

Get it on Kindle here for 99p - offer ends Monday.

*edit to say eagle-eyed reader Sue got in touch to report that the deal is being price matched at the other ebook retailers, so you can now buy The Time to Kill for 99p on whatever device you prefer:

Kobo

Google Play

iBooks

Giveaway winners

The Goodreads giveaways to win signed copies of The Time to Kill and The Samaritan have closed, and they got a really amazing response.

The winners are Kristen from Staten Island, NY and Marion from Courtenay, British Columbia. Congratulations Kristen and Marion, and thanks to everyone who entered.

If you want to find out about future giveaways and exclusives, keep an eye on the blog or sign up to my Readers Club for occasional, non-spammy updates.

Book giveaway time

There are a pair of Goodreads giveaways running at the moment to win signed UK paperbacks of The Time to Kill (aka Winterlong in America) and (The Samaritan).

These giveaways are open worldwide, and it only takes a second to register to win by clicking on the handy links below, so what's stopping you?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Time to Kill

by Mason Cross

Giveaway ends April 16, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Samaritan

by Mason Cross

Giveaway ends April 16, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

For more news, competitions and exclusives, you can sign up to my Readers Club with a couple of clicks. No spam, scout's honour.

New York

I've always loved New York. Even before I visited for the first time a few years ago, I loved the idea of it.

Before I made the trip in person, I got to know the city through countless movies and books, and in particular from the wonderfully geographically-specific parts of town where Spider-Man or the X-Men would battle their enemies. I saw the city through many eyes before my own, from Holden Caulfield to Nick Carraway to Jerry the mouse. I love big cities in general, but NYC in particular.

So it was particularly enjoyable to make my first trip to the Big Apple as an author, even for a few short days. Even better - we were able to secure babysitting, so my wife Laura was able to tag along, which was great as we don't get to spend much time together, just the two of us.

Things started out well with a fairly smooth flight (I'm not the world's biggest fan of air travel), with a stopover at Reykjavik. I got some writing done and finally got to see Mad Max: Fury Road, which I enjoyed, although not quite as much as The Road Warrior.

Somewhere cold

Arriving at JFK, we took the Long Island Rail Road to Penn Station, getting into the city around 7pm local, which was midnight by my body clock. As it was a brief visit, I did what I always do, which is stay on GMT - why not take advantage of the fact you’re in a place that bills itself as the city that never sleeps? In truth, I’m not a morning person anyway, so a five hour time difference puts me in the sweet spot. We decided to walk the twenty-four blocks north to the hotel, soaking up the sights and the sounds.

Always a nice welcoming view

After breakfast the next morning, we visited the Barnes & Noble on 5th Avenue and I got to see one of my books in an American bookstore for the first time. Winterlong was really well displayed as a new release, too.

After that, I visited the nearby New York Public Library and wrote some of the new book in the beautiful Rose Main Reading Room. I make a point of writing in interesting places whenever I can. I wrote part of a short story in the British Library last year, so it was nice to continue the tradition. 

We headed east to drop in on Grand Central Station, which plays an important part in Winterlong, and admired the Chrysler and MetLife buildings on the way in. I really like distinctiveness of the former Pan Am building, even though it isn't held in the same regard as some of the more classically beautiful towers like its neighbour. 

After getting dinner in a fantastic steak place, Laura opted to stay in the hotel with a book, and I took a walk up to Central Park and the Upper East Side, then headed all the way out to the East River and saw the Queensboro bridge in the fog. I love walking in cities, particularly big ones like NYC or London or Paris. It's absolutely the best way to absorb their unique characters: pounding the sidewalks and looking down the dark alleys, passing the doormen of upscale apartment buildings as they stand to attention beneath heated canopies.

Day two started out with a trip to the Top of the Rock. I had ticked off the Empire State Building on my first trip to the city, but this lived up to the hype of being a better view, since it actually includes the Empire State Building. From seventy floor up, I was struck again by what an incredible city this is; the towers stretching out to the tip of the island, now and forever a work in progress.

After a stroll in Central Park, I took the subway down to Chambers Street in time for my appointment at the world-famous Mysterious Bookshop, where I signed a stack of copies of Winterlong, which was a dream come true. The shop would have been worth the trip without that: it's a crime fiction fan's dream. I picked up some books, including a vintage short story collection by John D MacDonald - one of my big influences.

Serious author face

After the Mysterious Bookshop, we met up for dinner with Iris and Jessica of Pegasus Books, my US publisher and we had a great evening at an Italian restaurant in Tribeca talking about books and big cities and life in general. It was a pleasant night for a walk from the subway station to the hotel, but the news was saying a change in the weather was on its way.

Winterlong climaxes with a blizzard hitting New York, so appropriately, my last day in town did too.

6th Avenue Freeze Out

This was a big one; big enough for them to take the drastic step of closing the schools. Watching the news, it was comforting to see that Americans freak out about the weather just as much as Brits do. I started to get a little worried about delays, but by the evening things had calmed down.

By the time we made it back to the UK, Winterlong was published all over again, this time in paperback under its British title of The Time to Kill, and I signed some copies in Waterstones. It's always good to come back home, but I'm already looking forward to the next time I'm in New York.

And the winner is...

The official Readers Club competition to win a signed copy of The Time to Kill, page proofs of the first 2 chapters of Don't Look For Me and a random bar of Scottish tablet is now closed.

The winner has been randomly selected and it's...

Gina Rae! Congratulations Gina.

Thank you to everyone who entered. If you'd like to get occasional updates on the books and find out about competitions and exclusives, go here to sign up.

There's not long to wait before Don't Look For Me hits the shelves on April 20th, and you can pre-order a copy right now to make sure you get it on publication day.

Exclusive Readers Club competition

As the title subtly hints, I'm going to be running an exclusive competition for members of my readers club soon.

I'll be emailing members next Friday to tell them how to win the following goodies:

• A signed copy of The Time to Kill
• The original page proofs of the first two chapters of the next book: Don't Look For Me
• (By popular demand) A bar of Mrs. Tilly's Scottish tablet

The page proofs are one-of-a-kind. These are the final printers proofs the author uses to fix any remaining typos and to make any last minor changes to the text. The winner will be one of the first people outside of my publisher to read these two chapters, and the book isn't published in the UK until April 20.

The Scottish tablet is because I included one with a previous competition and it went nuts, so if it ain't broke...

For the uninitiated, tablet is "a medium-hard, sugary confection ... usually made from sugar, condensed milk, and butter, which is boiled to a soft-ball stage and allowed to crystallise." It's nicer than it sounds, kind of like hard fudge.

Anyway.

If you want to be in with a shot of winning, all you have to do is make sure you're signed up to the Readers Club. It's a good thing to do anyway - it's free, I won't constantly spam you, and you'll get a heads-up on news, exclusives and giveaways like this one.

It takes two seconds to sign up and confirm, you can unsubscribe any time with one click, and look - there's a handy form right here:

Sign up to the Mason Cross Readers Club

Email Address

First Name

Last Name

I'll be in touch next week with details of how to enter, and this will be open worldwide - if you're on the list and have an address, you're eligible to win.

A tale of two titles

As I may have mentioned before, the third Carter Blake book was published this week in two territories under two separate titles:

Winterlong (Pegasus, US)

The Time to Kill (Orion, UK)

Why the change?

I wrote the book as Winterlong. It's the codename of the secret covert ops initiative Carter Blake used to belong to (although appropriately, it has gone by many names). It works for a book set in the depths of winter. It's also one of my favourite Neil Young songs, and I love the Pixies cover too. But the most important thing was, I liked it as a title.

My UK publisher Orion liked it too, and it was Winterlong throughout the editorial process, right up until the first proofs were produced.

But then they decided to rework the cover. Feedback from sales said that Winterlong wasn't quite thrillery-sounding enough. My editor asked me what I thought about The Time to Kill as an alternative title. I was honest and said I didn't mind it, though I preferred Winterlong. But I was in agreement with taking advice from sales. Call me a mercenary, but as long as it's the same book, I'd rather sell twice as much with someone else's title.

So the book got a new title and a new cover (which I love, both on the new blue paperback and with the original pink font).

Meanwhile, my US publisher Pegasus had acquired the book under the original title, and they thought Winterlong would work better for their market. They also had some concern that it could be confused with John Grisham's A Time to Kill. Again, sound reasoning, happy to go with it.

I got my author copies of both version last week, and I love them both. It feels kind of like I have two books out, and I only had to write one.

The experience got me thinking about why titles change. Some light Googling revealed that it happens a lot.

Would Baa Baa Black Sheep have sold as many copies as Gone With the Wind? Would Trimalchio in West Egg and First Impressions really have done the job as well as The Great Gatsby and Pride and Prejudice?

I asked some of my crime writer friends, and found it difficult to find one who hadn't had a book with multiple identities. With thanks to the below authors for their comments, you can read about what some of the best thrillers of recent years were almost called below:

***

CL Taylor - My UK title was The Accident, my US title was Before I Wake which I thought was clever because a) the main character's daughter is in a coma and b) the main character is sleep walking through life/in denial and what happens 'awakens' her to the danger she's in. 

Tammy Cohen - The original UK title for The Broken was The Fallout, but that changed at the last minute when we realised there was another book coming out the same month called Fallout. But the US publishers much preferred the original title so it came out in the US as The Fallout. I didn't mind at first as I preferred the original title anyway, but actually it wasn't great for me because all the publicity and reviews etc for The Broken don't appear if someone in the US Googles the book. So it's like starting completely from scratch. Plus inevitably there are people who buy the book twice thinking it's a new title and are mighty pissed off!

Brian McGilloway - The Nameless Dead was called Isle of Bones originally. Hurt was called Family Life and in the US ended up as Someone You Know. My name for Preserve the Dead was Sticks and Stones. In the US it ended up as The Forgotten Ones. In every instance I preferred the working titles...

Katerina Diamond - The Teacher was originally called Unkindness - I do love my original name but I also love The Teacher and I fully understand why they chose a punchier name for it. As a result I have never bothered to name any of my other ones. It's a title and it's all about selling at the end of the day - that's the part I know nothing about

Lucy Dawson - My first four all had title changes at Little Brown's request. You Sent Me A Letter and Everything You Told Me were mine and the next one is Come Back, which is mine too. I honestly can't even remember what my original titles for the first four were. 

Sinead Crowley - Book 1 started life as Can Anybody Out There Help Me? but they thought it was too long and we batted every terrible internet related pun back and forth till they accepted Can Anybody Help Me? Book 2 was Are you Watching Me' And book 3 was originally Don't You Remember Me? to fit that theme but no one liked it, and I came up with One Bad Turn which we all love.

Michael J Malone -  Taste for Malice was originally called, Sins of the Father - a check on Amazon quickly found how overused that was.

June Taylor - My soon-to-be out there psychological thriller Losing Juliet was submitted to HarperCollins Killer Reads as Two Summers. But as it was to be a winter launch they deemed it unsuitable. Also said it wasn't thrillery enough, and preferred a woman's name in the title. I liked the original one, but a couple of months ago I saw a YA novel released called Two Summers, so maybe the change of title was a good thing.

James Oswald - I wanted to call book six Suffer the Children, but Penguin wouldn't let me. Apparently any suggestion in the title that children might come to harm kills sales. I completely failed to come up with anything else, and it was my editor who suggested The Damage Done. Italian titles for my first two are The Name of Evil and The Book of Evil. I'm betting book three will be The Rope of Evil.

Marnie Riches - The Girl Who Wouldn't Die was originally Blown Away, it ties in with a leitmotif running through the book and some apparent suicide bombing. The Girl Who Broke the Rules was meant to be called Empty Vessel, again, because it tied in with the story, which is about trafficked people whose organs have been harvested. Born Bad, coming out next year, was meant to be called Killing a King. 

Fergus McNeill - Eye Contact and Broken Fall were my titles, and everyone seemed happy with them. Knife Edge was a brilliant suggestion by my editor (someone actually gets stabbed, right on the edge of a cliff) so thank goodness she dissuaded me from the working title of You're Scaring Me.

Cass Green - The Woman Next Door was Hidden In Ordinary Days until my agent just grimaced and went, "Hmm.. no." !

Clare Mackintosh - I Let You Go was Written in the Sand when I first started it; when it was less thriller, more romantic suspense. It lost the title early on and was nameless, then my editor suggested I Let You Go, which it was perfect. It's been interesting seeing the titles of the various translations. In Chinese it's The Runaway , in German it's My Soul So Cold, in Dutch Mea Culpa, and in Italian - with no prior knowledge of the working title - it's Written in the Sand.

Jenny Blackhurst - How I Lost You was originally Cradle and All but apparently some dude published by Headline already had that. Before I Let You In was Before You Let Me In when I pitched it.

Helen Cadbury - Bones in the Nest was my agent's far better idea. I wanted to call it Bird Bones.

Neil White - The working name for my second novel was The Painter Man (based upon David Mandell - Google him). An excerpt appeared at the end of the first book with that title. It was changed to Lost Souls just before it came out. I get more emails asking why they can't find The Painter Man than anything else. It's a pain in the arse. I prefer The Painter Man.

Tom Wood - My first book was titled The Killer and was published as such in the US, then retitled as The Hunter in the UK ('Women won't buy a book called The Killer,' my UK editor told me). My second book was called The Contract, but the same editor changed it to The Enemy. He wanted my third book to be called The Game, so I just let him. I stopped trying to think of titles after that. My fourth book was published as Better Off Dead in the UK and No Tomorrow in the states because my UK publisher wanted a crimey title and in the US they wanted more thriller. Oh and that same editor wanted my last name changed to Wood from Hinshelwood, which my US publisher liked and so followed suit... after I was already published as Hinshelwood, so The Killer is by Tom Wood in pb and Tom Hinshelwood in hb. This is the short version.

***

After reading all of that, I think I got off lightly with only one title change.

My next one is currently titled Don't Look For Me, but by the time it comes out in April, who knows?

The Time to Kill - UK paperback publication day

Two launches in a week, I feel spoiled!

Pleased to say the third Carter Blake book, The Time to Kill, is published in UK paperback today, with a new-look cover.

They taught him to kill. Now they want him dead.

It’s been five years since Carter Blake parted ways with top-secret government operation Winterlong. They brokered a deal at the time: he’d keep quiet about what they were doing, and in return he’d be left alone. But news that one of Blake’s old allies, a man who agreed the same deal, is dead means only one thing – something has changed and Winterlong is coming for him.


You can get The Time to Kill at all good bookshops and in your format of choice:

Paperback

Waterstones

Amazon

Hive

ebook

Kindle

Kobo

iBooks

Google Play

Audiobook

Audible

American readers can also buy the same book under a different title - Winterlong was published in a beautiful hardcover edition in the US two days ago.