Chris Longmuir, Crime Writer

Sunday, 21 February 2016

Museum Visit with a Macabre Twist

Membership of the SOA (Society of Authors) brings many perks, one of which is the events and talks they arrange throughout the year. The English events are a tad too far for me to travel, but the SOAiS (Society of Authors in Scotland) is equally energetic in creating events.

A recent one was our visit to the Anatomical Museum which is part of Edinburgh University’s School of Biomedical Science which has a history of 300 years of anatomical teaching.

This was preceded by an excellent lunch at a local restaurant for those who wished to partake. And, of course, there was no way I was going to miss a lovely lunch, and the chance to chat with other writers while we worked our way through the menu.

Waiting to meet the rest of the group at the university after the lunch

We emerged from the restaurant to a sunny, but chilly day, and after negotiating the Edinburgh traffic we arrived at the University to meet up with the rest of our group.

The bodies for dissection were brought in through this gate

Our guide, Malcolm Maccallum, escorted us up multiple sets of stairs to the museum, sidetracking on the way to show us the courtyard outside, and the gate through which the bodies for dissection were brought, then onward and upward to the lecture room where today’s medical students gather to listen to lectures, but where, in the past dissections took place in front of a past generation of students. And upwards again to the museum itself.

The lecture theatre where medical students have been taught for over 300 years

The Grand Entrance Hall

I can only describe this part of the visit because photography was forbidden in this area which was a pity because this was the most informative and interesting part of the tour. It was here we were able to see William Burke’s skeleton. He was the infamous body snatcher who was hanged on 28th January, 1829. Another skeleton of a notorious criminal was that of John Howison, The Cramond murderer, who was the last person to be sentenced to be hanged and dissected, and was therefore the last body to be given to surgeons for dissection.

Malcolm Maccallum, our guide, informed us that the museum had 350 life and death masks, many of which were on display. The collection contained too many masks of famous people to list here, but among them I noticed William Hare, of Burke and Hare notoriety; and Robert Knox, who purchased his cadavers from Burke and Hare. Other masks of a less macabre nature included Sir Walter Scott, Napoleon, Cromwell, Wordsworth, and Shakespeare.

A display that caught our attention was that of Alexander Tardy, the pirate and poisoner from the early 1830s. His skull and facial reconstruction is on display alongside a wealth of information about his less than successful career. I also spotted the skull of Robert the Bruce.

This museum is a working one and medical students have access to it for educational purposes. The museum numbers 15,000 items in its collection, not all of which were on view, but there was ample of interest to keep our group occupied for some considerable time.

The tour gave us all a lot to think about, and maybe provided the seed for a future crime novel. It would certainly be a great setting for one of my murders.

Chris Longmuir

Sunday, 14 February 2016

Invitation to a #crimechat just for you

How do you like your crime fiction?

Do you like the dead bodies piling up as an intrepid hero or heroine faces ever increasing dangers which make you shout “Don’t go in there” or “Turn the light on” or “He’s waiting to kill you” or even the famed pantomime shout “He’s behind you?”

Or maybe you like an international thriller with a Bond type hero.

Or maybe something a little bit cosier like romantic suspense.

And let’s not forget the mystery and suspense thriller.

Well, if you accept the invitation you can chat with four authors who are expert in all these fields. You can ask them anything you like, such as: “How many people have you killed?” “What kind of weapon do you prefer?” “Who mops up the blood?” “What do you do when you’re face to face with a killer?” “Will your hero/heroine ever meet the man/woman of their dreams?” Then there are the writerly questions, such as “Where do you write?” “When do you write?” or after you’ve killed someone (on paper) “Do you sleep at night?” I’m sure you’re capable of thinking up any number of questions, and we’ll do our best to answer them.

The authors:

Wendy H Jones: She writes police procedurals with a humorous touch, and her policemen are always eating. If you aren’t hungry when you start reading one of her books, you’ll be ravenous by the time you reach the end. Shona McKenzie, her gun-toting detective inspector is a tough cookie. Oh, and I’d better warn you, the body count is high in her books. http://www.wendyhjones.com/

Mark Leggatt: An exciting new voice in crime fiction whose first book is an intense, page-turning, fast paced international thriller, that moves between Paris, Zurich, Morocco and Tehran. He has been described as a blend of Bourne, Bond, and Indiana Jones. http://www.markleggatt.com/

Fiona Veitch Smith: A versatile author who writes children’s picture books as well as dabbling in crime. She has a contemporary romantic thriller set in South Africa, as well as her Poppy Denby Investigates series, set in the 1920s, I would guess this author is probably a bit cosier than the rest of us. http://fiona.veitchsmith.com/

Chris Longmuir: Yes that’s me! I write psychological thrillers which are also police procedurals, and although I use the same police personnel in each book the main characters are actually the people directly involved in the crime. You know, the victims, the perpetrators, or anyone connected to the crime other than the police. Despite this, my readers have developed an affection for D S Bill Murphy, who appears in each book. Don’t ask me why, because he’s a bit of a loser. But I also write historical crime and have started a new series featuring Kirsty Campbell, Dundee’s first policewoman in 1919. She is a truly original character unlike any other I’ve come across and I think this series is going to be a winner. http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/

So make sure you come along and chat with us. We’ll be waiting with bated breath and hoping you don’t trip us up with your questions.

Put the date in your diary now

Date: - Friday 19 February 2016

Time:- 9pm GMT

Place:- Twitter using the hashtag #crimechat

Chris Longmuir

Monday, 11 January 2016

How much do you earn from PLR?

I’m not sure how many authors have noticed that the PLR rate is increasing from 6.66 pence to 7.67 pence per library loan from February 2016. Any increase, even one so minimal, is welcome. However there have been few changes in the PLR scheme since its inception, and the Society of Authors is currently lobbying for improvements in the scheme. You can see the SOA response plus a link to the letter here http://www.societyofauthors.org/soa-news/soa-letter-future-plr which addresses some concerns and offers suggestions.

Some of the issues being addressed by the Society of Authors include concerns about the exclusion of volunteer-run libraries, library cuts, audiobooks, and ebooks. However, I have had a long standing concern about the sampling method used to assess PLR payments.

To start with, perhaps I should clarify what PLR is. PLR is short for Public Lending Right. Until fairly recently PLR funding was managed by the Registrar of Public Lending Right, but from 1 October 2013 the UK PLR office became part of the British Library.

On the British Library website, it says, “Public Lending Right (PLR) is the right for authors to receive payment for the loans of their books by public libraries.”

This is governed by legislation, and payment is made from government funds. In order to be eligible for inclusion in the PLR scheme, authors are required to register, but that is easily done either by post or online at the British Library website. You will find the conditions for registration on this link as well as a downloadable application form http://www.plr.uk.com/registrationservice/apply.htm

However, it is not enough to have your books available for loan in a library, because the PLR system works on the basis of statistics taken from a sample number of libraries. So, if your books are not available in any of the sample libraries, then your income will be nothing, irrespective of how popular your books are in other libraries. Now, I’m afraid this is where I have to admit that my understanding of statistics is abysmal. I have a creative brain rather than a logical mathematical one, so you can understand why statistics remain a mystery. So I will quote what the web site says “Payments are made annually on the basis of loans data collected from a sample of public libraries in the UK.” This sounds simple enough but when they mention how they gross-up the loans, I am lost. The best I can do is quote again, “Because PLR loans are derived from a representative sample of library authorities, a grossing up calculation is applied to the actual loans at the end of each PLR reporting year, in order to provide a national estimate of loans for the whole of the UK and Ireland.” There must also be a calculation taken from previous data as well because when I checked whether my own books were in the sample set of libraries for Scotland, I was not surprised to find that none of them were stocked. However I did get a small payment for Dead Wood, despite the fact it was not in the Scottish set of sample libraries. This must have been calculated from a previous sample set of libraries. The payment, however, was only half the amount of previous years.

My PLR earnings for 2012 to 2013

To look further at book loans data. This is collected over a twelve month period, from 1 July to 30 June. For the purposes of this article I am looking at payments based on the year July 2012 to June 2013, which was when I did the research for this article. The payment for each loan at that time was the massive sum of 6.2 pence per loan, and a librarian friend told me that on average a reader will keep a book for a month so that would work out at twelve loans per year. During that year I had 79 loans in Angus libraries for my two non-earning books (Angus loan figures do not include Dead Wood), and as previously mentioned I got the grand sum of £8.18 for Dead Wood which originated from a library in Wales, otherwise this book would also have earned no PLR. I’m still pondering what to spend my Dead Wood PLR earnings on. I wonder if it would buy me a ream of paper?

I did wonder why, in this technological age, the PLR system was based on statistical sampling, rather than collecting information from all libraries, but according to them it would be impracticable and expensive to do this, although I don’t quite see the rationale for this given the vast improvements in technology. However, the size of the sample has improved over the years, apparently starting off with 16 individual library branches in 1982, to 30 library authorities, with approximately 1,000 individual branches.

For the purposes of PLR the country is divided up into regions into which library authorities are grouped. Each grouping may include between two to four different library authorities. The libraries included for sampling have to be public libraries operating as part of the statutory library service, provided by local authorities. Community libraries and those set up by independent groups are not included.

There are nine PLR sample regions in England, one in Scotland, one in Wales and one in Northern Ireland. The current English PLR regions are East, London, North East, North West & Merseyside, South East, South West, West Midlands, Yorkshire & The Humber. The majority of these regions cover several library authorities with London having the majority listed under London Libraries Consortium. Scotland is a single PLR region, and because I live in Scotland I was interested in which library authorities were included. The grouping is, Edinburgh, Highland, Midlothian, and North Lanarkshire. Wales, also a single PLR region has three local authorities included. But the one I found most interesting was Northern Ireland, because the whole of Northern Ireland is included in the sample. If you want to check the authorities included for 2015-2016 you can do so here http://www.plr.uk.com/libraryInformation/current.htm

I checked back on previous years, and discovered the last time Angus (my library authority) was included was the PLR sample year 1996-97. Gulp, that was 19 years ago, and now that the libraries have become a trust in Angus it is unlikely it will ever be included again. Edinburgh and Glasgow are featured fairly regularly, although unlike London, they are not included every year. Here is the archive of sample authorities from 1982 to 2013 http://www.plr.uk.com/libraryInformation/sampleLibraryArchiveIndex.htm

That begs the question – how often do they change the sample authorities? Well, according to the web site, at least seven of the library authorities are replaced each year, and no authority can stay in the sample longer than four years.

So there you have it. If you are lucky enough to live in one of the sampling authorities and the libraries in that authority stock your books, then you will get PLR payments. However, if like me, the reverse is the case, then I reckon you should not count on PLR as part of your writing income.

But in conclusion, if you were to ask me whether it is beneficial to register for PLR in the knowledge you may get nothing, then my answer would be yes. You see, if an author does not register then this reduces the amount of authors on the PLR database, and who knows whether a future decision might be that these payments are no longer necessary, and as a result, the scheme will be scrapped. So, I would encourage you to register.

Before I go, can I just say that if you like a specific writer’s books and want to support them, then please put a request into your local library for their books, irrespective of whether you have the paperback or kindle version already. It will get the books onto the library shelves, and hopefully they will be included in a sample, sooner or later. After all, every little £8.18 helps! I’m off to check the price of computer paper now, I might just have enough to pay for a couple of reams if I’m lucky, but certainly not for a full box!

NB. At the time of doing the research I had three books in print. I now have six books in print, and the situation is still the same, only one book, Dead Wood, ever makes any PLR. Oh, and before I forget, the amount I earn decreases every year despite the rise in borrowing rates. My payment for 2015 was £6.19.

Chris Longmuir

Thursday, 31 December 2015

A Guid New Year to ane and a

Yes, that's how we say it in Scotland. 'A Guid New Year to ane and a' (translation 'a happy new year to one and all'). I hope 2016 will be your year, that you will have lots of joy, much wealth, the best of health, and all the success you deserve in everything you undertake.

Chris Longmuir

Thursday, 24 December 2015

Santa Likes a Good Murder Mystery

It’s Christmas again and I’ve written my Santa list. And, of course, that includes all the books I want to read in 2016. It’s quite a list. What about you? How many books do you have on your Santa list? And although I’m not great at promoting my books, it can’t stop me hoping you’ve included one or two of mine.

And for those wonderful people who have read them all, I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know there will be a new book for 2016. It’s almost finished, although after I write The End, I’ll have to go back and rewrite parts of the earlier chapters.

In the meantime, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and may your stocking be full of everything you included on your list.

Chris Longmuir

Monday, 16 November 2015

SUFFRAGETTE

High on my list of films to see is Suffragette, a movie that has been lauded and criticised for its depiction of women’s struggle to obtain the vote in the late eighteenth and early twentieth century. It is set in a period just before the First World War and focuses on the militant activities of the WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union) in Britain.

Britain at this time was a class ridden society, and although some members of the WSPU were working class women, the majority came from the middle and upper classes, particularly those who followed Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel.

Sylvia Pankhurst

Emmeline’s daughter, Sylvia Pankhurst who, unlike her mother and sisters, had a strong attachment to the Labour party, and was particularly close to Keir Hardie was the one who brought the suffragette struggle to the working classes. She disagreed with Christabel’s tactic of turning the WSPU towards upper and middle-class women, and due to her disagreements about the way the WSPU was conducting the struggle for votes, she broke away from them and set up the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS). This organisation was more democratic with a greater focus on working women and even included men.

It must be remembered that the WSPU were not the only organisation fighting for women’s suffrage. The Women’s Freedom League (WFL), was also a militant organisation, but their militancy was non-violent. The WFL was formulated in 1907 by WSPU members who had become disenchanted with the WSPU due to the autocratic leadership of the Pankhursts, and the violent path on which they were embarking.

The film has attracted criticism and has been accused of having racist overtones, but it has to be remembered that in order to have a degree of accuracy, the historical attitudes of the time have to be replicated to provide a degree of authenticity. And Britain was a racial and class-ridden society at this time in history. Much of the criticism revolves round the wearing of tee-shirts with the slogan “I’d rather be a rebel than a slave” which is actually a direct quote from a speech Emmeline Pankhurst gave in 1913. And Emmeline’s politics did veer to the hard right by this time, although earlier in her life she’d had socialist leanings. It is possible this slogan will not have the same adverse effect in Britain as it does in America, where slavery is a large part of their history. We could argue all day as to whether the producers of the film should have been more sensitive to this aspect, or whether they were right to portray historical accuracy, and at the end I doubt if there would be agreement. On the other hand, perhaps I am being cynical in thinking this is a publicity stunt which had the desired effect of stirring up controversy.

I have no view on whether the producers were right or wrong, all I know is I want to see the film.

Chris Longmuir

NB: My historical crime novel set in 1919 features Dundee’s first policewoman who was a suffragette prior to the start of the First World War.