So Whats New? The Next Big Thing

It’s autumn now, or at least if feels like it, and it’s the time for new things. New series on the telly – are you watching Dr Who? – and I’m told Downton Abbey is just about to appear again. New books – aren’t you fed up with Fifty Shades yet? New films – I’m not up to them as there is no cinema in my town. So what else is new? Well, last week I was tagged by one of my Love a Happy Ending mates, Mandy Baggot, in her blog post ‘The Next Big Thing’, so this week it’s my turn! I have to answer ten questions about my work in progress and tag five other writers to tell you about their latest work next Wednesday. But before we start I have to make an admission! The work in progress is progressing very slowly because I’ve taken time out to prepare Night Watcher for a paperback edition. So watch this space, it won’t be long before it is out.

 

Now for the work in progress, the novel I really must sit down and finish because I’m only a smidgin from the end.

 

Check out the questions and my answers. I’ll try to be as honest as I can!

 

1.What is the working title of your next book?

Well, over time it’s had a couple of working titles. It started out as Vigilante, and then it changed to Predator, and I’m not going to tell you what the final title is as it’s under wraps at the present.

 
2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

I suppose it started out by one of my friends suggesting I should write a book with a plot that involved computers, because I’m a bit of a techie nerd. So I turned over some ideas in my head and played around with ideas about chat rooms and internet predators, and the plot developed from there, although I must say it became a tad more complicated than my original idea with my usual dose of sub plots and twists. I’m not going to tell you any more, you’ll just have to read it when it comes out.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

Same genre as Night Watcher and Dead Wood, it’s a psychological crime thriller and is the third in the Dundee Crime series.

 

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Hmm! I’m not sure who I’d like for DS Bill Murphy. It would have to be a younger version of Liam Neeson. I rather like Nathan Fillion, but he’s too quirky for Bill, so the role is open to any takers. I think Julianne Moore would be ideal for DS Sue Rogers.

 

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Jade vanished five years ago – is she alive or dead – and who is doing all the killing?

 

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I’ve been published both ways and decided some time ago that self publishing was the way I wanted to go. You see, I’m a bit of a control freak, and I like to keep my hands on the driving wheel. Agents and publishers tend to impose conditions which I’m not comfortable with.

 

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I hate to admit it but I’ve been working on this novel for over a year, and I’m behind schedule. I usually allow a year from beginning to final publication, you need that kind of time to ensure the novel is as good as it can be, and to allow for the revision and editing process to make sure the book meets that criteria.

 

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

It’s difficult to make comparisons because a book is unique to the author who writes it. Let’s just say that I veer more towards Val McDermid than Agatha Christie.

 

9. Who or What inspired you to write this book?

I think it’s my own inner demons who provide that push. Writing is an addiction, it’s an itch you just have to scratch.

 

10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I hope the fact that it’s the third book in the Dundee Crime Series will be enough to tempt my readers to pounce on it.

 

Now! “Tag you’re it!”

 
Here are some great authors I’ve tagged to tell us what their next big thing is. Hopefully they’ll have time to tell us what they’re working on.

 

1. Gilli Allan:  http://gilliallan.blogspot.co.uk/
2. Miriam Wakerly:  http://www.miriamwakerly.blogspot.co.uk/
3. Carol E Wyer:  http://facing50withhumour.blogspot.co.uk/
4. Eileen Schuh:  http://eileenschuh.blogspot.co.uk/
5. Harvey Black:  http://harveyblackauthor.org/

I look forward to getting a sneak peak of what they’re writing and hope you will too.

 

http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/

Do Writers need Writers Groups?

I got to wondering how other writers see writers’ groups. Are they beneficial? Or are they just social gatherings?

 
Well, there are all types of writers’ groups and whether or not you are involved is, of course a matter of choice. I am involved in several of these groups, physical ones and virtual ones. Let’s look at the physical ones first.
 

Members of Angus Writers' Circle

The first group I became involved with was Angus Writers’ Circle http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/anguswriterscircle/index.html I was one of the founder members over 20 years ago. At that time I was a novice writer and much of my writing really wasn’t worth publishing. I’ve progressed since then, my writing has improved, and I’ve become a professional writer. Now I don’t know whether I would have had the same outcome if I’d never belonged to Angus Writers’ Circle, but I can say that the crits and encouragement I experienced along the way did help me develop as a writer.
 
I have to say, though, that there are writers’ groups in existence which simply give praise irrespective of the quality of writing. These groups do nothing to help a writer develop. The groups that are of the most benefit are the ones which are honest with their crits, even if the truth hurts.
 
One of the benefits of belonging to a writers’ group is acceptance to professional bodies like the Scottish Association of Writers. I have attended their weekend conferences on a regular basis over the past 20 odd years, and have been awarded many prizes from their annual writing competitions. The most prized of these was when I won the Pitlochry Award on two different occasions, once for Night Watcher, and again for Dead Wood before it went on to win the Dundee International Book Prize.
 

Margaret Thomson Davies presenting me with the Pitlochry Award for Night Watcher

But crits, encouragement and awards are not the only benefits from belonging to these groups, there is also the social aspect, the networking, and the acceptance from other writers. I met many of my now more famous friends through these groups, at a time before they became famous. People like Ian Rankin and Alex Gray. I could name many more, but enough of the name dropping and let’s get on with the blog.
 
It’s time to have a look at virtual groups. There are many of these around, particularly on Facebook. I’ve sampled a few of these and when they become overloaded with ‘buy my book’ posts to the exclusion of most of the other posts, I usually back out the door and only look in occasionally.
 

The exception to these is the three main groups I’m heavily involved with. I’ll take them one at a time.

 
First there’s the loveahappyending.com group which is an invitation only group for authors, although they also have readers, editors and publishers as members. This group started a year ago and as of this morning there have been over a million visits to the website. When I was invited to join, I think my first response was ‘You do know what kind of books I write?’ You see I never thought of my books as being anything to do with happy endings. The response when it came was that they wanted a mix of authors and anyway, in my crime books, the fact that the crime was resolved equated to a happy ending. So I agreed to join and actually felt quite honoured to be one of their thirty authors, because that was the maximum amount they take on as members at any one time. If you want to have a look here is the link http://loveahappyending.com/
 

 
Then there is the Famous Five Plus group, FFP for short http://www.famousfiveplus.com/ I saw this coming to prominence on Twitter and became curious, so that was why I joined it. I’ve had no regrets about joining, although members are expected to promote the group through Twitter and other media sites. That’s why you’ll see me with loads of retweets involving FFP. But it’s a fabulous group with lots of lovely members who are supportive. The website’s pages are worth checking out, they have a Home page, Books page, Authors page, Review page and loads more. They also post an excerpt from one of the books every day. I love it when it’s my turn. Oh, and they also have a readers’ club if you would like to join. The details are on the Books page of the site here’s the link http://www.famousfiveplus.com/p/books.html
 

 

 

Last and not least, there is the Authors Electric group, which again is an invitation only group. Each member is expected to provide a blog post for their blog – Do Authors Dream of Electric Books. My turn is on the 19^th of each month if you want to check me out. The blog itself is a mix of posts from various writers and is well worth a look. Here’s the link http://authorselectric.blogspot.co.uk/

 

 
Well, that’s an overview of the groups I’m involved with and all I can say is that I find them beneficial. However, whether you would is a different matter and only you can decide whether to join a group or not. The only advice I would give is, be selective.

  

http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/

 

Meet Jo Nesbo at Harrogate Crime Festival – Part 4

Finally it’s Sunday, the last day of the Harrogate Crime Festival and it’s up early to pack my suitcase. Now where can I put all those books I’ve bought, plus can’t forget to pack the bottle of Old Peculier that came in my goody bag. The only solution is to pack the canvas goody bag and carry it slung over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

 
Breakfast next, and I decide not to collect my flyers and bookmarks from the unwanted books table until after the first panel of the day – bad decision – when I went to collect them they’d all been binned. The Scot in me mourned the loss of my material, the hours spent preparing it, never mind the ink and paper. Ah well, that’s life. Next year I’ll be there a lot earlier.
 
The highlight of morning had to be the special guest, Jo Nesbo. The ballroom where all the events are held was packed, illustrating the popularity of this event. Jo Nesbo is one of the Scandinavian writers who have risen to popularity over the past few years. And he’s Norwegian, which means I have a special affinity with him because of my Norwegian grandfather, not that he’d know it, of course.
 

Mark Lawson interviewing Jo Nesbo

 

He was an entertaining speaker who expressed a reluctance to talk at events, however, he said he was forced by Mark Billingham to come. He claimed to be unable to write in his apartment and said he preferred to write on trains, planes and in airports, and that he was delighted when his plane was delayed. His main character is Harry Hole, which he said was a common Norwegian name which should be pronounced ‘Hoola’. The first of his books published in the UK was The Devil’s Star, although the first book in the series is The Bat, which doesn’t seem to be available in a UK or US version.

 
He took five weeks to write the first draft of The Bat, which is set in Australia, however, Harry Hole was not fully developed until The Redbreast, his third novel. The Bat – in Norwegian it is The Batman – is based on an Aboriginal myth about a half-man, half-bat, with links to the devil.
 
His second book, also unavailable in the UK or US, is The Cockroaches and is set in Bangkok, Thailand.
 
The Redbreast his third book is the first of the series available in the UK and US. It is set in the trenches outside Leningrad, on the Eastern Front, in 1944. When talking about this book he provided details of his family’s dynamics. His mother and her family were in the resistance during the Second World War, but his father was in the German army and fought Stalin, therefore they were on opposing sides. This was not unusual in Norway at the time because many people fought against the Germans, and many fought with them, but most people did nothing. As a result of his wartime career his father was imprisoned for two years after the war. The Redbreast was written using his father’s memories of the trenches, and as a result he considers this his father’s book.

Jo Nesbo

 

I found this session with Jo Nesbo interesting, fascinating, and I’m glad I didn’t miss it. Now, I really must read his books.
 
I won’t bore you with the details of my journey home, including train breakdowns, but before I left, I made sure I paid my deposit for next year’s Old Peculier Crime Festival at Harrogate. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

 

http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk

 

Harrogate Crime Festival 2012 – Part 3

I can hear you say – at last, thought we were never going to get Part 3 of the Harrogate Crime Festival. that’s because I took time out last week to write about the Edinburgh Ebook Festival, because if I hadn’t the festival would have been over before it was posted. Anyway, thank you for your patience, and here is day three of the Old Peculier Crime Festival at Harrogate.
 
Before I start I want to give you a link. Remember in the last festival post I commented on the furore around the panel Wanted for Murder: The Ebook, when feelings ran high and caused quite a bit of media buzz. Well, the Harrogate Crime Festival site has produced an audio download of the panel discussion. It will cost you £3, but if you want to get at the truth around all the hype in connection with this panel, then you might want to listen to it. Here is the link http://harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/crime/shop/wanted-for-murder-the-ebook/

Peter James and Paul Blezard

So, on to Day 3 of the festival. We started off at 9 am, some of us more bleary-eyed than others, with the special guest Peter James who was interviewed by Paul Blezard. He was interesting to listen to and gave us snippets of information about his background. Like the time he worked as a cleaner for Orson Welles, but was sacked after a week because he was ‘not cut out for it’. Similar to a lot of writers he was an obsessive reader as a child, so I suppose his progression to being a writer was to be expected, although he said his first two books were very bad spy thrillers. He also had a stalker for over 5 years, and was given advice by the police to step up home security because they could do nothing unless she killed him. Lots of fascinating information in this interview, although, considering the furore the day before about cheap as chips ebooks, his publisher sells one of his books on Amazon for 20p and he has no say in this.

 

Deadlier than the Male panel

 
I missed the Golden age and the New Blood Panels because I was chatting with Alex Gray and then went out for a welcome breath of air. The Deadlier than the Male panel was interesting. It looked at why women write violent crime fiction, and why the majority of it is bought by women readers. The main points I took from that were –

1.  Violence is associated with males, which makes it more horrific when associated with a female.

2.  Women have a much more terrifying imagination than men.

3.  Women crime readers want to know what makes the dark side tick.

 

Special Event: Luther

 

The Special Event: Luther was something special. The panel was made up of Neil Cross, the creator of Luther; Claire Bennett, the producer of the series; Simon Morgan, police adviser; and two of the show’s stars, Michael Smiley who plays Benny, and Warren Brown who plays Ripley. Neil Cross talked about wanting an iconic police character, a mad copper. He is a lover of the TV show, Columbo, and he wanted to put his mad copper into a Columbo format. I must say I never associated Luther with Columbo before, but as he is the creator I take it he knows what he’s done. The panel also talked about Idris Elba having a ‘presence’, and they never thought they would get him, but he was keen to star in the show. One thing came out that I didn’t know, was that Idris Elba has a soul singer career on the side. There was lots more, but if I detailed it we would be here forever. So I’ll close this panel with the information that the next show in the series – Series 3 – is carnage from beginning to end.

 

Laura Lippman interviewing Harlan Coben

 The last guest of the evening was Harlan Coben who was interviewed by Laura Lippman. Harlan is an excellent speaker and he told us that when he finishes a book, he is empty, and it is only the fear of having to work in a department store which impels him to write again. He says he suffers from a level of insecurity and insanity when he is not writing well. He took up golf a few years ago, but when he is doing something else there is a voice in his head which says he should be writing. But when he is writing he fluctuates between thinking it is crap or genius, and he suffers from lots of self doubt. This was something that appeared over and over again during this festival, the insecurity of writers, no matter how successful, who all fear that they will never be able to write another good book. There is also something else he shares with most writers I know, and that is, if he writes and no one reads it, he is not a writer. He also said that he keeps writing because he hasn’t written the perfect book yet, and he never will. All I can say is that Harlan Coben is a thoroughly nice man.

 

Quizmasters extraordinaire - Val McDermid and Mark Billingham

 Considering Harlan didn’t stop speaking until 9.30 pm you would be excused for thinking the day would be over, but you would be wrong. There was still the infamous Harrogate quiz night chaired by those most experienced quiz masters, Val McDermid, and Mark Billingham.

The Scarlet Ladies - Sonia, Justine, Me, and Isobel

 
The quiz is always hilarious with lots of cheating going on and much good natured shouting. I was in the Scarlet Ladies team, which also included Lucy, Isobel, Justine, and Sonia, and we came fifth, which wasn’t bad going. I was really glad we didn’t come first, not as if that was ever a possibility considering the competition we had. I was also glad not to win the raffle. I can hear you asking – why on earth would you want to lose? Well, the reason was the size of the prizes. Massive hampers that I would never be able to carry, let alone get on the train with, plus the largest pile of books to go along with it. There were several of the prize hampers plus books and I was really glad not to have to cart them off. Mind you, the top prize of next year’s Harrogate festival for two, all expenses paid was a beaut.
 
Well, that’s Day three finished, time to stagger to bed. There’s only Sunday morning to go now before it’s all over for another year. But I’ll tell you about Sunday the next time.

http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/

NEWSFLASH: Edinburgh E-Book Festival

If you’ve been looking forward to part 3 of the Harrogate Crime Festival then there’s no need to worry, it will be with you in the next couple of days. However, I simply had to let you know about something fabulous that is happening right now.
 
What is it? Well, it’s only the first ever Edinburgh Ebook Festival which is running at the same time as the internationally known Edinburgh Festival. For those of you who have been to the Edinburgh Festival, you will know that it has many faces including the Edinburgh Fringe, Edinburgh Tattoo and the Book Festival. However, the Edinburgh Ebook Festival is an independent virtual festival with no ties or association with the commercial entity that is the Edinburgh Book Festival. It is something unique, never been done before, and I am so excited to be part of it.

This is how the Edinburgh Ebook Festival site describes itself:-

“The great thing about the Edinburgh e-book festival (launching this year) is that it comes to you, you don’t have to go to it. So you are doing your bit to be eco-friendly too: No paper, no carbon emissions and no money spent. The environment will love you for it. You’ll love it back. And you may learn something about the digital publishing revolution and loads of great writing out there you’ve never heard of. From new writers to seasoned professionals re-publishing their back catalogue to award winning authors who are choosing to publish via ebooks for a whole range of reasons, there will be something for everyone.

We’ll be bringing you a host of items online each day from August 11th right through till August 27th.”

The festival events start on 11th August and will run to 27th August, but you can get involved right now because the ‘Rolling Launch’ started on Friday. You can explore the website, click on the tabs and see what’s already there. Here is the link for the Home Page, you can access everything from there –Click here http://edebookfest.wordpress.com/?like=1&_wpnonce=d74a4569cf&wpl_rand=9f122508f7

I’ve just clicked through all the tabs and there’s something on each page to bring you the flavour of what is to happen when the events explode onto the scene beginning on 11th August. There is also a Who’s Who link to introduce you to all the authors taking part. Some authors have a more active role than others and I’m lucky to be one of them. If you want a quick link straight to Who’s Who, click here http://edebookfest.wordpress.com/whos-the-festival/
 
I hope you find the idea of an Ebook Festival as exciting as I do, and I hope we’ll meet up there.
 
I’ll be back in a couple of days with Part 3 of the Harrogate Crime festival.

http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk

Harrogate Crime Festival 2012 – Part 2

Friday at Harrogate started out with John Connolly who was interviewed by Mark Billingham, and I’m not sure which of the two was most under the weather. John Connolly, of course is known for his Charlie Parker novels which are set in America rather than his native Ireland.
 

John Connolly in full flow at Harrogate

 
His first book, Every Dead Thing, took him 5 years to write and he was rejected by everybody. He said that in every book he’s written he reaches the stage where he thinks it’s awful but he still has to finish it, and his first book was no different, if he hadn’t finished it he would never have written another book. He thinks that doubt is the thing that makes a book, and that every writer is doubt ridden, they live in fear of rejection. He still lives in perpetual fear it will all fall apart and being dumped is just round the corner. This was an honest and entertaining interview and I noticed the fear of rejection was a constant theme that was echoed by many writers during the weekend.
 
It would be far too lengthy to describe all the panels that took place on Friday because the day was so packed, so I’ll only include the highlights as I saw them.

Crime in Another Dimension Panel at Harrogate

 

The second panel of the day which was based on novels with a science fiction or urban fantasy setting was hilarious. It frequently went off track, and I’m not sure we learned anything, but there was loads of humour and the audience laughed a lot.

 

Wanted for Murder: The E-Book panel at Harrogate

 
A mid morning panel was also lively but in a different way because this is a subject that is quite contentious. It had the title Wanted for Murder the E-book. The panel included a well known writer of e-books, Stephen Leather; bookseller Patrick Neale; author, Steve Mosby; agent, Philip Patterson; and VP of the Publisher’s Association Ursula McKenzie; which I thought was weighted more to the traditional publishing model than the e-publishing one. To me Stephen Leather seemed to be the only one really defending the e-book corner, and he took some whacks from the others as well as from the audience. I kind of felt a bit sorry for him, although he did put his foot in it several times. Still, it couldn’t have been a comfortable experience and probably knocked him off course.
 
Some interesting points that came out of the panel were:-

• Three years ago Little Brown, Publisher, were only selling 3% e-books, they are now selling 20% overall, and 30% fiction.
• Stephen Leather sold 5% the first year he published e-books, and last year he sold half a million. He is now selling three times more e-books than his traditionally published print books. He sees the future as being 90% in favour of e-books.
• There is no e-book market in Germany or France (maybe that’s why I haven’t sold any there!)
• The cheaper than chips argument – the notion that an e-book does not exist physically, does not mean they should sell for 49 pence, although when physical costs disappear they should be cheaper. There was a view that cheap e-books undermine all books, with the assumption that it is independent authors who are pushing cheap books. Interestingly it came out several times over the course of the weekend that MacMillan (traditional publisher) was offering 20 pence books on Amazon. (If you’re interested look up Peter James books)
• Publishers will not vanish with the advent of e-books because a lot of authors won’t want the hassle of doing the business side of things, therefore they will need a publisher and/or agent to do this for them.
• Book sales – the bookseller indicated hardbacks were selling better than ever and thinks it will only be paperbacks in jeopardy from the rise of e-books.
• Stephen Leather thought a fair price for e-books was 70 pence for short stories; £1.99 for novellas; and £3.99 for novels. However he does give away some free books as a promotion for his paid books.

Interestingly there was quite a bit of aggro from the audience at question time, with many of the questions aimed at Stephen Leather, and I understand that since the conference there have been a lot of quite vicious comments floating around on Twitter. Phew, who would think a panel could produce that kind of reaction.
 
Here are 2 links to follow up to get a flavour of that aggro:-

http://www.publishingebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/appearing-at-harrogate-plot-thickens.html

http://www.theleftroom.co.uk/?page_id=243 (there are now 2 posts in this one, read the bottom one first)

 

Writing for Your Life panel at Harrogate

 
Writing for Your Life was a panel of former intelligence agents and investigative journalists who went into detail about the risks involved with acquiring information for their books. I was quite interested in Tony Thompson’s book Gangs which I thought would come in useful in relation to my own writing. He was a really nice guy and I had my photo taken with him.
 

Tony Robinson and me

 
The day had passed quickly with loads of panels, and all of a sudden it was 8.30pm and time to listen to Kate Moss, the author of Labyrinth, and the evening’s special guest. She was interviewed by Dame Jenni Murray from BBC Radio 4, and Jenni can always get the best out of her interviewees. It was an interesting session and hearing Kate talk about Labyrinth which she wrote as an adventure story was enough to make me download it to my Kindle. I think one of the things that attracted me to it was her interest in myth, magic, folklore, and nonsense, the gap between logic and the dark part. Now how could I resist that.
 

Special Guest: Kate Mosse at Harrogate

 
I bet you’re thinking the day was finished when we left the session at 9.30pm, but you’d be wrong. There was still the Special Guests Late Night Conversation between Ian Rankin and Peter Robinson. This started at 10pm and was, quite frankly unusual and interesting. The stage was laid out like a pub, complete with beer pump, table and chairs. Ian and Peter sat at the table, beer glasses in hand, and just chatted. Every now and then they would get up and refill their glasses from the pump. It was as if the audience wasn’t there, and I reckon they must have been quite merry by the end. I liked Ian’s description of what they were doing – ‘Two old farts sitting at a table’. They covered a variety of topics such as:-

• Whether or not to watch their TV series. Ian prefers not to.
• The return of Rebus.
• Trends and changes in crime fiction and the rise of lots of new writers. They both thought it was a different world now with changes in technology, although there was still a place for traditional crime fiction.
• Screw ups.
• Music.
• Being in a band or group.
• e-books.
• The Killing.
• Scandinavian fiction.

They thought it was a bit scary how quickly the world has moved on, and that their earlier books seem historical now. There was lots more but I think I’ve given the gist of it. So, at the end it was time to stagger to our rooms, although many of the audience went there via the bar.

 

Peter Robinson and Ian Rankin in a late night conversation at Harrogate

 
It was the end of another exhausting but exhilarating day. I’ll bring you Saturday’s events the next time, so watch this space.

http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk

Harrogate Crime Festival 2012 – Part 1

It’s that time of year again – the time all crime writers look forward to – the Harrogate Crime Festival, where crime writers and readers gather to celebrate crime fiction in all its varieties.

Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate, where the crime conference is held

I’m not entirely sure what you would call a gathering of crime writers – would it be a murder of crime writers? Maybe not, because we don’t want to be associated with crows. After all it’s a murder of crows, isn’t it? What about a massacre of crime writers? Do you think that would suit any better? If you have any ideas I’d love to hear them.

Anyway, whatever you call them, you won’t find a bigger gathering anywhere this summer, than Harrogate. They all gather at the Old Swan Hotel, that’s the one where Agatha Christie was found after her vanishing act more years ago than I care to remember.

This is the tenth Harrogate Crime Festival, although to give it its proper title I should be saying the Theakstons Old Peculier (yes the spelling is correct) Crime Writing Festival. The first one took place in 2003, and it was meant to be a small weekend of literature events that would be part of the larger Harrogate International Festival. However, probably because of the early involvement of Val McDermid, it was like Topsy, it grew and grew, until it is now the largest and most prestigious crime fiction event in Europe.

Over the years many of the biggies of the crime writing world have appeared at Harrogate, including PD James, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, and many more. Not forgetting our international counterparts such as Jeffrey Deaver (a favourite of mine), Michael Connolly, Lee Child, Harlan Coben, Jo Nesbo, I could go on and on. But you don’t want a list of names of the world’s most prestigious crime writers, do you? You want me to get on and tell you about this year’s festival. The only thing is, there is so much going on, there is no way I’ll be able to get it all into one blog post, so I’ll talk about each day in a separate post, so you’ll just have to watch this space

Well, I arrived on Thursday afternoon. There were people there before me because the festival runs a creative writing day prior to the opening events on Thursday evening. I have taken part in the creative writing day in past years and it is something well worth attending. But because I didn’t do it this year I won’t comment on it.

Mark Lawson, from BBC Radio 4 Front Row

The festival started on Thursday night with the presentation of the awards. Mark Lawson introduced this with a hilarious speech, and I’m sure the laughter could have been heard in Harrogate town centre. The locals must have wondered what was going on.

Some of the bits I remember was where he referred to Cambridge being like downtown Detroit, and Oxford as the most lethal town in England, while going for a walk in Suffolk was quite risky because you’d be lucky to return from it. He also reckoned that with the recent reported drop in UK crime figures we’d all soon be out of a job.

 

Colin Dexter, author of the Morse series

Mark Billingham then came on stage to announce the recipient of the lifetime award for an outstanding contribution to crime fiction. This was presented to Colin Dexter, by Simon Theakston, the festival’s sponsor. Colin entertained us with a short speech, laced with his usual dry humour, and he got a standing ovation from the audience. He was a very popular choice for the lifetime award. But I wasn’t surprised by this, because Colin is a lovely man whom I’ve had the honour to meet on several occasions, and I still treasure the photograph he gave me earlier this year, of his portrait which hangs in the Randolph Hotel.

After this came the presentation of the Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award which was won by Denise Mina, for End of the Wasp Season. I’ve read Denise’s Garnethill trilogy and she’s a great crime writer, so I made a note to myself – get End of the Wasp season as soon as possible.

Denise Mina with the Theakston Old Peculier award for crime novel of the year

We finished up with the Festival opening party, which was mobbed and quite quickly became uncomfortably hot. However, no one seemed to mind and there was lots of networking, chatting and meeting up with old and new friends. I spent a fair bit of the time with Sonia, Lucy, Justine and Isobel, and we had a lovely time.

The top tier of the cup cake mountain at the festival party

Oh, and by the way, Justine is now my BFF because she told me she’d read my book, Dead Wood, and loved it. She also said she was reading another author (quite a famous one, who shall be nameless), and thought my book was the better of the two. Yay, The perfect end to a perfect day.

From left - Isabel, Lucy, Sonia, and Justine

Well, that’s Thursday taken care of, I’ll write about the Friday events in the next post, so watch this space, and I’ll try not to be too long.

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