tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14834056966750366382024-03-13T10:57:48.099+00:00May Contain NutsBlogging with style and substance, May Contain Nuts is a blog about reading, writing, fatherhood, movies and pretty much anything else that pops into my head. All material, copyright ©2014 Michael Malone. All rights reserved. Material here may not be used in any medium without the permission of the author. His latest book, written with Bashir Saoudi is, The Guillotine ChoiceAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.comBlogger403125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-91838821953183939822015-05-30T12:52:00.001+01:002015-05-30T12:52:20.973+01:00The King is dead - Long live the King!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjETcKETZcLUlGIoObSkHdjLAhyphenhyphenYOMMs8jTcr2UOCkKhWtOyhTqP903xMbrQerMMwuLOySl_GbgKQVadiQAgck02t43ZS7TCNLxUpPl2gNk-4YsyOyKxwhNuWnM9YXxdkq9NcsuCnkj9I8/s1600/something+wonderful.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjETcKETZcLUlGIoObSkHdjLAhyphenhyphenYOMMs8jTcr2UOCkKhWtOyhTqP903xMbrQerMMwuLOySl_GbgKQVadiQAgck02t43ZS7TCNLxUpPl2gNk-4YsyOyKxwhNuWnM9YXxdkq9NcsuCnkj9I8/s400/something+wonderful.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that there's not hellish much going on at May Contain Nuts these days. So, I've decided to suspend activities here ... but continue blogging over at my new site <a href="https://mjmink.wordpress.com/news/">MJM Ink</a> .<br />
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I have set up a new business - which formalises work I've been doing under the radar for years - providing editorial and mentoring services for aspiring authors. New posts will concentrate on writing advice and guest posts from authors with the aim of inspiring YOU, my fellow authors to keep on keeping on.<br />
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As the great man (Benjamin Disraeli) once said, "the secret to success is a constancy of purpose" and I hope the gems you read about over at MJM Ink will keep you firmly on track to achieve your goals.<br />
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See you there!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNFIiXB6vMVnw6-JnbE0aELQy1BVuk8_5ggQpCEA075K_41l30bsMwzuNqFokIWkbKpS2LN59-6aR3IZZito56R_Mci_qm8DTMCSOA-W2hlU7ECVhQ_pwVMVT2bN_Vs0PCEdKuuRgjdJQ/s1600/michael-cutout.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNFIiXB6vMVnw6-JnbE0aELQy1BVuk8_5ggQpCEA075K_41l30bsMwzuNqFokIWkbKpS2LN59-6aR3IZZito56R_Mci_qm8DTMCSOA-W2hlU7ECVhQ_pwVMVT2bN_Vs0PCEdKuuRgjdJQ/s200/michael-cutout.png" width="109" /></a></div>
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Michael<br />
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photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/85608594@N00/11658583556">Symphony of Love Always believe that something wonderful is happening</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-38299587413448999712015-04-13T15:37:00.000+01:002015-04-13T15:41:03.778+01:00It's ALL about me ...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPM-fA7nZ1OlmC9QF_Ynww4evKIwUKBhgIp2Q1t2d4-u2pbTCV9WJHGhyphenhyphenmcD7BBbZzbAo69PwSv_5qFGji8H9GfO0vd7yUnnPLYCvTB9Qqb6RATULIkhWY5FMEav_f2MUwDvrJbRKd6fk/s1600/BtRage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPM-fA7nZ1OlmC9QF_Ynww4evKIwUKBhgIp2Q1t2d4-u2pbTCV9WJHGhyphenhyphenmcD7BBbZzbAo69PwSv_5qFGji8H9GfO0vd7yUnnPLYCvTB9Qqb6RATULIkhWY5FMEav_f2MUwDvrJbRKd6fk/s1600/BtRage.jpg" height="320" width="208" /></a></div>
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Here's an interview I did with Mike Craven over at his new website ...<br />
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the third book in the Ray McBain series, what made you choose to
write it from Kenny’s POV this time round?</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">At the point I wrote this, the other
two books were going the rounds of the publishers receiving rave rejections. As
in, love this – had to stay up till 2am to finish it, but no thanks. I know,
crazy, right? But that’s publishing for you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I wanted to keep writing, but I didn’t
want this next book to suffer the same response, so I just sat down one day and
started working. No plan, no idea, I was just writing. What came out, like
dictation, to my surprise was Kenny’s story.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Your books all feature well developed characters, and although they are
likeable, none of them are completely sympathetic. Was this a conscious choice
or were you simply holding a mirror to society?</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I would like to think that I’m that
clever, but I’m not. I rarely write with such an agenda. I write in the first
instance by instinct and if I like it when I’m doing the edits it stays. And
when I’m doing the edits I’m asking myself how might the reader respond to
this? Are my characters three-dimensional? No good guy is all good and
similarly, no bad guy is all bad. The edit is where I examine if I have struck
the right balance.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tell me why you write about a detective with an eating disorder! </span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">‘Cos alcohol has been done to death and
although I don’t have an eating disorder, my relationship with food could be
healthier. I’ve been on a yo-yo diet since my thirties. It’s exhausting! Most
of what I put Ray through in that regard is something that I’ve experienced.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Like Blood Tears, in Beyond the Rage you are writing a story set in the
present but about events that occurred in the past. Is this something that
particularly interests you as a writer?</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Yeah, we can rarely escape our past. It
is from that cauldron that our personality is born and it affects mostly
everything about us. It’s something that readers can relate to. After all, we
all have one. And it is a classic trope in fiction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->5.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Can you tell me a little about how you write? For example, what time of
day is the most productive, do you set yourself daily word goals and how much
plotting do you do or are you a start writing and see where the story takes you
kind of writer?</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I am a binge writer. I go for months,
sometimes years without writing and then I get stuck in. My target tends to be
more time led – but with an eye to the word count so I can gauge how well I am
doing. And as I said earlier, I write by instinct, without much of an idea
where I’m going. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">It would be nice to be able to write to
a plan, but I can’t seem to master that one.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You’re a poet of some renown. How and why did you make the transition to
being a crime writer and does your poetic background help or hinder when
describing some of the brutal things the modern crime writer must?</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The poetry came about by accident. My
aim was always to be a novelist, but after joining my local writers’ club and
having a go, I discovered I had an aptitude for poetry. I think it comes from a
love of words. Which comes from being an avid reader all of my life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">When I first started writing novels, I
was trying too hard and I learned I had to choose my moment. If you’re reading
a fight scene, you don’t want the author to disrupt the pace by inserting a
line of poetic prose. On the other hand, the “noticing” that poetry brings to
the prose can help ground the reader in the story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">It all goes in during the first draft
and then I shape it when doing the edits. Elmore Leonard is quoted as saying if
it sounds like writing, he deletes. Far be it from me to ignore such a great
writer, but there are times when I love to read a selection of prose where the
word choice tastes good. The craft for me is knowing when to leave in and when
to take out.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->7.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can’t let you go without talking about the Guillotine Choice, the book
you co-wrote with Bashir Saoudi, one of the most harrowing yet uplifting
fact-based novels I’ve ever read. How did you meet Bashir and how was the
writing process different. </span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">How long have you got? I’ll give you
the shortened version. Bashir had taken some time out of the computer industry
to run a coffee shop. He stayed open late one night to try and get more custom.
I was his only customer. Subsequent meetings, mostly of the “twilight zone”
variety had me throwing my hands up and saying to the universe, ok I’ll write
the book!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The difference here was that I had the
skeleton of a story in front of me. And if I can torture that metaphor, this
skeleton had a few bones missing as well as ligament, skin and muscle. But
there was a direction. And a real man whose story had to be told. And told in a
way that would honour him and his country.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">F</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">inally, what are you working on at the minute?</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Another Ray McBain book. And the killer
from the first one is back. If I tell you any more I’ll have to kill you.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mike follows the interview on with his review for Beyond the Rage. Clicketty-click <a href="http://www.mikecraven.co.uk/what-im-reading/beyond-the-rage-michael-malone/">HERE</a> if you want to read. (You'll need to scroll down past the interview to get to the review. Or, you could read it again if you're that bored.)</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-87651630434588553942015-03-04T20:21:00.001+00:002015-03-04T20:21:54.828+00:00IlluminationsIt's been a while, folks, since I've had any book blethers on this here interweb thingy - so I thought I'd get back into it with a stoater of a book.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEkZziYQ7pvQp4pDGkmuCEE_Mv27tim81EFCBhbIutTGFxjJyLBKXfbhrABeVJ6H8A9LYeobZp1KccDy9l___xHdcfuMxs6ofTSjWPvr8lc0DY1yeUXvyc3xZGl4uadfynoPJEOj-x_2M/s1600/ohagan+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEkZziYQ7pvQp4pDGkmuCEE_Mv27tim81EFCBhbIutTGFxjJyLBKXfbhrABeVJ6H8A9LYeobZp1KccDy9l___xHdcfuMxs6ofTSjWPvr8lc0DY1yeUXvyc3xZGl4uadfynoPJEOj-x_2M/s1600/ohagan+cover.jpg" /></a></div>
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Loved, loved, loved this!<br />
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You've got a young soldier coming home from active duty - his grandmother who is in the early stages of dementia - and a host of family issues.<br />
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O'Hagan is one of those writers who have a precise eye and an exacting turn of phrase that leads to a hugely enjoyable experience. The Illuminations is full of insight, the dialogue sparks and characters lead you by the nose through their journey. What more do you want, people?<br />
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Go buy.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-90355743403142223202014-09-19T20:09:00.000+01:002014-09-19T20:09:26.714+01:00The Scots: Wha's Like Us ...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4GvYky3pgnfEIPzGRtmOO8BRmgERJa2-NRzLLwh87oWRUYF-unNQmy6MRA-9NkX_J8iakHkcZX72XdpwmYsm4mZou_h_vR5ofS_rKUsqWhhgJFvlZjOrMX0HgMysz0xkvRoIvQQiqdr8/s1600/0_buildings_-_scottish_parliament_windows_1yp16a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4GvYky3pgnfEIPzGRtmOO8BRmgERJa2-NRzLLwh87oWRUYF-unNQmy6MRA-9NkX_J8iakHkcZX72XdpwmYsm4mZou_h_vR5ofS_rKUsqWhhgJFvlZjOrMX0HgMysz0xkvRoIvQQiqdr8/s1600/0_buildings_-_scottish_parliament_windows_1yp16a.jpg" height="231" width="320" /></a></div>
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It was during the eighties when I could first afford to buy
my own books, instead of borrowing from the library. There was something about
that growing collection that thrilled. At first, the ranks of books grew on the
floor of my bedroom ....and then there was more than enough for me to justify
me buying that first bookcase from MFI. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I still have those first books. Stephen King, Wilbur Smith, Jean M Auel, Ursula
Le Guin, Stephen Donaldson, Eric Van Lustbader etc etc ... and the eagle-eyed
among you will note that there’s not a Scot among them. A thought which prompts
a shameful memory. I used to go into bookshops and walk quickly past the
Scottish section. From somewhere I had grown the impression that if the writer
was Scottish, it must be crap. <o:p></o:p></div>
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At my school in the seventies the only books we got to read were either
American or English: Shakespeare or Steinbeck. Robert Burns’ poetry books were
wheeled out once a year, but almost apologetically and without any effort to
explain what the strange Scots words actually meant. There was no context
given, we were simply expected to wrap our tongues around the odd collection of
vowels and consonants. Although we spoke Scots on the playground, this was
actually like a foreign language. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Our History lessons focused on certain topics that were
likely to come up in the exams. Subjects like the Industrial Revolution, The
French and Russian revolutions, The Boer War and the First World War. Again,
note the lack of Scottish themes. We weren’t taught our own history.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Around this period TV was gaining traction and it became the
social norm for families to gather round the television to watch the news
(beamed in from London) and popular entertainment programmes (beamed in from
London and the US). There were very few Scottish accents. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Admittedly, there were a handful of Scottish TV programmes
but largely and especially in the early years they were of the tartan and
shortbread variety and the production values – even to my unpractised eye –were
second rate. BBC Scotland received (and still does) a fraction of the funds
that Scots contribute to the TV licence fund. All of this confirming yet again,
that if it came from Scotland, it was poor. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Demonstrate often enough to a child that it is too wee, too
poor and too stupid and it will soak it up and accept it as fact. <o:p></o:p></div>
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(I actually heard two guys talking in my local gym and one
used this as a reason to his mate as to why he was voting no. See. Imply it
often enough and they will believe.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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In subsequent years we have Thatcher – a boom and bust
economic cycle – a trumped up war in the Middle East – and now a government
that has inclined so far to the right in recent years it’s a wonder Big Ben
doesn’t have a lean to compete with thon tower in Pisa.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The impact of this kind of cultural stifling is subtle and
yet, to my mind, far-reaching. I make no claim to being a social anthropologist,
but I would contend that this is exactly the kind of situation from which our
famous Scottish Cringe was born and has thrived. Throw in our Calvanistic propensities
and it’s a certainty.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>Never heard of the term? It has its own page on Wikipedia,
from where this quote comes …</div>
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…“a sense of cultural inferiority felt by many Scots,
particularly in relation to a perceived dominance of English or anglocentric
British culture, partly due to the importance of London, within the United
Kingdom.”<br />
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<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the reasons I wrote the book, <a href="http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/michael+malone/carnegie27s+call/9221003/">Carnegie's Call</a> was to
challenge this and to contribute to the conversation that would take us beyond
it, to grow into a self-confident nation – for we are a nation – ready to take
its place in the world on its own terms, not as the northern region - a narrow
tartan backwater, as one pro-Unionist described us - of a larger state.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t think such an inherited inferiority complex is
unique to us Scots, but many other countries are able to work through it with
an acceptance of their culture and shared identity and an ability to express
their reality through self-determination.<br />
<br />
In my view, there were lots of compelling reasons for us Scots to accept a
state of independence, but for me, this was the most important one. I took in
the arguments on the currency, the economy, our defence capabilities, our role
on the world stage and thought, aye, fair enough, we can work through all that,
but why is no-one talking about this?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With self-government would come self-confidence. It’s much
more important than the pound/ euro/ groat in our pocket. To a nation that has
been stifled in many ways, for more than 300 years it is beyond price.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-43367960580759477212014-08-05T19:58:00.001+01:002014-08-05T19:59:28.832+01:00Wot I Read in July<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9SNrNNjhax-h1CDNGuCtxT7DwAV_W7tZsRApA3wSr05XUGaAHjyGk1aaKH39-aWJ5qrYOGSTfC-dGQwlei-ybXg2NRaWhcaJCuPXyKCoRfcujnEA1eLwwzzpcB47b3F0kXgAgKPOG7dk/s1600/knuckle-tattoos-for-men-18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9SNrNNjhax-h1CDNGuCtxT7DwAV_W7tZsRApA3wSr05XUGaAHjyGk1aaKH39-aWJ5qrYOGSTfC-dGQwlei-ybXg2NRaWhcaJCuPXyKCoRfcujnEA1eLwwzzpcB47b3F0kXgAgKPOG7dk/s1600/knuckle-tattoos-for-men-18.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><b><u>The Dark
Blood – AJ Smith</u></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">This is the
2<sup>nd</sup> in The Chronicles of the Long War series. (FYI - The Black Guard
was the first.) And it is bloody brilliant. I do love me some epic fantasy and
this book delivers on all angles. A carefully constructed world – just
familiar and yet different enough to engage – great plotting, wonderful baddies and
heroes you want to spend time with. Not read any fantasy for a while? Get stuck
into this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><b><u>Cold in July
– Joe R Lansdale</u></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">This book,
from which the movie was made, had me scratching my head and asking, why the
hell have I not read everything this man has ever written? He is tremendous.
His characters are as quirky as a frog in a hat and his prose sharp and telling.
Go read it already.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><b><u>Walter
Mosley – Rose Gold</u></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">A Walter
Mosley release is an occasion in my house. What can I say, I’m a fan. And in
this book, one of my favourite ever characters to be committed to print – Easy
Rawlins – is back on the case. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">Wonderful
stuff.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><b><u>Jay Posey –
Morningside Fall</u></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">Legends of
the Duskwalker Book 2 – follow up to “Three” the 2013 release from Angry Robot.
This is sci-fi, but if you are not a fan of that genre don’t be put off – it’s
gritty, truly action-packed and in your face. The action just does not let up
for 400 odd pages. Just begging to be made into a movie!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><b><u>Dominique
Manotti – Escape</u></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">Two men
escape from prison in a rubbish lorry. They part company,
with Carlo heading to Milan and Filippo trekking over the
mountains. Carlo is killed in a shoot-out with armed police and Filippo pitches
up in Paris where he takes to writing a story Carlo told him in prison. A
publisher loves it and it becomes a sensation throughout Europe. But the police
don’t believe it is fiction – and the brown stuff goes splat onto the fan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">Manotti is a
gifted writer, racking up the tension nicely thankyouverymuch. She also adds a
touch of social, economic and political history for those readers who expect
more from their authors than “just” action. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><b><u>Deon Meyer –
Cobra</u></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">Benny
Griessel is back!!! Yeah, it’s totally worth three exclamation marks. Meyer is
one of the best out there. He conjures up a tension that will have you reading
into the wee hours. Go on, pick up one of his books. The man is a crime-writing
genius.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><b><u>1914 –
Goodbye to All That (Writers on the conflict between life and art)</u></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">You have to
stretch yourself as a reader now and again, yeah? So get your baby blues stuck into this. It’s
a truly fascinating collection of essays from a bunch of writers not afraid to
give it some up close and personal stuff. You will be moved. You will be
fascinated. Trust me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">What about you? What have you enjoyed reading this month?</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-11313027209273764842014-07-05T12:31:00.001+01:002014-07-05T15:27:46.934+01:00June reading ... King, Ellory, Chaouki, Miller, Finder<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiznyJmL-58ib0h_YJ0eFCYdXIuSx_oHw2HoP1qlzFMF0SMtctxsgPfanb8twswTro6p6HV1-3JTdl6k0EurkUqv7VMX7oGEPnlRSPdosCBGU-09KlfkdzuYTUvEM6L81Q5rRmRrshysuI/s1600/reading+under+quilt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiznyJmL-58ib0h_YJ0eFCYdXIuSx_oHw2HoP1qlzFMF0SMtctxsgPfanb8twswTro6p6HV1-3JTdl6k0EurkUqv7VMX7oGEPnlRSPdosCBGU-09KlfkdzuYTUvEM6L81Q5rRmRrshysuI/s1600/reading+under+quilt.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
I'm slipping up - only read 5 books this month. My excuse? The World Cup. Great, innit.<br />
<br />
Anywho, here's what I read last month ...<br />
<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Mr Mercedes – Stephen King<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I just love me some Stephen King and yet again the man
kept me enthralled while I was inside the pages of his mind. Here, he switches
genre and we have a crime novel with a hugely engaging cast of (among others) a
retired cop and his misfit friends. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Societal misfits are a strong part of the book and by
having such character types at either side of the good versus evil divide, King
provides a fascinating counterpoint. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And extra kudos to a man who has had such an
extraordinarily successful and long career that he can reference his own work
within the pages of a new novel. Yup. Loved it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Carnival of Shadows by R J Ellory<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The blurb goes
… It’s
Kansas, 1959. A travelling carnival appears overnight in the small town of
Seneca Falls, intriguing the townsfolk with acts of inexplicable magic and
illusion. But when a man's body is discovered beneath the carousel, with no
clue as to his identity, FBI Special Agent Michael Travis is sent to
investigate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And the scene is set for a book that tickles the intellect as well
as your emotions. Again, a fascinating mix of oddball characters with a strong
sense of time and place that Ellory combines with themes of trust, belief and
the common man versus governmental forces to wonderful effect. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Star of Algiers by
Aziz Chouaki<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moussa Massy dreams of being a star. A Kabyle
singer in 1990s Algiers, Massy engages his audiences with a fusion of Arab and
African melodies with American pop music. At 36, he desperately wants to marry
his long-term fiancée and escape from the tiny apartment he shares with
thirteen other members of his family. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He's signed by one of the hottest
nightclubs in town and his dreams appear to be coming true. But this is
short-lived: when the fundamentalist Islamic group FIS is elected to power, the
city is enflamed with corruption and violence. As he fights to save his dreams
in a society steeped in fanaticism, Massy’s passion for music turns to rage. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In animated, clipped prose, The Star of Algiers
portrays the difficult truths of a country in persistent turmoil and vividly
shows the aptitude for despair and loathing of those who have nothing left to
lose. </span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Powerful and thought-provoking, particularly when given that this book
was published 12 years ago, and when daily news bulletins remind us that little
has changed – and we see the rise and rise of fundamentalism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Suspicion – Joseph Finder<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Danny's teenage daughter Abby is the light of his life. Her mother
died last year, and he is desperate to keep everything as normal as possible.
But the situation is bad. Danny can't afford the private school Abby adores,
and he can't bear to tell his daughter he has failed her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By a stroke of luck, Danny meets Thomas Galvin, the
father of his daughter's best friend and one of the richest men in Boston. But
when Danny accepts a loan from him, the authorities turn up at his door. Now he
has a choice. Face prison, or become part of a sting operation to bring down
his new best friend – and one of the most dangerous men in the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A rollercoaster (excuse the cliché) wrapped up in the form of a
book – this is a great ride – an ordinary guy in an impossible situation which
has you constantly asking – what would I do? Perfect holiday reading<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Falcon Throne –
Karen Miller (release date 9 September ’14)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I do love me some epic fantasy and as a long-time fan of Karen
Miller I was keen to see what she would be up to next and boy has she come up
with another cracker.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Want warring families, loveable, but flawed heroes and villains
you will love to hate? Enjoy a plot with more twists and turns than a Tour De
France stage? (Sorry. It’s on the TV as I write this.) Form an orderly queue
here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My only quibble is that there was some skimming, but this was a
proof and hopefully will be tightened up before publication. Nonetheless, that
didn’t distract from what was
essentially great fun and a cracking read.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's what I read this month - what have you been reading? </span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-15109447087855053122014-06-02T20:02:00.000+01:002014-06-07T12:31:42.815+01:00A Book Lover's May - with Black, Cross, Robertson, Carey, Sinclair and Thomas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzqpIs3DqMQqcZf4GjFTT12_3V2bphO8s12uszndH3-67qG8K_MwTmsj-4FAQ77eXkEVW6tyRVOdqNncQBy6gSWbPIf-d9SIJws5cVDqz_v7pOgQegvEBUFvK0b9cv5r0mlrdBZYCn_xs/s1600/excited-people.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzqpIs3DqMQqcZf4GjFTT12_3V2bphO8s12uszndH3-67qG8K_MwTmsj-4FAQ77eXkEVW6tyRVOdqNncQBy6gSWbPIf-d9SIJws5cVDqz_v7pOgQegvEBUFvK0b9cv5r0mlrdBZYCn_xs/s1600/excited-people.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
YAY - who loves books!!!</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Here's what I read in May ...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Tony Black – Artefacts of the
Dead (out in July '14)</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Jeez, how busy is this guy? He's not
only prolific, he's bloody good. (Makes me sick.) In this book, Tony
is back on the crime beat.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
DI Bob Valentine is back at work after
a near fatal stabbing. The corpse of a banker is found impaled on a
stake, in the town dump. (Playing to the gallery there, Tony, eh?)
Somebody is making a statement and it's up to Valentine to find out
who.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
As usual, Black's writing is on the
button – great characterisation, strong set plays and a pin-sharp
commentary on the current lack in society. If you like a puzzle and a
writer with intellect, TB is your man.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Mason Cross – The Killing Season</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Mason is a new boy on the scene – and
boy does he come roaring out of the blocks with a doozy of a
thriller. There's enough excitement here for even the most jaded of
adrenaline junkies.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Carter Blake is a fascinating dude and
someone you will enjoy spending time with. Just let everyone know you
are busy – close the laptop lid, switch off your phone, turn off
the telly and settle in for an exciting ride.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
For fans of Lee Child and Matt Hilton –
yes, its that good. Can't wait to see what he does next.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>The Girl With All the Gifts – M R
Carey</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
If you fancy a slice of different –
give this book a read. The blurb says it's like a cross between The
Walking Dead and Kazuo Ishiguro – and that quite neatly sums it up.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
A fungus has infected mankind turning
most of them into zombie-like creatures, called Hungries – yet some
of the children infected manage to retain their humanity –
alongside their hunger for human flesh.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The girl of the title is one of the
infected children – who has the hunger, and a near genius IQ. She's
part of a government run installation, designed to research for a
cure. Until a group of human survivers wreck the place and … you'll
need to get the book to read what happens next.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
If you switched off at the word
“zombie” - don't worry, this is safely the most original slant on
that sub-genre I've come across. It's fast paced, thrilling read –
part chase/ thriller/ horror/ SF – ach, don't worry about the
label. I loved it.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-BGA5rThWleqSEJdXw_u4wm1qxcShX4Ts5Id317NaZtMQDTEIbG16XDTq6VIMVpcs1O5aakrzIhCure8KZxuvgFniFwGdKCUUdZJExomA0O-SwPy8Bgq9dkwYch3yqkpLnGsAa8csDoM/s1600/craig_robertson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-BGA5rThWleqSEJdXw_u4wm1qxcShX4Ts5Id317NaZtMQDTEIbG16XDTq6VIMVpcs1O5aakrzIhCure8KZxuvgFniFwGdKCUUdZJExomA0O-SwPy8Bgq9dkwYch3yqkpLnGsAa8csDoM/s1600/craig_robertson.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
(nope, it's Craig)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>The Last Refuge – Craig Robertson</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Robertson cleverly combines Tartan and
Scandi noir in what could possibly be his best book yet. I thoroughly
enjoyed this, which is just as well as I'm going to be interviewing
the man himself at a couple of events.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The writing is descriptive when it
needs to be and succinct when that it required. Strong
characterisation and strong set-pieces tied in with a nice line in
humour.
</div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I'm wondering if Craig is being paid
anything by the Faroes tourist board – I certainly wanted to visit
after I read this. Indeed, if any aspiring writers out there are struggling
with the concept of “sense of place”, then you should get
yourself a copy of this book, like, now. Quality work from start to finish.</div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Blood Whispers by John Gordon
Sinclair</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I might have been seen rolling my eyes
when I first heard that yet another celeb was writing a novel and I
read JGS' first novel Seventy Times Seven with a sceptical eye. He very quickly won me over and I realised that I was reading the real thing
from the first paragraph.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This, his second novel is even better.
Fair to say, I raced through it and bloody loved it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
We have a gutsy, sharp as a tack
heroine, Glasgow gangsters, CIA dirty tricks and an Eastern European
drug lord. His heroine, Keira Lynch is one of my favourite new
fictional characters – with one of the most unusual back-stories
you will come across in the genre.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Right, Gordy, get cracking. When can we
see your next book?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>David Thomas – Ostland</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Wow. Just wow. I'm in awe of writers
who use research for a novel in such a way. You know while reading it
that the research has taken the form of an iceberg. We see enough to
convince, while realising that the author knew so much more about his
subject.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Also, this is a book that has the
holocaust as its theme and if you are going to tackle that particular
subject you really should have something different to say and Thomas
certainly has.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Our character is seen first as you
young man in the 1930's Germany working as a police detective chasing
a serial killer. Then we see him as a war criminal in the 60's being
investigated for war crimes. A ploy that toys with your feelings. When you first see the man, you like him, you're drawn to his work ethic and intelligence and then ... Very clever and hugely effective.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This is a stunning book. Painful to
read, but important. As the man says … lest we forget.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-3987946311834461922014-05-11T12:06:00.001+01:002014-05-11T12:13:17.828+01:00Introducing ... Bill Daly<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeuT4wkZ9ek3Leo_eVqUiLTlL7k41Xz543b9QMDAIBVq7eRFJfRcNPTUclNXSN3tWh303eljyTHfRjvfzSXY8Y5TaZkrDyF_OpmL_yj0SEFSTsPlA-mtwBktqOPC17KgDHraxyXr-FHew/s1600/Black+Mail+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeuT4wkZ9ek3Leo_eVqUiLTlL7k41Xz543b9QMDAIBVq7eRFJfRcNPTUclNXSN3tWh303eljyTHfRjvfzSXY8Y5TaZkrDyF_OpmL_yj0SEFSTsPlA-mtwBktqOPC17KgDHraxyXr-FHew/s1600/Black+Mail+Cover.jpg" height="320" width="210" /></a></div>
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<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>MM - Hi Bill, welcome to May Contain Nuts. You
have 7 words. Describe your new novel:</i></span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">BD - Adultery,
drug-dealing, murder in contemporary Glasgow.</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><i><br /></i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>MM - You
have another 21. Tell us some more: </i></span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">BD - Psychopath
on the loose, an assassination in Kelvingrove Park, a planned
terrorist atrocity – all set against a background of religious
bigotry. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>MM - Why
write crime?</i></span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">BD - The
kind of books I most enjoy reading are humour and crime, so it seemed
natural to try writing in these genres. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>MM - I
don’t normally ask about a writer’s age - but I’ll make an
exception with you – what age are you? </i></span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><i><br /></i></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB" style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>BD - I
bet you wouldn't have asked that question had I been female! :-)
I've just turned 70.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>MM - So,
you are in your second flush of youth - what took you so long - and
please tell us about your journey to publication? I’m sure a few of
aspiring readers will be inspired by it.</i></span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">BD - While
I was working, I wrote humorous articles for various newspapers and
magazines, but it wasn't until I retired that I found time to try my
hand at writing novels. In fact, </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>Black
Mail</i></span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB">
is the first novel I've had published by a conventional publisher,
but I previously self-published a humorous spy novel, entitled </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>The
Pheasant Plucker</i></span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB">.
</span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB">I
live in France and when </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>The
Pheasant Plucker </i></span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB">went
on sale in the local bookshops, the Professor of English at
Montpellier University happened to pick it up and he was sufficiently
impressed with the use of language in the book that he decided to
make it a text book for his course in Applied Foreign Languages. The
students have to study two books over the course of a year, so he
decided to make it a 'Scottish year', the other text book being Ian
Rankin's </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>Fleshmarket
Close</i></span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB">.
</span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB" style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At
the end of the year, the students were asked to vote on which book
they preferred (you may be able to infer the outcome, otherwise why
would I be telling the story?). Now I would be the first to admit
this wasn't a level playing field - it was more like a pitch with a
forty-five degree slope: a light-hearted romp where the action takes
place in the students’ home town, versus a gritty Edinburgh-based
murder. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB">I
suggested to my publisher that he might like to put a strap line of
"Voted better than Ian Rankin" on </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>Black
Mail</i></span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB">,
but for some strange reason he declined. I think he was worried that
Ian might sue. </span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><i><br /></i></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><i><br /></i></span></span></span>
<i style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">MM - Just
turned 70 and your debut (traditionally published) novel is just out.
I'm sure a lot of aspiring authors out there will take great heart
from hearing that. What’s next for Bill Daly?</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB">BD -My
publisher wants we to write a series of Glasgow-based crime novels
featuring DCI Charlie Anderson. The second in the series,
</span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>Double
Mortice</i></span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB">,
will be published early in 2015 and I'm currently working on the next
one - so I'm being kept pretty busy. </span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">MM - You live in France, why not set
your book there instead of Glasgow?</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">BD - My first novel, <i>The
Pheasant Plucker</i>, was set mainly in France, but Glasgow is the
ideal setting for <i>Tartan Noir</i>. <i>Noir Français</i> somehow
doesn't have the same ring to it.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">MM - Oh, I don't know. Peter May said he
couldn’t write about Scotland until he was living elsewhere. Is
that how you feel?</span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">BD - I've never felt like that. But the
circumstances are different. It's more than thirty years since I left
Scotland - and when I was living there, I wasn't doing any writing.
But I get back to Glasgow three or four times a year, so in many ways
I don't feel I have ever left. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
My thanks to Bill for his time. You can find buying information about Black Mail <a href="http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/bill+daly/black+mail/10121908/">here for readers in the UK.</a> And The Pheasant Plucker can be purchased <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Pheasant-Plucker-Bill-Daly/dp/0955240506/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1399806229&sr=1-1">HERE</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-26759305079364042542014-05-01T20:31:00.001+01:002014-05-05T19:36:22.386+01:00April Reading - Fishman, Pizzolatto, Zander, Burnet, Johnstone, Welsh, Iles and Daly<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>A
Replacement Life – Boris Fishman (out in September)</b></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Slava
Gelman wants to be a great writer, but can't get past his job as a
researcher at a New York magazine. Then his beloved grandmother dies,
and his grandfather corners him with a request: to write a few
Holocaust retribution claims that aren't quite true. Slava is
reluctant, but when he gets into it, his semi-fictional accounts of a
generation's real suffering turn out to be the best writing he has
ever done - and a surprisingly wonderful way for Slava to reconnect
with his family and his own roots. . A beautifully evocative, warm,
witty and emotionally powerful debut novel.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Galveston
– Nic Pizzolatto</b></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">From
the creator of True Detective … Roy Cady is by his own admission 'a
bad man'. With recently diagnosed lung cancer and no one to live for,
he's a walking time-bomb of violence. Following a fling with his
boss's lover, he's sent on a routine assignment he knows is a death
trap. Yet after the smoke clears, Roy's would-be killers are dead and
he is (mostly) alive.</span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Before
Roy makes his getaway, he finds a beaten-up woman in the apartment,
and sees something in her frightened, defiant eyes that causes a
crucial decision. He takes her with him on the run from New Orleans
to Galveston, Texas.</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The
writing has a clarity and lyrical quality that had me in awe. This is
noir with a warm and beating heart. Loved it.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The
Swimmer – Jaokim Zander – out in July '14</b></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">An
ex- US soldier now living in Sweden is called to a late-night meeting
with a former army colleague. Before his friend can explain why he
called him out, he is shot by a sniper. And so sets off a cat and
mouse chase through a snow and storm-bound Sweden.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The
multiple viewpoints gave me some trouble at the start, but once I got
my eye in the chase was on and I gobbled this book up like a starving
man at a buffet. Apparently this book is everywhere in Sweden right
now – come the summer, I expect it to be every bit as popular over
here.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The
Dead Beat – Doug Johnstone</b></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">We're
in present day Edinburgh. Martha is on her first day's work
experience on the obit desk, when the journalist who normally worked
there phoned in his own obituary before killing himself while still
on the phone.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">There's
a lovely slice of black humour right there to kick off this cracking
read. I raced through this book about families, lies, secrets and
revenge - quite possibly Johnstone's best book yet. More over at <a href="http://www.crimesquad.com/reviews.asp">Crimesquad</a></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The
Sex Lives of Siamese Twins – Irvine Welsh</b></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">First
off, this book has got as much to do with Siamese twins
as Trainspotting had to do with, well, Trainspotting. What it is, is a book
about a personal trainer who goes just a wee bit overboard while
training a client. Well, more than a wee bit, to be honest. She goes
postal.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">This
is fun and funny and written in a way that only Mr Welsh can manage.
Not for the faint-hearted, but then you knew that already.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Burning
Natchez – Greg Iles</b></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Its
so great to see Mr Iles back with a book. This man tells a fantastic
tale and if you haven't read him before, you should seriously sort
that out.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">We
are in present day, Natchez which is south of the Mississippi and the
sins of the past are about the crash down on a few of the locals. The
book was inspired by a series of unsolved race murders during the 1960's and that harsh history is brought to
life in this fascinating and utterly consuming novel. It's a bit of
an epic at 788 pages – and I lost a Saturday and a Sunday to it.
Quite honestly couldn't put it down. LOVED it. Full review over at <a href="http://www.crimesquad.com/reviews.asp">Crimesquad</a></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The
Disappearance of Adele Bedeau by Graeme McRae Burnet (pub date - 17 July '14)</b></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The
central conceit of this is that the “book” is a found manuscript,
translated by the author, Burnet. It tells the tale of the
disappearance of a young woman from a small town in France near the
Swiss border and how one of the town's male inhabitants is affected
by this event.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I
am not an expert on modern French literature, but I have read a few
crime novels translated from the French and Burnet has completely
nailed the tone, colour and sly wit that I enjoyed so much from the
natural French authors.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a novel that allows the story to unfold at its own pace, so not one for the plot hungry among you - but certainly one for those who enjoy a more measured and cultured read. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The
main character, Manfred Baumann is beautifully and convincingly drawn
and you can't help but be drawn into his gradual disintegration. More
over at www.crimesquad.com next month.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Black
Mail by Bill Daly</b></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Last, but in no way least, we have a new boy on the crime scene giving us a satisfying slice of tartan
noir. Along Glasgow's grim streets - according to Daly's vision –
one can find an intriguing mix of sexual affairs, corrupt
businessmen, revenge, incest, paedophilia, IRA sympathisers and the
titular blackmail. Who knew? There's lots going on here and it's all very well
orchestrated by Daly. A hugely enjoyable read and well worth your
hard-earned.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-53273865861104838722014-04-27T11:43:00.001+01:002014-04-27T11:43:47.443+01:00Mightier than the sword - the power of books<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9lnKQW3ZxfhtHec2xlZb620YGgtkOqSvEQoZMnJuToCxrlKs7vHdjpPF7vIZ1v98qtOaWSHwRJXfWLuuQ0UPXcdJ7ZSxtzGmPJ0aiRBYqfgk-gH-H1RZDxKp17xfEBoxdflB-SXwqLzI/s1600/battle_of_algiers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9lnKQW3ZxfhtHec2xlZb620YGgtkOqSvEQoZMnJuToCxrlKs7vHdjpPF7vIZ1v98qtOaWSHwRJXfWLuuQ0UPXcdJ7ZSxtzGmPJ0aiRBYqfgk-gH-H1RZDxKp17xfEBoxdflB-SXwqLzI/s1600/battle_of_algiers.jpg" height="320" width="221" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
At the end of the Cambridge launch of
The Guillotine Choice a young man approached me at the signing table
to say hello. As he stepped closer and bent forward so that our heads
were at the same level, I realised that he had something to say that
he felt really strongly about.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
He introduced himself – shook my
hand with great warmth – and said, I can't thank you enough. What
you are doing is incredibly important.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I was taken aback – and humbled by
the passion in his voice.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Since I started this book I knew what
Bashir and I were embarking upon had an importance beyond us. A man,
that a huge region of Algeria called father, was, with luck and a
fair wind, going to have his incredible story highlighted to the
world - and the family would have something to go to the French authorities with and ask for an apology and a pardon.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This young man in front of me was
about to indicate that the book had significance even beyond that. He
explained that he was Algerian and that the experiences of his
countrymen and women had been ignored, not only across the world, but
in the countries that really needed to talk about it – France and
Algeria. He went on to say that official estimates are that around
1.5 million people died in the struggle for independence and that if
one was to consider those who lost their lives throughout the time of
the French colonisation of his country, it would not be outside the
realms of possibility to suggest that the number of dead would be
double this.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
He went on to ask that if this was the
number of dead – how many other people had been damaged by the
conflict? Had his country ever recovered? How many people with untold
stories were there in Algeria?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
We don't talk about this, he said. We
don't teach it in our schools. Our politicians don't even acknowledge
it. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
How are we going to move on from the past if we don't face it?
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
He looked at the queue waiting to have
their books signed lining up behind him aware that people were
waiting to speak to me. He shook my hand again and said – so, thank
you, I pray you and Bashir's book helps the conversation start and the healing
to begin.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTY5SlgbkWyCjB0RRkeMbGM4hUnZPY5ZTRyrLcitnXQvSiRtQXxut0GcC-GoEa8izy7hsBLHwvmXZusvP4THdLTs5YULkIw9G04QSvtNWhyphenhyphenwZfkIrC8uySPWYl6FNyk_mV6JoEYUC2Dbg/s1600/TGC_FrontCOVER+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTY5SlgbkWyCjB0RRkeMbGM4hUnZPY5ZTRyrLcitnXQvSiRtQXxut0GcC-GoEa8izy7hsBLHwvmXZusvP4THdLTs5YULkIw9G04QSvtNWhyphenhyphenwZfkIrC8uySPWYl6FNyk_mV6JoEYUC2Dbg/s1600/TGC_FrontCOVER+copy.jpg" height="320" width="210" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/michael+j-+malone/bashir+saoudi/the+guillotine+choice/9664839/">You can get the book here.</a><br />
<br />
And here's where I hand over to you, dear reader. If you enjoyed the book and appreciate what we are trying to achieve with it, please be our advocates. Talk about it to your friends, urge them to read it for themselves - review it online in all the usual places. The more successful the book is the more realistic our aims become.<br />
<br />
With thanks,<br />
Michael & Bashir</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-13809875230824585492014-04-21T11:51:00.002+01:002014-04-21T17:14:38.836+01:00The Guillotine Choice in the media<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJIyavK8ZykQlmLiUY3iEe7RLhTxedQ0fbIPCEaD4hksQVCeclIuVoxp8nXkQlhowLmZkE-T5tLcu4s56oRsJp2NI5DYgjOath0FGyQCcY4Kx07FlcZt7R9TpXYE2fCBzDTO3JJWfOICs/s1600/Bashir+and+MM+in+A+Post.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJIyavK8ZykQlmLiUY3iEe7RLhTxedQ0fbIPCEaD4hksQVCeclIuVoxp8nXkQlhowLmZkE-T5tLcu4s56oRsJp2NI5DYgjOath0FGyQCcY4Kx07FlcZt7R9TpXYE2fCBzDTO3JJWfOICs/s1600/Bashir+and+MM+in+A+Post.jpg" height="320" width="312" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I thought my two or three regular readers might like to read some of the coverage that my new book has been getting from the media.<br />
<br />
Above, you can see a poorly produced copy of the photo that appeared in my local newspaper, The Ayrshire Post.<br />
<br />
Here's what <a href="http://www.theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2014/04/author-michael-malone-at-looking-glass-books/">The Edinburgh Reporter</a> made of my launch evening in Looking Glass Books in Edinburgh just last week.<br />
<br />
I'm prepared to push aside my feelings for this particular newspaper, for a moment at least, to highlight their article about the book and what we are trying to achieve. <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2578607/Scientist-claims-father-didnt-shoot-dead-boss-never-imprisoned-20-years-infamous-Devils-Island.html">Go here!</a><br />
<br />
Also doing their thing was <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/463819/Son-s-fight-to-clear-Devil-s-Island-dad">The Sunday Express</a><br />
<br />
And Bashir's local newspaper also got in on the act. <a href="http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/News/How-my-father-survived-20-years-on-Devils-Island-20140309060339.htm">Click here!</a><br />
<br />
Other newspapers also featured the book and the story, most notably NME, but I can't find any links to post for them.<br />
<br />
Laters,<br />
M<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-36783324079411714752014-04-08T20:36:00.001+01:002014-04-08T20:36:21.236+01:00Wot I Read in March - Pelecanos, Black, D'Lacey, Connolly, Campbell, Boyden, Rafferty<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUWMnlgycnzhX4QvpbGpKEKwU4yFrIoIYweaqbAvKCkW6EvbpDnoznpOM497HLol6mjEHC4ZeUKYrilLth-s8S4WqnngLXIb8gcd85Kk8HpwciQ46C80xwiASBV6C7CszrLtoU5iC6nFg/s1600/knuckle-tattoos-for-men-18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUWMnlgycnzhX4QvpbGpKEKwU4yFrIoIYweaqbAvKCkW6EvbpDnoznpOM497HLol6mjEHC4ZeUKYrilLth-s8S4WqnngLXIb8gcd85Kk8HpwciQ46C80xwiASBV6C7CszrLtoU5iC6nFg/s1600/knuckle-tattoos-for-men-18.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>George Pelecanos – Right as Rain</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I do like a Pelecanos novel. You pick
one up and you are guaranteed some fine storytelling. This one was
first published in 2001 and the version I read was a re-issue in 2010,
what with his publisher giving his covers a wee makeover.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So, here you've got sex, violence,
strong characters, razor-sharp dialogue, social issues and a
ridealong feel to the story. If you haven't read a Pelecanos book,
man have you got to get yourself sorted out. Go get one, like now.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Tony Black – The Last Tiger</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In this, his next book (out on the 1st of May)Tony Black
demonstrates what a talented and versatile writer he is. We're in
Tasmania with a family of immigrants and the father is paid to hunt
the very last Tasmanian tiger - and his son is horrified. His prose is at
times spare and at times poetic as Tony delivers up a fascinating and moving novel about family ties and the truths we don't want to face.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>The Book of the Crowman – Joseph
D'Lacey</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Every bit as good as the first Crowman
book. The only disappointment I received from this one was when I
finished it. Fans of S/F Fantasy I order you to check this guy's
books out.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>John Connolly – The Wolf in Winter</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
JC simply never fails to deliver.
Crime/ thriller fiction of the highest quality – all served up with
Connolly's excellent prose and a soupcon of the supernatural. Loved
it. Full review over at www.crimesquad.com</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Karen Campbell – This is Where I
Am.</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Oh. My. God. Where do I start with this
one? Am I going to run out of superlatives? Astonishing. Affecting.
Powerful. Absorbing. At one point I was reading this in a cafe and
had to discreetly wipe a tear from my cheek. This book deserves to be HUGE
bestseller. World, you should be ashamed of yourself that so far it
isn't.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>The Orenda by Joseph Boyden.</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Man, have I been spoiled this last
month. Another wonderful book. It's 1640 in the New World. The lives
of a Huron brave, an Iroquois girl he steals in retribution for the
murder of his wife and children – and a French priest, come
together. The sense of time and place conjured by Boyden is utterly
convincing, the drama and conflict unflinching. I am in awe of
writers like this. Stunning.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Myra: Beyond Saddleworth by Jean
Rafferty</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In a word: fascinating. With this novel,
Jean Rafferty imagines that Myra Hyndlay was released from prison as
an old woman under a new identity, rather than die from ill-health as she did in real life. A difficult read about
one of the UK's most infamous serial killers, written with huge skill
and insight. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-20742752649775791272014-03-10T19:13:00.003+00:002014-03-10T19:13:32.047+00:00Birthday boyMy regulars will remember lots of posts on this here blog, back in the day, about my son when he was younger and much more entertaining. And when I could be truthful when calling him the wee fella.<br />
<br />
He's had a birthday recently. 16. And he's no longer a wee fella. He's got a good 4 inches on his old man.<br />
<br />
Anywho, in honour of this I thought I would offer you both a reprise.<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This blog was posted nearly four years ago ...</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhq-OGcwyqkV5nBSUjfeMp_YSWsWYGF-IoPQG7RV2kK9avB1hYQYCkxvlHKx0_3_E5KUEZDjbeHyzd9snroB-qb3qjMMjJau_9D4Oo_9EqJ_ArP_T7TTBMphHPP9TwKKzy9pLbjxkRCJY/s1600/funny-dog-laughing-poster-you-funny-kid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhq-OGcwyqkV5nBSUjfeMp_YSWsWYGF-IoPQG7RV2kK9avB1hYQYCkxvlHKx0_3_E5KUEZDjbeHyzd9snroB-qb3qjMMjJau_9D4Oo_9EqJ_ArP_T7TTBMphHPP9TwKKzy9pLbjxkRCJY/s1600/funny-dog-laughing-poster-you-funny-kid.jpg" height="256" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Conversation #1</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The wee fella said – after
I gave him a good morning hug as he approached the breakfast table
(well, THE table. I don’t have a table for like, every meal) –
Daaaad, your breath stinks – pause – and your teeth are yellow.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Me – that was harsh.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The wee fella grins – it’s
called tough love – grins even wider and finishes with – bitch!</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Conversation #2</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
It’s my latest health kick and I
give myself one day per week off the healthy stuff and eat absolutely
anything I want. On this occasion I had a pizza – grand pan, meat
feast – from a well known pizza chain. I’d mention them by name
but I want some freebies first. (You know who you are. See my agent.
Please.) Washed down with lashings of cola. From another well known
company. Same rules apply ...Company Beginning with P.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I was munching into said
pizza and fancied a wee top up to my cola. The cola was in the
kitchen. I couldn’t be arsed going for it. I never ask the wee
fella to be my gopher as I used to hate it when I was a kid. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Besides,
in the few occasions I have made such a request he moans like I’ve
asked him to do a shift up a chimney. However, I had my sloth on and
thought I would give it a go.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Me – could you fill up my
glass, son? (I point helpfully to the cola bottle visible through the
kitchen door.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
TWF – (grunts, stands up)
S’pose.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Me – after he has poured a
paltry two fingers worth – thanks.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
TWF – Why didn’t you get
it for yourself?</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Me – I wanted to see if
you would do something for me.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
TWF – I do something for
you every day, Dad. (BIG grin) I give you a reason to live.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
And nothing changes.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Laters,</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
M</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-13839958844126032972014-03-05T20:04:00.001+00:002014-03-05T20:04:13.003+00:00Coming VERY soon ...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1483405696675036638" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7edWjTxFRZDvNLnQMN84n6SitCJey7A0CgumdfT3axTiU33Cc3cza9Xjt6dIHR2mGCqMFlWeL6sRZx5dOXThi4EvkVuhj-DJt8ScflKfyuSmJzVEKXKn7PqOqKAYer5sydcGL7YX_ZSU/s1600/TGC_FrontCOVER+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7edWjTxFRZDvNLnQMN84n6SitCJey7A0CgumdfT3axTiU33Cc3cza9Xjt6dIHR2mGCqMFlWeL6sRZx5dOXThi4EvkVuhj-DJt8ScflKfyuSmJzVEKXKn7PqOqKAYer5sydcGL7YX_ZSU/s1600/TGC_FrontCOVER+copy.jpg" height="640" width="419" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-24756896861859494962014-03-02T19:49:00.003+00:002014-03-02T19:49:32.859+00:00February Reading<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigCb96hGtCkPAmUnF-5_357PCtm08cIMLxRnRUZKitweYwHWhLQ627piPgaR0_cfsK5m0-DFE4_plZbGBczFh6J0BKbgb1r1efd1u-WWztUvIdPbtqDPJn_00fk-zmfRjH0lgrYGVuDJs/s1600/Books+kindof+like+movies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigCb96hGtCkPAmUnF-5_357PCtm08cIMLxRnRUZKitweYwHWhLQ627piPgaR0_cfsK5m0-DFE4_plZbGBczFh6J0BKbgb1r1efd1u-WWztUvIdPbtqDPJn_00fk-zmfRjH0lgrYGVuDJs/s1600/Books+kindof+like+movies.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Here's wot I read in February ...<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Stoner by John Williams</b> – Well
it had to eventually. The hype got me. Lost classic they said and
everybody and their aunty is jumping in to agree. But sorry, Stoner
didn't do it for me. I can see why people might be getting so excited
about this book – it is full of insight and elegant prose BUT the
main character, the titular Stoner, needs a bloody good slap. He's
far too passive, allowing nasty colleagues at work to undermine him
and most unforgivable of all, allows his manipulative wife to ruin
his daughter's life. Where was the character development? The worm
should have turned and then the title of lost classic would have been
well earned.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>The Stillman by Tom McCulloch</b> –
Middle-aged man, barely tolerated by his wife, his son's behaviour is
getting weirder by the day, the island of Islay is in the grip of a
winter storm and letters arrive from Cuba from his long-dead mother.
Lyrical, touching and funny. McCulloch conjures a great sense of
place and a fascinating description of a man and a marriage on the
slide.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts</b>
– A friend of mine was banging on about this so much I had to find
out what he was on about – and boy am I glad I did. What a
fantastic read! This is an epic, full of characters you are bound to
fall in love with and a depiction of Bombay so authentic that when
you put the book down and walk out your front door you almost expect
to be faced with a dancing bear, a huge traffic jam and the cast of a
Bollywood movie.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Sure, it's not perfect. The author's
prose tends to the purple and his philosophising can at times come
across as a lecture – but set these grumbles aside and you are in
for a great time while reading this book.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Sense of Direction – Gideon Lewis
Kravs</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
A fascinating travel memoir as young
Gideon goes walkabout , quite literally, looking for a sense of
direction on his life on the Camino and in Japan. He portrays his own
actions with an admirable honesty and with wry humour. I found his
internal monologue hard work at times, but that says more about me
and my lack of erudition. All in all, well worth a read.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Blood Song by Anthony Ryan</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Epic fantasy that fans of George RR
Martin and David Gemmell will lap up. I lost a Sunday to this book.
Quite literally couldn't put it down. Loved it!</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Clever, clever lady that Belinda is. I
love it when an author takes risks and comes up with a wholly
original plot. This book won a slew of awards. Now I understand why.
Great stuff!</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>The Deep Dark Sleep by Craig Russell</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Quality stuff. Imagine that Bernie
Gunther is now Canadian and living and working in 1950s Glasgow and
you have some kind of idea what is going on here. Has everything I
look for in a crime novel – characters you want to spend time with,
humour, strong prose, pace and a plot that keeps you guessing. In a
nutshell? High quality stuff. Oh, I said that already.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-49441228535472624112014-02-01T15:54:00.000+00:002014-02-01T15:54:04.646+00:00A Bibliophile's January<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsng0kZ0HW2C-JW_Tdmx8heH8w1-OE5gR4WGey54jnJ0K6hK6p_lBSOEmz3rHL71x8sRgRGGlACpiwU0iqf4kaenTRHuK8wRPOFRYhiKmFG5ICV0C2AmS4FrweCgNx1wTvNcSa3cQngg8/s1600/AG00299_.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsng0kZ0HW2C-JW_Tdmx8heH8w1-OE5gR4WGey54jnJ0K6hK6p_lBSOEmz3rHL71x8sRgRGGlACpiwU0iqf4kaenTRHuK8wRPOFRYhiKmFG5ICV0C2AmS4FrweCgNx1wTvNcSa3cQngg8/s1600/AG00299_.gif" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I'm trying to read more this year and
spend less time on the time thief that is social networking. (What do
you mean, good luck wi' that?)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Anywho, here's wot I read in January.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Black Feathers by Joseph D'Lacey</b>
– first in a fantasy/ horror series. A cracking read. And the good
news is that I don't have long to wait until book 2 is available. <b>Book of the Crowman</b> is out on the 7th March. Yes!</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Water Music by Maggie Orford</b> –
another excellent crime writer from South Africa. She was on my radar
after her appearance at Harrogate Crime Fiction Festival a couple of
years back. Absorbing and well written. Released 27 Feb.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>A Mad and Wonderful Thing by Mark
Mulholland</b> - a debut novel from the clever Aussie publisher,
Scribe. In turns elegaic and disturbing. Pulls of that trick of
making you sympathise with a character who does some truly awful
things. Has a genuine OMG moment. Out in April. One to watch.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>The Shining by Stephen King</b> –
for some reason I haven't ever read this. Needed to be rectified
after reading Doctor Sleep in December. Genuinely chilling. He is the
master. 'Nuff said.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Mongol by Uuganaa Ramsay</b> – if
you don't shed a tear while reading this you need to see a heart
surgeon like pronto. Ask for a scan just to make sure you don't have
a breeze block in there instead of a heart. Provides a fascinating
glimpse into an alien culture, pays tribute to a dead infant and
kicks off a campaign about the use of the word “mongol”. No
wonder Uuganaa was previously voted Mongolian Woman of the Year.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>The First Rule of Ten by Gay
Hendricks & Tinker Lindsay</b> – A former buddhist monk/ ex-cop
becomes a P.I. in L.A. As unlikely as it sounds, it works. Thanks to
a light touch on the Buddhist stuff and sharp dialogue and plotting.
Great stuff!</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>The Fault on our Stars by John Green</b>
– teens and cancer don't make a comfortable reading and could
easily turn out to be mawkish. But not for a writer as talented as
this guy. You will laugh and you will cry.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I'm sure there's something among that lot to interest you?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Laters.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-40776434229083066692014-01-18T09:50:00.001+00:002014-01-18T09:50:26.358+00:00Review - Long Way Home by Eva Dolan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnklzzRzOjvLB5HAlQibHGUFiaWJ1br_x4I-UqDrSmIgptuO6DZA4m59JHplk9-bpTssTMDoV4ehth0YutCzrBBWZr-_mjgeJuSjxmLeXT7OaLo2nS6Ivp7YP_vkFVrXRMarefqHTWVdo/s1600/dolan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnklzzRzOjvLB5HAlQibHGUFiaWJ1br_x4I-UqDrSmIgptuO6DZA4m59JHplk9-bpTssTMDoV4ehth0YutCzrBBWZr-_mjgeJuSjxmLeXT7OaLo2nS6Ivp7YP_vkFVrXRMarefqHTWVdo/s1600/dolan.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<div style="background: #ffffff; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">The
blurb reads like this …</span></div>
<div style="background: #ffffff; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: #ffffff; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">A
man is burnt alive in a suburban garden shed.</span></div>
<div style="background: #ffffff; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: #ffffff; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">DI
Zigic and DS Ferreira are called in from the Peterborough Hate Crimes
Unit to investigate the murder. Their victim is quickly identified as
a migrant worker and a man several people might have had good reason
to see dead. A convicted arsonist and member of a far-right movement
has just been released from prison, while witnesses claim to have
seen the dead man fighting with one of the town's most prominent slum
landlords.</span></div>
<div style="background: #ffffff; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: #ffffff; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Zigic
and Ferreira know all too well the problems that come with dealing
with a community that has more reason than most not to trust the
police, but when another migrant worker is attacked, tensions rapidly
begin to rise as they search for their killer.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">How much did I enjoy it?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I know it’s the first month of the new year, but if I read a better debut in the next
12 months I’ll be hugely surprised, cos Long Way Home is a
faultless, thoroughly engrossing debut that already has the feel of a
long established series of novels.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As the cliché goes, the devil is in
the detail and Dolan is already adept at pinpointing just the right
information and in the right amount that makes us believe in her
characters and immerse us in the setting.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Zigic and Ferreira are well-drawn pair
of characters and duo I would be more than happy to spend hours of
reading in their company.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is a police procedural with heart
and conscience. Yes, the puzzle is important, but much more telling
is way the author depicts the lives of those caught up in people
trafficking and the those who pray on them.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="" name="_GoBack"></a>I couldn’t be
more impressed – this is a stunner - and I can’t wait to see what
Dolan does next.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Shell out your shekels <a href="http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/eva+dolan/long+way+home/9756593/">HERE</a></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-38969533669650875312014-01-10T20:30:00.001+00:002014-01-10T20:30:11.190+00:00QnA with my bud, Gill Hoffs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfkr6VrkK0XNHGYgHfeqE50VXKLmwkK4hLW9b03SMRFbgjcyeSHTn0fK4f4SVfIQGs2YM5M0GNjON7lvQqV62H3dwYmaw4AMCUxCGI2ZUhecNUeLSkCIjmhbrGKQQ9IC5vyb7UslQJ8qs/s1600/Gill+Hoffs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfkr6VrkK0XNHGYgHfeqE50VXKLmwkK4hLW9b03SMRFbgjcyeSHTn0fK4f4SVfIQGs2YM5M0GNjON7lvQqV62H3dwYmaw4AMCUxCGI2ZUhecNUeLSkCIjmhbrGKQQ9IC5vyb7UslQJ8qs/s1600/Gill+Hoffs.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
(Here's Gill's grinning fyzzog)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<ol>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So, what you pimping these days?</div>
</li>
</ol>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
A tale of gold and grim reality, “The
Sinking of RMS <i>Tayleur</i>: The Lost Story of the Victorian
<i>Titanic</i>”. It’s about an enormous luxury ship that left
Liverpool 160 years ago this month for the Australian Gold Rush only
to sink in mysterious circumstances two days later, a few miles from
Dublin. Although the ship was literally a few metres from land,
close enough for ropes and spars to be got across to form temporary
bridges, more than half of the people on board died including
virtually all of the hundreds of women and children. Shipwrecks were
common then, an accepted risk to travellers, and around three vessels
were reported wrecked in British and Irish waters every day. But
this particular shipwreck made the papers around the world, with
thousands of articles written on it at the time. I’m amazed that
it isn’t better known today.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<ol start="2">
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
How did you come across such an
amazing story?</div>
</li>
</ol>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Quite
by accident. I was in the museum in Warrington, where I live,
looking at shrunken heads and the like, when I saw a cabinet of
shipwreck artefacts including crockery and a porthole. Now,
Warrington is an inland town and the stretch of Mersey near my house
is so shallow you can see discarded bicycles poking out and sometimes
wade across when there’s a drought, but according to one of the
curators ships had been built here. One of them, the RMS </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Tayleur</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">,
was the largest ship of her type at the time and certainly the most
luxurious, and he suggested I look her up online. When I read some
of the survivors’ accounts I wept until I was a snottery mess, and
didn’t think I should ever look at them again for the sake of my
sanity (and my over-wiped nose), but I just couldn’t stop thinking
about the people on the ship.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<ol start="3">
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
How long did it take to research
and write?</div>
</li>
</ol>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Hmm … about two years, start to
finish. That’s including the research for a short piece on one of
the children on board, submitting a proposal to my lovely publishers
Pen & Sword, and editing. And we moved house to Scotland and
back while working on it, too. But I don’t feel like it’s quite
done yet, even though I’ve just watched it being bound and turned
into actual factual books.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0nP_zfKfy7td12hkPPhm0f5ozN6nwzvr5gQMBVgaBUth5DLZXEIcag4TU9r52ICOgUZrtPJ__Wcqelh6FCHVPT_j9wcwh3KK0UR1mdgoQJb0BVCmM9PE1BgVwMU3ec1-mTnnrV1nvsGU/s1600/Sinking+of+RMS+Tayleur+-+Gill+Hoffs+-+hi+res+image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0nP_zfKfy7td12hkPPhm0f5ozN6nwzvr5gQMBVgaBUth5DLZXEIcag4TU9r52ICOgUZrtPJ__Wcqelh6FCHVPT_j9wcwh3KK0UR1mdgoQJb0BVCmM9PE1BgVwMU3ec1-mTnnrV1nvsGU/s1600/Sinking+of+RMS+Tayleur+-+Gill+Hoffs+-+hi+res+image.jpg" height="320" width="222" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
(here's wot Gill's so excited about)</div>
<ol start="4">
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Your previous outing into print
was a collection of short pieces, did a longer piece of work involve
any different challenges?</div>
</li>
</ol>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">The
short piece on the </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Tayleur</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">
is actually included in my first book, “Wild: a collection”
(published by Pure Slush), so “The Sinking of RMS </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Tayleur</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">”
could almost be seen as a sequel. Yes, I found it more challenging
to judge pacing and the arc of the chapters and the book as a whole
in the longer piece, but luckily my editor, Jen Newby, let me work on
the book until I was happy with the flow. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<ol start="5">
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Where can we buy a copy?</div>
</li>
</ol>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
You can purchase it from Pen &
Sword <span style="color: blue;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-Sinking-of-RMS-Tayleur/p/6053/">HERE</a></u></span></span>,
bookshops including Waterstones (with or without the apostrophe) and
WH Smith, online retailers, and also Warrington Museum and the Ocean
Explorer Centre near Oban. Plus there will be talks and events about
the <i>Tayleur</i> and Victorian sea travel (and maggoty food, yum!)
at various locations throughout the UK where you can pick up a copy
and probably cake, too. I’ll be posting details on my site and
social media closer to the time, or you’re welcome to email me at
<span style="color: blue;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="mailto:gillhoffs@hotmail.co.uk">gillhoffs@hotmail.co.uk</a></u></span></span>
to find out more.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<ol start="6">
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
What was your biggest writing
“learn” from this project?</div>
</li>
</ol>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="" name="_GoBack"></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">To
take care of myself physically while I work instead of just pushing
on, and to organise my notes better while I work instead of
constantly putting it off ‘til later then panicking when I can’t
find the precise survivor quote that I need. And to hide my
printouts from my son unless I want them illustrated with bums and
killer crabs.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<ol start="7">
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
What's next?</div>
</li>
</ol>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Raising
awareness of the </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Tayleur</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">
tragedy – many of these people were heroes and they should be
celebrated, not forgotten – and, as you put it, pimping my book.
I’m researching the </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Mary
Celeste</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">
for a thriller, and other shipwrecks and Victorian sea travellers in
case they would suit another nautical nonfiction book, and still
writing short pieces, too. I’ve sent a maritime thriller set in
the 1930s out to agents so my fingers, toes, eyes, and legs are
crossed for the time being, and apart from that I’m reading and
watching a ton of DVDs and crappy TV. And preparing for an
appearance at the Other Worlds Convention (you can get info on this event <a href="http://www.otherworldsconv.co.uk/blog/convention-guests/">HERE</a>) alongside my fellow writers
Kevin G. Bufton and Die Booth in Warrington in April. And trying to
get rid of the writers’ arse that’s developed from too much
Nutella and sitting at my laptop. And sleeping.</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span>
</div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Ways to keep in touch with Gill ...</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span lang="zxx"><u>- <a href="http://gillhoffs.wordpress.com/">Gill's website</a></u></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
- Search Gill Hoffs on Facebook.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
- And connect with her on twitter @GillHoffs</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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</div>
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<br />
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<span style="color: black;"> </span>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-11224598185349950962013-12-27T13:13:00.000+00:002013-12-27T13:13:00.168+00:00A selection of my favourite reads 2013<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<o:p>Well, everyone else is doing it.</o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In
no particular order <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Alex – Pierre Lemaitre<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At
first I was thinking, here we go, another book where a serial killer kidnaps
and tortures a beautiful young woman. And then it wasn’t. Amusing, original and demands you turn the
page.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFzRm0m4bT0McyxIPLxvnTEusExSq2P7FmU7BJwGiBVE6pCp7w2JC-fFh-pob5qvZDFThDOnPuRZBhqMHsH0ZopAvfpkDKTeU5v0bNqIIwSRG4KIQAXX_KEuTmOGMApYqyZCkQLY9Pko0/s1600/41MmYHfmhnL._AA160_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFzRm0m4bT0McyxIPLxvnTEusExSq2P7FmU7BJwGiBVE6pCp7w2JC-fFh-pob5qvZDFThDOnPuRZBhqMHsH0ZopAvfpkDKTeU5v0bNqIIwSRG4KIQAXX_KEuTmOGMApYqyZCkQLY9Pko0/s1600/41MmYHfmhnL._AA160_.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>The Cry - Helen Fitzgerald<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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A
striking “dilemma” novel, emotionally charged and brilliantly executed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>An Exquisite Sense of What
is Beautiful – J. David Simon<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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I
read this right at the start of the year and it has stayed with me. Manages to be both exquisite and
beautiful. Need I say more?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1X6M_yQjPq9p7041rY4aDID3wsPv99TzMkQZbW96wEdruHB0dyM9yuCoTo_P07mDzDlj0Q4jjl1hcftvgi9baFP-PSB_zgInlpAdgvFr9EAZ2bmhWxlv7dqGKm4khSGYWqjbQYlwNiIE/s1600/41P3qRCx0sL._AA160_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1X6M_yQjPq9p7041rY4aDID3wsPv99TzMkQZbW96wEdruHB0dyM9yuCoTo_P07mDzDlj0Q4jjl1hcftvgi9baFP-PSB_zgInlpAdgvFr9EAZ2bmhWxlv7dqGKm4khSGYWqjbQYlwNiIE/s1600/41P3qRCx0sL._AA160_.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Blood City – Douglas
Skelton<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gangsters
in Glasgow in the 80’s. A fast, furious and fascinating read. (I’m sure I could
slip another “f” in there. Mmmm. Best not.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Grim Company – Luke Scull<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An
excellent debut into a brand new fantasy series. Avoids the information dump a
lot of new fantasy novelists feel they need to start off a series. A great set up and a team of characters I
want to spend time with. I was hooked from page one. (And the author has the
best name, right?)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Norwegian By Night – Derek
B. Miller<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A
hero in his 80s, in a foreign country, fighting to save a young boy’s
life. Manages to combine lyricism with
pace.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Beautiful Ruins – Jess
Walters<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cinematic,
laugh out loud funny and utterly charming. You will fall in love with this
book.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>419 – Will Ferguson<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Won
the Giller Prize (Canada’s version of the MAN Booker). A prizewinner that’s
readable! An author who knows his way
round a tasty sentence and a genuinely thrilling and fascinating plot. Also a
reminder, if we need one, how the so-called developed world bowing at the altar
of the god of profit has damaged Africa.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5tul84RO8p0fbMmq9ZbJXI6BQpiQ12ISweeAXWExsswc2ShR1m9ydW5LmEa_U3m3fVHpMB6M7i63ZZOFGiADvhNZF_4ni9LoC2K_oGHC4w0ME24hhRQIWIR9qeMNn57o3C0SYXkSTGGg/s1600/51BMSycaO0L._AA160_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5tul84RO8p0fbMmq9ZbJXI6BQpiQ12ISweeAXWExsswc2ShR1m9ydW5LmEa_U3m3fVHpMB6M7i63ZZOFGiADvhNZF_4ni9LoC2K_oGHC4w0ME24hhRQIWIR9qeMNn57o3C0SYXkSTGGg/s1600/51BMSycaO0L._AA160_.jpg" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Nos4r2 – Joe Hill<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Genuinely
creep-inducing – gave me the shivers at several stages through the reading of
the book. A chunky read with crisp writing, Hill gives his old man a run for
his money.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m
certain you’ll find something here to enjoy. So go, buy one or more, wontcha?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p>Laters,</o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p>M </o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-77645246608600832082013-12-05T19:20:00.000+00:002013-12-05T19:20:07.564+00:00Q and A with debut author Sara Bain<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1e3znoHyUoDmzBJellyxow4iir1-hDXMMz1uQsgDsVV3X2QM1oGaHb2_kN3KbNY-3KsJ6bDGL6c9Skt-JHCXCEBQFS35i4ISZ6Qgcin70q6C5M-spfhbHXUMyLn-l41Mh6bhChlghzUk/s1600/sleeping+warrior+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1e3znoHyUoDmzBJellyxow4iir1-hDXMMz1uQsgDsVV3X2QM1oGaHb2_kN3KbNY-3KsJ6bDGL6c9Skt-JHCXCEBQFS35i4ISZ6Qgcin70q6C5M-spfhbHXUMyLn-l41Mh6bhChlghzUk/s1600/sleeping+warrior+cover.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">What’s the new book about then?</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The Sleeping Warrior can be loosely described as an urban fantasy, for
want of a better description. It’s a crime thriller with a subtle fantasy
element thrown in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Mixing up the genres of contemporary fiction has been quite a challenge
and I hope that readers will approach it with their minds wide open and focus
on the story as a whole. The title is well represented in the book: as a famous
mountain vista from the Ayrshire coast; as the central heroic character of the
story; and as the inherent dormant warrior spirit within us all that awakes in
times of crises.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
<b>Describe your inspiration for the book?<br />
</b></span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">I am a fantasy author and have been writing heroic fantasy for a few
years. For some reason, I decided to take a break from the epic and write a
contemporary novel as my debut.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Speculative and slipstream fiction is becoming more popular with readers
and much of it is being serialised on the TV and finding its way into movies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Since I started writing the book over five years ago, it’s obviously not
my intention to jump on the bandwagon of consumer preference; I just liked the
notion of placing a fantasy character into the real world and seeing what he’d
do. That was the intention at the beginning and I loved the way he worked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
<b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b>Talk to me about your main character/s.<br />
</b></span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">The main protagonist is a self-centred, cynical young lawyer called
Libby Butler who finds her life turned upside down after meeting Gabriel, a
stranger in a south London police station’s custody suite. As she finds herself
in more and more dangerous situations, she comes to terms what is really
important in life and what is merely misguided aspiration.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I really admire honour as a human characteristic. Even though we know
little about Gabriel, you have to respect his strength and self-control. He is
a man who doesn’t abuse his powerful advantages over others and teaches solely
by example.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b>Did any themes come out of the writing that surprised you?</b></span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Identity as a theme underpins the story. It must have been a subconscious
thing because I never really thought of a main theme when writing the book. For
some reason, I wrote a scene where Gabriel happened to be reading Umberto Eco’s
Name of the Rose and everything suddenly came together as if it was always
meant to happen. It was completely accidental. I tried to think of intelligent
literature that he would be interested in and remembered that Eco said
something to the effect that a name can be so rich in meaning that it has no
meaning at all. I don’t want to give away any of the story, so will just say
that a name can empower or deprive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Why fantasy?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I like to go to places where I can escape for a while and immerse myself
into completely different worlds. Fantasy has always been my preferred genre to
both read and, therefore, to write.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
<b>Why write?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">I suppose I have had a career in writing. I was an editor for a legal
publishing company and then a newspaper journalist, so the written word has
always been part of my day job. Some people paint to release creative imagination,
others play music. I write because that is the means by which I can best convey
my thoughts.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b>Why go it alone?</b></span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">There is still quite a lot of stigma attached to self-published authors,
despite the fact that even peasants can be king on Amazon. I even note that
quite a few amateur book reviewers will only accept traditionally published
authors, which suggests to me that even readers will turn their noses up to
authors who have decided to go it alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The fact is that publishers, who have controlled what people read for so
long, are fast losing business to the likes of Amazon and finding out that
readers are perfectly capable of choosing what they want to read for
themselves. You see time and time again, authors who could paper their walls with
rejection letters, become best-sellers overnight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I’m quite conventional in a way and, until recently, have always aspired
to being a traditionally published author. I’ve thought long and hard about
this and, when The Sleeping Warrior attracted the interest of three publishers,
in a fit of defiance, I thought ‘why should I give it to them?’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I then decided to start up a publishing house which, although I am the
first author to be published by it, I certainly won’t be the only one. I really
don’t care if other writers or readers sniff at the fact I’m self-published.
There is so much effort expended in the process and so much I have learned that
I feel my achievement has been truly great. I am so proud to be able to hold a
real and tangible paperback copy of my first novel in my hands and say ‘I wrote
this and then I published this all by myself.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p> To buy Sara's captivating book go <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sleeping-Warrior-Mrs-Sara-Bain/dp/0955240514/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386270963&sr=1-1&keywords=sleeping+warrior">HERE</a></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-22050150299382811232013-11-21T20:36:00.001+00:002013-11-21T20:36:42.182+00:00An interview ...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
You know how it is, no posts for months and now two in a matter of days. Do I spoil you people or wot?</div>
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Anywho, I've been busier than a one legged man in an arse kicking contest and I thought I'd share with you some of my goings ons (if that's not a real saying it should be) over the last wee while.</div>
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I had a blast at the Grantown crime festival with Caro Ramsay, Alex Gray, Lin Anderson, Malcolm Archibald, Marc Douglas Home - wonderfully organised by the might atom herself, the owner of one of the best wee bookshops in Scotland, The Bookmark - Marjorie Marshall.</div>
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On the Friday, Marjorie organised a Crime and Dine evening where we had two authors to a table and we moved to a different table for each course of the meal. It was an excellent evening. Good food and even better company. Here's a photo (lifted from Caro's website). </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5fdalx8-2wfWaBbgqERJFYXj7eh7aUV8Gr3qnBUpV1_axjbU2_uIGLhJCaYNcqOrrMEwmtG96MY0f-6RSLzLEvlCyd9fsXIZlFtShhlmVbfT9TUk58BNVFdhEbN8wJPJ9JV5Kq_y6GxI/s1600/grantown+dinner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5fdalx8-2wfWaBbgqERJFYXj7eh7aUV8Gr3qnBUpV1_axjbU2_uIGLhJCaYNcqOrrMEwmtG96MY0f-6RSLzLEvlCyd9fsXIZlFtShhlmVbfT9TUk58BNVFdhEbN8wJPJ9JV5Kq_y6GxI/s1600/grantown+dinner.jpg" /></a></div>
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Another fun night was an "In Conversation ..." evening I had at the University of the West of Scotland, chaired by Dave Manderson with Douglas Skelton and myself talking about our books.<br />
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Before they let us loose on the audience, we were interviewed for the University's radio station. The interview is <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/7gyhbi6mtghbfrf/Michael%20Malone%20Interview.mp3">HERE</a><br />
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Go on. You know you want to.<br />
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I don't. But that's another story.<br />
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There is a short film - very short - of the event on Youtube somewhere. But I can't inflict that on you.<br />
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Laters,<br />
M<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-13785904293166597582013-11-19T21:17:00.000+00:002013-11-19T21:17:11.410+00:00MJM during Book Week Scotland<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitMEt08Tyh-ccdeb_jwXqkVqpszsQ5LseS9-w0M3gbo00Pe-2x1BeozprAvazm-lIm-hlXJy6dxr84vaDPv2BSlWIcM5Knyy8JHvI74Rx9eai5kvGTUh_sdoVZ_V2jBSWe1uAgnZ1SThs/s1600/Bookwekscotland+logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitMEt08Tyh-ccdeb_jwXqkVqpszsQ5LseS9-w0M3gbo00Pe-2x1BeozprAvazm-lIm-hlXJy6dxr84vaDPv2BSlWIcM5Knyy8JHvI74Rx9eai5kvGTUh_sdoVZ_V2jBSWe1uAgnZ1SThs/s1600/Bookwekscotland+logo.jpg" /></a></div>
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I'm out and about during Book Week Scotland - a week where the whole of Scotland goes book crazy.<br />
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Monday 25th November at 7:30pm I'm in the Dunfermline Library talking about "Carnegie's Call" - details <a href="http://www.onfife.com/events/carnegies-call-michael-malone-dunfermline-carnegie-library">HERE</a><br />
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Wednesday 27th I'll be appearing at Waterstones, Newton Mearns talking with Douglas Skelton about his excellent book, "Blood City". Details <a href="http://www.whatsoneastrenfrewshire.co.uk/event/005612-waterstones-newton-mearns-book-signing:-douglas-skelton/">HERE</a><br />
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Thursday 28th November I'll be part of a part of Bloody Scotland on Tour, with Will Jordan, Bert Mitchell, Douglas Skelton and Craig Robertson. Details <a href="http://my.stirling.gov.uk/events/view/1738">HERE</a><br />
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Sunday Ist December at 4;30pm I'll be in Wigtown with yes, you've guessed it, Douglas Skelton talking crime and stuff.<br />
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Hope to see you there!<br />
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Laters,<br />
M<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-49675614426744105052013-06-29T14:54:00.002+01:002013-06-29T14:54:47.609+01:00May Contain Abusive Language<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXHvA-m5kYUyfHVyXXVH33yCbmhKYzScGvBiEv5xdKM0ZkWHdsteWjaoHPvpYb62EtMLqSNzweUWN6-jUIZ_FHQYn8UDGH3cet3z_xLAfDt1TQjdHxnSk-CyzYx7qOkEesc5mm30cdb-c/s128/potty+mouth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXHvA-m5kYUyfHVyXXVH33yCbmhKYzScGvBiEv5xdKM0ZkWHdsteWjaoHPvpYb62EtMLqSNzweUWN6-jUIZ_FHQYn8UDGH3cet3z_xLAfDt1TQjdHxnSk-CyzYx7qOkEesc5mm30cdb-c/s320/potty+mouth.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>
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One of the most common questions I’m asked by newbie writers
is whether or not to use sexual swear words in their fiction.</div>
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I didn’t give this much thought pre-publication, but I have
since learned that lots of people do care about the use of this sort of
language. It seems a bizarre double standard that you can portray any number of
violent acts without comment, but have your character use the F word and you
will receive all kinds of opprobrium. (I have all these big words in my head.
Got to use them sometime.)</div>
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My first lesson on this was when I was doing an event with
Alex Gray and Craig Robertson last year in Dundee. A lady approached us at the
signing table after the event and said she only had enough money to buy one of
our books and to help her decide, she needed to know if we used swear words in
our books.</div>
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My thought was, that’s me screwed and I pointed to Alex.</div>
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A mate of mine, Tony Black had a review on Amazon where the
“reviewer” said that as a Christian she really objected to the foul language
used by the characters. Presumably, as a Christian she didn’t mind the violence
that befell the characters, because she didn’t mention any of that. Then she
went on to question whether our fine officers in blue would use such language.</div>
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Re-arrange this sentence, missus. Get to out you need more.</div>
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In any case who am I to say that you should get over it? I’m
not the arbiter of all that is fine and wholesome and acceptable. But neither
are they.</div>
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So, why does this language offend so much? It’s just words, innit? Why does that
syllable crash on to peoples’ ears with such impact? Words are a writer’s tool.
Every word we use while communicating is part of that tool-kit and has a place
in writing surely? It’s part of writer’s contract with the reader that you
display with honesty the interaction between humans. If a certain character would speak like that
in the real world then by fuck, he’s going to speak like that in my book.</div>
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I remember meeting my agent for the first time. She was
a small, polite lady of a certain age. A
gentlelady, if I can use the term. We were in a restaurant in an art gallery. We
had been talking for about ten minutes when she pointed to a part of the text
and said, “There’s too much fucking.”</div>
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I nearly spat out my mineral water.</div>
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She wasn’t referring to it as an action. (That would be a
totally different book.) She was talking about my characters’ use of the
word. So we decided that it was fine if
it was a verbal tic for McBain, but that the other characters should desist, in
the main, so that people didn’t think that it was all me. Thing is, I don’t
tend to swear much in everyday life, it’s just that when I started to write
Blood Tears the swearie words flowed. What’s that all about?</div>
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I reckon it was because I was going through a divorce at the
time. ‘Nuff said.</div>
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Anywho, the follow up is out now details <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Taste-Malice-Michael-J-Malone/dp/1907869751/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372514033&sr=1-1">HERE</a>– and my
feeling – not that I’ve done a f-word count – is that there’s less of it this
time around. Maybe I’m a lot calmer now? The ex and I are good pals. AND in the book that comes out next spring only
contains one f-bomb.</div>
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So, aspiring writers? Your question to swear or not to swear?
Fucked if I know.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-6519220770758522132013-05-24T20:37:00.003+01:002013-05-24T20:37:59.611+01:00coming soon ....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYTpinmrsrUQuSDKP_7-A20J78Q-mwRmcGYMNMm690C4RglqgGSBJomtpw0otSLbojAq6dd4jPZvaMgacRBimbYBlCRj69G4s_RaK7ilnx2bnCMsDa6Dc3oyYiH71_FMUzTrSsFhkqowg/s1600/MALICE_LG+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYTpinmrsrUQuSDKP_7-A20J78Q-mwRmcGYMNMm690C4RglqgGSBJomtpw0otSLbojAq6dd4jPZvaMgacRBimbYBlCRj69G4s_RaK7ilnx2bnCMsDa6Dc3oyYiH71_FMUzTrSsFhkqowg/s640/MALICE_LG+(1).jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1483405696675036638.post-74674592165919416962013-01-07T20:30:00.001+00:002013-01-07T20:30:25.274+00:00A free sample ...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAdrJDCE4wgjJvydJU0vBPKay1seAyPpAo5MzrymigSq7QQjIrY316FIJ5Pt0yDr_GdASTrQ_Tyo38cyfpM3HPW8vpyq9oLA1AikuasdhXH9ouhpAon_AD8P1Qn3p4jLM81IPyg_iI-Cw/s1600/CarnegiesCall-D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAdrJDCE4wgjJvydJU0vBPKay1seAyPpAo5MzrymigSq7QQjIrY316FIJ5Pt0yDr_GdASTrQ_Tyo38cyfpM3HPW8vpyq9oLA1AikuasdhXH9ouhpAon_AD8P1Qn3p4jLM81IPyg_iI-Cw/s320/CarnegiesCall-D.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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For a limited time only, the e-book of Carnegie's Call is on special offer. So if you fancy reading about some amazing people you should take advantage of it, like, now.<br />
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Follow <a href="http://carnegiescall.launchrock.com/">THIS</a> link for a free sample full of inspirational goodness.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316263425112020638noreply@blogger.com24