Category: Blogging

Posted in Blogging, Festivals

It’s Dark & Stormy Down in Brighton

Posted on by J

Coming hot on the heels of CrimeFest and making sure you’ll be in the mood for Crime Story, it’s shaping up to be an A-May-zing May, with a second new Crime festival being announced in the last week, making for three weekends packed with all your crime fiction favourites.

Being launched as part of the larger Brighton Festival which runs from the 3rd to the 25th May, the Dark & Stormy Festival runs over three days from the 23rd to the 25th, and aims to bring you the best of all things crime related.

Dark & Stormy is a brand new UK crime festival, serving up a wicked selection of book, film, music & theatre events. We launch in May 2014, in partnership with Brighton Festival, Brighton Fringe, and Dukes at Komedia, to celebrate and promote this massively popular genre, bringing its fans, creators and stars together for one criminally good and unforgettable weekend.

Our aim is to appeal, not only to the legions of readers who keep crime writers at the top of the international bestseller lists, but also to the huge audiences who flock to watch The Killing and Breaking Bad on TV, Kick Ass and James Bond at the cinema, Max Payne and Grand Theft Auto on their PlayStations, and The Perfect Murder and Emil and the Detectives in the West End.

Sounds like another fantastic opportunity to celebrate crime fiction. So, grab your diaries and blot out this and the following weekends because there’s an unbelievable amount of criminal activity to be shared in.

CrimeFest – May 15th – 18th

Dark and Stormy – May 23rd  – 25th

and

Crime Story – May 31st – June 1st.

Posted in Blogging, Festivals

New Festival! Welcome to the calendar Crime Story

Posted on by J

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Not content with announcing a fabulous competition for aspiring Northern crime writers last week, New Writing North in conjunction with Northumbria University has just launched CrimeStory, a new crime fiction festival to run at their campus in the heart of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.

CrimeStory will run over the weekend of Saturday 31st May & Sunday 1st June 2014, and in the manner of all the best crime fiction, it comes with a delicious twist on the usual festival idea.

The weekend will focus on a fictional murder that we’ve commissioned from best-selling crime novelist Ann Cleeves in which a woman finds her foster-son dead in a locked room, a blood-splattered picture of an enigmatic woman on the wall and the dubious landlord nowhere to be found. The killer? Well, that’s up to the Crime Story participants

Crime Story will take place on 31 May-1 June and a host of top crime writers, criminologists, lawyers, police and forensics experts will walk attendees through the investigation, trial and punishment of the crime. There will be opportunities to participate in the digital autopsy of a computer, find out about ‘life inside’ from Guardian columnist Erwin James or listen to novelist Louise Welsh talking to former Observer crime fiction critic Peter Guttridge.

If it shapes up to be as interactive as it sounds, it will certainly be a welcome addition to the crime calendar.

 “In Crime Story writers will have the chance to find out from experts and practitioners how the criminal justice system really works. A young man has been found dead in his flat.  What happens next is down to the authors, academics and forensic scientists who’ll be exploring the scene.  CRIME STORY will be great opportunity for the writers of crime fiction to meet the experts who work in and research this field.”

– Ann Cleeves

Early Bird booking rates of £99 for adults, with a £10 discount for students are available until the 14th March. You can book your tickets here

Posted in Blogging

Competitions abound

Posted on by J

February has been a good month for aspiring crime writers with two competitions being launched in the last two weeks.

Live in the North of England?   Then this just might be the competition for you…

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Moth Publishing is looking for the next big thing in crime fiction.

This year Moth are looking not just for a full length novel, but also short stories to feature in a ‘Northern Crime’ anthology.

The winning novels will be published in print and as ebooks in 2015. The winning writers will receive a standard publishing contract, a £1,000 advance, and support to editorially develop their work. They will also enjoy a marketing and PR campaign to support the publication of their books. Short story winners will get £100 and their story published in the very first Northern Crime short story anthology.

Entry fees for the competition are: £25 for the novels and £10 for short stories.

The competition opened on February 10th and closes on the 29th August 2014.

Full details on how to enter, including a map showing where in the UK you must live in order to be classified as a Northern Writer, can be found on their website.  You can also find Moth Publishing on Twitter at @MothPublishing

If you don’t happen to live in the catchment area for that one, then have a look at Criminal Lines, the competition being run by AM Heath Literary Agents in conjunction with The Writers Workshop.

The competition is open to unagented, debut authors, born or resident in the UK and Ireland and comes with a £1,000 cash prize. Here’s what they’re looking for….

If you’ve written a perfect murder, a psychological nail-biter, or a gripping procedural, why not enter it for the prize? We’re looking for anything that will chill or thrill, with characters we can’t walk away from.

You can enter any kind of crime, suspense or thriller novel for the prize, with the proviso that any material previously submitted to AM Heath is ineligible. Your novel doesn’t have to be finished but the synopsis does need to show you have a clear vision for the book. Self-published authors are welcome to enter.

More information on the prize available, and full details on how to enter can be found on the AM Heath blog post here.  The competition opened on February 17th and closes at Midnight on the 5th May 2014.

Updates on this competition can be found on Twitter by following @Criminal_Lines or following the hashtag #Criminal_Lines

Finally, if that has ignited your competitive streak and inspired your imagination, but you are unsure where to start, don’t forget there is still time to sign up for Crime & Publishment at The Mill Forge Hotel, on the outskirts of Gretna Green.  Crime & Publishment is a fantastic creative writing weekend retreat designed for budding crime fiction authors of all levels and runs from 7th – 9th March 2014.

C&P

@CrimeandPublish

Posted in Blogging

A Song For The Dying – Stuart MacBride

Posted on by J

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He’s back…

Eight years ago, ‘The Inside Man’ murdered four women and left three more in critical condition – all of them with their stomachs slit open and a plastic doll stitched inside.

And then the killer just … disappeared.

Ash Henderson was a Detective Inspector on the initial investigation, but a lot can change in eight years. His family has been destroyed, his career is in tatters, and one of Oldcastle’s most vicious criminals is making sure he spends the rest of his life in prison.

Now a nurse has turned up dead on a patch of waste ground, a plastic doll buried beneath her skin, and it looks as if Ash might finally get a shot at redemption. At earning his freedom.

At revenge.

Venturing once more away from his serial protagonist Logan McRae, A Song for the Dying is the second outing for Ash Henderson.

Following on from the tragic events of Birthdays For The Dead, A Song For The Dying opens with Ash in prison and unable to get out, as every time a parole review comes round Mrs Kerrigan, one of Oldcastles most heinous villains, ensures that with the help of the other inmates he stays where he is.

Ash is about as downtrodden a hero as you are likely to find, and hell bent on revenge he’ll bring anyone else down with him, friends and colleagues alike.

What I really enjoy most about the Ash Henderson books is the change in pace from the McRae books. Whilst they are every bit as dark, gritty and down right awful to their protagonist, the usual intricate plots also come with a faster feel that hurtles you along with investigation, ensuring you feel every bit as determined to solve the crime.

Posted in Blogging

My best books of 2013

Posted on by J

You see what I did there? Top Five & Top Ten book lists are great don’t get me wrong, but what happens if I can think of six standout books of the year or can only get up to say four, or nine? and how do I say one is so much better than the other that it deserves to be No 1 and the other No 5?

So here in no particular order and of no significant number are the books I read this year that have left enough of an impression on me that I consistently recommend them to anyone who asks what they should read.

The Cry by Helen Fitzgerald

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To paraphrase an old catchphrase when it comes to The Cry, “Ignore what it says on the tin.”  I’ve recommended this book to a lot of people, even lending my own copy out several times.  Most have read the synopsis on the back and said “it’s not for me.”  To them all I have said one thing, “trust me, just read the first few chapters…”  It’s all I’ve ever needed to say.  The book has been devoured and enjoyed by everyone.  It’s one of those times when the old adage rings perfectly true.

“never judge a book by its cover.”

Dead Gone by Luca Veste

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I was privileged enough to be given a copy of Dead Gone by Luca back in July and whilst the paperback isn’t out until next year, the e-book is already available so I’m personally classing it as a book of 2013.  Don’t be surprised however to see this touted around everywhere next year as a ‘book of 2014.’ Expect to hear it talked about a lot, it is simply that good.







Strange Shores by Arnaldur Indridason

20131219-081658.jpgIf this is the only Indridason book you ever read you’ll be disappointed, not at the book per se as it’s a decent standalone but at the fact I recommended it.  The reason for that is simple, this is a book for hardened Indridason fans, only if you’ve followed this series from the beginning can you appreciate it in its fullness for its completion of a story.  Compare it to being a devoted fan of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot then finally reading ‘Curtain‘ and you’ll have an inkling at just how great this book really is.



The Stranglers Honeymoon by Håkan Nesser

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Apparently The Stranglers Honeymoon is book nine of ten Inspector Van Veeteran books and the latest translated into English.  I say apparently, because I’d never read one before.  The good point is I really didn’t need to have read them to enjoy this.  The better point?  I’m now in the middle of sourcing the other eight.

Posted in Blogging

A page & a promise

Posted on by J

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love books, from the days before I could read for myself and my parents read to me every night, to now, when any spare time I have is given over to the escapism of a good story.

My average per year ranges from 150 – 180 books and I love every page (even the books I dislike, because bad books only make you appreciate good books more.)

Tonight however, I read a review for a book I love, in which the re-written synopsis  gave away pretty much everything you ever needed to know about the story and that made me sad because the magic of this novel was in the not knowing, and in how it played out.  It’s the type of reviewing I dislike immensely.

So when it comes to reading or writing reviews? These are my thoughts.

Tell me about the book? Yes please.  Thrilling & adventurous or clunky & slow? Doesn’t matter to me, all opinions are valid.

Re-Write the Synopsis? If needs be, because sometimes even the publishers give too much of the story away.

Tell me the story in 100 words or less? Fine, if your target market is people who need to be told how the book plays out before they read it.  Please note, I am not one of that number and if you market your book as such I will immediately discount it as worthy of note because let’s face it why bother to read a book when I can just read the blurb?

Write a 1,000 word essay? Seriously? Please don’t burble on about imagery, story, plots, complexity, or behave like you are the reviewer for a British broadsheet.

Books are to me are, and always will be, personal treasure chests sitting on a shelf all gleaming and bright (even the old battered twenty second hand ones) just waiting for me to open their pages and lose myself in the adventures inside.

As such I will endeavour to keep my reviews intriguing and honest, yet informative and concise.   Comments are welcomed, but be polite about it or I won’t give you the webspace. Otherwise please feel free to discuss anything you like / dislike about my reviews via the e-mail address provided.

You will find the above post also available as a page entitled the LOC Philosophy…..