Weekend, 30-31 December 2006
Here we go. Nearly the end of 2006 and I hope everyone had a largely stress-free Christmas!
The weather's getting wetter and windier here in Cumbria − the little beck that runs alongside our house is showing delusions of grandeur and has put on a foot of depth since the rain began last night. The wind is bending the top of the spruce trees outside the study window to about forty-five degrees to the trunk.
But, compared to other news, life is calm and tranquil. I switched on my computer and was told that Saddam Hussein had been hanged at 3am and the celebrations in some parts of Iraq were overshadowed by a bomb on a bus in the Shiite city of Kufa that killed at least thirty. A passenger ferry carrying over 850 people from Java to Borneo had sunk − only nine people had so far been rescued in appalling weather conditions. And it makes you wonder why, with all this death and destruction going on in the world, are crime and thriller novels so popular?
The theory I have is they provide closure. We read a story in a newspaper, hear a snatch of it on the radio, or see it on the evening news, and rarely do we find out the big picture. Who did it? And why? What happened, exactly? A novel provides the mystery, but also the answer. It allows us to follow the threads to their logical conclusion and, although the ending might not always be a happy one, it is an ending. It allows us to reaffirm our belief in something approaching justice. The villain might not end up going to prison, but he probably ends up getting shot by the hero − or, in my case, the heroine − on the final page. And we allow ourselves to cheer when it happens in a book, where we might have some severe concerns about growing vigilantism if it happened in real life.
Right, rant over. For me this week has seen the end of Third Strike in sight. I reached the 99,000-word mark last night, although, strictly speaking, it was at 2am this morning. I reckon I still have some pruning to do, but I can't really much exceed my 110,000-word limit (100k, +/- 10%), so I have 10-15,000 words to go. I think the story's more or less in the right place, heading in the right direction now and, while it's been hard work over Christmas to stay focused on it, I'm nearly there.
So, am I making any New Year's Resolutions? To be this organised about writing the next one, probably. To put the same kind of concentrated effort into an exercise routine as I do into work (Erm, like I promised I was going to do back in the summer.) I'm already fighting off ideas for the next book, and the new series is looming large at the edges of my vision. At the same time, life's rushing past at a frightening rate. If you don't look up from the keyboard occasionally, it's gone. So, if I have a most important resolution, it's to make the best use of the time I have.
Meanwhile, it's lashing it down outside, so I'm off back to the book. Wishing you health, luck and happiness in 2007!
Weekend, 23-24 December 2006
Ever get that uncomfortable feeling when you're on your way somewhere that, although you confidently thought you were heading the right way, you gradually realise your surroundings have taken on an unfamiliar tinge? You're not lost, exactly − you're just not quite heading in the right direction. That happened this week. There I was, happily galloping towards my target with Third Strike of 95,000 words before Christmas, when my Other Half, Andy, planted the idea in my head that perhaps − just perhaps − something wasn't quite right with the story. And, drat it, he was right.
So, I've spent part of the last week doing a bit of unpicking and re-stitching. I might have kicked and mewled a bit when he pointed it out but, now he has, I realise he's quite right. I was going the wrong way. Fortunately, things came to light before I'd gone too far down this cul-de-sac, and correcting the mistake is fiddly rather than quite the major operation it might have been. Still, that's the way it goes with writing. I know some authors who write a huge amount and throw half of it away on a regular basis. Just because it's not my usual way of working, doesn't mean it doesn't happen occasionally. And, if it makes the final book stronger − which I think this will − it doesn't matter.
Now, having gone backwards to go forwards, I'm at 92,000 words, which I feel is still a pretty good amount to have written, all things considered. And there's still a couple of days to go. This year I forewarned everyone who's coming to stay over the holiday that I would be antisocially sneaking off each day to write, and not to take it personally!
So, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays. And if cooking the turkey doesn't go according to plan, or the family stress you out, just remember − you can always leave them fighting over a tin of baked beans and go and escape into a good book . . .
Weekend, 16-17 December 2006
Another 3am finish last night, but the book's still making progress. I managed to fill in the gap I'd left in the narrative and am now moving forward but this week's been full of interruptions and I'm only up to 83,000 words when I was hoping to be further along. And, for the first time since I really got stuck into Third Strike in mid-October, I missed two days' writing in a row.
It's not the same as having a few days off at the end of the month because I'd hit my target, this left me very cranky. Writing a book is such a fine balance − I suppose it's a bit like surfing a big wave. When it's going well you're on top of the world, but it's very easy to feel you've lost control of it, that things are about to go horribly wrong, and you're about to get a dunking.
Still, I think I've got a grip on it again now. Helped by an unexpectedly long car journey yesterday. I say 'unexpectedly' because if I'd known how much time we were going to eventually spend in the car, I would have taken my laptop and scribbled. But, I didn't think it was going to take so long, so all I took was a notebook. However, kicking ideas around with Andy while we're on the move is always very productive and I ended up working out some vital bits of plot for the remainder of the book, including what I feel will give the book a lot of emotional punch. Not to mention setting up the start of the next one quite nicely.
And, I'm nearly at the point where I can start writing in Terry O'Loughlin, who was the winner of the charity auction at Bouchercon to be a character in Third Strike. A vital role, as it turns out. And it's fun to incorporate a few real aspects of the person into the character, if they have no objections.
When I wrote Frances Neagley into Second Shot after she bid for the character name at Bouchercon in Chicago, I also included her drink of choice and the sports team she supported. From a brief conversation in Madison, I know Terry was a big fan of college football and an idea involving that instantly started to form . . .
Despite missing a couple of days on the book, I did finally manage to get a short story away, just squeaking it in right on deadline. I tried to work closely within the brief on that one, too, which I find much easier than just being told to write a short story on any subject. I never started out as a short story writer − it's not something that occurs naturally to me to do − but I seem to be doing more and more of them. The next deadline for a submission is the end of January, though, so with any luck I'll have finished the first draft of the book and might even have time for a few days off before I get stuck into that!
Weekend, 9-10 December 2006
Another week spent largely in the car, travelling to London and back for the Crime Writers' Association Christmas party, held in Long Acre, and a Committee meeting. I discovered at the meeting that, come the AGM next April, my three-year stint on the Committee comes to an end. Having said that, I was approached (several times, actually) to see if I would consider staying on as CWA Press Officer. Just goes to show that nobody else is exactly clamouring to take over the job . . .
To be honest, it's been quite fun − frustrations aside − and it has little perks like I'm probably one of the few people who knows the results of all the prestigious annual Dagger awards well in advance of the big night. Fortunately, I don't drink, so nobody can hope to ply me with cheap booze in advance in the hopes I'll tell all! My lips are very firmly sealed.
The Christmas party was fun, as ever. This year we moved away from the rarefied atmosphere of the roof terrace at Soho House and took over the upstairs room of The Sun Tavern in Long Acre, a stone's throw from Covent Garden tube. Always a worthwhile event to go to, not just because I got to have a chat with various authors and publishers, and my agent, Jane Gregory, was there in force with her staff. The bits of gossip you pick up alone are worth the price of admission . . .
Of course, long motorway journeys also mean I get more time to work on the book. Third Strike has now reached 77,000 words and is still looking reasonably on target for the early part of January, although I must admit that yesterday was the first really sticky day I've had since I started it. Earlier, I left a gap in the narrative because I needed some technical information in order the write the scene. Now I've got the info, I wanted to go back and fill in the blanks before I felt I could proceed much further.
The trouble is, the characters have moved on from that point. There has been a major argument and a clearing of the air, and it's been slow work to go back. I find it much easier to jump forwards when I'm writing. I can quite happily write the end of a book before I've reached it, just to give myself a real tangible point to aim for. But this is, I think, the first time I've had to work the other way.
Had a phone call late Friday evening from my US editor, Marcia Markland at St Martin's Minotaur, asking for the jacket copy for Second Shot, so it looks like a cover design might be imminent. You work so far ahead as an author. By the time Second Shot comes out next September, I'll have finished the follow-up and could even be into the one after that. Getting the cover image helps refocus your attention and gives the book an identity that it didn't seem to have when it was just a collection of manuscript pages. Makes it seem more like a real book. I can't wait!
Weekend, 2-3 December 2006
Suddenly, Christmas is galloping towards us at a rate of knots and I've no idea where the bulk of 2006 went. This weekend is earmarked for writing cards and putting the tree up, having only got back from a day-job photo trip to London at one a.m. Saturday morning. Still, I did manage to get a few thousand words done on the laptop in the car while we were rushing about the country and sitting in traffic trying to get out of the capital. Always a bad idea to be on the M1 motorway heading out of London on a Friday afternoon.
Having reached a point where I felt I was a bit ahead of myself with Third Strike, I have written very little on the book this week. I was hoping to get my short story for the new Busted Flush anthology, 'A Hell of a Woman' written, but it's still in the incomplete phase. I look back at last week's blog and note with some amusement that I was also intending to bring my summary up to date. Didn't end up doing that either. Instead, I took the best part of a thousand digital photos at various locations around the country, and snuck an afternoon off to go and see the new James Bond film, 'Casino Royale'. Thought it could have been tightened up in a few places, but overall Daniel Craig was an inspired choice for Bond, and the action sequences are brilliant. Well worth at least one viewing. It'll certainly be on my DVD list when it comes out.
So, now it's head-down full-tilt again to get the final third of Third Strike done as the year closes. Fortunately, when I refer back to my outline, I find that I'm more or less in the right place in the plot for this stage of the book. I like to work from an outline, but don't keep looking at it on a regular basis. It's nice to check it now and again, just to make sure the story's progressing as it should, but not slavishly follow it. Sometimes, when I get to a tricky bit in the writing, I look back and find I already worked out how to solve the problem I'm facing when I did the outline, which comes as a bit of a relief as well as a surprise.
I know some writers hate working from an outline, but I like the reassurance of knowing how the story ends, of the conclusion I'm working towards. It doesn't spoil a film for me if I've seen it before or someone's told me the twist. If anything, I enjoy it more. There is also the added reassurance that my agent and my editor have both looked at the synopsis for the story and like the sound of it. I can't imagine working through an entire book only to be told that the basic premise is flawed. If someone thinks the idea has promise, all you have to do (all − ha!) is not mess it up during the execution. If someone is really unconvinced that the plot holds water, you've an uphill struggle before you've finished chapter one.
Not that I feel straight-jacketed by the outline. When I put the idea together for Third Strike, I knew Charlie's father had publicly disgraced himself, but didn't know how, and I only had a hazy idea of the death in which he was involved. I also didn't know much about the drug company insider who might be helping them or might be setting them up. I like to give the characters room to breathe in a scene, so I know the structure of what happens, but not the tiny details, or sometimes the reactions of the characters involved.
That way, I leave them some spontaneity within events beyond their control − that's because they're in my control. And I'm the evil author who likes to put them through the wringer just to see how they react. I know the broad themes − I know that one main character is going to respond badly to the pressure and the violence of the situation in which they find themselves increasingly embroiled, while another is going to blossom. The fun is letting that happen as the story unfolds.
Weekend, 25-26 November 2006
I completely forgot to mention last week that I'd done another LadyKillers event with my fellow 'Killers − Lesley Horton, Priscilla Masters and Danuta Reah/Carla Banks. We went to Stockton-on-Tees to a wonderfully organised evening 'do' on November 14 at the main library. The library itself is very impressive and even has its own café − a wonderful innovation that ought to catch on more. For the ticket price, people were treated to a tasty buffet as well as the four of us doing our best to be entertaining and informative. And, just to keep us on our toes, the library staff had included a Post-It note in the information packs on each chair, with an invitation to the audience to write comments and stick them to a board on the way out. Fortunately, they were all good!
I never realised, when I started out writing, how much time would be devoted to this kind of thing, and it's fortunate that I rather enjoy it. I've met several other writers who go into a cold sweat at the very thought of standing up in public and talking about their work. They prefer being locked away in a darkened room, feverishly working on the next book.
Speaking of which, I had another late night last night, doing just that. It got to somewhere around 2am before I finally couldn't prop my eyelids open any longer, but the typescript for the next Charlie Fox book, Third Strike, has hit the 66,000 word mark, which was where I was aiming to be for the end of November. So, I've now got a bit of time to complete my chapter-by-chapter summary of the book so far, which was an idea suggested to me by Lesley Horton. Helps you keep track of different story threads as you go.
I also have a breathing space to try and get a short story scribbled for a Busted Flush anthology that's out next year, called 'A Hell of a Woman'. No doubt there will be a few late nights on the cards getting that done, too. Just had an email from David Thompson at Busted Flush this week to say that the last one I contributed to, 'Damn Near Dead' − they do come up with some good titles − has been named as one of the best anthologies of the year.
A lot of the writers I talk to about their method of going about the job say they can't write into the evenings, that the mornings are when their best ideas come, when their prose is at its sharpest. I like the darkness for that − for atmosphere, for pace. Darkness with just a desk lamp throwing a pool of light over the keyboard and the shadows filling the rest of the room behind you. I just can't conjure up a bleak moodiness when it's bright and sunny outside. Maybe that's why I seem to write best in the winter. A kind of reversed Seasonal Affective Disorder?
And music. I can't write to silence. I've been listening to Evanescence's new album, 'The Open Door' a lot while writing Third Strike. There's a song on there called 'Lithium' − and, well, you can guess from the title alone that it's not going to have a happy tempo and an upbeat lyric, can't you? The whole mood of the album just fits the section I'm writing at the moment. We have such a huge CD collection that I can just about guarantee to have something for every occasion, from AC/DC to Zydeco and passing through Nat King Cole, Linkin Park, Philip Glass, Brad Paisley and Rammstein on the way.
If music wasn't so good at influencing and manipulating our emotions, they wouldn't spend so much money scoring movies. Good incidental music compounds things − 'Gladiator' is a case in point. Bad film music jolts you out of your suspension of disbelief altogether. Does anyone remember 'The Wild Geese' with Richard Burton and Richard Harris? Has to be the most inappropriate movie music ever.
Weekend, 18-19 November 2006
We had our first dusting of what looks like snow on the fells surrounding us last night, but it could be hail that's just stuck in the cold. Good writing weather, when it's cold outside. You don't have much of a compulsion to get out into the garden, or even venture to the supermarket, when the sleet's coming down at forty-five degrees, or the rain's hitting hard enough to bounce a foot back up off the terrace.
The latest Charlie Fox book is gathering a bit of weight, having reached the 55,000-word mark. I had an initial response on the first hundred pages from my agent's in-house editor, Emma, which was very positive. Just a bit of tightening and a bit of additional explanation, but no major disasters (so far, anyway).
But I am aware that I'm entering what is, for me, the most difficult stage of the book − the third quarter. The finished work will be around 100,000 words, and the last quarter of those are usually all involved with the conclusion. I don't write traditional whodunits where you turn the last page to discover, to your enormous surprise, it was the butler what did it.
Instead, my ex-Special Forces turned bodyguard heroine is largely more concerned with keeping her principal alive and finding out who's behind the threat to them. By the last quarter of the book, she probably knows who's out to get them, but then it becomes a case of how does she stop them succeeding? How does she effect a rescue? Or how does she get out of the mess into which they've entangled themselves − and usually pretty much entangled her as well?
So, the difficult third quarter is the bit where the threads of the story are starting to mesh together and you're starting to work out what's going on and why. But, if you rush into this, it's all over too quickly. You have to keep the narrative drive without letting the pace wander, but still giving your characters the odd respite. While still, of course, moving the story forwards in terms of character development, or expanding on your theme.
I sometimes think you need the skills of circus performers to keep a novel in balance and spinning fast enough to entertain, right the way through. You need to be a juggler and an acrobat, a memory man, a magician and, occasionally, a clown. You aim to get through a show having made your audience laugh and cry and gasp at the breathtaking illusions you've created, and the death-defying feats. The only problem is that, as a writer, you don't find out if you've pulled all this off until possibly several years after it was actually written . . .
Weekend, 11-12 November 2006
I’m a great believer in the laws of expansion and − from a writing point of view − one of those is that books tend to expand to fill the word-count available. After I wrote my second book, Riot Act, 25 percent too long and my editor made me painstakingly cut it, I’ve always tried to write ‘short’. This is working on the theory that, should I miraculously come to the end of the story and still have 10,000 words to spare, I could go back and insert some extra scenes that don’t play an absolutely essential role in moving the story forwards, but would provide interesting character background.
Somebody sent me an email not that long ago that said, while they thoroughly enjoyed the Charlie Fox books and loved the character, why did we never see her outside work? Good point, I thought, but I never have the room and I think I’d get rather bored showing her at the launderette unless something happened there, or she fell into conversation there that meant something. And if I’m bored writing it, how’s the reader going to feel? Quite often I’ve written a scene that I really like, but if it doesn’t do something necessary to the story, or say something that needed to be said, it’s not earning its keep and out it comes.
Another law of expansion is that stored junk expands to fill the space available. This gets worse when you’re a writer, particularly relating to old articles and news clippings. ‘Ah-ha,’ I say to myself, ‘that’s a useful bit of information. That will come in handy for a plot somewhere . . .’ and it joins the overflowing stack of similar clippings and pages torn from magazines on a corner of my desk.
I’m constantly amazed what brilliant bits of info are included in The Big Issue, which is the magazine sold by homeless people on UK city streets, with a proportion of the cover price going direct to the vendor. I actively seek such vendors out whenever I’m in a city and they’re out selling the mag. I’m sitting looking at a couple of saved pages now − one on post-traumatic stress disorder in ex-servicemen, and another on anorexia. Both relevant to the book I’m going to be working on after the next Charlie Fox, Third Strike.
That book has just reached 46,000 words, which is looking reasonably on target to have the first draft done by the time everyone goes back to work after Christmas. Because, coming back to another law of expansion − jobs expand to fill the time available. I don’t know anyone who finishes a book weeks ahead of their deadline date − it’s always down to the wire. (And if there is anyone out there who does finish weeks ahead and goes around with a smug smile on their face because of it, I don’t think I want to know them.)
I think this is one reason why I wouldn’t like to entirely give up the day job. Not only do we get to meet some fascinating people with weird and wonderful occupations, but it creates a structure around which to fit the writing. I often manage to get the best part of a thousand words done on the laptop while Andy is driving us to and from a job. If I’d been at home with nothing else to occupy me, that could easily have taken me all day. I can completely understand people who’ve recently retired who say, ‘I’m so busy I don’t know how I ever found the time to work!’
Weekend, 4-5 November 2006
There's been quite a bit of talk on the discussion forums this week about self-defence and I couldn't resist throwing my two pennyworth into the mix when it comes to protecting yourself. It's a subject that's pretty close to my heart and one I went into a great deal before I started writing the Charlie Fox books.
I firmly believe that self-defence training − particularly for women − works. I think that everyone should know the basics. But I admit that it's a perfect example of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. Any form of self-defence is useless if you're not prepared to devote time and effort to develop the muscular memory of the techniques and moves involved. An assailant is not going to stand patiently while you fiddle around trying to locate that perfect pressure point. "Now, wait a minute, don't tell me − I know this one . . ."
A knife is a good defensive weapon − if you know how to hold and use it. A correctly held knife is pretty difficult to take away from someone. But, if you're going to carry a knife, you need to have already made the decision, well in advance of an attack situation, that you are prepared to use it. Otherwise, you're wasting your time. I do not believe that any man could take a knife away from a determined woman who's had some training.
A gun is a good weapon − but the same applies. If you carry, concealed or otherwise, and you're not prepared to shoot someone who you feel is threatening your life, you may as well just hand the gun to your attacker at the outset, because unless you have a very convincing scary face, they're going to see your indecision and risk making a grab for it. And then you've provided them with a weapon to use against you. Mind you, it's been my experience that most people − and I'm not including law enforcement professionals in this category − are not very good with a handgun at any kind of distance and certainly not when they're in a high-stress situation.
There are some who argue that a woman shouldn't go out alone at night without a big dog or a large male companion by her side. The dormant feminist in me kinda resents the implication that I need that type of escort in order to walk the streets unmolested at night − because the unspoken rider is that if I choose not to equip myself in such a way I'm somehow asking for it.
I used to shoot in the UK but we're not allowed handguns over here any more. Also illegal are Mace, pepper spray, Tasers, or knives with anything longer than a four-inch blade. And yes, I carry a Swiss Army knife at all times, but I'd be more likely to use it closed than try to stab someone with it.
CS spray is very hit and miss − I've been through military CS chambers. (Always wash it off with cold water, by the way.) The UK police officers I know who use CS regularly reckon you're as likely to spray your partner as your suspect. As an interesting piece of trivia, though, if you spray someone and then Taser them, I'm told the propellant in with the gas means they're highly likely to ignite!
An extendible baton is an interesting defensive choice − although illegal for civilians over here as well − but again only if you're prepared to learn how to use it, and to use it with speed and aggression. Half-hearted thwacks are only going to make your attacker mad. And in an enclosed space you're hampered. The other disadvantage is that the best method of defence against a long weapon like a baton is to get in as close as possible, so you're driving your attacker in towards you as much as driving him (or her) away.
Instead, at home I have to rely on improvised weapons. The five-cell Maglite in my car is not classed as a weapon and would not get me arrested, but it would do the job, and I'd be delighted to show you how to punch a rolled-up magazine through an internal door.
But, yes again, the best method of self-defence is not to be there, or not to think or behave like a victim in the first place. In crowds I always like to know who's walking behind me and I never put my hands in my pockets. I know that if I am attacked and I allow myself to be taken from the point of my abduction to the point of my attacker's choosing, the danger to me more than triples.
But, most of all, I have already made the decision about how hard I would fight. And for that you have to fully appreciate the price of failure.
Weekend, 28-29 October 2006
One of the things that always strikes me about being a writer is how generous people are with their time and knowledge when it comes to research. I’m right in the midst of the next Charlie Fox book (Third Strike) at the moment, which is partly set in New York. We spent a little time there last year and, almost by chance, I happened to jot down a lot of flash card impressions of the city, as well as taking over 250 photos. At the time I didn’t have particular plans to set the next book there − in fact, I was nowhere near finishing writing the last one, Second Shot − but all those disconnected thoughts have since proved very useful to give the new book’s setting some depth and texture.
But, inevitably, there are things you miss, or that you didn’t realise you needed. Fortunately, we have friends dotted around the place who very kindly answer email queries of this type. Long Island author Reed Farrel Coleman was great at suggesting suitable locations in Brooklyn for a ‘house of negotiable affection’ − er, entirely theoretical, of course.
I picked the brains of my editor at St Martin’s Minotaur, Marcia Markland, for the areas in Manhattan with the priciest restaurants − something I mostly likely wouldn’t have discovered first hand during my visit, unfortunately! Crimespree Magazine Photo and Events’ Editor, Mary Reagan, has offered to provide me with some visual clues if I need them. Florida author, Fred ‘the Zen guy’ Rea, pointed me in the right direction for NYC concealed carry handgun laws, and Chicago-based author, Libby Fischer Hellmann, filled me in on what burgers are (even) further down the food chain from McDonald’s. And then friend Shell Willbye took time out from writing scripts to question her mother-in-law closely about the size and construction of various knitting needles. And no, Charlie has not taken up knitting. Well, not in quite the manner you’d expect, anyway. Or perhaps, Charlie being Charlie, she does exactly what you’d expect . . .
Of course, to some authors this is extremely useful. When I send medical questions to DP (Doug) Lyle MD, I know he’s gathering together information for the follow-up to ‘Murder & Mayhem − a Doctor Answers Medical and Forensic Questions for Mystery Writers’. A brilliant book, and one well worth buying for entertainment value alone, never mind how invaluable it is. And I was also able to help Libby out with some motorcycle-related information for her latest thriller. It’s all part of what makes this job so much fun.
Weekend, 21-22 October 2006
Went down to Sheffield this week, to a dinner at the Off The Shelf festival, to hear the winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Short Story Award. In theory all four of the nominees were going to be in attendance − Robert Barnard, Ken Bruen, Stuart Pawson and Martyn Waites. All people you’d want to spend an evening with, never mind the fact that they’re hugely talented writers. In the end, though, Ken suffered a catalogue of misfortune, from having his foot run over by a New York taxi, to having his plane diverted and a hairy-sounding emergency landing in Italy, and couldn’t be there. Ken lives in Ireland, incidentally − he’s just a jet-setter − and he said the Italians had been very impressed with his limp. ‘Thought I’d been shot.’
Chair of judges, Peter Lovesey, announced the winner as Robert Barnard, for a story set in the Sistine Chapel during a papal election. Robert claimed he’d been told by one American magazine that it was too offensive to too many people to publish, but it went into the ID: Crimes of Identity anthology and there you go. I had a story in the same anthology, so I suppose I can bask − just a little − in the reflected glory. Many congratulations, Robert!
Peter Lovesey also read out examples of some very short, short stories − fifty words or less. Getting an idea across in fifty words, particularly when it’s the first fifty words with no introduction, is quite a task. I find the more I write, the more I agonise over the opening sentence, the opening paragraph, and the opening page of my books. It’s your only opportunity to convince a floating reader that here is something they really must buy, and that it will make them miss their stop on the Underground because they’re so engrossed in the story. Or so you hope.
But often the thing that spoils an opening chapter for me is too much back story. It doesn’t have to be in a series character, even − although that really bugs me when the author tells you exactly what happened and whodunit in the last book, inside the first few pages of the next one.
I liken it to being at a party and someone coming up to you, leaning into your face and telling you their life story, whether you want to hear it or not. You might listen politely for a minute or so, then your eyes will start to swivel looking for a suitable escape route. It’s the same with a character. Most of the time − unless it’s necessary − I don’t want to know where they went to school, what important job they’ve got, or how much their house is worth, until I know them a little better. And maybe not even then. Just like life.
Weekend, 14-15 October 2006
I’m fascinated by words. I suppose, when you think about it, that’s a pretty obvious statement for a writer, but it’s all part of the job. I’ve resisted all efforts to get a dictionary program for my computer, because I love the serendipity of looking words up in a proper book, where the page might just fall open at a word you’ve never come across before, or one where you didn’t realise the proper meaning.
One of my favourite examples is ‘feisty’. Charlie Fox has often been described in these terms and you’d suppose I ought to be reasonably pleased by such praise. The current meaning of the word − according to my well-thumbed and much Post-It note-adorned dictionary − is ‘excitable, irritable, touchy, spirited, from old US dialect fist meaning a small aggressive dog’. Hm, OK, maybe not quite so pleased. And then comes the real kicker: ‘from Middle English fisten, to break wind.’ So, when reviewers call Charlie ‘feisty’, they might be thinking ‘spirited’, but in my head they’re actually accusing her of flatulence . . .
Someone sent me an email recently in which they mentioned they were going to ‘persue’ something. The word looked both right and wrong spelt that way, so I looked it up, just in case. And, sure enough, ‘persue’ is a word − and not just an obsolete version of ‘pursue’. It comes from Spenser − and I’m talking about the 16th century English writer, Edmund Spenser, rather than the Robert B Parker private eye character − and means ‘a track of blood, from the act of piercing.’ What a great word for a crime writer to have stumbled across! Another Post-It on the page.
The incident that sparked off this train of thought, though, was an eavesdropped conversation in Atlanta airport recently. It’s not just that I’m nosy − which I admit that I am − but the tables were packed in close together, and some people just have loud voices. There were two guys in suits alongside us. You know the type − carry-on bags that laugh in the face of maximum size for the overhead bins, flashing their latest palmtop computers and their Borg-implant mobile phone headsets. I’ll give them ‘assimilated’ . . .
They were discussing the latest school shooting incident in the US, which had cruelly ripped apart an Amish community in rural Pennsylvania. The archetypal lone gunman had boarded himself into a tiny one-room schoolhouse in Nickel Mines and allowed several people to leave − including fifteen boys, the teacher, and a pregnant woman − then shot twelve of the girls, killing three, before turning the gun on himself. One guy asked if the other had heard about it.
‘Yeah,’ he replied. ‘But they only shot the women − only the girls.’
Now, I’m sure what he meant to say was ‘they shot only the women’ and that his intention was to highlight the strange selectivity on the part of the gunman. Instead, his use of words, and the order in which he used them, could easily have been taken to mean that he considered female life more expendable than male. And, for all I know, maybe he did. As the old Dixon of Dock Green character might have said: ‘Mind what you say.’
Weekend, 7-8 October 2006
Bouchercon was fascinating, as always. Exhausting, but fascinating. I go into Energizer Bunny mode at conventions, surviving on very little food and almost no sleep for four days, revved up on adrenaline and caffeine. And I just love the buzz.
This year was particularly memorable for us for lots of reasons. Being made part of the Tony Spinosa Security Detail. Reed Farrel Coleman deservedly sweeping the board at the award ceremonies. Charles Benoit describing his hernia operation (you really had to be there). Simon Wood recalling his ‘last’ elevator ride with his father-in-law. The delightful Terry O’Loughlin winning the auction bid to be a character in the next-but-one Charlie Fox book, Third Strike. Ken Bruen getting his money’s worth out of the story of my Other Half, Andy, splitting open his recent appendix scar during our visit to Galway because Ken made him laugh so much. Successfully lowering the tone on a total of three panels. Talking guns versus knives with David Morrell. Hearing the Badger song from Russel McLean. Jon Jordan borrowing a button maker and drinking enough Red Bull and espresso to produce hundreds of badges for the convention. Allan ‘Sunshine’ Guthrie’s tales of being a concert bassoonist. Joseph V Hartlaub showing me his hideaway knife. Going out to a haughty French restaurant with the irrepressible Maggie Topkis and the irreplaceable Meg Chittenden (you’ll never know how close I came to asking the staff for ketchup, guys, just to see them bust a vein). Spending time with my wonderful St Martin’s editor, Marcia Markland. Finding Zen tea for Fred the Gun Guy. Having fits of giggles with Christine Kling over the subject of facial topiary. Sardine-room only at the Reacher Creature bash. Being ‘so close, but no éclair’ to the Sisters in Crime dessert party. Celebrating the one-year anniversary of failing to complete the contract on Ted Hertel. I can only apologise to everyone I’ve left out.
But there was one memory that stands out − and that takes us back to the charity auction again. I must admit that I didn’t realise when I put a last-minute lot into the auction, just how much interest it was going to raise. After a visit to the Deerfield Pistol and Archery Center on Thursday showed them to be very amenable, I offered ‘Breakfast and Shooting’, and promptly forgot all about it. I don’t like to go to the auction, to save embarrassment if nobody bids.
But they did. Oh boy, they did! I’m told it was a ding-dong battle at the end, with the eventual winner emerging as Judy Watford. One of the reasons Judy was so keen to win this − to the point where she rearranged her flight and hotel specially − was that she’s never been able to find a gun range in her home state of Texas that would let her shoot. The reason? Judy’s blind.
People’s reaction to the news that I was going to take a blind woman to a gun range was interesting and, I feel, said a lot about them. Some treated it as a joke. I admit, I did laughingly offer Judy the alternative of driving lessons, but she stuck to her guns (groan). Others simply put their heads in their hands. But once we’d called the range to check they had no objections, we were all set.
Judy went out to Radio Shack on Saturday and bought a couple of the cheapest transistor radios she could find. Apparently the sales guy tried to persuade her to upgrade. His reaction when she told him she wanted to use the radios for target practice isn’t recorded.
We picked out a Sig Sauer P228 9mm semiautomatic for Judy to fire. The same gun we chose for the novice shooters who went with us to the range on Thursday. Nice progressive trigger action. Not too much kick. User friendly, if a gun could be described as such a thing.
The only stipulation from the range was that they wanted to have a staff member in there with us. Ex military and now heading for the police, Mike was a cool guy. The rules of handling a gun are the same regardless of how much experience you have. Don’t point it at anything you’re not prepared to destroy. Always assume it’s loaded. Keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to fire.
Judy had steady hands and a good grip. With the radios providing direction to the target, she put more holes in that outline at ten feet than most novice shooters manage first time out, that’s for sure. In fact, her first shot nailed the target right on the nose. Mike must have been impressed because he brought down a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun which had very little recoil and was a pleasure to fire. Judy certainly seemed to enjoy it.
And those radios won’t be giving anybody trouble in future, you can count on that. We packaged up what was left for her and suggested she take them back to Radio Shack to see if they'd give her a refund . . .
Having taught horse riding to the visually impaired many years ago, I wasn’t surprised in the least either by Judy’s enthusiasm or her ability. She’s a brilliant example that you can do anything you set your mind to. And it just goes to show − you don’t need sight to have vision.
Saturday, 30 September 2006, at Bouchercon in Madison, Wisconsin
It’s Saturday morning, 5am. I know that for certain because the pool lights outside our bedroom window at the Concourse Hotel in Madison have just come on, like some instant artificial sunrise. What’s particularly weird is that we don’t have a view to the outdoors, but we can open our sliding window and we’re instantly poolside. And we’re on the third floor!
We’re at Bouchercon, which is the major mystery convention in the US. It started on Thursday at noon, which was when I had my first panel. I was privileged enough to be called upon to take part in the twentieth birthday of Sisters in Crime, known as SinC. SinC was formed to promote and support female crime writers, and you don’t have to be a published author to join. I was there, apparently, to fly the flag not only for overseas members but also for the hard boiled/thriller aspect. And I was even more privileged to be alongside such talent as Carolyn Hart, Rochelle Krich, SJ Rozan and Dana Stabenow, with Jim Huang in the moderator’s chair. Jim’s laid-back easy style of moderation allowed us all to do what we like to do best, which was talk about how, why and what we write, and how SinC has helped us along the way.
Of course, before the convention even started, I’d already done two panels, in effect. We flew into Chicago on Monday evening and drove up to Libby Fischer Hellmann’s house. The next day we picked up SJ Rozan and William Kent Krueger from the airport and that evening went up to the library in Gurnee for an evening event. What a terrific library facility they have there! Quite an eye-opener.
On Wednesday we drove over to Madison, via the library at Fort Atkinson for a noon event, a journey made more exciting by Kent fearlessly leading us through road construction in an attempt to find the place. I don’t think those guys in the yellow hard hats who were waving their arms at us were serious, Kent . . .
Thursday evening, we went out to Booked For Murder for the launch of Bloody Brits Press, who were celebrating with books by two great UK authors, Val McDermid and Danuta Reah. Val said later that she’d calculated how much drink to get in for the launch party based on average Brit consumption, with the result that she had twice as much alcohol as was actually consumed . . .
Then we rushed from one party to the next, before finally going out for dinner with a small group that included the wonderful mystery author Meg Chittenden, and the equally wonderful Maggie Topkis from Partners & Crime in New York.
Friday, we finally managed to get to see a panel − Ken Bruen in conversation with Kent and Don Winslow, who was glad of the opportunity to point out that he was NOT the Don Winslow who writes erotic S&M novels. A very funny panel. Ken’s getting some mileage out of our recent Galway visit, when he made Andy laugh so much that he split his appendix scar open and I had to stick him back together for long enough for us to get home. I’m really looking forward to the panel I’m doing with Ken on Sunday.
Friday night, apart from rushing again from one party − the Elizabeth Ironside launch to the St Martin’s Minotaur bash − I’d donated a couple of lots for the charity auction. One was another character name in the next Charlie Fox book, Third Strike, which went in the Crimespree Magazine basket along with a load of very cool stuff from very cool people. That went for an amazing $650 to a lovely (and generous) lady called Terry O’Loughlin. Another great name, too! Secondly, because we’d found a local gun range nearby, I offered to take someone to breakfast on Sunday morning before my panel, and then shooting afterwards. The bidding went to over $300 and was finally won by another wonderful lady, Judy Watford. The only unusual aspect of this is that Judy’s actually blind. Now that should be a challenge, and we may have our work cut out talking the range into agreeing, but I’ll keep you posted how it all went. I can’t wait!
Weekend, 23-24 September 2006
Next week we go off to the States for the annual Bouchercon Mystery Convention and I know I shouldn't really be going. We're up to our eyes in work, and the pressure's on to get not only the next Charlie Fox book finished − and it's barely begun − but also the first in the new series. I've spent the last few days sorting, converting and burning over 3000 digital images to DVD so I can come back to a clear desk − at least on the day-job side of things. Nope, I really shouldn't be going.
But I wouldn't miss it for the world.
This will be my third Bouchercon. This time around it's in Madison, close to last year's Chicago venue. The year before it was in Toronto, and next year it will be in the wilds of Alaska. The convention's sold out and has been for months, with writers and readers alike. I have two great panels − on Thursday and Sunday. The first is called Sister Act, to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Sisters in Crime. Jim Huang of The Mystery Company is moderating and Carolyn Hart, Rochelle Krich, SJ Rozan and Dana Stabenow will be on the platform as well.
The second went through a variety of titles − most of which I'm not going to repeat − before settling on Bruen and Four Kickass Writers. Ken Bruen is nominally in charge, but he says he's going to be mostly keeping quiet and doing a lot of listening. Up there with me will be Alafair Burke, Laura Lippman, and Cornelia Read. Apparently someone asked Ken recently what on earth would we four female writers talk about if he wasn't there to moderate us − make-up? Ken hasn't yet told me who said that, but he will . . .
One of the great things about conventions is the chance to meet new people. The crime writing brigade are such a great crowd and we've made some really good friends. The nice thing is how approachable most people are. Writing is such a solitary occupation that it's lovely to get out there and make contact. So, if you see me in Madison, come up and say hello!
Weekend, 16-17 September 2006
Been a bit of an up and down week, this week. We managed to get our last photo shoot, in the incredibly pretty harbour at Howth (pronounced, apparently, 'Hote') just outside Dublin, done in good time − and good weather − and called in at No Alibis bookstore on Botanic Avenue in Belfast on our way back north again. After a coffee and a chat with Eimear − owner David was away in the US − I signed stock for them and then we managed to re-book ourselves onto an earlier ferry across to Stranraer. Lovely to be landing at 7.20pm, instead of way past midnight.
The downside of our trip was that Andy rather overdid things too soon after his appendectomy and his NHS welding didn't hold together. We're hoping he'll be fully mended before our trip out to the US for Bouchercon which is creeping up rapidly. The convention itself runs from Thursday, 28 September to Sunday, 1 October. I have panels on the opening and closing days, and I'm also taking part in two library events in Chicago on the Tuesday and Wednesday leading up to it with various US authors. These were organised by Libby Fischer Hellmann, who's also very kindly offered to put us up while we're in town.
This week, however, we had a LadyKillers event at the Central Library in Hull on Thursday evening. The four of us were on good form, I think, and the audience seemed to enjoy themselves. As with Sedbergh, we finished our piece with short readings from our books. A page or less seems to work well and gives people an idea of the way we write. We really must get together to record some of these so we can have CDs available at these events, too.
Just a reminder that you can listen on-line or download two sound interviews from my site, which you can find on My Interviews page. On the main menu, click [Meet Zoë Sharp] then [My Interviews] to listen to me talking with David Hewson at Left Coast Crime in Bristol earlier this year, or with Libby, via the wonders of the Internet.
And finally, I caught a news item on AOL about JK Rowling, who nearly refused to get on a plane this week because she wouldn't be parted from her handwritten notes for the last Harry Potter book. Right at the end of the interview she happened to mention that inspiration for part of the book had struck while she was in the shower. For some reason, that happens regularly to me, too. I wonder what it is about running water that does it?
Sunday, 10 September 2006, Galway, Ireland
Strange, the things you remember, isn’t it? When I switched on the laptop to blog this morning, I noticed I still had a file marked ‘blog 10 Sept 2005’. I opened it up and found that on this day last year we were in Houston, doing an event at Murder By The Book for the First Drop US Tour. This year, to follow the tradition of being somewhere other than home, we’re in Galway in the far west of Ireland.
The day job brought my husband Andy and me over to Portadown and Coleraine in the north, then tomorrow and Tuesday we’re working in Dublin, but for the weekend we decided to take a long detour across to Galway to meet up with two wonderful Irish writers, Ken Bruen and Pat Mullan. Last night we met up with the pair of them at Jurys Inn on Quay Street and the four of us went for a meal in the city. Wonderful listening to the way Ken works − writing at 4am every morning, regardless of time zone. It’s something I think I’m going to have to start doing myself if I’m going to get these next two books finished in any sort of good time.
Galway is a bustling place, expanding rapidly and bursting with optimism, even if everywhere down near the waterside was stocking up on sandbags because of the possibility of a flood. And packed to the point where we’d struggled to find a hotel room. Walking through crowded streets makes me nervous − I find myself keeping my hands out of my pockets and a constant eye on who’s walking behind me. Perhaps I’m just not used to city life.
Today we’re going across into Connemara to see Pat’s house and have lunch with his family. We catch the ferry home on Tuesday evening, and we’ll try not to miss it this time − as we did on the way out. Still, sitting having a late breakfast in a little café in Stranraer, the idea for a short story I’ve been asked to write for a new anthology for Busted Flush arrived in a lump. So, nothing’s ever wasted.
On Thursday this week the LadyKillers (myself, Carla Banks (Danuta Reah), Lesley Horton and Priscilla Masters) will be out in strength at Hull Library, 7pm. Love to see you there if you're in the area!
Weekend 2-3 September 2006
Well, a soggy August gives way into a soggy September. I sit here with the rain bouncing off the skylights above the office and wondering what happened to summer. We had the most amazing thunderstorm the night of our LadyKillers event at the Sedbergh Festival of Books and Drama last Sunday evening, but it didn't dampen the enthusiasm of our audience, all of whom seemed to have a great time. There were just the three of us LadyKillers in attendance − Danuta Reah wearing her Carla Banks hat, Priscilla Masters and myself. Radio Cumbria presenter, Martin Lewes gave us a professional introduction. We even had atmospheric lighting inside to go with the claps of thunder outside. Our next LadyKillers event is at Hull Library at 7pm on Thursday, 14 September and we'd love to see you there.
Andy had managed to escape from hospital the day before Sedbergh after his appendectomy last week. He hasn't had much of a chance to take it easy, though. Tuesday night we were heading south for a couple of meetings in London related to the Crime Writers' Association (of which I'm currently Press Officer, for my sins) and then on to two days of photo shoots for the day job, finally getting back at 2am Saturday morning. The 1200-odd digital images I took are downloading from my laptop as I write this.
I've returned to various emails from some of my fellow panelists at the Bouchercon event in Madison, Wisconsin, at the end of September, with some very interesting topics for discussion. Looks like this could all get very political. Won't be dull, though . . .
Weekend 26-27 August 2006
Lots going on this week. The good news is that we now have two sound interviews on the website, which you can find on My Interviews page. On the main menu, click [Meet Zoë Sharp] then [My Interviews] to listen to me talking with David Hewson at Left Coast Crime in Bristol earlier this year, or with Libby Fischer Hellmann, via the wonders of the Internet.
I finally managed to get to see a Detective Inspector in Cumbria CID earlier this week, too, who was able to fill me in on the particular way things are done in crime detection in the Lakes. Finding out police procedure is one thing. Getting it right for the area you’re in is, it seems, quite another. Still, this was another step forward, and a valuable contact.
This weekend is the Sedbergh Festival of Books and Drama − it actually runs from 20 August until 3 September. My nearest literary festival by far, I’m appearing at the People’s Hall on Sunday evening, 27 August, at 7.45pm, together with two of my fellow LadyKillers, Carla Banks (Danuta Reah) and Priscilla Masters. I’m doing a short interview on Radio Cumbria at around 8am on Saturday morning just to publicise the event. Should be interesting, and nice not to have to travel too far to attend.
It hasn’t all been good news this week, though. My husband, Andy − a regular at crime writing events as Full-Time Author Support − was rushed into hospital on Wednesday to have his appendix whipped out. I haven’t been into an NHS hospital since I had my own appendectomy two years ago, and I wasn’t impressed with certain aspects of the care. The nurses are wonderful, as always, but they seem madly understaffed and over stretched.
However, in these days of the MRSA hospital-acquired superbug, I was frankly horrified when a junior doctor − Year One House Officer − drew blood from Andy without gloves and without apparently washing his hands immediately beforehand. He made a bit of a hash of it and spilt a fair amount of blood in the process, getting it on his hands. When I asked were they not supposed to wear gloves for this kind of thing, the doctor told me he didn’t like to because he couldn’t really feel what he was doing while he had gloves on. Sorry mate, but surely that’s a skill you ought to have acquired by now. If I put this kind of thing in a book, nobody would believe me. Or perhaps, these days, sadly they would . . .
Weekend 19-20 August 2006
Did a bit of pioneering this week. Through the wonders of the Internet, I did a talk interview with Chicago-based US mystery author, Libby Fischer Hellmann, which Libby recorded as we spoke. It should be available to download shortly from the International Thriller Writers' website, and we'll try to get it onto this site soon. I've only recently downloaded the software that enables me to talk to people anywhere in the world via a headset plugged into my computer, and it's quite a thrill. Haven't felt like this about telecommunications since the first mobile phones came in. Wow, how old does that make me sound. . . ?
Of course, it's another thing that's likely to be an excuse not to actually get on with any writing. I would never have believed when I first hooked up to email that answering all the mail that comes in via cyberspace would practically be a full-time job in itself, but it could quite easily turn into one.
There's been quite a bit of traffic on the email this week about Bouchercon, the annual crime and mystery convention in the US. This year it's in Madison, Wisconsin from Thursday, 28 September to Sunday, 1 October. I'm lucky enough to have been given two panel assignments. My first one is at noon on the opening Thursday, entitled Sister Act and will be moderated by Jim Huang of The Mystery Company renown. The panel has a great line-up − Charlaine Harris, Rochelle Krich, SJ Rozan, me, and Dana Stabenow.
My second panel is at 10.30 (nice − not too early) on Sunday morning, moderated by Ken Bruen and featuring Alafair Burke, Laura Lippman, Cornelia Read and myself. The title is still under discussion. It started off as Bruen and Four Cool Chicks but, not surprisingly, there was a bit of protest about that (tweet...tweet). Laura made the great suggestion that we just call it Bruen and Four Kick-Ass Writers, on the grounds that the audience would quickly work anything else out for themselves. Can you imagine if you tried calling a panel of hard-boiled (male) thriller writers Four Cool Pretty Boys? It would be handbags at dawn. . .
Should be a great event − please do get there if you can!
Weekend 12-13 August 2006
Still on with that tricky opening chapter of Third Strike this week − in between bouts of the day job, which is in its frantic busy phase. And while going to digital at the beginning of 2005 made the photography somewhat easier in that I no longer have to make the eighty-mile round trip to my nearest professional processing lab with bagfuls of colour transparency film, it now means I have to download, sort through, select, convert, and burn digital images instead. Had two relatively short shoots today and still came away with more than 500 images to deal with. Andy reckons I need to start using smaller memory cards, just to curb my enthusiasm a bit . . .
I've been experimenting with sound recording on my PC this week, too. For some time I've been trying to find a good quality method of recording voice onto my computer so I can put downloadable extracts from the books onto the site. We're also planning on recording a LadyKillers CD, with excerpts from the books of Carla Banks, Lesley Horton, Priscilla Masters, Danuta Reah, and myself, read by the authors.
The idea is that the CD could be sold for a nominal fee at LadyKillers events, or given away to anyone who purchases a book at one. On the CD will be not only the audio tracks but also information about the four of us (Danuta and Carla are two minds in a single body, by the way) that you can access on your computer. The idea is that you can listen to us on your car stereo on the way home from the event then − suitably intrigued, we hope − you can stick the CD into your PC to find out more.
I think I've finally found a good recording programme and a microphone that's of sufficient quality. All we need to do now is decide which segments to read − always a difficult choice. I had to read a very short piece (less than a page) from First Drop at ThrillerFest in Phoenix in June, and picking just the right bit was very difficult. It'll be nice to get back to the writing again.
Weekend 5-6 August 2006
Things are finally moving on the new book front − I've been to see the Press Officer at Cumbria Police, who has put me in touch with a couple of officers who are willing to help. Only problem is, one of them has just gone on leave until 21 Aug (sigh). One step forwards, two steps back.
So, to avoid sitting around twiddling my thumbs − not that I'm getting much chance for that with the hectic nature of the day job at the moment − I've made a start on the next Charlie Fox book, Third Strike. I had the opening line already in my head, and I know where the opening of the book is going, but that hasn't made it any less difficult to find exactly the right spot to plunge in. As my husband, Andy, noted, 'It doesn't get any easier, does it?' And he's right, no it doesn't.
The problem is that the opening chapter is so vital and I worry so much about getting it right. You've got to hook new and old readers alike, not bore those familiar with Charlie with too much back history, but still explain enough about her past not to confuse someone coming to the character for the first time.
So, Charlie's in New York, doing a fitness assessment, when she sees her father on one of the local news channels admitting to gross professional misconduct. He's a doctor − an orthopaedic surgeon − who's always taken the moral high ground as far as Charlie's concerned. And suddenly, here he is being accused of behaviour that's not only illegal but also downright sleazy. Has he been hiding his real nature from Charlie − not to mention her mother − or what is really going on?
The character of Charlie's father has always been an interesting one for me. He's quite cold and clinical, not seeming able to show his daughter any affection, but he's come to her rescue several times during the course of the books. And now, it seems, it's her turn to come to his. I'm looking forward to seeing how both of them react to that. If only I can fight my way past that difficult first chapter . . .
Weekend 29-30 July 2006
Readers of the Daily Telegraph last weekend will have seen a thought-provoking report on ThrillerFest, the first International
Thriller Writers' convention which I attended recently in Phoenix, Arizona.
Damian Thompson wrote a major article − 'In the desert with 200 thriller writers' in the UK's Daily Telegraph, 21 July − in which he suggests that the thriller genre "which had appeared to collapse along with the Berlin Wall, is thriving again." He reports that the ITW's members have sold 1.6 billion books world-wide and that there were 900 thriller titles in the book room at the convention. Thriving, indeed!
The main thrust of the article was the dilemma faced by any writer today who might contemplate a plot involving terrorism, not least because of the sensitivity of the subject in our post-9/11 world. He mentioned that Charlie Fox is not really involved with terrorists but in Road Kill she does foil an attempt to sabotage a passenger ferry. Although somebody expressed doubt about this, yes I do know how to do it. And yes, it is alarmingly easy!
Damian Thompson joined my husband Andy and me and a group of fellow writers at the Scottsdale Gun Club − where we’d been a few days earlier for some serious shooting practice − hence the photo of me with an AK47. And, for the record, I have actually fired one for real. Charlie Fox’s gun of choice is more likely to be a 9mm Sig semiautomatic pistol.
Nearer home, I spent a couple of interesting days recently at the Harrogate Crime Festival, where the CWA launched a short story anthology − ID: Crimes of Identity (Comma Press) in which I have a story entitled 'Tell Me'. I also attended the annual Bodies in the Bookshop event at Heffers in Cambridge. Sweltering hot, but the ever-charming Richard Reynolds and his team kept us well supplied with cool drinks while we chatted and signed. Lovely to bump into people I hadn't seen for ages and to meet some delightful new readers!
Weekend 15-16 July 2006
Busy week again this week. Only got back from the US last weekend so I've been trying to catch up with myself ever since. Still sorting through hundreds of digital shots from the ones we took in Georgia, plus I'm just about on top of those from ThrillerFest, which should be on the website soon.
On Wednesday this week I was invited to a library event to celebrate the reopening of the refurbished Central Library in Middlesbrough − a magnificent building more like a grand town hall than a library. Lynne Patrick from publisher Crème de la Crime had put together a panel of crime writers including three of the LadyKillers − myself, Carla Banks (Danuta Reah), and Lesley Horton. Also joining Lynne was Crème de la Crime author Bernie Crosthwaite, and Chaz Brenchley. I think the event could best be described as quiet, but at least we had a lively discussion between us and the small but attentive audience.
Thursday, we were rushing round the country to do a shoot in Clitheroe, and then another at Donington Park. Nothing unusual in that, but with the added twist that this time we had the photographer from the Nottingham Evening Post, Mark Lee, shadowing us. It was a little odd to be taking pictures, and having someone else taking pictures of me doing it. All for a piece in the NEP later this month, written by Andy Smart. Andy and Mark came all the way up to Cumbria to interview me for the paper, having suddenly discovered that Nottingham was my home town, and I still have family there.
Talking to the guys, and hearing about the dramatic increase in gun crime in the city, perhaps I should have based the early Charlie Fox books there instead of Lancaster!
Thursday evening, seeing as we were halfway there already, we went to the Lee Child event at Ottakar's in Lincoln, promoting his tenth Jack Reacher novel, The Hard Way. Listening to Lee talk is always highly entertaining and he was kind enough to recommend my books to the audience while he was at it. Andy and I joined Lee for dinner at his hotel after the signing, together with Patsy from his publisher, Transworld, and Brad who was responsible for touring him round the country in a tricked-out Chrysler people-carrier. All in all it made for a long day − home around 1.45am − but good fun all the same.
Weekend 8-9 July 2006
After what seems like a week in the air, we landed in Manchester this morning, then immediately went off to finish a shoot for the day job. No rest for the wicked. At least the flight, first from Chicago to Atlanta and then to Manchester, gave us time to sit and tap away on the laptop. The rough outline for the next Charlie Fox book is more or less finished and I even now have a short synopsis for the one after that. Plus I ordered my thoughts on the plans for Second Shot's launch next year, after picking the brains of various people like Lee Child, Michael Allen Dymmoch, Libby Fischer Hellmann, and Jon and Ruth Jordan of Crimespree magazine fame. Lots of different ideas, but some consensus as well. All useful stuff.
Last week we spent a few days staying with our always-delightful friend, Judy Bobalik − crime reader extraordinaire, Bouchercon co-host for Baltimore in 2008, and also editor of the newsletter of the Private Eye Writers of America, of which I'm a fairly recent member. Didn't think I was eligible to join PWA, but apparently as Charlie is paid for what she does, although not by the government or a law enforcement agency, she's in.
Judy passed on the PWA questionnaire for me to fill out for the next issue, asking some very interesting questions about character flaws and greatest strengths. An interesting sign that when asked about character flaws I instantly start thinking of my own failings, rather than those of Charlie Fox.
On Wednesday this week (July 12) I have a crime writing evening in Middlesborough Library, organised by Lynne Patrick at Crème de la Crime. Should be good and, you never know, my body clock might just be reset to UK time by then!
As for ThrillerFest, I'm setting down all my experiences there, together with pictures, and that'll be available on the website soon. Keep watching this space.
Weekend 1-2 July 2006, ThrillerFest International Thriller Writers' Convention, Phoenix, Arizona
So, ThrillerFest is over and it’s nearly time to pack up and fly out of the convection oven that is Phoenix, Arizona in the middle of summer. The heat has a weight to it that’s crushing. I still can’t get used to needing a shirt indoors in the frigid air conditioning, but taking it off as soon as we get outside. It’s been consistently over 110 degrees, only dropping into the 90s after the sun goes down.
It’s been a great event. The Arizona Biltmore is a fabulous setting, with the classic Frank Lloyd Wright architecture set against the dramatic mountains in the distance. Humming birds hover round the flower pots outside the cafe and almost seem to pose for photographs.
We’ve met some old friends and made some new ones. Spent time with people we’ve only nodded to at previous conventions, and had a ball. And, thanks to the Scottsdale Gun Club, I got to fire a belt-fed SAW machine gun, a twelve-gauge pump-action shotgun, and an Israeli .50 calibre Desert Eagle. What more could a girl ask for?
And this morning in the shower, the whole of the first chapter for the next-but-one in the Charlie Fox series arrived in a lump and I just had to write it down. The closing line for Second Shot arrived in much the same circumstances. I can see a pattern forming . . .
But, best of all, I managed to get together with my editor from St Martin’s to discuss Second Shot and the enthusiasm she showed for the book makes me want to dive straight back into writing as soon as I get home. Next week we’re in Chicago, hanging out with our friend Judy Bobalik for the 4th of July celebrations. That date is also our wedding anniversary and this will be the first time Andy and I have been in the States for it. I understand they’ve planned fireworks displays all over the city, just for us . . .
Weekend 24-25 June 2006
I’ve been finishing off the last few tweaks to my new Charlie Fox book, Second Shot, this week. I haven’t looked at the book at all for a couple of months and now I’ve come back to it with fresh eyes. Some of the comments made by my small but lethal band of test readers have become clear to me with that little bit of distance. Plus the suggestions made by my agent and my editors. I’ve worked right through the typescript from start to finish and, I hope, the changes I’ve incorporated will have made it into a better book.
My brain is torn in several different directions at the moment. I’m still hanging on for the research for the first Grace McColl book, which is proving frustrating. I was hoping I’d be much further through it by now, but it spoils the flow if I picture and write a scene, only to discover that my facts are wrong and I’ll have to alter it to fit. I like to set two characters talking and jot down what they say, so they’re having a conversation rather than spouting dialogue. It doesn’t work so well if you then have to step in and correct them all the time.
By the time you read this, I should be in the US for the first International Thriller Writers’ convention, ThrillerFest. Surprisingly few Brit authors are making the trip to Phoenix, Arizona for the event. You would have thought there would be just us and a few mad dogs who were prepared to go to the burning desert in the middle of the summer . . .
And by the time we get back I’ve promised I’ll have the outline for the next Charlie Fox book, Third Strike, all ready to send off to my agent. If I can’t be getting on with Grace, the new Charlie beckons. Writing, after all, is a bit of a compulsion and I start getting twitchy if I’m away from a book for too long!
Weekend 17-18 June 2006
The author events are coming thick and fast at the moment. Next weekend we're off to the US, partly so we can do some photo shoots in Georgia for the day job. Then it's on to Phoenix, Arizona for the first International Thriller Writers' convention − ThrillerFest − which takes place from Thursday, June 29, to Sunday, July 2. I'm on a panel first thing Friday morning, moderated by Julie Hyzy, entitled: Discovering The Thrills in Real Life. Should be an interesting topic. Before the convention starts, I'm doing a quick detour down to Tucson for a bookstore event at Clues Unlimited, with Shane Gericke, Harry Hunsicker, Deborah LeBlanc and Libby Fischer Hellmann.
And before we head home again we'll be calling in to stay with our friend, crime aficionado Judy Bobalik, for the July 4 celebrations. We hope to catch up with Jon and Ruth Jordan − the powers behind the excellent Crimespree magazine − while we're there. Among others.
I'm stalled waiting for research on my new crime book at the moment, which is frustrating but, on the other hand, while the weather's good it's useful to get on with the photography day job, so I'm not sitting idle. While we're away in the States, I'm hoping to get the synopsis fully planned out for the next Charlie Fox book as well. I already have the bones of the story and I'm adding more meat all the time. Once a book goes into this stage of development I tend to find the ideas just jump out at me − usually when I'm least expecting it. And they're always the best kind!
Weekend 10-11 June 2006
This week had some high points − and some higher points. Had a nice little sound bite on Radio 2 in a piece on female crime writers on Matthew Wright's 'The Weekender' show on Friday night, about quarter to midnight. Nice to be in there mixing it with the likes of Frances Fyfield and Sue Grafton, as well as my fellow LadyKillers − Priscilla Masters, Lesley Horton and Danuta Reah (Carla Banks). Neil Rosser came to record interviews with the four of us for the program when we did our recent bookshop event at Ottakar's in Sutton Coldfield. And, listening to the finished feature, you can't tell we did the recordings squashed into the corner of a narrow stockroom at the store, which was about the quietest spot!
The higher point was a real treat for me − I finally got to fly a helicopter! I flew a fixed-wing light aircraft a few years ago, but rotary-wing has always fascinated me. Particularly as a friend is an ex helicopter and jet pilot, who is full of stories of being brought down by unseen power lines in Australia, and flying with a broken rotor blade in the African bush. I'd been told it was a difficult skill to master and that the coordination involved was immense, and I discovered just how true that was! But I did manage to take the controls for what seemed like quite a bit of my half-hour flight in a Northumbria Helicopters' two-seater Robinson R22. (And to my instructor, Stuart, it must have seemed even longer. 'Bring the stick back a little − er, we're into a bit of a screaming dive there . . .') What a rush!
And by the time I was back on the ground, I already had chunks of scenes writing themselves in my head. Maybe not for this book, but soon . . .
Weekend 3-4 June 2006
Well, finally the wait is over! I heard from my US editor, Marcia, on Friday afternoon with her opinion of my next Charlie Fox novel, Second Shot − and she likes it! In fact, she loves it, thought both the beginning and the ending, in particular, were 'stunning', and can't wait to see what others make of it. Boy, am I relieved about that!
The longer I went without hearing anything, the more I convinced myself that she didn't like the book. Or that she had no particular feelings about it one way or the other, which would have been so much worse. As it is, Marcia declared it was a great step forward for Charlie Fox, who she feels comes across as both courageous and human. She loves this latest development of her relationship with Sean, and the complex character of Charlie's father, and was extremely positive about how she thinks it will be received.
All I have to do now is wait, because the only downside is that Second Shot won't be coming out in hardcover until May/June 2007, which is when they also have the paperback of First Drop down for release. Still, plenty of time to plan the next US Tour . . . I've had a lot of invites to go back to bookstores we visited during the First Drop tour last year, and also a lot of invites from places we didn't manage to fit in. It's going to take some organising!
I've been doing yet more rethinking on my new Grace McColl book this week as well, just to weave the different character strands together. I sent the first 100 pages to Emma, my editor at my agent's, Jane Gregory, who came back with some good pointers on refining the storyline. She was also very enthusiastic about the new characters and the pace and style of the book. So, if I can just stop losing faith with it, I'll be fine!
Weekend 27-28 May 2006
Interesting news this week. Towards the end of last year I wrote a very short, short story for the CWA anthology on the theme of Identity, which I'd called 'Tell Me', and which features my new Crime Scene Investigator character, Grace McColl. I sent it in and, when I didn't hear anything, I assumed it hadn't made the final cut. However, I had an email towards the end of the week from the publisher, Comma Press, asking if I wouldn't mind making a few final tweaks to the story before it went in. Talk about surprised!
I also had the final proofs of a story called 'Last Right' I did for a US anthology coming out from Busted Flush Press, called Damn Near Dead which they've described as 'Geezer Noir'. Looking at the other stories in there, it should be a cracker when it finally hits the shelves.
Progress has been slow on Grace McColl this week, mainly because I've been up to my neck in the shortlists for the CWA Dagger awards, which will be announced on Tuesday. I sat in on the judging lunch for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for best thriller and was fascinated by how the judges actually defined the category. After all, all thrillers have some kind of mystery attached to them, but not all mystery novels can be classified as thrillers, even though some of them might be a thrilling read.
I've always called the Charlie Fox books 'crime thrillers'. There's crime involved, although Charlie is a bodyguard rather than a detective, but I'm hoping my readers get caught up in the chase as much as in solving the puzzle of the crime. With any luck, I'll learn a lot more about what other people see as a thriller when I go to ThrillerFest, the first International Thriller Writers' convention in Phoenix at the end of next month. Of course, only a fool chooses to go to Arizona in June/July, but as I sit writing this it's raining sideways so I think some of that hot dry desert heat might be quite welcome!
Weekend 20-21 May 2006
This week saw the LadyKillers − Lesley Horton, Priscilla Masters, Danuta Reah (Carla Banks) and myself − at Ottakar's Sutton Coldfield store on Thursday evening for an excellent event that was also attended by Neil Rosser, who interviewed the four of us for Radio 2. The interviews should be broadcast as part of a Matthew Wright program early next month. I'll keep you informed as and when.
We had a good crowd at Sutton Coldfield and yet again some interesting questions. One in particular stuck in my mind, and that was asking which comes first in our book − the method of a murder, or the motive?
I'm not one of these writers who tries to invent ever more grisly ends for my victims. Dying before your time is horrible, no matter how it's done, and while I do describe murder scenes in detail, I have to say it's the quiet deaths that I find more affecting. In Road Kill, where Charlie and Sean go with a group of young bikers on a road trip to Ireland, I knew at the outset that one of them was not going to come back, but I put off making the decision about which of them it was going to be. That character's death scene was not unduly violent − indeed, any violence takes place off camera, as it were − but it's still one that has stayed with me long after the book was finished.
A couple of nice contacts with readers this week, too. Barbara, a lady from Hampshire, contacted me through The Old Bookshop in Kirkby Stephen, wanting to get some of my books signed. Barbara had even managed to get hold of a hardcover edition of Killer Instinct. As she was up in the Lake District on holiday, I was delighted to meet with her, talk about Charlie Fox, and have a cup of coffee in one of the local cafés.
I had an email from Andy P, webmaster of unofficial Lee Child website, www.reachercreatures.com, who'd also managed to pick up a copy of Killer Instinct and was full of enthusiasm for the character of Charlie Fox. Always nice to get mail like that!
Last Saturday − and next Tuesday − I'm in London observing for the judging lunches for some of the CWA Dagger awards, the New Blood and the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger. I'm hoping it will give me some interesting insights into what judges are looking for in the next big thing crime novel, and the best thrillers. But more about that, as they say, next time . . .
Weekend 13-14 May 2006
This week I went back to Rehab. No, not for alcohol or drug abuse, but to eat. Rehab is a very nice Italian pizza and pasta restaurant in Colliers Wood in south-west London and, as we were staying down that way, we called in for a meal. The last time we went to Rehab (great name!) was when we were in London with our friend from the US, Judy Bobalik. We noticed that the owner, Dan, had a rake of crime novels on the shelves in the restaurant and dropped off a couple of my books to add to his collection.
I must admit, I was a bit worried when we went back this time and a casual scan of the shelves didn't reveal the books. Did he think they were so bad he'd taken them down? No, when Dan came bouncing over he declared that his wife had read both at a sitting and he was on the hunt for some more!
The day job's been taking priority this week, with photo shoots on the south coast that saw us on the road from Monday to Friday. It was all mixed in with the writing, though. On Monday evening I had a library event at Ealing Broadway. A small crowd, but very enthusiastic.
And then on Wednesday it was the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger presentation to legendary US writer, Elmore Leonard, at the Savoy Hotel. And then, the day after, I'm grovelling around in old seaweed and dead cuttlefish on the tideline of a boatyard in Poole in Dorset, photographing a turbocharged Mazda. Just in case the high life was starting to go to my head . . .
Next week I'm doing an evening LadyKillers event with Lesley Horton, Priscilla Masters and Danuta Reah (Carla Banks). It's at 7pm on Thursday, 18 May at Ottakar's bookshop on The Parade, Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands. Do join us if you can!
Weekend 6-7 May 2006
Frustrating week on the writing front. Still waiting with bated breath to hear from my US editor at St Martin's Press about their opinion of the latest Charlie Fox typescript, Second Shot. Most people assume no news is good news, but I'm a writer so naturally I assume the exact opposite . . . I know you often have to wait weeks for a reaction from publishers, but that doesn't make it any easier.
Progress has slowed on the new Grace McColl book. I've been going backwards and forwards over the first 33,000 words, doing some ferocious self-editing and making sure I've got clean swaps between viewpoints. I've also been trying to tie down my research on weapons and police procedure, which is proving interesting. One of the problems with using the Internet is that you can't always guarantee that the information on any given website is correct. Quite often it's not, and frequently two or three different sites contradict each other wildly.
Yes, the information's out there, but sorting the wheat from the chaff can be a real pain. Fortunately, the up-side is that the WorldWideWeb has allowed me to make contact with the technical director at a US firearms manufacturing company, and I'm also able to email long detailed questions to my friendly neighbourhood Crime Scene Investigator. Other writers are also very generous with their time, I've found, and I'm equally happy to reciprocate.
I'll be talking about all this kind of thing at Ealing Broadway Library, London, where I'm giving a talk as part of the Books on Broadway series, on Monday, 8 May at 7pm. Do join me there if you can.
Weekend 29-30 April 2006
I'm delighted to announce that we have three winners of the latest Charlie Fox competition to win signed paperback copies of book five, Road Kill, which came out on April 6. I have notified the lucky winners, who are: Diane from the West Midlands, UK; Jay from Arizona, USA; and Tania from Ontario, Canada. Well done all of you and I hope you enjoy the book!
The entries came from all over the world, which is always a source of amazement to me. Whatever did we do before the Internet and email? It doesn't seem very long ago since my old Amstrad word processor needed Start of Day disks feeding into the front of it every morning before it would run, and my brother-in-law's latest hi-tech 'transportable' phone was the size and weight of a car battery, with a handset on top of it, and cost over 1200 pounds sterling (over 2000 US dollars). Eh, I remember when all this were fields . . .
I am still making progress with my new Grace McColl book. Up to 32,000 words today, despite being up in Scotland on location for day job photo shoots. Having shot and downloaded something over 600 digital images, I then cranked up the latest chapter and scribbled a bit more on that while my husband, Andy, drove us back round the Edinburgh ring road. Oh, see my halo shine . . . Actually, it's just a good job I'm not car sick or I'd have a lot of travelling time when nothing got written!
Click here to see the answers to the competition.
Weekend 22-23 April 2006
I've been rattling on with the new Grace McColl book this week. I think I'm starting to settle in to the multiple-viewpoint style, which is a real change after doing six Charlie Fox books in the first person. As my writing has to be fitted in around the day job, there have been rather a lot of late nights to get the words done, though. At around 2am the other night − or should that be morning − I realised I was nodding out over my keyboard and finally went to bed. Surprise, surprise, when I opened the file up the following day I discovered that the last two paragraphs were almost total gibberish.
I'm aiming to get the first 33,000 words done by the end of April, which sounds quite daunting but works out to approximately 1250 words a day. So far I'm at the 23,000 mark, so it's looking promising. I've found I need some kind of a target to shoot for to galvanise my brain into action. Around 1250 seems to be an achievable amount, but one that means I feel I'm making real progress. When I pack in for the day I work out how many words I've written and divide what's left by the number of days remaining, so my daily target shifts constantly. This means that when I have a total wipe-out day − 0 words − it's offset by a really productive one − 2456 words has been the best so far.
I know other authors who manage to write several thousand words a day, but for me that's just not comfortable at the moment. I self-edit pretty heavily as I go along, so hopefully there won't be too much to do to the first draft at the end of it. I've just sent the first 20,000 words − about 50 pages − to two of my regular test readers and am waiting to see what they make of this very different set of characters.
Competition now closed - winners in this weekend's blog!
Signed copies of Road Kill paperback to the first three winners of my Charlie Fox competition who answered five teaser questions correctly and emailed me their entry. The competition is now closed and the winners will be announced in this weekend's blog. Click here to see the questions.
Weekend 15-16 April 2006
One of the problems with being a writer is the multi-tasking, which probably sounds more weird than it is. At the moment, for instance, I've got Road Kill just out in paperback, so that's the book that's at the forefront of everybody's minds. For me, though, the mechanics of actually writing that book were completed what seems to be a long time ago.
Second Shot − the next in the Charlie Fox series − has just been delivered to my US editor at St Martin's Press. I rang to speak to her about that earlier this week, and Marcia said she was very excited and couldn't wait to read the book 'as a fan'. Plans for the paperback of the US edition of First Drop are also well under way, and I'll be sorting out another US tour as soon as I have a hardback publication date for Second Shot. Plenty going on there.
And, on top of all that, I'm now 12,000 words into my new book, which is a complete departure from Charlie Fox. (Or rather, a temporary break. I'll be back with Charlie for Third Strike as soon as this one is done.) The new book is very different in feel and tone, being in the third person and from multiple viewpoints, including those of the main protagonists − Crime Scene Investigator Grace McColl, and Detective Constable Neil Weston. The plot revolves around a series of long-distance killings in the English Lake District that look to be the work of a professional sniper. The change in style has taken a little getting used to, but I think I'm into my stride now. Fingers crossed!
Competition!
Signed copies of Road Kill paperback to the first three winners of my Charlie Fox competition. Just answer five teaser questions (the answers are all in my website) and email me your entry. The competition closes on Wednesday, 26 April 2006. Click here to see the questions. Good luck!
Weekend 8-9 April 2006
Road Kill, fifth book in the Charlie Fox series, is now out in paperback. The book has been
extremely well received by loyal fans and new readers since it was launched in
hardback last
October. Thank you for your emails of approval and for the enthusiastic
reviews. Many of you commented favourably on the fact that
Charlie has renewed her intimate contact with her troubled boss, Sean, as she tries to work out who wants her dead. And it seems
that the only way to find out is to take part in a reckless bike trip that will leave a trail of bodies halfway across Ireland . . .
You can get signed copies from any bookseller on my Where to Buy page. And if you'd like any of my books personalised, do contact Barbara Dowson at The Old Bookshop in Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria.
Competition!
Signed copies of Road Kill paperback to the first three winners of my Charlie Fox competition. Just answer five teaser questions (the answers are all in my website) and email me your entry. The competition closes on Wednesday, 26 April 2006. Click here to see the questions. Good luck!
Weekend 1-2 April 2006
Running a bit behind this week. I'd hoped to have the modifications to the typescript of the new Charlie Fox book, Second Shot, done by Friday so I could get stuck in to my new book over the weekend, but I'm still suffering from this chest infection I picked up after Left Coast Crime in Bristol a couple of weeks ago. Doing anything when you keep having coughing fits every five minutes is a bit of a drag.
Still, I'm well on with the changes asked for by my agent's editor, Emma, and it will be back on her desk by Monday morning. By which time, hopefully, I will have stopped coughing and wheezing quite as much as I am at the moment.
In case you hadn't noticed, the website has recently been updated to include the first chapters of all the books so far. I've always been in two minds about whether people prefer to see the first chapter, or just an extract from the book, but perhaps you can let me know (click on 'Contact' on the main menu). It's always good to get feedback about the site.
Next week − Thursday, 6 April − sees the paperback launch of Road Killand I'll be having another competition with signed copies up for grabs. Watch this space for details!
Weekend 25-26 March 2006
Left Coast Crime seems like a distant memory, although one that will stick in my mind for some time, I think. Too much went on to mention here, but I'll be sorting some of the photos into a new gallery and I'm planning on jotting down a few impressions to go with them. Suffice to say that from our point of view LCC was a very well organised and well run event − frequent fire alarms notwithstanding. We met up with some wonderful old friends and made some great new ones, too! Including a couple of people I've seen at previous conventions but been too shy to speak to, only to find they'd felt the same way.
News on the website this week is the addition of the first chapters of all my books. I've always had extracts from them, but been wary of putting in the opening chapter just in case people came to pick the book up and thought they'd already read it. However, from lurking on the DorothyL site, I understand first chapters are what are required, so here they are. I hope you like them.
I also went to see my agent's editor, Emma at Gregory & Company this week, to get her initial reactions on my next Charlie Fox book, Second Shot. I'm delighted to say she loved it and I only have a few minor changes to make to the typescript, which I'm hoping to have done next week and then it can go off to my editor at St Martin's Press. In fact, I mentioned the opening to the new book − where Charlie gets shot twice on the first page − in one of the panels I was on at LCC, and there was actually an audible gasp from the audience. A very interesting reaction, I thought! I hope it bodes well.
So, all being well, it looks like I should be on target to start the new book on the first of next month. I have also rashly promised myself that I will combine the writing schedule with a fitness regime, so by the time the next book is finished − hopefully around the time of ThrillerFest in Phoenix, Arizona, at the beginning of July − I will be in appropriate shape to lounge by the pool in a bathing suit. Well, we all have to dream . . .
Saturday, 18 March 2006 at Left Coast Crime in Bristol
It's 5am on Saturday morning and I'm wide awake and buzzing. We're at the Left Coast Crime mystery and thriller writers' convention in Bristol. People we normally have to travel eight hours in a tin can to chat to are suddenly no more than a car ride away, and I'm making the most of the opportunity to talk non-stop and get all my favourite books signed by all my favourite authors.
The other reason I'm buzzing is because I didn't get in from the bar until gone 2am, and at 4.35am we had another false fire alarm go off in the conference Marriott hotel. Friday morning we all ended up out in the street when someone apparently short-circuited an iron and set the alarm off. Who knows what was responsible this time, but at least we didn't end up standing in the street in our pyjamas. I'm on a panel this afternoon and so far I'm running on adrenaline like the Energizer bunny . . .
My first panel, on Thursday, with Barbara Peters of Poisoned Pen moderating in place of the absent Barbara Seranella − hope you're better soon, Barbara! − was with Cara Black, Iain McDowall and Michael Newton. Interesting questions and a great turnout. And today I'm on Lee Child's panel, with Cara again, Jacqueline Winspear and Barry Eisler. I feel so lucky to be with such terrific authors and even more lucky to be able to count some of them as friends.
We were concerned to discover that Barbara Seranella − who underwent not one but two liver transplants just before Bouchercon last year − wasn't well enough to travel to the UK for LCC and I've been persuading people to sign a get well card for her. At the same time I also got them to sign a similar card for my sister, Sarah, who's just undergone surgery the day the convention started. The fact that so many were happy to give their good wishes to both says a lot about the mystery community. I feel very privileged to be here in all senses of the word.
Next week my other half, Andy, and I are touring the UK with our American friend, crime aficionado Judy Bobalik, to show her the sights. Hopefully, by then I'll have caught up on my sleep enough to put together the highlights of the convention. There have certainly been plenty so far.
Weekend, 11-12 March 2006
We did another LadyKillers event this week, at the magnificent library in Darlington. A good turn-out of people, considering it was in the afternoon, and once again very interesting questions. I think everybody went away happy, which is the main thing.
I've been fiddling this week. I was all set to get the typescript of my next Charlie Fox book, Second Shot to my agent, Jane Gregory and her editor, Emma, completely forgetting that they'd be tied up with the London Book Fair. So, I've spent the extra time double-checking my facts, and the whole thing will be waiting on their email first thing Monday morning.
Doing the research has always been one of the most interesting parts of writing and half the secret is leaving out more of it than you put in. People are enormously generous with their time and expertise and I sometimes feel guilty when I only use a tiny amount of the information they've given me. But if that tiny word or phrase is what makes a scene authentic, it's worth several pages of obviously over-researched material.
And being in the mystery community gives you access to all sorts of fascinating people. Top of this list has to be Doug Lyle − DP Lyle MD. Doug is an accomplished mystery author as well as being a practising cardiologist in California and he was kind enough to provide much of the medical information I needed for Second Shot, getting back to me like a swinging door with meticulously detailed advice. He knows the angles you're after as a writer as well as being medically correct, and he's a lovely guy to boot!
I've also called on fellow mystery author and lawyer, Randall Hicks, who provided info on custody law − his speciality − and cast his eye over some phrases I've used in the dialogue to make sure people are speaking American rather than English. And don't let the lawyer part fool you − Randy is another lovely guy, and a talented writer as well.
Now all I have to do is wait for the verdict . . .
Weekend, 4-5 March 2006
Well, that's it, Second Shot, my next Charlie Fox novel, is more or less complete. Now I have the usual run-through to correct the mistakes, fill in the gaps, and double-check my medical facts. And then comes the really scary bit. I have to let people read it.
Actually, two of my usual readers, Sarah and Tim, have been getting chunks as I've gone along, and I'll be emailing the finished book to various American friends as well, just to make sure I haven't slipped up with my US dialogue − or should that be dialog?
And then next week it will be in the hands of my editor and agent and I will be sitting biting my fingernails to the elbow until I hear what they think.
Just to take my mind off things, I did two LadyKillers events last week, at Rothwell and Wetherby libraries in Yorkshire to celebrate World Book Day. Nice events, well organised and attended, with some interesting questions. Although somebody did ask me how I'd go about writing an autobiography (?) of Tony Blair. I said I'd politely decline . . .
On Monday, March 6, the four of us will be at Darlington Library, Co Durham, 2-4pm for another event, so join us if you can!
Weekend, 25-26 February 2006
The second half of our trip to New England (see last week's blog) didn't go quite according to plan. We arrived in Boston last Saturday, having spent a few days up in New Hampshire, checking out the locations for my next Charlie Fox book, Second Shot. Unfortunately, the night we arrived we decided we'd just have a bite to eat at the hotel rather than go and search out one of Boston's famed seafood restaurants, and that night both of us went down with a nasty bout of food poisoning that laid us low for a day and a half.
Still, we did manage to stagger out on Monday afternoon and Tuesday before our flight. We took a trolley bus tour round Boston Common and to Rowe's Wharf and went to the Aquarium, where some of the action in the first part of the book takes place. So, we got the job done and it didn't cost us as much as we were expecting in food for the trip! Which is a severe case of looking on the bright side, I admit . . .
The disappointing thing was the lack of snow. After the news reports about the eastern seaboard being neck-deep in the stuff, there was only a smattering here and there in Boston. The morning after we got home, however, Cumbria had a big snowfall, although the rain soon cleared it. We've had rain, sleet, snow, and sunshine all in the same day.
Second Shot is now about ninety percent done, although being ill has knocked me off target somewhat. I'm hoping that now we're back I can catch up with myself a bit. This coming week − Thursday, March 2 − I'm doing another couple of LadyKillers events in conjunction with World Book Day. One in the afternoon at Rothwell Library and another in the evening at Wetherby Library, both in the Leeds area. As always, we'd love to see you there!
East Coast, USA: Weekend, 18-19 February 2006
Well, here we are in North Conway, New Hampshire. Second Shot is set partly in Conway and partly in Boston, so we've come over for a flying visit just to check out a few facts. It's been a few years since we were last here and, although the essence of the place hasn't changed much, there's always construction going on that you haven't accounted for. And I'd forgotten just how breathtaking the scenery is.
We're staying at the White Mountain Hotel, with views across Echo Lake forest to Mount Cranmore − and it's stunning. The only disappointing thing is the lack of snow. After watching the forecasts showing New York four feet deep in the stuff, we were hoping the whole of the east coast would be the same. Ah well!
The hotel is as nice as we remember, which is great because I'm planning on having Charlie stay here with her principal. One of the staff, the delightful Maryellen, had even read one of my books, and she very kindly gave me her email address so I can check out any info on the area that I've forgotten to ask now. Roger, the owner of a local seafood restaurant, Jonathon's, nicely agreed it was OK for me to set one scene there − one where nobody dies, obviously!
I'd forgotten what a pretty place North Conway is, but mainly I'd forgotten how many Brit tourists there are here − usually with small children in tow. Still, it's all useful research for the character of Ella − the four-year-old daughter of Charlie's principal. After seven hours on a BA flight with one constantly shrieking toddler, I think I'm fairly well genned-up on that front . . .
Today we head back down towards Boston for a couple of days, then home on Tuesday. I did say it was a flying visit. Second Shot is in its closing stages now − nearly 90,000 words done − and I'm still hopeful of completing it by the end of this month. Wish me luck!
Weekend, 11-12 February 2006
Yet another busy week. The LadyKillers − Lesley Horton, Priscilla Masters, Danuta Reah (who also writes as Carla Banks) and myself − were at the new Horsforth Library in West Yorkshire last Wednesday evening for a talk. We had a good size crowd who were keen to ask questions and everybody certainly seemed to enjoy themselves. We try to make the events more like an informal discussion than a lecture and that format always seems to go down well.
We'll be meeting again a couple of times at the beginning of next month, firstly for two World Book Day events at Rothwell and Wetherby libraries in the afternoon and evening on March 2, then again for an afternoon event in Darlington on March 6. And the panel assignments are through for Left Coast Crime (March 16-19) in Bristol. I'm amazed to be on three panels, including one moderated by Lee Child, and another by Barbara Seranella. The third one is a bit different − moderator Rhys Bowen has paired me with Peter Guttridge (author of the satirical Nick Madrid crime series) against US authors Barry Eisler and Gayle Lynds. We'll be given a mock crime scene to investigate and it's up to us to solve it. Should be a lot of fun!
One of the most influential writers on my early career was Val McDermid. I remember seeing her at a talk she gave in Lancaster some years ago and she was very encouraging. Of course, Val's own career has hit the stratosphere since then, and it was interesting to go to her signing at Ottakar's in Carlisle last Tuesday for her new standalone crime book, The Grave Tattoo. Val was very friendly, as always, and the book's a cracker!
It seems to be my week for seeing fellow authors. We were doing a day job photo shoot near Liverpool on Friday and called in for a quick coffee with the delightful Margaret Murphy, author of dark psychological crime novels, including the Clara Pascal series. Or rather, it was supposed to be a quick coffee, but rapidly escalated into dinner. Margaret and her husband are great company, but it did make me feel guilty for possibly cutting into another writer's writing time. We do keep some funny hours, us lot . . .
Weekend, 4-5 February 2006
As I mentioned in last week's blog, I am well into preparation of my new Charlie Fox book. Yesterday I realised that I hadn't been keeping my summary up to date, so I had to go back to the early chapters and fill in the details. Keeping a summary is a method that was suggested to me by one of my fellow LadyKillers, Lesley Horton, for helping keep track of the story as it unfolds. By the time I've got to this stage − eighteen chapters and 72,500 words in − it's very easy to fail to pick up and interweave the threads I laid in during the earlier parts of the book.
Searching for them in a document this size can be time-consuming, so I started keeping a summary of what actually happened in each chapter, after I'd written it. This is different from the story outline I did before I started − sometimes very different, but that's the nature of writing! And, having brought my summary up to date, I then spent a while correcting the inconsistencies that had crept in before I could go forwards with the story. Which is why I didn't finish writing the latest chapter until 2.23am this morning (Saturday)!
Next week − on Wednesday, February 8 − I'm doing a LadyKillers event at Horsforth Library on Town Street in Horsforth, to the north of Leeds, starting at 7pm. The four of us will be there − Lesley, Priscilla Masters, and Danuta Reah, who also writes as Carla Banks − so it should be a very lively discussion about what, how and why we write. Come and join us if you can!
Weekend, 28-29 January 2006
Exciting changes on the website this week, as the photos of the self-defence demo Meg Chittenden and I did at Bouchercon in Chicago are published, together with a few pix from Chicago and my week in New York. Do please check them out (click on My Photo Gallery on the main menu).
I had an email from Meg last week, telling me that, sadly, she won't be coming over to the UK for Left Coast Crime in Bristol in March. A great shame as I was looking forward to spending more time with her, and finally meeting her delightful-sounding husband, Jim. Meg was one of the first people I met when I went to my earliest crime writing convention in the US, Sleuthfest in Florida in 2004, and she went out of her way to make us feel welcome. A terrific writer, too! It was reading Meg's last book, Snapshot, that brought up the subject of self-defence, and that led to our demo, first performed at Left Coast Crime in El Paso in 2005.
Second Shot, the Charlie Fox book I am currently working on, continues to make good progress and it actually looks like the first draft might be done by the end of February, as I've been hoping. I'm dealing with Charlie's injuries at the moment, for which I went and spent a fascinating morning talking to a local chap, Mick, who very kindly offered to share his experiences of being shot in Turkey some years ago. For the rest, I'm compiling a list of suitable queries for Doug Lyle MD, author of Murder and Mayhem: A Doctor Answers Medical and Forensic Questions For Mystery Writers, as well as the Samantha Cody series and, as is so often the case in this tight-knit community of crime, a thoroughly nice guy!
Weekend, 21-22 January 2006
Had a nice surprise email in this week. It's one of the things you worry about when you put real people or places into your books − that when the book finally comes out, they'll hate you for it. When I was writing Road Kill, which involves a group of bikers on a road trip to Ireland, I wanted to set part of the action at the excellent Mondello Park International Race Circuit at Naas, near Dublin. I contacted the Managing Director there, John Morris, and on one of our trips to Ireland we called in at Mondello to talk to him. John was great, gave me lots of info and drove us round the circuit.
Nevertheless, when the book came out last October and I sent a copy, I was a bit anxious about his reaction. And when I didn't hear anything, I began to worry. So, when I got an email from John this week, saying he only got a chance to sit down and read the book over the Christmas holiday, but that he'd literally finished it the night before and thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish, it was a big relief. He's even asked me for a couple of copies to give away as competition prizes, which I'm sending him with pleasure.
We're also just about to add the long-awaited picture galleries to my website, starting with photos from my trip to New York to meet my new US publisher, St Martin's Press; and my participation in the Bouchercon international mystery writers' convention in Chicago (including the self-defence demo I did with Meg Chittenden). Look out for them in the next few days!
Weekend, 14-15 January 2006
Well, I had a bit of an epiphany with my new book, Second Shot, this week. In each of the books so far I've tried to take my main character, Charlie Fox, on some kind of personal journey and this week I finally worked out what that journey is and, more importantly, where it takes her. She goes into Second Shot more accepting of who she is and what she's capable of than in any of the earlier books − but then she gets shot!
I'm not giving anything away by telling you that, by the way − it happens on the first page. The injuries she receives change her outlook and, by necessity, the way she has to deal with things. And it makes her feel vulnerable again for the first time since she left the army. Not a happy state of affairs for someone as normally tough and self-sufficient as Charlie. Especially difficult when she has the wellbeing of her principal's four-year-old daughter to consider. I'll be as interested as anyone to see how this turns out for her.
Had a very nice interview come out in Mystery Women this week, too. Ayo Onatade, the interviewer, is one of the most enthusiastic reviewers out there. Mystery Women is a great organisation supporting crime writing and I'd urge anyone interested in the subject to join. Lizzie Hayes, who runs MW, was responsible for the Borders event I did in York back in November with fellow crime writers, Danuta Reah (Carla Banks), Jane Finnis and Christine Poulson.
Weekend, 7-8 January 2006
Well, Christmas has come and gone and the decorations have been packed away for another year. Time to think about those New Year Resolutions − or dust off last year's and hope that you have better luck (or more willpower) this time around. My main one is the usual − to work smarter rather than harder. I just know I should be able to get more work done in less time, and then actually have some time off. That is, time away from my computer that I feel I've earned, rather than guilty time away from the keyboard with half my mind thinking about the work I haven't done yet, and hoping there's still enough time in the day to catch up with myself. Argh!
The New Year started on a high note, though. Several friends sent me emails with links to the January magazine website, which has named First Drop among its Best Books of 2005. Looking at the other names on the list, I'm very flattered to be in such company. It makes me more conscious that the Charlie Fox book I'm working on at the moment has a lot to live up to! No pressure, then . . .
It's been a week of self-editing, which I do more ruthlessly than I think anyone else would. Going back over some of the earlier chapters and not so much adding in new threads as making sure the ones I already have are tangling up nicely. Never an easy job. Wish me luck!
So, Happy New Year!
Zoë Sharp