Weekend, 25-26 December 2010

Playing Around with Words

This is my last post of 2010, and as such the more serious themes I was intending to touch on just don’t seem appropriate, somehow. There’s an end-of-term feel about the place at the moment, and emails from a couple of friends − plus a visit to Motorcycle Live at the NEC in Birmingham earlier this month − turned my mind to paraprosdokians.

Confession time. Until recently, I’d never come across a paraprosdokian. No, that’s not entirely true. I’d come across lots of them − I didn’t know that’s what it was, or that there was a word to describe it.

A paraprosdokian come from the Greek and means ‘beyond expectation’. Basically, it’s a figure of speech, in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is unexpected and causes you to reinterpret the first part.

So, what does a trip to the bike show have to do with any of this?

Simple − booths selling silly T-shirts. I like silly T-shirts − they suit the level of my sense of humour.

OK, that’s just a nice example of a silly T-shirt from a company called Bad Idea T-shirts and not, strictly speaking, an example of a paraprosdokian. But Groucho Marx was very good at them:

“I’ve had a wonderful evening − but this wasn’t it.”

So was Winston Churchill:

“A modest man, who has much to be modest about.”

Not to mention Dorothy Parker:

“If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn’t be in the least surprised.”

I remember a stand-up routine by Emo Phillips years ago which was full of nice examples:

“I like going to the park and watching the children run and scream, because they don’t know I’m using blanks.”

“My family held a wonderful leaving party for me . . . according to the letter.”

“My father said, ‘I’ll miss you, son,’ because I’d broken the sights off his rifle.”

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Weekend, 18-19 December 2010

Christmas − Time to Tidy and Declutter

We’re a week from Christmas as I write this, and we’ve had a fresh fall of snow outside, which is bunched up around the window frames in proper Dickensian manner. The garden is full of tracks from pheasants and rabbits, and there’s been a stoat running around terrorising both.

All in all, it’s looking pretty festive out there. And cold. I’m glad to be looking at it mostly from inside three layers of modern triple-glazing, and happily acknowledging my wimpy status.

I’m slightly in limbo with the writing at the moment. I put a brief outline in for the next Charlie Fox novel to my agent’s editor, and I’m waiting for her feedback before she disappears for the holidays and beyond. I only found out recently that she will be away for most of January, so getting something together that I can be working on in her absence suddenly became rather more urgent.

But this time of year is good for getting lots of other things out of the way. I’m trying to tidy and declutter. The end-of-year accounts have been delivered to our accountants (much to their shock at our unexpected efficiency) and I have a bin bag full of shredded paperwork that’s out of date and no longer required. It’s quite therapeutic really. I can see why spring cleaning is popular, although I confess housework has never been my forté − you do it and six months later it all needs doing again . . .

Christmas always feels like a better time to have a good sort out, so I can head into the New Year feeling I’ve accomplished something. And the deadlines lose their immediacy, because there’s nobody to receive anything sent until January anyway.

So, I’ll be spending the next few days trying to sort out those piles of files that have been sitting stacked up on the floor around my desk for most of the year, and the shredder won’t know what’s hit it. I may even be able to see enough desk surface to dust it. Steady!

Plus, of course, there’s a metaphorical stack of email to answer, and a short story for an anthology next year I really should be starting to think about, and a couple of interviews I should be going through, and the March US tour for the publication of Fourth Day to tie down, and a friend’s typescript to read and comment upon in detail, and the website updates to get on with, and then family will arrive on Christmas Eve, and we’ve friends coming over for New Year.

Hmm, maybe that stack of unsorted paperwork will sit by my desk until next Christmas . . .

Have a very Happy Holidays, folks, however you choose to celebrate!

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This week’s Word of the Week should be Words of the Week. I was aware of myopia being short-sightedness, but until I went for a sight test I was unaware of emmetropia, meaning normal vision, from the Greek en (in), metron (measure) and ops (the eye). Also, hypertropia, meaning long-sightedness, although not to be confused with hypertrophic, meaning the over nourishment of an organ.

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Weekend, 11-12 December 2010

Weaving the Tangled Web

These days, every writer needs a website.

True or false?

True – but why?

And, more importantly, what?

It’s been mentioned quite a bit by my fellow ‘Rati that writing is no longer simply about writing the books, and hasn’t been for some years. In fact, there’s been a lot of talk lately about whether writers should also be their own publishers and cover designers, but I won’t go into that one again. It’s been covered far better than I could in Allison’s recent post.

But even if you don’t go down the eBook route, there’s a whole load of other stuff that goes along with being a writer and occasionally swamps the creative process altogether. Websites, although creative in their own right − and certainly a creative outlet − can be one of them. Websites are a vital but time-consuming (and possibly hideously expensive) part of the job, but if all you’re providing is information on yourself and your work, how do you know it’s the right info, presented in the best possible way?

The reason for this post is because my website is due for revamp. In fact, it’s probably overdue for revamp, but there never seems to be the time to devote to pulling the whole thing down and rebuilding it from scratch. I’ve been trawling the web quite a bit recently looking for good and bad examples of web design, purely from a visitor’s point of view. I won’t name the guilty parties, because this website has already done it for me.

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This week’s Word of the Week is toxicophobia, a morbid fear of poisoning. And, along with this − but perhaps more worrying − we get toxicomania, which means a morbid craving for poisons. Doesn't say why, though . . .

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Weekend, 27-28 November 2010

Thanksgiving

Today [Thursday] is Thanksgiving, which leaves the solitary Brit among the ‘Rati members at a bit of a loose end. We don’t celebrate the fourth Thursday in November as anything special in the UK, although we’ve had another lot of snow here this morning, if that’s cause for celebration?

But, the turkeys here are safe for another month, and today is just another working day. As it is in Canada, where I understand Thanksgiving was last month. Or Japan, where Labor Thanksgiving Day, the holiday of Niiname sai − which apparently came from the Emperor dedicating the year’s rice harvest to the Shinto Gods − was on November 23rd.

Today I understand my US friends will be sitting down to turkey, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, candied yams, popcorn, pecan pie, apple pie, ham and gravy. Not, I hope, all on the same plate.

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This week’s Word of the Week is autopsy. It's common knowledge that an autopsy is an examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to assess any disease or injury. The word is from Greek autopsia, a combination of autos, oneself and opsis, eye − thus to see for oneself or with one's own eyes. On this side of the Atlantic, we tend to use post-mortem, which is Latin for after death. Since this is a compound adjective, it should strictly be followed by a noun − post-mortem examination.

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Weekend, 13-14 November 2010

Sympathy With The Devil

Last night [Wednesday] I went to the prize-giving event for the Lancashire Libraries short story competition at County Hall in Preston. A very enjoyable event, with a worthy winner in Jo Powell, and commended writers, Kathryn Halton and Neil Martin. Congratulations to all those who took part − there were some wonderful pieces of writing.

To kick off the evening, myself and fellow judges Neil White and Nick Oldham talked for a little while about writing in general. The audience was made up largely of entrants to the contest, who patiently listened to the three of us ramble on before the winner was announced, and they also had the opportunity to ask questions about writing in general.

The subject of those questions was very interesting, because the thing that people most wanted to know seemed to be about developing good characters. And I must admit, that when I first started trying to write, it was the characters that I found most difficult. Creating rounded people comes only with time and practice, I think.

I remember getting hold of a book about the different characteristics of the various signs of the zodiac, which was very useful for working out some traits that dovetailed together. I’ve read books on body language and mental illness, looking for those genuine tics and features that make characters come to life on the page.

But do I write out detailed character biographies before I start, as one audience member asked?

Erm, no, I don’t.

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This week’s Word of the Week is cacoëthes which apparently means mania or passion or even disease. It’s from Greek kakoethes, which combines kakos, bad with ethos, habit. And from this comes cacoëthes scribendi, a compulsion to write, the writer’s itch, an uncontrollable desire to write, a mania for authorship. Roman satirical poet Juvenal wrote: "Tenet insanabile multos scribendi cacoethes" or "The incurable itch for scribbling affects many."

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Weekend, 30-31 October 2010

The Short Of It . . .

Short stories are a whole different ball game to writing a novel. Most people start with shorts and work their way up. Maybe because I like to do things backwards, I wrote novels long before I tried my hand at anything shorter.

And when I did, it was entirely by chance, rather than choice. I happened to be at a Northern Chapter lunch for the Crime Writers’ Association. (‘Northern Chapter’ sounds a bit Hell’s Angel-like, I know, and the idea of all those distinguished authors turning up patched, on Harleys, plays havoc with my imagination.)

As we funnelled through the doors to take our seats for lunch, Martin Edwards, editor of the CWA short story anthologies, glanced across at me and said, “You ought to write me a short story for the next anthology.”

I was somewhat taken by surprise, enough to reply, “Erm − yes, OK.”

So, having verbally written the cheque, I then had to cash it by actually coming up with a story good enough for inclusion. This caused me a few sleepless nights, until I remembered something about a local Dangerous Sports’ Club, which had been prevented from indulging in their Sunday morning bridge swinging activities from a disused viaduct.

The reason for this was because the local farmer whose land they had to cross was a strict Methodist, and he strongly objected to all the cries of “Jeeesus CHRIST!” that were heard when people jumped off the bridge on the end of a bit of rope.

And from that came ‘A Bridge Too Far’, a Charlie Fox tale which subsequently appeared not only in Green For Danger, but later also in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine as well.

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This week’s Word of the Week is boustrophedon, which is an adjective or adverb to describe (of ancient writing) bi-directional text, mostly seen in ancient manuscripts and other inscriptions, where the writing runs alternately from right to left and from left to right. It comes from the Greek boustrophedon turning like ploughing oxen, from bous ox, and strophe a turning.

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Weekend, 23-24 October 2010

Copyediting Time

Copyediting time is upon me at the moment. It rather took me by surprise, as I’d mentally pencilled in copyedits of the next Charlie Fox book, Fifth Victim, for December, so these have arrived two months early. The reason for this turned out to be very simple − the book is being published two months earlier next year. That means March rather than May, which was a nice surprise.

It’s always a little bit of a worry, receiving a manuscript you haven’t looked at for some time (in my case, since about April) and going through it word by word. I’m amazed to find I actually quite like it − so far, at least!

It seems a long time since I was posting out bulky full typescripts, and receiving copyedits back the same way, to be scrawled on with red pencil, and returned in the vain hope that someone could make sense of my scribbles, on top of the copyeditor’s scribbles as well.

In this case, I received an electronic file with various comments and queries from the copyeditors in the text. There are only twenty-three, which is great, although I seem to remember that when I got the initial draft back from my agent’s editor, there were more like 160 comments and queries, so it looks like we managed to catch most of the worst offenders between there and here.

Of course, just to be awkward, since I turned in the t/s, we made a trip out to Long Island, where part of the book is set, and I double-checked some of my geographical details. There are one or two corrections I need to make, which my editor needs to see clearly marked. To avoid confusion, I’m working with two version of the file open.

One is the copyedited version, with their comments listed and the changes they’ve made to the text highlighted. I find this important, as occasionally I’ve found in the past that changes have been made that slightly alter the meaning, or are actually incorrect, and to be able to spot them easily and know that’s not what I originally wrote is a real boon.

The second file is the copyedited version with the comments but without all the minor text changes visible. To this, I’m able to make my own changes, so the editor can see what’s been done at a glance.

It makes me think, though, that I really must become more au fait with Word as a program. I still haven’t really successfully mastered getting it to indent paragraphs on a section of text. I’m still clinging to my old version of Lotus WordPro, which I have to say I really prefer, although part of me still mourns the passing of LocoScript, which was the original word processing program that came on my old Amstrad. It had a brilliant thesaurus on it, and the ability to cut ten items to different sections of the clipboard, rather than just one − invaluable for rearranging a section on screen.

Ah well, this is progress, I expect.

But, so far the copyediting process is going reasonably well, so I should have it all done and back to my publisher by next week. And then, on with the next one!

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This week’s Word of the Week is haptic, meaning relating to the sense of touch. Also, haptics, the science of studying data obtained by means of touch.

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Weekend, 16-17 October 2010

Bouchercon Blues

Bouchercon By The Bay starts today [Thursday] in San Francisco, and I’m not there, dammit.

Sometimes, you have to weigh up want against need, and right now I need to be concentrating on the book I’m in the midst of, and the copyedits for the next book have just landed, and the outline for the next one is still only a vague murky idea. In short, there are a hundred and one jobs that made a transatlantic trip just not feasible at the moment.

Dammit again.

I made the mistake of looking at the list of attendees, and see the names of so many people I would love to have hung out with, not least of which are my ‘Rati colleagues. Another thing I noticed is there are very few people I’d leave the bar to avoid. And it reminds me, if I needed reminding, what a great community this is to be a part of.

So, because I’m a masochist at heart, I started thinking about all the aspects of a convention that I enjoy so much, and what I was really going to miss.

There’s a lot I’m going to miss.

Obviously, meeting with people we know. The crime writing crowd are overwhelmingly smart and funny, and I genuinely enjoy their company.

Meeting with people we don’t know − yet. Finding a new mind in tune with your own is always a joy.

Meeting ‘the man behind the curtain’ (as per Louise’s blog from Tuesday) and NOT being disappointed. I first met some of the biggest names in the business at conventions or festivals, both here and in the States and found that in the majority they’re delightful.

I love to meet readers. First and foremost, I’m a reader. I got into this because I loved books, loved to read books, and went that step further and then wanted to write stories that other people might want to read. But the reading came first, and without satisfied readers, we’re talking to ourselves.

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This week’s Word of the Week is epitome. The most common modern use of epitome is to mean excellence, the best example, as in ‘she is the epitome of elegance’ − a person or thing that is typical of or possesses to a high degree the features of a whole class. But its fundamental meaning is a condensed account, a summary, especially of a written work. Its root is the Greek epitome, to cut short, abridge. In theory, a précis encapsulates the best of the original work, although (as most authors are aware) this is not necessarily the case . . .

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Weekend, 2-3 October 2010

Does It Matter?

We lie for a living. We make up stuff out of our heads and write it down in such a way that we hope whoever reads our words comes halfway to believing it’s true. Or at least that it could be true.

Maybe.

OK, on Weird World perhaps.

Playing fast and loose with the truth is all part of what we do. I’m as guilty as the rest. I take fake things and dump them in real places, and take real things and dump them in fake places. Sometimes I take real things and dump them somewhere else that’s real, but just not where they belong. Sometimes, I don’t even realise I’m doing it until a long time afterwards.

When I wrote my first novel, Killer Instinct, I invented a tumble-down hotel, The Adelphi, which was revamped to become a nightclub where much of the action takes place. I describe it on the opening page:

Entirely fictitious. And yet, I was doing a photoshoot in an entirely different northern town some years later − and I’m talking probably a decade here − when I came across this boarded-up old building. And it was just so right for the book, that it was a spooky experience. It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for the Adelphi on Morecambe’s seafront, but it was so close it might as well have been.

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This week’s Word of the Week is tartan, which everybody associates with a checked material as worn by Highland clans of Scotland, where each distinctive pattern is the mark of an individual clan; something self-consciously Scottish − hence Tartan Noir for dark Scottish crime fiction. But Tartan® is also a type of all-weather track for athletic events, and a tartan is a small Mediterranean vessel with a lateen sail, while a tartana is a little Spanish covered wagon.

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Weekend, 25-26 September 2010

Festival Time

What happened to summer? Suddenly it’s autumn, with the smell of dead leaves and wet wool in the air, and the shops beginning to be crammed full of Christmas stuff. Having said that, some of them were putting out the Christmas paraphernalia in August, never mind waiting for September, and our local Co-op store already has mince pies on the shelves. I think I’m definitely a member of the Keep Christmas in December campaign.

Still, just because the summer seems to be over, it doesn’t mean the festivals have finished for the year. This month I’ve taken part in both the Saltaire Festival in Yorkshire, and the Reading Festival of Crime Writing in Berkshire. Both were highly enjoyable and very different events.

Saltaire was originally going to be a LadyKillers outing, but in the end only Lesley Horton and myself (pictured left) were able to turn out. Nevertheless, we had a lively discussion between us, hosted by David Ford of the Saltaire Bookshop.

In its third year, the Reading Festival looks set to become a major outing in the crime writing calendar. My panel there (pictured right) was with fellow Allison & Busby authors Elizabeth Corley and Richard Jay Parker, where we were asked to muse on the Return of the Great British Thriller. Another fun event, with plenty of interesting questions from the audience.

I’ve also been indulging myself with a research trip to London over the past few days. Although Google Earth is very useful, it by no means tells you the whole story. It was great to visit some of the places I’m intending to write about, to pick up the smells and the sounds as well as the sights. There are some things you just can’t do over the internet. Besides which, the actual layout of one area almost writes the ambush scene I want to set there without any help from me! The mixing of reality and fantasy has always been one of the elements of fiction writing that intrigues me the most.

So, back to the keyboard . . .

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This week’s Word of the Week is Brocken spectre, which comes from the German Brockengespenst, meaning a mountain spectre. It is the apparently enormous and magnified shadow of an observer, cast on the upper surfaces of clouds or mist. The name comes from the Brocken, a peak in the Harz Mountains in Germany, where frequent fogs have created a local legend from which the phenomenon draws its name.

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Weekend, 18-19 September 2010

David Thompson: A Celebration of Life

It was a tough decision to go back to our current workspace/process theme today, after the death of the extraordinary David Thompson of Murder By The Book in Houston TX, and Busted Flush Press.

For me, David was my publisher as well as friend, and an incredibly enthusiastic advocate for crime fiction of all kinds. As a publisher he was wonderful, and I’m not just saying that out of sentimentality. He cared passionately about getting the books out there, publicising them, helping out. When we came out to Houston in June, shortly after the publication of Killer Instinct, he met us at the airport with bottles of chilled water after our flight, fed us, looked after us.

I’ll treasure the memory of attending David and McKenna’s wedding amid the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey in Scotland only two short years ago. Andy and I went expecting to be surrounded by a huge group of strangers. Instead, we were welcomed into a tiny wedding party. The reception afterwards was small enough to sit around a single table. After expecting to slip away unnoticed once the inevitable dancing was in full swing, instead we all sat and talked late into the night.

They reckon you judge people by the shape of the hole they leave in the world.

All I can say is, David left a huge hole.

Needless to say, after all this, I haven’t been getting much writing done this week. But we have a couple of long car journeys coming up, one of which is to attend the Reading Festival of Crime Writing this weekend, and that is normally one of my best opportunities to write.

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This week’s Phrase of the Week is caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt, which translated from the Latin means ‘they change their sky, not their mind, who scour across the sea’. I prefer to think of it another way: ‘The greatest journeys a man can make are inside his own head.’

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Weekend, 11-12 September 2010

This and That

I’ve just been having a break from writing over the past couple of weeks. Well, it was supposed to be a break, but events soon conspired against me to make it as busy a time as ever. I put the current project aside intending to get on with some DIY, but that hasn’t got very far. I also needed to work on an outline, which is only half done, and go through a set of page proofs − ditto.

And, every now and again, your energy levels just flag. I’ve found from experience that there’s nothing to do when this happens but accept it, and wait for the enthusiasm to strike again. Which, fortunately, it did earlier this week. So, now I’m back into the latest project. I foresee a lot of 2AMs in my working day . . .

We also did a mad 800-mile trip round the country, saw some old friends and watched the foxes and badgers playing on their lawn at night, which was lovely. It’s the only place we see foxes in a rural setting. Most of them seem to have become townies, where they spend their lives raiding dustbins and making a nuisance of themselves. Still, it could be worse. Someone sent me a picture of a giant coconut crab raiding a dustbin this week. Now THAT I wouldn’t want to meet on a dark night!

Next week is looking busy, too, with a LadyKillers event on Thursday, Sept 16th (not Friday 16th, as I mistakenly put − but have now corrected − in the last newsletter). It's at the Saltaire Festival, starts at 7:30PM, and the three of us − Carla Banks/Danuta Reah, Lesley Horton and myself − are going to have to be extra amusing, because apparently we fall under the category of ‘Spoken Word/Comedy’.

And then on Sunday, Sept 19th, I’m on a panel at the Reading Festival of Crime Writing with Elizabeth Corley and Richard Jay Parker, discussing ‘The Return of the Great British Thriller’, which should also be good for a laugh.

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This week’s Word of the Week is a new one on me − cabana boy. I only discovered it reading Stephen Jay Schwartz’s Murderati blog about writing spaces. (Don’t ask how cabana boys came up). I looked up cabana and discovered it was a small tentlike cabin, especially used as a changing hut on the beach or by a swimming pool; a cabin or chalet. But add boy onto the end of it and suddenly it becomes a male attendant performing ‘personal services’ to guests of a hotel or large private estate. They are typically viewed as scantily clad attractive young men who cater to their clients’ every whim . . .

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Weekend, 4-5 September 2010

Right or Privilege?

When I was a kid, one of my favourite places was the library. I lived on a boat from an early age, which was not exactly conducive to having a large collection of books. Condensation was a big problem, and the pages tended to mildew badly in the winter. So, I got my reading kicks amid the old oak shelves and the parquet flooring of the nearest public library in Lancaster.

It was there I worked my way contentedly through the crime section, happy to take a chance on an author I hadn’t previously come across because it wasn’t costing me anything to give them a try. And, if I didn’t like the book I’d chosen, I had plenty more books to go at.

My first event as a published author was held at that same library. While I was writing my first book, the recently republished Killer Instinct, I was part of a small local writing group who met every few weeks in another tiny local library in a nearby village, barely larger than an average living room. It’s gone now, more’s the pity, boarded up and abandoned − a victim of local authority cutbacks. The community is poorer for it.

And now the government is turning its attention to another aspect of the UK library system − PLR.

Public Lending Right came into being in 1979, when the Public Lending Right Act gave British authors a legal right to receive payment for the free lending of their books by public libraries, after a campaign that lasted thirty years and was vigorously opposed by a minority of determined MPs. The scheme itself was established three years later. Payment is just a few pence per lend, taken across a sample of UK libraries over the course of a year. And as it’s capped at £6600 (a little over $10,000) it’s the mid-list authors who tend to benefit most.

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This week’s Word of the Week is quintessential, meaning something in its purest, most concentrated form, the most essential part, form or embodiment of anything. In medieval times, it was thought the world was made up of four corruptible elements: earth, air, fire and water. The heavens came to be regarded as a perfect incorruptible element. In Latin, the quinta essentia, literally, the fifth element.

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Weekend, 21-22 August 2010

The Bucket List

When I read Dusty’s post from yesterday, about getting out of your own way and allowing your creativity to do what it really wanted to do, it struck a bit of a chord.

I’d just been reading the latest issue of Bike magazine, which had a piece from world record-breaking professional traveller and adventurer, Nick Sanders, about ‘How To Jack It All In’. Nick listed the six most important factors as:

And if you want to know the specifics, you’ll just have to read the mag, but it sounds simple, doesn’t it? Who among us hasn’t wanted to jack it all in and disappear?

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This week’s Word of the Week is louche, meaning shady, sinister, shifty or disreputable.

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Weekend, 14-15 August 2010

Listening in the Dark

I’m lucky enough to regularly receive emails from readers who have enjoyed reading the Charlie Fox series − often from people who have only just discovered the books. They’re always a wonderful boost for any writer to get, to know that all that midnight wrestling with character, plot and dialogue has not gone unheard in the dark.

Well, this week I received an extraordinary email. The subject line just said ‘An Appreciation’ and when I opened it up, this is what I found:

I was so taken aback by this that it took me a couple of days to formulate a reply, but when I did get in touch with Michael, I asked if it was OK to quote his email here. His response was:

All I can say to that is a huge and heartfelt thank you. Sometimes, it is very nice to know that people are out there, listening – and listening hard – in the dark.

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This week’s Phrase of the Week is sauve qui peut, meaning a state of panic; a stampede. Literally, save (himself) who can.

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Weekend, 7-8 August 2010

Harbinger

We British as a whole are very bad at the practice of blowing our own trumpet.

As a general rule, we’d much rather apologise for being bad at something − take your pick of any sporting activity, from cricket to football (soccer) − than we would boast of our successes. Maybe we’ve had so few successes as a nation recently that we’re out of the habit.(See, there I go again . . .)

So, I’ve found this post very difficult to write.

You see, while I was at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival a couple of weeks ago, I found out that the news is official.

The Charlie Fox series has been optioned by Twentieth Century Fox TV.

I heard the news in the bar (of course – this was a crime writing convention, where else would I be?) I was just introducing fellow author Russel D McLean to his American publisher, who I happened to know and he’d never met, when the publisher paused, looked at me and said, “Didn’t I just get an email about you − something about a movie deal?”

(Oh, and isn’t this a great picture of Russel, by the way? It was taken by the incredibly talented Mary Reagan, and really should be his official author photo.)

Of all the ways to find out the proverbial cat was out of the bag, that has to be one of the most unexpected.

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So, this week’s Phrase of the Week is is letting the cat out of the bag, meaning to reveal a secret. It stems from medieval markets where an unsuspecting buyer was often shown a suckling piglet, but while negotiations were taking place on the price, and the piglet was being bagged up for the journey home, an accomplice would often substitute it for a cat instead. The duped buyer would only discover this when he got home and, quite literally, let the cat out of the bag.

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Weekend, 31 July-1 August 2010

Memorable Harrogate . . .
                          oh, and did I mention the TV deal?

Last weekend I went to the annual Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, which is always an intense event, not least because of the late hours spent in the bar at The Crown Hotel, chatting with fellow writers, readers, editors and agents.

This year I was lucky enough to be involved in two events, one of which was the Readers’ Book Group on Saturday afternoon, where Second Shot was being discussed, along with Charlie Williams’s novel 'King of the Road'. Martyn Waites ably chaired the discussion, although seeing that Martyn came out at Harrogate about his other writing identity, perhaps I should refer to him as Tania Carver instead.

The other event was on Sunday morning, which can be an interesting slot after much late-night revelry following the quiz on Saturday evening. In fact, owing entirely to the fact that we snaffled the talented Martin Edwards for our quiz team, as well as LC Tyler, Russel McLean, Chris Ewan and my other half, Andy (who turned out to be a whiz on the TV cop show theme tunes) we were a gallant second. This came as a complete surprise to me, as with low expectations of our performance, I suggested the team name of ‘BP Complaints Department’.

The Sunday panel, ably hosted by Meg Gardiner, was entitled ‘James Bond, Eat Your Heart Out’ and discussed the current state of the thriller. As well as Meg, I was delighted to be in the company of Jo Nesbø, Sean Black and Jeremy Duns.

Something about a TV deal?

But Harrogate will be memorable for me for other reasons. On Saturday evening I happened to be introducing a US publisher I knew to one of his UK authors, whom he hadn’t met, when the publisher suddenly looked at me and said, "Haven’t I just had an email about you? Something about a TV deal?"

And that’s how I knew the news was official.

The Charlie Fox series has been optioned by Twentieth Century Fox TV. Of course, it’s a long way from page to screen, large or small, but it’s half an inch up towards the first rung on the ladder, and I’m chuffed to little mintballs about the whole thing, to coin a phrase.

It’s been a long haul behind the scenes to get even this far, and now it’s just a case of waiting to see what happens at the next stage. And if I was looking a little nonplussed about the whole thing on Saturday evening at Harrogate, that’s only because the news had yet to really sink in.

Since then, of course, I’ve been grinning so widely I think I have a flip-top head.

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This week’s Word of the Week is pleonasm, which simply means redundancy, especially of words. And from that we get pleonast − someone given to pleonasm, whereas pleonexia means greed or avarice.

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Weekend, 24-25 July 2010

Time and Space

I have always viewed myself not as an artist, but a craftsman.

I take an enormous amount of care over my work, and yes, pride in it. I’m constantly striving to improve and hone what I do, but the word ‘artist’ always conjures up images of ego and eccentricity. I just can’t take myself that seriously.

I can never forget that I am asking people to buy into a myth, a dream, a jumble of thoughts and ideas that have been tumbling around inside my head, and have finally made it out in some semblance of order onto the page.

The fact that anyone wants to read them often frankly astounds me.

And yet, I had an email from someone recently who told me that she cried while reading the ending of Fourth Day. Having that happen at all is pretty humbling for a writer, to be honest. But the fact that she cried while reading the book in the airport is even more so.

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This week’s Phrase of the Week is having your leg pulled meaning to be on the receiving end of a deception or joke. It’s thought to originate from a Scottish rhyme of the 1860s, in which old Aunt Meg was hanged and the preacher pulled on her legs to ensure she died quickly and without too much pain. Aunt Meg was probably innocent of the crime for which she was hanged, but was known to have been the victim of much deception and trickery, for which having her leg pulled was the result.

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Weekend, 17-18 July 2010

Fun with Friends − and Harrogate Beckons . . .

Since we’ve got back from our mini-tour of the States last month, things have been a bit frantic, but that’s no surprise. When are they ever any different? We’ve had the usual shoots and events to do, like Bodies in the Bookshop at Heffers in Cambridge on Thursday. I think Richard Reynolds of Heffers must be sacrificing things to the weather gods, because it was − as ever − a gorgeous day for it.

It was great to meet up with the usual suspects, plus some new faces including my fellow Murderati blogger, JT Ellison, who was over from Nashville to do a bit of research for her next book, as well as promoting her latest.

As ever, the long car journey to Cambridge proved useful scribbling and plotting time in the car. I only started work on the new book earlier this month, and so far progress seems to be good. It’s amazing how quickly I’ve got back into the swing of having a daily word target looming over me, after a few weeks’ reprieve. Still, keeping up the momentum of the book is a very good incentive.

We did have a bit of a break last weekend, though, as fellow Busted Flush Press crime author Donna Moore, and her feller, Ewan, came down from Scotland for a brief stay. We even managed to persuade her to sit still for long enough to take some proper author photographs, which is a difficult task as Donna does not like being photographed. But, here’s one of the ones she was almost happy with, and I think she looks great!

July is proving its usual washout as far as the weather is concerned. Outside jobs on the house have ceased in the face of a constant downpour that has the beck doing its usual raging torrent impression.

It’s the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate this weekend, and it always seem to coincide with bad weather at home. Still, at least if we’re in Yorkshire we might miss the flooding this year!

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This week’s Word of the Week is tepid, which is a lovely word meaning lukewarm or lacking in enthusiasm. Everybody knows that one, I’m sure, but from that we also get tepefy (v) and tepefaction (n) meaning to make tepid, and tepidarium, which is the warm room between the cold and hot rooms of a Roman bath.

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Weekend, 3-4 July 2010

Homecoming

How come when you’re away from home, it seems like a week lasts forever, and yet as soon as you get back, time flies? I’m sure Einstein had a theory for it, but I have no idea.

Since last week’s blog, we’ve been exploring New Orleans, been caught in tropical storm Alex, had a ball in Manhattan, and discovered that it is indeed possible to bury a body at Montauk Point.

We were staying in Louisiana with my fellow Murderati blogger, Toni McGee Causey and her charming husband, Carl. They spared no effort to entertain us, taking us on ferry trips, up national landmarks, and around one of the largest scrapyards in the southern United States. Fascinating!

We also got to see the touristy bits − and the not so touristy bits − of New Orleans, including the art gallery strewn centre and the devastated outskirts.

Apparently, Toni still gets fits of the giggles remembering me attempting to eat crawfish. We ordered six pounds of the little devils at a roadside diner in Morgan City, and damned difficult to fight your way into they were, too!

From there we flew to Long Island, in heavy rain and howling winds, with a delayed flight and detour via Orlando. No fun for Andy, who had a bad head cold by this point and couldn’t clear his ears during the flight. The cabin crew advised dosing up on Sudafed before we took to the air again. (It proved useful advice, as I’d managed to catch the same lurgy before our transatlantic flight home a few days later).

We spent the whole of Tuesday in Manhattan, having caught the Long Island Rail Road in from the wonderfully named Ronkonkoma. After a fun lunch with my new US publisher, Claiborne Hancock at Pegasus, and a drop-in signing with Steve at Partners & Crime on Greenwich Ave, we ambled through the sunny Washington Square Park and chilled out before the evening event at The Mysterious Bookshop with Lee Child.

Fellow mystery author, and acclaimed artist, Jonathan Santlofer, was gracious enough not only to come along, but also to laugh in all the right places, as did store owner Otto Penzler. Always a good sign.

New York Times reviews Killer Instinct

Afterwards, Andy, Lee Child, Maggie Griffin (Lee's webmaven) and I had dinner at a little Italian restaurant a few blocks north. In fact, it was Maggie, who sent me the first news that Killer Instinct has been reviewed in The New York Times this weekend. An achievement in itself − doubly so that reviewer Marilyn Stasio liked the book!

After the excitement of Manhattan, we spent our last free day driving around Long Island, checking out some of the areas I’ve used in the next Charlie Fox book.

I was relieved to find it is indeed possible to have one of my characters buried on the beach just south of the lighthouse at Montauk Point [left]. The beach is largely shingle rather than sand, but there were enough areas of the soft stuff to make not only a burial possible, but its discovery more likely.

Coming home involved a marathon of flights from Long Island to Chicago and then on to Houston, where we stacked for nearly an hour while the pilot tried to work out if the weather would allow him to land, or if we’d have to divert to Dallas. Fortunately, we did make it down safely, in time to meet with David Thompson from Busted Flush Press, who very kindly collected us from the domestic airport and delivered us to the international one for the nine-and-a-half-hour transatlantic leg.

Andy’s watch alarm went off as we were on the motorway driving back up country from Heathrow, showing we’d been on the go for more than twenty-four hours. But would we do it all again? Definitely!

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This week’s Word of the Week is stalko, which is Anglo-Irish for a gentleman without fortune or occupation, possibly from stócach, an idler.

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Weekend, 26-27 June 2010

Hot and Sunny in the States

Why is it that time passes differently when you’re away from home? We’ve been in the States for less than a week and it feels like we’ve been here forever − in a good way, of course. Since Monday, when we landed in Texas, we’ve been in Arizona, spent a couple of hours in Tennessee and are now firmly in Louisiana. And it’s all fascinating.

David Thompson, owner of Busted Flush Press and manager of Murder by the Book,
introducing me to a very welcoming crowd at the bookstore in Houston.

People warned us about the heat, but it feels great to be warm through to the bones after the cold winter we’ve just had. We even wandered around outside at midday in Houston in 114 degrees, and didn’t wilt. It’s very strange to be walking along with your own shadow nothing more than a small dark puddle around your feet. We’re not used to the sun being so high overhead.

The first thing we did when we landed was to buy a cheap pay-as-you-go US cellphone, so we could keep in touch with everyone and not be faced with the national debt of a small country when we got home. We ended up with something that came with as much free air time as it cost us to buy, and has more features than Andy’s UK phone has to start with. We’re still shaking our heads over that one.

It was great to arrive in Texas and see David and McKenna and all the staff at Murder By The Book, and sign a whole pile of stock of the new US edition of Killer Instinct for Busted Flush Press.

David ferried us around between bookstore, hotel and airport, and then as soon as we landed in Arizona on Wednesday morning, we picked up a car of our own and drove down to Tucson to see Chris and Daniel at Clues Unlimited. Then back up to Phoenix for dinner with librarian Lesa Holstine.

We saw Lesa twice the next day. First at the Authors @ The Teague event at the Velma Teague Branch Library in Glendale, where I was on a panel with Juliet Blackwell, Sophie Littlefield and Jeanne Matthews, which was fun. Lesa presented me with a mug to mark the occasion, which we just about managed to squeeze into the luggage. We’ve been doing this trip on carryon bags only, and have packed to a very fine tolerance.

After the library event, we drove over to Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale and walked a couple of blocks to a very good sushi restaurant we remembered from our last visit. (Yeah, I know, walking again.) I believe the temperature was even higher than Texas, but we’re English − walking around in the midday sun is what we’re noted for . . .

At the Poisoned Pen conference: Stefanie Pintoff, me, host and store owner Barbara Peters, Jodi Compton and Lisa Brackmann, with Lesa Holstine in the audience, front right.

We had a really good crowd at the Poisoned Pen conference, including a surprising number of British ex-pats, who asked some great questions of all of us. Sadly, we had to decline the kind offer to go to Trader Vic’s for drinks afterwards, because we were up against tight deadlines for our onward journey to New Orleans.

When I realised the flight took us via Nashville, Tennessee, I emailed my fellow Murderati blogger, JT Ellison, and asked how far away from the airport she lived. "Twenty-five minutes," came the reply. She came over and we spent an hour in one of the airport lounges, drinking coffee and chatting. It was great to see her, and a nice way to spend the time. Next time, we promised, we’d touch down for longer than two hours, and try to make it out of the airport!

Then it was on to Louisiana, and as I write, we’re spending the weekend with another ‘Rati friend, Toni McGee Causey and her husband, Carl. And we’re having a blast. Yesterday, that was literally the case, as we spent the afternoon at the local outdoor gun range with a small selection taken from Carl’s firearms collection. Andy got to fire a long gun seriously for the first time and if he’d had a grin any bigger, he would have had a flip-top head.

Tomorrow is New York, Long Island, and another story. Oh, by the way, if you're in the New York City area on Tuesday (29th), I'll be signing 6:30-8:00pm with Lee Child at The Mysterious Bookshop. See you there!

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Weekend, 19-20 June 2010

On the Road Again

The more observant among you will have noticed, of course, that I am not Brett Battles. I realise that this may come as a huge disappointment to some of you. (After all, he’s a one-of-a-kind type of guy.)

And, being such, Brett has very kindly allowed me to trade places with him for this week’s ‘Rati blog. I leave for a mini-tour of the States on Monday morning, and will be all over the place for the next 11 days. Although posting a blog here wouldn’t be too difficult, getting to comments might prove more tricky. So, I’ll leave you in Brett’s more-than-capable hands while I’m away.

And this pic has nothing to do with Brett, just in case you were wondering. It’s just a lovely one of one of the more unusual fixtures in the Murder on The Beach bookstore in Delray Beach, which I took last time I was there.

Andy and I have always enjoyed travelling. Good job, too, because one way or another we do a lot of it. Packing and repacking for work trips is a common thing, to the point where we usually only start throwing stuff into bags the night before we go.

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Weekend, 12-13 June 2010

Where Will It End?

I’ve been sitting here for a couple of hours now, staring at a blank open document, wondering how to begin. My problem is not that I don’t know what to write but more that I’m not sure how best to tackle the subject.

Anyone who’s seen the news over the past week will be aware of the events in my home county of Cumbria. For those who aren’t familiar with the details, last Wednesday morning a fifty-two-year-old cab driver called Derrick Bird walked out of his cottage, armed with a .22 rifle and a shotgun, climbed into his car and went on what’s best described as a rampage, shooting dead twelve people and injuring a further eleven before finally crashing his car and taking his own life.

It’s shocking, yes. Answers are being sought, but I fear that none will be found. People are asking what could have been done to prevent such a thing occurring, and it’s not very reassuring for anyone to think that events of this nature − awful though they are − are impossible to predict and prevent. There will always be the quiet man who suddenly snaps, without warning.

The day after the killings last week, I received an email out of the blue from BBC Radio, asking me to write a short essay on Derrick Bird’s actions from a crime writer’s perspective, which I duly did. I mentioned the piece in the blog on my website last week [see 'Tragic Times' below], and I understand the recording also went out on the World Service.

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I read out my piece on BBC Radio 4's The World At One on June 4th and it was also broadcast on the BBC World Service. Left-click to listen to the broadcast now − or right-click and choose "Save Target As . . ." to download the mp3 file.

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Weekend, 5-6 June 2010

Tragic Times

This week has been one of tragedy in the Lake District. For those who don’t know the details, the bones of the matter are that fifty-two-year-old cab driver, Derrick Bird, walked out of his cottage in the tiny Cumbrian village of Rowrah one morning, with a shotgun and a rifle, and climbed into his car. Three hours later, 11 people lay injured and 13 lay dead by his hand, including the gunman himself.

The BBC approached me to write a short essay on the subject, tackling it from a writer’s perspective in general, and a crime writer’s perspective in particular. I read out the piece at the tail end of The World At One’s Friday (4 June) lunchtime edition on BBC Radio 4, and it has since appeared on the BBC website as well:

A sad, sad time for everyone.

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I read out my piece on BBC Radio 4's The World At One on June 4th and it was also broadcast on the BBC World Service. Left-click to listen to the broadcast now − or right-click and choose "Save Target As . . ." to download the mp3 file.

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Weekend, 22-23 May 2010

Camera at CrimeFest 2010

As I write this, we are on the motorway heading north from Bristol after the CrimeFest convention, tired but really pretty happy. It was a fun weekend, in which we actually enjoyed sunburn weather for the first time this year. I've always thought the best way to tell any story is via pictures, so here are a few (which is DoubleSpeak for, my brain is fried).

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Weekend, 8-9 May 2010

Beyond the Call

My head is full of books at the moment, which is something of an occupational hazard and a pleasure. First of all, I had to reread Lee Child’s latest, 61 Hours, in preparation for discussing it with the book group at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal, on May 4th.

I read the book more or less at a sitting when it first came out, having arm-wrestled my Other Half for it as usual. There’s always a bit of an undignified scuffle breaks out in our house when the new Lee Child arrives, but it was fascinating to read it again with the purpose of pulling out points for a discussion group.

And what was more interesting was that quite a few of the group said they’d never read any of his work before, that it wasn’t the kind of book they’d necessarily choose, or that they found the cover too masculine, but then asked for pointers on other Jack Reacher books to read afterwards.

Best-selling author, Lee Child − role model, mentor
and unfailing support. Here we are at Crime & Partners
in Greenwich Village, New York, at the launch of
'Second Shot' way back in 2007

Lee would have been on my mind this week in any case, because with the publication of the new American trade paperback edition of Killer Instinct, I’m aware of what a debt I owe him in terms of enthusiasm and support. Lee very kindly wrote a foreword for the new book, of which I’m very proud to quote a bit here:

Modesty prevents me from quoting the rest of Lee's analysis of the book and my debut as a writer. But I hope you'll get hold of your own copy of Killer Instinct, read the foreword in full − and enjoy the book as much as Lee did.

And the thing that really gets to me is that Lee didn’t have to do any of that. It makes me realise what a circular industry this is, that what goes around, comes around. In that case, Lee’s earning future goodwill in spades!

I’m also reading books by Tom Cain, Matt Lynn, Richard Jay Parker, and Leigh Russell, who are appearing on the ‘Hanging Around’ panel I’ll be moderating at CrimeFest − May 20th-23rd − which is approaching rapidly. I’m also appearing on Donna Moore’s panel, ‘Grimly Fiendish’, for which I have to attempt verse, and I’m doing a brief rerun of my semi-serious self-defence demonstration in one of the In The Spotlight slots on Saturday − ‘You Can’t Run In High Heels’. Should be lots of fun.

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This week’s Word of the Week is royne, which is another one Spenser made up, and means to mutter, growl or roar. But royne is also an alternative spelling of roon, which means a list or selvage; a strip or thread of cloth in Scots. Shakespeare also used roynish, meaning scurvy, mangy, mean, from the French roigne, mange.

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Weekend, 1-2 May 2010

New Light Through Old Windows

I find myself in a weird situation this week. I hope you’ll forgive a touch of BSP, but I have two Charlie Fox books coming out within a few days of each other − one old and one new − and it’s made me view the whole series in a new light. I look at where I started, and where I am now, and think about the journey that has taken Charlie from there to here.

In Killer Instinct, which comes out in a spanking new trade paperback edition from Busted Flush Press around May 1st, my heroine is a very different person from the one she later becomes. By that, I don’t mean that she’s undergone any kind of radical personality changes in the subsequent books. The underlying traits and abilities were always there, but softer, more hesitant. Charlie still gets into physical altercations with people, but she probably agonises more before beating the crap out of them. In one scene of Killer Instinct, for example, she is forced to dislocate someone’s shoulder in order to avoid being glassed in the face during a fight in a nightclub. She really doesn’t like the idea, but recognises she has little choice.

During that period of her life, she was certainly younger and more naive, still on her way back from being a victim and with her new-found resolve never to be put in the same position again untested. This is the book that joins Charlie at the start of her road back. It marks a turning point in her life, where she discovers the best and the worst of herself.

I don’t remember making a conscious decision to make Charlie into a killer, albeit one who stayed within the law. Violence comes easy to her, but that very fact unsettles her. It’s something of an unwanted talent. Only later does she realise that she needs an outlet for it that isn’t going to land her in prison for the rest of her life.

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This week’s Word of the Week is mascaron, which is a grotesque face on a keystone or door-knocker, used as an architectural ornament. The origin is unclear, but it’s thought to be connected in some way with the Low Latin mascus, masca, a ghost, and with Arabic maskharah, a jester or man in masquerade.

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Weekend, 24-25 April 2010

My Spring Newsletter

There is so much going on at the moment that I thought it was time to issue another of my occasional newsletters. If you're on my mailing list, you will have received the Spring 2010 edition quite recently. If not, and you'd like to receive future issues, do please sign up here.

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Weekend, 17-18 April 2010

In and Out of Shadow

As a photographer, shadows interest me, but as a writer, they fascinate me. Darkness has a tendency to be absolute, but shadows are open to such interpretation according to mood.

Take this picture, for instance, which I took a couple of years ago. It’s of a giant (well 66ft high with a 178ft wingspan) contemporary sculpture by Anthony Gormley called The Angel of the North, just on the outskirts of Tyneside in the north-east of England.

Ever since the first time I saw it, this has seemed sinister to me, and I deliberately took this photograph to highlight that feeling. But to the people clustered happily round the statue’s base, it clearly had no such overtones.

And here’s the same statue, taken by Echostains on a totally different day, which gives a totally different view to my own. Blue skies, bright sun. What sinister air?

Everything we do and say is open to interpretation according to the mood of those witnessing our words and actions. Confidence to one person is arrogance to another. One person’s joke is another’s insult.

I’ve been guilty for making an offhand remark that was probably somewhat thoughtless on my part rather than purposely cruel, just as I know I’ve made the occasional pointed comment that went straight over the intended person’s head.

Many years ago I once wrote an entire comic column gently mocking someone, and they apparently read and enjoyed it without the slightest inkling that they were the target of my dubious humour. (Perhaps this demonstrates I’m not very good at that kind of thing. . .)

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This week’s Word of the Week is mishguggle, which is a lovely Scottish word meaning to bungle.

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Weekend, 10-11 April 2010

A Quick Razz Round the Country

This week has been a bit mad and almost entirely spent on the road. We’ve done a quick razz round the country from the Lakes down to the south coast, and even took a trip across onto the Isle of Wight, which has to have the most laid-back ferry going. We weren’t sure how long the cross-country drive would take us from staying with friends just outside Tunbridge Wells, and so turned up in Portsmouth docks at 10:15 for an 11:30 ferry. The guy on the gate just glanced at our ticket and said, "Oh, we’ll get you on the 10:30. Just go and see them in the ticket office." And away we went.

It’s been years since I’ve been in Portsmouth, and I was amazed by the Spinnaker Tower on the docks, which is a 170-metre (557 ft 9 in) observation tower that resembles the Burj Al Arab in Dubai. It’s a stunning piece, although apparently came in behind time and way over budget, as these projects have a habit of doing. I’m told it has the largest glass floor in an elevated tower in Europe, but I’m not sure I quite fancy the idea of that.

The people we went to see on the Isle of Wight made comments about what the shape has been said to resemble, and it was somewhat less highbrow than the lightweight sail that gives the structure its name. We hadn’t noticed any comic possibilities on the trip out, but on the return leg we saw exactly what he meant. See if you can work it out for yourself.

One thing we couldn’t get over was the weather. In fact, we both caught a bit of sun on Thursday, which came as something of a surprise to us pale northerners. The daffodils were in full flood where at home they’re only just starting to bloom, and the spring lambs were large and confident instead of still being at the small and wobbly stage. And then we finally arrived back last night to discover that the snow has still not melted from the tops of the hills.

It all made me realise how much variation in weather you can include when writing about any given location. After all, we’ve had baking days in unlikely places, and torrential downpours in Florida. And also that knowing the local nicknames for places can be very useful, rather than simply the official titles from the guidebooks.

Anyway, this week will see me stuck into rewrites for the new Charlie Fox book. I’ve been in limbo for the last few weeks, waiting for comments to come back from my editor, which should be with me on Monday, with any luck. I put the outlines for the next project in just before we left, and it’s been very strange to have just done such a long car trip with no book to be getting on with.

This week I should also be starting to read up, not only for my talk for Brewery Books on Lee Child’s 61 Hours at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal on May 4th, but also for the panel I’m moderating at CrimeFest in Bristol, May 20th-23rd. Should be fun.

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This week’s Word of the Week is dybbuk, which is an entity from Jewish folklore, an evil spirit, or the soul of a dead person, that enters the body of a living person and controls his or her actions, from the Hebrew dibbuq.

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Weekend, 3-4 April 2010

Before I start, for those of you who don’t know, the beloved husband Bruce of fellow Murderati member, Louise Ure, lost his battle with cancer this week and very sadly passed away. Our deepest sympathies go to Louise and all the family. I’m sure she’s been inundated with cards and notes and emails, but if anyone would like to make a small donation to a cancer charity in the name of Bruce Goronsky, that would be a lovely gesture.

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Just Foolin'

This is not the post I was intending to write this week − that I’ll save for a later blog. It wasn’t until I looked at the calendar and clocked the date that I realised I was going to have to come up with something more suitable. What does it say about me that I end up with the April Fool’s Day post, I wonder?

So, I thought I’d report some facts that are definitely foolish, and should be untrue, but they aren’t. Or are they? I could have made up some of these − maybe even all of them. After all, we’re writers of fiction. Making Stuff Up is, after all, what we do.

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This week’s Word of the Week is dunt, which is a lovely word with several meanings. It’s either (of ceramics) to crack in the oven because of too rapid cooling; (in dialect) the disease of gid or sturdy in sheep; or (in Scots) a thump, or the wound or mark made by a thump.

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Weekend, 27-28 March 2010

Travelling Lightbulbs

This week sees the publication in large-print format of the second book in the Charlie Fox series − Riot Act. The hardcover has been out of print for a while, so the new ISIS/Ulverscroft edition has been particularly welcomed by libraries, whose reading groups are keen to follow Charlie's early adventures.

ISIS/Ulverscroft now have four Charlie Fox titles in their large print portfolio: Killer Instinct, Riot Act, Second Shot and Third Strike.

Large-print version of the second Charlie Fox thriller,
Riot Act, is now available from ISIS/Ulverscroft.
ISBN: 978-0-7531-8572-8

We’ve been clocking up some miles over the past week or so, covering about 700 of them over just two days last week, with trips to the Midlands and then up into Scotland. It’s been exhausting, but very useful.

The trip to the Midlands included a Thriller panel event in Allestree Library in Derby, with Curzon Group members, Matt Lynn and Richard Jay Parker.

(l to r): Matt Lynn, Richard Jay Parker and myself, with Allestree Librarian Christine Heward, Trish Kenny from Derby City Libraries, and Alasdair Kean, Principal Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Derby.

Matt has several military thrillers out under his own name, as well as ghost-writing numerous others, but for Richard, just writing his second techno-thriller, it was his first event.

Originally, the idea was put forward that we would each talk for 10-15 minutes on the panel topic − The Tradition of British Thriller Writing and the return of the great British thriller. In the end, the three of us got together beforehand and came up with a couple of questions each we could pose. The library had very kindly invited Alasdair Kean, Principal Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Derby, to moderate us if necessary, but we kept the thing to a much more informal discussion between us, with a short reading and questions at the end. According to the librarian, Christine Heward, this was "inspired" and they had a lot of very positive feedback. Always nice to hear.

The other useful aspect of being in the car for long periods, of course, is that I find it very useful plotting and note-making time, and I’ve plenty to think about at the moment, with the next book in the gestation period while I wait for my agent’s feedback on the last one. I also have short stories to be getting on with, a fantasy biog and a tricky theme of Crime in Rhyme for CrimeFest in May to think about, as well as preparing for a talk I’m delivering on Lee Child’s latest Reacher thriller, 61 Hours, at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal on May 4th.

Speaking of which, we went to Waterstone's on Deansgate in Manchester on Thursday night to see Lee and hear him speak about the latest book, which he did with his usual good humour and grace. It was also great to catch up with Brad and Patsy, his usual travelling companions, and with Shots Literary Editor and reviewer Ali Karim, and with crime fan Martyn Lewis, who we bump into at events like CrimeFest and Harrogate. A late finish, but a fun day.

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Weekend, 20-21 March 2010

Deep Breaths

Stress, as I've said before on these pages, is a very peculiar animal. We need a certain amount of it to keep the juices flowing, but too much can make us ill or even kill us. Stress is not caused by work. Stress is caused by not coping with work. And I should know.

At one point, many years ago, I had an awful job selling newspaper advertising where they gave us impossible targets because they thought it would motivate us to keep trying that little bit harder. Failing to meet them, week after week, was a miserable experience. It actually gave me a heart murmur and I had to wander round with one of those portable ECG machines to monitor it. When my probationary six months was up, the sales manager brought me into his office to ask if I thought I saw my future in the job. I said, "Honestly? I don't think so." He said, "I thought you were going to say that. You're fired."

And although I hated working there, being given the sack was almost worse.

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This week's Word of the Week is enthusiasm, which is commonly taken to mean passionate eagerness in any pursuit. But the original Greek word enthousiasmos signified inspiration or possession by a god (from Greek theos, god). Along the way, it came to mean religious zealotry or fanaticism, sometimes simply ecstasy inspired by poetry. An enthusiast was originally one who laid claim to divine revelations, hence a visionary, self-deluded person.

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Weekend, 13-14 March 2010

Endings and Beginnings

This week has been hectic − but when are they not? To begin with, librarian Ian Williams sent through some very nice pictures from the event I did on March 4th at Fleetwood Library to celebrate World Book Day.

The pix were taken by assistant librarian, Ruth Pomfret, and were too nice not to use, don’t you think?

The Fleetwood event also saw the launch of the short story competition in conjunction with Lancashire Libraries’ Year of Crime (see box below), for which I was asked to write the opening line.

Initially, I was asked for an opening paragraph, but I thought a line gave more scope − especially as entrants can choose to either produce a short story of up to 5000 words, or a piece of flash fiction of up to 500 words.

The line itself is:

‘I always swore, if ever I came back to Lancashire again, I’d kill him.’

Which, I felt, gets the county in as well as all kinds of possibilities for crime. It could be taken as the start of a first-person piece, or opening dialogue for a third-person piece. I don’t even mind if the final ‘him’ is substituted for a ‘her’. The closing date is the end of September, and I can’t wait to read the results.

And this Friday evening − 7 to 9 pm, March 19th − I’ll be taking part in the Derby Literature Festival, with a panel event at Allestree Library with Richard Jay Parker and Matt Lynn. I haven’t done anything with these two Curzon Group thriller authors before, so I’m looking forward to a lively discussion. Our topic is 'The Tradition of British Thriller Writing.'  For a taster, follow this link to Authors of the Month.

The main thing this week, however, has been a minor celebration because I’ve finished the first draft of the next Charlie Fox book. In fact, the reason this blog is posted a little later than normal is because today is Deadline Day, and I wanted to be able to report it was all sorted!

When I say ‘first draft’ that means the version my agent and editor will see. I tend to self-edit quite a lot as I go along, so what I have now is hopefully a reasonably polished piece of work. And, amazingly, for once it hasn’t come in wildly over length. I think writing in shorter chapters has enabled me to get into a scene late and get out of it early, in a more filmic style, making the narrative flow faster.

Hmm, it’s a nice theory, we’ll see if it works in practice . . .

This week’s Word of the Week is concinnity, meaning harmony, congruity, elegance, particularly when related to art or literature. From the Latin, concinnus well adjusted.

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Weekend, 6-7 March 2010

No Strangers − Only Friends

This week, I’m delighted to be able to do an interview with a writer I greatly admire. Please give a warm ‘Rati welcome to . . . JT Ellison!

Yes, I realise that you all know JT, but that doesn’t mean you’re aware of just what an all-round superhero(ine) she is. So, for those of you who are unaware, I’m going to quote from her author biog:

"JT is a graduate of Randolph-Macon Woman's College and received her master's degree from George Washington University. She was a presidential appointee and worked in The White House and the Department of Commerce before moving into the private sector. As a financial analyst and marketing director, she worked for several defence and aerospace contractors.

“After moving to Nashville, Ellison began research on a passion: forensics and crime. She has worked with the Metro Nashville Police Department, the FBI, and various other law enforcement organizations to research her books.

“Her short stories have been widely published, including her award winning story "Prodigal Me" in the anthology KILLER YEAR: STORIES TO DIE FOR, edited by Lee Child, "Chimera" in the anthology, SURREAL SOUTH 09, edited by Pinckney Benedict and Laura Benedict, and "Killing Carol Ann" in FIRST THRILLS, edited by Lee Child.”

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This week’s Word of the Week is scooning, or to scoon, a completely made-up one, that we’re trying to bring into common useage. A guy we used to know called Scoon was taking a long flight, when he fell asleep in his seat. Gradually, his head lolled until it was resting on the shoulder of the total stranger in the next seat. This guy was very polite and didn’t want to wake him up, until he realised that our friend had been drooling in his sleep and had actually soaked through the guy’s jacket and shirt and was making his shoulder damp. Now, if anyone drools in their sleep, it’s known in our household as scooning. Enjoy . . .

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Weekend, 27-28 February 2010

My brain has been torn . . .

. . . in all kinds of different directions this week. I’m in the final throes of the new Charlie Fox book, for a start. Another couple of weeks, and it should be about there. And as the story starts to quicken near the ending, so my urge to write and keep writing it gets stronger. Which is fortunate, because by the time I’d missed a few days’ work being away, and reading through the galleys of Killer Instinct − which comes out in its brand new paperback edition from Busted Flush in May − I was feeling as though I was slipping behind a little. Amazing how a few good days’ output can make you feel as though you’re back on track.

I was also invited to step into the breach at Garforth Library near Leeds on Thursday evening, when Sophie Hannah was unavailable at short notice.

The Garforth event was delightfully hosted by Arts & Reading Development Manager, Britta Heyworth, seen here (centre) with colleagues and members of the audience, as I signed books after the meeting.

Originally, we were hoping it might turn into a LadyKillers’ event, but in the end it was just me, so I felt I had to be even more entertaining than normal, in order to make up the deficit!

Either way, it went off well, and everybody seemed to go away having had a good time. The library itself is a brand new building, only recently opened, and built with lottery funding. The architecture is modern and engaging, showing some real flair in the layout and style of the place, from the curvy swoopy bookcases on the ground floor and the recycled-fridge countertops, to the colour-changing accent lighting, and the integral coffee shop.

Next week, besides an ever-nearer approaching deadline, and a trip to north Wales, I have an event at Fleetwood Library to celebrate World Book Day on March 4th, and an interview to do on Murderati with JT Ellison about her brand new book, The Cold Room. And, with any luck, I’ll be that little bit closer to the finish of the new Charlie Fox book . . .

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This week's Word of the Week is candidate, a person who seeks election to some office. The literal meaning is 'clothed in white' (Latin, candidatus). Among the Romans, those seeking high office wore a loose white robe − loose to show their scars, white as a sign of fidelity and humility. Curiously, the practice seems to have fallen out of use in recent times.

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Weekend, 20-21 February 2010

Laying It Out

I'm fussy when it comes to presentation. For someone with precious little fashion sense, I do take a lot of care about the way my work looks when it goes out, and I always have. Maybe that makes me vain, in a way. I'm not sure.

I could try to say that always preferring to print out an address label rather than hand-write the package is just to save the postal system misdirecting it, but the truth is, I just think it looks neater.

I bought my first word processor − the almighty Amstrad − back in the mid-1980s. It allowed me to present a piece of work that was spell-checked and laid out properly. Even a dot-matrix printer − set on high quality − could produce decent looking type. And although this was not the model I owned, you'll notice something about this PC − no mouse. Everything was keyboard-driven. I loved it, and hung on to my old version of LocoScript as a word processing package for years after it had gone out of date. The thesaurus program knocks later ones into the proverbial cocked hat. Ah, nostalgia − it isn't what it used to be.

And now, when I send out sets of digital images on DVD-R, they have a fully printed label, the pictures are sorted into order, renamed to relate to the subject matter, and numbered. I even rename the disk itself, so as soon as it goes into the drive, you know what it is.

Sounds a bit daft, doesn't it?

Not if you keep getting the work.

I'm not saying that laying your work out correctly, numbering the pages right from the start of the typescript, and spell-checking the document, will get you a deal. Let's be honest about this. It won't. There's an old motor-racing saying that goes, "You can tidy up speed, but you can't speed up tidiness." And so it is with writing. If the style and the voice is there, it's going to shine through regardless. But why make things difficult for yourself?

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This week's Word of the Week is subsultive, meaning moving by sudden leaps or starts; twitching, and also subsultus, meaning an abnormal convulsive or twitching movement, usually of the muscles, from the Latin subsultare, to jump, hop, from sub up, and salire to leap.

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Weekend, 13-14 February 2010

It's Been an Exciting Week!

Last week was an exciting one, with the publication of my very first book, Killer Instinct, in large print format for the first time.

Large-print version of first-ever Charlie Fox thriller,
Killer Instinct, is now available from ISIS Publishing (Ulverscroft).
ISBN: 978-0-7531-8570-4

As the book’s been out of print for quite a while, this at least means the libraries can restock. All good news.

And speaking of libraries, I’ve been invited to take part in the Year of Crime, organised by Lancashire Libraries, which will involve events and judging a short story competition, for which I have to provide the opening paragraph. It will be very interesting to see where people take the story from that opening. I can’t wait.

This week has seen the launch for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, which takes place in July. I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to take part again this year, on a panel called ‘James Bond, Eat Your Heart Out − now that the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth has passed, where do we go for high-octane international thrillers?’

It should be a lot of fun, with Meg Gardiner in the Chair and Sean Black, Jeremy Duns, and Jo Nesbø alongside me. The launch took place in Harrogate, and it was great to meet up with everyone and have a chat. Not to mention watching Andy trying to teach my agent how to shoot pool, although she plays a mean game of full-contact croquet!

This week has also seen the arrival of the bound galleys for the American publication of Killer Instinct. Lovely to see that as a book again, and it will look even better with its proper cover attached. I’ve also had provisional cover images through for Fourth Day, both the UK and US editions, but these are still in the provisional stages, so I’ll show you those when they’re finalised.

People-watching has taken on a new dimension for me lately, because after watching the Tim Roth series, ‘Lie To Me’ on DVD, I decided I really ought to do some serious research into body language, so I bought what was recommended as the best book on the subject, and I’ve been reading up on it. Fascinating stuff. Particularly watching the way people stand and use their hands when they talk and the almost subliminal effect that has on their audience. But the most useful thing will be to use some of these unconscious gestures more effectively in my character development.

I’m still rolling along with the next book in the Charlie Fox series, which is coming on reasonably well. I still hope to be finished next month, and writing in short chapters seems to be helping me keep the momentum of the writing going. Initially, I write each chapter in a separate file, then drop it in one larger document once it’s finished. Writing longer chapters can sometimes involve opening up that same chapter file for four or five days in a row, and I think it becomes stale to me. This way, I’m usually writing an entire chapter at a sitting, and it really seems to be keeping the story fresh, even if I am up to Chapter 41 already and not at the end of the story by any means!

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This week’s Word of the Week is exemplum, which means not only an example, but also a short story or anecdote illustrating a moral, the plural of which is exempla.

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Weekend, 6-7 February 2010

Playing with Words

It will come as no surprise to those who know me that I love playing with words. My dictionary is falling apart and decorated with Post-It notes of words that would make great titles, names, or just ones I love the sound or shape of. Looking up anything always takes me longer than I expected because I get very easily side-tracked. I collect weird meanings and derivations of unusual words and phrases, many of which I've included in these posts.

But it's not just unusual words that fascinate me. I love common words with unusual meanings, or slight misspellings that change everything. (Only recently I was sent an email imploring me to sign a partition.) When I started making a note of some words that caught my eye for this post, I quickly filled pages of notes, and then had to force myself to stop. Here are just a few of my favourites, in no particular order.

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Large-print version of first-ever Charlie Fox thriller,
Killer Instinct, is now available from ISIS Publishing (Ulverscroft).
ISBN: 978-0-7531-8570-4

Early Titles in Large Print and Audio

Libraries and reading groups have welcomed the news that the early Charlie Fox titles are scheduled to appear in large print and audio formats. ISIS Publishing (Ulverscroft) have just launched a large-print edition of the first-ever Charlie Fox thriller, Killer Instinct. This opening novel in the series traces Charlie Fox's roots in the northwest UK town where she began teaching self-defence to women.

ISIS will publish the second of Charlie Fox's UK-based adventures − Riot Act − later this year. Their list already includes large-print versions of Second Shot and Third Strike.

Second Shot and Third Strike are already available in audio format from BBC Publications, who also now plan to publish all four early books in the Charlie Fox series: Killer Instinct, Riot Act, Hard Knocks and Road Kill.

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Weekend, 30-31 January 2010

As Easy As Sitting on a Log . . .

I’ve spent this week learning how to sit. OK, maybe I should change that to relearning. For the past couple of months I’ve been having real problems with my neck, which I initially thought were down to moving awkwardly around the broken rib I had at the end of last year. At the time, my neck locked up solid, and since then it’s given me some nasty surprises when I’ve been least expecting it, like when I’ve been turning, sitting, watching TV − strenuous activities like that.

So I finally gave in to spousal bullying and went to see the doctor about it. I don’t know why I avoid it, because our local GP is terrific, and very helpful. He not only suggested and demonstrated various exercises I ought to be doing to help it, but asked a lot of questions about how I work.

These were not the usual kind of questions you get at writing events, but more concerned with the actual mechanics of sitting in front of a computer. And at this point I discovered that I’m doing it wrong.

I learned to touch-type many years ago, which has probably proved the single most useful skill I ever acquired. I’m now a quick typist who doesn’t have to watch my hands, so I’m not constantly moving my eyes from keyboard to screen in order to work in the traditional ‘hunt and peck’ method.

Touch-typing also means that I can use a full ergonomic keyboard without any problems, because I use my right and left hands for the proper keys without crossover. After previous wrist problems, I invested in one of these keyboards, although when I looked to replace it recently, it seems they don’t do them with the triangular gap in the middle any more, but more of a curvy style with elongated centre keys. Not sure about that, which is why I’m sticking to my old keyboard, even though I’ve mostly worn the letters off the keys, and there’s a polished smooth section on the space bar where my right thumb always hits it.

The keyboard helps a lot. It stops me having my wrists at an odd angle in order to type, and because my computer is in the corner of a curved desk, I can sit with my elbows resting on the desktop when I’m typing, so I’m not putting undue strain on my shoulders.

So far, so good.

I use a proper typist’s chair, which has the correctly shaped back support, but that’s where things start going wrong. Apparently, having my computer monitor at desktop height was making me look down at it all the time, when the centre of the screen should be level with my eye-line when I’m sitting upright. OK, a stack of hardcover books underneath the monitor solves that one, although it now feels uncomfortably like I’m craning my neck to look upwards as I work.

Then there’s my feet. I sit with them stretched out in front of me, resting on a box. This is not, as my doctor suspected, because we live in a house with a lot of draughts − perish the thought. In fact, with underfloor heating, putting my feet on the floor would probably be the warmest place for them, but it’s a habit I’ve got into over years of typing and hundreds of thousands of words, and it’s proving a difficult one to break.

Instead, apparently, I should sit with my legs tucked underneath me so my heels are more or less under my spine. And doesn’t that feel weird when you’re not used to it. This would help tip my spine into the correct shape, which would be further helped by buying one of those wedge-shaped cushions that tilt your pelvis forwards as you sit. I have one on order.

So, now I’m concentrating so much on how I ought to be sitting in my chair in order to type, that it’s very off-putting to the actual creative process.

Still, the alternative is slipping back into my old ways, which would − quite literally − be a pain in the neck.

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This week’s Word of the Week is actually two words. We ended up having a long discussion on a car journey last week about the proper distinction between archetype and stereotype, and when I looked into it, there is a subtle difference between the two. An archetype is the original pattern or model, the prototype, whereas a stereotype is a fixed conventionalised or stock image, or a person or thing that conforms to it. This comes from a solid metallic plate for printing (cast from papier-mâché or other material) of composed type, or the process of making such plates. Once a plate was made, the type was fixed and unmovable, so it’s come to mean a person of unchangeable opinions, or conforming to a stock image or cliché.

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Weekend, 23-24 January 2010

Feeling a Draft

I've had several experiences recently that were very interesting for me as a writer.

The first one was going to a readers' group meeting at a small local library in Knott End in Lancashire. The tremendously enthusiastic librarian, Anne Errington, had been unable to get enough copies of one of the Charlie Fox books for everyone in the group to read, so they'd all read different ones in the series, often out of order. This meant that they asked more than the usual kind of questions. They wanted to know a lot more about the character of Charlie herself, and her motivations, and whether I'd ever tell the story of what really happened to her in the army.

Something that came up was that many people assumed I'd already told that tale somewhere, and they simply hadn't yet read the particular book in which it was contained in full. The experiences of Charlie's past form an integral part of who she is now, and although the character has progressed, I've only ever referred to her army days as back story, dribbled in as a bit here and a bit there, in order not to bore either the readers or myself.

I'm not even sure I ever want to tell that story over the course of an entire book. It's a period in Charlie's life when she is beaten and utterly defeated. I introduced the character and began the series at a later date, when she has clawed her way back up out of that defeat. And when her life is again threatened in a similar way, this time she reacts differently. Possibly in a way she would not have been able to respond, had she not suffered in the past.

Back story is a funny one to include, and if you have a series character who never changes, is there any need to include it at all? The late great Robert B Parker rarely alluded to past cases of his iconic PI, Spenser. In fact, the guy didn't even age. Lee Child's Jack Reacher is very much the same. You're told how Reacher acquired the scar on his stomach, from a Marine's exploding jawbone back in his army days, but you're not told what happened in the last book, and there really is no need for you to know this in order to enjoy the ride.

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This week’s Word of the Week is rident, meaning laughing or smiling radiantly, beaming.

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Weekend, 16-17 January 2010

It Takes More than Snow and Ice to Deter a Readers' Group

The snow has finally started to melt around us, which is a big reminder that our garden really needs a good tidy. That’s one nice thing about a thick covering of snow everywhere − it hides a multitude of sins as far as gardening is concerned. And now we’ve had a bit of a thaw, the grass seems rather yellowed underneath. It all looks rather dull and tired. Roll on spring.

Fielding questions from a very well-informed readers' group who braved snow and ice to get to the meeting at Knott End Library.
[Photo courtesy of Anne Errington]

Still, we did manage to battle the snow and ice to get out last week in order to go to a library readers’ group event at Knott End Library, organised by librarian Anne Errington. Despite the freezing conditions and slippery pavements, the turnout was excellent, and it was great to be asked some very interesting and specific questions about the character of Charlie Fox and the books themselves. I look forward to going back in the summer!

Meanwhile, I’m working away at the next book, which took a bit of break for a couple of days this week while I finished getting the page proofs for Fourth Day out of the way. Then I always find it more difficult to get the momentum going again, and my usual way of getting back into a story − taking a trip in the car − has been difficult when we’ve had to dig our way out when we wanted to go anywhere. Still, I think I’ve got back into the swing of it now, and keeping my chapter-by-chapter summary updated as I go along has really helped me to keep a grip on the plot − I hope. And already ideas are beginning to formulate for the next book.

I’ve just had a reminder through from Mystery Women about their short story competition, a 1000 words on the topic Mystery Woman or Mystery Women, delivered before February 28th. The winner will be announced at CrimeFest event at Bristol in May, and will receive a free ticket to the 2011 event. Click on the link above for details and get scribbling!

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This week’s Word of the Week is ostracise (ostracize) meaning to exclude from society or one’s social group; to banish by popular vote. The word derives from the practice in ancient Greece of voting for a person to be excluded by scratching their name onto potsherds called ostraka or ostraca.

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Weekend, 9-10 January 2010

Off-Roading

Most people should not drive.

Most people, if truth be known, do not drive because it brings them any kind of enjoyment or satisfaction. They simply need to get from A to B, and the car has become the easiest way to do this. Particularly if you live in a rural or semi-rural area in the UK, when the buses run if they feel like it and regular local trains are something your granny talked about in the days before the Beeching Axe, while modern out-of-town shopping centres have killed the diversity of the high street.

If you want anything, you’ve got to get in your car and drive to get it. And nobody will admit to being a bad driver. They might say they play a little golf, but aren’t very good at it, but they will not say, “I drive a little − of course, I’m crap, but I drive a little.” And it’s worse over here where automatic cars are not the norm, so for some people clutches are a service item.

The other problem is the car has changed beyond all recognition in recent times. Years ago, when I was heavily involved in the classic scene, I used to drive all kinds of vehicles, including on one occasion a 1920s Bentley. Driving an open sports car from that era was a full-engagement exercise, with no power assistance of any kind on the steering or cable-operated brakes, plus it had a right-hand crash gearbox and reverse pedal layout. The skinny cross-ply tyres gripped every other Thursday, and the suspension was best described as agricultural.

But you had to concentrate on what you were doing, all the time.

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This week’s Word of the Week is catastrophe, which not only has the usual accepted meaning of a sudden disaster or misfortune, or a sudden or violent upheaval in some part of the earth’s surface, but also a final event or the climax of action of the plot in a play or novel.

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Weekend, 2-3 January 2010

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everybody! I hope 2010 brings you health, luck and happiness in all your endeavours. Here we are, knee deep in snow and recession, but at the start of a new year and a new decade. We’ve had at least three months of thinking, ‘Oh cripes, it’s nearly Christmas!' but now the season of overindulging is over, and it’s time to look at the year stretched out ahead.

I don’t really make resolutions, but I do sit down at this time of year and try and work out what I want to achieve in the next twelve months, and think back to what I hoped to get done in the last twelve.

At the moment, my most pressing ambition is to get home. We attempted to do this yesterday, but we’re on the east side of the Pennines − a ridge of high ground that runs down the spine of northern England − and yesterday we spent five hours battling the snow (and idiots who can’t drive in the stuff) trying to get home, only to be turned back by the police less than twenty miles from our destination. Fortunately, the friends we spent New Year with had not yet stripped their guest bed, and we were able to seek sanctuary with them, rather than spend a night in the car.

Still, with this in mind, I did finally unwrap one of the space blankets we bought at a US camping store years ago. For something that feels like a sheet of ultra-thin plasticky tin foil, it’s absolutely amazing. As soon as I put it over my legs, it was like someone had plugged it in. Instant warmth. Of course, I will never be able to fold it back up small enough to fit in its original packet, but I can see this getting some extra use whenever we’re out in a cold car.

Meanwhile, I’ve been scribbling away on the laptop, and the book has crept up past the word count I was hoping to reach by the end of the year, which is always good. And my ambitions for 2010? Well, after getting home, they mostly centre around becoming a better writer, and trying to Get On With It a bit more.

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Which brings us to this week’s Word of the Week. Cunctation, which means procrastination or delay, from Latin cunctatio, a hesitation, from cunctari, to delay, and I thank BG Ritts for suggesting that one over on Murderati last week. Lovely word!

Zoë Sharp