Weekend, 17-18 December 2011

Three Nuns, a Russian Drug Dealer and a Clown . . .

I know this sounds like the start of a joke, and in some ways it is. A few years ago I was at a convention − it may even have been ITW − and members of the audience were asked to come up with an opening line for the panel members to pick at random out of a hat and run with.

I wrote:

‘Three nuns, a Russian drug dealer and a clown are being pursued through the food hall at Harrods by a Japanese tribute band to Abba, when the clown’s cellphone rings. . .'

The unlucky panelist who picked that one out?

Lee Child.

Did he run with it?

Of course − in his own inimitable style.

Has he entirely forgiven me?

Hmm, not sure about that one :)

---

This week’s Word of the Week is pusillanimous, meaning lacking in courage and strength of mind; faint-hearted, mean-spirited, cowardly.

---

Weekend, 3-4 December 2011

MY-NOWRIMO

November may have been National Novel Writing Month, but for me it was one month out of a three-month novel writing push.

I’d love to be able to say that the 50,000-word NaNoWriMo goal was the bulk of a book for me. Sadly, when I look back at the last nine in the Charlie Fox series it’s barely half way there.

But having started on October 4th, I was hoping to be at 70,000 words by yesterday. I hadn’t counted on only actually getting a total of seven days out of the whole of November when I wasn’t either away attending events or festivals, or had Something Else on to get in the way of a clear writing day. By the time I counted up my month’s words at midnight, I had just scraped 65,000 words. By two whole words.

Not bad, but no cigar.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is trepan, which not only means an obsolete cylindrical saw for perforating the skull (just in case anyone was stuck for a Christmas gift for that difficult relative) and to cut a cylindrical disc from something, but it’s also a decoy, a snare, or to ensnare or lure. Unlike a trepang which is a sea cucumber eaten by the Chinese.

---

Weekend, 19-20 November 2011

Just for the Fun of It

I hope you’ll forgive me this week if I repeat a blog I did over at Sirens of Suspense a couple of weeks ago. We’ve been rushing around like eejits for the past week or more, and although we expected to be home a couple of days ago .  .  . we’re not.

Long story that involves builders letting people down and the prospect of houses not being finished for Christmas means our DIY skills have been called into service. And, weirdly enough, we rather enjoy it.

Part of the rushing around involved seeing our friend, fellow crime author Anne Zouroudi, doing two events for Kirklees libraries with Penny Grubb and Lesley Horton, plus a crime writing workshop also with Lesley, and interviewing the delightful Martina Cole at the 4th Reading Festival of Crime Writing last Friday. So, if you’ve been wondering why I’ve been very quiet on these pages, that’s my excuse.

When was the last time you did something just for the fun of it? Or took a moment to really observe rather than just see your way through a familiar journey?

---

This week’s Word of the Week is innuendo. An Italian suppository . . .

---

Weekend, 5-6 November 2011

Getting to the Heart of It

I used to tell people that I had ideas for maybe forty novels, but a few years ago I was advised to stop doing this. "You don’t want everyone to think that you’re churning them out like some kind of production line," I was told severely. "Every one should be hand-crafted and ripped from your soul."

But they are − trust me on this. Yes, I have a word target each day, calculated from how many words I want to achieve each month, but that doesn’t mean I just dash off any old rubbish purely to fill an empty space. I can’t work like that.

I know there are the theories that say you can fix a page but you can’t fix a blank page, but I’d rather have it more or less right the first time. Once I’ve imagined a scene, written the dialogue and the action, it’s like I’ve cut the grooves in a record and trying to go back and make major changes to existing words just scratches the whole thing into an unintelligible mess.

Like I said: clean, simple, and right (ish) the first time.

So, I do agonise over every sentence, every line, every word and chapter break and scene. I plan and re-plan the sequence of events, the major plot points, and even after I have my writing outline sorted, there’s still room for total left-field changes.

I just had one of those with the new book, DIE EASY: Charlie Fox book ten. My original plan was for a bus hijacking.

What I’ve just written is a helicopter crash.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is carphology meaning fitful plucking movements as in a delirium, from the Greek karphos straw, and logeia gathering. Also floccillation which has a more specific meaning − the fitful plucking at the bedclothes by a delirious patient.

---

Weekend, 22-23 October 2011

Starting Over

At the start of this month I began work on a new book, tentatively titled DIE EASY: Charlie Fox book ten.

Actually, that’s not entirely true − well, what do you expect from someone who lies for a living? I should say that as far as I’m concerned there’s nothing tentative about it − DIE EASY is the perfect title for this story. Ever since I first saw the old Bruce Willis classic ‘Die Hard’ I’ve wanted to do a riff on that theme. Let’s face it, it was that movie turned a light comedy TV leading man into an all-action movie star, bare feet and all. And as my book is set in New Orleans − The Big Easy − what better title?

OK, that was itsy little lie #1.

Itsy little lie #2 was that I didn’t start this book on October 1st. I should say I RE-started the book this month, as I wrote the opening three chapters and the half-page jacket copy outline way back at the beginning of this year.

But then Other Things got in the way − like getting the entire Charlie Fox backlist out in e-format, plus putting together an e-thology of CF short stories, FOX FIVE: a Charlie Fox short story collection. And I have to say that I don’t begrudge the time spent on those projects at all. It was a thoroughly energising experience that has brought me back to my writing, and the series, with renewed enthusiasm, as I’ll explain.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is ultracrepidate, which means to criticise beyond the sphere of one’s knowledge. It comes from the painter Apelle’s answer to the cobbler who went on from criticising the sandals in a picture to finding fault with the leg. “Ne sutor ultra crepidam.” − “The cobbler must not go beyond the sandal.”

---

Weekend, 15-16 October 2011

A Busy Month Ahead

This week’s been a little mixed up, what with whizzing about the place, doing roof repairs (not our roof, btw) and scribbling whenever I get the chance.

Work on the next Charlie Fox book, tentatively titled DIE EASY, is progressing well. Despite various interruptions, having only begun writing proper earlier this month, the book is now at the 15,000 word stage and starting to gather a bit of pace. I'm aiming to have it to 30-35,000 words by the end of October. We'll see what happens with that but it's looking achievable. (Famous last words!).

I’ve tended to find that making notes for the next scene − and I always think better in pencil − even just the dialogue or main points, means I can sit down at my computer and write it much more easily. Sometimes you hit a stream of consciousness and the thing just flows, but more often than not it’s like building a dry stone wall. Each stone has to be carefully considered before it’s placed if you want the finished object to be solid and seamless.

Just for something to get us out of the house, Andy and I have been doing some garage roof repairs − and here’s a very fetching picture of himself making sure his passivated zinc intake is up to scratch with a mouthful of screws. We both thoroughly enjoy DIY − good job too, having built a house together. I also find that doing something physical is a great way to allow the other half of your brain to problem solve at the same time.

Keeping me encouraged during all this is the fact that my e-books are continuing to sell well, and picking up at a steady pace as the word gets out that − finally − the entire Charlie Fox backlist is readily available again. I’m still hearing from people who got hold of copies of the short story e-thology, FOX FIVE, and are having fun dipping into Charlie’s back story in short fiction form. And it’s great that people can follow her full journey from Lancaster to Long Island. She’s come a long way in more than distance.

Speaking of e-books, it was interesting to read that Amazon have brought out the new Kindle Fire colour tablet/reader to challenge the iPad. Can’t wait for the Fire to be available in the UK, although prices are already coming down on the existing Amazon readers on the run-up to Christmas. Looks like e-books will be the pressie of choice this year ;-]

I’m also prepping for my talk at The Big Read event in Newport, South Wales, on October 26th, and reading my way through Martina Cole’s backlist prior to interviewing her at the 4th Reading Festival of Crime Writing on November 11th.

In fact, next month will be a busy one, with two library events as part of the Wordpool event in Blackpool on Monday, November 7th, another two library events in Meltham and Slaithwaite (Thursday, November 10th) with Penny Grubb and Lesley Horton, and then four crime writing workshops − all for Kirklees Libraries − in Huddersfield and Dewsbury, (November 12th and 26th, both Saturdays) with Lesley Horton.

Hmm, it will be interesting to see how this affects next month’s writing schedule. But I’ll let you know.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is mean. A simple word but with a host of different meanings. 1. To be of low birth, base, sordid or of little value or importance. 2. Intermediate, average, moderate, a middle state or position. 3. To intend, to purpose, to destine, to design, to signify. 4. To lament, to complain, to moan.

Weekend, 8-9 October 2011

The First Thing that Comes to Hand . . .

I'm out and about today, so I hope you don't mind if I play a substitute?

Here for your entertainment (and possibly your enlightenment) is the second in an occasional series of guest blogs from my close-protection expert and main protagonist, Charlie Fox, touching on the subject of personal security. For those of you who didn’t see her opening instalment back in June − which went into how to spot and avoid trouble in the first place − you can catch up on the subject here. For those of you who enjoyed the words of wisdom last time out, read on at your own risk . . .

Charlie Fox: People assume that if you want to stand any chance of defending yourself from serious attack you need either to be built like an outside lavatory or be some kind of martial arts guru. Well, yeah, it all helps.

But deterrent or brute force are not the only alternatives.

If you’re reading this in one of the countries around the world that encourages its citizens to bear arms, you might decide to take that route. But I’m a Brit and back home we’re liable to arrest if we’re caught in a built-up area during the hours of darkness in possession of a loud shirt, never mind anything that qualifies as an offensive weapon.

That means not only are firearms of any description out of the equation, but also pepper spray, TASERs, and anything more than a butter knife. Good job all the thieving toe-rags out there also play by these rules, isn’t it?

Ah, hang on a minute . . .

---

This week’s Word of the Week is cognition, meaning the act or process of knowing, in the widest sense, including sensation, perception, etc, distinguished from emotion and conation; the knowledge resulting or acquired. And as an aside to that, also cognosce, which in Scots law means to examine; to give judgement upon; to declare to be an idiot.

---

Weekend, 1-2 October 2011

Next project − DIE EASY: Charlie Fox book ten

Today is a fairly exciting day for lots of reasons. It’s the start of the first full month when all the Charlie Fox backlist will be up on Kindle. I’m amazed at how well the e-editions have done so far. Equally pleasing are the very encouraging reviews I've received for FOX FIVE: a Charlie Fox short story collection, with sales around the world since its launch in August.

October is also the month when I get fully stuck into the next project − DIE EASY: Charlie Fox book ten. In between doing a load of other stuff − not least of which was going to Chicago to visit Lisle Library, and to St Louis for Bouchercon − I’ve been fleshing out my initial synopsis into a ten-page writing outline.

For this I go through a couple of intermediate stages. The first is to work out the cast of characters involved. Who are they? What do they want? What do they have to lose?

In this case, the cast included a character called Blake Dyer, who appeared in a short story called ‘Served Cold’. He was Charlie’s client back then, and after she successfully defended him against a threat he’s requested her services again for this book. Also to be included is Tom O’Day and his wife Marie, real people who bid to take part in DIE EASY at the charity auction at Left Coast Crime in Santa Fe back in March. (I spent a very enjoyable breakfast talking to them and picking up little details that it will be my pleasure to include.)

The second task is to work out the actual run of the story − the location and the main events which I know at the outset are going to form the backbone of the book.

Third is to work out how those people interact with those events. And how do their stories interweave with the stories of the other characters? I like to leave their reactions a little vague, I must admit, so when they reach that point in the story their behaviour will seem more natural.

And finally − the stage I’ve just reached as I write this − I have to work out how Charlie arrives at the events and the information and the back stories of each of the characters. What misdirection is in play? What does she think is going on at any given point, even if that doesn’t quite prove to be the case? How will she uncover the villains and – more importantly – how will she stop them getting away with it?

After that, all I have to do is write it . . . before January.

I’ll let you know how I get on.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is glean, which means to follow the harvester, gathering up any residue or that left behind by others; to collect what is thinly scattered, neglected or overlooked; to pick up facts or information bit by bit; to learn by laboriously scraping together pieces of information. Hmm, I wonder why that one popped into my head . . .?

---

Weekend, 24-25 September 2011

Courage and Fear

I was intending to write my blog this week about going to the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in St Louis, but in thinking about the whole trip the theme of it gradually developed into something else.

An exploration of courage and fear.

That might seem like quite a leap, from a convivial gathering of authors to questioning what scares the bejaysus out of you, and how you get past that feeling, but it kept coming up.

To begin with, we landed in Chicago and spent nearly two hours getting through Immigration. Why? Fear. Fear of letting someone into the country who might be undesirable, who might be unfriendly. Fear of letting the wrong one slip through unnoticed.

Our first morning in Chicago, Andy and I, and fellow Brit author Anne Zouroudi went up what used to be the Sears Tower but is now the Willis Tower, to the observation Skydeck on the 103rd floor. Since the last time we went up to the Skydeck, they’ve built four glass boxes that extend four feet out from the side of the building and allow you to step out onto nothing and look straight down to the tiny toy cars and people in the street below.

After the initial leap of faith, as it were, it didn’t bother me. And especially once you put a camera in my hands. Somehow, the act of taking pictures steps you outside what’s happening, makes it not hard to understand how war photographers and camera operators put themselves in danger. As soon as you look through the lens, you’re somehow disconnected from what’s happening through the viewfinder.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is horripilation, which means a contraction of the cutaneous muscles causing erection of the hairs and gooseflesh. The correct word for when all your hair stands on end. From the Latin horrere to bristle, and pilus, a hair.

---

Weekend, 10-11 September 2011

Keeping the Plates Spinning

There’s always talk among writers about the pros and cons of writing a series versus standalone novels and I can see both sides of the argument. There’s a lot of freedom to writing standalones. Any character traits that engage your interest can form the protagonist of your next work.

No baggage, no preconceptions. You can narrate in first person, third person, close third, multiple viewpoints − second person if you feel the urge. Present tense, past tense, a mix of both. Contemporary, historical, futuristic. There seems to be no limits beyond what your publisher will accept and your readers will enjoy. (And reader expectation is a whole different subject . . .)

Of course, there has always been a liking for ‘the same . . . but different’. I was a big fan of the early Dick Francis books, and not just for their horse-orientated content. Although they were mainly standalones with only a few repeated characters, there were definite similarities between the heroes of the Francis books, regardless of whether they were jockeys or bankers, airline pilots or movie stars.

As a reader, you knew what you were getting. And if you liked one, the chances were pretty good that you were going to like them all.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is paedometer, a device that can be strapped to the arm while out exercising to show you how many perverts are in the immediate vicinity.

---

Weekend, 27-28 August 2011

The Stick and the Carrot

The humble donkey is the beast of burden across the globe. It ambles along on impossibly dainty feet, while carrying outrageous loads apparently without complaint.

And always, it seems, there’s a man on the animal’s back with a stick.

I’m not suggesting that the man beats the donkey, although I’m sure that happens with depressing regularity. But the stick is still there and the implication is clear − go faster, work harder, or this is going to hurt.

I think I know how that feels.

The most depressing job I ever had was a brief stint selling display advertising for the local paper. Classifieds were a different section. People want to place classified adverts. They do so specifically because they want to sell something, or buy something. All the classified sales people had to do was sit by the phone and wait for calls.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is karmageddon, which is, like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's, like, a serious bummer, man.

---

Weekend, 20-21 August 2011

That Was The Week That Was

Well, it’s the end of my first week as an indie e-author, with FOX FIVE: a Charlie Fox short story collection hitting the e-shelves in the States and UK last Thursday, and what a week it’s been so far.

To be honest, I haven’t had so much fun for ages, including making a bunch of new friends in the Hardboiled Collective. Founded by Jochem Vandersteen who runs the Sons of Spade blog, the HC crew includes seventeen fine writers who’ve been brilliant so far at helping get the word out about FOX FIVE.

So far this week I’ve done interviews with:

• Tim Hallinan on The Blog Cabin
• Tony Black’s Pulp Push-Ups
• Paul Bishop’s Bish’s Beat
• Paul D Brazill’s You Would Say That, Wouldn’t You?
• and appeared on blogs by Bruce DeSilva, Al Tucher, Wayne Dundee and Bill Crider.

Wow, these guys have been brilliant and I’m proud to be associated with them.

I put out a newsletter last Thursday − August 11th − that coincided with my Murderati blog, announcing the launch of FOX FIVE. In the newsletter I offered free review copies to the first 50 people who emailed me. I’m delighted to report that those 50 copies all went just about inside the first day, and the reviews are starting to come through. All positive so far, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they stay that way!

Everyone seems to like both the selection of stories and the added info about Charlie, collected together in a neat package for Kindle. At the moment it’s on special introductory price, so get ‘em while they’re hot!

And don’t miss my guest spot on Al Guthrie’s Criminal-E blog on Sunday, August 21st. Stop by if you can − I’ll bring virtual cookies!

The very first book in the Charlie Fox series, Killer Instinct, will be out in e-format very soon, and it includes an excerpt from Brett Battles new Jonathan Quinn e-novella, Becoming Quinn. I loved this when I read it, and was absolutely delighted to be able to include a taster in my e-book.

My Hardboiled Collective pal Tim Hallinan also has a brand new e-book in the Junior Bender series just out – Little Elvises.

This week’s Word of the Week is athetesis, meaning the rejection of a passage of text as spurious. Or, possibly, the definition of a good editor.

---

Weekend, 13-14 August 2011

To Finish First . . .

August 2011 will go down in my diary as being the month of a lot of firsts. And I’m not talking about the first UK riots for years, either, although what’s happening over here is shameful and I feel I should be apologising on behalf of all the people who have not nipped out armed with a balaclava and a brick to get themselves a new free iPad. I tweeted last night that ‘Nothing quells a riot like rain. No rioting in Cumbria tonight then . . .’

Which brings me back to those firsts. Personal firsts. I’ve finally got myself on Twitter. Somebody – in fact, let’s face it everybody – told me it would be a huge time-suck. They weren’t kidding. I opened my email to find a chunk of notifications, and the faster I tried to go through and deal with them, the faster more of them kept popping into the Inbox. Eventually I had to give up and go and lie down in a darkened room.

And because the words ‘biting off’ and ‘more than I can chew’ are generally quite relevant to me, and because I never like doing things the easy way, I’ve also just opened up a couple of pages on Facebook, too. A personal page and an author page. Don’t ask me why I’ve got two. I think one might have been an error, and when I’ve got the hang of things, I might try and sort that out.

And in the middle of all this, I’ve launched my first eBook. Of course, I already have several of my Charlie Fox series out in e-format, but those were all taken care of by publisher, Allison & Busby. This is the first time I’ve had to think about everything that goes into a book from the title page to the meta-data. And the cover.

My brain is dribbling out of my ears and has been doing so for most of the week.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is e-thology, meaning a digital collection of short stories, as opposed to ethology, which is the science of character, or the scientific study of the function and evolution of animal behaviour patterns.

---

Weekend, 30-31 July 2011

Sharing

The Brits have many differing reputations – not all of them good. We binge-drink. We paint Union Jacks on our faces and run riot at sporting events abroad. We are obsessed with the cult of talentless celebrity (being ‘a celebrity’ is now a recognised ambition for school-leavers). We will sue for libel at the drop of a hat. And if that hat lands on our foot, we’ll sue you for personal injury as well. Our politicians promise the earth when they’re in opposition, then once they get into power they renege and cheat on their expenses . . . oh, hang on, maybe that last point isn’t so unique to this country.

The engineering brilliance of the Victorians has been transformed into a nation of fun-pubs and asylum seekers, shirkers, chinless wonders, boarded-up high streets and blame-culture ‘you-must-not-have-any-fun-in-case-you-hurt-yourself’ Health & Safety petty bureaucracy.

Sounds like a cue for Stone Sour:

But, the Brits do have their good side. Our military, while under-supported and under-equipped, are still regarded as a superb fighting force. The vast red brick factories of the Industrial Revolution have given way to small pockets of technical ingenuity.

A visit to the Coventry Motor Museum, where they have a display of Richard Noble’s two land-speed record-breaking cars, Thrust 2 and Thrust SSC, tells you as much as you need to know about our abilities to improvise in remarkable ways.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is giraffiti, which is vandalism spray-painted very, very high . . .

---

Weekend, 16-17 July 2011

Caught Red-Handed?

Everyone who knows me will be well aware by now that I’m very good at saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Why do you think my Murderati blog tag line is ‘Changing Feet’? It’s because, often, the only time I open mouth is to do so.

But I’ve been doing some research recently about body language, which is a fascinating subject for anyone, but absolute gold for writers. In any scene with dialogue backwards and forwards between two characters, it's invaluable to subtly get across an underlying message by how the characters stand, look, or what they do with their hands.

I’ve just been finishing off writing a short story at the moment. It’s set in a country where people tend to be more expressive than us stiff-upper-lip Brits − where they talk with their hands. In fact, at one point I’ve written the line:

Our hands are often the most expressive part of us when we talk, and they give away more than we realise.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is antisyzygy, meaning a union of opposites. It’s also a really good score in Scrabble . . .

---

Weekend, 9-10 July 2011

Sleight of Hand

I’m fascinated by skill. Almost any kind of skill is interesting, of course, but manual dexterity has a particular appeal. This is why, in Japanese restaurants, we always try to sit up at the sushi bar, where we can watch the chefs creating beautiful dishes with such disdainful ease.

Plasterers are another category. When we were building our house, we had a young plasterer called John who managed to get a 12ft ceiling mirror smooth while bouncing from one plank to the next on his scaffolding − the planks were set about 3ft apart − without looking.

A few years ago we met American author James Swain at a US convention. Jim writes a series about Tony Valentine, an ex-cop turned investigator who specialises in catching casino cheats. Jim himself can demonstrate the kind of dexterity needed to be a successful casino cheat, and no matter how closely you watch, I swear you can’t see him do it.

Natural, instinctive artists, though, are in a category all by themselves. Back when we had real telly, we used to watch an art program called The Joy of Painting with a guy called Bob Ross. He had to be the most laid-back guy ever, painting landscapes that just arrived out of nothing, forests and mountains and mist in the trees. Atmosphere at a stroke, so sure and fast it’s like a magician’s sleight of hand. Jim Swain with a paintbrush and a palette knife.

I haven’t had that sense of bewildered amazement for a while − until yesterday.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day watching my book cover designer, Jane Hudson, creating covers for the upcoming Charlie Fox e-book short story anthology − or should that be e-thology? It’s art with a stylus and a mouse, in Photoshop and Illustrator, and I’m stunned by it. The way she can blend images, add texture and tone, is quite remarkable. Not to mention fast.

Needless to say, I spent quite a chunk of the day looking over her shoulder with my mouth open. Not − as my husband would say − my best look. Nor a good idea in the middle of summer when the windows are open and there are numerous flying thingies about the place.

And soon − very soon, I promise − we’ll be able to show you the fruits of Jane’s labours.

I think you’ll be as impressed as I am!

---

This week’s Word of the Week is basan, which is usually used in reference to sheepskins, meaning roughly tanned and undressed. In all the hot weather we’ve been having, though, I feel it can just as easily be applied to people . . .

---

Weekend, 2-3 July 2011

Playing It Safe

I hope you’ll forgive me this week if I hand over control to a kind of guest blogger. I wanted to begin an occasional series about safety − personal safety, safety at home, in the car, on the street, in a dangerous situation. So, who better to talk about these topics than my protagonist, Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Fox?

Charlie had a short-lived career in the Women’s Royal Army Corps, passing selection for Special Forces training, but being dishonourably discharged following a court martial. (And I wouldn’t ask her about that if I were you.) She then taught self-defence for women in a small northern UK city, and eventually moved into a career as a bodyguard − initially for a London-based outfit run by her former army training instructor, Sean Meyer. When Sean was offered a partnership in Parker Armstrong’s prestigious close-protection agency in New York City, Charlie moved with Sean to Manhattan. She has been based there ever since.

Charlie Fox: I had to laugh when I saw the title of this post, because let me tell you, ‘playing it safe’ is not a phrase that ever made it anywhere near my school reports − nor my military appraisals, come to think of it.

That doesn’t mean I’m reckless, don’t get me wrong. If the situation demands it, I’ll get stuck in, but not without weighing up the risks and the odds first. And I’ll go a long way to avoid trouble if I can manage it. It was one of the problems I always found when I used to teach self-defence classes. People learn a few tricks and think they’re invincible. Never has that old saying ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’ been more true than in personal safety.

Probably not a bad place to start.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is gargoyle, which as well as a grotesque figure, originally meant a carved spout projecting from a roof gutter. The word comes from the Latin gurgulio, or Old French gargouille − meaning the throat.

---

Weekend, 18-19 June 2011

Death by . . . Euphonium?

I am a very unimaginative serial killer, I’ve decided. Over the course of my writing career, I’ve managed to dispatch quite a number of people, with means from a hit-and-run that forced the victim off the edge of a cliff on his motorcycle, to throat cutting, disembowelment, having their neck broken in a bathtub, and being buried alive.

I’ve had my heroine, Charlie Fox, kill with her bare hands (or feet) on several occasions − one nasal bone smashed up into the frontal lobe of the brain, and one crushed larynx are the ones that spring to mind immediately.

Mostly, though, I tend to shoot people. Death is nasty and final enough without lovingly lingering over it like some kind of sado porn. And it’s usually the quiet deaths, the ones where people slip quietly away when you least expect it, that are the ones I remember.

The reason for this melancholy reflection is that this week is National Crime Writing Week in the UK. Organised by the Crime Writers’ Association, the event celebrates Bloodthirsty Britain in all its gory glory, and I quote:

---

This week’s Word of the Week is outspan. Not just a brand of orange (in the UK at least) but a South African verb meaning to unyoke oxen or unharness a horse. Also a noun, meaning a stopping-place.

---

Weekend, 11-12 June 2011

Looking Forwards and Backwards

This is a very special year for me. This is the year that marks the tipping point in my life. I have now been making a living as a writer for longer than I have not.

More than half my life.

It hasn’t always been a smooth ride, but nothing worthwhile is ever easy and there are no medals for effort in this game.

But sustained effort is what we put into it, with the aim of appearing effortless on the page, no matter if the words have been sweated and slaved over, or dashed off in a single stream of consciousness before lunch.

(Sadly, I have yet to experience the latter state.)

All I ever wanted to be was a writer, even before I reached double figures. And even after I completed my first novel at the age of fifteen and it received ‘rave rejections’ from all and sundry, I never lost sight of that ambition.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is lexis, a noun meaning the way in which a piece of writing is expressed in words, diction; the total stock of words in a language.

---

Weekend, 28-29 May 2011

CrimeFest 2011 − Bristol Fashion

If it’s May, then for crime fans in the UK, it’s time for CrimeFest in Bristol.

CrimeFest began with Left Coast Crime, which was held at the same venue, the Bristol Marriott, in 2006. (Well, Bristol is sort of the left coast of the UK, if you squint a bit . . .). The organisers, Adrian Muller and Myles Allfrey, had a sudden rush of blood to the head and decided to keep going. CrimeFest in 2008 was the result, and next year will be the event’s fifth birthday.

One of the highlights of CrimeFest is the gala dinner on the Saturday night. Not because I particularly enjoy such rubber chicken-type formal meals, but because Adrian and Myles always manage to rope in a highly entertaining Toastmaster for the evening. Last time it was Gyles Brandreth, who is a far funnier man live than any of his television performances ever led me to believe. (That’s not supposed to damn with faint praise, by the way − he was an absolute riot as Toastmaster.)

For this year it was originally going to be Don Winslow − one of my favourite authors − but when he was unable to attend, Christopher Brookmyre ably stepped up to the mic.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is jugulate, which actually means to cut the throat of, or to check a disease or similar by drastic means.

And just to leave you groaning, how do you kill a circus performer? Go for the juggler . . .

---

Weekend, 14-15 May 2011

No Answers, Just Questions

I have no words of wisdom for you this week. In fact, I was rather hoping you might have a few for me.

You see, I’ve finally decided I need to get my head round the concept of e-publishing. I know this may seem incredibly behind the times to some of you, but on this side of the Atlantic e-publishing has yet to reach the heights of popularity it has done in the States and, frankly, it’s such a huge subject that I don’t quite know where to begin.

Enter any kind of query about it into a search engine and you get a gazillion hits. I begin losing the will to live after the first twenty or so pages. (Coupled to this is the fact we’re on a cripplingly slow internet connection, and I am possibly the most non-internet-savvy person I know. Just ask any of my fellow ‘Rati authors who get regular panicked emails from me when my post is due and I hit a technical snag!)

The more I find out about e-publishing, the more I realise I don’t know, so I thought the best idea was to ask my ‘Rati friends what they knew.

And that’s where you come in − I hope!

If you are into e-Books, you're sure to find much to interest you
in the wealth of comments produced by my Murderati blog . . .

---

This week’s Word of the Week is is osteoPORNosis − a degenerate disease.

---

Weekend, 7-8 May 2011

Creative Batteries Recharged

Confession time. I haven’t been writing much lately, which is not a satisfactory state of affairs for a writer, I admit. My main excuse is that I’ve been ill, which has made reliably standing up and walking around somewhat difficult for the last month. Added to that was a general feeling of just needing to recharge my creative batteries.

The good news is, I think they might just finally be charged.

This temporary ennui is something that’s happened before, and no doubt it will happen again. It’s almost always when I’m between projects, or when I’ve had a break from writing for some other reason. In this case, not only being ill, but before that I was away in the States for most of March. The writing muscle, it seems, performs much better with regular exercise.

I used to worry about the lack of scribbling urge − concerned that I’d suddenly contracted some strange form of writer’s block, that I’d used up my creative stockpile and, once depleted, it would never be replenished. But gradually I came to realise that it’s just my brain’s way of saying, ‘Hey, I need a break.’

Now I try not to let it bother me, just enjoy the rest and wait until the next story starts to nag at me again. I’ll be doing something completely unconnected to writing when a thought will pop up out of nowhere, a gesture, a description, a piece of plot structure that suddenly weaves together like a strand of DNA and demands to be noted down.

And inside my mind I’ll hear something almost like a sigh.

So it was that I opened up my notebook this week and found that the notes I’d made before I laid it aside did actually still make sense of a kind, that the storyline I’d been working on still held my attention and tickled my brain with expanding possibilities.

Time to jump back in, renewed, refreshed, and, yes, recharged.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is decafalon, a noun meaning the gruelling process of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

---

Weekend, 30 April-1 May 2011

Telling the Difference

We live in a Want it Now society. A No Waiting world, where delivery must be fast fast fast or we lose interest. Trash it and on to the next thing. Fifteen minutes of fame has become fifteen seconds.

If you’re lucky.

It may just be what I see of the UK, but kids’ ambition has turned from wanting some kind of career that might one day bring reward, to craving celebrity for its own sake − without apparently wanting to do anything to earn that status.

Patience and persistence, it seems, are dying qualities.

I have always said in the past that there were more persistent writers published than there are talented writers published, and I feel that was true.

It’s not just the actual business of writing an entire book. That’s tough enough. Having the self-belief and the knuckle-under mentality to keep going, a few hundred words at a time, until you’ve got a completed manuscript sitting there. Sustaining the idea, building the characters, developing the plot. It’s a feat that demands applause on the grounds of persistence alone.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is exenterate, meaning to disembowel, from the Greek ex from and enteron intestine.

---

Weekend, 16-17 April 2011

Still Getting Back into the Swing of Things

I'm still getting back into the swing of things now we’re home again. My Fourth Day US signing tour took virtually three weeks out of the March calendar and was a whirlwind of old friends, new acquaintances, bookstores, libraries, airports, car journeys and culinary adventures. Not to mention flying to-and-fro across the Atlantic. Who would believe that being a writer could be so much fun − or so frenetic!

Highlight of the homecoming was, of course, the launch of the ninth in the Charlie Fox crime thriller series, Fifth Victim, just published by Allison & Busby. It's set on Long Island, playground of New York’s wealthy and privileged, and Charlie is tasked with protecting the wayward daughter of a rich businesswoman. But why does the girl seem to be going out of her way to invite capture?

The reviews have already started coming in and I'm flattered by the initial favourable assessments of some of the most experienced commentators on the crime fiction scene.

Two Launches for Fourth Day

It may seem strange that two of my books are being launched at the same time but this is because the UK version of Fourth Day (left) was published by Allison & Busby a year ago (May 2010 − paperback, March 2011) while the US edition (right) was published by Pegasus Books in February 2011, hence my signing tour in March.

Fourth Day is also attracting huge interest both as an eBook and as a Kindle edition.

---

Dilemma

They say writing’s therapeutic, cathartic. They say that if you have issues, writing is a way to get them out. Writing as a form of therapy, or reprisal.

Sue Grafton is a famous example:

“For months I lay in bed and plotted how to kill my ex-husband. But I knew I’d bungle it and get caught, so I wrote it in a book instead.”

When I’m giving talks, I usually joke that it’s a great way of obtaining revenge − if someone really annoys me, I kill them off in a book. And I say that, since I’ve long since run out of people who have pissed me off sufficiently, I now take requests like a kind of literary contract killer. It always gets a laugh.

But, I’m careful in how I do this when I’m actually writing, and often the recognisable features of my victims are recognisable only to me. A private joke. A private satisfaction, if you like.

But what if they’re not recognisable only to me?

---

This week’s Word of the Week is phoney, meaning fake. It comes from the Gaelic, fainne (pronounced ‘fawnya’) and means a circle or ring. In the 18th century, some Irish gold was not considered the genuine article, so gold rings from Ireland were called ‘fawney’, which became English slang for fake. In the 1920s, this name had extended to fake gold rings passed around by American conmen, although the American accent led to the word becoming ‘phoney’ instead.

---

Weekend, 9-10 April 2011

Sleepless in Los Angeles − My Brett Battles Interview

You may recall, at the beginning of March, Brett Battles very kindly did an interview/review for the US publication of my Charlie Fox thriller, Fourth Day. It was an absolute pleasure to be able to return the favour with his latest − the excellent The Silenced.

I confess I’d put off reading this book − but only because normally, reading on screen makes my eyes go a bit square, but this one was no hardship at all! Highly unusually for me, I read it straight through in about a day and a half. Yeah, once the story grabs hold it really doesn’t want to let go.

---

I let Brett choose this week's Word of the Week and he came up with shoice, which means when presented with several options to choose from, shoice is the option "choice" you "should" make.

---

24-27 March − We're in New Mexico

Left Coast Crime − great fun, as always

New Mexico was a real eye-opener. Amazing scenery of high desert and distant snow-capped mountains, all viewed in that cold clear light we get at home only on rare sunny days in the midst of winter. Santa Fe itself is at 7500ft above sea level, so we were warned that we’d feel it for the first few days, and that alcohol would have roughly double its usual effect. Actually, the only side-effect we noticed was that Andy had a couple of nosebleeds − another common occurrence, apparently.

We didn’t get the chance to see much of the town while we were there, apart from a couple of walks to find the local Post Office or a recommended restaurant. What we did see was an abundance of local art and jewellery, and everything from huge bunches of chillies hanging up outside our hotel, to collections of cattle skulls for sale.

Left Coast Crime − organised by fellow Murderati scribe, Pari Noskin Taichert − was great fun, as always. I had a couple of panels, the first on ‘Breaking Barricades’ with David Morrell moderating Johnny Boggs, Michael McGarrity and myself, on Friday morning (March 25).

The idea behind the topic was to rail a little against the categorising and subcategorising of the crime fiction genre. This is something that happens a lot more in the States than it does in the UK, where we just tend to get ‘Crime’ and ‘True Crime’ in bookshops. In the States there’s every variety, and as most people − not just authors − object to being pigeonholed, there was plenty to discuss. Both Johnny and Michael also decided to play up their Irish roots in order to have a go at the lone Brit, but I think I gave as good as I got.

On Saturday, I joined forces with another ‘Rati member, JT Ellison for a Cuentos panel. These were open to attendees to pick their own subject matter, so I revived my self-defence demonstration, with able assistance from JT, who took a somewhat gleeful attitude towards showing how to stab me.

At the end of the event, I did the rounds of the booksellers in the book room and found one dealer had one copy of my book left − all the others had sold out. I took this as a good sign!

One of the major topics under discussion was eBooks and ePublishing of all descriptions, and I came back with lots of info and a greater insight into the mechanics of the subject.

It was lovely to be able to spend some time with Dina Willner, who bid to be a character in Fifth Victim. One of the booksellers had obtained a few copies of the new UK hardcover, and Dina was asked to sign them, too. As well as JT, we were able to meet her husband, Randy for the first time, and go for a delightful dinner with them and Mystery Writers of America VP Larry Light and his wife, Meredith Anthony, although I fear we rapidly became the group of noisy gigglers that most people leave a restaurant to avoid.

Left Coast Crime had the usual charity auction, this time to benefit ReadWest. I was happy to put another character name into the pot, which was won by Tom O’Day. I had breakfast with him and his wife, Marie, to glean a little information about the kind of character would be suitable for him, and quickly discovered they both had a sense of humour. This may come in very handy . . .

It was lovely to meet up with people we’d already been in contact with on our tour so far, including Barbara Peters from The Poisoned Pen, Debbie Mitsch from Mystery Ink, Janet Rudolph and her husband Frank, Jean Utley from Book ‘Em, as well as Lesa Holstine from the Velma Teague library in Glendale, and authors John Billheimer and Rhys Bowen among others.

We hoped to see author Robin Burcell, and also Terry O’Loughlin, but neither were able to attend LCC. Fortunately, we’d managed to have a meal with both Robin and with Terry and her husband, Jay, before we left the Bay Area. As always, despite the time difference, we were in the bar until late every night.

On the Sunday morning we gave another scribe, Ann Parker, a lift up to the beautiful home of the parents of Jen Muller − Ken and Caroline Semon. Jen’s Other Half, Adrian, is one of the organisers of CrimeFest in the UK, and we were invited with a group of others for a relaxed Sunday brunch. A lovely occasion, and a chance to sit and chat with Maddee James of prolific author website-designer, Xuni. We then gave author David Corbett a lift back to the airport in Albuquerque for his flight. And that, with a brief stopover in Phoenix AZ, was the end of our trip.

Manchester looked very grey when we stepped blinking off our overnight flight. The Americans had been complaining about paying close to $4.00 a gallon for fuel. The first petrol station we passed showed we’re now paying approx $10 a gallon. Welcome home, huh?

---

This week’s Word of the Week is intaxication. Entirely made up, it means the euphoria felt at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realise it was actually your money in the first place.

---

Monday, 21 March − 'Fourth Day' Signing Tour − Farewell to California

Final Three Days in California

It was lovely to wander round South Pasadena, with its beautiful tree-lined streets and houses full of character. Great to see Jean Utley and all at Book ‘Em − I even met up with a reader who had managed to track down all the Charlie Fox titles right from the beginning of the series.

After that we headed up to the library in Lancaster, which was a sentimental trip for me, as I did my very first author events at Lancaster Library − that’s Lancaster England, though, rather than Lancaster California.

Then it was north to Bakersfield for the night, before meeting up with fellow writers Allison Brennan and Robin Burcell in Elk Grove for dinner.

On Saturday, the Rancho Cordova library staff − director, Rivkah Sass and her colleagues, Manya Shorr and Jill Stockinger − treated me royally. They took me to lunch and then to the Sisters in Crime meeting with guest speakers Minerva Shelton and Janice Dean from the Sacramento FBI office, who talked about domestic trafficking of minors. Fascinating stuff and great food for thought.

I was also delighted to meet Susan Skinner, a freelance photojournalist. Afterwards, we all enjoyed an excellent dinner, with much insightful discussion of crime and crime writing, as you would expect.

Sadly, Andy was laid low with a stomach bug and had to forego the library event. He was much missed − and not only by me.

Next year, Left Coast Crime is in Sacramento. I hope to be back!

Although it rained in Sacramento − a lot − it has a plus side. As we drove west towards San Francisco, the rolling hills and lush countryside reminded both of us of the Lake District, close to our home in England. We have just stayed the night in the vibrant, bustling seaport of Oakland.

On Sunday evening, we were guests of Janet Rudolph and her charming husband, Frank, for one of her legendary At Home evenings in the Berkeley hills. A thoroughly entertaining evening − with chocolate cheesecake to die for! Frank had also labelled a bottle of 'Fourth Day' wine in my honour, which was such a kind gesture. We shall endeavour to get it home unscathed.

A great finish to our time in the Bay Area was an evening event at M is for Mystery in San Mateo, with fellow Murderati author Allison Brennan. It's always a joy to see store owner and doyen bookseller Ed Kaufman − and this time we were able to celebrate his birthday, too. Lots of books to sign and an enthusiastic crowd.

Over the last couple of days we've dropped in at Books Inc in Laurel Village, and had a wonderful lunch with another Murderati scribe, Louse Ure, overlooking the Bay. Sadly, the event at the San Francisco Mystery Bookstore had to be cancelled due to a family emergency, but we did manage to call in for lunch with Diane the following day instead.

San Francisco has been a little wet and cold, but with magnificent scenery, particularly from Lobos Point and looking out across Lincoln Park. Tomorrow morning (Thursday, March 24) we fly to Albuquerque and then drive down to Santa Fe for Left Coast Crime, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing what New Mexico has to offer us!

---

Thursday, 17 March − 'Fourth Day' Signing Tour − in California

Sunny California − Cloudy, Foggy but Always Welcoming . . .

Well, here we are in sunny California, except today it’s cloudy. We flew in to San Diego on Monday morning, and that evening were in the Mysterious Galaxy bookstore chatting with Patrick and the crew there. A welcoming crowd and plenty of books to sign before we had a late supper and collapsed into our hotel room bed.

On Tuesday we drove up to Huntington Beach to Debbie Mitsch’s Mystery Ink store. We were a little early so we decided we’d have a drive to the beach and look at the ocean. When we got there it was thick fog. So much for glorious views of the Pacific!

It was a pleasure to visit Debbie’s store, and meet some of her customers, before we headed up to LA to meet up with fellow Murderati members, Brett Battles and Alexandra Sokoloff and have an early dinner in the fascinating Farmers Market district. You could eat there every night of the week and never have the same thing twice. In fact, I suspect Brett does . . .

The next day, Wednesday, we drove across to Mysteries To Die For in Thousand Oaks, where Alan had roped in a nice crowd, including our friend Lee Goldberg, who turned up in a superb classic Mercedes SL, and we had lunch at the nearby barbecue place. I can recommend the tri-tip sandwich!

Today we head to Book ‘Em in Pasadena and I have an event at Lancaster Library before we start our journey north. Just heard it’s 51deg in Sacramento. Glad I brought a fleece and gloves.

---

Monday, 14 March − 'Fourth Day' Signing Tour − Arizona to California and New Mexico

Thank You, Arizona − Hello, California!

I’m sure there’s some logical explanation for the way time becomes distorted when you’re away from home. We arrived in the States last Wednesday evening. It’s now early Monday morning, and yet it seems like we’ve been here for ages. Maybe it’s simply that we’ve packed a lot in.

It was only last Wednesday morning that we were brushing the snow off the car at our home in Cumbria in north-west England and driving to the airport. Twenty-three and a half hours later, we were turning off the light in our hotel room in Phoenix Arizona.

The last time we were in Phoenix it was June, and the temperatures were in the constant hundred-and-teens. This time it’s balmy seventies and eighties. Lovely.

My first stop − after picking up a US domestic cellphone − was the Velma Teague Library in Glendale to see Lesa Holstine and take part in a panel discussion with Cara Black and Libby Fischer Hellmann. The library had arranged for books to be available for sale, and this was my first glimpse of a real copy of the US edition of Fourth Day. What a lovely job Pegasus Books have made of the cover!

It was always fun to meet up with Libby and Cara − not to mention librarian and blogger/reviewer extraordinaire, Lesa. Afterwards, Andy and I took Lesa for an early dinner to introduce her to the delights of Japanese cuisine.

Then we all headed to The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale for the evening event. This was ably hosted by store owner and publisher, Barbara Peters, who kept the discussion eclectic as always.

Friday Andy and I were able to sneak the morning off to visit Taliesin West − Frank Lloyd Wright’s desert home. An amazing place, although we couldn’t help looking at bits of it from a UK climate and construction regulation standpoint!

That done, we drove the hundred miles or so down to Tucson for the Tucson Festival of Books. One thing that has really struck us on this visit was the number of people texting or checking emails or talking on their phones while driving. And this despite the high number of police vehicles patrolling that stretch of I-10.

In fact, when we arrived in Tucson and called in on Chris and Daniel at Clues Unlimited, Daniel explained how his recent car accident had been caused by the driver behind him texting on her cell at the moment she ran into the back of his stationary pick-up . . .

The Tucson Festival of Books was held on the University campus. An enormous facility, hosting an equally enormous event. Although only in its third year, the event attracted crowds of an estimated 100,000 visitors, all of whom were able to attend the various seminars, talks and workshops entirely free. I snuck in to Libby and Cara’s workshop on crime writing, which was excellent, and a lot of fun.

My first panel was the one that had been worrying me, as I was moderating it. This was in one of the big tiered lecture theatres of the underground Integrated Learning Center, and was entitled ‘Blood and Guts: Violence in Crime Fiction’ with Cara Black, Dianne Emley and Rebecca Cantrell.

It was a well-attended event and we were able to discuss both the serious and more light-hearted sides of the subject.

That over, I could relax a little more for my second Saturday panel, ‘Killer Action’ with Robert Dugoni and Alan Jacobson, moderated by Margaret Coel. After that, we walked with Alan over to the author reception at Gentle Ben’s Brewing Co in the centre of the bustling University Blvd, and afterwards ate Turkish food outside in the warm evening air before going back to our hotel and collapsing into bed.

On Sunday I just had one panel on ‘Women and Noir’, moderated by Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen, with Elizabeth Gunn and Sophie Littlefield, so I had time to take in some of the other events. Overall, a fascinating experience, and one I’d love to repeat.

Today we leave Arizona and fly to California to start the second leg of the tour, so I’ll leave you with today’s silly word − osteopornosis − a degenerate disease . . .

---

Weekend, 12-13 March 2011

The Always Dangerous Zoë Sharp

Today it is my absolute pleasure to be interviewing our own Zoë Sharp. Her novel, FOURTH DAY, is just out in the U.S., and her follow up, FIFTH VICTIM, hits U.K. shelves March 28th.

FOURTH DAY is a fantastic book, that messes around with several preconceived notions that a lot of us have. I thoroughly loved this book. Zoë has created a truly memorable protagonist in Charlie Fox, a tough, smart, talented woman. It’s no wonder that Zoë’s up for the Barry Award for Best British Novel this year!

For those of you in Arizona or California this month, and/or are attending Left Coast Crime in Santa Fe March 24th-27th, be sure to check Zoë's tour schedule, and try to make one of her signings!

Brett Battles: First, congratulations on the US publication of FOURTH DAY, Zoë! Since you and I split Thursdays here at Murderati, I think we might be tempting fate for both of us to appear on the same day. But, the die is cast, so let’s dive in and see what happens.

So I have to say that when I first started reading FOURTH DAY, I thought I was going to have a bone to pick with you. Here you’ve set a novel in my home state of California, and it appears that it centers around a cult! A cult! Don’t you realize we’ve been trying to shed that image for decades? But, I have to say, by the end of the book I had forgotten all about any issues I had. So first question, what led you to center a story around the cult culture?

---

Weekend, 5-6 March 2011

Things That Should Be

I’m a chronic maker of lists. I should have a list of lists, really. In fact, before I started writing my blog this morning, while I waited for a head of steam to build up in my desktop, I was making my Daily To Do List. It’s not displacement activity − honest. It’s time management . . . or something.

In fact, currently sitting on my desk are several lists. One is today’s, another is a list of jobs that really ought to get done before we go to the States next week, and another is a list of the last few remaining jobs to do on the house.

When I write it down like that, it’s rather sad, really, isn’t it?

Mind you, the best list I’ve ever come across was in Simon Pegg’s classic rom-com-zom movie, ‘Shaun of the Dead’

Buy Milk.

Ring Mum.

Dodge Zombies

I even have a printed-out shopping list of all the stuff we regularly buy, grouped together according to section, so a trip to the supermarket has become a case of crossing off the stuff we don’t need rather than remembering the stuff we do.

It’s not that I have a really bad memory, it’s just very selective − in the same way that given nine good points in a review and one bad one, it will inevitably be the bad one I can recall word for word. I do have a tendency to remember something once, and then because I’ve remembered it rather than actually done whatever it is that I needed to remember to do, I promptly forget it again.

---

This week’s Word of the Week comes courtesy of a writer friend, Kate Kinchen, and is another of those words that doesn’t exist but should do. It’s sarchasm, which is the gulf between one who speaks in a sarcastic tone of voice, and one who doesn’t get it.

---

Weekend, 19-20 February 2011

Taking It On the Chin

Somebody once told me that writers have to take more criticism in a year than most people have to deal with in a lifetime.

The advent of the internet has turned everyone into a critic. Not just that, but an anonymous critic. In some ways this is good, if it allows somebody to speak their mind when they would feel constrained not to do for otherwise − for whatever reason.

Of course, in other ways it’s terrible, because it allows people to be snide and nastier than is called for, in the knowledge that there won’t be any comebacks should they happen ever to bump into the author they’ve slated.

Getting honest, critical feedback on your work is always going to be tough. I’ve found that writing fiction is far more personal than the non-fiction article work I did previously. That was easy − I was telling someone else’s story and somehow the ultimate responsibility for it also lay elsewhere. All I had to do was make my words convey the meaning without getting in the way of the story itself.

Although most of the time I approach fiction is much the same, there’s no doubt it is very different. It is the collective jottings and jumblings from inside your head, which you are spilling onto the page for anyone to pick apart with a sneer for your apparent lack of nuance or narrative voice.

---

This week’s Phrase of the Week is Sweet FA, meaning anything boring, monotonous and now worth describing. Although this has come to mean Sweet Fuck All, it actually stands for Sweet Fanny Adams. Fanny Adams was an eight-year-old girl from Hampshire who was found murdered and dismembered. At about the same time as this crime, the British Navy changed their rations from salted tack to tins of low-grade chopped-up sweet mutton. The new ration was tasteless and unpopular, so sailors suggested with macabre humour that the new meat was the remains of the murdered girl, christening the ration Sweet Fanny Adams.

---

Weekend, 12-13 February 2011

Surprises via Email

They reckon some people are now addicted to checking their email. They have to do it so regularly during each day that it’s become a form of Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder. Maybe that accounts for the recent video clips of people so engrossed in their various handheld electronic devices that they’ve tripped up into fountains in shopping malls, and stepped off the edge of railway platforms.

I’m not quite that bad. In fact, I’m usually not remotely tempted to check my email while I’m away from home, and even though I have a phone that is internet-enabled, I find the lack of a full-size querty keyboard puts me off spending any time typing on it.

So, it was a lovely surprise to get in on Wednesday evening and fire up the desktop, only to discover a friend had sent through the nominations for this year’s Barry Awards (listed below). And to find I’m on the list with Fourth Day for Best British Novel.

Looking at the other nominees in my category, I’m something of an outsider (IMHO), but just being there is an honour in itself. I have until September to bask in the glory of their company before the results are announced!

Meanwhile, the plans for my US March Tour for the US publication of Fourth Day are now finalised. Full details are available here and also on my Book Tour page, complete with times and dates. If you happen to be in Arizona, north or south California, or New Mexico next month, I’d love to see you there.

The other nice surprise was to find that my Russian publisher Corpus/AST will be bringing out translated versions of Second Shot in April, and Third Strike in July this year.

Like I said − sometimes nice surprises arrive via email. Bills, however, still seem to arrive by standard post.

---

This week’s Phrase of the Week is ‘no great shakes’. To suggest someone is no great shakes is to imply they’re nothing special. In this case, shakes comes from the Old English schakere which means to boast or brag, and was a much-used expression in the 13th century − if someone was ‘of no great schakere’ it meant they had nothing to boast about. Another possible derivation, however, comes from dice games, where someone’s ability to shake the die would affect their success.

---

Weekend, 5-6 February 2011

Going Out of Your Way, Not Getting Out of the Way

There used to be a guy who ran our local municipal tip – that’s garbage dump in American − where we’d go if we wanted to dispose of items too large to fit into the standard-issue blue bin bag and put out for collection every week. Now, landfill is a universal problem, but the council are enlightened enough to have separate skips − OK, dumpsters − for garden waste, wood, metal, electrical appliances, as well as the usual recycling bins for glass, tin foil, paper, plastic, batteries and glass.

Nevertheless, there’s an awful lot of stuff that gets thrown away for no good reason other than its owners don’t want it any more. Working stuff. Stuff that, if they could be arsed, could be given away with a postcard in the local newsagents’ window, or put on a swap site like FreeCycle, or taken to a car boot sale at the weekend. One man’s rubbish, after all, is another’s treasure.

The guy who used to run the local tip understood this. He also understood that people often don’t have a lot of spare cash, and children eat up a goodly proportion of it. So, if someone came in with an outgrown child’s bicycle in good order, he wouldn’t just sling it into a skip, he’d put it to one side against the fence, and let that person choose a slightly larger bicycle from the stock already there to take away with them.

That’s my kind of recycling.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is sophomore, which means a second-year student. I’m sure most of you have come across the word, although it’s used far more in the States than in the UK, but did you know it comes from sophos, meaning wise, and moros meaning foolish?

---

Weekend, 29-30 January 2011

Heading West!

This has been an interesting week. Last Friday I was privileged to be one of the judges for the Anne Pierson Award for Young Writers in Cumbria 2011. Award-winning playwright Kevin Dyer was in charge of me and Andrew Forster, who is Literature Officer for the Wordsworth Trust and a published poet.

The Anne Pierson Award is open to writers aged 15-19 whose home, school, college or place of work is in Cumbria, and was for a short story, piece of descriptive prose, monologue, or poem on the theme of Home. The entries were varied and imaginative, but we eventually whittled it down to a shortlist of fifteen, including our winners.

These will be announced at an evening event at The Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal on April 6th. It should be an interesting and entertaining do, although I admit to being a little nervous at having to talk to the shortlisted authors, before the awards are announced, to comment on their work. Hard not to give away who’s won!

Going straight from my judging experiences to trying to begin a short story of my own for an American anthology was surprisingly difficult. I had the voices of Kevin and Andrew inside my head, commenting on theme and structure, and I made several false starts before I settled on a style I think fits with the feel of this dark and noir-ish tale. We’ll see what the general consensus is when I submit it . . .

Also this week, the US tour for the publication of Fourth Day in March is just about there, and the details are mostly now up on BookTour.com. I’ll be starting off in Arizona for the Tucson Festival of Books on March 12th and 13th, and ending up in New Mexico for Left Coast Crime, which runs from March 24th to 27th. In between, I’m in Phoenix, and California from San Diego up to Sacramento and the Bay Area. I’m really looking forward to it.

Of course, we’ve also got the latest instalment in the Charlie Fox series coming out in the UK, with the arrival of Fifth Victim in March, too. It will be strange going back one or two books in order to talk about these stories, when my brain is currently full of the latest plot. But, at the same time it never does any harm to look back at how Charlie reached this point in her life. One thing’s for certain − things never get any easier for her.

---

This week’s Word of the Week is effemulate, which is not really a word but probably ought to be. It means to make a woman feel less than feminine by asking her to shift rocks, play football, or dismantle a motorbike.

---

Weekend, 22-23 January 2011

Problematica Technica

I believe I may have mentioned it before that I don’t like making mistakes. It bugs me to realise that I’ve left some small error in the final version of a book that I just know people are going to spot and giggle about. And occasionally they do.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading over Christmas, and finally got around to finishing the final part of the Millennium trilogy. Wonderful books once I got into them − I can entirely understand their popularity − but chock-full of factual errors, including one involving how a TASER functions which was a major part of the plot.

But anyway . . .

If you watch any kind of TV cop shows, it’s easy to see where a lot of writer’s mistakes come from − Hollywood. I’m a bit of a fan of TV cop shows, I admit. A couple of episodes of NCIS or CSI, or Without A Trace are what I need to wind down before I head back up to the computer to put in another late-nighter. But it’s purely entertainment, not research.

Because we don’t have ‘live’ TV we watch stuff on DVD instead, which means we can watch old and new series almost back-to-back. For this reason we happened across an old episode of CSI where the plot centred on illegal street racing, à la The Fast And The Furious, and a new episode of NCIS: Los Angeles which also had street racing as its backdrop.

Why is it that so many people get car stuff wrong in books and on screen? I mean, I can understand gun errors. Not that many people have seen a real gun up close, never mind handled or fired one. I didn’t think there was any thriller writer out there who still talks about flicking the safety-catch off a Glock, but I’ve been surprised recently.

---

Weekend, 15-16 January 2011

News!

Well, the New Year has started with rain, rain and more rain in the wilds of Cumbria. I’m watching the tiny beck at the bottom of the garden do its raging torrent impersonation again this morning. I must say, it’s getting very good at it − must be all the practice it’s had . . .

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. I just received the brand new cover image for Fifth Victim from my UK publisher, Allison & Busby, and feel they’ve done another fine job with this one, really keeping a strong series look for the books.

Plans are coming on apace for the US tour in March. I just have a few final dates to tie down, and then I’ll be putting up the whole itinerary. It’s going to be pretty non-stop between the Tucson Festival of Books in Arizona on March 12th−13th, and Left Coast Crime in Santa Fe, New Mexico, March 24th−27th. Can’t wait!

And on Tuesday this week I had an email newsletter from Murder By The Book mystery bookstore in Houston, Texas regarding Busted Flush Press, who contracted to produce US trade paperback editions of the early Charlie Fox books.

Right, back to the keyboard!

---

This week’s Word of the Week is blackmail, which originated in the Highlands of Scotland in the 1600s. Mail comes from the Old Norse mal meaning agreement or contract, which became the Scottish word for rent, usually spelled maille or male. Tenants would pay their rent in silver coins, known as ‘white money’, but in the 15th century some of the Highland clan chiefs started a protection racket. This additional rent quickly became known as ‘black money’ or ‘black rent’ and blackmail was part of the language. It was then extended in the early 1900s to cover demanding money not to divulge someone’s secrets.

---

Weekend, 8-9 January 2011

Travelling Light

I wasn’t going to do a post about New Year, resolutions or plans or anything else this week. Once it’s over, for me it’s over, and there’s no use clinging to it. I hate that people leave Christmas lights up on buildings all through January. (Probably even more than I hate Christmas lights going up in October, but that’s another story.)

We took down our tree, our lights, our cards and decorations on Monday, the last Bank Holiday day. I enjoyed the holidays, but it’s time to focus forwards for me. I have a couple of deadlines coming up, and a tour to plan for the US launch of Fourth Day in March. Not to mention the new UK Charlie Fox, Fifth Victim, at the same time.

Plus I have a load of email to catch up on. I managed to drop a particularly sharp carving knife through the side of my index finger between Christmas and New Year, which bled profusely and stopped me being able to operate a keyboard or mouse with any kind of ease. Thank goodness for SteriStrips!

We used some of the time on the run-up to the holidays getting some finishing-off jobs done on the house. You know, the kind of things you think you’ll get around to when you’re building, but actually get left and left and left. It feels good to finally have some order.

We’ve even used up some scrap lengths of 4x1in timber to make some outside planters for the garden, thus not having to either get rid of the wood, or buy expensive planters. That’s my kind of recycling.

---

This week’s Word of the Week (for no other reason than I like the sound of it) is stumer, which is a Scots slang term for a counterfeit coin or note; a forged or worthless cheque; a sham; a dud; a failure; bankruptcy; a horse sure to lose; a stupid mistake; a clanger; a stupid person.

Zoë Sharp