Dr Yes Will See You Now

I suppose I shouldn’t really be advertising someone else’s writing course when I’ll be hosting one myself for the Irish Writers’ Centre next month, but I’ll make an exception for Dr Yes, aka The Artist Formerly Known as Colin Bateman. That’s mainly because there’s a lot of flakes and chancers out there peddling their literary snake-oil to aspiring writers, whereas Bateman is the genuine article, a best-selling writer who has proved himself across a range of genres and forms. Also, he knows where I live, and has promised to ‘call around’ with ‘the Bangor Boys’ (possibly ‘the Banger Boys’ - it was a muffled phone call) if I don’t ‘play ball’.
  To wit:

Secrets of Writing a Best Seller is an inspirational two-day course aimed at those who want to write commercial fiction that sells. It is best suited to beginners who might have an idea for a novel but don’t know how to get started, or those who have a novel underway but aren’t sure how to progress with it.

We will look at where ideas come from, genre, research, dialogue, character development, plotting, re-writing and editing, preparing synopsis and outlines and at how to get motivated and stay motivated. We will take a look at the business of publishing, and students will be guided in the best ways to approach agents and publishers. We will look at the option of self-publishing and chat with a leading agent.

Colin says, “Many people dream about being a best selling writer … but don’t think it’s possible because they have no idea how to start writing a novel. I was exactly like that when I started out – lots of dreams but no idea about how to take the first step – or the second, or third.”

It will take place in Bangor, County Down, over the weekend of November 10-11 2012. Although reasonably intensive will also be conducted in a friendly and relaxed manner, with plenty of opportunity for participants not only to get advice from a best-selling author, but also to ask whatever questions they have, as well as to participate in group discussions with other aspiring writers.

  For all the details, clickety-click here …

How Green Was My Courthouse

It’s off to court with yours truly next week, on Wednesday, 26th September, although all Three Regular Readers will probably be pleasantly surprised to hear that I am not up before the beak, as it were. Indeed, the venerable Conor Brady, author of A JUNE OF ORDINARY MURDERS, will chair a conversation on the topic of ‘Writing Turns Criminal’, with yours truly doing his best to keep up with fellow panellists Alex Barclay and Jane Casey. The details:

Writing Turns Criminal
Crime writers Alex Barclay, Conor Brady, Declan Burke and Jane Casey discuss fact and fiction in the iconic location of Green Street Courthouse.
Wednesday, 26th September @ 6.00pm
Green Street Courthouse,
Halston Street (near Capel Street),
Dublin 7.

  The event is one of a strand entitled ‘Great Writing, Great Places’ being run as part of the Dublin City of Literature, and admission is free. Booking is essential, however, and if you’re interested in coming along you can book your tickets at 01 674 4862 / cityofliterature@dublincity.ie
  Formerly the home of the Special Criminal Court, the original Green Street Courthouse was built in 1797. The trials of Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmet and John Mitchel took place at Green Street, although more recently, from the 1970s to the 1990s, the court was used extensively to try those charged with terrorist and organised crime offences.
  It should be a very interesting evening. If you’re in the vicinity, it’d be great to see you there …

Where Silver Is Gold

New Island will publish the short story collection SILVER THREADS OF HOPE later this month and it’s fair to say, I think, that editor Sinead Gleeson has put together a very impressive line-up. To wit:

A new collection of short stories from the cream of Irish writers including Kevin Barry, Greg Baxter, Dermot Bolger, John Boyne, Declan Burke, John Butler, Trevor Byrne, Emma Donoghue, Roddy Doyle, Dermot Healy, Christine-Dwyer Hickey, Declan Hughes, Arlene Hunt, Colm Keegan, John Kelly, Claire Kilroy, Pat McCabe, Colum McCann, John McKenna, Belinda McKeon, Mike McCormack, Siobhan Mannion, Peter Murphy, Nuala Ni Chonchuir, Phillip O’Ceallaigh, Keith Ridgway, William Wall and Mary Costello.

  The collection is published in aid of Console, by the way, Console being the suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention service in Ireland. As good causes go, this is one of the best.

SLAUGHTER’S HOUND: A ‘Hard Boiled Delight’, Apparently

Well that was a very enjoyable a week. Off with yours truly to Manchester last Wednesday, to meet with John Connolly and head to Deansgate Waterstones, where the lovely Barbara Nadel was waiting, along with an impressive number of crime and mystery fans agog to hear about (a) John’s latest tome THE WRATH OF ANGELS and (b) BOOKS TO DIE FOR. A great night was had, and particularly for yours truly, as I got to meet with the Book Witch again, after a hiatus of about four years. Not that you’d know she’d enjoyed the experience. Very Scandinavian in her emotions, said Witch. I think I came away with frostbite of the soul. Still, the fact that she brought along a lovely book for the equally lovely Lily did help me thaw out later on …
  Off with us to Scarborough then on Thursday, with yours truly doing the navigating, which is always a recipe for disaster. And so it proved, but we’ll draw a discreet veil, etc. Scarborough was a smashing evening, and it’s a very pretty town too - I’ll be back in short order, and possibly for the literary festival next April. A really, really nice bunch of people …
  I wish I could say the same about the folks in Liverpool, but they let a load of Everton fans into the event, which was - appropriately enough - held at the Bridewell One, formerly a police station, and now a venue where the punters get to have a Pimms or two in what used to be holding cells. Nice. Adam Creed was good enough to join John and I on the dais for what turned out to be a hugely enjoyable evening that quickly dispensed with any kind of formality and turned into a Q&A / chat / slagging match that lasted a couple of hours. Weirdly, even the Everton fans behaved themselves. And I had a terrific conversation about Billy Roche. All told, a brilliant end to the week.

  And then it was back home this morning, on the red-eye into Dublin, to discover a very nice review for SLAUGHTER’S HOUND in the Guardian, courtesy of Laura Wilson. The gist of it runs a lot like this:

“Many writers of crime fiction are drawn to the streetwise narrator with the wisecracking voice – Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett have a lot to answer for – but only a handful can make it credible and funny. Irish writer Burke is one who has succeeded spectacularly well … From the arresting opening image to the unexpected twist at the end, this is a hardboiled delight.” - Laura Wilson, The Guardian

  Which pretty much sets the seal on a week to remember. And now I’m off to bed. For a week. Nighty-night.

“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?” JJ Toner

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...

What crime novel would you most like to have written?
PERFUME by Patrick Suskind, a totally wonderful and original story told as a fable. If I have to choose an Irish book: Colin Bateman’s MYSTERY MAN or THE BUTCHER BOY by Patrick McCabe, or any of Gene Kerrigan’s books, or ...

What fictional character would you most like to have been?
I have a long list, starting with Philip Marlowe, Indiana Jones and, for the quieter moments, George Smiley.

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
Colin Bateman, Christopher Brookmyre, John Le Carré, Declan Burke (!), Gene Kerrigan, etc. It’s all guilty pleasure, really!

Most satisfying writing moment?
When a book is released and sent out into the world. My latest book, FIND EMILY, took 49 weeks to complete. There were nine major rewrites. I have a wonderful editor, but I think she trained with the Spanish Inquisition.

If you could recommend one Irish crime novel, what would it be?
DARK TIMES IN THE CITY by Gene Kerrigan. This is a wonderful book, with a stunningly well-crafted plot and great writing.

What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
PLUGGED by Eoin Colfer, maybe.

Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Best thing: I love it when an idea first arrives and even more when the idea becomes a written short story. Better again is when someone says they want to include it in an anthology (and I’ll get paid). Worst thing: Lack of exercise.

The pitch for your next book is …?
1096 AD, Brittany. While a killer preys on boys and young men, two teenagers join the Crusade. They must endure a long, difficult journey to the Holy Land before facing the perils of battle, but at least they’ve left the serial killer behind – or have they? I wrote this book years ago. Time to dust it off, do a major rewrite or two and get it out there.

Who are you reading right now?
Joe McCoubrey’s SOMEONE HAS TO PAY, BEAT TO A PULP: HARDBOILED, A JUNE OF ORDINARY MURDERS by Conor Brady, ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL and several others (mostly e-books).

God appears and says you can only write OR read. Which would it be?
No contest. I’d have to be a reader. There are too many great writers out there and I need the exercise!

The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Fun, idiosyncratic, idiomatic (who said “idiotic”?).

JJ Toner’s FIND EMILY is available on Amazon.

BOOKS TO DIE FOR: The Tour (Part 4)

It’s hi-ho for Manchester this afternoon, for the first leg of a quick UK tour for BOOKS TO DIE FOR, which also incorporates, or is incorporated by, John Connolly’s THE WRATH OF ANGELS tour. I have to say I’m really looking forward to the next few days - bookish people talking books, is there any finer way to waste / invest your time?
  All the details for the various events and venues - in Manchester, Leeds, York, Scarborough and Liverpool - come below, and if you’re likely to be near one of the venues and feel like dropping by to say hi, we’d love to see you.
  I’ll apologise in advance, by the way, for the irregular transmissions from this blog over the next while (and for the last while too, for that matter). It’s a very busy time, with BOOKS TO DIE FOR and SLAUGHTER’S HOUND to promote, and various festivals and events taking place, and a day job to be kept on the rails, etc. I’m beginning to realise that I’ll have to scale way back on the blogging for the foreseeable future, especially once the dust settles on these two books and I start to think seriously about my next opus.
  It’s also true that the old magic has gone out of the blogging a little bit. Time was when the bloggers’ quid pro quo wasn’t intrinsic in a you-scratch-my-back way, it was simply a fact that bloggers tended to be enthusiastic about other people’s books. Nowadays, with new authors being instructed from on high to promote themselves on social media, it’s all become a bit of a shrill screeching (or shill screeching?) on the interwebs, with a whole new generation of writers interested only in talking about their own books. Which, to be perfectly frank, is completely off-putting. And when debutant authors - writers, of course, being those who are supposed to value words and their meaning more than anyone else - are guilty of trumpeting their own work as, say, ‘Ireland’s best-loved detective / favourite serial killer-catcher / critically acclaimed femme fatale’, etc. even before their books are published, then it all starts to wear thin very quickly.
  That said, I’m still fascinated by the quality of emerging Irish crime fiction, so I’ll be keeping tabs on that. Not to the same extent as previously, perhaps, but I can’t imagine that I’ll be packing it in entirely. It’s fair to say, though, that from here on in Crime Always Pays will probably be focusing on a narrower range of books rather than trying to cover everything published, regardless of quality.
  Anyway, upward and onward to Manchester this evening, where I’ll be in Waterstones in Deansgate in the company of John Connolly and the very lovely Barbara Nadel. Oh, and I’m told the Book Witch might zoom in on her broom, which would be very nice indeed …

Wednesday, September 12 at 7:00 p.m.
Manchester, England
John Connolly & Declan Burke discuss BOOKS TO DIE FOR and sign their books at Waterstones
91 Deansgate
Manchester
0161 837 3000
Tickets £3, available from the shop or book via Twitter @waterstonesmcr

Thursday, September 13 at 1:00 p.m.
Leeds, England
John Connolly & Declan Burke sign their books at Waterstones
93-97 Albion Street
Leeds
0843 290 8443

Thursday, September 13 at 7:00 p.m.
Scarborough, England
John Connolly & Declan Burke discuss BOOKS TO DIE FOR and sign their books
Scarborough Library Concert Hall
Scarborough
Tickets £3 including refreshments, available from the library

Friday, September 14 at 1:00 p.m.
York, England
John Connolly & Declan Burke sign their books at Waterstones
28-29 High Ousegate
York
01904 628740

Friday, September 14 at 7:00 p.m.
Liverpool, England
John Connolly & Declan Burke in conversation with Adam Creed at Waterstones
14-16 Bold Street
Liverpool
0843 290 8455

The Man Who Smiled Too Much

Yet another interesting Irish crime fiction debut comes our way, this one courtesy of Michael Russell, whose novel THE CITY OF SHADOWS (Avon) opens in Dublin in 1934. Quoth the blurb elves:

“She looked up at the terraced house, with the closed shutters and the big room at the end of the long unlit corridor where the man who smiled too much did his work. She climbed the steps and knocked on the door …”
  Dublin 1934: Detective Stefan Gillespie arrests a German doctor and encounters Hannah Rosen, desperate to find her friend Susan, a Jewish woman who disappeared after a love affair with a Catholic priest. When the bodies of a man and woman are found buried in the Dublin mountains, Stefan becomes involved in a complex case that takes him, and Hannah, across Europe to Danzig. Stefan and Hannah are drawn together in an unfamiliar city where the Nazi Party are gaining power. But in their quest to uncover the truth of what happened to Susan, they find themselves in grave danger …

  It is a crime novel? A spy novel? A literary offering that offers crime and / or spy novel tropes? Have we uncovered the Irish equivalent of Alan Furst and John Lawton? Hard to tell without so much as a jacket cover to guide our pointless guesswork, but it does sound like a fascinating prospect. As always, we’ll keep you posted …