Thursday 17 February 2011

No Alibis Event

Simon Kernick

THE PAYBACK


Friday 18th February at 6:00PM

Free!



No Alibis Bookstore are pleased to invite you to an evening of with crime writer Simon Kernick on Friday 18th February at 6PM to celebrate the launch of his new novel,Simon Kernick, author of No. 1 bestseller The Last Ten Seconds, is one of Britain’s most exciting thriller writers. His debut novel, The Business of Dying, featuring Dennis Milne was highly acclaimed, but his big breakthrough came with the novel Relentless, which became the bestselling thriller of 2007. Truly committed to his work, Simon’s research is what makes his books so credible. He talks to members of Special Branch, the Anti-Terrorist Branch and the Serious and Organised Crime Agency both on and off the record to hear first hand about the dark underworld of UK crime.

Born and brought up in Slough, Simon now lives in Oxfordshire. To find out more about his thrillers, visit his website. Dennis Milne, jaded former cop, is back. Corrupt, he’s earned his living killing the bad guys – drug dealers and crooked business men - who, in his opinion, deserve death. Biding his time in Manila, he lies in wait for his next target: a young woman with some bad life choices and some powerful enemies. DI Tina Boyd is a woman on a mission. Hell-bent on retribution, she’s looking for the man she blames for her lover’s death. Tough, spiky and determined, she heads to Manila to kill him, before he kills her... Two renegade cops with pasts that haunt them are about to collide, with spectacular results... The Payback sees three of Kernick’s most memorable characters meet: Dennis Milne, DI Tina Boyd and Paul Wise.


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Sunday 13 February 2011

Free Ink for a Po' Writer...

By the way, if you have a Facebook account you can help me win a free tattoo. It's based on this image.


Sure it'll be a bit of craic, like.

The competition closes on Friday. Click on this link (it leads to a Facebook page for Timepiece Tattoo Studio) and follow the instructions. Vote for me and you can claim a free ebook. Can't say fairer than that!

gb

Wednesday 9 February 2011

Pulp Me


Serendipity, thy name is… Brennan?

Last week, some kind soul at Preface sent me a copy of Truth Lies Bleeding by Tony Black. Happy days. Love Tony’s work. I’ve read three of his four Gus Drury novels and they all got a double thumbs-up from me. But this one’s a little different from those Drury novels that I love so much. It’s a police procedural. And the cop’s called Rob Brennan. Interesting. Well to me it’s very interesting. If the character had a brother called Gerard I’d probably die happy… (you reading this, Mr Black?) I look forward to reading it.

Tony Black talks about it in greater detail over at the Do Some Damage blog.

Another interesting thing I learned about Tony Black is that he’s signed a deal to do a novella for Pulp Press

Know what else is interesting? Yes, I said interesting again. If this were a short story or a novella I’d fix that, but it’s a blog post so allow me a lazy-ass foible or two, please. Anyway, I was saying, I’ve another interesting thing to mention. Pulp Press have done a deal through wonder-agent Allan Guthrie of Jenny Brown Associates to release a novella by Gerard Brennan.

Yeah, that’s me. I’m going to be published by the same people who had the wherewithal to get Tony Black into their stable.

Sweet!

It’s early days yet, so I’ll say no more than this: It’s titled, THE POINT. Whether or not that title makes it through editing is yet to be determined, but if you're interested, I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

Tuesday 1 February 2011

An Interview - C.J. Box


C.J. Box (Chuck) is a proud native of Wyoming. He has worked as a ranch hand, surveyor, fishing guide, a newspaper reporter and editor for a small Wyoming weekly newspaper. With his wife Laurie, he currently owns and runs an international tourism marketing firm. In 2008, Box was awarded the "BIG WYO" Award from the state tourism industry. An avid outdoorsman, Box has hunted, fished, hiked, ridden, and skied throughout Wyoming and the Mountain West. He served on the Board of Directors for the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. They have three daughters. Box lives in Wyoming.

He is the winner of the Anthony Award, the Prix Calibre 38, the Macavity Award, the Gumshoe Award, the Barry Award and the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Novel. His novels are US bestsellers and have been translated into 21 languages. Visit his website at www.cjbox.net

What are you writing at the minute?

I'm working on the first 150 pages or so of a stand-alone that will be a sequel to BACK OF BEYOND. But within a week or so, I'll have to set that aside and begin the 12th Joe Pickett novel. I've never switched up like this so it will be a new experience, but luckily the projects are very dissimilar in plot and scope so I think it will go (fairly) smoothly.

Can you give us an idea of C.J. Box’s typical up-to-the-armpits-in-ideas-and-time writing day?

After conceiving the new novel, doing the research on the topics and issues to be included within it and writing a bare-bones outline, I begin. Each day starts with a workout in the morning and then I go either to my home office in the basement (or, if I'm at my cabin -- my writing corner) and get going. I usually read over and edit the previous day's work, then plow ahead. I try to complete at least one thousand words a day but many days I double or triple that. Some days, unfortunately, I accomplish less. I take breaks to run my dogs (if in Cheyenne) or hike and fish (if I'm at my cabin) and conclude in the early afternoon to concentrate on other work or correspondence. Sometimes, I go late into the night but that's usually as I approach the end of a novel.

What do you do when you’re not writing?

I like to be in the outdoors. Luckily, there's plenty of that in Wyoming. So depending on the season and the weather, I fly-fish, float rivers, hike, hunt, ski, bike, or simply wander.

Any advice for a greenhorn trying to break into the genre fiction scene?

Read! Too many fledgling writers don't read enough, or read widely enough. Reading is better than writing if the purpose of reading is to deconstruct what a good author is doing and how they're doing it. Then complete a first novel. Agents rarely have interest in ideas or concepts -- they want a finished novel. And keep in mind the publishing industry is incredibly low-tech. What should take months takes years. So have a good day job.

Which writers have impressed you this year?

Denise Mina, T. Jefferson Parker, Michael Connelly, Deon Meyer, Thomas McGuane, Pete Dexter, Edmund Morris. To name a few.

What are you reading right now?

"Colonel Roosevelt" by Edmund Morris. The third in his trilogy of Theodore Roosevelt. I read the first in college, and thirty years later I'm reading the third.

Plans for the future?

It will be an incredibly busy year. In the U.S., I've got two new novels coming out in 2011: COLD WIND in March and BACK OF BEYOND in August. Plus the roll-out of all my books in the UK. I'll be doing lots of traveling, talking, and writing. I hope I have some time for fishing.

With regards to your writing career to date, would you do anything differently?

I'm very pleased with the way things have gone and continue to go. Each book outsells the last, and it's a great job overall.

Do you fancy sharing your worst writing experience?

My very first agent died and I didn't know it for six months. Needless to say, that didn't exactly jump-start my career.

Anything you want to say that I haven’t asked you about?

Corvus is an incredible publisher and the UK is lucky to have them. They're enthusiastic, creative, and optimistically reckless. I'm pleased to be published by them.

Thank you, C.J. Box!

Open Season by C.J. Box is published by Corvus on 1st February 2011, £7.99 paperback. The first book in Box’s acclaimed series featuring Wyoming game-warden Joe Pickett, there will be a further ten Joe Pickett novels published monthly throughout 2011.