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| Image nicked from The Guardian |
S'up?
Always feels like shouting hello in an empty room when I blog these days. Well not entirely empty. Seana Graham could well be the last remaining reader of this blog. For that, I'm grateful, Seana. However, I'd like to pump some life into this damn thing now. That means new content. I have a few plans, but most of them fall into the self-promotional category. While that's always been an element of CSNI, it's never been the entire point of the blog. I wanted to promote Northern Irish crime fiction. To me, that's crime fiction that has been penned by a Northern Irish native or crime fiction that has been set in Northern Ireland.
Yup, this blog's niche is pretty tiny. It's all I can commit to for now.
Unfortunately, I can't do many more reviews right at this moment. This is mostly down to reading burnout. I have to read for my PhD and I like to keep up with my favourite NI authors. Since the PhD is crime fiction-focussed and most of my favourite NI authors write crime fiction I've carved a small reading niche as well. That's not good for a writer. So I've taken a short reading holiday to allow a little exploration outside the specific subgenres I've spent too much time with.
In no particular order, stand-outs include John Rector's ALREADY GONE and Adam Nevill's THE RITUAL. I'm also quite captivated with the Hugh Howey paperback edition of WOOL (500 pages of which I'm only about a quarter of the way through).
Anyway, until I get over this reading slump, I'd like to extend an invitation to all Northern Irish crime fiction writers (yes, even those previously interviewed) to participate in an interview season of sorts. Five questions that will be written with my knowledge of your work in mind. You can use this to promote a recent book or an upcoming release in any territory. The only rule is that you are easily classified as a Northern Irish crime fiction writer. If you want to slip in under a grandfather rule, chance your arm, but the general guideline is that the writer resides in, hails from or has written (substantially) about Northern Ireland.
Clear enough?
Good. I miss the good ol' days of this blog. Let's see if we can recreate them for a month or two, eh?
Keep 'er lit, folks.
8 comments:
If it helps, you can make that me AND Seana Graham ...
More than you could know, Mister Burke. More than you could know.
gb
And me. I come here for the good company this blog keeps. (Seana and Declan. And you, of course, Gerard.)
Yeah, I think more people than you know read it. It's just me that always has to stick my oar in.
Looking forward to those interviews you Norn Iron types. I bet you could find a way to interview both Dana as an honorary Northern Irishman and Declan as someone who accidentally wandered south somehow.
Cheers, Dana!
Seana, it's always a welcome oar.
Dec's earned the right to an open invitation to any crime fiction forum, really. He'll always be welcome here, surely. And I believe that Dana could well be working on something that would qualify him without bending the rules. If a rather beer-addled memory serves me right, that is.
gb
By the way, just in case the news hasn't reached the north yet, Declan announced on his blog that his novel Crime Always Pays has been shortlisted for the Goldsboro Last Laugh Award this year.
I missed that comment, Seana! Not sure how.
Now I have to reopen the debate with myself. Do I fly to Bristol or not this year? I'd already decided not to.
Dammit.
gb
I think Declan said he won't be able to attend himself this year, though whether that makes it any easier, I don't know.
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