Reading Holiday and a Call for Content

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.

Reboot

Right, let's face it. This blog has gone downhill in the last few months. I'm big enough and ugly enough to... who'm I kidding? I'm not ugly. I'm just tired and prematurely greying. I know that whole "big enough and ugly enough" thing is just a saying and all but this post isn't about self-pity. It's about things changing a little.

So anyway, as I was saying, CSNI has lost some of its raison d'etre. This used to be a blog where I posted reviews, interviews and news about the upsurge of Northern Irish crime writing. Now it's that thing I feel guilty about doing a half-assed job at. And it's not going to improve much now that we've got fifty percent more kids in the Brennan household (see evidence below).

For two years the blog went strong and seemed to get quite popular (considering the niche-market nature of the subject matter) and put me in touch with pretty much all of my favourite Irish crime writers. And I like to think it made me some real friends too. But I simply no longer have the time to hunt out new and established writers to bother them for interviews or offer them a place to spread the word about their work. So I'm rebooting the site as a personal blog.

I'll still spread the word about NI crime fiction when it falls into my lap, and I welcome anybody to get in touch with me through the blog, but I'm now focussing the ever-diminishing amount of spare time I have on promoting my own writing and other writing-related projects through CSNI.

The release of Requiems for the Departed, a book I consider to be the tangible product of the two year project that was CSNI 1.0, seems to be as good a place as any to draw a line under the original mission statement of the blog (you know, the one that went, "Primarily devoted to the boom in post-Troubles crime fiction, yadda, yadda...") and launch the new one (which I admit needs a bit of a spit-shine); "It's mostly about me now."

I figured that the remaining visitors to CSNI deserved to know about this...

Peace!

(My wee family -- left to right, Jack, Oscar and Mya)

Time to Revamp?

I’ve become increasingly aware of the fact that I’m not updating the CSNI blog anywhere near as often as I did this time last year. A number of factors contribute to this that range from family life to a greater focus on my own writing. Another difference is that this time last year I was still actively seeking out writers for interviews and the like. At this point, there aren’t many crime writers from the North or South of Ireland left to contact. However, after maintaining it for so long, I’d hate to see CSNI go by the wayside.

I’ve thought of a few solutions:

Expand beyond the crime fiction genre – Not a bad idea, as there are a number of science fiction, fantasy and literary writers from the North and beyond that I haven’t contacted. Also, I do read beyond the crime fiction genre, so it’d still be interesting to me. And there’s the strange fact that of the three novels I’ve sent to Allan Guthrie, my agent, none are straight crime fiction... I know! It came as a shock to me too. I’m not sure what I write. My whole belief system is at odds. I don’t think novels are literary; it’s more like... Wait, no. This is a topic for another self-indulgent post. No doubt I’ll write it some time in the near future.

But there’s something that niggles about that idea. The site is called Crime Scene NI, after all. It should really do what it says on the tin.

Expand beyond fiction – Yeah, why not comment on news items? There are enough of them, and in the post-Troubles climate, they’re certainly more varied. I could point out an article from the BBC NI website, on the days when I have nothing book-related to write about, and rattle out a paragraph or two surmising my personal thoughts.

But that seems a little ghoulish to me. Using real crime as filler. Plus there are enough websites out there that write about local news and the politics. Plus I don’t want to turn into an internet ranter. All self-righteous and shit. It’s not really me. And at the end of the day, people are perfectly capable of keeping up with the news on the BBC NI website without me pointing the way for them.

Expand beyond form – There are other forms out there, aren’t there? Big screen, little screen, stage play, radio play... I could get in touch with many a talented and worthy writer who works in either of these areas. And they’ll have interesting thoughts and insights of their own. What’s the problem with that, eh?

Well, I don’t get to go to the theatre or cinema as often as I used to, so I wouldn’t exactly be cutting edge. And I sacrifice a lot of TV time in order to get a few words down on the screen. The programmes I do take the time to follow, such as The Sopranos or The Wire, don’t really need the help of some little guy from Northern Ireland in order to reach a slightly larger audience. So why devote the time?

So, I’m wondering... how can I shake things up a bit and breathe some new life into the aul blog?

Suggestions welcome, folks.

There Will Be Booze

I'm still not done with the festivities, and indeed tonight may prove the highlight of a debauched week, but I figured I should post something here, lest one or two people think I've dropped off the face of the blogosphere.

So, just a little heads up. Over the crimbo holidays, I've read and intend to review Everybody Knows This is Nowhere by John McFetridge and I'm neck deep in Adrian McKinty's Fifty Grand. I hope to get stuck into Mystery Man by Colin Bateman next and then I'll be checking out some more Ken Bruen (can't get enough of that guy) and Walking The Perfect Square by Reed Farrel Coleman. I've also got three more David Peace books and... man, this could go on. Basically, I'm spoilt for choice in the new year, so there'll be no shortage of reviews as CSNI continues to grow.

Just for the record, I have a loose priority list with regards to promotion. Writers from the North of Ireland first, followed closely by those from the South. After that, it's kind of up in the air. Anybody who can be tied to Ireland in any way will get whim priority. For instance, McFetridge can trace some of his family back to Larne in Northern Ireland. Reed Farrel Coleman is releasing a book with Ken Bruen this year. I'll probably read Pariah by Dave Zeltserman as it's got Boston Irish gangsters in it. The rest, I'll read for fun, maybe reference it from time to time, but probably not review. I gotta write my own Northern Irish crime fiction too, you know.

So, thanks to everybody who's read, commented and emailed me about the blog. Thanks in general to the crime fiction community for being warm, friendly and cool. Thanks to all the authors I met this year, who ignored my stuttering awe and told me it was nice to meet me. It's been a great year, and I hope the trend continues.

In 2009, aside from reviews, I hope to progress my own writing. If I can't sell a novel, screenplay or stage play, then I'll be chipping away with short stories on the side. But I'm also lucky enough to be involved with a non-fiction project with Declan Burke and Adrian McKinty and a fiction anthology with Mike Stone. Both collections will contain work from some of my favourite writers. It's dizzying to think about it. You'll read plenty of updates on both here.

But for now, give me a few days to recover from an overindulgence of pies and beer and wine and crackers and cheese and whiskey and crisps. Then I'll be a slightly pudgier blogging dynamo bringing you as much news as you can handle, and more besides.

Happy New Year, folks.

Blog Love

Some might see this as a bit of back-patting between mates, but those people can feck off.

Did I grab your attention? Good, let's continue.

My mate, Mike Stone, has written a few kind words about CSNI on his Live Journal. Me and Mike originally came into contact when he edited my story, Pool Sharks, for the Badass Horror anthology which was released back in 2006 (though we did all the work in 2005). After that, Mike suggested I join critters.org, an online writing workshop, to help me smooth out some of the rougher edges in my writing style. I learned a lot in the time I spent at critters.org, but mostly because Mike submitted a critique to every story I posted there. The guy knows his stuff.

Anyway, like I said, Mike is a mate, but he's not the sort of person to blow smoke up any sort of orifice. Mike's honesty played a large part in the improvement of my writing, and to this day I'm confident that he'll always be the type of friend who puts the truth before my feelings. For that, I might want to slap him for that from time to time, but luckily the Irish Sea separates us, and I'll always cool down before I can jump on the first Easyjet over to England. So I was chuffed to read how much he approved of this little project of mine.

That said, thanks, Mike!