Millar Crime

Sam Millar has recently launched a new website running under the delightfully tongue-in-cheek title, It’s Millar Crime. Have a wee shuftie and read a little about his crime books, including his most recent Bloodstorm, and his memoir, On The Brinks.

And you’ll also find an article by Sam’s in issue 21 of Verbal Magazine. Check out pages 20 and 21 for his musings on the Brian Moore Award and some advice on trying to make it as a writer, including his ‘seven commandments of writing’:

1) Never ever show your manuscript to family and friends (they’ll always tell you what you want to hear).

2) Type each and every day – even when your fingers have fallen off (use toes).

3) All excuses are inexcusable.

4) Never handwrite a manuscript. It isn’t right.

5) Never tolerate writer’s block. It’s for blockheads.

6) Avoid vanity printing. You might love it, but no one else will.

7) Avoid self-publishing. The writing fraternity will despise you for taking the coward’s way out. Fight the good fight of self-belief and eventually you will win. We all had to do it, and have the bruises to show for it.

You can read the rest if you download the issue 21 PDF on the Verbal Magazine website. Just click the link on the left of the page et voila.

A Micro Review - On The Brinks by Sam Millar

Colman Keane, a um... keen fan of all things crime fictiony, has submitted his thoughts on Sam Millar's autobiography, On The Brinks, to CSNI. Did he like it? For his sake, I hope so. I wouldn't want to piss Mister Millar off!

It’s difficult to know where to begin to describe this book – a memoir written by Mr Millar a former IRA man and convicted bank-robber.

To describe Sam’s path through life as being somewhat eventful, would be a massive understatement.

Imprisoned in Long Kesh, he participated in the blanket protest along with other Republicans in an effort to restore political status to all paramilitary prisoners. I vaguely recall growing up in the 70’s and seeing the pictures of prisoners draped in blankets and living in the most abhorrent conditions imaginable. It is hard not to be repulsed, moved, touched, affected by what these men endured in the struggle for recognition of their special status. The closest thing that I have read that parallels Millar’s plight is Slavomir Rawicz’s The Long Walk.

At times he’s afraid, but the absolute refusal to be cowed, the resolve and determination to endure and prevail is daunting and a testament to his indomitable spirit, just like Rawicz displayed during the 40’s.

Whilst dark at times, Millar also manages to retain his sense of humour throughout. The blankets escalated in the early 80’s to the hunger strikes – a turbulent period in Ireland’s recent history which culminated in the death of 10 men including Bobby Sands, who had managed to embarrass Thatcher by gaining election to Westminster as an MP. Millar survived this period and headed off to States after his release.

Further trouble ensues in the American chapters of his life. A leap from croupier in an illegal casino to mastermind of the Brinks depot robbery of over $7 million and further imprisonment.

Sam Millar was finally released in 1997. One hopes the ensuing years of his life are less frenetic and more settled!

Thanks, Colman!

Luck o' the CSNIrish

Verbal Magazine ran a competition last month in which eight signed copies of Sam Millar's BLOODSTORM were up for grabs. Doing my duty, I announced this on my blog and both of my readers sent their answers in (which was On The Brinks, by the way) and both of them won a copy. Now tell me those aren't impressive stats!

The lucky CSNI readers were Mike Stone and Colman Keane. Raise a coffee to them. (No I do mean coffee, not beer. It's only 9.30 am for goodness sake.) Nice one, lads.

“Bloodstorm is a disturbing, page-turner of a book, keeping you on the edge of your seat right to the very end. Highly recommended for those with a strong stomach…”

Belfast Telegraph

An Interview - Sam Millar

Yes, it's St Patrick's day, but crime doesn't take holidays, and neither does CSNI. Unless you count yesterday. Ahem. So here's a very special treat to mark the day that doesn't involve shamrocks or green Guinness or whatever else the eejits in green foam hats enjoy. It's an interview with Sam Millar.

Sam Millar has a huge list of achievements -- Author of three best-selling novels; Dark Souls, The Redemption Factory, The Darkness of Bones. His newest novel, Bloodstorm, has been selected by Eason and The Sunday Times to mark the 10^th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

“Bloodstorm is a powerful, relentless page-turner of a book, leaving you gasping for more…”

BBC Radio Ulster

He’s also the author of the best-selling memoir, On The Brinks, recently acquired by Warner Brothers.

Mr Millar has won the prestigious Aisling Award for Art and Culture, the Martin Healy Short Story Award, the Brian Moore Award for Short Stories and the Cork Literary Review Writer’s Competition. There’s more, but I’ll let him talk about it.

Q1. What are you writing at the minute?

A: The Dark Place and Searching For The Dead. These are the follow-ups to Bloodstorm. I have a couple of stand-alone projects in the oven, but they are not fully baked yet.

Q2. Can you give us an idea of Sam Millar’s typical up-to-the-armpits-in-ideas-and-time writing day?

A: Right now it’s 5am. That’s when I usually hit the screen (unlike cops hitting the street). I am blessed with insomnia - a writer’s dream (notice I didn’t write cursed with an ailment!). I’m eating marmalade and toast because my wife says it’s good for me, even though my doctor has firmly advised me never to touch the stuff as I am allergic to oranges, and it could cause a massive heart attack. Hey, always trust your wife, right…? I can’t be too precise as to where my ideas come from, because they usually sneak up on me. But sometimes the most mundane incidents can be the spur to kick-start the next paragraph. They say the greatest ideas are always accidental. Unfortunately, I haven’t had too many accidents, lately…

Q3. What do you do when you’re not writing?

Er, you really don’t want to know. Trust me on that…

Q4. Any advice for a greenhorn like myself trying to break into the crime fiction scene?

Stop being so modest, Mister Brennan. We’ve all seen your work – and damn good it is too. For those just starting in this dirty, bare-knuckle business my advice is simple (a bit like myself): write. Keep writing. There is no wrong time to write. Have balls as big as the Hulk’s. Believe in yourself and with a good bit of hard grafting, you will make it. Never forget luck. You need plenty of that, as well. Oh, did I mention the Hulk…?

Q5. Which crime writer(s) have impressed you this year?

A: Er…have to skip that one…sorry any crime writer reading this…(bang goes the promised eye-catching blurbs for my next book).

Q6. What are you reading right now?

A: No Country For Old Men. (I think this is the tenth time) and The Road (the twentieth time.) I’ve been a big follower of Cormac McCarthy for years. ‘Discovered’ his work about ten years ago while I was resting in the penitentiary in America. It’s great seeing him getting the recognition he deserves so richly (boy, is he rich). In a strange twist of fate, my French publisher, Fayard, translates the great reclusive man’s work, and as I have a notorious brass neck, I have numerous signed copies from Cormac – I mean Mister McCarthy. I would kill anyone who dared touch them. No seriously. I would.

Q7. Plans for the future?

A: That’s a secret, in case my publisher is reading this…(which he probably is). Very sneaky of you, Steve…

Q8. With regards to your writing career to date, would you do anything differently?

A: Wouldn’t we all?

Q9. Anything you want to say that I haven’t asked you about?

A: You haven’t asked me the million-dollar question, the one everyone else normally asks: what did you do with all the money from the biggest robbery in American history? Well, seeing you didn’t ask, I’m sure as hell not telling. Buy On The Brinks…

Thank you, Sam Millar!