Stumped by Rob Kitchin -- Cover and Blurb

Look at this cover:

Now read what I had to say about the book:

"As far as Irish crime fiction goes, Kitchin delivers all the major ingredients: mystery, psychos and a dash of drag queen farmers. This novel is frantic, fierce and fabulous. Skip the manicure before reading. Stumped is a head-scratching nail-biter that'll leave your fingers chewed down to the nub." 
---Gerard Brennan, author of WEE ROCKETS and THE POINT 

And now click on this link to read more nice words about the book and find out when you can get your hands on a copy.

Seriously, you'll want to read this one. I feel lucky to have read an advance version.

By the way, Rob's blog, The View From the Blue House turned five years old yesterday. You'll find a lot of excellent reviews there (since they've been distinctly lacking at CSNI lately). Check it out.

The Next Big Thing!

I’ve been tagged in this blog hop thing four or five times now but it keeps getting put on the backburner. Got a lot on my mind these days and quite a few projects on the go. Too many maybes to go into it all properly so I’ll not bore you with the details. But today I took a wee bit of time to fill out this meme-type questionnaire and get rid of the vague guilt that ignoring the tags has created.

Being the rebel that I am, I’ve decided to break one of the rules. Rather than tag anybody else, I figure I’d point you towards some of the fine people who thought of me when they filled this out for themselves.

Check out Rob Kitchin, Eva Dolan, Jay Faulkner and Natasha Geary’s websites. Sorry for the tardy response guys!

And now, the Q&A:

What is the working title of your next book?

Welcome to the Octagon, a Fight Card MMA novella, due for release in April 2013 and written under the open pseudonym, Jack Tunney.

Where did the idea come from for your book?

I put out a question on Twitter one day asking for opinions. I wanted to know if people thought a new boxing novel would generate interest or if the growing sport of mixed martial arts (MMA or cage-fighting) would be more a more intriguing subject. The responses shaped the outline and consequently, the writing of this novella.

What genre does the book fall under?

Generally crime fiction. Specifically it’s an application of the Robert E Howard-esque pulp-era boxing tales to a modernized setting and sport. Does that make me sound smart? No? Nevermind.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movies rendition?

I can’t think of any martial arts action movie heroes with Northern Irish accents. I suppose I’d ask the movie folk to trawl the burgeoning Irish MMA scene for wannabe actors. But the movie folk would ignore me, I’m sure. Is there a Belfast Chuck Norris? Barry the Blender doesn’t count.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Belfast widower, Mickey ‘The Rage’ Rafferty, fights in unlicensed bouts to support his daughter, but he’s finally got a shot at competing in a real professional organization, so long as his shady past doesn’t ruin it for him.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It’ll be published by Fight Card, an impressive new outfit that’s been putting out boxing novellas for a couple of years now. Mine will be one of the first in their new line of MMA novellas.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

A little over a month. I outlined and thought about the story for a few months before the start of the wordsmithing slog, though.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Anything coming out under the Fight Card label. I read most of the books before tackling my own take on the concept. Great reads. Seriously, check out their site!

Who or what inspired you write this book?

Well, Paul Bishop – one of the co-creators of Fight Card Publications – first approached me about writing it after my Twitter ruminations, so I guess he gets the first credit. I also enjoy watching MMA, have friends who train in it (shout out to G-Wat and Mark B!) and have a little bit of a martial arts background myself.

What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

I think anybody who can appreciate the complexities of the sport will get a kick out of the technical detail of the fight scenes. I sweated blood over those scenes!

Press Your Point

Today I bought copies of three local papers that had three different but equally flattering pieces on the release of The Point. If you can, pick up copies of The Newry Democrat, The Mourne Observer and The Newry Reporter. You'll get enough change for a decent jar of coffee if you pay with a fiver, or the Kindle edition of The Point. Fair warning. The £1.14 price for the Kindle edition is only going to be available for another week, possibly two, so don't put off buying a copy if you want to get it cheaper than chips. It'll still be cheap as a curry chip when the price goes up to £2.29, but why pay double when the novella is just a click or two away?

While I'm on the topic of publicity, I may as well throw out a question about self-promotion. How much is too much? The topic of this blog has narrowed somewhat in the past few months. It's been mostly about me. And sure, most blogs are completely about their authors, but this particular one was originally set up as a means to draw attention to the growing community of Irish crime writers; and lend a little more focus to those writers from the North. That's still something I'm keen to do, but in reality, I'm just not as good at it as Declan Burke over at Crime Always Pays.

Every so often, Declan will post an 'advertisement' for one of his books. That's great. It's only his blog, like, but he's subtly excusing his own intrusion onto it. But take today as a snapshot. I scroll down his blog and he's got a post about Stuart Neville, then Lee Child, then his own Irish Book Award nominated novel Absolute Zero Cool, an interview with some tube and a post about Colin Bateman's excellent Starkey series. Five posts in five days and only one of them about his own novel. Me? Bar a great interview with Nigel Bird (who isn't one wee bit Irish, BTW), my last five posts have been all about The Point and I haven't even posted those daily.

Now, don't get me wrong, Dec's cool and all, but I'm more than happy to be me and for him to be him. It's just that his is the most obvious blog to compare mine to. I'm sure if I looked at Rob Kitchin's very cool blog, The View from the Blue House, as a further example I'd be equally outclassed. But I'm too lazy to do that. And hey, I'm not beating myself up here. My mood is pretty damn chipper right now. I'm just wondering if this blog has really got anything to offer its remaining reader(s) these days... It's something I'll think about when I'm driving, I guess.

But hey! I won't end this on a bum note but instead (big surprise) I'll make this post all about me and my writing -- here's a link to the super swanky Blasted Heath website. Have a wee look around and you might find a little bit of it with me reading from Wee Rockets. Or just go here and you will find it.

Janey Mac I Just Turned Thirty!

It's been quiet around here, and that's because I've spent a long weekend saying good bye to my twenties. Yup, hit the big three-O, which would suck if I was a footballer or a rent boy, but since I'm nearly a writer it seems to be a good thing. Thirty's young in this profession. Maybe people will take me more seriously in the publishing world now.

Anyway, enough about me. I've been remiss in not mentioning Rob Kitchin's new blog, The View from the Blue House. Rob's also a writerly type and has sent me his novel The Rule Book, and if Critical Mick is to be believed (which he is) then I'm in for a treat when I finally get to it. So, consider this my belated welcome to the blogosphere, Rob.

Another new blog I've noticed is Galway Print, Neil Mount's new blog. Neil has recently set up a publishing company and has released a book I'm very eager to read. Go here to read a sample chapter or two of Barbelo's Blood, courtesy of Dec Burke.

Reviews and whatnot of TOWER, and three post-Celtic Tiger novels set in Dublin to follow in the next few days. But while you're waiting for that, skip over to Busted Flush Press and have a gander at a very good interview with Reed Farrel Coleman.

An Interview - Rob Kitchin

Rob Kitchin: The day job is running a research institute. I spend most of my time either in meetings or writing funding applications, academic papers or books. After a few false starts, The Rule Book, my first novel, was published on May 16th. Hopefully in time it’ll open up a new horizon and I can at least give up the meetings.

My one and only review to date is by Joe Duffy from RTE who stated: "One of the most unusual crime novels to come out of Ireland in recent times. A gripping thriller with characters that ring true coupled with images and acts that would leave even Hannibal Lecter silent! There are more twists than the red cow roundabout, but you will not lose the plot in this clever and unusual crime novel." Perhaps a few more of those and the horizon might start to transform.

Q1. What are you writing at the minute?

On the novel front I’m writing the third book in McEvoy series. The working title is ‘In the Bog’ and it has Det. Supt. McEvoy trying to solve the murders of two women, killed forty years apart, both discovered within days of each other in Leitrim bog. I’m about halfway through at present. On the academic front, I’m trying to finish off a book on the embedding of software in everyday life, plus a couple of reports.

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

I spent a fair few hours writing every day, whether its dozens of emails or reports, papers or chapters. Any novel writing is reserved for the evening and weekends. I haven’t done anywhere near as much as I would have liked to in recent weeks. Ideas are never a problem, time is! Thankfully I don’t suffer from writer’s block, mainly I think, because I’m conditioned to grind out a couple of thousand words a day doing the day job. I suspect journalists are similarly disciplined which is why so many successfully transfer to novel writing.

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

Read, walk the dogs, and slouch in front of the television killing time that could be spent more productively doing other things.

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

I am a greenhorn trying to break into crime fiction and I’m still fairly clueless at this stage. The only thing I can advise is keep plugging away and hope for the best.

Q5. Which crime writers have impressed you this year?

So far I’ve mostly been reading books by writers who I’ve read previously, filling in back catalogues – Alan Furst, Joe Lansdale, James Lee Burke, Peter Temple, Michael Connelly, Arnaldur Indridason, John Harvey, Graham Hurley, Philip Kerr – mainly because they made an impression with other books. I particularly enjoyed the latest Kerr novel, ‘A Quiet Flame’ – the whole Bernie Gunther series has been excellent. I think the only thing I’ve bought that has been published in 2009 is Gene Kerrigan’s ‘Dark Times in the City’ which is next on my to read pile. The plan is to spend the second half the year discovering new stuff. I’m always after a good recommendation.

Q6. What are you reading right now?

On the novel front I’m a few pages into Tana French’s ‘In the Woods’. On the non-fiction front, I’m halfway through ‘The Algeria Hotel: France, Memory and the Second World War’ by Adam Nossiter that examines how the French have dealt with the Vichy period and the complicity of that government in the holocaust.

Q7. Plans for the future?

To keep plugging away! I’ve the second book in the series complete and a couple of other drafts mostly in good shape. Hopefully they will translate into an alternative career of sorts in time. I’ve no ambitions to give up the day job but it would be nice to have options!

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

I’d have been much more proactive in seeking an agent/publisher for the various drafts I have rather than being discouraged after two or three form rejection letters. The process of getting academic and fiction writing published is completely different and I made the mistake of partially conflating the two.

Q9. Do you fancy sharing your worst writing experience?

A lot of my academic writing is co-written. I’ve written pieces with over 40 people at this stage and occasionally that can get a bit fraught, especially if people don’t do what they said or we can’t agree on an argument. I’ve never come to blows with anyone, but let’s just say there are a couple of them I’d be very reluctant to write with again!

Q10. Anything you want to say that I haven’t asked you about?

No, I don’t think so, other than to thank you for the opportunity to do this.

Thank you, Rob Kitchin!