Bash of the Titans! (Featuring me.)

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Speaking of Which - A Bit About Sam Millar & The CWN

Did you know that Glen Patterson judged the Brian Moore Short Story Award last year? Well, he did. And Sam Millar won it ten years ago, and believes it was a turning point in his writing career. He even told the folks at BBC Radio Ulster's Artsextra programme all about it. You can listen to it on the Artsextra website for the next five days. Better hurry.

Interviewed alongside him is Mark Madden from the Creative Writers Network. They run the Brian Moore competition every year. Although I've never won the award, I have benefited greatly from my membership there. They introduced me to Ian McDonald two years ago on their mentoring course, told me of an Ian Sansom workshop before I discovered The Mobile Library Series, and tipped me off on a Colin Bateman reading where he signed my copy of Divorcing Jack. I even attended a writing for radio course hosted by Annie McCartney last year. Ah, good times. So, thanks CWN. Keep on truckin'.

Oh, by the way, Tammy Moore did a lot of work for the CWN in her time. Nowadays she can be found writing for Morrigan Books, a new publishing house going from strength to strength in genre fiction. Best of luck to the lot of them.

Tammy's first publication, The Even, can be purchased from the publisher, Amazon or Waterstones. Take your pick.

NI Writers - Could youse slow down with the greatness for a wee bit?

Seems like Northern Irish writers just don't rest.

What a week!

Ian Sansom is running a series of NaNoWriMo workshops from the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University every Wednesday at 1:00 pm throughout the month of November. I attended the first one, and was once again blown away by what an energetic, funny and excellent creative writing teacher he is. And who says those who can't teach? Next guy that does, I'm lobbing a copy of The Delegate's Choice at them.

Tomorrow's workshop will include a Q&A with Stuart Neville. I'll have to get there early and get a good seat.

And I told you about Brian McGilloway, right?

Sam Millar, media junky that he is, had even more kind words splashed about the papers this week.

Bloody Terrifying (This was the large headline across the page and cover of Bloodstorm).

Bleak, but written stylishly, this grim thriller frightened me to death and I don’t mind telling you it scared the living daylights out of me. I was almost trembling as I finished each page and began the next one. So much so, I’ll be sticking to Maeve Binchy for a few days, just to get over the shock of reading Bloodstorm.

So if you’re a man or indeed a woman who finds satisfaction in seeing the crime solved at the end, thought quite often seeing the baddies get away with it, then you’ll love Bloodstorm. If you don’t mind threading where angels fear to tread, this book is for you. Definitely not one for the faint-hearted.

As I said at the start of my review, I’m now delving into my Maeve Binchy collection to try and purge the nightmare imagery of Bloodstorm from my mind. An accomplished but absolutely terrifying read.

Sharon Owen, editor, Belfast Telegraph, Books Weekend

Yes, when you write the kind of hard-hitting fiction Sam specialises in, these are indeed kind words.

What else? Well, he may not be crime fictiony, but he is Northern Irish, and his last two book launches were held at No Alibis, so that qualifies him. Ian McDonald's latest novel, Brasyl, was long-listed for the Warwick Prize for Writing, which kicks back a monetary prize as generous as the Man Booker does.

And speaking of Norn Iron writers who launch their books from David Torrans's fine establishment, literary Belfast man, Glen Patterson did a bit on Good Morning Ulster while I was stuck in traffic in an effort to teach the nation how to use the humble apostrophe. Green grocers, take note.

And Tony Bailie is still plugging away over at ecopunks. He has some interesting stuff to say about John Banville/Benjamin Black.

No doubt McKinty, Bateman, Downey et al those unmentioned also did some marvellous things this week, but I'm meant to be writing here. I've signed myself up for NaNoWriMo and I've still 35K words to write. Thank you, Ian Sansom and Stuart Neville.

One more thing. Check out Tammy Moore's revamped website. On this page alone you'll find articles aplenty I wish I'd written.

What you waiting for?

A Wee Review - The Reapers by John Connolly

The generous and scholarly Tammy Moore, one of Verbal Magazine's reviewers and writers, has allowed us the pleasure of hosting one of her reviews. Take it away, Tammy...

In The Reapers John Connolly turns his focus from the troubled, and trouble-magnet, some-time PI Charlie Parker in order to follow the absorbing characters of Louis and Angel instead. It might seem like a risky move – six highly successful books with Charlie Parker as the protagonist suggest a formula to follow – but there’s a breadth and depth to the world that Connolly has created that makes you want to see what lies just around the corner. And just around the corner from Charlie Parker is Louis – his associate, his friend-of-sorts and his dark mirror image. A reflection that draws ever closer as Parker is forced further from the reassurance of his one-time role as a cop and Louis struggles to reconcile his burgeoning sense of decency (not exactly conscience, not Louis) with his essential nature. I’ve no doubt that many, if not all, of Connolly’s readers were delighted to learn more about the principled killer.

And The Reapers is Louis's book. There are no wrongs to right here or victims to be saved. Both sides of the conflict are just, both sides are grotesque. Years ago Louis murdered a man’s son and now the man wants revenge; years ago Louis put down a monster and now the monster’s equally monstrous parent seeks to destroy him. It’s Beowulf with designer suits and automatic weaponry.

It’s also a beautiful book. Not the cover, but inside. John Connolly is a man in love with language and it shows in his work. It’s not just that he has a knack for the beautiful, evocative turn of phrase, although it does, but the craft he puts into creating a moment and making it breathe. His descriptive prose is almost tactile, building lush mindscapes, and is a striking contrast to the wry noir tang of his dialogue.

The plot of the novel is quite straight-forward. Early on, we knew who the antagonist was, his nature if not his name, and why he wanted to bring Louis down. Once the antagonist made his first move it didn’t take long for Louis to find out that information too, but then it would have been contrived otherwise considering Louis past and the contacts he has. Besides, the mystery that we’re solving in the novel isn’t who wants Louis dead, but who Louis is: where he came from, what made him and who he is now. The addition of the scarred assassin Bliss to the hired killers sent to murder Louis, for example, is important not because of what he might do to Louis now, but because of what he was to him in the past.

That said about the plot, the few plot twists that do pepper the plot are all the more gripping for their rarity.

The Reapers is a vividly-realised, gripping book that I would highly recommend. New-comers to the series should, if possible, start at the beginning but The Reapers can function as a stand-alone novel too.

Tammy Moore

Tammy Moore is a Northern Irish based writer of Speculative Fiction. Her first book will be published by Morrigan Books in Sept 08 and, fingers crossed, her plans for literary world domination with go live in 2011. Visit her site - http://www.nevertobetold.com/.

CSNI -- We Haven't Gone Away You Know

Things have been a little quiet around here the last few weeks. This may happen from time to time as there are only so many hours in the day and I'm still trying to be a crime fiction writer as well as a reader/blogger, family guy, full time public servant and amateur mountain biker. This week and last I donned the crazy writer cap and I have mostly been reworking the novella that inspired my screenplay, The Point. I set out to expand it into a short novel in a bid to sell it as a standalone. Previously, I'd been attempting to flog it as the main attraction in my short story collection, but as I've yet to sell a novel, nobody wanted to touch that with a ten foot sewer rod. And the effort has paid off. Sort of. The Point will be, once I've finished work on two new scenes, a 40K word novel. Great! My third book! Except, 40K is only just crossing the technical wordcount for a novel.

In reality, books this short are pretty unattractive to publishers. The real sweetspot is about 70-80K and up, depending on the house. Two places have agreed to take a look, but after they have, rejected it (not pessimism -- simple probability), what the hell am I going to do with it? Anyone? Seriously, this is not a rhetorical question. I'd like a sensible answer to this. As a marketable commodity, it's got a unique selling point, in that there's a very good chance that The Point will become a film in some shape or form in the future, but again, t'is only a tiny wee 40K. The simple answer, I suppose, would be to add more words, but for the life of me I can't think of anything that would constitute as obvious padding. I don't know.

Anyway, why am I bothering you lot with this ramble? You're here to read about the ones who have sold their books, right? Well, stay tuned. You won't be disappointed. This week I hope to have a review of Lucy Caldwell's heart-wrenching Where They Were Missed, further reviews contributed by those fine CSNIers, Mike Stone and Tammy Moore, and I have made contact with one Eugene McEldowney who's agreed to answer a few questions for us. So keep clicking here, NI crime fans. We're getting back on track.

Verbal Magazine - Issue 15

This month's Verbal is now available in PDF on their website. It meets its usual high standards, despite the fact that they've printed my reviews for Adrian McKinty's The Bloomsday Dead, Aifric Campbell's The Semantics of Murder and Colin Bateman's Orpheus Rising.

You'll also find a review of John Connolly's The Reapers, penned by Tammy Moore.

And, if you live in the North of Ireland, be sure to pick up tomorrow's Belfast Telegraph. They have an article on crime fiction by Adrian McKinty! If you can't pick up a copy, I'll provide the highlights in the near future.

Jump Around - News and Links

Here's a few good places to visit for some word on the NI crime scene.

First off, stop by Colin Bateman's site. In his "Latest" section, he's made one of his rare blog updates. Among the news, "I'm working on a TV project for Sky at the moment, which is based on the crime novels of Stephen Booth... The latest children's book, Titanic 2020: Cannibal City is either in the shops (in Ireland) or about to hit them (everywhere else) and I've been doing my bit to promote that... I'll be interviewing the esteemed Ian Rankin on stage." And there's something on there about penile dysfunction... ahem.

Moving on, there are some articles of note over at the Verbal Magazine website. Carlo Gébler gives us a great insight into his latest novel, A Good Day for a Dog. And if you click on the Issue 14 pdf you'll find an article by CWN's Tammy Moore on the John Connolly and Declan Hughes event held at No Alibis last month. You'll also find a wee review of Garbhán Downey's Yours Confidentially written by some glipe.

And Ian Sansom is getting some much deserved attention over at Detectives Beyond Borders. He's the subject of a post on 10th June 08 and forms part of a very interesting question on the entry dated 11th June 08.

So have a wee surf about there, folks. And remember where you read it first!