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.

It Was All Right on the Night

Well, last night’s reading went better than I could have hoped. About fifteen people made it to the Lock-Keeper’s Inn. Tammy (T.A. Moore) kindly warmed the audience up with the opening from her first novel, The Even. Then I read a story from Brendan Garner’s chapbook, Possession, Obsession and a Diesel Compression Engine. It went down better than I expected it to considering the rather colourful language and blasphemous content.

After the reading, Tammy invited the audience to ask us about writing. Tammy related her experience of being an actual real-life novelist and I talked about how lucky I am to have a literary agent. I think we could have sat there all night, but we were ushered out of our seats eventually. Tammy sold a good few books as far as I could see, and deservedly so. The chapbooks I’d ordered arrived in Dundrum around about the time I was leaving work to go to the Inn, so with nothing to flog, I ducked out early. But hopefully I made a bit of an impression on the good folk who showed up.

I had just enough time to take a spin out to Lisburn City Library where Garbhan Downey was promoting War of the Blue Roses. It’s always great to meet writers you admire and listen to what they have to say about their own work. After reading from his most recent release and giving us an insight into the workings of his comic-genius mind, he read a brief extract from the novel he’s just finished. Looking forward to that one hitting the shelves.

So, I’d a great night last night and was buzzing off the good vibes all morning. Up until my agent emailed me with some bad publishing news. Basically, The Wee Rockets won’t be hitting the shelves any time soon. A bit of a pisser, that. I’ll feel sorry for myself for a few days, get drunk once or three times, and then get back to work. I’ve two novels and a short story on the go at the moment and I doubt much more will happen for me publishing-wise until I get my finger out and finish something.

As of now, CSNI’s going on a bit of a hiatus for a few weeks. If anybody want’s to send me some material, I’ll post it, but I need to focus on fiction for a bit.

Chat to you later

gb

The Wee Rockets

Last year I attempted to sell my novel, Piranhas, without the aid of an agent. I came very close to doing this, but suffered quite a setback when the deal was withdrawn at the eleventh hour. Yeah, well, every writer has his sob story. That was mine. Life's moved on. Since then, I submitted to and was rejected from most of the publishers on the island of Ireland and a few in England. The reason was more often than not cited as cautious business practices in a recession.

So, in January, I got pissed off with all that malarkey and decided to change tactics. I started looking for an agent.

Well, it gives me great pleasure to announce that I'm now officially represented by Allan Guthrie of Jenny Brown Associates. We've hit the ground running and already I've applied Al's suggested edits and changed the name of the gang my novel is based on, and in turn, the book's title. Piranhas shall henceforth be known as The Wee Rockets, unless a publisher asks me to change it again.

Allan Guthrie is a highly regarded writer and a successful agent. He's also a hell of a nice guy, so I know I'm going to enjoy working with him. Watch this space. Maybe some day in the near future, I'll announce the sale of my Belfast street crime story, The Wee Rockets.