A Reluctant Betrothal - The Last Free City

My latest novel, The Last Free City, returns us to the political intrigues and grand machinations of The Dog of the North.  Such schemes invariably play out at the level of individual relationships.  In the excerpt below, the perennially dissatisfied second son Malvazan arrives at the day of his betrothal in a less than constructive frame of mind...

Malvazan, who had been watching from a place of concealment on the upstairs landing, felt a pang run through him.  Poor Sanoutë, he had never seen her so pale or subdued.  Could he really reject her in front of all the houses of the Specchio?  She had wanted to see him, it seemed.  No doubt he could contrive a brief meeting, and Hissen take any bad luck!

He slipped down the stairs, whispered a message to one of the under-servants and made his way to the kitchen garden, a place so lacking in glamour as to be wholly deserted on this most auspicious of days.  There he set himself to wait among the cabbages and tomatoes until Sanoutë should appear.

A caterpillar caught his eye, munching its way determinedly through a thick leaf.  What were the goals of such a creature, he wondered.  It was probably absurd to imagine it having goals at all.  And yet, a transformation awaited it, far beyond anything it could conceive.  It need do nothing to achieve such transcendence: simply keep chewing away at its leaf.  With a snort of sardonic amusement he thought of Dravadan, one day to be elevated to the head of the house—the Dignified Dravadan—with a beautiful and well-bred wife, heirs to follow.  And like the caterpillar, he had done nothing to merit his elevation, and probably lacked the wit fully to understand it.  He pursed his lips, lifted the caterpillar from its leaf: it squirmed, looked around to find meaning for its fate.  Malvazan dropped it on the ground and crushed it under his boot.  Would that Dravadan could be dealt with so easily.

From behind him came a soft voice.  “You wanted to see me?”

Malvazan turned.  Sanoutë’s hair was curled in an elaborate confection, swept back off her face on one side, draping across her eye on the other.

“I was upstairs,” he said.  “I heard you looking for me, and thought to oblige you.”

For a brief second her face twitched into a smile.  “You cannot imagine how long I have yearned for this day.  But you know that.”

He reached out, put a hand on her arm.  “Then why are you not happy?”

Her blue eyes were large and moist.  “Because you have not yearned for it.  You are accepting me because your father told you to.”

“Do you think I listen to him any more?  I am my own man.”

She pushed a hair back out of her eye.  “They say you killed someone,” she said, looking away.

Malvazan shrugged.  “You make it sound so sordid.  It was a duel, a question of honour.  It is regrettable that Flarijo died, but that is the risk of the duel.  Quietus Est, as they say.”

There was a catch in her voice.  “Malvazan, I remember us as children.  Once we went on a picnic to Sang Saraille, do you remember? There were fish in the stream, and it seemed we sat and watched them all afternoon.”

Malvazan nodded.  “I remember,” he said.

“That was four years ago, Malvazan, four years.  It seems as if it was another lifetime.  Now you are talking about killing someone as if it was nothing.”

“It is something that men do,” he said.  “I was a child then; I am a man now.”

She turned and walked slowly towards the wall marking the edge of the garden.  “When we were children, everyone knew that we would be betrothed.  Neither of us seemed to mind.”

“No,” said Malvazan.  “Of course not.”

“But we were different people: children.  Yet we are bound by those conversations.”

Malvazan followed her, put a hand on her shoulder and turned her to face him.  “Are you saying you no longer want us to marry?”

Her eyes welled with tears.  “Don’t you understand anything!” she sobbed.  “It is what I want.  It what I have always wanted!  It is you who have changed, from the dear sweet boy who sat by the stream with me; changed into a man who fights duels, who proposes to Monichoë.  I do not know you, Malvazan: you who were my dearest friend!”

“Sanoutë—”

“This is the day set for our betrothal, Malvazan.”  Her voice dropped to a whisper.  “Can you say to me, from your heart, that you would marry me above all other women in the world?”

Malvazan looked into her face.  The clear answer to the question was ‘no’, but the question she should have asked: Will you put aside any reservations you have, and marry me nonetheless, was more difficult to answer.  But an answer was needed, and immediately.  Cursing himself for his weakness and vacillation, he said: “Yes.”

He kissed her on the cheek, turned and walked from the garden with a heavy step, never looking back once at the woman he left behind him.

A paragraph (or two) - Herring in the Library

Dee has provided us with an introduction to one of her less sympathetic characters. I thought, in view of the topicality of all matters financial, I would give you a banker. Sir Robert “Shagger” Muntham is regrettably unavailable for future novels, but he manages to annoy a number of people before being found strangled in his own locked study - thus giving Ethelred and Elsie a chance to investigate a seemingly impossible murder.

Here is Sir Robert making his entrance in all senses of the word:
　
It must have been almost three months before that when I had run into Rob Muntham coming out of the village post office. I had literally bumped into a tall, slightly stooped, grey-haired figure, who was attempting to enter as I attempted to leave. I was just framing a muttered apology when the man addressed me.
“Ethelred?” he said.
I must have looked blank because he repeated himself.
“Ethelred Tressider, isn’t it? You don’t recognise me, do you? I’m Robert Muntham.”
“Rob Muntham?” I said. I had a horrible feeling that I had sounded as though I was correcting him on the subject of his own name, but at university he had never been called “Robert” – he had been “Rob” or, more usually, “Shagger”. The new, fuller version of his name seemed to come with the gravitas that he had acquired from somewhere during the thirty-odd years since I had last seen him. And, thinking about it, he had also sobered up a bit since that last occasion, standing in the middle of the quad singing a song apparently addressed to a Zulu warrior.
He gave me a tight-lipped smile in response to my mode of address. “These days I am, for my sins, Sir Robert Muntham.”
“Ah, yes,” I said. “Congratulations. I read about it in the College magazine.”
“For services to banking,” he added.
“Ah, yes,” I said again. I wondered if he had really been given a knighthood for his sins. It seemed unlikely, even for a banker. Still, Sir Robert Muntham …
It’s strange how some of your contemporaries show wholly illusory promise, while others emerge unreasonably and gloriously triumphant. Shagger Muntham was unquestionably in the latter category. He captained the College rugby team and had narrowly missed a boxing Blue. His capacity for beer qualified him as some sort of minor alcoholic deity. He knew all of the words to “Eskimo Nell”. These things were held, in the College, to be much to his credit. On the other hand, even his closest friends never claimed to know what subject he was reading. He was the only person I know who was wildly congratulated on achieving a Third Class degree. The party lasted several days and ended with him standing in the quad .... no, I think I’ve mentioned that already.
Then, for while, we heard nothing of him at all. Only later did his apotheosis become apparent. He had descended on the City when the main academic requirements were a pair of red braces and brash confidence. One he had already. The other he had bought, presumably, at a tailor’s in Docklands. As time went by, we sometimes caught a brief mention of him in the national press. The College newsletter increasingly called upon him for short articles on life after university or to encourage us to give generously to some appeal for a new boathouse or scholarships for overseas students – each successive accompanying photograph showed him slightly plumper, slightly greyer, distinctly more pleased with himself. The articles on life after university at least showed no false modesty. If the Queen had been hoping to surprise Shagger, she would have needed to give him a lot more than a knighthood.

‘Tyler juggles characters, story, wit and clever one-liners with perfect balance’ THE TIMES

An important paragraph - The Lady's Slipper

I thought I would post a paragraph featuring Ella Appleby, the housemaid in The Lady's Slipper. Although she is not the main character she is the cause of much of the strife in the novel, and the person I have received most mail about. Although most of the feedback has been that she is a 'nasty piece of work' (to quote one letter) I take this to be a good omen for she has become the lead character in the next book, The Gilded Lily, and at least she is creating some reaction!

As a character she is brazen and manipulative and not very likeable, so in The Gilded Lily I get the chance to show what incident in her past made her that way, and to give her space for some sort of redemption or atonement. One of the difficulties in writing her was that in The Lady's Slipper she is the engine of the story and so her motivations were of necessity hidden from the reader. One of the reasons I think she works in her role as antagonist is because she appears to have no moral compass. This made her a challenge to write a whole book about, but one I enjoyed tackling. She had to grow both in depth and in humanity if The Gilded Lily was to succeed. In the second book we see much more of her relationship with Sadie, her younger sister. This allowed me to examine how Ella had constructed her family memories to suit herself and that these were at odds with how her life really was. Sadie enables Ella to see herself a lot more clearly and thus begin to change into a different person. The Gilded Lily will be published by Pan Macmillan in September 2012.

The paragraph I have chosen is the one where things have begun to go wrong for Ella, and the one where I suddenly knew I had to write another book to finish her story......

Still clutching the bolster to her chest, as if holding it would somehow hold her together, Ella moved to the window. Outside there was a glow on the horizon. Dawn. She felt nothing. It surprised her. No sorrow for his passing. But she knew there would be a hue and cry as soon as they knew he was dead, and that there would be no place for her when his brother arrived, except as the butt of his boot.

She must get away from here. She started for the door, but then turned back. She would need some things to sell. In a panic she lunged for the silver candlesticks on the dressing table, but in the dark she knocked one over and it clattered to the ground.The noise of it startled her and she realized she was trembling.

‘Get a grip, girl,’ she said to herself. ‘Think. Just think.’ It was as if her thoughts were tangled like brambles; she could not unravel them. She plucked the one thought that made sense. She had to go somewhere far away, where they could never catch up with her. The devil was on her heels, searching for her soul, and he already had hold of her skirts.

‘Oh, Jesus,’ she groaned. ‘Sadie.’ Her heart heaved.

She could not leave her sister behind.

The Lady's Slipper - Available on Kindle and in Paperback

'Top Pick!' RT Book Reviews

'Women's Fiction at its best' History and Women

'Brilliant saga' Romance Reviews today

'Rich and haunting' Reading the Past

'Utterly captivating' Karen Maitland, author of The Owl Killers

'Riveting narrative' For the Love of Books

My third novel, Jubilee, was published eighteen months ago. It was the first book I set locally and it meant a lot to me to be able to research by simply walking out of the front door. I remember one particularly glorious early June afternoon spent on a bicycle up on the Ridgeway itself. But in Jubilee I was trying to do more than write a homage to the countryside; I wanted to try something a little more unsettling. 

The Ridgeway above the Vale of White Horse

Here is the opening scene of Jubilee.


By the time the kitchen clock struck seven I knew that my cousin wouldn’t be coming back. I abandoned my rehearsal of the cool response I’d planned for her return: I always knew you were just mucking about, Jess . . .

While we waited for the men to finish searching the hedgerows and the white snaky curve of the Ridgeway path above us, I watched my aunt. Evie sat at the kitchen table twisting the fabric belt of her new dress as though she was trying to wring the anxiety out of herself. She caught me staring at her and managed to twist her features into something halfway to a smile. This attempt to reassure me made me feel even more frightened. ‘Come back!’ I shouted silently at my cousin. ‘It’s not a game any more.’


Jubilee is available in paperback and Kindle format.

My Favourite Moment - Three Things About Me

For the Christmas build-up we MNWers have decided to post some of our favourite moments from our own books on the blog.

This is in the hope of persuading you to consider buying these books as excellent pressies, but also just because it feels good to look back and remember what you liked about your own work; it's easy to get wrapped up in negativity about previously published novels, but the truth is - these novels are good. They're great, in fact. They have something special, something that makes them unique and interesting and, well, publishable.

I'm going to start the ball rolling by returning to my first full-length novel, Three Things About Me. It dealt with seven people, each with a secret, trying to make a new life in the strange seaside town of Allcombe. The novel shared three months of their lives, from each character in turn, as they fell in love, fell to pieces, or fell off the side of the cliff.

Three Things About Me breaks a lot of rules. It doesn't have one main character, and all the characters are, in some ways, grotesques. And yet I felt it really worked, and drew together, and culminated in some joyous moments of revelation and retribution. It also allowed me a freedom to explore reality and fantasy at the same time - superheroes mingle with business executives, bullied teenagers deal with cultists. Looking back at it now, I'm very proud of it.

So here's the first moment where, in the writing, the book absolutely grabbed me and I knew I had to finish writing it. In chapter five, Alma (once a Hollywood superstar but now an overweight alcoholic trying to learn to be an administrator) is walking along Allcombe pier when she sees a little old lady standing in the top window of an old people's home. The old lady is holding up a sign of one word - HELP.

Alma enters the home and creeps up the stairs. Here's what she finds:

There was no light-shade to cover the naked bulb that hung from the high, artexed ceiling. A single bed with a bed rail had been pushed into the corner behind the door, and next to it stood a small chest of drawers in a plain style with an oval mirror fixed above it, a fine layer of dust sprinkled evenly over it. Cheap perfume and face lotion in dated bottles sat upon it, along with a plastic navy blue brush that was caked with grey hairs in a thick, tangled pelt. A brown armchair with a worn-through seat was pushed up against the window and a crumpled ball of white paper lay on the floor next to it.

The only colour in the room was supplied by a crocheted blanket that lay over the lower half of the single bed. It was huge and ugly, made of a thousand different colours from blood red to privet hedge green, whatever wool the maker could get their hands on she presumed, and it must have taken years to complete.

‘I saw your sign,’ Alma said, just to have something to say. ‘Are you okay?’ She turned back to the door and looked at the old woman who was listening at it. She was tiny, with a slight hump and long blue fingernails that looked greasy, along with her squashed up skin. Her grey straw hair was cut short and was thinning on the crown.

‘They’re killing us,’ the old woman said.

"Three Things About Me is available in Hardback and for the Kindle.

Guilty Consciences

The arrival of my author copy a few days ago reminded me that I ought to post on the subject of my latest publication - a short story entitled “Conned” in the new Crime Writers’ Association anthology “Guilty Consciences”.

The CWA anthologies have been an annual event for a few years now and this one, like the last, is edited by Martin Edwards, who writes two excellent crime series, one set in Liverpool and one in the Lake District. This year’s stories include (other than mine) contributions by Robert Barnard, Ann Cleeves, HRF Keating, Peter James, Jane Finnis and by Martin himself.

Martin very generously described me in the introduction as being amongst “the most gifted members of the new generation of crime writers”. It is of course always an honour to be invited to contribute to the anthology and to join the very distinguished list of those who have had stories included in the past.

The cover has the names of the contributors in the shape of a dagger. I, it transpires, am the sharp bit at the end, which I also rather like.

The anthology is available at bookshops and on Amazon

Macmillan New Writers Book optioned for a film

We are lucky to have Ann Weisgarber - double Orange nominee among our ranks. In case you hadn't noticed, she's on a blog tour at the moment with "The Personal History of Rachel DuPree". It has just been optioned for film by Viola Davis, star of The Help. What great news, hope it gets made, it would be a great film.

About the Book:

Winner of the Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction and the Texas Institute of Letters’ Steven Turner Award for Best Work of First Fiction

Longlisted for the Orange Prize (alongside books by Toni Morrison and Marilynne Robinson), and shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers.

Her new novel "Galveston" is in the pipeline too, so I'm looking forward to another great read.

Ann Weisgarber’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Tuesday, November 1st: nomadreader

Wednesday, November 2nd: Peeking Between the Pages

Thursday, November 3rd: Linus’s Blanket - author Q&A

Monday, November 7th: A Bookish Libraria

Tuesday, November 8th: Man of La Book

Thursday, November 10th: Unabridged Chick

Monday, November 14th: Book Dilettante

Tuesday, November 15th: Book Chatter

Wednesday, November 16th: She is Too Fond of Books- Spotlight on Bookstores guest post

Thursday, November 17th: Book Club Classics

Friday, November 18th: Historical Tapestry - guest post

Monday, November 21st: Raging Bibliomania

Tuesday, November 22nd: The Brain Lair

Wednesday, November 23rd: Broken Teepee

Friday, November 25th: Historical Tapestry

Monday, November 28th: A Bookworm’s World

Tuesday, November 29th: My Bookshelf

Wednesday, November 30th: Elle Lit.

Seven Ways in Which Writing is Like Yoghurt-Making

- There are many different ways to make yoghurt. People argue about the best way to make yoghurt, but really, there is no best way. There's just your own way. You can make yoghurt in the sunshine, or standing in the kitchen. You can use machines to help you make yoghurt, or you can do it the old-fashioned way, with your two hands. (And a bowl and a spoon, but that part of the analogy obviously doesn't fit so well, so we'll gloss over that.) Another person's way of making yoghurt will never work as well for you. You have to perfect your own yoghurt-making.

- Yoghurt can be all things to all people. Sometimes people want exciting, adventurous yoghurt. Sometimes people want soothing, soft yoghurt. Sometimes people even want Greek Yoghurt, which explains why Captain Corelli's Mandolin was such a success.

- Commercial yoghurt is looked down upon by yoghurt purists. Yoghurt with chunkier fruit pieces is usually considered to be harder to get through, but more rewarding when you reach the end of the pot.

- Celebrities should be stopped from making yoghurt. They foist their horrible yoghurt upon the rest of us. That, or they lie, and get a professional yoghurt maker to secretly make their yoghurt for them. This is despicable. Everyone please stop buying these celebrity yoghurts before all the old-school yoghurt-makers go out of business.

- In modern times, yoghurts come with accoutrements, such as little corner helpings of crunchy flakes. Or yoghurt comes in over-processed tubes, to be sucked down and instantly discarded. We are dressing up our yoghurts, but surely traditional yoghurt is the best? However, it is good to be open to changes in the yoghurt industry. Eventually yoghurt-makers will no longer need packaging and will simply squirt their yoghurts directly into the consumers' mouths. This is to be desired. Apron sales will also go up.

- Yoghurt buyers are very susceptible to yoghurt packaging. Women yoghurt buyers like pink pots. Men yoghurt buyers like manly pots in bigger sizes. It used to be true that nobody over the age of twelve wanted to be caught eating a child yoghurt in a ridiculous brightly-coloured little pot in public, but nowadays it's much more acceptable to say you like child yoghurt. Getting in touch with your inner toddler, or some such rubbish. Still, child yoghurts are lots of fun, aren't they? That Harry Potter yoghurt was excellent.

- But, however you take your yoghurt, it will always be a very cultured thing to do.

The Three Authors You Meet in Heaven

All art is theft, right? I'm thinking it's better to steal off a dead person than a living one, although my moral compass isn't exactly clear about it.

Anyway, the other day on the blog I was musing about how the five people I'd meet in heaven would probably be the people I least wanted to see (forgive me for coming over all Sartre there). And that made me think - what if I could choose? On the basis of wanting to learn something about how they did what they did? So I could become a better writer? Although, obviously, I'd be dead myself at this point and probably not likely to pick up a pen again.

Hang on, that raises another question - would it be heaven if I couldn't write in it? Or would it be heaven if the desire to write was taken away? Blimey. Too many questions. So here's the game.

Name the three authors you'd like to meet in heaven. I'm going for three because I can't spend all day on this. I'm writing a new book, you know.

Rule out Shakespeare. Shakespeare meets you at the gate, okay? In writer heaven, he's Saint Peter. So can you name three dead writers that you think could teach you something about your craft? Who would they be? Here's mine:

1. George Eliot. Because although I'm writing surreal crazy stuff at the moment, and have written crime before, all I actually want to write someday is Middlemarch. How did she create that town, and sustain it, and make us care for every single person in it? I have trouble making the reader really care for one.

2. Dylan Thomas. Because he had the gift of putting music in his poetry. And because Under Milk Wood has the best opening monologue of any play, and I include Henry V in that assessment. How do you write something that makes the readers hold their breath?

3. Graham Greene. Because he made the moral processes of the mind so clear to his readers, when I just get tangled up in a sticky web of emotion when I attempt that. Writing a clear psychological intent through a character without making it obvious, and without deviation - that's real skill.

So there you have it. Who would you like to learn from? And would it be heaven for you with or without the desire and the equipment to write?

The Writerly Lunch at Brown's

Six Macmillan New Writers met for lunch at Brown's in Covent Garden last week. It was lovely to see Frances, Tim, Alis, Aliya and Len. It strikes me that the expression "New" probably doesn't apply to us any more as all of us are entrenched in the writing life, and most of our books have been out for a while.

What was really nice, and proves beyond a doubt that we are all balanced people, was that the conversation was not all about writing. We also managed to cover the ins and outs of Downton Abbey, French condolence letters, and the trials of ageing dogs - all this in amongst ordering our bargain lunch, courtesy of vouchers from Eliza.

We had a great waiter who exemplified service with a smile, he would have fitted nicely into the kitchens of Downton Abbey and helped the miniscule staff of six to run that enormous stately pile.

Here's what I gleaned about fellow MNWer's. Out of the six of us, four of us are writing historicals - me, Len, Alis and Tim. Tim had even brought his research with him and seemed totally fired up with excitement. Len and I have been exploring the same ground, so it was interesting to hear that our visions of 17th century England mostly coincide. Alis is embracing historical crime in between her playwriting. Frances is writing a non-fiction and Aliya is writing speculative fiction/fantasy. I have avoided saying too much about these projects because I don't know how much of it they want made public!

Folks, if you're out there please add more in the comments to tell people what you are working on.

It was great to see everyone. I have tried to do the social network thing via facebook and twitter, and although this breeds contacts, it is definitely not the same as a proper social when you can actually pass someone their drink and see their body language as they talk. Brown's lunch was very good and it would be really nice to see more Macmillan New Writers next time we do this. Just to remind you, here are all our books, now available on Kindle and in print!

The future of MNW

Did anyone else see this article on the Bookseller website today?

Herring on the Nile - interview

I was interviewed the other week by the nice people from Book Fiend's Kingdom (now shortened to BFKBooks) on the publication of Herring on the Nile. If you would like to listen to it, you can do so here.

People's Book Prize

If any of you, over there in the UK, hear any word about the winners of the People's Book Prize, which are being awarded tonight, please share your knowledge. Some of us harbor naive hopes regarding the outcome.

Thanks!

doug worgul

Salt Lake Public Library Readers Choice Award

Two Macmillan New Writers Books have been nominated for the Reader's Choice Award in Salt Lake Public Library System.The Salt Lake County Library System is the largest in Utah, serving over 650,000 residents, through 18 libraries. Twice a year, the Reader's Choice Committee selects twenty or more recently published books that have been recommended by other staff or customers. They say, 'We want to include those titles that are not a "best-sellers" but are so good you just can't put them down--- and when you do finish, you have to tell all your friends!' These books are purchased in multiples and placed on display at each Salt Lake County Library for a four-month period. After reading any of the books on the Reader's Choice list, customers may rate the books using one of our ballot forms.

So I was delighted when I looked at the list to see Ann Weisgarber's The Personal History of Rachel Du Pree on the list of books along with mine, The Lady's Slipper. The full list of nominees can be seen here http://www.slcreaderschoice.blogspot.com

Herring on the Nile

The latest in the Ethelred and Elsie series was published yesterday. This instalment takes them (as the title cunningly suggests) to Egypt. Though I have parodied Christie titles before (Ten Little Herrings, The Herring in the Library) previous books have not really had plots that noticably paralleled Christie’s originals. This time however Elsie and Ethelred board a paddle steamer that is more or less recognisable from Death on the Nile - or as Elsie puts it, "the general picture I’m getting here is the Ritz with a paddle attached to the back". Of course the characters, the motives, most of the action and the solution to the mystery are totally different from Christie's – but then there is such a thing as copyright. And as Elsie herself observes: “how likely is that you’ll get a bunch of murders, spies, writers and other disreputable people on board one small boat? And, if you did, why would you choose to shoot somebody in a place you couldn’t make a decent get-away from?”

It has already received some very nice reviews on It’s a Crime, Milo’s Rambles and Shots Magazine

The formal launch will take place at Goldsboro Books on 5 July.

The Herring in the Library is now also out in paperback, with a new cover to tie in with Herring on the Nile. It was recently reviewed on Lizzie Hayes’ Promoting Crime blog.

"All Paths Lead (to New Wharf Road)"

I guess this blog post is timely considering the recent news of Will's departure from Macmillan, but it's something I was threatening to do last year and something I want to get rolling now in order to get it all published before Christmas. 

If you might remember last year, I mooted a Macmillan New Writers' anthology, noting that there are a fair few of us who are short story writers.  My initial thoughts were to publish a themed anthology, but I'm eschewing this for more of a showcase format, in effect to show off the writers here and the different genres covered.  Then the unifying theme across the anthology will be our link with Macmillan New Writing.

This is how I think it will work:

Each writer wishing to submit a story will also submit an approx. 200 word brief on how they got here (i.e. published by Macmillan New Writing) and what genre they are writing in and why.  This will accompany their short story (which has no word limit, but preferably below novella size) and their writer's biog with a publicity photo. The short story can be in any genre, any topic, and it can be previously published as long as you have permission to publish it in this anthology.

The deadline for the short stories will be 1st November.  I'm offering this not just to the Macmillan New Writers here, but past writers too (I'll be getting in touch with Roger Morris and Michael Stephen Fuchs to see if they want to join in - if there are any others I've missed please tell me or contact them direct).  The anthology has a working title of "All Paths Lead (to New Wharf Road)" and will be offered for free on Amazon through a e-publisher I'll set-up called "Thirst-e-ditions".  If I get the chance, I'll build a website to advertise the book too. 

I'll then bring together the stories, the briefs, the biogs and photos and create the anthology in a Kindle format (and later a format for iBooks and Epub).  I'll also get the cover sorted out unless anyone wants to volunteer. 

What I would really like as well as the stories, are two volunteer editors, to make sure it all hangs together.  Are there any takers?


This might be a fair sized book at the end of the day, if everyone contributes.  Like I've said above, the stories can be about anything, and in fact the more varied the better.  I want it to appeal to everyone, something all readers can dip into, and if it costs nothing then that's all the better.  I'll drum up some publicity through various sites I have contacts with, to ensure it gets a few reviews, and then it's just a case of self-promotion when you're able.  The only down-side is that we cannot use Macmillan New Writing in the publicity.  This is our anthology, and will be advertised as a new writers collection (without the Macmillan).  We can mention the publisher in the biogs and briefs, and I will mention them in the "forward" for the collection, but that's about it.  But I'd like to show that we are all still indebted to Macmillan New Writing for getting us on this road in the first place (as well as a big thank you to the likes of Will and Mike who put so much into that venture).

So… Anyone interested?

news

Will Atkins wrote me this morning to inform me that he is leaving Macmillan. Will's support and guidance has been life changing for me, as I suspect it has for many of you. For me, it has been a long-distance relationship, but a once-in-a lifetime relationship nonetheless. 

Godspeed, Will. 

doug worgul

At Long Last!

After many frustrations and delays, The Last Free City is available to buy

Although I am a lover of my Kindle, I don't view a book as having been published for real until you can hold a physical copy in your hands.  By that definition, The Last Free City is published today--more than two years after I finished it.

The book is only available through online retailers - £12.32 from amazon.co.uk (where Amazon tempts the wavering buyer with a 3p discount off RRP) or $19.99 from amazon.com (US readers are less fickle and need no discount to persude them to buy).

The Kindle edition is still available for those who have no more space in their house (or who baulk at paying the prices quoted for a paperback) although these readers miss out on the splendid Bellotto artwork cannibalised for my cover.

National Crime Writing Week

This week is National Crime Writing Week, beginning today and running until 19 June. During the week, members of the Crime Writers Association will take part in readings, discussions, readers’ group events and workshops in bookshops, libraries, arts centres and other venues all over the country - all with the aim of raising the profile of crime writing.

My own small contribution to the festivities is a panel discussion at Islington Central Library at 6.30 on Thursday 16 June, with two other local crime writers - Laura Wilson and Christopher Fowler. We'll be talking about our favourite crime fiction, the audience's favourite crime fiction and anything else that seems relevant at the time.

For details of this event click here

For details of other events this week click here

Ask a Macmillan New Writer!

From time to time we get the occasional question on "Ask a Macmillan New Writer" and I thought this would be one we could all answer:

"Bev Morley has left a new comment on your post "Ask a Macmillan New Writer":

Hello everyone.

I have a question which I am guessing could be answered differently by every other writer, but could really do with hearing what has to be said on the subject...

The question is on the subject of time. Time, that is, for writing.

It is only in recent months that I have taken the plunge into "full time" writing - with some minor successes - and a lot of frustrations!

I consider my available time for writing to be Tuesdays to Fridays, from 9am to 3pm (the only time the house is quiet enough for me to write). The world and the laundry basket, however, seem desperate to conspire against me! My family see no difference in my "routine" as I am still at home, therefore lists of things I can do to fill my day still find their way onto the fridge door - a hazard, I suppose, of being a home based writer.

I would love to know how other writers manage their time, especially with the demands of family life still very much in the fore. "

Acts of Violence Comes to the States

Ryan David Jahn's Acts of Violence, winner of the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award, was published and released last week in the States. I was in a bookstore on Sunday and there it was, on a display table by the check-out counter. It has a new title, Good Neighbors, and the cover is different, but it's still the fast-paced, gripping story of people who fail to act.

Congratulations, Ryan, on being published in your home country!

still another self-serving post (there seems to be no end)

Friends, last summer Thin Blue Smoke was chosen as a finalist for the 2010/2011 People's Book Prize (fiction), there in the UK. As of yesterday voting is now open to choose a winner from among the finalists. I'd be deeply grateful for your support. Click here to vote. Registration is required, but it's quick and painless.

drw

Another shot, another goal...

...This time from our newest member, David Jackson, who has landed himself a two book deal with Pan Mac. This from the Bookseller:

"Pan Mac has acquired two titles from Pariah author David Jackson.

Will Atkins, Pan Macmillan editorial director for fiction, bought world rights direct from Jackson for a "good five-figure sum”. The first title, The Helper, follows Callum Doyle, the NYPD detective introduced in Jackson’s debut Pariah, as he investigates a series of murders triggered by the killing of a young woman in a New York bookshop.

Atkins said: "Few thriller writers, let alone relative newcomers, are able to combine wit, pace and explosive set pieces with such sheer style. "Callum Doyle is shaping up to be one of the great flawed heroes of the genre.’"

The Helper is lined up for February 2012."

Brilliant news, David, and we'll be looking forward to The Helper come 2012...

He shoots, he scores...

Len Tyler has just secured his place in the premier league of authors by winning the Last Laugh award at Crimefest for The Herring in the Library. Heartfelt congratulations, Len! You deserve it.

Interview with David Jackson

David Jackson's debut novel, Pariah, was published to great critical acclaim in March. Len Tyler caught up with him to ask him a few searching questions.

1 Your website already carries an interview asking most of the questions I wanted to ask! Maybe I could begin anyway by asking you a bit about yourself. What do you do when you're not writing?

I breed computer programs! That’s not a flippant answer, by the way. Like most debut authors, I’m a long way from the point at which my writing could support me financially, and so I also have a day job. I work as a university lecturer, which involves teaching and a lot of administration, but also research. In my research I create populations of software programs, I get them to breed, I tinker with their ‘genes’, and then I see what evolves. If that all sounds a bit science fiction/horror/downright freaky, don’t worry: none of my creations have yet escaped into the wild (he says, staring madly and rubbing his hands in glee as he commands Igor to pull the switch).

2 And you also write an excellent blog offering great advice for new authors (and old ones for that matter). How do you find the time to do it all? Are you a very disciplined writer, or are you just like the rest of us?

The day job (see above) takes up a lot of time, and then there’s the family of course – the helping out with homework, taxi service for the kids – plus all the chores that need doing around the house, and then there’s... But I’m not unique, right? We all have lives to lead, but if we’re serious about writing, we find the time. And if we can’t find the time, we make the time. Sometimes that has to mean making sacrifices elsewhere, like not watching that TV programme, or making do with an hour’s less sleep.

As for the blog: maybe it’s the teacher in me, but I wanted the blog to be about more than just random thoughts or self-promotion; I wanted to pass on some of what I’ve learned and experienced to others. Although I’m a new author, I have read and absorbed a lot about process, and I think there’s an audience out there for that kind of thing. I’m passionate about encouraging aspiring authors.

3 Like R J Ellory (and others), you live in the UK but set your books in the US. Why did you decide to do that?

They say ‘write what you know.’ Now this time my answer is slightly flippant because I actually hate that phrase. It’s far too confining. We’re writers. We have imaginations. We can go where we want do what we wish – at least on the page. I think that more useful advice is ‘write what you read.’ If you read only westerns, then you might find it difficult to write a successful teen vampire novel (or have they done vampire cowboys yet?) And what I read and enjoy most are US-based crime thrillers. That doesn’t mean, by the way, that I don’t like any UK authors – I like lots of them.

Why do I prefer the US novels? If you were to put me on the psychiatrist’s couch I’d say it probably has something to do with my childhood. To me at that time, the most exciting programmes and movies were the ones with the gunfights and the car chases and the explosions, and they all came out of Hollywood. I guess I’m still a big kid at heart.

4 Writers are always asked whether their books are autobiographical. In this case, I hope most of it isn't! Did you draw on any real-life experiences though? Or did you base any character on yourself?

Pariah borrows from the Hollywood of my youth, so it has all the violence and gunplay as mentioned earlier, but made much darker for today’s audience. I can’t tell you the number of people who have said what a great movie it would make. Where it draws more directly on my own experiences, however, is in the characterisation. By that, I don’t mean that the characters are based on people I know (I am definitely not Doyle!), but that they have all the flaws and foibles of real people. Doyle is certainly not superhuman, but neither is he absurdly encumbered by physical or mental problems. He is an ordinary guy with a wife and a child. He makes mistakes, he can be hurt (both physically and emotionally) and sometimes he does things for which he hates himself. But don’t we all? I try to give life to all the characters in my books – even the minor ones – but most of it is still made up. The exceptions are in snatches of conversation I may have heard elsewhere. Some of the dialogue in the Doyle household – especially with the daughter – has come straight from my own family.

5 You say you're working on a sequel. Would you see this becoming a series or do you have other plans?

I knew from the outset that I wanted Doyle to last for longer than one book, so yes there is a sequel. In fact it has been written and is currently with Will (for those who don’t know, Will Atkins is the editor for Len, myself and all the other Macmillan New Writers). I’m hoping to be able to reveal some exciting news about this very soon.

6 You've had some great reviews. Are there any comments on the book that you particularly treasure?

The best comment (which I didn’t even know about until Ryan Jahn tweeted me) has to be the one that was in the Guardian review, which likened my work to that of Harlan Coben but then went on to say that I was the better writer! To be so favourably compared to a luminary such as Coben is praise indeed. But, to be honest, the comments that touch me the most are the ones that come from ordinary readers – the ones who tell me that they read it in one sitting or had to stay up all night to finish it. After all, they’re the people for whom we write, and so it’s their opinions that count the most.

7 And finally, how would you sum up the experience of being published so far?

Weird, but in a nice way. It’s a life-changing event that is impossible to prepare for. And it’s not just the interviews and the fan-mail and the negotiating and the networking. Everyone I know seems to look at me in a different light now. Maybe they’re just wondering how I ended up with such a warped mind.

The Stolen Child

As part of the promotion of Little Girl Lost, which was released yesterday, Macmillan have produced a free e-version of The Stolen Child, a Devlin short story commissioned by Radio 4. The edition also includes the first two chapters of Little Girl Lost. You can get the Kindle edition at Amazon.co.uk.

Mac users and others who couldn't view the video previously posted

Try this: YouTube version of interview with Doug re: Thin Blue Smoke

By the way, this coincides with the U.S. release of the novel this month (finally).

Thank you all for your kind words.

drw

Len Does it Again

Yet again, Len Tyler hits the awards shortlists, this time for the Crimefest Last Laugh Award for the best humorous crime novel. Details at http://www.thebookseller.com/news/orion-scores-five-crimefest-shortlists.html. Well done, Len!

A discussion of Thin Blue Smoke

Taped at Johnson County Community College on April 26.

Little Girl Lost Launch

Hi folks.

I hope you don't mind my posting details here about the upcoming launch of

Little Girl Lost

at Goldsboro Books on 16th May at 6.30pm.

If any of you are about and free and fancy dropping by, it would be lovely to see you.

Len Tyler, in the Library, with a dagger (we hope),,,

In the best tradition of Professor Farnsworth (of Futurama for the uninitiated!):

"Good news everyone, our very own Len Tyler has been long-listed for the CWA Dagger in the Library... Voted for by librarians with a short-list to be announced on 20th May!"

A huge congratulations to Mr Tyler, for a very deserved nomination, and we have everything crossed that you go short on the 20th May, and success follows soon after!

And a special thanks to our newest member of the flock, David Jackson, who alerted me to this news (I've added David to the list of bloggers here so he can blog to his heart's content...)

Where is David?

Does anyone know where/how David (Isaak) is? Regular contributor, faithful MNWer and blogger...he seems to have vanished.

Where are you, David? Tell us your news!

News of a Blockbuster (but not mine)

Filming is currently under way for the new (Columbia/Sony) version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and a small part of it has just been filmed right on our doorstep. A couple of months ago letters started to drop through our letterboxes saying that filming would take place in Lonsdale Square in late March. Last week notices went up suspending parking and then, yesterday, large white vans rolled into the square (and surrounding streets) bearing flood-lights, portable loos, catering and miles and miles of cable. Of course, round our way we are not the sort of people to go and gawp in the hope of catching a two second glimpse of Daniel Craig, but a surprising number of local residents decided to walk their dogs very slowly round the square while the film people were arriving and setting up.

As ever, I was impressed by just how many people are needed to make a motion picture – most of whom stand around a lot of the time looking cold and slightly bored. It can’t be efficient and I did wonder whether perhaps it wouldn’t be possible to train the electricians to be extras (or vice versa) or whether Daniel Craig couldn’t give the catering or make-up people a hand when he wasn’t needed on set. Filming began as night fell. Sadly we were not allowed to take pictures during the action, so I can’t provide you with a shot of anyone famous, though I got a good one of the door that Daniel Craig walks up to and rings the bell – a scene that we got to see many times, as re-take followed re-take far into the night. Those watching tried to remember which bit of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo took place in Islington. The consensus was that the scene we were watching had originally been set in St Albans, but had been switched to London. It may be clearer when we see the finished product!

Today everything was being dismantled. A whole day’s work then for what will be a couple of minutes (or probably much less) of actual film. The general view of the local residents was that the whole thing had been rather fun, in spite of losing our parking for a day. The Sony/Columbia people were invariably polite and considerate, even when our dogs tried to get into a shot. For those who want to catch a fleeting glimpse of Lonsdale Square on film (and some other stuff set in Sweden) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is due for release in December.

Introducing David Jackson.

I just wanted to take a minute to let folks know that another first novel, Pariah, has been published by Macmillan. I'm not quite certain whether it's been published by MNW or the main Macmillan imprint. I've corresponded some with its author, David Jackson, and he tells me he submitted to MNW, but according to Amazon, and to the copyright page of the galleys I got, it's simply a Macmillan book.

Either way, his book is out, it's a first novel, and it's a good one.

He has a website here.

And a blog here.

That's all I got.

Oops!

Apologies for taking up space for the post I have jsut deleted - I managed to duplicate it from my own blog. It certainly wasn't worthy of a place on the MNW blog (and apologies also to Len, who's comment has been deleted with it!).

Out today! "The Last Free City" on the Kindle!

Forgive the lazy cross-posting from my own blog, but publication day--even for an e-edition--is always worth trumpeting!

I'm delighted to announce that, after a series of delays and setbacks which would make a novel in themselves, The Last Free City is published today.  At the moment we have only the Kindle edition; the paperback will be along in a few weeks' time; its production is subject to considerably more bureaucracy.

Click here to buy from Amazon.co.uk -- and don't forget that both The Dog of the North and Dragonchaser are also available for the Kindle.  One of the impressive features of the Kindle is the facility to download the first chapter as a free sample, and in a like spirit of generosity here is another sample - our introduction to the contentious teenager Malvazan, who will accompany the reader through much of the novel:

Malvazan had selected his outfit with care the previous night; scurrying around in the dawn gloom to find appropriate attire might suit Dravadan but such haphazardness was not the way to success.  He performed a brisk ablution in the ewer by his bed—fortunately he needed to shave only a couple of times a week—and ten minutes later made his way down the stairs into the dining room where the table was laid for an early breakfast.

To his surprise and contempt, his parents and brother were already at the table.

“Ah, the sluggard!” cried Dravadan, his dark fringe hanging into his eyes.  “The boy who lies abed till noon!”  He spread some honey on a slice of bread and conveyed it to his mouth with more enthusiasm than delicacy.  “You would think—”

“Dravadan!” said his mother Flinteska sharply.  “If you must bait your brother, at least do not speak with your mouth full.”

Dravadan rammed the rest of the slice into his mouth and, for the moment at least, devoted his full attention to subduing it.

Malvazan’s father Crostadan, head of House Umbinzia, raised his hands in a mollificatory gesture.  “Can we not have peace at the breakfast table on a day like today?” he asked.  “Malvazan, there is some minor amusement in such a habitually early riser being last among us.  It would do you no harm to display a little levity.”

Malvazan sat heavily as far from the rest of the family as the table allowed and reached for a slice of bread.  “I am glad to be such a source of amusement,” he said.  “It is good to know that a second son has some purpose.”

Dravadan let out a belch which escaped explicit reproof, accompanied by a smirk towards Malvazan.

Flinteska slapped her napkin down on the table.  “Enough, both of you.  Dravadan, as the eldest son you should show greater decorum; Malvazan, your invincible surliness oppresses us all.  Today we meet the King and Queen of Gammerling: a pleasant demeanour is required.”

Goldsboro Bookshop on the Move

During this era of bookshops going belly up, Goldsboro Books is not only thriving but is doubling its space. On March 1, David and Daniel are moving to 23-25 Cecil Court.

The guys were some of the early supporters of Macmillan New Writing, hosting the release parties. For me, nothing comes close to the thrill of sitting on the stool behind the counter at Goldsboro and signing fifty copies of Rachel DuPree.

Congratulations, Goldsboro!