FREE for five days: KILLING TIME IN VEGAS

KILLING TIME IN VEGAS - my anthology of American-set short stories is hitting the freebie racks in the UK and USA for the next five days.

Yes, you can grab yourself a copy of said tome for the cut-down cost of zip. That's zilch. Nill. Nada.

But what's the hook? I hear you say, I need to know if I like the sound of this ...

The City of Sin plays host to a performance-enhanced bodybuilder who loses control with bloody consequences in Killing Time in Vegas and an attempt to kidnap a billionaire's daughter goes badly wrong in The Long Drop in this second collection of original short stories by Irvine Welsh's 'favourite British crime writer', Tony Black.

Find out how a victim of high school date rape takes the ultimate revenge and explore the grisly aftermath of a bank job with a crew who suspects one of their number has tipped off the cops.

These American-set stories are collected here for the first time in a 15,000-word anthology. Killing Time in Vegas originally appeared in The Baddest of the Bad whilst the rest of the collection featured in The Mammoth Book of British Mysteries, True Brit Grit, Plots With Guns and Thuglit.


And there are even one or two nice folks who have said nice things about the collection:

'It is very rare that you will encounter such tight prose, strong narrative and pitch perfect dialogue in so many offerings from the one author. Each tale grabbed me and held me tight until the next one laid its paws on me.'
-Crime Squad

'For me the sign of a good writer is being able to tell a strong story with a minimum of words - Tony Black delivers both in spades with yet more of the highest quality writing. The sense of place is excellent, the dialogue sharp & the characters very visible.'
-Big Al's Books & Pals

'There's a great variety in the stories beginning with the eponymous story of this fine collection which clearly signals that these aren't going to be stories about stereotypical villains . . . Black travels seamlessly from the mean streets of Edinburgh via Miami to Sin City itself, changing his cigarette brands and accent as he goes. Same high standard, same brilliant writing.'
-I Meant To Read That

:: Grab yourself a free copy of KILLING TIME IN VEGAS on Amazon UK and Amazon USA for the next five days. All shares of this post about the web much appreciated!

PUSH-UPS: Ruth Jacobs

So, what are you pushing right now?

Soul Destruction: Unforgivable, my debut novel.

What's the hook?
A London call girl, Shelley Hansard, who’s addicted to heroin and psychotic on crack, is presented with an opportunity to take revenge on a client who raped her.

And why's that floating your boat?
Being a call girl has been portrayed in other books, films, and television as being a glamorous way to make money. It’s served up as if it’s Sex and The City, all about designer clothes and handbags, perfect manicures, five star hotels and handsome clients. What’s missing, among other dangers, is the violence in that world. Yes, there are designer labels, beauty salons and luxurious locations, but the wealth of the clients doesn’t affect whether or not they will be violent and rape. The truth is that it’s a dangerous and traumatic way to earn money.

When did you turn to crime?
I’ve loved reading crime novels since my late teens or early twenties. Books I’ve started writing before but never finished, having been based on my own life, generally involved crime because as a former junky that’s a world I lived in.

Hardboiled or noir, classic or contemporary?
My writing is contemporary, but as for what I choose to read, I’m driven by the story - drugs and gangsters are a favourite combination.

And what's blown you away lately?
Although I’m completely disinterested in football, I absolutely loved Ian Ayris’s novel, Abide with Me. The world and the characters he created were so real. I’m pretty sure I cried a couple of times reading it.   

See any books as movies waiting to happen?
My novel, Soul Destruction: Unforgivable, ideally directed by Guy Ritchie.

Mainstream or indie? Paper or digital?
I read both mainstream and indie books. Originally, I was horrified when I heard about Kindles - I would certainly never have one. But now I have and enjoy reading from it. I still buy paperbacks of books I’m sure I’ll love because I like those sitting on my shelf.

Shoot us a website worth visiting
Paul D. Brazill over at http://pauldbrazill.wordpress.com

Finally, tell us any old shit about yourself.
When I was very young, I plucked some grass from the garden, rolled it up in a torn off piece of paper and tried to smoke it. I later learnt that that was not the right kind of grass or the right kind of paper.   

:: Visit Ruth's site at: http://ruthjacobs.co.uk/

Butterflies and Typewriters

The story behind John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces has become one of the great yard-sticks writers use to beat unsympathetic publishers.

A genius author, shamelessly ignored by the publishing world, dies unknown and his aging mother sets about haranguing editors to read her son's masterpiece. She finds a publisher and the book, after finding its receptive public, wins the Pulitzer.

Of course, it's a posthumous prize for Toole. He committed suicide after falling into despair that his book would ever see the light of day. On closer inspection, the story gathers more layers: an editor at a major house had shown interest but his seemingly endless calls for alterations drove Toole to the edge.

At least, that's the now accepted myth: Toole was hounded to death by an uncaring world waged in war against all literary effort. It's a comfortable tale told by embittered writers everywhere, but how much of it is actually true?

Cory MacLauchlin.

In his book Butterfly in the Typewriter Cory MacLauchlin uncovers a much more complicated story. It's one where family issues run deep and where none of the accepted wisdom can be taken at face value.

I spoke to MacLauchlin about exploding the legend that surrounds John Kennedy Toole and A Confederacy of Dunces.


Tony Black: Most people know the 'romanticised' version of the John Kennedy Toole story - a tortured genius commits suicide when his talent goes unnoticed - but that's really just the marketing pitch, the real story's more prosaic, isn't it?

Cory MacLauchlin: Suicide is complicated, especially when preceded by a mental illness. The truth is the more poetic version of Toole the martyr depends on the notion that he was actually rejected by publishers. He wasn’t. He submitted it to Robert Gottlieb at Simon and Schuster. They corresponded about the manuscript for nearly two years, and Gottlieb encouraged Toole to keep writing. A literary genius rebuffed by the publishing world serves the purpose of writers beleaguered by rejection. So he becomes the patron saint of struggling authors. But this overlooks the devastating effects of his mental illness and a home environment that was toxic. Unquestionably, he was frustrated his novel had not been published, but other factors took a substantial toll on him.  His mother dominated the home, his father had gone senile and it is clear he suffered from an undiagnosed mental illness. It’s impossible to untangle these root causes. They all contributed to his demise.

What seems extraordinary to me, as a writer, is that Toole only tried Confederacy on one publisher . . .

Toole loved many of the novels Gottlieb had published, like Catch-22 and Stern by Bruce Jay Friedman. He determined Gottlieb at Simon and Schuster was the right editor for the book.  When Gottlieb responded with interest, Toole saw his plan coming together. In his mind, the book was going to be published and he could live the literary life.  But he also felt a deep sense of connection to the work.  So deep in fact, he could not bear to make some of the cuts Gottlieb suggested. After two years of editing he was exhausted. He could have gone to a small press or self-publication, but his mind was set on a top publisher.  Being widely read was part of his goal.

Robert Gottlieb's edits, again to me as a writer, seemed incredibly vague, more so when you think of the time he lavished on the likes Joseph Heller's Catch-22 . . .

It would have helped if Toole and Gottlieb could have sat down together.  On two occasions Toole tried to meet with Gottlieb in New York. On the first occasion Gottlieb’s assistant asked to reschedule with Toole, but for whatever reason, Toole decided to come to Simon and Schuster anyway.  On the second occasion Toole was incensed by Gottlieb’s suggestion that the book has no point.  Toole drove from New Orleans to New York and showed up unannounced at Gottlieb’s office. When the assistant told him Gottlieb was away, Toole had a nervous breakdown and passed out right there in the offices at Simon and Schuster. It is difficult to say how he would have reacted had Gottlieb suggested more direct revisions. At times Toole defended Confederacy, but then later admitted much of the book needed a red pencil through it.  According to Toole’s mother, Thelma, the version we have is the “original genius of her son” untouched by an editor.  So presumably it is the version Gottlieb deemed unready for publication.

Certainly, Gottlieb has been portrayed as the villain of the piece by some people - that's far from the truth, isn't it?

Robert Gottlieb.

I think so. After the success of the novel Toole’s mother, Thelma, went on a campaign against Gottlieb, calling him a villain and “Jewish monster” in the New York Times. She misrepresented the correspondence between Gottlieb and her son, saying that Gottlieb devastated Toole with his cruelty.  Like any editor Gottlieb encouraged and critiqued Toole’s writing, but I found no cruelty in his letters. Their last exchange was friendly and the door remained open to Toole to keep submitting revisions or other work. Gottlieb thought Toole was too close to the novel to see straight, so perhaps starting another project would provide some healthy distance from the character.

Of course, I think Gottlieb was wrong in his final assessment of the book. It is a marvellous story that explores the absurdities of the human condition. And it is filled with unforgettable characters. But not everyone loves Confederacy.  Many people despise it with a passion. 

Toole never met him, but didn't really do himself any favours with an editor who had expressed an interest in his work, did he?

For Toole, everything depended on the publication of his novel. It was his pathway to the life he wanted to live as a writer. But he was also unsure what to do with some of Gottlieb’s criticisms. How would he go about limiting Ignatius, a character who refuses to be quieted? Toole was navigating a divide between a publisher in New York and the intensity of his feelings towards the novel in New Orleans.  Obviously this struggle became unbearable and so he eventually tucked away the manuscript.

When Toole doorstepped Gottlieb at Simon and Schuster's offices and had a nervous breakdown there, that was really the beginning of the end wasn't it?

I think this indicated the end for Gottlieb and Toole, at least in the short term.  They continued to write, but I suspect Gottlieb would have to be stunned at what Toole produced to enter into a contract with him.  Obviously, there were all kinds of factors that led to Toole’s breakdown.  He was frustrated and not just with Gottlieb. If the book wasn’t published he would be sentenced to a life of teaching college English and supporting his aging parents.  So he drove over fifteen hours in one last effort to confront Gottlieb and gain some clarity. His plan for his life was crumbling.  It was the beginning of the end for him.

He was clearly a very ill man by the end of his life, you dismiss the repressed homosexual angle that's been offered in the past, would you hazard a guess as to what Toole was suffering from?

John Kennedy Toole.

He was never diagnosed, so all we have is anecdotal stories of his deteriorating condition.  People close to him explained the classic signs of paranoid schizophrenia. Several of his friends and confidants suggested this possibility to me. It is clear that his perception was distorted, from believing his students were chasing him to his conviction that A Confederacy of Dunces was stolen and published under a different title.

Let's talk about A Confederacy of Dunces - a title taken from Jonathan swift quote: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him" - the book's a bit like Marmite, you either love it or loathe it . . .

It divides readers. I find most people who dislike the book take issue with the main character. As Walker Percy said, Ignatius is an anti-hero.  We aren’t really supposed to cheer for him. We marvel at his audacity, his ridiculousness and the humour of his failures. Some have suggested perhaps you need to understand New Orleans to get the book.  But that does not reflect the readership. It has been translated into over 18 languages.  It is a cherished book all over the world.  Almost monthly I receive an email or a tweet from a person who just completed their “annual reading of A Confederacy of Dunces.” I have been amazed at how many people read it at least once a year as a ritual and an act of devotion. 

I take it you loved the book - is this how you came to write Butterfly in the Typewriter?

It is my favourite novel.  And I have long loved the city of New Orleans. In 2006 I was preparing to teach a course on New Orleans history and culture, but was disappointed with the limited resources available on Toole’s life.  I read Joel Fletcher’s memoir Ken and Thelma: The Story of A Confederacy of Dunces, where Fletcher called for a quality biography on Toole. I found out Fletcher didn’t live that far from me in Virginia so we began writing to each other. 

Like most people, I was intrigued by Toole’s tragic end, but I became more intrigued with how Joel and others described his wit, his humour and his keen perception of character.  I felt his life story and the story behind the book deserved to be told with clarity and sensitivity, not speculation and sensationalism.

It's a picaresque novel, but it's also a potage of all Toole's influences, isn't it?

Absolutely. Cervantes, Shakespeare, Dickens, Salinger—the list goes on. Toole was an insatiable reader. What I find so remarkable, and exciting as a reader, is that all of these elements are there but not emphasized. One does not need to understand the allusions to enjoy the book.  It’s as if Toole didn’t try so hard as say T.S. Eliot; it all just seemed to come together. As he said, when writing the book he was propelled by a decade of pent up energies.

It's pretty safe to say such an anti-hero as Ignatius Reilly would struggle to find a publisher in today's relentlessly profit-driven publishing world, isn't it?

Maybe. There is a place for anti-heroes, but they usually offer us some resolution in the end, some sense of redemption. I actually think the picaresque presents more of a problem. Compared to today, it is remarkable that Toole sent his manuscript directly to Simon and Schuster and got a response. Today, he would first have to get an agent who believed in the book. Although, I guess in the end he landed Walker Percy as his posthumous agent.

There's been a few film projects of Confederacy - Stephen Fry wrote one screenplay and John Belushi was earmarked to star as Ignatius in another . . . they talk about the book as jinxed in Hollywood now, I believe . . .

The project is riddled with challenges, but the jinx has had more to do with layers of contracts, I believe. I am sure one day it will be made into a film. It is under Scott Rudin’s production company now.  Of course, casting Ignatius is key to the film—along with a strong screenplay. I imagine Ignatius Reilly to be one of the more terrifying roles to take on as an actor. 

Back to the publication process, or the romanticised version, Toole's mother, Thelma, is widely credited with getting the book published - again, it's a more complex tale isn't it?

Thelma certainly had persistence in submitting the manuscript. And undeniably if it wasn’t for her we would not have the novel today.  She tried for years to get a publisher, but was rejected from major publishers to small presses.  Then she cornered Walker Percy and, essentially, thrust the manuscript on him.  He didn’t want to read it so when he got home he handed it to his wife, Bunt Percy.  Bunt fell in love with the book and told her husband to read it. That was really what jumpstarted Walker’s interest in it. And it took Walker years to land a publisher for Confederacy. Thelma did persevere, but it was also because of the Percy’s efforts the book was published.

Thelma truly dined out on her son's fame after the Pulitzer win, though . . .

Thelma Toole.

Through the novel’s success she lived the life she always wanted to live. She was invited to give talks about the book, but she took it as an opportunity to play the piano, sing a few songs and give a dramatic reading of some characters in the novel.  She would often end her programs with “I walk in the world for my son.” She paid tribute to him, but she also revelled in the attention. 

She seemed quite an irascible character - why do you think she destroyed her son's suicide note?

At that time suicide would shame a family. Considering he was buried the next day, only three people were at the funeral and a death announcement was not posted in the paper until the day after the services, I am sure Thelma felt a deep sense of shame, along with guilt.  No one knows for sure what the note said. When asked she would sometimes say, “Horrible things, just horrible things.”  In destroying the letter she made her first act in revising her son’s life. She created and emphatically defended a one-dimensional portrait of him: the genius who was never fully understood or appreciated throughout his life—from his elementary school days to his interaction with a New York publisher. The challenge in understanding Toole is to acknowledge her portrait of him, but also see the other sides of his personality.


Love or hate her, Thelma is integral to the mythology now; why do you think people are still so fascinated with the Toole story?

In many ways the story speaks to the artistic struggle.  He was a man searching for his voice through his writing. And he found it after decades of observing the characters of his city and gaining some distance from it all in his little room in Puerto Rico.  It just took us nearly twenty years to hear that voice. 

The story has also been used countless time to despair the publishing industry. The relationship between business and art is rarely a cosy one.  But I find it more remarkable to focus on the number of people that believed in the book.  It wasn’t just Thelma. There were many integral people that fought for its publication and its lasting success.  So in the end, his creation overcame his death—and in some way that is what we want art to do, to strike a chord that reverberates through the ages.

Toole’s suicide, rightly or wrongly, has become every embittered writer’s barometer of the misbehaving publisher now . . .

Understandably so.  This is the version of his life his mother crafted and critics largely embraced.  After the publication of the book many frustrated writers wrote to her to pay their respects and commiserate over those nefarious publishers in New York. One even wrote to Gottlieb and scribbled devil horns and pointed tails in the margins. 

To a degree writers are justified in seeking solace in Toole’s story.  I certainly did as I went through the process of finding an agent and securing a publisher.  The pursuit of publication is difficult, frustrating, even maddening at times. 

But Toole’s demise is far more complicated than despair over rejection.  Mental illness consumed him and I think that is important to acknowledge.  I have seen too many times writers and readers taking liberties with his story to suit their own ends.  I just think he deserves more than that.  

And finally, how do you think Toole's career might have progressed if he hadn't committed suicide when he did?


He may have carried on as a professor in New Orleans for a time. But I don’t think he could have lasted much longer living with his mother and his senile father.  If he had broken free from them his world may have changed.  Much like Ignatius, had someone like Myrna Minkoff carried him away from his situation, he would have been relieved from the pressure in the Toole home. Then again, if that had happened, we likely would not be talking about him or his novel today.


:: Butterfly in the Typewriter by Cory MacLauchlin 
     is published by Da Capo Press.

The Godfather of Tartan Noir

William McIlvanney is a name to be reckoned with in Scottish fiction. A Whitbread winner. A Bafta winner and also - for his groundbreaking crime fiction - a two-time CWA Dagger winner.

The man they affectionately call the Godfather of Tartan Noir spawned a legion of followers with his first crime novel, Laidlaw, and now he's back with a new book deal (Canongate) and a hefty relaunch schedule with Laidlaw back in print from today.

I spoke to McIlvanney for the press recently - here's the article below - and there'll be an even lengthier version to follow soon (more about that later).



Picture: IAN ATKINSON.

:: Laidlaw is published by Canongate today.

PUSH-UPS: Heath Lowrance

So, what are you pushing right now?
My second full-length novel, CITY OF HERETICS.

What's the hook?
Bad meets worse. An aging hardcase back in Memphis after seven years in stir crosses paths with a bizarre secret society of serial killers masquerading as a Christian splinter group. Massive violence ensues.

And why's that floating your boat?
I reckon it's because I get off on exploring the minds of men who have a tremendous capacity for violence. The protagonist, Crowe, is (like a LOT of my protagonists) pretty much a sociopath. His instinct is toward violence,and when he's confronted by other emotions inside himself, he doesn't understand them, doesn't know how to deal with them. That's fascinating to me.

When did you turn to crime?
Back in my early 20's, reading Jim Thompson's POP. 1280, and then Charles Willeford's BLACK MASS OF BROTHER SPRINGER and Dan J. Marlowe's THE NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH. Those books opened my eyes to all the amazing story possibilities of a criminal protagonist, whether he's insane or just a right bastard. You can't predict anything with a main character like that, and that just puts you right on the edge of your seat while reading.

Hardboiled or noir, classic or contemporary?
I'm a little bored with the debates about what's hardboiled and what's noir, really. It doesn't matter to me. Yeah, I know there's a distinction, but who cares? I tend to read older stuff-- the paperback original writers from the '50's and early '60's-- but there are more great hardboiled and noir writers around right now than there's been in decades, so I try to stay on top of that as well.

And what's blown you away lately?
I discovered Tom Piccirilli about a year and a half ago, and have become a huge fan. Also, James Reasoner, who is a real role model for professionalism and solid story-telling. And a fella named Jordan Harper wrote a collection of stories called AMERICAN DEATH SONGS which really slayed me.

See any books as movies waiting to happen?
Just my own.

Mainstream or indie? Paper or digital?
Indie, all the way. I haven't read a book from one of the Big Six in a couple years now. As far as paper or digital, I don't have a preference. They both have their charms.

Shoot us a website worth visiting
I like Litreactor a lot. http://litreactor.com/, especially Keith Rawson's articles. And  Manarchy http://manarchymag.com/

Finally, tell us any old shit about yourself.
I once did LSD and went camping in the middle of a snow storm with my equally stupid friend. We set up camp in the middle of a road and didn't realize it until a truck pulled up and the guy started yelling at us. Don't do drugs, kids!

William McIlvanney reading from Laidlaw

He's the Godfather of Tartan Noir - the genre he kicked off with the groundbreaking Laidlaw and now it's been re-released by Edinburgh publisher Canongate.

I caught up with McIlvanney yesterday to do a little interview which will be cropping up soon, but in the meantime, here's the man himself giving an impromptu reading from the CWA Silver Dagger-winning Laidlaw in Glasgow's famous Rogano restaurant.

So, what's the hook on Laidlaw:

Meet Jack Laidlaw, the original damaged detective. When a young woman is found brutally murdered on Glasgow Green, only Laidlaw stands a chance of finding her murderer from among the hard men, gangland villains and self-made moneymen who lurk in the city's shadows.



:: Check out the book that kicked-off this Tartan Noir malarkey at Amazon.

US EDITIONS - Paying for It and Gutted

The first two books in my Gus Dury series - Paying for It and Gutted - have now hit the USA via the ever excellent New Pulp Press.

Check out those fantastic covers, done by the boyos at Blasted Heath who are handling the digital versions which are hitting the digital book-shelves ant day now.

PUSHED FOR ANSWERS: Les Edgerton

AS HE turns 70 Les Edgerton must be fearing the 'veteran author' tag, but going on the reviews of his latest novel, The Rapist, he might be getting closer to the term 'immortal'.

Commentators - universal in their praise - have alighted upon the book's vivid, fresh feel of something completely new; the eye-opening premise and the equally shock-inducing title may be part of the reason. But only part.

There is clearly a unique talent at play in Edgerton's new story and the plot thickens even more when you discover he penned the book some 26-years ago.

The Rapist is an outstanding read - don't take my word for it, though. Try these names on for size, they know what they're talking about:

 "Les Edgerton presents an utterly convincing anti-hero. The abnormal psychology is pitch-perfect. The Rapist ranks right up there with Camus' The Stranger and Simenon's Dirty Snow." -Allan Guthrie

"The breathlessness, nausea, anger and confusion increase all the way to the end, at which point all I know is that the book is genius." -Helen Fitzgerald

"I wouldn't say that, after you finishing reading The Rapist, you're going to have a feeling of satisfaction. In fact I strongly suggest you're going to feel as if you've just walked out of a House of Mirrors. You certainly will be confused, shocked, and puzzled. But you will realize that you've just read something amazingly original. Truly, magnificently, original." -B.R. Stateham

I spoke to Edgerton about finding the right moment to launch The Rapist on an unsuspecting reading public.

Tony Black: I wonder if there is such a thing as a typical Les Edgerton work. The Rapist is a quite exceptional novel.

Les Edgerton: Thank you, Tony—I really appreciate that! I’m also not sure what a “typical” work for me would be. A lot of people today are only familiar with my last few novels, but I’ve also written a coming-of-age novel, a YA semi-horror novel, several baseball books, business books, etc. My first story collection, Monday’s Meal (which I consider my best work probably) would be considered “literary” and was—the NY Times compared me to Raymond Carver and several universities did studies on it and it got starred review in places like the Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, etc.

Where did the idea for The Rapist come from?

I had two stories in mind that provided the impetus. The first was a brilliant short story of Charles Bukowski’s, The Fiend, and the second was the ending in Richard Brautigan’s novel, A Confederate General from Big Sur.

I feel that Bukowski’s story is the bravest example of literature I’ve ever read and wanted to see if I could match his guts in writing it. Brautigan’s ending in his brilliant novel represented the best definition I’ve ever read for our existence and God and humanity and what’s really going on in the universe. Just tried to marry them up.

Even talking about the book now I have a slight uneasiness about the title and it's not a pretty subject - I'm presuming it was a hard sell . . .

It is a hard sell to the public because of the title and I knew it would be going in. However, I’m the poster boy for being against anything politically correct, so if it suffers in sales because of the title, so be it. It’ll keep the kind of mushhead that follows PCism out of the pages of it so that’s good and worth the tradeoff.

You handle the story with a kind of matter-of-factness that's unavoidable - were you consciously employing this as a shock tactic?

Nope. It’s just the way I see the world. A psychologist would call me a sociopath or psychopath. Actually, that’s pretty much what the prison shrink in Pendleton called me. Probably accurate . . . I just can’t get all worked up about death or crime. It’s just part of life. I have pretty much an amoral view of the world. Shit happens . . . Get over it . . .

The prose in The Rapist is beautiful - it really set me in mind of Nabokov - rhythms in your prose are obviously important, how hard do you work at those?

Not at all. I just . . . write. That sounds arrogant and if so, so be it. Writing has always come easily to me—I imagine it’s because I’ve read voraciously all my life. It’s how we learn to write—by reading—and so the rhythms and all of that are pretty well ingrained in my brain and subconscious. I really don’t think about much when I’m writing. Just get it down. I don’t rewrite at all. Just about every book I’ve written is the way it came out in the first draft

And, however others judge my writing, it’s been the same since I began.

Up until recently, I wasn’t quite as honest as I am these days about my writing, and tried to come across as this humble, self-effacing dude. I turned 70 a month ago and something has happened to me. I’m pretty sure I don’t have long to go—have severe COPD among other things—and suddenly it’s important to me that I say exactly what I think. That pisses folks off, but at this point, so what . . . Not enough writers are pissing people off these days, methinks. It’s become a lost art. We’re all too concerned about building those “platforms” and gaining “friends.” I’ve got enough friends and most of them just want to borrow my lawnmower. The friends I cultivate mostly are writers I admire and respect.

I also think that too often we want to combine the author and the work in one. As in the work defines the person behind it. I hope that I’m more than that. At least my wife doesn’t confuse the two . . . I have more than one author whose work I absolutely adore and have absolutely no desire to hang out with them or adopt their politics. And, I’m pretty sure they feel the same about me. And, that’s perfectly all right.

What means a lot to me is when you give my work a compliment as you did above, Tony. In my view, this isn’t praise from some anonymous Amazon reviewer who doesn’t have a clue what they’re talking about, but represents an opinion I value because I value the level of work the person delivers to the world.

The Rapist's protagonist is something of a Humbert Humbert from Nabokov's Lolita; you've claimed the literary novel is dead but this is an unashamed literary novel, is it not?

I’m glad you used Nabokov for your example, Tony, as I subscribe to his view on literature wholeheartedly. He said he didn’t believe in any genre other than “good writing” and “bad writing.” I feel precisely the same.
I also understand the comparison to Humbert and others have made the same observation. Personally, I think Truman compares more closely to the Bukowski character Martin in “The Fiend.” Which reminds me—my dream of complete and utter success would be to do the same as Bukowski did and collaborate with the brilliant artist R. Crumb in a joint work. If anyone out there is friends with Mr Crumb . . . The Rapist, I think, would be right up his alley . . . I’d love to send him a copy . . .

Market-wise, literary fiction is over. If folks don’t believe that, look at the sales figures. Look at the shelf space literary fiction is given these days in comparison to other books. It’s been drastically cut back just in the past seven years and is being cut back even more.

But, it hasn’t. It’s only been reduced if you buy the academic’s definition of literary fiction. Their silly definition that literary fiction is “character-based” while genre or “commercial” fiction is “plot-based” or driven. That’s a wholly bogus definition to begin with. Character and plot are equally important and each depends on the other in equal proportion in any worthwhile book and the emphasis of one over the other doesn’t determine if it’s literary or commercial, except in the minds of the definer. Plot—causal plot--is simply what reveals and defines character. It’s how the character reacts and acts toward the obstacles encountered in the story that deliver a character and a character arc. If there is no or if there is little plot, then it’s not “literary” at all. In fact, it’s largely unreadable. Those kinds of books are simply a writer regurgitating his or her largely bullshit thoughts as he contemplates his boring-ass navel that no one except writers of like ilk care anything about, and they only care about it as it reflects the stuff they’re typing and hope some other mindless literary type publishes.

Writers like Joe Lansdale, Allan Guthrie, Ray Banks, Elmore Leonard, James Lee Burke, Tom Franklin, Neil Smith, Richard Godwin, Paul D. Brazill—yourself, for God’s sakes!--and a thousand other writers are writing gorgeous fiction that in any intelligent view of what is literary and what is not, is just that—literary fiction, provided the definition simply means the best writing. The academics don’t consider it such, but who cares what they think except for a few, under-read college freshmen who haven’t yet learned to think for themselves and make their own value judgments?

:: The Rapist is published by NEW PULP PRESS and is available now on Amazon.

REVIEWS - Killing Time in Vegas

KILLING TIME IN VEGAS - my collected American-set short stories - is totting up some nice reviews about town.

This anthology first appeared all over the shop in such exalted tomes as Out of the Gutter, Plots With Guns and Thug.lit among others so it's great to see them attracting a whole new set of readers and reviewers.

Big Al's Books and Pals were first up to bat for the book:

"For me the sign of a good writer is being able to tell a strong story with a minimum of words - Tony Black delivers both in spades with yet more of the highest quality writing. The sense of place is excellent, the dialogue sharp & the characters very visible."

The ever-excellent CrimeSquad dished out five-stars:

"It is very rare that you will encounter such tight prose, strong narrative and pitch perfect dialogue in so many offerings from the one author. Each tale grabbed me and held me tight until the next one laid its paws on me."

The last review in this round comes from I Meant To Read That, and it's a corker:


"There's a great variety in the stories beginning with the eponymous story of this fine collection which clearly signals that these aren't going to be stories about stereotypical villains . . . Black travels seamlessly from the mean streets of Edinburgh via Miami to Sin City itself, changing his cigarette brands and accent as he goes. Same high standard, same brilliant writing."

:: You can pick up KILLING TIME IN VEGAS for a mere £0.77 on Amazon UK and
Amazon USA. 

:: If you're a reviewer and would like a review copy, get in touch via email.


 

THE STORM WITHOUT

Those fine folks over at Blasted Heath have re-jigged the cover of my Ayrshire-set novel, THE STORM WITHOUT. And a fine job they've done of it too. Particularly happy with the cloudy backdrop, er, a bit representitive of a storm .... see what they did there?

Storm's picked up some very nice praise, so far:

"This is an elegiac noir for the memory of a place, delivered in a prose as bleakly beautiful as the setting." 
-The Guardian

"This is the Great Scottish Novel, got it all and just a wee shade more... Classic." 

-Ken Bruen, author of HEADSTONE

"Highly entertaining, fast paced and tightly, almost sparingly, written." 

-Undiscovered Scotland

"A thrilling piece of crime writing."
-Scottish Field 

:: Available on Amazon UK and on Amazon USA

RIP ROBBIE SILVA - reboot

Those fine fellas over at Blasted Heath have put together a new jacket for my noir novella RIP ROBBIE SILVA.

I was chuffed to bits with the first one but the thinking was that it was just a little too macho for the content - so here we have a fine rendering of said themes via the medium of a chick with a gun. Happy campers all round now, I'm sure. A lovely job indeed.

For those of you unfamiliar with RIP ROBBIE SILVA - and I have to say, it's one of my fav writing experiences, loved working on this one - then here is the blurbage, as per Amazon: 

Jed Collins, fresh from jail, is struggling to go straight when he hooks up with wild child Gail. Before long Jed is back to blagging ― with Gail in tow. But Jed has a past, and Gail has a secret about her gangster father that she wants to keep under wraps. One week in the Scottish capital for Jed and Gail turns into a bloody rollercoaster ride that leads straight to hell.

And some very nice people have been kind enough to give their opinion on the book:

"RIP Robbie Silva might be the most dead-on accurate description of Edinburgh since Trainspotting."
-Barry Graham

"Lightning pace, a very nice twist that raises it above the typical crime story, and more heart than I would've expected. What makes this really sing, though, is the writing, which is exceptional."
-Dave Zeltserman

"Tony Black is the Tom Waits of Crime Fiction, yes, that good."
-Ken Bruen

What can I say, chuffed doesn't cut it.

::  If you'd like to get hold of RIP ROBBIE SILVA it's at Amazon in the UK and the USA.

LAST ORDERS - Edinburgh Evening News serial

For those of you not lucky enough to live in the beautiful Scottish capital then here's the first instalment of the Evening News' serial of LAST ORDERS. It's going to run every Monday for the next 13-weeks and the paper's staff are doing a fine job with it by the looks of things. There's a paperback of LAST ORDERS on the way but in the meantime you can buy the eBook at Amazon in the UK and the USA.

PUSHED FOR ANSWERS: Jim Divine

Book cover design causes much heated debate. We all know what works and what doesn't but getting the desired result is something of an inexact science. Is good design a jacket that looks great, or, a jacket that sells a truck load of copies? Answers on a postcard, please ...

One thing's for sure, bad design is something that's as obvious as the proverbial donkey's dangly bits. And in this day and age of indie and self-publishing just because you can create your own, doesn't mean you should.

PULP PUSHER talked to one of the unsung heroes of book-cover design - Jim Divine - and got the do's and don'ts. Incidentally, Jim is the man behind some of the designs to the right of this blog post creating the covers for: The Holy Father, Long Way Down, Last Orders, Killing Time in Vegas and London Calling.


PUSHER: We all know a good cover when we see one, and a bad one, before we talk about what makes a good one - what makes a bad one for you?

JIM DIVINE: A bad cover to me is something that simply does not do the material inside justice. if it's a bad book then in my opinion, it deserves a bad cover. Generally bad covers are produced because the designers producing them either don't get what the book's about or don't care.

So where are people going wrong when they put a book out with a bad cover?

It's not always the designer’s fault.  If an author insist that he wants specific things on the cover then that can be the key to a bad cover as it takes a lot of crafting and sometimes designers cannot afford the time to do this or do not posses the skills.

You're going to tell me there's a world of difference in terms of a good and bad design and, presumably a good and bad designer ...

As I alluded to in the previous question, cover design is craftsmanship.  In general terms we all have the same proportions to work with and most of that real estate must be taken up with the title of the book and the author's name. In e-books, this is more relevant as the thumbnails must be legible, so what remains free within that framework is where the designer has to create the concept. Many book designs have become formulaic, as this is easier to do.

You're a bit of a design guru, you've worked in advertising and graphic design ...

I'd say guru is over-egging it a tad. I've been designing since 1986, the first ad I ever did after leaving college won a handful of national and international awards and secured me a great job. I was fortunate as I was able to learn all about how to create, produce, manage and sell graphic design and advertising. I had my own agency for 12 years but gave it up to pursue the elements of the job I love. Obviously book design and a whole host of incredibly exciting things.


Why's a good cover so important for a writer?

As you know from working together, getting exactly what you want is hard, time consuming work. You push me to get the best results because you know what will sell. A book cover is the packaging for what is inside. It's like any other product in that sense. If you have worked and struggled to write your book shedding blood, sweat and tears, then the least you want is for the cover to reflect the effort you've put in.


So, it can make or break a book's success - people really do judge a book by the cover ...

It can absolutely make a difference. I am currently going through this process with another author. He had a book cover that he felt wasn’t working and I have redesigned it for him. I’m hoping to get some stats together to show the financial difference a great cover will make.

Should cost be a factor, we all know a bad jacket is a false economy but I what I mean is do you get what you pay for with cover design?

When you buy time from a designer you’re buying his experience. This experience should include his ability to get to the heart of the matter quickly and effectively. In general I charge between £250-£500 per jacket. This will include a lot of to-ing and fro-ing until I have captured exactly what the author is after. From there I will create files that are ready to be uploaded or sent to print.

I know from working with you on the jackets for my books, you keep yourself informed on the latest design innovations ... what's in and what's out now?


I’ve noticed that we are seeing a lot of back to basics imagery. It seems that as we go through this period of austerity, we are longing to recreate imagery that is warm and comforting. That’s why some of these retro shops that sell old posters, sweets, and clothing are really big just now. This is also working its way into cover design. If you look at the top 100 Amazon books you’ll see a lot of comfort there.

One of the up and coming things I’m looking at is mobile phone technology, mainly QR codes and Augmented Reality. This will allow authors to get specific information to their audience by using smart phones. (If anyone wants to know more about this they can get in touch).


I know you work with Crime writers a lot is your work always on the dark side?

No not at all. A great example of this is when I worked with Bill Bailey. His stuff is so wacky and clever that I went to town on some of the design work. The best project was creating all of the literature for his Tinselwork tour, which incidentally, he said was the best work he’s ever had produced. And it was brilliant fun working with him.


You've created some startling images with my new jackets - I can tell you're channelling an advertising brief when you're quizzing me about what I want ...

To me, a book jacket is an ad for what’s inside – simple!

So, basically, you're happy - and finished the job - when the client is happy?

Exactly. As you know I never go to finished artwork until the client is 100% happy and really excited about the new jacket. If I can’t get the author smiling then there’s not much chance of success.


So, how can someone get a hold of Jim Divine if they'd like to talk about you designing their book cover?

Contact me – jimdivine@me.com or if they want to see some of my work go to http://jimdivine.com/latest-stuff/

LONG WAY DOWN - Readers' Choice

There are a few esteemed sites out there doing great work and Big Al's Books & Pals is one of them; I rate their reviews highly and that's why I'm honoured to be among the nominees for this year's Readers' Choice Awards with my new Gus Dury story, LONG WAY DOWN.

Much respect to Big Al (and his pals) for highlighting all the great reads on the list and introducing me to a few new authors.

If you have a few seconds to spare - it's a ridiculously straight-forward process - then please cast your vote by following this link, here.

Voters get a chance to win a $50 Amazon voucher!

LAST ORDERS in the Evening News

Page One of the Edinburgh Evening News, where my new Gus Dury story LAST ORDERS is running in serialisation for the next 13-weeks. If you can't wait that long to find out what happens to Gus Dury when he goes looking for a minister's missing daughter, then you can pick up the whole story for £0.99 on Amazon throughout the serial.

LAST ORDERS:
Amazon UK
Amazon USA

GUS DURY is back!

On Monday the Edinburgh Evening News starts a 13-week serialisation of LAST ORDERS - my new Gus Dury story.

If that wasn't great enough news, yesterday I sold the paperback rights to LAST ORDERS and my other new Gus Dury story, LONG WAY DOWN (soon to be serialised in the Inverness Courier).

... so Gus'll be back ranting and raving in bookstores soon!

Meantime, you can pick up LAST ORDERS at Amazon.

PUSH-UPS: Leon Steelgrave

So, what you pushing right now?
Cocoa Psycho Killer, the first of my Europa City One-shots - a series of stories between 10,000 and 20,000 words designed to be the book equivalent of a single.

What’s the hook?
Science Fiction pulp action featuring a pole-dancing contract killer - what’s not to like?

And why’s that floating your boat?
In part because the character of Cocoa is tremendously fun to write, and in part because it came about largely by accident after a few offhand comments, and I like happy accidents.  The original Cocoa Psycho is the name of a beer made by my favourite brewer.  Someone suggested it sounded like an exotic go-go dancer, and someone else asked when I was writing the story.  The rest, as they say, is history.

When did you turn to crime?
As far back as ’93 when I tried, unsuccessfully, to earn a commission for writing a Judge Dredd novel for Virgin Books.  Prior to that I wanted to write scripts for 2000 AD itself, but once I made that move to prose I never really found my way back to script work.

Hardboiled or Noir, classic or contemporary?
I very much have my cake and eat it with this one.
Hammett and Chandler were definite influences on my first novel White Vampyre, which is essentially hardboiled Sci-fi.  I’m also a huge fan of the Bogart film versions of The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep.
In terms of contemporary, I very much support the home team in the form of Ian Rankin and Stuart MacBride.

And, what’s blown you away lately?
I have just finished reading le Carré’s The Spy Who Came In From The Cold for the first time.  A masterful novel that pays due respect to the reader’s intelligence and delivers a fantastic pay off at the end.

See any books as movies waiting to happen?
I think Stuart MacBride’s Logan McRae has excellent film potential.  If nothing else, I’d like to see a movie made in my former hometown of Aberdeen.

Mainstream or indie - paper or digital?
Although I’m an Indie writer publishing digitally, I don’t see why there has to be a choice.  The world is big enough to support all of the above.  I love the convenience of eReaders when I’m on the move, but in the comfort of my home I prefer a physical book.

Shout us a website worth visiting …
www.thirdmanrecords.com
As the sign says, Your turntable’s Not Dead!
This is Jack White’s record label, which puts out a wonderful array of vinyl.  You can’t fondle a CD the same way you can an album, plus you can see the artwork.  If you love music and enjoy rock, particularly with a blues slant, this is the place for you.

Finally, tell us any old shit about yourself …
Desperate to get the Tories out, I voted for Tony Blair in ’97.  It wasn’t a mistake I made again.  Tactical voting - not always all it’s cracked up to be!

GUEST BLOG: Declan Burke on The Big O

I was asked during the week, during an interview, if writing comedy crime fiction is difficult. The pat answer I gave was that I find any kind of writing difficult but that, generally speaking, I find it harder to write without trying to make it funny than the other way around. 

The Big O was intended in part as a kind of homage to Elmore Leonard, and one of the things I’ve always liked about Elmore Leonard is his ability to write comedy without using punchlines, or making his characters comedians. It’s situational comedy, which usually comes about because some guy takes himself a bit more seriously than his skills allow for, and so he finds himself thrashing about way out of his depth – although he’s no less dangerous for all that. 

On an equal footing with Elmore Leonard in my pantheon of crime writers is Raymond Chandler, who is also a very funny writer, albeit in a different way. I first started to appreciate what crime fiction could achieve through reading Chandler, so I suppose that’s why I’ll always try to balance the dark and the light, the seriousness and the humour.

Another strong influence on The Big O was Barry Gifford, who’s probably best known for his Sailor and Lula books, a few of which were adapted for the movie Wild at Heart. Again, Gifford can be a funny writer on a line-by-line basis, although the longer narrative arc of his stories is almost invariably tragic. 

When I came to write The Big O I was coming off writing a couple of Harry Rigby novels, which tend to be a bit dark and violent in places, and also the first draft of what would become Absolute Zero Cool – a book that my then agent stopped taking notes on about a third of the way through, and read the rest in growing despair. It was bleak, to be fair. Anyway, I felt like I wanted a change of pace and to lighten the mood, and I was reading quite a bit of Elmore Leonard, so I thought I’d try my hand at a kind of screwball comedy caper, a kidnap-gone-wrong story about a group of people who were nowhere as clever as they thought they were. 

I also wanted to see if I could write a credible crime / mystery that had the absolute minimum of violence, because I was a little burnt out with writing about murder and brutality in general. I guess it’s a ‘cosy’ of sorts – apart from the foul language, of course – and it was great fun to write, trying to make it all work using only the threat of violence while never following through. There are some flare-ups in the story, but most of it takes place ‘off-screen’ and the one true act of violence that occurs is accidental – or so the lady responsible claims …

You never know how any book is going to fare once it’s published, but The Big O fared roughly the same as most books: some people liked it, some people didn’t, and most people never even got to hear about it. The most interesting thing for me, though, in terms of the reaction to the book, is that not one person ever complained that there wasn’t enough violence in there. 

It’s something I’m still wondering about, though – can a novel have too little violence? Is too little as bad, or worse, than too much? If you’ve any thoughts on the matter, I’d love to hear them. 

The Big O by Declan Burke is now available as an e-book. 

:: Declan Burke has published four novels: Eightball Boogie (2003), The Big O (2007), Absolute Zero Cool (2011) and Slaughter’s Hound (2012). Absolute Zero Cool was shortlisted in the crime fiction section for the Irish Book Awards, and received the Goldsboro / Crimefest ‘Last Laugh’ Award for Best Humorous Crime Novel in 2012. Slaughter’s Hound was shortlisted in the Crime Fiction category for the 2012 Irish Book Awards. Declan is also the editor of Down These Green Streets: Irish Crime Writing in the 21st Century (2011), and the co-editor, with John Connolly, of Books to Die For (2012), which is currently shortlisted for an Edgar Award. He hosts a website dedicated to Irish crime fiction called Crime AlwaysPays 

GUEST BLOG: Jochem Vandersteen

I’m honored Tony Black invited me over to talk about Noah Milano and his inspirations. Tony was one of the first people to tell me they liked my stuff, shortly after I got my first story published in Thrilling Detective. That site was in fact very important to me, helping me discover many great writers and private eyes.

I first started publishing stories on-line in the horror genre, starring a hardboiled reporter called Harvey Banks (collected here) . They were inspired by the Anita Blake novels, the Hellblazer comics and X-files TV show and of course by that other reporter fighting monster, Carl Kolchak (The Night Stalker). I started out with a third person story but soon discovered I liked first person better. I also found out my mind might be too logical to continue writing his stories. I mean, the stories were really bizarre (like a serpent queen using Banks as a sperm donor or how he used a tattoo to kill a vampire) but the well seemed to dry up after awhile.

I discovered the Spenser novels that I’d enjoyed being translated to my native Dutch were available in English through Amazon.com and picked up a few. I was reminded how much I loved the hardboiled detective’s voice and was shown how big an influence those stories had been on my horror stories.

I decided that it might be a good idea to leave out the horror stuff and focus on the hardboiled mystery part of those stories. The logical investigation into a crime seemed an easier way to tell a story than thinking up all kinds of crazy stuff I had to listen to a lot trippy music for. I wasn’t sure about my protagonist, though. I wanted a character like Spenser or his predecessor Philip Marlowe. I also wanted to introduce a character that felt new and fresh. But how was I going to do that with all these PI’s that came before. How to please their audience and still come out with something original?

Dennis Lehane showed me that with his novel Gone, Baby Gone.  Here was a PI that wasn’t an ex-cop, didn’t listen to jazz and drove a freaking Porsche. That was the spark I’d been looking for. My own detective would be young and listen to metal, just like I did. He wasn’t going to be an ex-cop but something more original. Taking my inspiration from the intriguing Xena, Warrior Princess show of that time I decided like her, my character would be someone with a criminal past trying to make an honest living. Noah Milano was born.

He appeared in numerous short stories online (collected here) and a full novel before starring in regular Kindle novelettes and novellas. With this novelette format I felt I had found the ideal way to publish fast-paced mysteries that would appeal to old an new fans alike.

A lot of people think I got my inspiration from the early pulps. They’re partly wrong. I was especially inspired by the newer detectives I discovered through the Thrilling Detective site  like Milan Jacovich, Tres Navarre, Amos Walker, Matt Scudder and of course Elvis Cole. Those heroes owe a lot to the early stuff, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and all the other Black Mask boys. That’s why I seem to be influenced by the early classics. You just can’t be writing the genre without being inspired by the source material that inspired us all.

I’m in pretty good company these days as a self-publishing PI writer. My blog, Sons of Spade offers a lot of review of (e-)books featuring writers that give their own little spin to the familiar archetype. I really enjoy discovering great PI’s that might have been hugely succesfull in the nineties when the genre seemed to be more popular but now have to self-publish their stories. That’s not because of the quality, mind you! People like MD Grayson, Nathan Gottlieb, Sean Dexter and many others write great mysteries that deserve to be read. I also enjoy paying attention to the characters that followed Jack Reacher, hardboiled investigators who are often soldier than detective, but like Philip Marlowe follow their own rules and bring justice to this world in a knight-errant role.

After more then 10 years Noah Milano is still out there, trying to come to grips with a tragic and dark past. In fact, the newest novella is all about that.

Years ago Noah Milano was the son and bodyguard of gangster boss Robert Milano. He was forced to shoot Lisa Waxman's father, turning her into an orphan, saddling him with a lifetime of guilt.

 
Now, Noah Milano has broken off all ties to his father and tries to make an honest living as a security specialist. He finds out Lisa's stepfather is accused of being one of the vilest, most sadistic serial killers of California. This is Noah's chance to find redemption. He swears to prove his innocence. It seems not everyone agrees with his quest, though. Soon not only Noah but his dearest friends are in mortal danger...

:: Jochem Vandersteen's Guilt is available now. Visit his blog at: www.sonsofspade.blogspot.com

Writer in residence - Su Casa, Ayr

If you're in the 'hood, drop by ...

FREE BOOKS ... FREE BOOKS ... FREE BOOKS

Yes, I'm at it again, folks. More FREE books. I must be mental ... as if that was ever in doubt!

After the LAST ORDERS giveaway in February, March is the month of more freebies. It's LONG WAY DOWN this time; the first return of Gus Dury since, well, since he went away at the end of LONG TIME DEAD and presumably drank himself into a hole.

Normally retailing at the price of a mere bagatelle - bagatelle's fetching £0.99 these days - LONG WAY DOWN is the chopped-down price of NOWT for the next five days (March 7-11).

If that's not enough to entice you, then here's the blurbage from Amazon:


Gus Dury is down on his luck and looking for distraction when Danny Murray asks him to find his old school friend, Barry Fulton. Fresh from jail, and attracting the attention of a new breed of Irish gangster, Barry is treading a fine line between his past and the activities of present-day Edinburgh crimelord, Boaby 'Shakey' Stevens.

Dury knows Barry has put a time-bomb round his neck and if he can't defuse the situation the consequences for his old friend don't bear thinking about. As the clock ticks Dury finds himself sliding the Long Way Down a winding spiral of tension and despair as he tries to save Barry from his own impending destruction at the hands of those who know brutality as a way of life.

Long Way Down is a 14,000-word novella from the author of the Random House UK Gus Dury series: Paying for It, Gutted, Loss, and Long Time Dead.

:: On Monday, March 18, LAST ORDERS - the latest Dury story will feature in 15 installments with the Edinburgh Evening News.

:: LONG WAY DOWN is FREE in both the UK and USA Amazon sites now. 

Lisa Jewell Backs Moray Library Closures Fight

The fight to save Moray libraries has landed another big-hitter of the literary world's support.

Best-selling writer Lisa Jewell has joined the likes of Stuart MacBride, Alex Gray and Mark Billingham to criticise Moray Council's plans to close seven libraries under the guise of  'budget savings'.

Lisa, whose debut Ralph's Party, propelled her straight into the A-list of UK fiction writers said her local  library was where she first discovered her love of books.

"My sisters and I were taken to our local library every week by our mother," said Lisa.

"I don't remember much about my childhood, but I do remember the Ant & Bee books on the third shelf down, I do remember the mahogany panelling and the nice ladies behind the desk always ready to help us find what we were looking for. And I remember growing up in that tiny library, moving from the children’s corner to the main library, from Judith Kerr to Agatha Christie to Dickens as my tastes developed."

The Sunday Times bestseller is still a regular library user and is introducing the next generation of booklovers to the place she clearly adores. Lisa said the idea of losing libraries - "a cornerstone of civilisation" - would break hearts.

"I'm going to the library this afternoon, in fact, with my own daughters," she commented.

"Their memories will include computers and colourful play areas as well as books and helpful ladies. And of course, as a published writer, I rely on libraries to make my books accessible to readers who wouldn't otherwise read them.

"There are so many reasons to keep libraries open, it's not just about books, it's about community and childhood and the very basic tenets of a civilisation.

"Seeing libraries boarded up and bulldozed and redeveloped will break our hearts. And once they’re gone they're gone. Forever. And with them a million childhood memories and unread books. We will look back on this and shake our heads with disbelief. Our libraries, all of them, need to be saved.”

:: Visit Lisa's website at:  http://www.lisa-jewell.co.uk/

FREE BOOKS ... FREE BOOKS ... FREE BOOKS ...

The latest in my Gus Dury series is FREE for the next couple of days. That's in the UK and in the USA. Go grab yourself a copy, if it sounds like your kind of thing:

When he receives a mysterious letter on expensively embossed paper, reluctant investigator Gus Dury decides to take the case, if for no other reason than he needs the cash. But there's something about his well-heeled client, Callum Urquhart, that doesn't sit right with Dury.

Urquhart has travelled across the country to find his missing teenage daughter -- who definitely doesn't want to be found. As Dury gets closer to locating Caroline, what he uncovers is a web of lies and deceit and some painful realisations that lead back to his own tangled past.

Last Orders is a 14,000 word novella from the author of the Random House UK Gus Dury series: Paying for It, Gutted, Loss, and Long Time Dead.

GUEST BLOG: Matt Hilton

Your life in their hands…

A recent comment I made on Facebook raised some debate about the practices followed by the bookshops and publishing industry in general, and Tony Black asked me if I’d write something about it as a guest blog. So, here for your consideration is just a few points I’ve plucked from the discussion. I haven’t an answer to the dilemma that mid-list authors face these days, and am somewhat still befuddled by it all. Likely individuals will have a different take on the subject than I do. But that’s fine. I’m not saying I’m right, only saying what I’ve been witness to.
     For those of you who don’t know me or my writing, I’m Matt Hilton and I’m the author of the Joe Hunter thriller series. In the UK, I’m eight books into the series, and the USA will see publication of books 5 and 6 this year. My first book – Dead Men’s Dust - only missed being a Sunday Times bestseller by a measly 24 copies, and the book was nominated as the Best New Thriller 0f 2009 by ITW (International Thriller Writers). From that statement you’d imagine that I’m thoroughly established as an author and that my books are readily available. To some extent you’d be correct, but maybe you’d be surprised to learn that my books are no way near as well established as you’d think. Like many other mid-list authors I’m fighting a losing battle to get my books onto physical bookshelves these days, and instead of seeing the numbers of my books growing in availability I’m finding that fewer bookshops now carry them than when I was a newbie on the scene a few years ago.
    There’s no single specific reason why this has happened, but you can count in the fact that there are fewer bookshops on the high street these days, that many of the supermarkets have cut back on the number of lines they once carried, and that many readers are now turning to Amazon to feed their reading habits. But then you have to also look at the way that the chain bookshops have largely turned their backs on supporting the mid-list authors and simply stacking tables with the ‘big names’, the ‘latest fad’ or questionable ‘biographies’ allegedly penned by questionable ‘celebrities’.  Even if/when a chain carries books, you’re lucky if they carry a single copy which, when sold, isn’t reordered, so the chance of selling in quantities is now a thing of the past.
    I’ve observed shoddy practice at a sales floor level. I once went into a Waterstones store in Birmingham – after travelling hours and hundreds of miles - to sign copy for them. The sales assistant gave me a blank look and then said, ”Oh, we forgot to order them in.” Another time I went in a Scottish Waterstones store to sign stock and introduced myself. The manager said, “Never heard of you, mate.” I then explained my book was (at that time) in their company top ten best sellers, to which he replied, “Oh, they have a different chart in England.” He then ignored me and walked away. On another occasion I went into a WHSmith store to sign stock (a few weeks after the book came out) and discovered that not only were the books on a pallet in the warehouse they were being sent back having never been put out on sale. Most authors will have similar tales to tell, and although such practices are harmful they do tend only to be at a local level, and not massively destructive to a career. But then larger problems persist.
    I’ve just spent the last six months or so promoting and growing anticipation for the release of my latest book. Rules of Honour – Joe Hunter 8 – was published on 14th February, to glowing reviews and plaudits including this one from a daily newspaper: “Matt Hilton delivers a house-burning, body-slamming car crash of violence. Give it a go, you won’t regret it’ **** The Sun on RULES OF HONOUR”. In excitable fashion I was telling all my readers ‘The book’s now available!”, only to receive replies from readers in the fashion of “Matt, it’s not in my local shop.” I then encouraged them that they should go in to the shop and order a copy. Only for the reply from the shop to be along the lines of: “Sorry, but our distributor isn’t carrying any copies and there’s no date available for when the book will be in stock.” Was I gutted to learn this? Not half! Thinking that there was a distribution problem from my publisher’s end I contacted them and was told some disturbing news. There was no problem from the publisher’s end just that neither WHSmith nor Waterstones had made any advance orders on the book. Doubly-gutted. When enquiring why, I heard some equally disturbing replies. Waterstones have almost completely withdrawn from selecting full priced mass-market hardbacks, and offer very few central promotions, so it is down to individual buyers in each shop to decide on the books they carry.  (In other words they’ll stick to the established big sellers, thank you very much). Although individual stores can take orders, the book isn’t carried in their distribution hub, so therefore it is difficult to source. (In other words, it’s too much trouble to bother, thank you very much).  WHSmith do have a central buying mechanism, but have also scaled back their orders on anything other than the ‘biggest brand names’. Having only taken 230 copies of my previous hardback (and not reordering when those sold out), they said I didn’t sell enough of the previous book and declined to stock Rules Of Honour.
    So in other words, their lack of support last time meant that they pulled all support this time. Good of them.
    Of course I’m not alone in this. This is harming hundreds of other authors who are trying very hard to establish themselves. And this is my reason for having this rant. Surely all those authors deserve a fair bite at the cherry, and their careers should not be ruined by poor practices? But the sad truth is…they are being ruined.
    Here’s a model pointed out to me by a fellow author (who will remain anonymous for the purpose of this blog entry), and how the system worked against him: “Say the average Waterstones ordered 10 copies of book 1 in my new series when it comes out and make a nice display, they sell 7, well I'd normally be chuffed, but it means when book 2 comes out they only order 7 as they won't order more than they sold last time, but with 7 it's not enough for the nice display, so they don't sell seven, they sell 5, but that still means it gets a face out on the shelf. When they order book 3, they only order 5... half the initial buy, and if that only sells 3, book 4 won't even get a face out, diminishing the chances even further of selling...” 
You can guess what comes next. “Due to poor sales we won’t be carrying that author’s books any more.”
    The same author also told me this story: “This happened to (his book), which I think is the best novel I've ever written. It was released exactly as Waterstones put a moratorium on new buys so month of release it was almost impossible to find anywhere except for places like Forbidden Planet and indie booksellers. Then when Penguin released (his next book) I got ZERO bookstore distro through Waterstones and Smiths because 'my last book didn't sell' which was the one they didn't stock because of their bloody lock-down on buying as they were going bust. The reality for me is, when I turn the new novel in to the agent in a couple of months, I'm looking at a pseudonym and hoping a second bite at the cherry works as they've completely screwed up any high street value I had.” He went on to say: “Frankly mate, it's heartbreaking and exhausting. I've seen myself go from #2 on Amazon to unfindable in about 26 months... I spent the best part of 20 years building up a reputation for working hard, delivering on time, hitting a level of quality and reliability with editors... and my first bloody book with Penguin didn't even get STOCKED. What am I supposed to do? I have no answers. So really, it's like saying the last 20 years don't count, I've got to start again from scratch. When the new novel goes out basically no one will know it's me…”
    I can sympathise with the author in question. Although I haven’t been harmed as much as he has, I wonder what the future holds. When my last paperback book came out, one of the supermarkets blatantly admitted ‘We won’t be taking any Matt Hilton this time as we’ve no room on the shelves. We’re concentrating on stocking “50 Shades of Grey” and its derivatives and have no space for the other books we’d normally carry.’ Oh, that’s OK then.  So when the next paperback comes out, I can expect your full support? Or will it be a case of ‘Sorry but your last book didn’t sell enough copies so we won’t be carrying this one.’
    Another author I’ve spoken with related a shocking story. Sadly it wasn’t the shops that ruined him, but the very people he relied on to establish him as an author. He told me that his first book came out on both sides of the Atlantic published by a major publishing house. It did well in sales and was even number 1 in the German paperback charts. When his second novel came out, his publisher messed up, and distribution barely occurred. Because book 2 didn’t sell, they decided not to publish his third book and pulled his contract. No fault of his, but his career went down the Swanny. Fighting back, said author then released a book through self-publishing means and it was a medium hit. It gained him enough notice that he was picked up by another agent who sold his next series to a major publisher in the USA for a substantial advance fee. Because the US bought publication rights, then so did Canada, and on the back of it the UK also took the series. Then the initial US editor left the company, and in what almost sounds like a fit of spite the publisher cancelled all the deals on books commissioned by that editor. But that wasn’t the end of it. Because the US was no longer publishing his books, the Canadian publisher decided they wouldn’t bother either, and, yes, the UK publisher soon made the same decision. This author had done absolutely nothing wrong, but was dumped on from a very great height. Bad enough luck for anyone to contend with, except now his name is dirt in the publishing world and nobody will touch him. I reiterate: this author did absolutely nothing wrong, it was bad decisions and bad practices that killed his career and he is now right back to the drawing board to try to resurrect his writing and his name. And there’s yet more woe to add to the heap. Because his agent felt totally deflated, the author was dropped and began to seek new representation. Guess what the agents checked to see if he was viable? His sales record. Because his sales were poor, they declined. So, a guy who had not only won one major contract, but two, who did absolutely nothing except deliver terrific books readers would have read given the opportunity was all but finished. I haven’t spoken to him in a few months now, and can only hope that his talent and viability as an author has now been recognised and he has a happier story to tell.
    Some people have bemoaned the decline of the bookshops, saying things like “No wonder people now order their books online.” So are platforms like Amazon the future for mid-list authors? In my opinion, no. When I look on Amazon they are actively promoting the exact same books as the chains do. All promo material on site are for the select ‘big names’ or ‘latest fad’ or ‘celebrity biographies’ we see stacked on the bookshop tables. The chances of anyone browsing and coming across a little known author’s book are minimal. To me authors need the exposure to casual browsers through physical bookshops more than ever.
    Now, it sounds I’ve a downer on Waterstones. I haven’t. My local store is very supportive and go out of their way to push my books, and I’m very thankful of their support. They’ve seen that my books do sell in decent numbers given the exposure. Recently they even tied in to the popularity of one author, one of those ‘big names’, whose character had just appeared in a major movie starring a diminutive Hollywood superstar, by placing a shelf full of my books next to his, with the tag “if you like…then you’ll love…” My books sold in high enough numbers that their reordering system kicked in and began ordering five copies of each of my backlist. If only such practices were shared with other stores in the chain I’d be laughing, but alas they aren’t. I’m still struggling to get noticed alongside hundreds of others in the same position trying to do the same. Earlier today, a reader reported to me: “I kid you not, I asked about ROH in Waterstones Crawley and they had nothing on their system about you or the book ????? ( computer says no) Will have a look in Tesco tomorrow or will order it.”
    So there you are. I’m an internationally widely published author with eight books and a number of short collections under my belt, and I’m ‘unfindable’ on their system. What hope for others?
    Like I said at the beginning of this tirade, I’m not the only author in this position, and neither do I have a ready answer to save us all from disappearing from the shelves. I’m playing devil’s advocate somewhat, because I’m still a staunch supporter of bookshops, both the chains and the indies, and of libraries, and this isn’t a dig at them per se, just the tangle of practices we’re all held prisoner to. If you disagree with me, then fair enough, you’ll get no argument. This is only the way I see it and don’t claim to be right. Our careers – if not our lives – are in their hands, so I think we’ve a right to moan when we don’t feel we’re given equal opportunities to survive.
    All that’s left for me to say is: Rules of Honour by Matt Hilton is now available…
…but you might have to ask for it to be ordered, then explain who I am when receiving a blank look.


:: Visit Matt's website http://matthiltonbooks.com/