Pauline Rowson's Blog, page 76

I've nearly finished writing the first draft of the next in the DI Andy Horton marine mystery crime series

I've now written 70,000 words of the next DI Andy Horton marine mystery crime novel which will be number eight in the series. Number seven, A Killing Coast, is scheduled for publication in hardcover early in 2012. As soon as I have the jacket image and more information on the publication details of A Killing Coast I will obviously post them on my official web site. Meanwhile there is the paperback and e book version of the sixth in the DI Horton series, Footsteps on the Shore, to come, more about that on my web site next week.

I was looking back on my blog to last year's entries when I was writing A Killing Coast and saw that on July 2 2010 I had written 10,000 words so I'm pleased that I am so far ahead with this new Horton novel, which I have promised to get to the publisher in January 2012. So far, so good.

Writing a first draft is always exciting but it is also irritating because I am so keen to get everything on to my PC as quickly as possible, while my head is swimming with the plot and sub plots.

I try to resist editing too much as I write the first draft because this slows down the creative process and it is very easy to get hooked on editing and therefore postpone finishing the novel. However, because I research as I go along some editing is inevitable.

Now, on this new Horton novel, I am at the stage when I am eager to bash out the final few chapters as quickly as possible, which I should be able to do over the next week, or couple of weeks at the outside. Then I can have the wonderful pleasure of going back through the novel, adding character details, refining plot and sub plot, adding colour and depth, inserting clues and red herrings, and making sure that everything ties up and Andy Horton lives to fight another crime in DI Horton marine mystery crime novel number nine!

Top crime authors appearing at CSI Portsmouth to be announced soon

The speakers are now in place for the exciting CSI Portsmouth event on Saturday 5 November 2011 where, during a packed day, crime fact meets crime fiction as top crime authors and crime experts come together to debate crime, answer questions and provide the audience with an informative and entertaining day.

This will be the second CSI Portsmouth and if it's anything like last year's it should again prove to be a resounding success. The event is part of Portsmouth Bookfest and all I can say at this stage is that we have a great line up of top British crime authors. More will be announced shortly. You can also join the Portsmouth Bookfest mailing list to be kept updated with this and other events.

Last year I was on a panel with crime writers Simon Brett, Peter Lovesey, Graham Hurley and June Hampson and I'm really looking forward to the panel event this year when I will again be sharing the platform with some of my favourite crime authors.

You can read all about CSI Portsmouth, Crime Fact Meets Crime Fiction on my web site where there are also photographs from the 2010event.

So don't forget, if you're a fan of crime fiction or crime fact, or enjoy watching the CSI programmes or detective programmes on television, or are simply curious and looking for great entertainment put that date in your diary:

CSI Portsmouth Saturday 5 November 2011, Portsmouth, England.

Crime Fiction Festivals and Conventions - Harrogate, Crimefest and CSI Portsmouth

Crime has descended on the otherwise respectable spa town of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Not a crime wave as in the criminal sense, although that could always happen, but an invasion of crime fiction writers and crime fiction fans. Yes, the Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Festival , or the Harrogate International Festival as it is now called, has kicked off and runs until 24 July 2011 at the Swan Hotel, Harrogate.

There are some great crime authors there including Lee Childs, Linwood Barclay, and Lisa Gardner plus many of my crime writing buddies from the Crime Writers' Association. Unfortunately I can't make it but keep threatening to. Maybe next year.

Meanwhile, I will certainly be at Crimefest 2012, from 24-27 May at the Royal Marriot Hotel, Bristol. Crimefest 2012 will be celebrating its fifth anniversary and already has lined up Lee Childs and Jeffrey Deaver. So I'll be in splendid company and I'm really looking forward to it and meeting up again with readers of DI Andy Horton and my thrillers from the UK, America, Canada and Australia as I did this year.

Before then there is CSI Portsmouth 2011 on Saturday 5 November which is looking very exciting. We have some top crime authors lined up who I hope to be able to announce shortly and along with them forensic psychologists, police and fingerprinting experts. Keep your eyes peeled for more details here, on my Twitter feed or Facebook page and also on my official web site

Blood on the Sand

Tide of Death, the first in the DI Andy Horton series of crime novels set in the Solent area of England and my thriller, In Cold Daylight, have now been published in China.

Tide of Death, the first in the DI Andy Horton series of crime novels set in the Solent area of England and my thriller, In Cold Daylight, have now been published in China.

Tide of Death was first published in 2006 and hailed by Amazon in the UK as the Best of British Crime Fiction in that year.

In Tide of Death it is Horton’s second day back in Portsmouth CID after being suspended for eight months following a damaging accusation of misconduct while working undercover on an operation to expose a pornography smuggling ring. Whilst out running in the early morning he trips over the naked battered body of a man on the beach. PC Evans has been stabbed the night before, DCI Uckfield is up before a promotion board and Sergeant Cantelli is having trouble with his fifteen-year-old daughter. But Horton’s mind is on other things not least of which is trying to prove his innocence. Beset by personal problems and aided by Cantelli, Horton sets out to find a killer who will stop at nothing to cover his tracks. As he gets closer to the truth, and his personal investigations start to uncover dark secrets that someone would rather not have exposed, he risks not only his career but also his life…

Since then DI Andy Horton has gone from strength to strength with six more published in the series, the latest being Footsteps on the Shore, which is available in hardcover.

Number seven, A Killing Coast is to be published by Severn House in January 2012, and I am currently writing the eighth in the series. Many of the DI Horton crime novels are also available as e books, on Kindle, as unabridged audio books, and in Large Print (and in paperback) all bringing new readers to the series.

In Cold Daylight has also recently been published in China. It was voted the third most popular novel in a public poll by readers for World Book Day 2008.

In Cold Daylight is loosely based on a true story. It is a fast-paced thriller about one man's quest to discover the truth behind the deaths of fire fighters. When fire fighter Jack Bartholomew dies whilst trying to put out a fire in a derelict building, his closest friend, marine artist Adam Greene sets out to discover the truth behind his death and those of other fire fighters from the same watch. Soon Adam soon finds himself caught up in a mysterious and dangerous web of deceit. By exposing a secret that has lain dormant for years he is forced to face his own dark secrets, and as the facts reveal themselves the prospects for his survival look bleak. But for Adam it is too late to turn back; he has to get to the truth no matter what the cost, even if it means his life.

I hope the Chinese people who buy the two novels that have been translated enjoy reading them.

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Footsteps on the Shore

Blood on the Sand, the fifth in the DI Horton Series Now Published as an Unabridged Audio Book

July sees the publication as an unabridged audio book of the fifth in the marine mystery series of police procedural crime novels featuring the flawed and rugged DI Andy Horton Blood on the Sand.

Read by the accomplished actor, Gordon Griffin, Blood on the Sand is published by Isis Publishing and is available in cassette and CD format and as a download.

Blood on the Sand is published in the UK and the USA by Severn House and has received rave reviews in the States. Reviewer Booklist says: 'This is another solid entry in a consistently well written series. Like Ed McBain, Rowson works many subtle variations on the procedural formula (including very interesting relationships between Andy and a couple of his superiors). A definite winner in the crowded field of British procedurals.'

Set in the Solent area and the Isle of Wight, Blood on the Sand is already published in hardcover, trade paperback and mass market paperback. It will also be available in Large Print in December 2011.

Blood on the Sand
Inspector Andy Horton’s holiday peace is shattered when stepping out across an abandoned golf course on the Isle of Wight on a cold, grey January, he finds himself facing a distraught young woman with a gun in her hand leaning over a corpse in one of the discarded bunkers. When she professes to be the dead man’s sister and psychic, Horton’s old adversary, DCI Birch, is convinced she is mentally disturbed and the killer, but Horton is not so sure. Soon he is uncovering a web of intrigue that ripples down the years, and which someone is determined should never be revealed.

The others in the DI Andy Horton series that have been published as unabridged audio books are: Deadly Waters, The Suffocating Sea and Dead Man's Wharf.

Blood on the Sand

Pauline Rowson interview with Alex Dyke BBC Radio 20 June

On 20 June I'll be appearing on the Alex Dyke Show on BBC Radio Solent on his Big Hour slot between 12.00 and 13.00. I'll be chatting to Alex about my DI Andy Horton marine mystery crime novels and my thrillers set in the Solent area and Portsmouth. You can listen live via the BBC Radio Solent web site or on 96.1 FM or 103.8 FM.

Hope some of you can join us.

National Crime Writing Week in the UK, crime author Pauline Rowson celebrates the genre

National Crime Writing Week kicks off today in the UK and runs until June 19, 2011. This doesn't mean that everyone should start writing crime fiction and neither does it mean that us crime writers will be furiously scribbling away during the week to meet some magical target, or because it's the only week of the year when we can write. No, the purpose of National Crime Writing Week is to celebrate the crime genre and to encourage those who wouldn't normally read a crime novel to give it a go, or those who are crime fiction fans to perhaps try a different crime writer from their usual tipple. And there is so much to choose from.

There's British crime novels, American crime novels and a whole range in between (and not just Swedish either, but French, Italian, Danish, Egyptian and so many more). Then there's a huge range of crime novels within the genre: cosy and romantic; hard boiled and gritty; detective and private investigator; historical, futuristic, and contemporary. There are also thrillers and novels set against a vast swathe of backgrounds from the sea ( my own) to the Lake District, Yorkshire, Scotland, and everywhere in between. There's something to suit every one's palette.

My marine mystery crime novels in the DI Andy Horton series are usually classed as police procedural although I see them as detective novels. They are set in the modern day and against the backdrop of the sea on the south coast of England; the Solent area and Portsmouth.

I've also written two stand alone thrillers: In Cold Daylight, which was voted number three by the public in a World Book Day poll and In For The Kill.

There are many events taking place around the UK by crime writers during National Crime Writing Week. You can also look for crime authors on the Crime Writers' Association website.

Whatever you're reading,enjoy it.

Footsteps on the Shore

National Crime Writing Week in the UK 13-19 June, lots of crime writing events

The Crime Writers' Association (CWA), of which I am very proud to be a member, is celebrating crime writing with National Crime Writing Week between June 13 and 19, 2011. There are lots of events going on around the UK with author talks, appearances, readings, book signings and workshops.

I am holding a Crime Writing Workshop at the Quay Arts Centre, in Newport on the Isle of Wight on Saturday 18 June, and slightly outside of National Crime Writing Week but I'll also be presenting prizes to the winners of the Wight Fair Writers, Crime and Intrigue Short Story Competition on Monday 20 June on the Isle of Wight.

Other events during National Crime Writing Week include Stephen Booth, Matt Hilton and Graham Pears in conversation with Teesside University forensic staff Shirley and Angus Marshall at Middlesbrough Central Library during Middlesbrough Literary Festival. Sounds very much like my Portsmouth CSI event, which this year is scheduled for 5 November. But if you're in Teeside, and a crime fiction fan, then this looks like a really great event.

Then still up north on Monday, John Dean is running a workshop at Crown Street Library, Darlington, DL1 1ND, examining some of the things writers need to consider when writing crime.

On Tuesday Ann Cleeves will be talking about the Vera Stanhope books at Booka Bookshop, Oswestry.

On Thursday Frances Fyfield, Belinda Bauer, S. J. Bolton, Natasha Cooper, Chris Fowler and Gerard O'Donovan will be at London South Bank University.

And on Saturday Pauline Rowson (yes me!) conducts a Crime Writing Workshop at the Quay Arts Centre, Newport, Isle of Wight (had to get that in twice) while Adrian Magson will be interviewed by Ayo Onatade at the Corn Exchange, Witney, Oxfordshire, as part of the Witney Book Festival

There are lots more events around the country, so do visit the National Crime Writing Week website to see what is happening in your area.

There are also plenty of other crime author events outside of National Crime Writing Week, which you can find on the CWA web site.

Footsteps on the Shore

Using time frames in novels

Time frames in novels, and particularly when writing a series, are a tricky thing. There is 'real time' and then there is 'fictional time'. In 'real time’ I write one DI Horton crime novel a year whereas in ‘fictional time’ the novels are currently set over a period of a year.

Tide of Death, which introduces DI Andy Horton, is set in August and was published in 2006, Deadly Waters is set in October and was published in 2007, The Suffocating Sea is set in December and was published in 2008, Dead Man’s Wharf is set in January and was published in 2009, Blood on the Sand is also set in January and was published in 2010, and Footsteps on the Shore is set in March and was published in 2011. The new DI Andy Horton I have just finished writing, called A Killing Coast will be published in 2012 and is set in April.

Andy Horton was 39 when I created him in Tide of Death and will therefore be 40 in September. In ‘real time’ however i.e. in 2012 when A Killing Coast is published, Andy would really be 45. In ‘fictional time’ the novels progress over a single year although no specific year is mentioned. This means that Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight have an awful lot of murders in a short space of time, but that’s fiction thankfully and not fact! Following’ fictional time’ allows the author to develop the back story i.e. Andy’s marital break up and his fight to gain access to his daughter, and the search for the truth regarding his mother’s disappearance.

Agatha Christie is said to have regretted making Hercule Poirot in his sixties when she created him. By the time she finished writing about him he would in 'real time' have been about 108! (No, I haven't calculated his age precisely) In 'fictional time' he stayed more or less the same age. I'm not saying that that will happen to DI Andy Horton, who knows he may age yet...but that's a decision for another day.

Blood on the Sand

Pauline Rowson discusses coping with book reviews

Opinion is free, and part of being a published author is that you have to accept that some people will love your books, others will loathe them. What one critic raves over another will slate. Most authors dread reviews. For nine months (and sometimes longer for some authors) you have poured your heart and soul into that creation. You have invested a great deal of time and emotion in creating it and, as with a child, you want it to be well received in the world. When it isn't it can hurt.

But history is littered with scathing reviews of books, plays and films which have gone on to become best sellers. As a published author you need to learn to take the rough with the smooth, which is not always easy, but in order to carry on writing that is all you can do. It is about keeping your confidence up while writing the next novel.

I have been fortunate to have some fantastic reviews for my DI Andy Horton crime novels and my thriller novels, and some wonderful feedback from readers who love them including praise from people working in television and radio. The best of my reviews smile down at me from my notice board in my office and are there to lift my spirits and encourage me when I receive a less than good review.

Fiction is art and is therefore subjective. It is a matter of taste. It would be a boring world if we all read and enjoyed the same sort of novel. So here's to variety and to opinion, and here is also to the right to express it freely even though it sometimes might not be what we would like to hear/read!

You can read the reviews of all my crime and thriller novels on my web site at http://www.rowmark.co.uk meanwhile here are the latest reviews for Footsteps on the Shore.

"It deserves mention in the same breath as works in the upper echelon of American procedurals (those by Ed McBain or Joseph Wambaugh for example) and their British counterparts, including the work of Peter Robinson and John Harvey. Andy Horton is an especially good series hero, a likeable fellow with plenty of street smarts and the requisite personal baggage – an abrasive supervisor and an antagonistic soon-to-be ex-wife (like Harvey’s Frank Elder). Procedural fans who haven’t already read Rowson should be encouraged to do so in the strongest possible terms." Booklist (USA)

"Horton presses on to clear up a skein of crime as tangled as one of the harbor’s ancient fishing nets. Rowson’s latest should please both Andy Horton fans and puzzle aficionados." Kirkus USA

PS If you read the full Kirkus review of Footsteps on the Shore Andy Horton fans will spot the mistake.