Conrad Williams's Blog, page 10
November 7, 2015
Joni Mitchell
Joni is 72 today. I grew up on her music. My dad was (still is, let’s be honest) besotted with her. He’d take a walk out to Ames record shop in town to buy every new LP of hers on the day of release. Last time I asked him, he reckoned Blue was his favourite album of hers, and why not? It’s a classic. It’s up there for me too. But there are one or two other albums that vie for top spot: Hejira, for example. And The Hissing of Summer Lawns. Here are six songs of hers from those three albums I’d happily take to a desert island with me (ask me again next week and I might choose a different six…):
Little Green (Blue)
Heart-rending song about the girl Joni Mitchell gave up for adoption in 1965.
Edith and the Kingpin (The Hissing of Summer Lawns)
A lush song about a gangster and his squeeze. I remember being hypnotised by the economy and beauty of the simple line: His eyes hold Edith/His left hand holds his right.
Shades of Scarlett Conquering (The Hissing of Summer Lawns)
Another effortlessly gorgeous couplet: Out in the wind in crinolines/Chasing the ghosts of Gable and Flynn.
Amelia (Hejira)
Joni’s guitar. Jaco’s fretless bass. Amelia Earhart. I dreamed of 747s over geometric farms…
Refuge of the Roads (Hejira)
Joni’s guitar. Jaco’s fretless bass. Wanderlust. These are the clouds of Michelangelo/Muscular with gods and sungold/Shine on your witness in the refuge of the roads
Blue (Blue)
Acid, booze and ass, needles guns and grass, lots of laughs…
Happy birthday, Joni. Get well soon.
Primed for Darkness
The splendid Ali Karim has posted an in-depth interview he conducted with me for The Rap Sheet, the essential, award-winning resource for readers seeking information about what’s new and interesting in the world of crime fiction. You can read it here. Thanks to Ali and The Rap Sheet for their interest and support.
007 – My Top 5 Novels
Fanboy alert…
The good people over at Forces of Geek are hosting a blog of mine listing my top 5 James Bond novels. You can read it here. I restricted myself to the Ian Fleming series. A tough job, this one, as there are so many great stories to choose from.
My dad bought the original paperbacks when they were published, annually, during the ’50s and ’60s. I read them all one summer in my early teens. Until then, my understanding of James Bond was shaped only by the films that were shown each Christmas on ITV. So it came as some shock to discover that Ian Fleming’s creation was quite different to the sardonic, laconic, cat-who-got-the-cream version I was used to. The two films Timothy Dalton made, and the back-to-basics Bond Daniel Craig has given us are closer to the literary 007: the wine-educated thug, the blunt instrument, the cruel bastard.
Anyway, I’m grateful to FoG for the opportunity to write about one of my passions!
November 6, 2015
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know…
Detail from ‘Red Dragon’
Thanks to the excellent My Bookish Ways, who agreed to host a blog by me this week on the heels of Dust and Desire‘s publication. You can read it here, a little piece about creating a memorable villain.
November 3, 2015
Dust and Desire: OUT NOW!
Today marks the publication of Dust and Desire. Thanks to Titan for producing a beautiful book. I hope you enjoy Joel Sorrell’s first outing, and the exclusive short story Do Not Resuscitate.
When he opened his mouth to speak, fire flew from between his teeth. His clothes were burnt off him and he had the girl’s body. I went to him and twisted his head off, as easily as loosening the screw-cap on a bottle of pop. Inside his head were the words MADE IN CHINA. When I looked at his face, he was the girl from the mag. She winked at us and peeled herself open. I stepped inside her and fell asleep for a thousand years.
‘This is the real deal: crime writing of a flint-edged, visceral nature that may initially appear to foreground narrative momentum, but is really about character; character, that is, which is delivered on the hoof. This is writing of real authority, and Williams is a genuine talent.’
Barry Forshaw, Crime Time
‘I loved this book, great ending. It accompanied me on a long swing through New York, Boston and Philadelphia.’ – James Sallis, author of Drive
October 28, 2015
Dust and Desire: One week away
When it grew too cold to stand outside, I came indoors and took off my jacket. Quick thumbnail now of the flat, and it won’t take long. One small bedroom with a sofa-bed permanently extended. One bathroom. One kitchen that is visited occasionally by a family of oriental cockroaches. A living room. No pictures on the walls. Bare floorboards. A couple of shelves with a couple of books. My trusty old radio. Mengele’s rug. Mengele. A yucca. The view. A vodka bottle. Me.
October 23, 2015
Dead Letters: the cover
I’m pleased to be able to reveal the cover to the new anthology, scheduled for publication next year. Credit to Titan for agreeing to list every author on the cover. None of that ‘And Many Others’ nonsense here!
It was a privilege to work with so many talented writers. I hope you’ll be as impressed by the stories as I was.
October 20, 2015
Two weeks until Dust and Desire
There was something about her shadow that just wasn’t right, but I was too pumped up to understand. Until I looked at her directly. I took in what was left of her for maybe a second, if that, then I turned off the light and sat in an armchair, just me and her in the darkness. Me and her and the ghosts of violence thickening in my mind.
October 2, 2015
Dust and Desire: One Month Till Publication
Titan Books, November 2015
Mawker cocked his head at the bedroom, so I went to have a closer look. The body was still there, naked, erupted, strewn across the sheets like something from Professor Gunther von Hagens’ shed.
‘You know him?’ Mawker said. ‘Name of Liptrott.’
‘Not sure,’ I said. ‘He seems to have lost a bit of weight.’
Mawker looked at me with a pitying expression, as if I was a kid showing off at a party.
Liptrott had been unzipped. His face meanwhile bore the expression of someone who has just been given a key to the room marked Hot Pussy only to find a cat in a microwave.
