Frances di Plino's Blog, page 8

Ten Facts About ... Nik Morton

When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer When I was about 13, when I handwrote stories. I was given a Remington portable typewriter for my birthday when I was 16 and wrote my first novel, A Man is Known by the Company He Kills. A short pithy title; its sequel wasn’t much better – Kill a Man while he’s Down. I should have been studying for GCEs, though…
How long does it take you to write a book? It varies. A short novel of 50,000 words – that can be written in a month, that is 240 hours; it’s rare that those hours are concurrent, as life intrudes; longer work can take 3-4 months. And some have been known to gestate for years. 
What is your work schedule like when you're writing? I’m usually writing two novels at once, alternating maybe on a weekly or monthly basis, depending on the narrative flow. Of late, now I’m no longer editor in chief for Solstice Publishing, I find I have more time to get to grips with the ubiquitous social media; that takes time, too, though.
How many crime novels have you written? Three. Pain Wears No Mask (which is out of print, looking for a publisher) and Blood of the Dragon Trees. Sudden Vengeance is due out from Crooked Cat in April. And they’ve recently published my crime anthology about Leon Casador, a half-English, half-Spanish private eye, Spanish Eye. It might not seem like many – because I write in other genres also.
Which is your favourite and why? That’s difficult. They’re all favourites in their own way. Maybe Pain Wears No Mask because it was in the first person, the story being told by a nun who used to be a policewoman. And it won a Harry Bowling award. Reviews suggest that I captured her voice – and several readers were surprised to learn that the book wasn’t written by a woman!
Where do you get your ideas? From the news, newspapers here in Spain, from wide reading, from research for articles and other books.
Who is your favourite character from your own work and why? Another difficult question! I’m enamoured of Tana Standish, my psychic spy in the 1970s/80s; she features in two out of print thrillers, The Prague Manuscript and The Tehran Transmission. Of current available work, probably Leon Cazador; they’re written in the first person too and I feel I’ve captured his voice.
Which character from the work of others do you wish you’d invented and why? It has to be an icon, I suspect, someone who became a household name, like Tarzan, Sharpe, or Philip Marlowe. Possibly Simon Templar, the Saint – and Leon Cazador is in fact the modern version, righting the wrongs of the ungodly.
If you could have been someone from history involved in crime (good or bad) who would that be and why? Perhaps Professor Keith Simpson. I’ve had his book Forty Years of Murder (1978) since it came out in paperback in 1980. And of course now he’s in the public eye thanks to his assistant Molly Lefebure’s ‘adventures’ on TV. Because his intellect and persistence spared innocent people and condemned the guilty.
What are you working on now? Catalyst, the first of a series for Crooked Cat Publishing. I’m trying to find a new home for Pain Wears No Mask, with a different title (The Bread of Tears) and some changes. On the crime scene, I’m working on the next two ‘Cat’ novels, plus researching for Bradbury & Hood, a Victorian crime series. Non-crime, I’m halfway through To Be King, a sequel to the co-written fantasy quest novel Wings of the Overlord, due out in June.
BIOGRAPHYNik served for over twenty years in the Royal Navy, appropriately as a Writer, then went into IT. He has sold many short stories and articles and edited several books and magazines. He now lives in Spain. From 2011 to 2013, he was hired as the editor-in-chief of the US publisher, Solstice Publishing. He has had 20 books published/accepted since 2007. He writes as Ross Morton, Robert Morton, and Robin Moreton, among other names.
Last year his book Write a Western in 30 Days was published; reviewers say it’s useful for writers of all genres, not only westerns.
Books in order of publication – Visit Nik’s Amazon Author Page for more information on the list below
Death at Bethesda Falls (2007), Pain Wears No Mask (2007), The Prague Manuscript (2008), Last Chance Saloon (2008), The $300 Man (2009), The Tehran Transmission (2009), A Fistful of Legends (2009/editor), Assignment Kilimanjaro (2010), Blind Justice at Wedlock (2010), Death is Another Life (2011), When the Flowers are in Bloom (2011), Old Guns (2012), Bullets for a Ballot (2012), and Odd Shoes and Medals (2013/ghost-writer), Blood of the Dragon Trees (2013), Spanish Eye (2013), Write a Western in 30 Days (2013), Sudden Vengeance (April, 2014), Wings of the Overlord (June, 2014), The Magnificent Mendozas (July, 2014).
Website - www.freewebs.com/nikmortonTwitter - @nik_mortonBlog - http://nik-writealot.blogspot.comhttp://auguries-magazine.blogspot.comFacebook - nik.morton.10@facebook.comGoodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/Nikmorton

Another wonderful day in my life of crime

Today sees the launch of number three in the D.I. Paolo Storey crime series, Call It Pretending . If you fancy coming along, there’s an online party with quizzes, prizes and giveaways: https://www.facebook.com/events/589131267815474
For one week only, to celebrate the launch, the publishers have set the Kindle price to 77p/99c, so now’s the time to buy your copy of Call It Pretending.
My fellow Crooked Cat Publishing author, David W Robinson and I had a conversation on all things crime writing and more besides. You can read it in all its glory here: http://davidmeets.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/in-conversation-with-frances-di-plino.html
Bad Moon Rising, the first D.I. Paolo Storey novel, has been doing really well in the States. Yesterday it was riding high in the British Detectives genre chart.
As if that wasn’t all exciting enough, I had a call from the local television company asking if I would like to be interviewed – of course, I said yes. That takes place on 27th January, so now next month will be brilliant as well.

Good News Comes in Threes

This has been one of the best weeks of my writing life so far: book signing, having a novel as ‘Thriller of the Month’ on a major review site and … well, you’ll have to read on to find out what the third item is, but I can promise you, it’s the best news of all (for me).
Book signings can go one of two ways. They can mean sitting in a corner, smiling gamely while shoppers ignore you and buy books by other authors, or …
… they can be hugely successful.
On Friday 29th November and Saturday 30th November my local bookshop organised a 'Meet the Author' event for me. The owner ordered in a stack of my novels and I stood by to be ignored by passing shoppers (as per the opening paragraph). No such thing! We sold out of all copies of Bad Moon Rising and Someday Never Comes. I signed so many books as Frances that it began to feel like my real name!
The bookshop owner was thrilled, so much so, he's ordered in more books and wants me to do it again twice more between now and Christmas.
 
The second piece of good news came when I got home on Saturday and switched on my computer. I’d received an email to say that Bad Moon Rising had been chosen as a Thriller of the Month on this review site: http://www.e-thriller.com/



 So, what could possibly top the first two pieces of news?  
I had an email from my publisher to say that Bad Moon Rising has made the final of the People's Book Prize and that there will be a televised awards ceremony in London next May when the winner will be announced!


Now, isn’t that the kind of week that makes being an author worthwhile?
 
I will be giving away a copy of my latest release, number three in the D.I. Paolo Storey series, Call It Pretending, on launch day, December 18th. All you have to do to enter the FREE draw is sign up for the newsletter by filling in your email address below. Entry is FREE, the prize is FREE and you could be one of the first to own a paperback copy of the new book – what have you got to lose?

Ten facts about … Marshall Stein

When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer? My junior high school teacher, Alan Glatthorn, had us write weekly. All manner of writing, from short stories to haikus, and he made it fun. If another student’s remarks were toxic, Dr. Glatthorn intervened. I remember beginning THE SUN ALSO RISES, and reading into the middle of the night until I reached the end. Surely, writers had magical powers! In the middle of college I realized it was unlikely I could support myself, and a family, by writing. I went on to be a lawyer for 35 years, holding on to the notion that someday I would write again. I loved being a courtroom lawyer, and it has been a rich source of stories.
How long does it take you to write a book?At this point, I have written my debut novel, RAGE BEGETS MURDER, a crime thriller. It took me over six years to write. I had to unlearn legal writing and learn how to write fiction. I wrote my first novel to see if I could. It has never seen the light of day. I showed it to Jeremiah Healy, a very successful crime novelist, who also started off as a lawyer [RIGHT TO DIE, SHALLOW GRAVES, SPIRAL, et al]. Jerry knew that I had spent about half of my legal career writing and arguing appeals at every level of state and federal courts. After reading the first 30 pages of that unpublished thriller, Jerry told me it was a good appellate brief. At that point I started taking workshops at Grub Street Writers in Boston, MA and later was selected for Master Fiction Workshops. The proof of the pudding was Jerry wrote a blurb for the back cover of RAGE BEGETS MURDER that begins: “Marshall Stein has pulled off an author’s tour-de-force in his debut novel.”
For an accurate and humorous account of the editing and revising process for my thriller, here is a blog I wrote for my writing center called: “SUCCESS STORY: Grub Street, Endurance and Getting Published” http://grubdaily.org/?p=10137.
All of this work came to fruition when Post Mortem Press’s publisher, Eric Beebe, selected the book and Elizabeth Jenike, PMP’s Associate Editor, performed a brilliant final editing.
What is your work schedule like when you're writing?I usually write in the morning. This takes place in my inner sanctum, an office in my house. Since it is filled with books, bags full of material for RBM and future novels, no one is allowed to clean it up. My wife would like to post a notice on the door: THIS OFFICE HAS BEEN CONDEMNED BY THE BOARD OF HEALTH.
How many crime novels have you written? My debut thriller, RAGE BEGETS MURDER.
Where do you get your ideas?I went to high school outside of Philadelphia, PA. Bandstand had been brought from radio to TV by the disc jockey Bob Horne. It was a huge success in the Delaware Valley [Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware] and then one of the teen dancers on the show accused Horne of having had sexual relations with her for two years, since she was 13. Trials followed, and Horne was eventually acquitted. He was let go; Dick Clark was brought in; and the show went national as American Bandstand. The scandal played out over months in the media. That was the seed for RAGE BEGETS MURDER.
Who is your favourite character from your own work and why?Naomi, the narrator in RBM. She evolves over the course of the book. Through flashback a reader sees her relationship to her parents, and then her husband, and learns how she became the person she is. Naomi also has a deep friendship with her housekeeper/cook Liz that helps sustain her in the worst of times. Through all of these connections the reader not only watches individual characters, but also is immersed in the times in which they live, primarily the early 1950’s in the Northeast United States.
Which character from the work of others do you wish you’d invented and why?Dave Robicheaux in the book series by James Lee Burke [HEAVEN’S PRISONER, THE NEON RAIN, PEGASUS DESCENDING, etc.] Robicheaux is complex, a mixture of warmth for those he loves, violence against those he detests, and much self-destruction, growing out of his prior alcoholism and PTSD from Vietnam. Burke has given us full access to Robicheaux’s emotions, his thoughts, his flashbacks, his culture, and sometimes to the shoulders of the writers on whom Burke stands, e.g. William Faulkner. Robicheaux is as real to me as many of my real life friends; he is an enviable achievement.
If you could have been someone from history involved in crime (good or bad) who would that be and why?Meyer Lansky. He was both involved in carrying out crimes first hand in Murder, Incorporated, and later was an astute business manager of crime in Las Vegas and Havana [ his famous line “We are now bigger than U.S. Steel.”] He lived long, and died before he was jailed. He must have been totally amoral, possibly sociopathic, and intellectually brilliant. Though the government had a large team assigned to gathering the evidence to indict him, they did not succeed until the end of his life. It would be fascinating to be inside  his head to see how he thought, analysed, planned, what was important to him - money, power, or both, and what was not - friendship, family, etc.
What are you working on now?I’ve begun a sequel to RAGE BEGETS MURDER. I’m also working on a novel set in 19th century Germany involving an opera conductor, who was a descendant of generations of rabbis, and Richard Wagner, the anti-Semitic opera composer. The story turns on Wagner choosing the conductor to debut Parsifal, the most Christian of Wagner’s operas.
BioI am a retired lawyer. Early in my career I was an Assistant United States Attorney in Boston, and later served as the Chief Staff Attorney for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit [New England]. During 28 years in private practice I have tried both civil and criminal cases and argued appeals in state and federal courts on every level. Since retiring from my law practice I have been selected for master level fiction workshops at Grub Street Writers in Boston, Massachusetts. I currently live in suburban Boston with my wife.
My website is http://www.marshallstein.com. One of its four pages contains 13 short blogs of background on RAGE BEGETS MURDER. I am also on Facebook and Linked In. I can be reached by email at mstein@rcn.com. My Amazon pages are http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rage-Begets-Murder-Marshall-Stein/dp/0615770096http://www.amazon.com/Rage-Begets-Murder-Marshall-Stein/dp/0615770096

My turn to be interviewed

My lovely fellow Crooked Cat Publishing author, Nancy Jardine, invited me over to her blog today. To see my answers to her very interesting questions, please visit and add a comment or two.

Nancy's Blog

Ten facts about … Tori de Clare

When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer? About five years ago. It was the right time in my life. Any earlier would have been too soon. I work from home anyway as a private piano teacher. I’ve been self-employed for 25 years. The teaching is mainly evening work, so I have the daytime hours. Housework is a necessary evil. I do it; it doesn’t leave me with that fuzzy feeling of fulfilment. I’ve had four children and stayed at home with them, which more than fulfilled me. Three of my children are now adults.
There came a point, after years of being a teacher and a mother – two very demanding roles as far as ‘giving’ goes – when I thought, OK, this is my life. I’m still young and energetic enough to dedicate myself to a new cause (and I wanted to). Plus, I’m old enough to have a little experience behind me – and all writers need life-experience. So, what do I want to do now? What do I want to say? I’m very communicative. I like people a lot and have always observed people. I found that writing was what I wanted to do, and once I started, it became a compulsion.
As human beings, we like to finish what we start. Human nature dictates that it’s a good idea to complete; bring closure to. Writing a novel is like constantly having an itch you want to scratch. It’s a never-ending venture that longs for completion. You become utterly devoted to it. You live with your characters. At the end of the process, you always feel it could be better, stronger, sharper. And so you cut, chop, snip, prune. You edit and edit again. It never feels finished, but it’s an amazing process. You learn so much about yourself along the journey.
How long does it take you to write a book?About a year, give or take. Editing time can be added on top of that – more months of intensely tedious work. It really is a labour of love.
What is your work schedule like when you're writing? As a person, I’m hopelessly impulsive. I can be half-way through pinning the curtains behind the holders and think of someone I need to ring and dash off to do it – one curtain opened, the other not. Because I’ve been my own boss for so long and never had to conform to rules and timetables, I don’t have a ‘work schedule’ as such. I teach 25 piano lessons a week, look after friends and family and work like mad on my writing or promoting my book in between.
Every spare moment is spent on my writing. I’m up until all hours at night and I’m always up early. Sleep is a burden. My energy knows no bounds when it comes to writing, especially if I’m in the middle of something and some character needs unlocking from a cupboard or something. I can’t very well leave her there! P-lease!
How many suspense novels have you written?Just one in the mystery/suspense thriller genre, plus I’ve written an unpublished paranormal suspense book which is sitting idle on my computer at the moment. One day …
Which is your favourite and why?Could you choose between one of your children? I love them both and I’m sick of them both (let the analogy between my books and my children end here!!). When you’ve read something dozens of times and squeezed its virtual spots, it gets a bit monotonous.
Where do you get your ideas?I don’t know. Someone I know quite well who read Either Side of Midnight said to me, ‘Hey, I never knew you had a twisted mind! Where do you get your ideas from?’ I took it as a compliment. It’s like asking why you dream you have extra rooms in your house and are being chased through them by a giant Mars bar or something. You just do. Who understands the workings of the subconscious mind?
As human beings, we’re deep and complex. Peoples’ books (whatever authors may say) are an extension of them; they say something significant about that person and their life-experiences. They say (whoever ‘they’ are) that it’s impossible to disguise our own handwriting, even if we’re trying to. There will be tell-tale signs that an expert could spot to identify the writer. I think our fictional stories are like this. They are an integral part of who we are – like those weird dreams of ours – and are a mishmash of our own unique journey. Fascinating stuff!
Who is your favourite character from your own work and why?I’ll stick to Either Side of Midnight because it is my one published book. My favourite character is possibly Siobhan. She’s so far removed from me that she makes me laugh. It’s interesting for me to develop her. She’s socially awkward and says inappropriate things. She makes you squirm. No one wants to be with her. I’d hate to spend an afternoon shopping with Siobhan. It would be a nightmare. She isn’t interested in fashion, isn’t chatty or sociable and is only funny when she doesn’t mean to be. I laughed most when Siobhan was in conversation with someone. Sadly, amusing myself wasn’t in the interests of the plot (a thriller by nature must be plot-driven), so I ended up cutting lots of Siobhan’s utterly unwise words. And I miss them.
Which character from the work of others do you wish you’d invented and why?Good question. Two of my favourite authors are Ian McEwan and Sebastian Faulks. Neither of them are mystery/suspense writers, but I want to mention one each of their characters. The memory of them stayed with me long after I finished the respective books.
Sebastian Faulk’s Englebyis one of my favourite books of all time. I wish I’d invented Engleby – a very complex character. The story is in first person, so we’re right inside his head. I’ve never been so close-up to a character and simultaneously wondered if I really knew them at all. The whole book has a ‘Shutter Island’ feel to it. You’re never quite sure what’s going on, but it is beyond intriguing, and I found it quite moving at the end.  Loved it!
Ian McEwan wrote a book called Solar. His protagonist, Michael Beard is another very complex character. I loved hating him. If you’re going to write about a nasty protagonist, you’d better be brilliant at writing. Luckily for Ian McEwan, that wasn’t an issue. Normally, readers love to love their protagonists. Michael Beard is not lovable. He’s utterly repulsive, and he has an incredible ability to rationalise his behaviour. I thought that Ian McEwan did an incredible job with him.
Talking about the thriller genre, of course I wish I’d created Jack Reacher – the guy men want to be like and women want to be with! Jack is a genius creation – a guy with no home, no clothes or belongings of any kind who drifts from place-to-place for the heck of it, kicking baddies along the way, fearing no one. Awesome! If I’ve a small complaint, I wish he’d change his undies a little more often. Sometimes, I wonder if I can smell them, just a tiny bit.
If you could have been someone from history involved in crime (good or bad) who would that be and why?That’s a tough one. Having just watched the first short series of Whitechapel, which was about Jack the Ripper, I think I would like to be involved in whipping back to those times (with the use of DNA testing and hindsight and modern technology and everything, of course) and helping the police to nail that monster. His crimes were hideous. He went unpunished. The mystery has haunted and fascinated people ever since. Conspiracy theories rage.
When I was growing up in Manchester in the 70s and 80s, the Yorkshire Ripper was on the loose, murdering women just 20-odd miles away from where I lived. As a teenager, I was completely traumatised. I remember the Manchester Evening News once featuring in small pictures that filled the front page, pictures of all 13 of his victims. I don’t remember the headline, but it was along the lines of: Will He Ever Be Caught? Fortunately, we can look back and know that Peter Sutcliffe was indeed caught and brought to justice – even if it was long after he should have been. I’d like be involved in cracking the case in London way back in 1888 – from a very safe distance, of course.
What are you working on now?I’m about to start writing a follow-up to Either Side of Midnight. There’s that itch again! I never intended for it to have a sibling. It was going to be an only child! But there is definitely some unfinished business. People who’ve read Either Side of Midnight have hinted – not slightly subtly – that they want a sequel. Who am I to deny them? I’m plotting and planning right now. In fact, I must be on my way!
BioTori de Clare is UK author of Either Side of Midnight , a mystery/suspense thriller. It is currently in the adult and NA sections of the market. Tori's career has been in music. She has privately taught piano and theory of music for the last twenty-five years and is passionate about the Romantic Period, especially the works of Chopin and Rachmaninoff. Mum of four and one of seven children, Tori finds little time for hobbies outside of family, reading, writing and teaching. Her very busy life gives her the perfect excuse to opt out of ironing and all forms of keep-fit. The only working out she does is how to avoid accompanying her husband to the gym. For ever. Daughter of two pianists, music was destined to be her career. Her father died when she was 18 and always aspired to being a writer. Either Side of Midnight is dedicated to him, and to her mum who taught her to play the piano.
Either Side of Midnight by Tori de Clare Twitter: https://twitter.com/toride_deGoodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7184950.Tori_de_ClareFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tori-de-Clare/185620708284147email: torideclare@outlook.com

Ten facts about … Ed James

When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer?When I was in my mid-teens, I think. I used to have stabs at writing stuff, mostly scifi or thrillers, but I never got much past the first scene or so. In terms of actually finishing something, then it would be at school. In Scotland, the main qualification we sit is the Higher (equivalent to the first half of an A-Level in England) and we go to University for an extra year to make up. For my English Literature Higher, I chose to write an ‘Imaginative Essay’ over a ‘Discursive’ one, and it was a RESERVOIR DOGS-esque thriller with characters named after the Beatles who swore and got killed. It might have been set in London. I remember my English teacher loving it, but saying that it might get marked down for the swearing if a teacher in a convent got hold of it…
I think I’ve still got an Amiga in my parents’ attic that has the very first Ed James work…
When I decided to start writing was about eight years ago, when my nascent music career fell apart. Nobody was interested in signing us, and the prospect of working in an office for the rest of my life was too depressing, so I started writing a novel. It was bad, but I persevered, learnt my trade and I’m doing okay just now.
How long does it take you to write a book?The first book had a difficult gestation period and ended up taking about three years, but most of that was off time. Since I published GHOST IN THE MACHINE in April last year, I’ve released three sequels - the first six months later, then another three months, then another six months. I’m just away to release the first in another series, SHOT THROUGH THE HEART, so that’ll be four books in eighteen months - four and a half months, on average. And that’s from idea, to outline, to first draft, to alpha edit, beta edit, line edit and proofing.
What is your work schedule like when you're writing?Sadly, I’m not doing it full-time, but I do write in my off time. I had a fair amount of publicity last month by talking about the fact that I used to write in my daily commute to Edinburgh and now write in my weekly commute to London. I must spend about 15-20 hours a week writing - I’d love it to be more.
How many crime novels have you written?Four in the SCOTT CULLEN series plus a supernatural thriller with a bit of crime in it…
Which is your favourite and why? I’m most pleased with DYED IN THE WOOL, the fourth CULLEN book. It is the most professional, both in terms of editing and the plotting and so on. It’s my most mature work and covers a lot of ground - it’s over 110,000 words and was a monster to edit, but I think it’s come out really well. Where do you get your ideas?All over the place. Sometimes from conversations with friends which spark off ideas, sometimes from newspapers or sometimes just from my imagination. I don’t sit in front of a blank sheet of paper and try to come up with ideas - I’ve usually got something that I’ve wrestled with in my head for weeks before I start attacking it properly, and then it’ll change drastically as it forms itself, completely out of my control really.

Who is your favourite character from your own work and why?I enjoy writing DI Bain the most, perhaps a bit too much. I’ve had to consciously rein him in. While he may seem unrealistic, I’ve known and worked for people like that, with that sort of vocabulary. I’m proud of the protagonist, Scott Cullen, as he is just a really annoying and frustrating character. We share a fair amount, but not too much, and hopefully I don’t have much of his worse characteristics, though he’s probably got mine.
Which character from the work of others do you wish you’d invented and why?I’m a massive comics geek and I’d have to say BATMAN. There’s something I attach to really strongly about him. There’s a real depth to the whole mythos that I just love. There’s an incredible set of stories, not in the main continuity of the DC Comics line which is average at best, but in standalone works like THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS which are just timeless and tell a lot about the human condition.
If you could have been someone from history involved in crime (good or bad) who would that be and why?Not quite answering your question, but I probably like to have been someone who really innovated in a particular field, such as using fingerprinting, DNA evidence or establish grid searches, etc. The why is that I’d like to have effected real change to the world and add some justice back.
What are you working on now?I’ve just finished with a book so I’m at that brilliant stage where I’m consolidating all of my ideas for the next Cullen book, BOTTLENECK, ready to start writing it hopefully this week or next.
BioEd James writes crime fiction novels, predominantly the Scott Cullen series of police procedurals set in Edinburgh and the surrounding Lothians - the first four are available now, starting with GHOST IN THE MACHINE which has been downloaded over 100,000 times and is currently free. His next book - SHOT THROUGH THE HEART - features vampires and werewolves but not Scott Cullen and is out on 31-October.

Ed lives in the East Lothian countryside, 25 miles east of Edinburgh, with his girlfriend, six rescue moggies, two retired greyhounds, a flock of ex-battery chickens and eight rescue ducks across two breeds and two genders (though the boys don't lay eggs).
He works in IT for a living, commuting from Edinburgh to London every week (not every day) and writes mainly on public transport.
His blog - edjamesauthor.com - is a log of his work, his thoughts on his writing, and a place for his word count OCD to express itself. His music tastes will creep in now and again.
Blog & website - www.edjamesauthor.comTwitter - @edjamesauthorFacebook - edjamesauthor
BooksTHE SCOTT CULLEN SERIES1          GHOST IN THE MACHINE2          DEVIL IN THE DETAIL3          FIRE IN THE BLOOD4          DYED IN THE WOOL5          BOTTLENECK (coming 2014)
SUPERNATURE SERIES1          SHOT THROUGH THE HEART2          CRASH INTO MY ARMS (coming 2014)

A Sign of Our Violent Times

Today I am pleased to host fellow crime writer David Robinson, who is musing on a subject that also troubles me at times, both as a writer and as a reader - violence in crime novels.*** A few nights back, I watched the movie, Scum, and I was interested to note that the BBC commissioned this film in 1979, but then refused to broadcast it because it was too violent.Would they have any such qualms these days? There’s a tendency to increasingly graphic violence in entertainment. From cinema and TV, through reading matter, right down to computer and video games, the writers and directors are pulling fewer punches. We are confronted with sights which were once the exclusive preserve of the horror movie. Scenes of mangled or half burned bodies on the autopsy slab are commonplace. Bodies found in woodland, half decayed, with bits missing, barely raise an eyebrow.As writers, it’s part of our lot to stretch the boundaries, examine people, their motivation, action and reaction, show them warts and all. We’re never afraid to examine the issues, as, for example, Frances’ latest novel, Someday Never Comes.But is it necessary to be so graphic? The perpetrators in my novels, The Handshaker, and its sequel, The Deep Secret, place the value of a human life lower than the gratification to be had from taking that life in the cruellest means possible. They view others, particularly women, as objects placed upon this Earth to satisfy their sadistic needs, and having done so, to be discarded with the same disinterest as we throw away a cigarette butt.

The Handshaker is as dark as Frances’ excellent, Bad Moon Rising, but in the original manuscript the early scenes, the ones most likely to cause offence, were toned down. I was advised by an industry professional to make them more graphic, and despite my reservations, I did so. When my publisher, Crooked Cat Books, took the project on, still doubtful, I offered to revert to the original. They said, ‘no, it’s fine as it is.’ After release, reader reaction was by and large, favourable. Women, particularly, find the tale fascinating, and most appear unconcerned at the opening horrors. “It serves as a warning against what could happen,” one female reader told me. This took me by surprise. Am I out of touch with what the reader wants? Am I simply old fashioned? I don’t think so, but I do recall a radio interview with the master of horror, Christopher Lee, during which he said the key to the success of the great Hammer movies lay not in what they showed, but what they did not show; i.e. that which they left to the viewer’s imagination.Reading The Handshaker makes me feel uncomfortable, and faced with the prospect of turning out the sequel, The Deep Secret, I had little choice but to include the graphic once again. Spread over eighty years, it has scenes of physical and sexual brutality before, during and after World War Two, set against one man’s greed for the secret to absolute control of others.And when I read through it, I feel uncomfortable once more.***The Deep Secret is published in all e-formats and paperback by Crooked Cat Books on October 25th. You can pre-order the paperback at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Deep-Secret-David-Robinson/dp/1909841234

Review posted in the Euro Weekly News

It's always nice to see positive reviews, particularly when they are in print. Here's a recent one for Bad Moon Rising from the Euro Weekly News, one of Spain's mass circulation newspapers.

Ten facts about ... Ryan Casey

When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer? Probably when I realised I wasn’t so good at/didn’t really care about anything else. I’m perfectly okay at a lot of things, but writing is something that I’ve always had a lot of fun with. I think the first notable writing memory I have is from around six or seven years of age. I wrote a story about a boy who throws a brick through his window and ends up giving his dad memory loss. It seems I’ve always been in touch with the darker side of fiction...
How long does it take you to write a book?First drafts don’t take me long at all. I can finish the first draft of a novel in the space of a month. Of course, I spend another couple of months editing, so once the process is done with, I’m probably at a four-monthly rate, which is still pretty rapid. The key is consistency -- I like to try and write 5,000 words every day. I’m a pretty fast writer, so that’s perfectly achievable, but it’s important to find what we’re comfortable with and not force anything.
What is your work schedule like when you're writing?I just finished university and I’m fortunate enough to be writing full-time right now, so I suppose my work schedule is pretty, well, writing oriented! There’s a lot of things to consider, though: as well as writing, I run a blog, and am keen on the marketing side of things. It’s all fun though, really. Just don’t tell everybody or they’ll all want to be a writer...
How many crime novels have you written?Crime is both omnipresent yet subtle in all of my novels. What We Saw, my debut release, is a childhood mystery novel, but once the naivety of childhood is stripped away, there’s a very dark crime tale at the core. Killing Freedom -- my latest release -- is more of a full-blown thriller about a hitman who forms a bond with a family he is hired to kill, so of course, there are elements of crime there, too. I’m working on a new, fully-fledged crime novel for a September release, though, which is really gritty and very British. I can’t wait for people to read it.
Which is your favourite and why? It’s kind of natural for a writer to be most proud of their latest release, so I’ll say Killing Freedom . I love the character and I really am delighted with the world I’d set up. But mostly, the character -- he’s such a rich and deep individual, yet I feel I’ve barely scratched the surface. Is that me announcing a sequel, right here in this interview? Who knows?
Where do you get your ideas?Ideas tend to come to me in various shapes and sizes. More often than not, my ideas arrive by inquiring into characters. If I can invent a character in my head, I can invent a series of dilemmas and problems, and before I know it, a whole book is forming in front of me. But a lot of the time, just things in everyday life -- I might read something intriguing in a newspaper, or hear a cool lyric, and sparks begin to fly.  Who is your favourite character from your own work and why?I feel such a traitor to my other characters saying this! I guess I should say somebody all grim and threatening then, shouldn’t I? Keep them sweet! My favourite lead is Jared from Killing Freedom . I love how, on paper, he’s completely awful -- he’s a career killer, for goodness sakes! -- and yet he somehow manages to be sympathetic. That really makes him compelling. I’m also really keen on a character called Price in the crime novel I’m launching later in the year. He’s a Detective Inspector side character, and he has a lot of hilarious traits. I think readers are going to enjoy him.
Which character from the work of others do you wish you’d invented and why?Harry Potter! I’d be rolling in it. But to be honest, it’s hard to say, really. I’m reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn at the moment and I love what she’s done with the two lead characters in that book. Without wanting to spoil anything, they take the unreliable narrator concept to entirely new levels.
If you could have been someone from history involved in crime (good or bad) who would that be and why?Oh, wow -- I’d better watch my answer here, hadn’t I?! I’m usually intrigued in the serial killer-y stuff in true crime fiction and documentaries, and I certainly wouldn’t like to be any of those. I think Ted Bundy is a fascinating figure, though. He’s a terrible individual and did some horrible, horrible things, but he was an incredibly intelligent man with a ridiculously in-depth knowledge of law enforcement. He knew his stuff, and he exploited it for his own dark gains. Horrible, twisted, but clever.
What are you working on now?I’ve just sent out The Disappearing to my editor. It’s the second instalment in a creepy-suspense novella trilogy I’ve been working on this year. The first book -- The Painting -- went down pretty well, so I have a lot to live up to. Otherwise, I’m editing my upcoming crime novel, and starting a plan for the sequel to Killing Freedom . Busy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Website: http://ryancaseybooks.com/