Christopher J. Yates's Blog, page 5

Literary Crossword

To celebrate the US launch of Black Chalk (Aug 4), I’ve compiled a crossword puzzle with a literary/Black Chalk theme. You can download the pdf from Picador’s tumblr, justclickhere.

Good luck, cruciverbalists.

Literary Croswword

To celebrate the US launch of Black Chalk (Aug 4), I’ve compiled a crossword puzzle with a literary/Black Chalk theme. You can download the pdf from Picador’s tumblr here.

Good luck, cruciverbalists.

New York Post Article

Here’s an article I wrote for the New York Post on the topic of hiking. Unfortunately there wasn’t space in the newspaper to include full directions for the Escarpment trail hike (the one I describe first in the piece) so I’ve included the details below. And I hugely recommend this walk, it’s one of the most stunning hikes I’ve ever enjoyed.

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ESCARPMENT TRAIL HIKE

Distance: 7.5 miles (not including optional 0.5 mile spur to Sunset Rock)

Getting there: Head for North/South Lake campground on CR...

Five Puzzle Novels

Here’s an article on my five favourite puzzle novels for Dead Good. And here’s a link to the ‘Fiction and Puzzles’ article that inspired the list.

Puzzles and Fiction

Here’s an article I wrote for Dead Good about the relationship between writing a novel and writing a puzzle. There’s also a list of my fivefavouriteexamples here.

Sconed to the Bone

Last week I had a hugely enjoyable evening reading/book-signing event courtesy of Club Monaco and Strand Bookstore, thank you to both. There were piles of scones and jam tarts and mini shepherd’s pies from Tea & Sympathy and a fine time was had by all—particularly those who came only for the free food, those guys were free food party animals. I think I even heard the words “chug chug chug” at some point. And a book party isn’t a real book party until someone has chugged some free scones.

Here’...

Club Monaco Event

Please join me at this event at which I can promise you, in a non-legally binding way, that there will be scones. And, by the way, scones rhymes with Fonz not with stones. This is not up for debate.

Tuesday, August 12, 6.30 – 8.00pm, The Strand at Club Monaco, 160 Fifth Avenue (at the corner of 21st Street).

Books will be signed and jam will be placed on the scone before the cream and not the other way round because the other way round is THE WRONG WAY ROUND.

Hope to see you there.

Largehearted Boy

I’ve written up my book notes for Largehearted Boy here: a playlist of songs related to Black Chalk with an explanation for why. Oh, and you can play the tracks with Spotify here. Warning: may include ‘Eye of the Tiger’. Mitigation: does not include ‘I Will Survive’.

By the way, Largehearted Boy is a great website for anyone who likes books and music. So if you do take a look, hang around for a while.

Mr. Media and Me

Here’s a video podcast interview with Mr Media (Bob Andelman) in which I discuss some real-life inspirations for Black Chalk and how being a puzzle-maker helped me to fit the pieces of my plot together.

Mr Media and Me

Here’s a video podcast interview with Mr Media (Bob Andelman) in which I discuss some real-life inspirations for Black Chalk and how being a puzzle-maker helped me to fit the pieces of my plot together.