Monday 23rd February
Some good news - Justice for All has been selected for inclusion in the annual book groups run by the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. The internationally acclaimed Festival, sponsored by Theakstons Old Peculiar, is now in its seventh year, and I’m really pleased that JFA was chosen as competition was fierce. The novels will be sent out to reading groups in the north of England, the titles will appear on the festival website where they’ll generate discussion, and they’ll also be discussed at a book group meeting during the festival itself. As for the Beholder, I’ve now received a set of insightful and thought provoking comments from my agent, Broo Doherty, which I’ll be working through in the coming week.
Cheers,
SteveWhat’s Steve been listening to this week?
All Or Nothing – by The Subways
Glasvegas – by Glasvegas
Relationship Of Command – by At The Drive In
Monday 16th FebruaryAfter a one-week break from blogging duties to concentrate on birthday celebrations, I’m back with a vengeance with a bumper issue!
First up, another great review for Justice For All, this time from the highly influential CrimeSquad website. I’m really excited about this one, as CrimeSquad are major players in shaping on-line opinion with regards to crime fiction. Their site receives a huge number of hits per month, and visits continue to grow at an exponential rate. The review likens JFA to ‘a powerful, racing machine’ and states that it ‘revs up in the first chapter and roars through the rest’, and as I’d set out to write a fast-paced book, these comments were particularly pleasing. The review closes by saying:
‘As a debut, Justice for All certainly works and is an excellent start to laying the foundations for what must surely be a marvellous writing career.’
High praise indeed! Click here to read the full review.
Time for an update on books two and three in the Hunter series – Blood Law and The Beholder. Final amends have been made to the manuscript for Blood Law (tiny stuff mostly, like taking out the odd word or comma), and it’s now ready to go to print. Next up will be the grand unveiling of the cover art - stay tuned for more info in the coming weeks. With regards to The Beholder, that’s now in the hands of my agent, Broo Doherty, for comments before it goes to my publisher. Thus far Broo says that she’s hooked, and she’s particularly impressed by the gut-wrenching violence!
On the gig front, I’ve been busy – first with Alkaline Trio at the UEA closely followed by the latest NME tour. Alkaline Trio were recommended to me by my regular gig-buddies Jay and Chris, (the very same Chris that designs and maintains this website!), as they’d seen the band at last year’s Reading Festival on one of the smaller stages and had been suitably impressed. They’re one of those bands that I’d been aware of for years without ever having actually heard anything by them, and as they were a cracking live act, I’m now having to make up for lost time. For the uninitiated, they’re like early Green Day, but a little more earnest (in a good way!). And special thanks to the UEA staff who were very understanding about the fact that I’d somehow managed to lose my tickets for the gig (never happened before, and will never happen again!), but let me and Lisa in anyway.
The NME Tour featured four up and coming acts: Florence and The Machine, White Lies, Friendly Fires, and Glasvegas. I only caught half of Florence’s set, but wow, did she have a powerful voice. Kudos to the harp player who was manfully trying to compete with her vocals – I never heard a note mate, but I’m sure you were a mean plucker. White Lies were up next, and after all the recent hype in the national press, they didn’t disappoint. Lisa had marked them down for future stardom when she caught them at the Latitude festival last year (I was otherwise engaged at the Harrogate Crime Writing Fest at the time), and there’s little doubt that they’re headed for the big time. Like so many other modern bands, they take their influences from 80’s synth bands, but they add a muscular layer of guitars that elevates them over much of the competition.
Friendly Fires had the main support slot, and while they’re not my kind of music (bit too poppy/dancey for my liking), they were good at what they did and by the end of their set were staring to win me over. The critically adored Glasvegas had the coveted headline slot, and it’s fair to say that they divided opinion amongst those around me. Some people found them a little dull, while others (myself included) revelled in their wall of shimmering guitar noise and epic sense of scale. All in all, a top night.
Cheers,
SteveWhat’s Steve been listening to this week?
To Lose My Life – by White Lies
All Boro Kings – by Dog Eat Dog
Let Me Come Over – by Buffalo Tom
Monday 9th FebruaryNo blog this week as I'm in the middle of my birthday celebrations!
Cheers,
Steve
Monday 2nd FebruaryI spent last week reading through the manuscript for the third novel in the Zac Hunter series, The Beholder, ahead of delivering a draft to my agent, Broo Doherty. The task was more onerous than I expected, resulting in a few late nights and early mornings, and I ended up cutting another 4,500 words from the prose. This brought the total down to around 93,000, which is more in line with that of both Justice For All (89,000) and Blood Law (91,000), and I’m confident that the cuts have helped make the novel a leaner, meaner beast.
I also find that I sometimes overuse certain phrases or words when I write (there were lots of ’dull thuds’ in this one, and if I had a penny for every time someone took a deep breath…), so I checked through the manuscript (using Word’s very handy ‘find’ function) and re-worded certain sections as necessary.
Once I’d finished editing, all that was left for me to do was to sort out the chapters. Let me explain. When I first work out the plot for a novel, I divide it into a series of scenes (kind of like a movie storyboard but without the pictures), which can vary in length from just a couple of paragraphs to a number of pages, thus one of the last things I do with a manuscript is group some of the shorter scenes together to form decent sized chapters.
Next week I’ll be reading again, this time to check through the final draft of my second novel, Blood Law, before it goes to print, and once that important task has been crossed off the list, I’ll be enjoying a beer or two to celebrate my birthday!
Cheers,
SteveWhat’s Steve been listening to this week?
The Sufferer And The Witness – by Rise Against
Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness – by Smashing Pumpkins
Minutes To Midnight – by Linkin Park