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www flickr com photos 85608594 n00 11658583556 symphony of love always believe that something wonderful is happening a via a href http photopin com photopin a a href https creativecommons org licenses by 2 0 license a posted by unknown at 12 52 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday 13 april 2015 it s all about me here s an interview i did with mike craven over at his new website 1 this is the third book in the ray mcbain series what made you choose to write it from kenny s pov this time round at the point i wrote this the other two books were going the rounds of the publishers receiving rave rejections as in love this had to stay up till 2am to finish it but no thanks i know crazy right but that s publishing for you i wanted to keep writing but i didn t want this next book to suffer the same response so i just sat down one day and started working no plan no idea i was just writing what came out like dictation to my surprise was kenny s story 2 your books all feature well developed characters and although they are likeable none of them are completely sympathetic was this a conscious choice or were you simply holding a mirror to society i would like to think that i m that clever but i m not i rarely write with such an agenda i write in the first instance by instinct and if i like it when i m doing the edits it stays and when i m doing the edits i m asking myself how might the reader respond to this are my characters three dimensional no good guy is all good and similarly no bad guy is all bad the edit is where i examine if i have struck the right balance 3 tell me why you write about a detective with an eating disorder cos alcohol has been done to death and although i don t have an eating disorder my relationship with food could be healthier i ve been on a yo yo diet since my thirties it s exhausting most of what i put ray through in that regard is something that i ve experienced 4 like blood tears in beyond the rage you are writing a story set in the present but about events that occurred in the past is this something that particularly interests you as a writer yeah we can rarely escape our past it is from that cauldron that our personality is born and it affects mostly everything about us it s something that readers can relate to after all we all have one and it is a classic trope in fiction 5 can you tell me a little about how you write for example what time of day is the most productive do you set yourself daily word goals and how much plotting do you do or are you a start writing and see where the story takes you kind of writer i am a binge writer i go for months sometimes years without writing and then i get stuck in my target tends to be more time led but with an eye to the word count so i can gauge how well i am doing and as i said earlier i write by instinct without much of an idea where i m going it would be nice to be able to write to a plan but i can t seem to master that one 6 you re a poet of some renown how and why did you make the transition to being a crime writer and does your poetic background help or hinder when describing some of the brutal things the modern crime writer must the poetry came about by accident my aim was always to be a novelist but after joining my local writers club and having a go i discovered i had an aptitude for poetry i think it comes from a love of words which comes from being an avid reader all of my life when i first started writing novels i was trying too hard and i learned i had to choose my moment if you re reading a fight scene you don t want the author to disrupt the pace by inserting a line of poetic prose on the other hand the noticing that poetry brings to the prose can help ground the reader in the story it all goes in during the first draft and then i shape it when doing the edits elmore leonard is quoted as saying if it sounds like writing he deletes far be it from me to ignore such a great writer but there are times when i love to read a selection of prose where the word choice tastes good the craft for me is knowing when to leave in and when to take out 7 i can t let you go without talking about the guillotine choice the book you co wrote with bashir saoudi one of the most harrowing yet uplifting fact based novels i ve ever read how did you meet bashir and how was the writing process different how long have you got i ll give you the shortened version bashir had taken some time out of the computer industry to run a coffee shop he stayed open late one night to try and get more custom i was his only customer subsequent meetings mostly of the twilight zone variety had me throwing my hands up and saying to the universe ok i ll write the book the difference here was that i had the skeleton of a story in front of me and if i can torture that metaphor this skeleton had a few bones missing as well as ligament skin and muscle but there was a direction and a real man whose story had to be told and told in a way that would honour him and his country 8 f inally what are you working on at the minute another ray mcbain book and the killer from the first one is back if i tell you any more i ll have to kill you mike follows the interview on with his review for beyond the rage clicketty click here if you want to read you ll need to scroll down past the interview to get to the review or you could read it again if you re that bored posted by unknown at 15 37 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday 4 march 2015 illuminations it s been a while folks since i ve had any book blethers on this here interweb thingy so i thought i d get back into it with a stoater of a book loved loved loved this you ve got a young soldier coming home from active duty his grandmother who is in the early stages of dementia and a host of family issues o hagan is one of those writers who have a precise eye and an exacting turn of phrase that leads to a hugely enjoyable experience the illuminations is full of insight the dialogue sparks and characters lead you by the nose through their journey what more do you want people go buy posted by unknown at 20 21 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday 19 september 2014 the scots wha s like us it was during the eighties when i could first afford to buy my own books instead of borrowing from the library there was something about that growing collection that thrilled at first the ranks of books grew on the floor of my bedroom and then there was more than enough for me to justify me buying that first bookcase from mfi i still have those first books stephen king wilbur smith jean m auel ursula le guin stephen donaldson eric van lustbader etc etc and the eagle eyed among you will note that there s not a scot among them a thought which prompts a shameful memory i used to go into bookshops and walk quickly past the scottish section from somewhere i had grown the impression that if the writer was scottish it must be crap at my school in the seventies the only books we got to read were either american or english shakespeare or steinbeck robert burns poetry books were wheeled out once a year but almost apologetically and without any effort to explain what the strange scots words actually meant there was no context given we were simply expected to wrap our tongues around the odd collection of vowels and consonants although we spoke scots on the playground this was actually like a foreign language our history lessons focused on certain topics that were likely to come up in the exams subjects like the industrial revolution the french and russian revolutions the boer war and the first world war again note the lack of scottish themes we weren t taught our own history around this period tv was gaining traction and it became the social norm for families to gather round the television to watch the news beamed in from london and popular entertainment programmes beamed in from london and the us there were very few scottish accents admittedly there were a handful of scottish tv programmes but largely and especially in the early years they were of the tartan and shortbread variety and the production values even to my unpractised eye were second rate bbc scotland received and still does a fraction of the funds that scots contribute to the tv licence fund all of this confirming yet again that if it came from scotland it was poor demonstrate often enough to a child that it is too wee too poor and too stupid and it will soak it up and accept it as fact i actually heard two guys talking in my local gym and one used this as a reason to his mate as to why he was voting no see imply it often enough and they will believe in subsequent years we have thatcher a boom and bust economic cycle a trumped up war in the middle east and now a government that has inclined so far to the right in recent years it s a wonder big ben doesn t have a lean to compete with thon tower in pisa the impact of this kind of cultural stifling is subtle and yet to my mind far reaching i make no claim to being a social anthropologist but i would contend that this is exactly the kind of situation from which our famous scottish cringe was born and has thrived throw in our calvanistic propensities and it s a certainty never heard of the term it has its own page on wikipedia from where this quote comes a sense of cultural inferiority felt by many scots particularly in relation to a perceived dominance of english or anglocentric british culture partly due to the importance of london within the united kingdom one of the reasons i wrote the book carnegie s call was to challenge this and to contribute to the conversation that would take us beyond it to grow into a self confident nation for we are a nation ready to take its place in the world on its own terms not as the northern region a narrow tartan backwater as one pro unionist described us of a larger state i don t think such an inherited inferiority complex is unique to us scots but many other countries are able to work through it with an acceptance of their culture and shared identity and an ability to express their reality through self determination in my view there were lots of compelling reasons for us scots to accept a state of independence but for me this was the most important one i took in the arguments on the currency the economy our defence capabilities our role on the world stage and thought aye fair enough we can work through all that but why is no one talking about this with self government would come self confidence it s much more important than the pound euro groat in our pocket to a nation that has been stifled in many ways for more than 300 years it is beyond price posted by unknown at 20 09 7 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday 5 august 2014 wot i read in july the dark blood aj smith this is the 2 nd in the chronicles of the long war series fyi the black guard was the first and it is bloody brilliant i do love me some epic fantasy and this book delivers on all angles a carefully constructed world just familiar and yet different enough to engage great plotting wonderful baddies and heroes you want to spend time with not read any fantasy for a while get stuck into this cold in july joe r lansdale this book from which the movie was made had me scratching my head and asking why the hell have i not read everything this man has ever written he is tremendous his characters are as quirky as a frog in a hat and his prose sharp and telling go read it already walter mosley rose gold a walter mosley release is an occasion in my house what can i say i m a fan and in this book one of my favourite ever characters to be committed to print easy rawlins is back on the case wonderful stuff jay posey morningside fall legends of the duskwalker book 2 follow up to three the 2013 release from angry robot this is sci fi but if you are not a fan of that genre don t be put off it s gritty truly action packed and in your face the action just does not let up for 400 odd pages just begging to be made into a movie dominique manotti escape two men escape from prison in a rubbish lorry they part company with carlo heading to milan and filippo trekking over the mountains carlo is killed in a shoot out with armed police and filippo pitches up in paris where he takes to writing a story carlo told him in prison a publisher loves it and it becomes a sensation throughout europe but the police don t believe it is fiction and the brown stuff goes splat onto the fan manotti is a gifted writer racking up the tension nicely thankyouverymuch she also adds a touch of social economic and political history for those readers who expect more from their authors than just action deon meyer cobra benny griessel is back yeah it s totally worth three exclamation marks meyer is one of the best out there he conjures up a tension that will have you reading into the wee hours go on pick up one of his books the man is a crime writing genius 1914 goodbye to all that writers on the conflict between life and art you have to stretch yourself as a reader now and again yeah so get your baby blues stuck into this it s a truly fascinating collection of essays from a bunch of writers not afraid to give it some up close and personal stuff you will be moved you will be fascinated trust me what about you what have you enjoyed reading this month posted by unknown at 19 58 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels aj smith deon meyer dominique manotti jay posey joe lansdale walter mosley saturday 5 july 2014 june reading king ellory chaouki miller finder i m slipping up only read 5 books this month my excuse the world cup great innit anywho here s what i read last month mr mercedes stephen king i just love me some stephen king and yet again the man kept me enthralled while i was inside the pages of his mind here he switches genre and we have a crime novel with a hugely engaging cast of among others a retired cop and his misfit friends societal misfits are a strong part of the book and by having such character types at either side of the good versus evil divide king provides a fascinating counterpoint and extra kudos to a man who has had such an extraordinarily successful and long career that he can reference his own work within the pages of a new novel yup loved it carnival of shadows by r j ellory the blurb goes it s kansas 1959 a travelling carnival appears overnight in the small town of seneca falls intriguing the townsfolk with acts of inexplicable magic and illusion but when a man s body is discovered beneath the carousel with no clue as to his identity fbi special agent michael travis is sent to investigate and the scene is set for a book that tickles the intellect as well as your emotions again a fascinating mix of oddball characters with a strong sense of time and place that ellory com...