July 2009 Blog Posts (185)

Clitoris follows vagina on Cotterill blog

I've joined up with a few other crime writers to fill a single blog, International Crime Authors Reality Check, with original content. Last week Colin Cotterill wrote about his attempt to get a "vagina" into the title of one of his novels. This week, Colin has a hilarious post about his bemusing appearance at the Crime Writers Association's Daggers dinner -- at which Colin was… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 20, 2009 at 10:47pm — No Comments

And There's the Contract

I posted last week about an editor who asked me to change two sentences, with the enticing, "Before I can offer you a contract..."

Well, I fixed 'em and she sent me the contract. Sometimes it happens just like that.

I should be cheering, but I think I'm still in shock: no year of waiting for an answer? No "We'll see what the sales department thinks of your chances?" That's cool.

Added by Peg Herring on July 20, 2009 at 9:28pm — 3 Comments

First Review for 'Legacy of The Ripper'

My latest release 'Legacy of The Ripper' (Double Dragon Publishing) has just received its first review at Amazon.com I'm delighted to say that it received five stars and I'm very proud to reproduce the review here:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Continuing Saga of the Legacy of Jack the Ripper, July 19, 2009

By Martha A. Cheves (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews

(REAL NAME)

'Does violent death have a name? Can evil truly be born into the world, evil so… Continue

Added by Brian L Porter on July 20, 2009 at 8:39am — No Comments

German AND Czech rights sold!

It's official! I just got the word from my publisher that their foreign rights department sold the rights to FREEZING POINT to Droemer Knauer in Germany and to the Czech Republic, whoo-hoo! The German edition will be paperback, and the Czech will be hardcover. These are my first foreign rights sales. Really, REALLY happy and excited!

Added by Karen Dionne on July 20, 2009 at 7:30am — 4 Comments

Switch launches in UK to great reviews

It's been a long time coming, but my thriller Switch finally debuted in the UK and Germany this week and the reader reviews have been great. After such a long journey to publication, I can't describe how good it feels to receive such positive feedback. Here are a few snippets:

"Terrific, you’ve got to read this one. The emotions, both good and evil, that run through the book set it above most ... and the perverted mind manipulating the action is brilliantly drawn. Great stuff." —… Continue

Added by Grant McKenzie on July 20, 2009 at 4:25am — 1 Comment

For published authors

I've posted more about landing book signings on my main blog, "Another Writer's Life."

Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 20, 2009 at 3:49am — No Comments

Dessert wars in the West Bank

It isn't only McDonald's that offers to supersize its food. In the most violent town in the West Bank, the local specialty is a hot cheese and syrup dessert called qanafi. Last month a Nablus baker made a qanafi that weighed 1,300 kg (1.3 tonnes). After the townspeople recovered from the sugar rush, a real estate developer put together a team this weekend to make a 1,700 kg qanafi that was 74 yards long.

The intention is to repair the image of a city damaged by nine years as the most… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 20, 2009 at 1:44am — No Comments

As The (Palestinian) World Turns

Searching for a new script to get Hamas and Fatah to cooperate.

By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPost

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Soap operas usually block out scenes with two cameras, one for each of the glaring opponents. The editor switches between each actor as they snarl and sneer. As for the plot, you can tune in every few months and… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 19, 2009 at 4:45pm — No Comments

New Book Deal

I've been flying below the radar for a while. I've had my head down working and the result is a new book. DISGRUNTLED will be my next thriller and it will be hitting bookshelves next April.

Also, I've resurrected one of my old titles, DRAGGED INTO DARKNESS, which has been out of print since 2004. It was my first short story collection and it contains some of my favorite short stories. The book has been hard to find even secondhand, although someone is… Continue

Added by Simon Wood on July 19, 2009 at 10:49am — No Comments

Today Was Library Sale Day

Today was the day of the annual library sale, where the public and school libraries of three counties put all their over-stock books together and sell them at great prices. I'm talking $5 for 3 hardcovers, and $2 for 3 paperbacks (mass market and trade size).

For a stingy yet voracious reader like myself, I always go ape-shit crazy at this sale, and I bought a huge load of books for about $25 in just about every genre and subject. The trick is that you have to get to the back room of… Continue

Added by D.R. MacMaster on July 19, 2009 at 4:03am — No Comments

The Suffocating Sea To be Published in Large Print

I'm pleased to say that The Suffocating Sea, the third in the Inspector Horton Marine Mystery series of crime novels set in the Solent area of the UK, is to be published in Large Print in September.

I've also been told that it's coming out as an unabridged audio book but am waiting confirmation of the date. When I know it I'll post something here and on my web site at http://www.rowmark.co.uk/

I was chuffed when… Continue

Added by Pauline Rowson on July 19, 2009 at 3:38am — No Comments

Gimme a Break Dept. #89: He looked like a movie star!

Earlier this week I noted that I dislike writers describing a character as looking like a particular movie star. I cited a few examples from Elmore Leonard (which touched some nerves among fans of the Great Detroit Coolster) and one from Dan Brown. Now I bring you a real corker from The New Yorker.

The magazine's latest issue (at least the latest one to get through the Israeli postal… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 18, 2009 at 8:52pm — No Comments

Amazon un-publishes 1984 and Animal Farm from the Kindle

That's right. Those who bought those books now don't have them, as they have been deleted from their Kindles, their accounts credited for the price they paid.

So Amazon, via the Kindle, can take away books you have paid for, meaning when you buy a Kindle edition book, you don't really own it. Yet another reason not to buy a Kindle.…

Continue

Added by John Dishon on July 18, 2009 at 8:06am — 3 Comments

Book Prices

(Also posted on One Bite at a Time.)

Interesting article in Slate magazine this week by Jack Shafer, about e-book pricing. The entire article is worth reading, but something he brings up in the first paragraph interests me more than the rest.

According to Shafer, publishers routinely sell books to retail booksellers for half the cover price. This… Continue

Added by Dana King on July 18, 2009 at 1:56am — 10 Comments

Dropping It Down a Tone or Two

They've taken over my brain again. Characters who I thought were going to be fun and entertaining as they romped through a murder have turned serious, and I can't stop them.

The problem is that I spoke about this book with an agent, and she liked the concept. Believe it or not, this agent actually asked what I was working on, not what I had finished. When I gave her two sketchy plots, she asked for samples of those. That sounded great at the time, an incentive to write the two ideas… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on July 17, 2009 at 10:04pm — 3 Comments

Friday

So with the weekend upon us, another opportunity to get a chapter or two written...

Added by Douglas on July 17, 2009 at 10:00pm — No Comments

International Crime Writers’ Reality Check Blog

We are four international crime fiction writers who have come together to blog as International Crime Writers’ Reality Check. Barbara Nadel has a series set in Istanbul, Colin Cotterill’s has a series set in Laos, Matt Beynon Rees has a set a series in the West Bank/Gaza, and Christopher G. Moore has set his series in Thailand.

We will be blogging about our lives, research, observations and writing from our region of the world. Reality check is our way of seeking out the facts and… Continue

Added by ChristopherGMoore on July 17, 2009 at 7:14pm — No Comments

Editing, editing, editing

For the most part, I love the editing process. You submit your book with the initial panic that it’s crap and your publisher will hate it, but then you get the thumbs up. Phew! And then comes the detailed editorial report, which not only points out all the good things in the book, but also how to improve it. And like every writer, I’m all for making each book the best it can be.

But one of the things I HATE about editing is the scenes and lines that end up on the cutting room floor,… Continue

Added by Phillipa Martin (PD Martin) on July 17, 2009 at 1:00pm — No Comments

College profs and good fiction

Agree about the profs wanting to impress, especially each other, but you have to see past all that crap. Under all the post-structuralist jargon some of them know what they're talking about. Separating all the nonsense from the valuable advice is exactly what you've got to do. There is a lot to be learned about what way you're going to tell your story, and why.

I'm new here. I've written one crime novel, Lost Bodies. You can read an extract on Allan Guthrie's Noir Originals, if you… Continue

Added by david manderson on July 17, 2009 at 7:39am — 4 Comments

First blog post.

For my first blog post in Crimespace, some BSP:

I have two new stories out, neither of which is a Diana Andrews story. She is my series character, a suburban prostitute in northern New Jersey.

The first story, "Bismarck Rules," focuses on Diana's sidekick in my unpublished novels, another hooker named Mary Alice Mercier aka Crystal. It's now oneline in the "Oregon Literary Review."

http://orelitrev.startlogic.com/v4n2/OLR-rickert.htm#Bismarck

I guess… Continue

Added by Albert Tucher on July 17, 2009 at 12:43am — No Comments