Sex or porn? When too much is not enough.

Still Missing. A thriller? Misery memoir? Porn? Not read it yet, but will let you know. It does annoy me that industry insiders tell me my sex-and-drugs thriller is not commercial, yet this apparently is? Anything with this amount of pre-publication publicity must be commercial by definition, surely? It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Edited to add: here's a link to an interesting debate on this very topic on HarperCollins authonomy site.

Hmmph.

Vampire fiction

A timely post, since there's apparently some new vampire film just out?

What is it with vampires? They're fictional creatures that drink blood, for God's sake. And yet the media and youth of today are obsessed with them. 21st century vampirism is definitely cute and fluffy, with pin-up vampires and Hollywood overtones.

Personally, when I do vampires at all, I like them dark and broody - Mitchell style, I guess, in the awesome BBC tv series Being Human. But I got a vampire book for review not so long ago - called Blood & Ice, I was fully intending to write a review here but lost the publicity slip and can't remember when the publication date is. I emailed the publishers but they've not got back to me. Now while this has been published already in hardback, I'm loath to write anything pre-paperback-publication-date just in case my edition is different in any way. So you'll have to make do with the hardback review by The Independent in the link. But I have to say, that for somebody who doesn't generally do vampire fiction, I liked this one, despite the negative review. I thought it was rather original. But you make your own mind up.

Or if you like your vampires a touch more - shall we say? - erotic, check out this excellent unpublished snippet Bite on HarperCollins authonomy site. But please note - it's adults-only and, um, ever-so-slightly (well all right - quite a bit) graphic. Don't say I didn't warn you....

Legend or Action?

Compare and contrast two books: Alan Fenton’s The Return of Arthur and Matthew Reilly’s Seven Ancient Wonders. The first is a modern retelling of the Arthurian legend – I had this in hardback many years ago and recently received a review copy of a new edition together with its sequel. The second is a bit like Dan Brown on acid. Reilly started out writing action books, some could only be described as military thrillers, but the recent stuff has a conspiracy-theory twist – at one point a character in the Louvre even says he’s having a “Dan Brown” moment. I read Seven Ancient Wonders a few years back but since I just got the third in the trilogy, I thought I’d start again.

So – Fenton tells (note that word – it’s important later) the story of King Arthur in modern Britain, where scientist Merlin teaches at a boy’s school and Arthur is the son of a politician. Now I’m a sucker for Arthurian legends, but while this is competently written, there’s no real pace or drama. Arthur does this, Merlin does that; nobody even seems to notice when Merlin does a vanishing act. I just don’t feel I know or care about these people. The book is still on my bedroom floor and I have doubts about whether I’ll find the enthusiasm to finish it, much less read the sequel.

Reilly on the other hand. This guy breaks all the rules. The plots are preposterous – we have crack commando teams evading quicksand and finding bits of pyramid around the world and attempting to prevent some cataclysm and fulfil ancient prophecies (you get the Dan Brown analogy now?). The actual writing is littered with exclamation marks, bits in italics, odd paragraph breaks, explanatory pictures and maps. There are plane chases, impossible escapes, implausible action sequences, but God, do I want to keep reading?

So what’s better? Fenton telling us a story with no real depth or pace? Or Reilly’s edge-of-the-seat showing us the action at breakneck speed? I know who I’ll carry on reading.

Crime Pays

Or it should do. Especially if you're writing it. Having failed quite spectacularly so far in selling my psychological thriller/crime novel, I've decided I need to be "marketable". So, given that I'm not about to murder anyone (not yet, anyway ...), what else can I do?

Short stories? I don't write many of them. I find them much harder to write than novels - how to produce something compact and satisfying in such a small number of words? But every now and again the mood takes me and I wrote three in the early part of this year, which are doing the rounds of various competitions and women's magazines. Maybe when I've won some competitions or have some more short publications to my credit, I'll tick a few more boxes on the right lists for marketability?

I've also contributed some content to a new website associated with the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. It seemed like a good idea as I've entered their short story competition too! Maybe if I can expose myself in as many places as possible (without getting arrested), I might then be classed as marketable? Then again, perhaps I should just get arrested.

Time Flies

Ag. Where has the time gone? Blog? What blog? In my defence, I've succumbed to facebook lately, so anything interesting I have to say (and believe me, it's not much) is now mostly said there.

FantasyCon 2009

It came and it went and it was a blast! Well over 300 people, including guests such as Brian Clemens (him of Avengers and the like), Gail Z Martin (lovely American lady writer), Sebastian Peake (son of Meryn 'Gormenghast' Peake), Jasper Fforde (another lovely writer). Not forgetting the hilarious magician-turned-author John 'Talking Toaster' Lenehan, who totally charmed my teenage daughter.

Fabulous weekend. A year of very hard work but it all paid off with a smooth and successful weekend. And that's it. Never again. No more. I've done 10 of them over the years and I publicly declare now that I am retiring!

Of Crows and Men

So when I'm not writing or working, this is the kind of thing I get up to...

This is life in the wilds of Cheshire. OK, you have to be a bloke to be a crow and it's invitation-only, but hey - I was Crow Control this year (after being car-park nazi - oh, the power...)