The Gods of Opportunity rarely come calling twice in one week (see Monday’s post) but here’s another slice of luck. Research on Book Three is progressing well. The plot centres on three generations of a massively dysfunctional family sharing a huge Victorian pile by the river Exe in a picture-postcard village called Topsham. 84 year old Rupert Moncrieff is the brooding presence at the top of the tottering pile of misfits, alcoholics, divorcees, and the serially disappointed. Moncrieff is very rich, very mean and very manipulative. On page...
Masterread????
Monday, October 7, 2013 - 13:28
There have always been two key challenges for the aspiring writer: getting yourself published and then keeping your readers (and hence your publisher) happy enough to warrant more books. In times gone by I always thought the former mountain would be the hardest to climb but after more than thirty published titles it’s beginning to dawn on me that keeping your work out there isn’t quite as simple a proposition as I once imagined. Forget getting to the summit. Just staying on the hill is becoming a serious ask. Why? Partly...
Quay News Reveals All
Monday, July 1, 2013 - 18:06
Graham Hurley’s motivation for basing hislatest crime story on Regatta Court beenrevealed in an exclusive in the Quay Digest.These last few years, he has shared countlessoffshore and upriver expeditions witha bunch of like-minded veterans from theExmouth Rowing Club. He also happensto write crime thrillers for a living. Andone ill-judged morning a couple of yearsback, these two passions of his – scribingand oaring – collided head-on with consequencesnow available at Best Books on The Parade.In retrospect, Graham said “we should never havelaunched. A four metre tide was...
Survival By Numbers
Sunday, June 16, 2013 - 15:09
Making any kind of living as a novelist is rapidly becoming a real challenge. Once upon a time, if you were lucky enough to be in print, you could pretty much rely on the publisher to do the heavy promotional lifting for you. Your precious tome got a decent launch party, armies of reviewers – giddy on free Moet - reached for their pens, and hey presto off you went. If sales figures responded to this tide of free publicity, the marketing honchos would pile in and conjure all kinds of magic to hoist you into the Top Ten. One bright...
What Next?
Friday, June 14, 2013 - 09:41
Where do books come from? Here’s a clue or two. We’d been away for a while, travelling in China and South East Asia. It had been a longish trip, long enough to tackle re-entry with your mind wiped clean of the UK we take for granted. Shanghai, Hong Kong, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh, and innumerable points in between had given us a new perspective on what it is to be, or maybe to feel, English. Then, after the usual drowsy surfacing from jet lag, we were back in a landscape that felt...
Talking to the Converted
Friday, January 11, 2013 - 11:10
Really nice event on Tuesday at the University of Winchester, where I talked about Adventures in the Wrtiting Biz to the monthly meeting of the Hampshire Writers' Society. Good turnout of practitioners and an extremely warm reception to what I had to say. Also on the platform was Hampshire Poet, Brian Evans-Jones, who penned this blog the following day. I spent an enjoyable and thought-provoking evening last night at the Hampshire Writers’ Society. I was invited as the warm-up act, giving a brief plug for the Writing Hampshire project,...
"Western Approaches" Hits the Bookshops
Friday, January 11, 2013 - 11:01
The week before last saw the publication of Western Approaches - first in the new spin-off Jimmy Suttle series after the end of the Pompey novels - plus Strictly No Flowers, an e-book available on all platforms. Both books come from Orion, and both books are a bit of a departure after a decade in the company of Joe Faraday and Paul Winter. Small wonder, therefore, that yours truly has been a tad nervous about reader reaction. I'm glad to report, though, that comments to date - fielded largely through this website - have been more than...
Where Does All That Time Go?
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - 14:35
A questionnaire for Phil Barrington at Writers' Forum. The subject? Where do all those precious hours go? Read on... What commitments do I have? We’ve got kids, plus a grandchild, round the corner. Lots of babysitting. I go offshore rowing twice weekly in a five-man scull, and am Chairman of the Exmouth Rowing Club. Loads of exercise and mateship (all good) but more admin faffing than you’d ever imagine. I contribute to a French conversation class once a week and have just embarked on Spanish. I...
Backlist Hits the Kindle Shelf
Thursday, October 18, 2012 - 10:39
Today sees the e-publication of my entire Pan/Macmillan backlist on Kindle, plus the first three books in the D/I Joe Faraday series. Says Oli Munson, my agent at Blake Friedmann, "With Orion’s publication of WESTERN APPROACHES fast approaching, it’s wonderful to have the first three Faraday and Winter books finally available as e-books as well as Graham’s extensive backlist of standalone thrillers. I’m delighted that we’ve reached an arrangement with Amazon to be the exclusive e-book vendor and I can’t wait for a new generation...
"Backstory" Gathers Speed
Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - 08:30
Your grateful scribe is happy to report that e-copies of "Backstory" are flying off the Kindle shelf. This is the book-length account of how and why I penned the Faraday series, an exploration of the pros and cons of crime writing in a savagely competitive marketplace. Think one of those "Extra" features on movie DVDs. Some readers are finding it really helpful in understanding what it takes to get alongside working cops. Others have gone back to the series with a series of fresh perspectives. Here's a typical reaction...