The Donor hits the small screen
Check this fantastic promo video for Tod sei Dank (Out in Germany Feb 2012, Galiani). It's all in English.
Sure pays to know people with talent - a whopping thanks to director Jerry Kelly. And to Darren Hercher, who shot, edited and took his shirt off. Also a big hurrah to Maestro Adrian Burns!
A group of onlookers gathered in our street to watch a naked man being filmed in my bedroom. I'd love to hear the gossip at church on Sunday (but won't, 'cause I'm a sinner).
Update - Events etc
This blog it hath weighed upon me...
Apologies, but I've been using up all my words elsewhere.
So this is just a quickie.
Nice piece in Screen Daily re the film of my third book, The Devil's Staircase.
http://www.screendaily.com/news/production/-levelk-climbs-devils-staircase/5037840.article
And lots of fun events coming up if you're near any of these places:
ZURICH
GLASGOW
04-03-2012
BERLIN
05-03-2012
GLASGOW
25-O2-2012
GLASGOW
1. ADAPTATIONS
(with screenwriter Sergio Casci and producer Claire Mundell)
1300-1400 9TH MARCH 2012
2. MAKING THE PITCH AND NOT STRIKING OUT
1430-1600 9TH MARCH 2012
BRISTOL
13:40 - 14:30 - 25TH MAY 2012Mad, Bad & Dangerous To Know - WITH
Michael J. Malone
Moderator: Donna Moore
The Duplicate
Wow - love this cover for my novella with Snubnose Press, out soon. Great stuff Eric Beetner.
God bless our libraries (and PLR)
Just got my PLR statement through and am thrilled at the number of books people borrowed last year. When I tweeted about it, many other authors joined in the celebration. Thank God for our libraries. In case you’re wondering, people are still using them.
It was fascinating for me to see the borrowing figures for my first four books. I won’t go into details here, but two books were published by one publisher, and two by another. Two of the books did well. Two not as well.
Put the books on a level playing field – ie on the library shelves – and I realise that the two books that didn’t sell as well are miles ahead in borrowing figures. Either borrowers have different taste from buyers, or one of my publishers got it wrong. Hm.
I’m pleased, though. I’d written those two off as shite when they’re obviously works of genius.
Woman at Work
Sorry for the postlessness folks. Busy writing…
REVIEW - DEAD MONEY BY RAY BANKS
People have been telling me to read Ray Banks for a long time. Now I understand why.
Buy Dead Money on Amazon Uk here
And on Amazon US here
New Cover New Title
Here's the cover for the German edition of The Donor, out February 2012. Tod sei Dank plays with the saying “Gott sei Dank” (Thank God) and means “Thank Death”. My editor at Galiani says it's confusing and disturbing and cool at the same time - perfect. It's my first hardback in Germany and available for pre-order on Amazon.de.
Can't wait to see what other territories do with it. How do you think it compares with the UK and Dutch versions?
Off The Record
I’m bored with definitions.
What’s crime fiction?
What’s not?
What’s literature?
What’s not?
What’s Scottish?
What’s not?
What’s a likeable character?
What’s not?
What’s a genital wart?
The only one that interests me is the last one, especially if the answer is “that.”
What I’m loving about the e-book revolution is not worrying about definitions. I have two short stories and one novella coming out soon in digital format only, and for the first time I've been completely free to forget about genre and word length and just go for it.
The first short story is out on the 30th November. The collection was put together by Luca Veste. It’s called Off The Record, an anthology of short stories by 38 writers, each inspired by a song. All proceeds to go National Literacy Trust and Children's Literacy Initiative.
Here’s a quote from my interview about my story, Two Little Boys:
“It’s about a gay couple who go to marriage counselling. One has a very large penis which he likes to share. Unfortunately, their counsellor is a scorned middle aged woman who’s having a nervous breakdown. Her service – the Road Ahead – takes place in her car. With her clients in the front seats, she listens from the back, her thinking being that people open up while driving. As business ideas go, it’s not a great one.”
Off The Record is available on Amazon Uk - £2.49
And on Amazon.com - $3.61.
That’d be a good title for a book
I’m going mad. Some people hear voices in their heads that tell them everyone’s out to get them, some wash their hands seventeen times an hour. I met one man in Barlinnie Prison who thought he was God.
Me, I see book titles everywhere.
I was going to list the titles that came to mind today, but I won’t because I truly believe they are genius. Which is further proof that I’m going mad.
I even think “That’d Be A Good Title For A Book” would be a good title for a book.
PS. In case the man I met in Barlinnie actually is God, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Him for blessing me with an uncanny ability to think up good titles for books.
Twitter (mis)behaviour
I follow 500 people, most of them in the book world, a good percentage of them crime writers.
This is what I’ve noticed about my twitter behaviour:
I over indulge when I’m editing. Bored, frustrated and alone, I reach out to my colleagues for support and entertainment. I’m very lucky - crime writers are supportive and hilarious. I’ve found the best chat happens on Friday afternoons, when people are happy and optimistic. Mondays are shite, all hard sell – seems to be panic day for writers, having spent too much on beer on the weekend.
I do it in a state of manic happiness when I have good news.
I never tweet when I’ve been drinking, mainly because the first thing to go is my spelling.
I get upset when I’m unfollowed. What did I do?
I unfollow people whose tweets are limited to hard sell or annoying quotes.
I've made mistakes on twitter:
Once, my husband rang from Puerto Rico (at the Premiere of his film, The Caller) to say Stephen Moyer was reading The Donor. I tweeted it. Within seconds this story appeared online - "What's the book on Stephen Moyer's nightstand?"
http://www.allstephenmoyer.com/what%E2%80%99s-the-book-on-stephen-moyer%E2%80%99s-nightstand/
A few seconds later, the news was on vampire fan sites around the world. Stephen, meanwhile, was on page one, looking around his hotel room for hidden cameras.
Another time, after reading an endless stream of tips for authors submitting to agents, I tweeted this: "Agents: to feel the power, please patronise unpublished authors with snide tweets re submissions." My (wonderful) brand new agent read this immediately and thought I was talking about him. As if. I'm new to his (wonderful) agency. I am still in grovel mode.
Then there's last Friday when, bored of the #FF's to THE AWESOME, THE CLEVER, THE BEST, THE FUNNIEST, I #FF'd to "crappy shitty people who I hate", only pausing to worry after hitting return that they might not get the joke.
There have been times when I've been dirty, angry and bitchy, times when I've used the c word or slagged off certain demographics (I am not religious... And anti-Tory). I have to be more careful. I have to ask myself - would I get up on a stage, microphone in hand, and say this to 500 people? (The answer is probably yes, but still a worthwhile question to ask).
At least once a week, I berate myself for spending so much time on twitter, I feel embarrassed by my (not so witty after a re-read) chat, by my shameless bragging and regular errors of judgement. I promise myself that this week I will stay away from it.
But I never do…
...For example, right now I'm in manic state of happiness and have just tweeted this: The Donor one of the "Best of the Year in Fiction" on Amazon
- http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000593303
