Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Off to the British Library tonight...

... to get a plaque for being on the CWA Duncan Lawrie shortlist. The shortlist is supposed to be announced at the event, but there was an article in the Times on Saturday by Natasha Cooper reviewing the shortlisted books. So it seems the cat is out of the bag.

Ms Cooper found AVL a little "too impressed with its own cleverness", apparently. Which is weird, because the last time I talked to it, it told me that it wished I had made it even cleverer.

10 comments:

Dr Ian Hocking said...

Well done, Roger! A shame it isn't still called 'crossed kippers', or whatever they used to call it. I'm looking forward to reading AGA (once I've finished my own).

Anne Brooke said...

Many congrats!

A
xxx

Sarah Hilary said...

Congratulations, Roger! I love your comment about AVL's cleverness - reminded me of Max Beerbohm's essay/story on characters "coming to life and writing their own stories" (he waited for this to happen over several days and then reached the conclusion he'd have to write the damn stories himself).

Lizzy Siddal said...

Well deserved, Roger. I know who I'm rooting for.

mattfwcurran.com Web Admin said...

Congrats, Roger. Well deserved, sir.

(By the way, the Macmillan New Writers have posted their congrats too on the MNW blog.)

David Isaak said...

Too impressed with its own cleverness? Well, hey, what can you expect when a cat is doing much of the writing?

Meanwhile, I believe it's just a week until AVL hits the shops Over Here...

Roger Morris said...

Thanks ian, anne, sarah, lizzy, matt and david!

No one has commented yet on a strange bias on the shortlist - all the authors' surnames begin with letters from the first half of the alphabet. Surely this is a scandal?

Anonymous said...

Congratulations

Ah yes, 'clever' - quite the worst thing any Brit can say about any other Brit.

David Isaak said...

"...all the authors' surnames begin with letters from the first half of the alphabet..."

We're counting on Aliya Whitely to fix this at some point.

no said...

Go Roger!

And David - I'll do my best... (phew)