Over to David.

I've decided to hand this plog post over almost entirely to David Isaak, author of the gloriously outrageous high concept thriller Shock and Awe.

Once again, David's been out Axe-spotting:





David writes:

A couple of pictures of the US paperback version of Axe at the biggest local bookstore, the Huntington Beach Barnes & Noble, which is a building about the size of the Pentagon.

Being in the New Mystery section is a good thing, an honor conferred on few paperbacks, but they only had one copy. On the other hand, they don't put you face-out in the New section if they only ordered one copy, so that implies they only had one copy left. That also seems like a good thing.

A young lady who worked in the store asked me, politely, what I was doing with the camera. "I know him," I said by way of explanation, pointing at your book, "he's from London. I'm going to send him the pictures." She seemed suitably impressed by one or more of those three facts, and stood by while I got on with my photos.

He was even kind enough to devote a whole post on his own blog to the paperback edition of The Gentle Axe. I share his frustrations with American amazon.

Nothing to do with me or my books (hey, come on, David!) his latest post on Oregon place names is hilarious.

All I can say is thank you David, for all your sterling work.

In the meantime, there was a review of A Vengeful Longing in The Telegraph on Saturday, alongside (well, just underneath) a review of my fellow NLHCW* Lee Jackson's The Mesmerist's Apprentice.

Apparently I have "a knack for showing the dark side of the city", which "bristles with depravity and deception, lunatic bureaucracy and melodrama..." Nice to have a knack for something.

*North London Historical Crime Writer

P-day for David-I

Last week I wasn't concentrating very hard so I missed the official publication date of Shock and Awe by David Isaak. But that's okay. As David himself suggests, official publication days are fairly nominal things.

David is a special guy for many reasons, but in publishing terms he's special for being the first US-resident American author published by Macmillan New Writing (nice banner there, by the way, David). The twice published Michael Fuchs may be a yank, but lives here in London. I know because I've seen him wandering the streets.

David is a generous supporter of other authors, as well as being an extremely well-read, charming and civilised chap. He's given a lot of thought to the art and craft of writing, and regularly shares his thoughts on his blog, which I wholeheartedly recommend. I first made his acquaintance online, as so often is the way these days, at a website called Absolutewrite. I was coming under attack for signing with MNW, which was seen by most of the absolutewriters as the devil's own imprint. Single-handedly, David came to my defence. Of course, he had a ms in submission there himself, so that may have had something to do with it. But his open-mindedness, patience and good-humour were obvious.

When David was over in the UK earlier this year, he took time out to venture to the wilds of north London to come to a bookshop event I was doing. We fell into a pub afterwards and had a good old chat. It was great to meet him in person at last.

I wish him the best of luck with Shock and Awe. I'm looking forward to picking up my own copy next week, and getting stuck into it as soon as I have got the proofs for my next 'un out of the way. (Yes, that's what I should be doing instead of being here blogging.)