Crime Squad's top ten books for 2008

I'm in it, just - at number 10!

Here's the full list:

1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
Quercus £7.99

2. Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
Pocket Books £7.99

3. Blood From Stone - Frances Fyfield
Sphere £12.99

4. A Simple Act of Violence - R.J.Ellory
Orion £9.99

5. Swan Peak - James Lee Burke
Orion £14.99

6. Therapy - Sebastian Fitzek
Pan Macmillan £6.99

7. Revelation - C.J.Sansom
Macmillan £12.99

8. The Perk - Mark Gimenez
Sphere £6.99

9. Echoes from the Dead - Johan Theorin
Doubleday £10.99

10. A Vengeful Longing - R.N.Morris
Faber and Faber £12.99


And here's what they said about mine:

"Our review said; "A Vengeful Longing is in essence a novel about power, suffering, bitterness and the lengths that people will go for revenge. There is a darkness about A Vengeful Longing that leaves the reader repulsed yet fascinated." Strong and stirring."

I'm thrilled to be included in their list.

What I think about when I'm swimming

I spent most of the last year and a bit writing a novel. To stop myself contracting that well-known condition 'writer's arse', I made myself go swimming twice a week, a quick(ish) twenty lengths at Wednesday lunchtime, and thirty lengths (going up to forty lengths more recently) on Saturday morning. That's not a lot of exercise, I know, but more than I have done for a long time. And I am not a strong swimmer, nor a technically proficient one. My breaststroke is ragged and my front crawl raggeder.

I admit that I didn't always manage both of my twice-weekly swims. The mid-week lunchtime session was the one in most danger of being dropped, especially as I approached the end of the novel, and the deadline. Sometimes, I just couldn't allow myself the time away from my desk.

As I swam I often thought about the book I was working on. Not in any useful way. I did not attempt to resolve any tricky plot issues, or sketch scenes in my head. No point really, as I wouldn't have been able to jot down any good ideas that came to me. It's hard to swim with a notebook in one hand.

No, I would just think about the process of writing, and I would carry with me a sense of where I was in the writing of the book, and somehow I would relate that to the act of swimming. So that it almost felt like I was swimming my book.

I would always compare where I was in the writing, how far I was from the end, to where I was in the day's swim, and how far I was from my target number of lengths. When I was more or less halfway in the book, I would get a special sense of harmony with myself when I hit the mid-point of my swim.

My ability to finish the lengths I set myself encouraged me to believe that I would be able to finish the novel.

Now I'm working on the edits of my novel, and there isn't really any analogous phase in a swimming session; except perhaps if I swam an extra length or two after I'd reached the day's target.

I confess I nearly didn't make it to the pool today. My desire to just get the edits done nearly won out. The fact is, I don't really enjoy swimming. It's the same kind of drudgery as writing a novel.

What I enjoy more than swimming is having swum. In the same way, I suppose, I find having written far more satisfying than writing.

And yet I am determined to persevere in both.

Only three steps away from Rigor Mortis

It has been pointed out to me, in a rather cheeky thread on the writers' site WriteWords, that my name is very similar to the phrase Rigor Mortis. It's like one of those word puzzles: How do you get from Roger Morris to Rigor Mortis in three steps?

The solution is:

ROGER MORRIS
>>>>>>>>>>
ROGOR MORRIS
>>>>>>>>>>
RIGOR MORRIS
>>>>>>>>>>
RIGOR MORTIS

I couldn't help thinking that Rigor Mortis would be quite a nifty nome de plume for a crime writer, though maybe it's a bit too extreme. Maybe Grigor Mortis would be better. More subtle, I think.

Hmmmm, that gives me an idea.

I'll get me coat...

I've just realised I'm being linked to from the Faber and Faber website. It's wonderful of them to do but... it has suddenly made me feel very self-conscious. Looking at the other blogs on the faber blog roll only brings home how much cleverer and more knowledgeable than me other faber authors are.

They write erudite and brilliant articles about the state of the novel, literary criticism, President Sarkozy... meanwhile I bumble on about wooden cooking utensils and make videos about my cat.

Ed's blog and a trailer for the opera

Composer Ed Hughes has started a blog. It's here. He's created a rather nifty trailer for the opera, Cocteau in the Underworld, which you can view there.

Oh, I wrote the words.

Roof Whirl Away by Tom Saunders

I don't often write reviews. But I was so impressed by Tom Saunders' new collection of short stories, Roof Whirl Away, that I managed to put a few thoughts together. You'll find them here.

Porf-hairy Petrov-itch

The beardy photo of me I posted a few days ago prompted my old friend Nick Primmer (website under construction - oh yeah, we've heard that before) to pen the following, in which he speculates, with uncanny accuracy, about my next novel:

A RAZOR WRAPPED IN SILK

The latest in Morris’s Porfhairy Petrovitch series of crime novels opens with the detective bearded in his den, and scratching his head and facial hair over a mystery of a different type from the usual.

Why will his trusty cut-throat razor not remove his morning growth with its usual alacrity? He had no problems with A Gentle Axe, which although a little tricky to get the hang of did at least remove most of his beard, and indeed a good portion of his body above his neckline too. Similarly, A Vengeful Shaving did the trick, leaving him smooth-cheeked with only the occasional gobbet of bloodied cotton wool to mark the progress of his Gillette across his features. But now, now his latest cut-throat device failed to make any impression on the impressive beard which was already reaching down below his fobwatch chain, after only three days of unrestrained growth.

Petrovitch hefted the aforesaid instrument from the desk in front of him. The edge seemed singularly soft and dull – a telling metaphor for his own detecting powers which he tried his best to ignore. Once more he applied it to his jawline, but as before it slipped across his face without effect. He felt sure the mysterious note left on his desk from R. N. Morris was a clue: “A razor wrapped in silk.” What could it mean? If only it was a mere 75 years later when packaged goods had been invented, he could have worked it out, and would have known to remove the silk before shaving. But no, those days lay far ahead. Confused, clueless, Petrovitch stood and made his way to the kettle whistling on the hob, being careful to avoid tripping over his beard which was now floor length. Why on earth would anyone package goods for sale, thought Petrovich, carefully opening a tea bag and emptying the leaves into his teapot. It was certainly a mystery.

I'm sorry to disappoint Nick, a man so heavily bearded he looks like a Russian monk, but my own facial fuzz received a severe pruning yesterday.

Raskolnikov twitters!

This has made my day! Well, not quite. It was a good day anyhow. But it is very funny. Genius even.

I'm all a-twitter

Well, if it's good enough for Stephen Fry, it's good enough for me.

So the beard...

... looks like this:



My target length is this:



Or even this:

Bookgasm reviews A Vengeful Longing

My google blog alert showed up a new review of A Vengeful Longing on the Bookgasm website.

I'm extremely pleased with it, especially this bit:

This is period fiction of the best kind: accurate in its details; staying within its appropriate time; even managing to teach us a bit about the society’s norms. And on top of that, you get a rousing good mystery that keeps you thinking until the end. More, please, from Mr. Morris. —Mark Rose

Okay, Mark, I'm working on it! On which note, back to the edit.

Two things

Thing one

Last week I was interviewed by the literary website Authorscoop. They asked for a photo to go with the interview. I thought it was time for a new one, especially as I now have a beard. You can read the interview, and see the beardy photo, here. Thanks to Jamie Mason of Authorscoop for interviewing me.

Thing two.

Jamie is someone I have 'met' through the internet. We actually came into contact through a website called AbsoluteWrite, and linked up on myspace. In the same way, I've virtually met a lot of wonderful writer friends through the American Zoetrope website, set up by Francis For Coppola. Marko Fongo is one of those, and he has very kindly written a wonderful, and very perceptive, review of A Vengeful Longing for his blog ChanceLucky. Thank you, Marko.

More on the beard later.

Some thoughts on completing a novel.

I put mine here. Go click.

Audio book news

I was asked by facebook friend and audiobook reviewer Sharon Harriott whether there is an audiobook of A Vengeful Longing. The answer is yes!

I have to confess that I'm not a fan of audiobooks myself. Reading has always been a silent occupation for me, and I find the reader's voice too intrusive. This is especially so when I'm listening to audiobooks of my own work - which, frankly, is something I just can't do. However, I do know there are people who love them, and indeed some who rely on them. (Audiobooks in general, I mean - not my audiobooks!) So for those of you who are interested, the audiobook of A Vengeful Longing is available through audible, as an mp3 download. I think that means you can put it on your ipod, if that's the kind of thing you're into. It's read by John Curless, who may or may not be this guy:



I'm sure he does a great job, though I can't bring myself to listen to the clip on the audible page. Perhaps you will be able to and report back in the comments what it sounds like.

Finished!

Yes, this morning I finished writing the first draft of my new Porfiry Petrovich novel, A RAZOR WRAPPED IN SILK.

Current word count stands at 124,942. I imagine I will cut that down significantly (10%?) in the editing.

I'm eager to crack on with that, as cutting words can be tremendously satisfying. But I do need to get some distance from it before I begin the read through.

And it's a lovely sunny day. I feel good.

Armando Iannucci, librettist

I heard on Radio 4 the other day that the comedy genius Armando Iannucci has "written an opera", as they put it, although as he himself admits, he has actually provided the words. The composer is David Sawer. Traditionally, an opera is the composer's piece, and it is the composer's name that is associated with it. The librettist does not usually get a look in. It's Verdi's La Traviata, not Piave's. But the Today Programme package I listened to failed to even mention the composer's name. Skin Deep, we were told, is a new opera by Armando Iannucci. I wonder how David Sawer feels about that!

I haven't seen it yet, though I am hoping to do so soon, when it transfers down to London. I was very interested to read this article by Iannucci about the process in The Times. As I've also written a libretto for an opera, I identified with a lot that he said, particularly this:

Somebody asked me to write an opera. I wasn’t expecting that. Being asked to write an opera is like being asked to demolish a power station or go in a rocket with Al Pacino: it’s not something you’d ever expect to do in your lifetime. You’ve got to say “yes” no matter the amount of trepidation that soon follows once you’ve agreed.

This too struck a chord:

it’s always a useful constraint on the ego to wallow in a line you’ve written only to be told that it needs to be four syllables shorter. You realise that you are there to service the music, not the other way round. Your words are like costume and scenery; part of a larger experience.

I would add that it is an amazing experience to hear words you've written set to music by a brilliant composer and sung by fantastically talented singers. It's an enormous privilege that's strangely humbling too.

And as an extra treat, here's a clip from Armando Iannucci's previous operatic work, Ibiza Uncovered: The Opera

Will the giving frenzy never cease?

Another chance to bag a free copy of A Vengeful Longing over at It's a Crime...

Bearded bloke writes about bearded bloke

Rowan Williams, author of a recent book on Dostoevsky.


Fyodor Dostoevsky, subject of a recent book by Rowan Williams.

In honour of this wonderful event, I have grown a beard. Photo will appear soon.

Seriously, though, the book - Dostoevsky: Language, Faith and Fiction - sounds fascinating. I have to admit that I did not know Rowan Williams was an authority on Dostoevsky. He speaks Russian too, which is very impressive.




Here's the blurb from amazon:

This is an extraordinary book, which through the lens of Dostoevsky's novels enables the reader to consider the nature of God in the 21st Century - a societal landscape fraught with tensions and social inequalities.When an Archbishop of Canterbury takes time off to write a book about Dostoevsky, this is a sign of great hope and encouragement for The Church of England and for all those who seek God.The current rash of books hostile to religious faith will one day be an interesting subject for some sociological analysis. But to counter such work, is a book of the profoundest kind about the nature and purpose of religious belief. Terrorism, child abuse, absent fathers and the fragmentation of the family, the secularisation and the sexualisation of culture, the future of liberal democracy, the clash of cultures and the nature of national identity - so many of the anxieties that we think of as being quintessentially features of the early twenty first century and on, are present in the work of Dostoevsky - in his letters, his journalism and above all in his fiction.The world we inhabit as readers of his novels is one in which the question of what human beings owe to each other is left painfully and shockingly open and there is no place to stand from which we can construct a clear moral landscape. But the novels of Dostoevsky continually press home what else might be possible if we - characters and readers - saw the world in another light, the light provided by faith. In order to respond to such a challenge the novels invite us to imagine precisely those extremes of failure, suffering and desolation.There is an unresolved tension in Dostoevsky's novels - a tension between believing and not believing in the existence of God. In "The Brothers Karamazov", we can all receive Ivan with a terrible kind of delight. Ivan's picture of himself we immediately recognise as self-portrait. The god that is dead for him is dead for us. This Karamazov God of tension and terror is often the only one we are able to find. This extraordinary book will speak to our generation like few others.

About the Author
The Rt. Hon. and Most Reverend Rowan Williams is Archbishop of Canterbury. He was formerly Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford and Archbishop of Wales.

When I told my wife this news she suggested I should get a copy of either A Gentle Axe or A Vengeful Longing to him for a quote. Well, it worked with Lorraine Kelly, another fan of Dostoevsky! (That sounds like a good pub quiz question, doesn't it? What connects TV presenter Lorraine Kelly and Archbishop Rowan Williams? They are both fans of Dostoevsky.)

This is a very lazy blog post, I admit - although surely I deserve some credit for working in both Rowan Williams and Lorraine Kelly. My excuse is I'm desperately trying to finish my latest novel. I really am nearing the end, which is making me incredibly tense and bad-tempered. I feel like it could all fall apart in my hands. There is the faint hope that it might not.

One more winner to announce

All the winners' books have gone off now, including one to Fiona Robyn, who I forgot to mention in my last post, and who is also running a FREE BOOK GIVEAWAY MADNESS FRENZY FEVER type thing on her own blog.

Lucky winners!

The three lucky winners of my Paperback Giveaway Madness Frenzy are:

Sarah Fox

Peter Devonald

Clare Clarke

Philip Amos

Iasa Duffy

Mary Akers

Jen Persson

Sharon Scinicariello

Mack Lundy

Rachel Green

Gerry Byrne

Alicia Gifford

Bonnie ZoBell

Miranda Morris

Carol Reid

Morgan Hayton

Martina Schwiebert

Loveina Khans

Justine Taylor

Gerry Byron

Hang on a sec, let me count that again.

Oh, looks like I miscounted first time. Never mind. Everyone's a winner. No more books, or jiffy bags, now, so I'm afraid the competition really is closed.

But, what's this? Another chance to win copies here!

I feel a special mention must go to Morgan Hayton, who contacted me on behalf of the 'Books for Fiji' project.

This is the message Morgan sent me:

The [Books for Fiji] group started about 6 months ago, I am 16 and went on a school trip to Fiji to do volunteer work at some schools there. One school we went to only had a few books for the whole school and village, when we got back to Australia my teacher Mrs Dawson set us 5 students a task of how to help on our own, I came up with the idea of building the library one book at a time via people just sending one book when they got my email, I contact authors like Jackie French and Garth Nix and they sent a book but also suggested to put the request on Facebook as most author have a page there, well thats how its has grown and got to be on Pass it on and also on a local community radio in Melbourne.

I was so impressed, I sent off a copy of both A Vengeful Longing and A Gentle Axe. If anyone else would like to donate a book, please get in touch and I will pass on Morgan's details.

Oh and I had some more ink on Sunday, in the Sunday Times, from Joan Smith. I shall post a quote when I get a chance.

In today's Guardian!

A great review of A Vengeful Longing by Cathi Unsworth.

As fans of Morris's previous A Gentle Axe will know, this author not only has the nerve to lift his lead character from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment but also the skill to bring that distant Russia and its inhabitants to life, while drawing parallels with our own world.

A great start to the weekend!