Bookhuggers unite!

There's a new website called bookhuggers, which I think is well worth a look. Okay, I'll declare an interest. I'm on it. I've taken part in a 'virtual panel' about crime writing - exploring both the factual and fictional varieties. The other panellists are Armand Cabasson, a psychiatrist and novelist working in the North of France, and Jay Dobyns, an ATF undercover agent (!!!) who infiltrated the Hells Angels after faking a murder (even more exclamation marks!!!!!!!).

Check it out here.

The guilty one

This was the line-up in the Waterstones Islington shop window. That's me on the right. The guilty one. I was caught red-handed inside the shop taking the photo below - a picture of my book, A Vengeful Longing, on display, complete with a bookseller's recommendation. "Excuse me, we don't allow photographs of the displays!" came the cry from the sales assistant. "But it's my book!" I pleaded. She softened. Smiled. "Oh that's different," she said.

I pointed to myself in the line-up poster as proof. "See, that's me."

"We'll do our best for you," she promised.

Here's the offending shot, which I was not made to delete:

Waterstone's Fresh Blood

Waterstone's are doing a major promotion for crime fiction this summer, and I was lucky enough to be included in it. You can see me as large as life in Waterstone's windows at the moment, in a window poster. It's reproduced on the Waterstone's website here, and above. That's me at the end on the right.

Leaving aside my own deep misgivings about posing as the Kevin Spacey character from The Usual Suspects (not my idea, honest!), still this is great news!

A tale of two covers

Interesting. The French edition of A Gentle Axe, which goes by the title L'Ame Detournee, seems to be available in two different covers:





Presumably one's aimed at male and the other at female readers.

I wonder if even more alternative cover designs will start to appear as the publication date (1.9.09) approaches?

Watch the book

Watch The Book is a blog that features book trailers. They've very kindly posted my trailer for A Vengeful Longing. Go see!

Stupid Whoosit

If you've ever played the Chad Valley game Whoosit, you'll know it's very good training for developing the skills of young detectives. Each player conceals the identity of a mystery person from the other player, who has to use deductive reasoning to eliminate characters from their playing board. You must have played it. the players take it in turns to ask questions, usually based on the physical attributes of the characters, such as hair colour, sex, or whether or not the person wears glasses or earrings.

We were playing it in the garden on Sunday, but it fairly quickly deteriorated into a variant of the game invented by my wife, called Stupid Whoosit. In this version, the questions you ask are almost impossible to answer with any certainty, and when you have the answer you are generally none the wiser as to who you should eliminate. A couple of examples that were asked in our games: "Does this person own a boxed set of the second series of Star Trek?" (asked by my son Luke); "Is this person an aspiring playboy model?" (asked by daughter Claire); "Has this person ever had an affair but been forgiven by their partner or spouse?" (asked by wife Rachel). Surprisingly, a couple of times the correct character was actually identified, as after a while you do feel like you get to know the people on the boards and you are able to make some calls about what their tastes and personal histories are.

It's a good game. I recommend it.

Overheard in Somerfield

He was wearing camouflage shorts and a pastel vest. What was strange was how calm, how natural, how easy within himself he was. He was not at all abashed, or agitated. He spoke clearly so that there could be no misunderstanding. He didn't seem to mind that everyone in Somerfield could hear his half of the mobile phone call: “Just push her out then lock the door. Right? If she comes back don’t let her back in. Try not to let the police in if they turn up. Just turn out the lights and don’t let on there’s anyone in. But don’t resist arrest... if they do get in, don’t resist arrest. No, listen. I know you. That’ll only make it worse. If they arrest you, don’t cause any trouble. I know you. I’m serious. It’ll be worse if it gets to court. You could end up in jail. No seriously, don’t resist arrest. That’s big trouble that, mate. Don’t cause trouble. All right?”

He bought a Ginsters meat pasty. No petrol. Just that. "Do you want a bag?" asked the woman serving. "No, I'm going to eat it now," he replied.

The New Covey Trailer Awards

I've entered the trailer into an on-going awards scheme called the New Covey Trailer Awards. It's in the 'author-produced' category, which will be judged by a panel of experts.

However, it's also in open competition for the 'most intriguing trailer', which anyone can vote in. There's a poll here. The voting panel is on the left. My trailer, A Vengeful Longing, is listed at the bottom, #20, so you have to scroll down a little to find it. Should you wish to vote for it, that is. Oh go on, you know you want to!

The trailer is also appearing on bookscreening.com.

Spot the difference...

This is a new version of the trailer for A Vengeful Longing. I wonder if you can tell how it differs from the last version I posted?!

A free copy of the book to the first person who gets it right.

The surrealism of detective fiction

A short piece I wrote for the Strictly Writing blog.

The eve of paperback publication

Tomorrow (Tuesday 26th May) is the publication date of the Penguin US paperback of A Vengeful Longing. To celebrate, I thought I'd re-post the trailer I made for the book:



And here's the Publisher's Weekly review of the hardback:

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Set in St. Petersburg in 1868, Morris's superb second novel to feature Porfiry Petrovich (after The Gentle Axe) puts the detective borrowed from Dostoyevski's Crime and Punishment on the trail of a series of vile murders. When the wife and son of a doctor die after consuming a box of chocolates at their dacha, the obvious suspect is the morphine-addicted doctor. Then a shooting and a stabbing lead Petrovich elsewhere—to an elegant confectioner's full of pastries and possible revolutionaries as well as to the city's underworld. As Petrovich breaks in a new detective, the aptly named Pavel Virginsky, he introduces colleague and reader alike to the Russian capital and to the ills of the entire society. Morris captures this world with expert strokes, never content to merely peddle exotica, but making sure that his characters spring convincingly from their setting. While the person behind the crimes is a little unlikely, this novel stands out from a number of fine czarist-era mysteries—by Russians and foreigners alike—like a Fabergé egg at a yard sale.

A week away....

... from the publication of the US Penguin paperback of A Vengeful Longing.

If you're interested, there's a Reading Group guide here on the Penguin website.

Bristol CrimeFest.

It's the Bristol CrimeFest this weekend, and I will be there. I'm taking part in a panel on historical crime writing: A Moment in Time - CWA Historical Shortlist Panel.

I'm very happy to be participating, even if it does mean I have to be on the train by 8.00 am on Sunday morning. Yes, Sunday morning. I'll be travelling to Bristol with my fellow panellist, and fellow North London Historical Crime Writer, Andrew Martin. Our panel is at 11.00 am and the other panellists are Marjorie Eccles and Ann Granger. The panel will be moderated by Janet Laurence.

Photos from Brighton

Viewable here. Thanks to the photographer Matthew Andrews.

Times Listings Opera Choice, Saturday May 2

Cocteau in Brighton

Composer Ed Hughes in front of the Pavilion Theatre Brighton, scene of last night's performance of his opera Cocteau in the Underworld (with a libretto by me!).



A view of the set, with John Lloyd Davies in discussion with Liz Webb, Samantha Kerrison and Sophie Cleobury.



Another view of the set, showing the back of Ben Oliver .



We had a great night in Brighton last night, a tremendous, powerful performance from a fantastic cast: Owen Gilhooly as Cocteau, Jacqueline Varsey as Eurydice, Hannah Pedley as Princess Death, Andrew Mackenzie-Wicks as Orpheus and Richard Scott as the Loved One. Electronics were by Ben Oliver. Stage Manager was Samantha Kerrison. Sophie Cleobury and Liz Webb were respectively the Artistic Administrator and Project Manager. The Musical Director was David Angus. And the brilliant repetiteur was Lindy Tennent-Brown. The production was directed by the genius John Lloyd Davies.

Ed and I have been constantly telling ourselves we were lucky to have such a great team on board and last night it was clear just how lucky. It was an electric performance in which everything came together faultlessly - well, as faultlessly as live theatre can be! We couldn't have asked for more from everyone involved.

It was pretty much a full house and the audience was incredibly receptive: a fantastic high for me to hear the extended applause and cheers even! If only you could bottle that for the times when things aren't going so well. As it was a workshop performance - part of Brighton Festival's Platform showcase - we invited the audience to give us feedback in the bar afterwards. I only had one comment from a guy who was getting drinks at the same time as me. "Don't change it. Just do it." I don't know who he was, but it was great to hear.

Thanks to everyone at Brighton Festival, OperaGenesis, and ROHII for their help in developing the piece. We all very much hope that we will be able to take it forward to a full production next year. Fingers crossed.

The View from Here in print...

The interview I did with The View From Here is now available in their hard copy printed magazine. Browse and buy here. Look at me next to Iain Banks. And I see there's also a contribution from Michael Kimball. Sounds like an issue not to be missed.

Must go, as I'm meant to be working on a short story!

Brighton Festival draws near

This year's Brighton Festival takes place from 2-24 May. For the first time ever, it has a guest curator - the Turner award-winning artist Anish Kapoor. Of course, in this current economic climate there is less money around for the arts than ever, especially in Scotland, it seems, with the hard-hit Scottish banks withrawing their sponsorship. However, according to this blog piece in the Telegraph by Rupert Christiansen, the Brighton Festival doesn't seem to have fared too badly in the financial squeeze. In fact, in his opinion, this year's programme is shaping up to be the best ever.

That's reassuring to hear, especially as I have worked on a piece that is going to form a part of this year's festival programme. It's the opera, Cocteau in the Underworld, for which I've written the libretto. The composer is Ed Hughes.

A workshop production of Cocteau in the Underworld will take place in the Pavilion Theatre on Monday 4 May at 9.00pm. It will be pretty much self-contained, but is not the complete opera. In fact, it represents about half of the piece and should take about 35 minutes.

There's more about the Brighton Festival here.

More about Cocteau in the Underworld here.

New website

Here.

View from Here interview part two

I think it must be the longest, most in-depth interview I have ever done! Part Two is here.

Part one, if you want to read that first, is here.

Jen Persson of View from Here also reviewed A Vengeful Longing here.

I feel like I am rather hogging the view over there.

But if that's not enough for you, Alex at Faber spotted another review in Eurocrime.