Great review of the History Room

There is a great 5-star review of Eliza's new book on the Bookbag site.

"Graham has woven a terrific mystery with the darkness of the human psyche at its centre. Using every possible tool to dissect the mysteries of the mind, the novel is a beautiful balance of narrative, dialogue and description and every word is pertinent. She has mastered the art of writing in a rich, full fashion without wasting one word."

Congratulations, Eliza!

Big Pulp and Mr Whippy

More short story pluggage to follow:

Big Pulp’s Summer 2012 issue will be available to buy shortly, but as a taster, my short story First Up is available to read for free from the website for a limited time.

First Up is a little lick of romance with a flake or two of fantasy. What would you do if you had a special talent? Wouldn’t you want to share it with others in your workplace, even if it might upset them? It’s a complicated choice, but then, isn’t life just like that all over?

***

Mr Whippy (Photo credit: kenjonbro)

So yesterday I went to the park after work as I usually do, and got talking to the girl who works in the Mr. Whippy van who has nice eyes but I’ve got no idea about the legs, obviously, because she’s behind the counter and that’s part of her appeal. After that, I walked around for a while, licking my ice cream, thinking about what she had said to me—about how you need to get a good grip on the machine handle and hold the cone steady at the same time.

God, life is just full of these little tricks of the trade, full of things we have to juggle. It’s not enough to be good at just one thing any longer. It got me thinking about my own talent, and how I’ve been treating it as if it’s not enough. Like it’s just holding the cone steady and ignoring the handle. So I decided to start being proud of it. I decided to share it around.

The Gilded Lily in my Mailbox.

Late this afternoon, an advanced reading copy of Dee Swift's THE GILDED LILY arrived at my house in Texas. The cover art is alive with beautiful detail. Two women wearing lace stand with their backs to one another. But it's what between the covers that counts. Dinner was delayed as I read page after page, the story of Sadie and Ella taking me to the world of Westmorland and then to London in 1660. Hunger pains did eventually force me to put the novel down (why oh why does work have to interfere with pleasure?), but I'm itching to get back to it. THE GILDED LADY will be released in September and without a doubt, it'll be a hit. Many congratulations, Dee. Job well done.

The History Room

A book often starts with what I call 'unaware research'. I read a newspaper article or listen to a Radio 4 programme and something fires in my mind. My fourth novel, The History Room, came into being because I was at a school open day and thinking what a perfect crucible a school is. All those teenagers with their angsts and stresses. The teachers with their own anxieties. Exams. Sports matches. Friendship troubles. But at open days everything can appear perfect and glossy.

I knew my book had to start with a bang: something had to happen which immediately threatened the serene appearance of the school. Originally I thought of having a real baby in my first scene, but for reasons that will be clear to anyone who’s read The History Room, I couldn't bring myself to do it. A friend on a writers’ forum put me on to reborn dolls: dolls that are lifelike facsimiles of newborn babies. I researched reborns further by looking at YouTube videos and reading newspaper articles like this one.

Researching the book’s setting was also important. I looked at photographs of large country houses on the web. The History Room is set in a beautiful country house and there are plenty of those where I live, in Oxfordshire. Some of that research took place organically, as I drove around the area. My editor, Will Atkins, also sent me a great photograph of a house he’d come across on a walk.

I also needed to know about the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia and when the Russians would have reached various parts of the country. In addition, I wanted information about the layout of the western suburbs of Prague and of the area bordering the German border. I have visited both parts of the country, but years ago. Here, my best friend was Google Maps. It allowed me to have a bird’s eye view of both areas. I also found books about Czech history during the 20^th century and read some biographies and autobiographies of artists and writers who’d lived through WW2 and/or the Prague Spring.

As fantastic as the web is for research, I still err on the side of preferring books, archives and museums, mainly because I probably spend long enough at my laptop, anyway. However, Wikipedia and the BBC website and associated forums are very good. I have also used The National Archives online to obtain copies of documents.

If it comes to a stand-off between 100% historical or geographical accuracy and the story/characters, the latter always win. But that happens very rarely, I find. What I'm trying to do is avoid someone throwing the book down in disgust because they know it's completely unlikely that events would have happened in the way I portray. Nonetheless, every time a book of mine is published I lie in bed fretting that I’ve forgotten to check something. I’m sure it’ll be just the same where The History Room is concerned!

But whatever the anxieties it can create, research is fun. It leads to new openings, new ideas. I’m enjoying going through the process for my fifth novel at the moment.  

The History Room is published on 10 May by Pan Macmillan.


Eliza Graham

He Who Laughs Last Wins the Last Laugh Longest

Congratulations to our own LC Tyler! Nominated for the Last Laugh Award for the very enjoyable Herring on the Nile. We're rooting for you, Len.


Praise for Herring on the Nile:


`a witty and wonderful pastiche of Agatha Christie's classic murder stories...Funny, with an intriguing mystery at its heart.' --Lancashire Evening Post

`Another rib-ticklingly funny take on the Agatha Christie canon...A real hoot.' --Peterborough Evening Telegraph and Northampton Chronicle and Echo

`...joyously entertaining...An outrageously clever parody of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and all those other masters of the whodunit, Herring on the Nile is the equivalent of a sparkling glass of champagne. Tyler's effortlessly funny - and yet seriously plotted - murder mystery combines a hilarious brand of cynical humour with the best-loved traditions of the golden age of crime fiction...Tyler uses Christie's classic Death on the Nile as his starting point but then turns the story into a dark and funny pastiche without losing the atmosphere, the sharp plotting and the delightful twists and turns of the original.'
--Lancashire Evening Post, Pam Norfolk

'Herring on the Nile is a wonderful tribute to Agatha Christie, and, at the risk of being hunted and tortured by Agatha Christie fans, far more fun than Death on the Nile. If you haven't read any L C Tyler books before you are in for a treat. The whole book is a joy - an intriguing mystery with some great characters. And the last paragraph is an utter delight.'
--Lizzie Hayes Euro Crime blog


I should add that this piece written by Len for Felony and Mayhem publishers will strike a chord with all of us and is definitely worth a read. And yes, I came across it by accident through a twitter link whilst browsing idly in the hope that my own novel would write itself in the meantime.

Thirst eDition Fiction

Over on the MNW google group, you may have noticed Aliya and Tim referring to a little venture I’ve been setting up, and today is the day we’ve gone public.

A bit of background:

Around summer last year, after reading the e-mails, and comments here on this blog and on the google group, I noticed a growing frustration about getting books published, books that editors have enjoyed reading immensely, but for commercial reasons they haven’t been able to commit to.

At the same time, two of MNW’s authors, Tim Stretton and Roger Morris, embarked on their own e-publishing adventures (Tim’s Mondia books and Roger Morris’ short story collection). Also, a writer that has been involved with MNW though never published by them – Ian Hocking – had been finding considerable success self-publishing his Saskia Brandt books, beginning with Déjà Vu.

The success of these self-publishing exercises, and the success of this blog, had me thinking about a community publishing venture, one that embraced self-publishing ideals - but as a community, where the authors publishing through it would promote their own books, but also the community itself and the other authors under it. To that end I came up with Thirst eDition Fiction.

What we’re doing now:

Below is taken from the “About Us” page which sums up what we are trying to achieve:

“Thirst eDition Fiction is an independent endeavour dedicated to providing the finest ebooks from new and established authors. It is run as a collective venture, by authors, for authors. The profits of each e-book sold goes to the author and not the publisher, that is why Thirst eDition Fiction is a non-profit business.

“Our business model is simple: the author is wholly responsible for the content of their book, including the formatting of the book for the e-reader and in most cases even the cover. This ensures Thirst eDitions can operate with no running costs and the author can receive the maximum income from their endeavours. In order for a book to qualify as a Thirst eDitions release it is vetted by a number of authors and editors. After the book goes through this quality control process it is released under the Thirst eDition Fiction label, which ensures the reader only receives the best writing from Thirst eDition Fiction.

“We also offer the author a shop window for their books, a chance for trade publishers to see for themselves the quality of the writing here. The rights to the e-books published under Thirst eDition Fiction are owned solely by the author and in most cases there won’t be any print editions of these books.

“In terms of value for readers, we advise all our authors to publish at competitive prices. In the main you will not see a Thirst eDitions ebook sell for more than £1.99 ($2.99), though there will be exceptions on occasion. This ensures the best prices for the reader and more sales for the author. As e-readers retail around £100 ($189) we expect consumers not to pay hardback, or even paperback prices for their e-books.

“Thirst eDition Fiction is still in its infancy, but our authors list is growing. Each author published under Thirst eDition Fiction becomes part of the family here, taking a stake in one of the most important aspects of publishing: building a reputation for quality fiction.”

~

The purpose of Thirst eDition Fiction isn’t to replace or even offer an alternative to trade publishing for our members, but it’s another option to self-publish non-commercial books with the support of other writers who are already doing it. It is there for books that aren’t published through the trade due to author branding issues, commercial reasons, publishing house budgets etc., books that are well written but for various reasons are deemed too risky for a commercial publisher to commit to under the current financial climate.

~

What this means to the writers here, on MNWers, is that this is a chance to get those books published. Some of you have agents and may wish to speak to them first before you consider going down this route, but the offer of Thirst eDition Fiction is there to you. And it doesn't cost a penny becoming a member.

The only cost incurred so far is a payment for the domain name ($17). The time I've spent on the website and subsequent promotion is given freely, which is the ethos I want to foster at Thirst eDition Fiction. That little extra time the members give to share advice, look at other's works or promote others books etc means the reputation and the quality of this venture can only grow, which could have a significant impact on the success of the individual books. For example, the cover to Aliya's Mean Mode Median was designed by me after looking at Aliya's original printed cover. Another example is the e-publishing of the books; Tim and Ian Hocking have extensive experience of doing this, and at some point Ian has agreed to write a short idiot's guide to help us do it ourselves.

~

My intention is to contact some of the ex-Macmillan New Writers over the coming months to see if they are interested in this, and my goal for this year is to steadily increase the membership. Officially we are not open to submissions, but the MNWer community is the exception. Eventually we may open this up wider, but as it is new we need to control the numbers. When we get to the stage of opening it wider, we may consider head-hunting rather than an open-door policy, but that’s in the future…

~

Finally today, the Thirst eDition Fiction website goes live: www.thirsteditions.com. So please take a visit to see what you think.

On Monday 23^rd the first Thirst eDitions books will be published: Aliya’s Mean Mode Median (first time as an e-book), Tim’s Dragonchaser (a re-issue) and Ian Hocking’s Proper Job (a re-issue).

In May, Roger Morris will re-issue his short story collection, The Bridge that Brunuel Built under the Thirst eDition Fiction name. Sometime this summer, France’s new book, Basic Theology for Fallen Women will be published as an e-book original under Thirst eDition Fiction. Tim will also be re-issuing Last Free City and The Zael Inheritance in the coming months, and later this year, I’m hoping to get two of my own books published too - and other writers have plans in place to publish further books.

So there’s a lot going on. Once there is more news, I’ll post it here. I hope this of interest to you all; as a community, Macmillan New Writers blog has been a big success. Thirst eDition Fiction is an attempt to replicate that but with an end-product: a finished e-book. There is a lot of expertise being shared over there right now (we have a private room where questions, idiot’s guides, and other resources are raised, read and stored) so you’ll be in good company, as always…

Best wishes

Matt

Smart New Me

The smart new me is now over at:

http://aliyawhiteley.wordpress.com/

Please come and have a look, and sign up for the RSS feed/email notifications so I can tell you all my news. There's a bit about the upcoming release of Mean Mode Median as an ebook via a very exciting new venture called Thirst eDitions, and a link to a new interview I gave to Smokelong Quarterly about my writing process.

The Helper

An anonymous caller is willing to give you clues that will help you solve a series of murders.

But there's a catch: You can't tell anyone about the help you're getting.

What do you do?

If you turn the offer down, you will have nothing to go on, and more people could die. But if you accept it, and fail to interpret the clues correctly, they will still die, and you will have concealed information that could have stopped a killer.

Such is the dilemma faced by New York detective Callum Doyle. The decision he takes will have consequences that will haunt him for the rest of his life ...

David Jackson's new book, the Helper, was published by Pan Macmillan earlier this month (paperback and Kindle). It's already had some great reviews. The Times described it as 'a clever device, adroitly executed and fun to read.' The Milo's Rambles blog commented: 'A magnificent book, one that will have you entertained from the very first page right up to its climactic dénouement... Take a bow, sir; this is a virtuoso performance, Mr Jackson, if ever there was one.'

Many congratulations to Dave on its publication and good luck with sales!