CrimeFest 2015 Friday begins...

Bristol is waking up, and we are in a room with a view of the river...

It's going to be a very busy day.

9am panel with Melanie McGrath. (This is going to be a challenge... as I'm used to getting up at 11 - after being brought tea in bed at 9 and then working in bed for a couple of hours, I hasten to add!) 

10.30 coffee with some regulars from my creative writing courses on Skyros.
12.30 interview with a journalist.

4pm my talk about Gender Issues in Crime Fiction. 

6.30-7.30 CWA Dagger shortlists are announced at a drinks reception (I have to attend a raise a glass as one of the Debut Dagger judges)
8pm out for dinner with friends. 

I'll try to find time to post some photos... 

Visiting Bristol

I've just come back from a fabulous weekend in Bristol, packed with friends and events. Before catching the train from London to Bristol I found Dead End at number 70 on the WH Smith's chart at Paddington station. On the left I'm signing a copy of Dead End in one of the stores at Paddington, and on the right is a photo with a customer for whom I signed a copy in the other branch of WH Smith's at the station.

Meeting Ruth Dudley Edwards, Ailene Templeton and Linda Regan before our panel (left). Pauline Rowson hadn't arrived yet but we're all there at the event (right and below).

After the panel I went for a live interview on BBC Radio Bristol with Graham Torrington.

After my interview, we took a short detour to take a look at the amazing Clifton suspension bridge before returning to CrimeFest to catch a panel with Chris Carter, Tim Weaver, Howard Linskey and NJ Cooper talking about the thrills of crime writing.
By then it was time for the CWA reception where some of the 2011 Dagger shortlists were announced, we met up up with writing friends old and new, and shared a glass or two, courtesy of the CWA.

I spent Saturday at Waterstones Bristol Galleries where the staff were friendly and helpful, as always in Waterstones. I met lots of local readers who bought 65 copies of my books. Dead End sold really well, as expected, with its great cover.
Then it was back to CrimeFest to get changed for the Mulholland Reception (and more wine).
On the left you can see a few happy faces (photo courtesy of the unflagging Ali Karim) Matt Hilton, Ali's beautiful daughter Sophia, and a little person who forgot to pack any heels at the Mulholland Reception. Then it was on to the Gala Dinner where we heard Christopher Brookmyre, Lindsey Davies, Deon Meyer and Peter James. At least I'd remembered to pack my best frock to announce the winners of the Mystery Woman short story competition for 2011.
Returning home after such an exciting weekend, the programme for Harrogate Festival had arrived in the post. It was a thrill to see my name in it!

CRIMEFEST 2010

It's hard to know where to begin writing about CrimeFest 2010. http://www.crimefest.com/ was a fantastic experience for a debut author, rubbing shoulders with so many fellow crime writers under one roof. I met Colin Dexter in the lift and asked him a question! (OK, it was "Which floor do you want?" - but he was gracious enough to say it was the most interesting question he'd been asked all day. We had just come from breakfast...)
Name dropping aside, it was an opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people, established successful writers and aspiring authors alike, and to hook up with familiar faces. Here are The Curzon Group, behind the scenes in the Green Room before our panel on Friday. From the left, Richard Parker, Zoe Sharp, me, Tom Cain and Matt Lynn. Zoe moderated our panel, which was just as well. She did a grand job keeping us all in check. The audience asked probing questions and we had some lively discussion about character vs plot, among other topics.
On Saturday I was invited to participate in the Debut Authors Panel, chaired by Marcel Berlins. I was pretty nervous about meeting him, but he put us all at our ease within seconds, and made the panel feel like a relaxed chat between friends. Here we are, after the panel.

Also on the debut panel was Mike Hodges, who wrote and directed the original film of Get Carter. Mike has just written his first novel, Watching the Wheels Come Off. It was thrilling and surreal to find myself on a panel alongside such an iconic film maker.

Discussion included the pros and cons for an author of being signed for a series or for one stand alone book. I have to say, I'm really happy I was offered a three book deal - with a subsequent offer for a fourth in the series.
I also gave a talk on writing a series, and was pleased to have a decent audience. Once again, the questions were searching and challenging, and I discussed the development of Geraldine Steel and the balance between offering the reader something familiar, and the need to avoid becoming formulaic.
The icing on the cake was seeing - and signing! - sale copies of ROAD CLOSED for the first time. Publication wasn't due for a few weeks but WH Smith's Travel wanted to do a promotion in June so the printing was brought forward to meet their deadline. A box of books was delivered to the convention venue in Bristol, literally hot off the press. The books vanished somewhere in the hotel but my publisher was able to tell me exactly when and by whom the delivery had been signed for and the Blackwells bookseller went out of his way to track the books down. If you read this, Blackwells in Bristol, thank you!
I also spent time with fellow authors I'd only 'met' online before, and caught up with Mystery Women.
The convention was a tour de force of organisation, with panels, talks and interviews running constantly and concurrently throughout the event.