Events

If you have a look at the top of this page, you'll see there's a new tab called Events.  No prizes for guessing what it's about.

This is my rendition of the same information on the GoodReads site.

If by chance you can make it to one of these, I would really love to meet you.  I've made so many friends over the net, it'd be great to actually use something other than a keyboard to communicate.

Kathleen Conn: amazing editor

In my continuing series of people holding bits and pieces of Pericles Commission, I bring you the talented young editor Kathleen Conn, who holds the entire book, hot off off the bindery.


Thanks Kathleen, it can't be easy to deal with a complete newbie.  You've been fantastic for a debut author!

A review from Robin Agnew of Aunt Agatha's

Aunt Agatha's is a specialist mystery bookstore in Ann Arbor. If you slide your eyes slightly to the right, to the events list, you'll see I'm appearing at Aunt Agatha's on the 26th October at 7pm. Anyone who can make it would be welcome!

Aunt Agatha's is run by the incredibly friendly and helpful Robin Agnew and her husband Jamie. Robin blogs at Hey, There's A Dead Guy In The Living Room, which I recommend for anyone who likes mysteries. She's also very much into ice skating, and since my wife Helen and I do ice dance (and Helen makes ice skating costumes), I think I know what we'll be talking about.

Robin's written a lovely review of The Pericles Commission, which I was overjoyed to read, considering it comes from someone who's read and sold thousands of mysteries!



Anneke and Bill: beta readers extraordinaire

So as we get close to The Pericles Commission finally going on sale, this is the end of a long, long journey not only for me, but for everyone who's helped me.

These two shifty-looking characters lurking in a dark corner have held the secret of who killed Ephialtes since 2007. That's when they first read the manuscript and gave me advice and asked the tough questions that had to be answered.

Anneke Klein is Dutch. English is her second language, which doesn't stop her from being the most amazing beta reader. I tell her she should be doing manuscript assessment for a living, she's that good. Anneke asks all the tough plot, theme and character questions that I really wish no one had noticed. To this day I have not published or sold a word of fiction that she did not see first. Which means yes, she's already been through The Ionia Sanction and she asked all the tough questions that made me rewrite parts. She also has one astonishing talent: if Anneke likes a story, it sells; if she doesn't like it, it doesn't sell. I've never known her to be wrong, and I have unsold short stories lying about to prove it. These days Anneke runs the flash fiction site Rammenas. Her own first fiction publication will be a short story in an upcoming anthology.

Bill Kirton is a master of craft. His critiques are always so depressingly right, and so crystal clear that you'd almost think he taught writing as a profession. Which, actually, he did. Bill taught creative writing and French literature at Aberdeen University. He's also been an actor, a playwright, and a BBC scriptwriter. His novels are The Figurehead (an historical mystery!), The Darkness, Material Evidence and Rough Justice. The last three are police procedurals starring DCI Jack Carston. (I was dead sure I had Material Evidence solved. I was wrong.)

Thanks guys. It wouldn't be a book without you.