I have finally received
my copy of the brand-new Crime Writers Association anthology that I have
edited. Guilty Consciences is published by Severn House, who have built up a
very impressive crime list, and I must say that the dust jacket artwork is very
much appeals to me. (Sorry I haven't been able to expand the image to make it more easily viewed - I'm still failing to get to grips with various aspect of posting on the updated Blogger system, as will be all too evident to those of you who have no doubt spotted a few glitches in the past couple of months....)
The book boasts a
foreword by the bestselling novelist Peter James, who also contributes a
brand-new story. Peter is the current chair of the CWA, and I was delighted to
be able to include a story by one of his most distinguished predecessors, the
late Harry Keating. Harry edited a couple of CWA anthologies, and as a tribute
to him, I wanted to include one of his stories. Happily, his widow Sheila
Mitchell was generous enough to locate and provide an obscure but very
agreeable story about Inspector Ghote which had previously only been published
in India.
There are a number of
other delights in the book. We have, for instance, a story by that very
distinguished writer Robert Barnard, and also a terrific story by Ann Cleeves
featuring Vera Stanhope. But one of the great pleasures for me about editing
these anthologies is the chance to include work by very good writers who are
either not especially well known (yet) or who have not in the past focused on
short stories.
A number of the
contributors were persuaded to take a break from their novels to make
submissions to the anthology, and they included Claire Seeber, Len Tyler, Sarah
Rayne and Dan Waddell. I hadn't read short stories by any of them previously,
but I was really delighted to read, and include, their contributions. The
result, I very much hope, is a book which lives up to the high standards of the
anthology over the past half-century, whilst giving it a fresh and distinctive
identity of its own.
Well done, Martin! I like the cover very much, and I wish you and the contributors much success.
ReplyDeleteYour type size has become enormous - it makes scrolling slow and it's hard to read!
ReplyDeleteAm saddened Guilty Consciences isn't available as an e-book yet. Any plans for this to happen soon? (My shelves are full but my Kindle isn't!)
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed this, but since you mentioned some glitches with Blogger, I just wanted to alert you to one: A few days ago, I noticed that on some other Blogger-hosted blogs where you are on the blog roll, "Guilty Consciences" was showing as your latest post, but when I clicked on the link, there was no post called "Guilty Consciences." Today--voila! I wonder if Blogger is showing that you've posted something when all you've done is put it in the queue.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to be happening in reverse too. For example, right now (November 23, 6:15 AM Central Time) on Bill Crider's blog roll, your blog is listed with "The Town" as your most recent post.
Sounds like an innocent pleasure!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Margot.
ReplyDeleteJanet, I am not sure of the plans on the ebook front as yet.
Richmonde, sorry about the type size variations - I am perplexed about a solution in the absence of my IT guru!
Thanks, Curt.
ReplyDeleteDeb, thank you. I am wondering about quitting BLogger, but some people have warned me Wordpress has its problems too.
Hi Martin – Lovely to emerge from an extended stint of grandchild-minding to find news of ‘Guilty Consciences’! Must admit to a crick in the neck, though, having spent a few crooked minutes with a magnifying glass deciphering contributors’ names on the splendidly modern cover-art dagger! Quite a different line-up from last year’s ‘Original Sins’, I see, with only your name and Ann Cleeves’ common to both anthologies. Another intriguing theme, of course – does Vera Stanhope have some dark secret?
ReplyDeleteNovels I love but short stories too, mainstream (O. Henry, Raymond Carver, George Mackay Brown), supernatural/macabre, and of course crime fiction. So the acquisition of quality collections and anthologies is – despite double-stacking due to limited shelf-space! – always a treat for me. And in the last week or two I’ve been delighted to add a couple of your anthologies – ‘ID: crimes of identity’ (CWA, 2006) and ‘Best Eaten Cold’ (Murder Squad, 2011). I like your very ingenious and witty ‘InDex’, which appears in both!
It’s terrific that you’re helping to keep the short story alive with your collections and anthologies. And I put it that way because quality shorts in the crime fiction field surely benefit the form as a whole.
Will you be doing any local gigs to promote ‘Guilty Consciences’? I’d like to buy a copy from you direct. A signed inscription would do nicely as compensation for that crick in the neck, I think!
All best, Paul
Paul, great to hear from you as ever. I@m not doing any local gigs, but maybe we can sort out an inscribed copy in some other way. Do drop me an email and we can take it from there.
ReplyDelete