Monday 2 January 2017

Happy New Year!

Let me start the year's blogging by wishing everyone who reads "Do You Write Under Your Own Name?" all the very best for 2017. Here's hoping it's happy and healthy for you, with lots of good books to read.

For me, this is going to be a very busy twelve months, and I'll be explaining why in a few days' time. At this stage, though, I'd like to focus on what is in store for readers of this blog and my writing generally.

The paperback edition of The Golden Age of Murder comes out in February; this edition contains various revisions to the original version, and I'm eagerly looking forward to its appearance

The key brand new publication will be The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, which will appear under the imprint of the British Library (in the US it will be distributed by Poisoned Pen Press). I've worked on this for quite a long time, and it's benefited from the input of several experts, most notably Nigel Moss and Barry Pike. I must say I'm excited that it's now nearly ready to hit the presses. It's very different from The Golden Age of Murder, but I really enjoyed writing it, and I hope it will give crime fans plenty of entertainment. I don't yet have a precise publication date, but I'll keep you posted.

I'm also working on three more anthologies for the BL, while there will be plenty of intros to books in the Classic Crime series. I've also just written an intro for a book to be published by Harper Collins, and an extraordinary long lost classic for Locked Room International, as well as for a collection of locked room novels to be brought out by the Folio Society.

This year will also - I very much hope! - see the publication of Taking Detective Stories Seriously, a collection of the reviews of Dorothy L. Sayers with a lengthy commentary by myself. The Sayers Society are producing this book, and I'm looking forward to its appearance. The reviews are truly fascinating.

In terms of new fiction, I'm working on a couple of anthology, and stories of mine should be appearing also in a Malice Domestic antho, one published by Level Best in the US, and in EQMM (As well as -yes! - making some progress with the next novel....)

On the blog, the mixture will be much as before. I'll invite guest bloggers to talk about topics of interest from time to time, and review films and TV series, as well as talking about the craft of writing, and covering Forgotten Books most Fridays. As usual, posts will tend to appear on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week. But sometimes the pattern changes - usually because I press the wrong button and publish something prematurely. Times keep changing, but my techno-incompetence will - and this is the one forecast for 2017 on which you  can confidently rely -, endure...

9 comments:

Jose Ignacio Escribano said...

Happy New Year to you too, Matin! All the best.

Bill Carlin said...

All the best to you in 2017, Martin. Looking forward to "The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books". Your passion for the genre always shines through and I'm sure that this new book will be as fascinating as "The Golden Age of Murder".

J F Norris said...

Happy 2017, Martin. Exciting books got to look forward to. Hope to meet you at Malice Domestic in April. Just paid for my registration. I plan to talk up Murder in the Closet (in which I have three essays) with select people while there.

Martin Edwards said...

Jose, Bill, thanks very much!

Clothes In Books said...

A happy new year to Martin - and I LOVE the sound of the 100 books history! I know I will enjoy every page of that...

Martin Edwards said...

Thanks, Moira. And thanks also for your help with my current fiction project.

Martin Edwards said...

Hi John. Delighted to hear you will be at Malice, and look forward to finally meeting you in person.

Anonymous said...

And a Happy New Year to you too, Martin!

I’m very much enjoying your Detection Club anthology ‘Motives for Murder’ – such an array of talent, and your own story truly masterful, a real cracker.

Now I eagerly await publication of ‘The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books’. But, my goodness, what a lot you have on the go (including a new novel). Your industry in the service of crime fiction is prodigious. Maybe, if you feel like a wee break, you could knock up a quick “how to” book on time management for writers!

With very best wishes for 2017,

Paul

Martin Edwards said...

Thanks, Paul, and all the best to you both for the new year. Yes, it looks like being a busy one. As for time management, oddly enough the Law Society did feature me in a pamphlet for solicitors on that topic many years ago. A weird accolade, but one that amused me at the time.