Short Stories

Amongst other things lately, I've been co-judging the Mystery Women short story competition with my good friend Ayo Onatade, who happens not only to be a great fan of crime fiction, but also one of the most knowledgable and supportive readers around. We've found it far from easy to make our decision, but finally we've managed to do it.

I well remember entering my own work for competitions, before I ever had any fiction published. For example, I submitted an early version of what became the first chapter of All the Lonely People. It got nowhere. But eventually, I won one, and it did give me a great motivational boost for which I shall always be grateful.

So I don’t begrudge the precious time devoted to reading competition entries when I really ought to be writing my own fiction. It’s a genuine privilege to have the opportunity to encourage people who write good stories, and I think it’s also something that is very worthwhile.

In a different way, it’s a honour to have the opportunity to consider contributions to the forthcoming CWA anthology that I’m editing, Original Sins. Here, of course, the standards of writing are very high – as one would expect from professional writers. The real challenge is to decide which of the many submissions to omit from the book. That’s the bit I don’t enjoy, but on the other hand it’s a rare treat to be the first person to read a new story by, for instance, Christopher Fowler or Reginald Hill. And a honour.

Writing Competitions

I’ve been involved with writing competitions a good many times, mainly as a judge in recent years, but also sometimes as an entrant. An early version of what became the first chapter of my debut novel, All the Lonely People, was submitted to the Southport Writers’ annual seminar competition in the late 80s and got nowhere. Actually, that’s not quite true or fair, since I did get some feedback from the judge, Jessica Stirling (who was in fact a very likeable fellow, Hugh C. Rae) which offered some encouragement.

A couple of years later, the Southport Writers’ ran a short story competition judged by the senior fiction editor of ‘Bella’. My story, ‘Are You Sitting Comfortably?’ won – a truly great moment. The story was published in ‘Bella’ (which sadly does not take fiction any more) and in ‘Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine’ and it helped to launch my career in print..

I’ve been asked to mention a writing competition run by that admirable organisation Mystery Women, and the details are here. Mystery Women does, I’m glad to say, allow men to join, but its special mission is to encourage women writers.

Is it worth devoting time and trouble to entering a writing competition? On balance, I think it often is – though it’s very important not to allow an initial lack of success to deter you from continuing to apply fingers to keyboards. Winning competitions and literary prizes is the icing on the cake – the ultimate measure of success is having readers who want to keep coming back for more of your work.

Lizzie Hayes and Mystery Women

The latest issue of the Mystery Women newsletter is just out, and as usual it is a good read. The tag-line is ‘Promoting Crime Fiction’, and Lizzie Hayes, Ayo Onatade and their colleagues do a wonderful job in the selfless and time-consuming work that they do to spread the news about mysteries they enjoy. Lizzie and Ayo are almost always to be found at crime festivals and they are great company.

I’ve been a member of MW for a number of years – yes, they do allow men to participate! – and I’ve enjoyed participating in a number of their events. A recent example was the panel at the Portico Library in Manchester moderated by Jennifer Palmer. And this week sees two major events associated with MW which I am really looking forward to.

On Wednesday evening, Kate Charles has organised what seems likely to be a super evening of crime talk at a fantastic venue, Ludlow Castle. Amongst those appearing are Andrew Taylor, Deborah Crombie and Laura Wilson. I’m honoured to have been invited to join them.

And then, this coming weekend, we have the annual Crime and Mystery weekend at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. I’ve attended this in the past, although not for a few years, and found it thoroughly agreeable. This year, I’m presenting a paper connected with the weekend’s theme, ‘The wages of sin’. The setting is terrific, the atmosphere is sure to be great; I only hope the rain doesn’t bucket down, for Oxford in the summer sunshine is a truly idyllic place to be.

Private Libraries

Private libraries – the older the better – enthral me. There’s something very special about these places, which are usually oases of calm in the middle of a bustling city. For about fifteen years, I have been a proprietor (that is, member) of the Athenaeum in Liverpool, which has a truly fabulous library, full of antiquarian curiosities. And last year, I did a Victorian mystery event at the Lit and Phil in Newcastle, a place I found deeply impressive (especially because of its wealth of obscure crime novels.)

This last week, I added an excellent new private library to my list. This is the Portico Library in Manchester. I’ve walked past it many times, but never been inside before. This changed when Jennifer Palmer, of Mystery Women, invited me to take part in a panel discussion.

My fellow panellists were two long-time friends, Cath Stainclife and Kate Ellis, and another local crime writer, Dolores Gordon-Smith, whom I first met at Crimefest last year. I’ve never done an event with Dolores before, but she proved to be a lively and entertaining speaker, and I felt the combination of the four of us worked well (even if I am a rather unlikely Mystery Woman...)

The Portico organised a first-rate buffet, and the ambience was fantastic. You really had the sense of history, in a room where people have read and studied for a couple of centuries. There was a thought-provoking exhibition about myth and legend in literature, very well illustrated, that I enjoyed reading. And I loved the heading above one set of bookshelves: ‘Polite Literature’. Couldn't help wondering how many have searched in vain for the Rude Literature….

Mystery Women and reviews

The latest issue of the Mystery Women newsletter has just arrived, and one of the upcoming events advertised on the front cover is to take place at the Portico Library in Manchester at 6.30 pm on 8 July. The Portico is quite a famous venue but one which, unaccountably, I’ve never attended. But I’ll be putting that right on 8 July, since I’ll be appearing in a panel discussion with Kate Ellis, Dolores Gordon-Smith and Cath Staincliffe. The moderator is to be Jennifer Palmer, whom Cath and I met the other day when talking to an audience at Waterstones’ in Altrincham.

The Mystery Women newsletter covers events involving members, but the main focus is on reviews. I’m glad to say that there is a gratifying review of Waterloo Sunset by Sue Lord: ‘a well-plotted novel with twists, turns and surprises. The mix of beautifully drawn characters contains gangsters, cleaners and security men…’

Sue Lord also makes mention of the Lake District Mysteries, and the books have been reviewed very favourably in recent blog posts:

The Coffin Trail

The Cipher Garden: Books Please

The Cipher Garden: DJ’s Krimiblog

St Hilda's

I’m really pleased to have been invited to Oxford, to speak at the St Hilda’s College Crime and Mystery week-end in August. This is an event which I’ve attended two or three times before, although not for a few years. St Hilda's was, until recently, a college exclusively for female students. Val McDermid is an alumna, and in fact she and I were contemporaries at the university, though our paths did not cross until many years later.

My previous visits to the St Hilda's week-end have been pretty memorable – I met Anne Perry and Susanna Gregory here for the first time, for instance, and remember a hugely enjoyable visit to an Inspector Morse exhibition with the likes of Colin Dexter and Andrew Taylor, as well as a delightful lunch with a retired tutor from my old college.

The two principal organisers are Kate Charles, a former chairman of the CWA and a much under-rated writer, and Eileen Roberts, who spent a good many years at St Hilda’s and retains her connection with the event, which is especially popular with American crime fans, as well as members of Mystery Women. It was at St Hilda’s that I was encouraged by those great crime enthusiasts Lizzie Hayes and Ayo Onatade to follow Andrew Taylor’s lead and become an honorary Mystery Woman. Which I remain to this day!

The topic for the week-end (at which the speakers deliver papers with a unifying theme) is ‘the wages of sin’, and in due course I’ll have to think about an interesting way of addressing the subject. Any suggestions of an angle that readers of this blog would find appealing will be gladly received!