Murder in Middlesbrough

One of the drawbacks of combining a full-time job with writing is that it’s far from easy to fit in events where one can meet readers (and prospective readers!) But it’s something I enjoy a good deal when I can manage it, and I had a bumper day last Saturday.

I’d been invited to take part in the Middlesbrough Literary Festival, and I drove up during the morning to Acklam Library to give a talk about Dr Crippen’s life and misadventures. I’ve given this talk several times, and there are usually plenty of questions – but never as many as on Saturday afternoon. Tremendous fun.

Then it was over to the centre of town, where I stopped off at my hotel and had a quick wander round before heading for the impressive Central Library to host a Victorian murder mystery evening. The cast of suspects included Alex, from Southside Broadcasting – and I hope to include podcasts of the interviews we did on my website in due course – and the husband of Gill Appleton, who organised both events. The audience was enthusiastic and the top prize was won by Allison Rae.

I was pretty weary by the end of the day, so much so that I didn’t make much progress with the novel I’m reading – the new one by Reg Hill – but the effort was absolutely worthwhile. Two pleasant and very different events with a good audience vibe on each occasion. I really do hope that public sector spending cuts don’t reduce the scope for libraries to hold events and festivals. They are great for writers – but even more importantly, they are great for bringing readers together, and fostering a sense of community.

Interview and Podcasts

One of the very pleasant things about participating in crime fiction events is that they can lead to all sorts of unexpected and agreeable further activities. A good example cropped up recently when I put on my Victorian mystery event at Stockton-on-~Tees. I was approached afterwards by a couple of chaps from Southside Broadcasting, which has links not only with hospital radio in the North East, but also festivals further afield, in particular in Lincoln.

The outcome of our conversation was that on Friday I was interviewed by Southside by phone about my writing. This was a pre-record, to be broadcast in the near future, and Southside kindly offered to let me have an mp3 version to upload on my site as a podcast.

A podcast would be a new departure for me, though there is already on my website a video interview that I did with Legal TV before it disappeared into oblivion (I don’t think this was solely because I used to appear on their programmes).

What I’m wondering is whether those of you who have websites, and those of you who visit authors’ websites, think that podcast interviews are potentially of interest and worth including on a site such as mine? Or don’t you have enough time to bother with them? In my own case, I’ve listened to very few, one of the exceptions being an interview that John Baker gave about his latest novel, which I found fascinating. My website contains plenty of text interviews, but it is worth expanding in this direction? All opinions, for and against, will be gratefully received…