Gallows Court shortlisted for the eDunnit award - and reader reaction

I got back home yesterday after a long flight from Toronto (more of which anon) to receive the delightful news that Gallows Court has been shortlisted for the eDunnit award for best crime ebook of 2018. If ever there was a splendid cure for jetlag, that was it!

The eDunnit is awarded each year at CrimeFest, and as regular readers of this blog will know, I've attended CrimeFest ever year since its inception. This year, alas, I can't make it to Bristol - although for a very good reason which I'll mention another day. But I'll certainly be there in spirit!

The shortlist comprises seven books, and Gallows Court finds itself in excellent company. The other authors include a number of old friends, and the stellar list in full is: Leye Adenie, Steve Cavanagh, Laura Lippman, Khurrum Rahman, Andrew Taylor, and Sarah Ward. Congratulations to everyone, and also of course those shortlisted for the other CrimeFest awards. 

This sort of thing is always a boost to morale, and the announcement was particularly well-timed as I continue to work on the sequel to Gallows Court. Back to the keyboard now with renewed vigour! It's a few years since a novel of mine was shortlisted for an award - the most recent was The Arsenic Labyrinth - and the reaction to Gallows Court continues to thrill me.

On that subject, I've had two especially fascinating and distinct reactions from readers to the new book. I heard the other day from Mary Harris, who is part of a readers' group in Elgin, Scotland, and she gave me a fascinating insight into their deliberations about the book. This sort of feedback is always rewarding. And some time ago, I received some incredibly interesting responses to the story from Cionaodh MacantSaoir as he was actually reading the novel, which charted his evolving reactions to the plot twists and so on. I haven't yet had time to figure out with him a way of sharing his thoughts on the book more widely, but I think it might be fun to do so. It was certainly wonderful to get insight into a thoughtful reader's evolving perceptions of a story with many twists.

Crimefest and the CWA Short Story Dagger

I've returned from Crimefest in Bristol to a ton of work, but in high spirits after a lovely week-end. Thanks as ever go to Adrian, Myles and Donna, the organisers, along with their team of helpers. There were many highlights, but one that i didn't expect was to find that I was longlisted for the CWA Short Dagger, for my story "Murder and its Motives", which appears in the Detection Club anthology I edited last year, Motives for Murder (Sphere). What's more, three other stories from the book made the longlist, much to my delight

In case you're wondering, as Chair of the CWA, I keep a distance from the Daggers process, which is in the hands of a large number of capable and independent judges and Dagger Liaison Officer Mike Stotter. The independence of the Daggers judging process is part of the reason why the awards are held in such high esteem around the world. One publisher expressed dismay to me that a particular novel by a talented author hadn't made one of the longlists. But whilst I can always empathise with disappointment, publishers simply can't influence the judges, and that's the way it should be. We may not always share the judges' taste, but such is life.

The convention kicked off for me, as usual, with the Authors Remembered session. I moderated a panel comprising Sarah Ward, John Lawton, Andrew Wilson and Jane Corry, and they did a great job of interesting the audience in a range of writers from Patricia Highsmith to Elizabeth Daly. There was time for a quick bite to eat before the traditional pub quiz, run by the admirable Peter Guttridge (photo above). My team managed to win, and we had a very convivial time of it.

The Dagger announcements took place on Friday, and was followed by dinner with Thalia Procter of Little, Brown, publisher of Motives for Murder. My fellow guests included Peter Lovesey and the incomparable Ali Karim, whose company I always enjoy. Thanks also to Ali for his photography and video work. Saturday was a busy day. I interviewed Peter Lovesey, one of the guests of honour, and then took part in a panel moderated (extremely well) by Kevin Wignall. Then came an enjoyable drinks reception and the banquet. Ali videoed the interview with Peter and the film will shortly be available on the shotsmag website.

On Sunday, I moderated another panel, this time on the short story. Given that my panellists were Len Tyler, Janet Laurence, Peter Lovesey and Ann Cleeves, it was a great pleasure and a great way to end  a fantastic few days.

Flash Fiction and Crimefest

Sarah Hilary has asked me to mention on this blog a venture connected with this year's Crimefest, to be held in Bristol at the end of May. As regular readers will know, I'm a big fan of Crimefest and have attended each year since its inception. The panels are good, but in many ways the greatest strength of this very friendly event is the social side. There's a great deal of mingling between authors and fans, and speaking as an author who is also a fan, I find that very enjoyable indeed.

The Flashbang competition, is open to people who are not established writers (pity, I've recently developed a taste for writing flash fiction myself!). The aim is to write a story in 150 words or less,and Sarah tells me that this year the judge will be that splendid crime writer Zoe Sharp. Zoe, incidentally, is one of the most knowledgeable people I know on the subject of e-publishing, and has entered that area with her customary zest and effectiveness. She's also, among other things, a highly talented photographer and I well remember a cold day in Ilkley when Murder Squad did  a photo shoot with her. I'm sure she'll be a very fair judge.

Flash fiction has gained in popularity due to the internet, I think. A short-short story is ideally suited to online publication, and there are some very good examples around. I haven't actually seen a conventional print anthology of flash crime fiction, but there may well be some around that I haven't caught up with.

Writing a very short story, say of less than 1000 words, might seem easy, but brevity demands concentration, and I'm not sure writing a really good flash fiction story is much easier than writing a good short poem. One short-short that I did have published conventionally a few years ago, as Sarah reminded me, was a story called InDex, which gave me a lot of pleasure. I hope lots of people will give the competition a go..

Crimefest Memories

I'm very grateful to Roberta Rood for sending me a link to her generous account of the Forgotten Authors panel at Crimefest in Bristol ten weeks back.

Especially good to see that she's tracked down some of those elusive book covers. Thanks, Roberta!

I'm pleased to say that I've been asked by the organisers to moderate the same panel again next year - this will be the fourth year we've done it, and it's always highly enjoyable for me as well, I hope, as for the audience.

Vera and Crimefest

The first series of Vera, starring Brenda Blethyn, came to an end tonight with an adaptation of The Crow Trap by Stephen Brady. The story opens with the murder of a woman who is resisting an attempt to build a new quarry in the beautiful Northumberland countryside, and it soon becomes clear that a mystery from the past is entwined with the puzzle of the present.

This was a well-structured episode, and a suitable finale for what has been a successful first series. Now that the characters and setting are established, the way is clear for the scriptwriters to introduce the variations of tone and pace that will ensure Vera ranks along with Lewis as the leading detective drama for years to come.

A highlight of Crimefest, which opens in Bristol on Thursday, will be an interview featuring Ann Cleeves and TV writer Paul Rutman, discussing Vera. I'm looking forward to this, as well as to Crimefest as a whole. I'll be moderating two panels, including one on Forgotten Authors.

This time last year I went to Crimefest at a point when I was rather down in the dumps, and it really cheered me up. I was due to appear in the Mastermind quiz, and really wasn't in the mood for it, but all was well in the end. And the fact that I was able to put other concerns aside and focus on the quiz itself gave me a good deal of heart in the weeks that followed. So I do recall Crimefset 2010 with special appreciation, and I'm going to enjoy this year's event in a lighter frame of mind. But I'm glad I don't have to do Mastermind again!