All Work and No Play

The current 'to be read' pile.....



To be fair, I've started New York and Wolf Hall (which is turning out to be surprisingly readable for a Booker winner).

So many books, so little time.

Just Because...

And as I'm still totally impressed by the novelty of it all, some more links to articles about the CBI Bisto Book Awards are here:

The Indo

The Examiner

Irish Times complete with photo (tho' not of me thankfully)

Book2Book

Scott (Me and My Big Mouth) Pack - publisher extraordinaire

Mmmm Bisto!

And here I am in a state of shock. I've just gone and been nominated for the Children's Books Ireland Bisto Book of the Year 2010. This is the biggest children's book prize in Ireland so my gast has been truly flabbered.

The full shortlist is here and there are some serious writers on the list (including John Connolly, one of my favourites). More to follow - once I've recovered from the shock.

World Book Day

Yesterday was World Book Day. As part of the celebrations I was invited to Donoughmore National School to do readings and Q&A to 5th and 6th classes. As both classes had read The Third Pig, they promised to be intetersting sessions as they'd be the first groups I'd spoken to where everyone had read the book. After reading the poo chapter to 6th class (always a favourite and it seemed to go down well) there was an energetic Q&A. After a much needed cuppa I then spoke to 5th class, read the closing chapter (due to popular demand) and followed it up with another Q&A which included:-

- do you like chocolate chip muffins (yes, actually)
- me mistaking a pupil dressed as Harry Potter for Spiderman (well he was a good bit away and wearing red and black).
- lots of questions about Chelsea, John Terry and the previous weekends match with Man City

I rounded off the visit by giving a sneak preview of Chapter 1 of The Ho Ho Ho mystery to both classes and they seemed to enjoy it.

I had a great time at the school, throughly enjoyed my visit and the pupils seemed to enjoy it too. Kudos to the teaching staff, who not only gave me a great welcome and made me feel right at home but - as the school was celebrating 100 years - had dressed up in clothes from 1910 for the day.

Later that evening I gave a reading to the On The Nail writers group and spoke a little bit about how I developed the book and how I used the web to find constructive critque groups. As well as me there was a brilliant poet called Brendan Murphy who treated us to some of his excellent (and very accessible) work. This was followed by an Open Mic session where local writers could read their work to an appreciative audience. There was a good mixture of prose and poetry and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Throw in a few songs and it made for a great evening's entertainment.

I eventually arrived home at midnight knackered and almost voiceless after a fantastic day out.

The Equivoque Principle - for free, gratis and for nothing!

The very talented Darren Craske has a newbook coming out today. It's called The 11th Plague and you should all go out and buy it forthwith.

"But it's a sequel," I hear you say. "How will be able to read it if we haven't read the original?"

"A good question," I reply. "But fear not because you can read Book 1, The Equivoque Principle, in its entirety should you so choose. Just click below and enjoy. Amn't I nice?"



And if you're not sure about the 11th Plague, here's a sampler. Do I not spoil you?

Top Books of the Noughties - The Results

Well, not surprisingly none of my choices made the Top 10 and only four made the Top 50. There are some good choices in the list but I feel that the Top 10 is a predictable, safe and very Book Club-ish selection (Niffenegger, Hosseini, Zusak etc).

The Top 10 books are as follows:

1. Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne. Is it the best book of the noughties? probably not but it's still a good read and a worthy choice.


2. Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffennegger. I haven't read it but those I know that have speak very highly of it.

3. Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold. Again, not something that's featured in my to-be-read pile.

4. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson. My favourite rant: I am still at a loss to understand how this book is as successful as it is. The first 150 pages were nothing more than a tedious info dump and the rest of the book became a very obvious mystery that any crime reader worth his salt would have solved very early on. I'm told the other two books in the trilogy are much better but I have no urge to read them after wading through the first one.

5. Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon. Beautifully written, simple story that repays re-reading. Good to see it in the Top 10.

6. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini. I'd have put good money on this one featuring in the Top 10. A regular book-club choice, it was inevitable.

7. The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak. Is it any good? No idea. I got thirty pages in before I gave up. I just didn't get it (and there are very few books I don't actually finish).

8. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini again. As No. 6.

9. The Road - Cormac McCarthy. Marvellous, if depressing and gritty novel from one of America's finest writers. Good that it figured in the Top 10 too.

10. Atonement - Ian McEwan. I like McEwan's books, I just haven't gotten around to this one yet.

The rest of the Top 50 is a bit less predictable and eclectic although I was hugely disappointed but not surprised to see the vastly overrated The Sea creep in at 44.

The full Top 50 can be found here.

Hughes & Hughes Goes Under

I was very disappointed to hear about the demise of the Hughes & Hughes bookshop chain over the weekend. Apart from the loss of over 220 jobs, it's always sad when an independent bookstore closes its doors. More information and updates can be found on the Irish Publishing News website.



H&H had a marvellous store in my hometown of Ennis. It was a modern bright bookshop with a Costa Coffee adjoining. The staff in there were very helpful when The Third Pig was first published and made sure it was prominent on the shelves.

It will be missed.

Top Books of the Noughties - vote now.

Eason's are carrying out a poll to determine their top books of the Noughties. Some interesting choices in there - as well as some that aren't fit even to line a budgie's cage.

Vote for your top 5 and you're in with a chance of winning the Top 50.

There weren't too many Crime or Science Fiction novels (now there's a surprise) but some of the books I really enjoyed were included. For what it's worth my 5 were:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonatahn Lethem
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

It's probably esy to get all arty and literary and pick the most highbrow and critically acclaimed but I just plumped for the five on the list that I enjoyed the most - which, when it comes to reading, is the only criteria I use.

If there's any justice The Sea won't make the final list but I wouldn't be holding my breath!

Oh and I added The Enemy by Charlie Higson (zombies - of a sort) and Winterland by Alan Glynn (Irish Crime writer) to my to-be-read pile. That book token pile is decreasing slowly.

Books, Books Everywhere

As usual, Santa delivered the goods and a bagful of books descended on the Burke household. Yours truly didn't get as many as in previous years (but did get a wodge of book tokens) but I did receive Under the Dome - a real return to form by Stephen King - and Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett.

N1S picked up Changeling by Steve Feasey (which I have now read and saw that it was good), Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (I read the first few chapters online and it's very promising) and Silvertongue by Charlie Fletcher (last volume in his excellent Stoneheart triology and also on the to-be-read list).



N2S got a Horrible Histories boxed set (nice!), Dreadnought the latest HIVE novel by Mark Walden and Syren the latest in Angie Sage's Septimus Heap series.

N3S got a boxed set of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and has not only read each of them over and over but insisted we get him the latest book as well. Result!

All in all there's plenty there to keep all of us going for the foreseeable future.

And a good start to the New Year

Last Week's Top Ten eBooks at Waterstone's
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1. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (Transworld Digital)
2. The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke (HarperCollins e-books)
3. Glass Houses by Rachel Caine
4. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (Hachette Digital)
5. Not Dead Enough by Peter James
6. FlashForward by Robert J. Sawyer (Gollancz)
7. The Unlacing of Miss Leigh by Diane Gaston (Mills & Boon)
8. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (Hachette Digital)
9. The Dead Girls' Dance by Rachel Caine
10. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (Hachette Digital)

Bloody Dan Brown and his mega-seller :o)

We have a contract

This morning I signed a contract with The Friday Project for two more Harry Pigg books. Woohoo - joyness abounds.

Mark your calendars. The Ho Ho Ho Mystery is scheduled for publication in November 2010 and the second (provisionally entitled The Curds and Whey Mystery) will be published in the middle of the following year.


Now all I have to do is finish them!!!!

And still hanging on...

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Last Week's Top Ten eBooks at Waterstones.com
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1. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (Transworld Digital)
2. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (Hachette Digital)
3. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (Hachette Digital)
4. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (Hachette Digital)
5. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (Hachette Digital)
6. FlashForward by Robert J. Sawyer (Gollancz)
7. Hard Girls by Martina Cole
8. The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke (HarperCollins e-books)
9. Not Dead Enough by Peter James
10. The Scarpetta Factor by Patricia Cornwell (Hachette Digital)


Woot!

Still Bestselling

I'd missed this, but Declan (no relation) Burke of the wonderful Crime Always Pays Blog brought it to my attention....

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Last Week's Top Ten eBooks at Waterstone's
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (Transworld Digital)
2. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (HarperCollins e-books)
3. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (Hachette Digital)
4. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (Hachette Digital)
5. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (Hachette Digital)
6. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (Hachette Digital)
7. Not Dead Enough by Peter James
8. The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke (HarperCollins e-books)
9. FlashForward by Robert J. Sawyer (Gollancz)
10. The Other Hand by Chris Cleave (Sceptre)

Hmm, in pretty good company there.

The ebook of the Third Pig has been selling well over the past few months, mainly because of the progressive apporach to pricing adopted by my publisher. Kudos to them, as ebook pricing is something I feel very strongly about and will be addressing in a future post.

And no, I've not forgotten the developments I mentioned a few posts back, they're still happening but just haven't been finalised enough to make official. Maybe this week.

Things I've learned while editing.

I like using the word 'predicament'. A quick search of novel currently undergoing edits revealed an embarassingly large amount of predicaments. I love the search and replace function.



Ditto for 'clearly'. Clearly, I like using clearly.

Action scenes need to be fast-paced. The reader doesn't need or want to know what the hero is thinking, just what he's doing (and doing it in short snappy sentences).

Names are important - especially in translation. Apparently Cal means something quite impolite in Russian (so there).

Coming Soon To A...

Apologies for the recent lack of updates. It's not all due to laziness on my part though. Much has happened in the past few weeks, not least the fact that I've landed myself an agent, and, as a result, learned more about the publishing industry than I ever thought possible.

There have been other more exciting developments however that, for the time being, must remain under wraps (and have nothing to do with Shaun cassidy).




But fret not, all will be revealed (in a manner of speaking) in the coming weeks (hopefully).

Stay tuned.