| site map | |
| |
Archived News 2003 - 04 |
| |
For a complete list of Val McDermid's books click here |
|
Ever wanted to be in a Val McDermid novel? |
|---|
|
Nov. 2004
(Attendance is free but booking is essential). |
|
The Publication of The Torment of Others |
|
| |
May 2004 Next on my agenda is the publication of The Torment of Others, the new Tony and Carol novel which is published in the UK at the end of the month. It comes out in the US and in Germany in the autumn. This is always the nailbiting moment, wondering if my readers are going to enjoy it as much as I hope they will. I'm not doing many events around the time of publication - I think I got totally toured out last year, and I decided to take it a little easier this time around. Out in the US and Canada in September - St Martin's Press in the US, HarperCollins in Canada Click here to find out more about this book |
|
The Distant Echo hits UK bestseller list |
|
|
May 2004 The paperback of The Distant Echo was published in the UK in March 2004, and it shot straight into the bestseller list at no.5. It stayed in the list for six weeks, which is the best I've ever achieved. It would have done even better if it hadn't been for the distortion of the bestseller list caused by the Richard & Judy book club - the UK equivalent of the Oprah book club. The first four slots in the chart were occupied by R&J books... Bitter? Moi? (Actually, not. I was just thrilled to see TDE doing so well.) Click here to find out more about this book |
|
|
Val & Ian Rankin at the Literary & Philoshophical society in Newcastle |
|
The Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne |
May 2004 Ian Rankin and I appeared together in February at the Literary & Philosophical Society in Newcastle (the Lit & Phil to its friends) which is much less hi-falutin' than it sounds. The Lit & Phil is one of several independent libraries throughout the country, and it has a very fine collection of crime fiction first editions. Like the Portico Library in Manchester, of which I am proud to be one of the Proprietors, members have access to an amazing collection of books, housed in elegant and comfortable surroundings. These libraries are wonderful places to work as well as to hang out, and the membership fees are generally surprisingly low. They also stage regular events, drawing on the expertise of their members and attracting interesting speakers from amazingly diverse walks of life. And membership of one entitles you to use the facilities of the others, which is a definite bonus for those of us who travel around a lot. It's a bargain, I tell you! |
|
Halifax Library Celebrates it's 21st Birthday |
|
Halifax Central Library |
May 2004 Another event in February provided me with another first to add to my list. I did an event at Halifax Central Library to celebrate the 21st birthday of the 'new' library building. At the end of a very entertaining evening (well, I enjoyed it...) the librarian announced that we had to sing Happy Birthday to the library. It's the first time I've ever sung to a building... |
|
Short Fiction |
| May
2004
I wrote some short fiction earlier in the year, just to keep my hand in while I was researching the novel. One piece is for an anthology called The Twelve Days of Christmas, which will be published later this year. My story is Four Calling Birds, and I think it's safe to say I've opted for a somewhat unorthodox approach. Now there's a surprise... Another piece was commissioned by New Writing North for an event called It Started With A Song. I ended up writing a non-crime story, a semi-autobiographical piece called The Road and the Miles to Dundee. The event was great fun - it was fascinating to see the different approaches of the other four writers. I loved Chrissie Glazebrook's tangential take on Dusty Springfield's You Don't Have To Say You Love Me. |
|
Val wins Icons of Scotland award |
|
| |
May 2004 In April, the winners of Scotland Magazine's Icons of Scotland were announced. And to my delight, I was declared winner in the Writers category, beating such Caledonian luminaries as Iain Banks and Janice Galloway. I was thrilled with the honour, though sadly I wasn't able to make it to New York for the award ceremony on Tartan Day. Thanks to all of you who voted for me - I get a warm feeling inside when I look at the crystal commemorative plaque! April 2004 Icons
of Scotland The awards, organised by Scotland Magazine, showcase the essence of what makes Scotland great, from its world-beating food to its breath-taking history, the trend-setting Edinburgh Festival to the ingenious Falkirk Wheel. Val
McDermid wins the Scottish writer award |
|
An Icon in april, a Saint in May - What can June hold for Val? |
|
Val with Ann Bannon and Katherine V Forrest |
May 2004 Well, I spent last weekend in New Orleans, taking part in the annual Saints and Sinners Literary Festival, which is a celebration of gay and lesbian writing. And the culmination of my weekend was my induction into the GLBT Hall of Fame. I'm now the proud possessor of another plaque which confirms my status as a Literary Saint. Personally, I thought I had more chance of making sinner, but apparently the judges don't take our personal lives into account. But sainthood does carry responsibilities. The odd miracle, the occasional martyrdom, the obligation to be the patron saint of something... The friends I was dining with last night decided, somewhat arbitrarily, it must be said, that I should be the patron saint of Lost Golf Balls, Sexual Perversion and Small Rescue Boats. (No, don't ask for an explanation, there is none. This is what happens when you hang out with poets and playwrights and writers of fantasy.) |
|
The New Orleans festival was the end point of a rather bizarre US trip. I started off in New York, where Ian Rankin and I presented one of the awards at the Mystery Writers of America's Edgars Banquet. It was a good night to be hanging out with Ian, since he also won the Edgar for Best Novel with Resurrection Men. Though I must confess I was torn, because on of the other novels in contention was The Guards, written by Ken Bruen, one of my favourite Irishmen, and another writer with whom I have raised several glasses over the years. After New York, I climbed behind the wheel of a Chevy Monte Carlo, accompanied by my buddy Lauren Henderson, who is one of the founders of Tart Noir and co-editor of the anthology of the same name. And we set off on our very own Thelma & Louise road trip, driving from New York to New Orleans, via Charleston, Savannah and Biloxi. Not to mention various bookstores where we did drop-in signings. All to the soundtrack of Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Meatloaf, Dido, Everything But The Girl and assorted compilations Lauren created just for the road. Including strange Italian pop songs which Lauren kindly translated for me. There is very little of this trip that I can report since children may be reading this newsletter, but suffice it to say that a lot of cocktails were consumed, several reputations were trashed but nobody got killed. I'd like to be able to say that no laws were broken, but I'm told that burglary is still a crime in Louisiana... The Saints and Sinners festival was a wonderful experience. I can't think of a better venue than New Orleans with its many faces, most of them hiding something even more strange. I ran a workshop and did a couple of panels, including a fascinating one with fellow crime writers Katherine V Forrest, Christopher Rice and Dean James. I renewed old friendships and made several new friends, but what stays with me most of all is the atmosphere of total enthusiasm for the written word. Twenty years ago, it would have been impossible to conceive of a gay & lesbian literary festival, still less one that would attract a big audience from all over the US. And now it's not just a reality, but a success. |
|
|
Val Spotted Having Time off! |
|
| |
April 2004 Val
Says.. So this is what writers do when they're not writing... Want to find out more about Horse? Visit her website www.horse-randan.com |
|
Robson Green and Hermione Norris returns as Dr Tony Hill and DI Carol Jordan in a new series of Wire in the Blood |
||
|
|
May 2004 The second series of WITB was transmitted in the UK in February, and gained the highest viewing figures for a drama that month. (If you missed it, it's out on DVD now on both sides of the Atlantic...) It's also been shown in several foreign countries, including Australia and the USA (on BBC America). It was highly acclaimed, with most previews according it pick of the day status. Now we're gearing up for the filming of the third series, which will start in September. Everybody's very excited about it, and we've already got some terrific early script drafts. Patrick Harbinson, who adapted The Mermaids Singing, is writing one of the new series' scripts, as is Alan Whiting, who has written three scripts so far, including the adaptation of The Wire in the Blood. |
|
| At
the Royal Television Society Dinner in Newcastle, Sandra Jobling
(the executive producer of Wire in the Blood) was honoured with a special
award for her personal contribution to the industry. Judging by the audience's
response when Robson Green spoke about her impressive track record, it
was a popular decision by the RTS.
Jan 2004 The hot news is that the second series of Wire in the Blood will begin transmission in the UK on February 12. The series has four ninety minute episodes, all original storylines. Two of the episodes have been written by Alan Whiting, who wrote four hours of the first series, so he really knew what he was dealing with! Find out more about this series - visit www.robsongreen.com Even though it's not based on the books, I was still heavily involved in the development process, and I'm very pleased with the end result. I'm clearly not the only one, since ITV's Network Centre have already commissioned another four episodes for series 3. It's very unusual for them to recommission before a series has been aired - normally they wait to see how the ratings go. So it's a real mark of how highly they rate the quality of the second series - they're confident that it will be even more popular than last year's debut. I'd like to say we're surprised by their decision, but if I'm honest, all of us involved with the project were so convinced we had another winner on our hands that we'd already started script development for the third series regardless. But it's always nice to know you're right. And we got another boost at the press screening of the first episode at the beginning of December. There was a real buzz of excitement, and standing room only in the screening theatre. The journalists I spoke to were all very enthusiastic, which is unusual in that cynical world... Meanwhile, I've been running around all over the place. I started my travels in Germany with Robson Green on a press promotional trip to Hamburg on behalf of ZDF, the German TV company who showed WITB there. We had a very entertaining time, not least because, for reasons too complicated to explain here, in Germany I am known as the crime writer who knows about football, a scenario which left Robson, a passionate Newcastle United fan, completely bewildered... The Germans are very enthusiastic about the series, and we hope that when we finally get round to adapting The Last Temptation (probably as a three-hour special) that it will be a joint venture, filmed in Germany with a mix of British and German actors to give it a real flavour of authenticity. Previous update about Wire in the Blood March 2003 The filming of the second series of Wire in the Blood is now well under way. This time, it will consist of four ninety-minute episodes. I went up to Newcastle for the readthrough of Episode 1, Still She Cries, written by Alan Whiting, who adapted Wire itself and also wrote the original script for the final story of the first series. Listening to the cast reading the script was an amazing experience; even when you know you've got a good script, it comes alive when the actors take over, and it leaps off the page, creating all sorts of visual images inside the head. I also spent a couple of days with the cast and crew, watching some of the early filming, which was fascinating. Of course, there's always a lot of hanging around on set, which means I get the chance to spend time getting to know the actors better. Both Robson Green and Hermione Norris are thrilled to be back in the saddle, bringing Tony and Carol to life for a second time, and I'm always pleasantly surprised by how welcoming everyone is when I'm around. Most television companies prefer to keep writers at arms' length, but Coastal Productions made it clear right from the start that when it comes to Tony & Carol, I'm the expert, and they want to make full use of that expertise. Which I guess is one of the reasons the series works so well for those of you who have read and enjoyed the books.To find out more about this TV series click here |
||
|
Val's recent trip to the US |
|
|
January 2004 This autumn (2003) I headed off to the US for two weeks of touring for The Distant Echo that took me to both coasts, to Texas and to the Midwest. Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, fell in the middle of the tour, and I found myself condemned to three days in Las Vegas. For those of you who have never been there, I would recommend that you remain a Vegas virgin. I have never hated anywhere so much in all my life. I expected to enjoy it - I do love a bit of honest vulgarity and tackiness. But there's nothing honest about Vegas. It seemed to me not just to encompass but eagerly to embrace everything that is bad about humanity. Greed, corruption, joylessness, exploitation, desperation, cynicism... the list could go on for half a page. The slot machines begin in the airport arrival concourse, and from there on, you're bombarded with gambling and sex for sale. Gaudy neon blares night and day, the air is filled with the ker-chink of loose change pouring in and out of slots, and the combination of desert dryness and strident air fresheners strips every mucus membrane in the human body. I've certainly never stayed in a hotel where the message pasted to the bathroom mirror read, 'Please be considerate of our staff when you dispose of your used syringes.' And I don't think they were aiming at diabetics... |
|
|
While I enjoyed the chance to catch up with old friends and meet new people, it was hard to make the most of the possibilities because of the nature of the place. (the dedicated conference bar, for example, was a hastily rejigged clothing store, complete with curtained changing cubicles.) The high points included interviewing Ian Rankin, the Guest of Honour. We began our session in impenetrable Fife dialect, much to the consternation of the audience who clearly thought we were speaking a foreign tongue. I also had fun on a panel about memorable first lines with Dana Stabenow, Laurie King and Stephen Booth, in spite of Laurie throwing things at me... After Vegas I arrived late at night in to Madison, Wisconsin and I can't tell you the sheer delight of opening my curtains in the morning to a lake vista with not an artificial light in sight. I have to confess that I have a secret love of the cities of the Midwest. The pace of life is gentler, the people open, friendly and generous. I had some great nights out - and in - with friends, fans and booksellers on this trip, but I'll never forget the hospitable Midwest welcome. Great beer, wonderful food, perfectly mixed Sea Breezes. Milwaukee's Ruth Jordan makes the best apple pie I have ever tasted. And Terri of Booked For Murder in Wisconsin is also the only bookseller I have ever encountered who spent the afternoon ferrying me around the competition to sign their stock! I finished the tour in New York, where the eminent US crime writer SJ Rozan hosted an event at the 92nd Street Y. We had a terrific time - there's nothing like having a fellow writer asking the questions to bring out the best in us. Because Shira understands the craft so well herself, she probed intelligently and really made me think about what I was saying, which was quite an achievement. Usually by the end of a long tour, I'm operating on automatic pilot, but thanks to Shira, I was lifted out of any sense of being jaded and I had a ball. |
|
|
Hostage to Murder - Launch News - Val's rock star debut! |
|
|
January 2004 A week after I came back from the US, it was the Libertas Arts and Book Festival in York (November 2002). Apologies to all of my readers who came along, but for me the highlight of the weekend wasn't launching Hostage to Murder in front of packed audiences - it was appearing live on stage alongside the legendary Horse. Horse and I have been fans of each other's work for a long time, and a couple of her songs get name checks in Hostage to Murder. So Horse decided it would be a fun idea to return the favour and invited me up on stage to sing with her. We dueted on Never Not Going To and for me, it was the realisation of all those adolescent fantasies of being a rock chick. I used to sing in folk clubs, and some of you may have heard me sing in public at Bouchercon or the publishers' cabaret. But this was the real thing, and it was fabulous! Now I'm trying to persuade Robson that we should record a CD - Songs of Love and Murder. All suggestions gratefully received. And as I mentioned in passing, I launched Hostage to Murder, the sixth Lindsay Gordon novel, at the festival. We sold out of all 400 copies by ten on the Saturday morning - sorry if you were one of the unlucky ones who couldn't get their hands on a copy. It's a paperback original, so the perfect price for a stocking filler. It's published by HarperCollins in the UK and by Spinsters Ink in the US. If you've read it and enjoyed it, please post reviews online, especially at amazon. Because it's a paperback original, it's doesn't have much marketing spend behind it, so it's going to be very much a word of mouth book. I did a couple of events to support the book, in London and Manchester, and it was heartening to see how many people still love Lindsay. December 2003 Five signed (to you personally) copies of Val's new book Hostage to Murder have been won! WELL DONE TO: Nina
Svinghammar October 2003 We have
a new competition running (ends 1 Dec. 2003)
to win a signed copy of Hostage to Murder. Hostage to Murder is published at the end of this month (October 2003), and the official launch events will take place at the Lesbian Arts Festival in York on October 31st and November 1st. Then there will be a reading and signing at Waterstone's Deansgate in Manchester at 7pm on November 3rd, followed by an event in London at the Silver Moon bookshop in Foyle's, Charing Cross Road, also at 7pm on November 5th. (yes, I do promise gunpowder, treason AND plot...) Hostage to Murder is the sixth Lindsay Gordon novel. It's been a while since Booked for Murder, the last in the series, mostly because I couldn't think of a story for Lindsay. Her voice was still strong in my head, but it took me a while to find the right tale for her to tell. This novel is slightly different from the previous five; it's more of a thriller than a conventional amateur sleuth detective story, and the narrative is multi-viewpoint, instead of being almost exclusively from Lindsay's point of view. The book is set partly in Glasgow and partly in St Petersburg and I suppose it could loosely be described as Lindsay's mid-life crisis book! The words 'bull' and 'china shop' spring inexorably to mind... June 2003 A further novel featuring journalist-sleuth Lindsay Gordon, will be published in the UK as a paperback original, by HarperCollins in November 2003. Val
says.. |
|
|
Next Stop Germany... |
| January
2004
Next stop was Germany for The Last Temptation. I did five cities in five days - Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Hamburg and Berlin. This was one of the most enjoyable tours I've ever done. We did the events in some pretty wild venues - a bar in Munich, a boat touring the harbour in Hamburg, a church in Berlin. The events were all sell-outs, with enthusiastic, knowledgeable audiences, mostly with a better command of English than mine. And every night, we repaired to assorted bier kellers and sat up till the small hours talking and drinking and generally putting the world to rights. Luckily, my sensible publicist had made sure we didn't have to catch any early trains... Possibly the strangest experience was the hotel in Berlin, a smart new hotel in Mitte where every room has been designed by an artist. They proudly sent me off to a room in the newly built annexe, where the walls were covered with very atmospheric paintings of trains. 'Hmm,' I thought, 'My three year old son would love this. But why are the blinds drawn in the middle of the afternoon?' I soon discovered the reason. When I raised the blinds, I discovered that the tracks for both the S-Bahn and the intercity trains ran level with my window about five feet away. Luckily, there was another room available. No railway line, but this time, in the middle of the room was an installation of scaffolding poles, fishing nets, photographs printed on glass. The TV set lurked somewhere in the middle of it. When I went to bed that night (very late, thanks to the guys at the Hammett bookshop, who kept me up signing books and drinking beer till half past two in the morning...) I had to brainwash myself to get out of the left hand side of the bed. Otherwise I'd have stunned myself on the scaffolding. These are the risks of a writer's life that nobody ever tells you about in advance. After Germany, I went to Sweden to do events in Stockholm and Uppsala. I confess I had reached the point of confusion where I had to call my agent the day before I departed to ask which book I was promoting... One of the great secrets of the Nordic countries is how good the food is there. They keep very quiet about it, only admitting to open sandwiches and pickled herring. But every time I visit there, I'm always blown away by how delicious the fish and meat dishes are. (Of course, I couldn't admit to my son, who played Rudolph in his nursery nativity play that I'd been eating reindeer...) I know, I know, I'm supposed to be talking about books and writing and writers, but hey, there's only so much book stuff you can take, right? And as those of you who have seen me in the ample flesh will probably guess, food is right up there with books and music in my pantheon of pleasure. So now the travel is over for a while, and I get to stay home and write. I'll be starting work on the new book towards the end of January, though I still have a lot of background reading to complete. It's a very scary project and already I'm convinced I've bitten off more than I can chew. So, nothing new there, then. |
|
Next year's Tony Hill & Carol Jordon novel - The Torment of Others |
|
October 2003 I'm happy to report that I've now delivered next year's Tony Hill & Carol Jordan novel, The Torment of Others, which will be published next June (2004) in the UK. My editor is very pleased to see it, and reckons it's even better than The Last Temptation. Which is gratifying, considering how hard I worked on it. I was so desperate towards the end that I escaped to an Italian hideaway with my laptop and no distractions for ten days so that I could get it finished. I wrote for ten hours a day (mostly to the accompaniment of John Surman's Coruscating, Arvo Pärt's Alina and Pat Metheny's Secret Story), then tucked in to one of Mamma Rosa's fabulous home-cooked dinners washed down with a bottle of the local red. I've decided this is quite the best way to finish a book. Sunshine, peace and quiet, and absolutely nothing else to think about except the words on the page.March 2003 I've been working on a new book. Provisionally called The Torment of Others, it's the fourth Tony Hill & Carol Jordan novel. The duo return to their first stamping ground, the fictitious northern city of Bradfield, where Carol tries to rebuild her career and finds herself confronting what appears to be an impossible serial killer. To be honest, I hadn't planned to write another Tony & Carol novel quite so soon after The Last Temptation (which has been riding high in the UK paperback bestseller charts, hitting a high of 5 nationally and occupying the number 1 slot in Scotland). But I think that spending so much time with the characters because of my involvement in the TV series put them right at the forefront of my mind, and a great idea for a plot presented itself. The other factor in the decision was that the book I planned to write next, another standalone called Bounty, still needs a lot more research than I've had time for, so it made sense to postpone that and give myself a bit of breathing space to do the research while writing The Torment of Others. So far, it's moving along quite slowly, but that's always the case at the start of a book, while I feel my way into the characters and the situation. It always picks up when the deadline looms... But I am enjoying being back with Tony & Carol; they're always challenging to spend time with!. |
|
Round the World |
|
|
|
October 2003 Canada |
|
I
also did an event at the invariably welcoming Sleuth of Baker Street
before heading off for the Bloody Words convention in Ottawa, where
I was International Guest of Honour. I had a terrific time in Ottawa,
spending time with old friends and making some new ones along the way.
It's a beautiful city too, with its river walks and elegant buildings.
The convention itself was laid-back and entertaining, and I look forward
to visiting it again. New
Zealand Australia Bizarre
encounters |
|
|
Harrogate Crime Writing Festival - update |
|
|
|
October 2003 I've been to lots of crime events in the UK over the years - Shots in Nottingham, Dead on Deansgate in Manchester and Crime Scene in London among them - but I can honestly say this was the best ever. I know that I should be modestly self-deprecating as the Programming Chair of the festival, but to hell with that. Harrogate was brilliant. We had a terrific array of authors, among them Colin Dexter, Jeffrey Deaver, Ian Rankin, Denise Mina, Alexander McCall Smith, Frances Fyfield, Reginald Hill and Simon Brett. We had a great panel on how to get published, and we were lucky enough to have Robson Green there along with a team of high-flying TV people to talk about the making of crime drama series for TV. We had a panel of Scandinavian crime writers to add a truly international flavour, and late night entertainment that spilled over into the bar into the small hours. The festival drew big audiences, and judging by the feedback, they all had a wonderful time. BBC Radio 4's flagship arts programme, Front Row, recorded a whole show live at the festival featuring a gaggle of writers chatting about the genre. The atmosphere was relaxed and fun, and I had quite the best time I've had for ages. We're already planning next year's festival, and among our guests will be Minette Walters, Karin Slaughter, Christopher Brookmyre, Robert Wilson, Julie Parsons and Mark Billingham. And both Colin Dexter and Alexander McCall Smith will be back for a second time - they insisted! |
|
Edinburgh Book Festival - update |
|