Friday 16 Nov

British writer Martin Edwards now has entered the blogdom with his very own place http://www.doyouwriteunderyourownname.blogspot.com/ He reports that his UK publishers Allison & Busby has scheduled for February the paperback edition of The Arsenic Labyrinth, plus the return of Harry Devlin, in Waterloo Sunset, next June. Make sure you check him out.

Rick Mofina’s response to the worldwide draw to have a minor character named after winning entrants in his upcoming standalone thriller, SIX SECONDS, was terrific. Congratulations to the winners, who are:
Karen Dyer, Oakland, CA USA
Moe Holman, Calgary, AB, Canada
Carol Mintz, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Terry M., Hamilton, ON, Canada
Sobil Mounce-Bazley, Bristol, England

Freelance journalist Danuta Kean's recent blog entitled, Dreaming of having your book published? is an eyeopener for all newcomers.

Anyone who believes being an author is a pathway to riches is in for a rude awakening. Though the image of the starving writer scribbling away in their garret is dated, the average writer has seen their income drop from a measly £7,000 a year in 2000 (source: The Society of Authors) to £4,000, according to the latest research from the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS). Although news headlines may trumpet six figure advances for debut novelists and high profile politicians, the reality is that most authors’ advances are well below £10,000. read more

My tip for next year is Michael Robotham's SHATTER pubished in UK February 2008 by Sphere. It's gone through a few title changes - Shattered Angels and The Sleep of Reason until settling on, at least in the UK, Shatter (unfortunately this reminds me of the 1974 Hammer Film starring Peter Cushing and Stuart Whitman) I thoroughly enjoyed The Night Ferry but Shatter is far and away his best title to date. I'm over half-way through it at the moment and it's superb, powerful stuff. Here's a taster and if this doesn't grab you, then I don't know what will ....

There is a moment when all hope disappears, all pride is gone, all expectation, all faith, all desire. I own that moment. It belongs to me. That’s when I hear the sound.’
‘What sound?’
‘The sound of a mind breaking. It’s not a loud crack like when bones shatter or a spine fractures or a skull collapses. And it’s not something soft and wet like a heart breaking. It’s a sound that makes you wonder how much pain a person can endure; a sound that shatters memories and lets the past leak into the present; a sound so high that only the hounds of hell can hear it.
‘Can you hear it?’
‘No.’
‘Someone is curled up in a tiny ball crying softly into an endless night.

If you want to read more you can download a sample pdf from Michael's website:
http://www.michaelrobotham.com/uk/preview.htm