The festival, which is a major annual
initiative co-ordinated by the Crime Writers’ Association and Crime Readers’
Association, normally promotes live author events up and down the country.
During lockdown, the initiative has moved online with crime authors posting
vlogs and blogs on the website crimereadingmonth.co.uk.
Linda Stratmann, Chair of the CWA,
explained: “We’ve – quite literally – created Crime Writers in Residence by
asking authors to post films from their homes while in lockdown. It’s a kind of
criminally-good Through the Keyhole! Readers love the personal insights from
meeting authors in person, and most crime authors love to connect to their
readers. With all the major crime writing festivals, as well as author events
in libraries and bookshops, cancelled for spring and summer, we felt it was
important to step in and offer a digital alternative.”
Linda said: “Reading and writing are
of course solitary acts but you’re never alone with a book. There’s a real
connection on the page that is passionately celebrated in our festivals and
author events. The crime genre is perhaps the most accessible and democratic of
all, which makes our community a very sociable and inclusive one. We understand
how important those connections are, so we’re encouraging CWA members to join
in and submit videos from their homes to reach out to readers in lockdown.”
Although May is the official month for
mayhem and murder with NCRM, the CWA began collating vlogs in April in response
to lockdown.
Featured authors include AJ Waines, a
former psychotherapist who has gone on the write ten thrillers selling half a
million copies, with her latest psychological thriller Cut You Dead
released this April.
Fiona Veitch Smith, author of the Poppy
Denby Investigates series, shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger in 2016,
also joins the video series to talk about her life under lockdown during the
Covid-19 crisis, alongside Holly Watt, who won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
last year for To The Lions.
Holly Watt said: “One thing I am
finding weird about writing at the moment is that my characters are meeting up
with friends! And having dinner together! And getting on planes! And all these
things suddenly seem completely alien. It’s quite hard to write several
paragraphs without interjecting ‘and then he washed his hands while singing Happy
Birthday’.”
NCRM will also see the launch of short
stories that will be free to read on the Crime Readers’ Association website, to
provide a public platform for CWA authors wishing to showcase their work.
