A RARE AND SPECIAL EXPERIENCE...

Well, as the blog title suggests, it is rare and special indeed to find someone who understands what the hell you're talking about when you mention T-Bone Walker, Leadbelly, Howlin' Wolf, and then in the same sentence drop names like Doug Sahm, Steve Earle and the Dukes, Roky Erickson and the Aliens, The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, John Cippolina and Quicksilver Messenger Service, and then on to Mahalia Jackson, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Lux Interior, Kid 'Congo' Powers, Chris Duarte, Panther Burns, Jeffrey Lee Pierce and The Gun Club...

It was one of those conversations...the ones that go off fast and furious in four different directions, right?

Well, Jack Lamplough is that man, and this evening he and Emer took me to the Highline Ballroom to see an incredible band called Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women. The Guilty Women need to be seen to be believed. Christy McWilson on vocals, Laurie Lewis and Amy Farris on fiddle, Sarah Brown on bass, Lisa Pankratz (from Dripping Springs, Texas!), and Cindy Cashdollar on slide guitar. Cindy is remarkable, playing not only lap slide, but also a shoulder-slung dobro. Let me tell you, these girls were unreal! Dave played hits such as Abilene, King of California, Marie Marie (an ode to his first girlfriend which has the line 'two weeks of back pay and a car full of gas'), and a song that not only referenced T-Bone Walker, but spoke of 'everyone's gone...my mom's gone, my dad's gone, my brother's gone', and then went on to incorporate the unforgettable riff from Van Morrison and Them's classic 'Baby, Please Don't Go'. The encore was a homage to the 'philosophy of Doris Day' with an ass-kicking version of 'Que Sera, Sera'. Unbelievable!

Well, that concluded a day that began with a three or four hour walk down through Tribeca, Greenwich Village, the Chelsea Market, Lower Manhattan and Lord knows where else. We saw De Niro's restaurant at Tribeca, also Harrison's, and then we ate food to die for at The Red Cat . Oh, and I cannot forget the small matter of stopping at the famous White Horse Tavern to drink a glass of 'Anchor Steam', legendary hang-out for Mailer, the Beat Generation radicals, and where Dylan Thomas downed nineteen straight whiskies, and then staggered back to the Chelsea Hotel, announced to the bellhop that he had 'drank nineteen straight whiskies...and that must be a record for sure', and promptly collapsed. Rushed to hospital, they didn't manage to revive him and he died that night.

This is a world where the turning of every corner presents you with a new moment from history. Pier A, surrounded with barriers that bear the words of Helen Keller, Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald and many others, all of them speaking of their love and passion for New York. The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Battery City...and on it goes. It seems endless, and hopefully it is.

And tomorrow? Tomorrow we film for the website, and we will see Harlem perhaps, even Tompkins Square Park where the final scene of 'A Quiet Vendetta' unfolds. I feel like I am walking through so many scenes from so many books, and I am constantly reminded why New York always appeared to me as the perfect setting for any novel, regardless of genre. This is a truly remarkable city - eight million people, and each of them have a story.

I was going to post again when I got back to the UK, but sometimes you have things happen that you have to talk about right away.

Until something else happens that I just have to write about, I trust all is well with you, and I send my best wishes, as always.

Roger.

NOTHING CAN PREPARE YOU FOR THIS...

This morning I woke at eight. I was alone in a beautiful apartment in SoHo. From the landing outside my bedroom I can look down over the balcony into the living room below. There is a wrought-iron spiral staircase that will take me there, designed in such a way as it seems to just hang in space unattached to anything of substance. My head is clear. My thoughts are lucid. I am a little tired as I have been on the go for three days. Yesterday I walked several miles across Manhattan - all the way from the Grand on 42nd Street to Broadway and West Houston. I stopped at The Strand Bookstore on the way and bought a book by Cormac McCarthy. From there I went to Otto Penzler's Mysterious Bookstore on Warren Street (possibly the finest mystery and thriller bookstore in the world), and I spent a little time talking with Otto, who has been immensely supportive about the US release of A Quiet Belief In Angels. Lee Child was there, always so friendly and such a gentleman. I met Tom Rob Smith, and once again had the pleasure of catching up with Sarah Weinman (Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind), Steve Martini, a whole host of other authors, bloggers, publicists, agents, editors and thriller-junkies who I see when I come to the States...

But I digress.

Last night I had drinks with my great friend Jack Lamplough, publicity director and all-round genius from Overlook. I also had the immense pleasure of meeting his partner, Emer. She put me right on a few things about the creative licenses I have taken with New York, and at the same time made me feel more acknowledged as a writer than most people have in my life. The bar where we were drinking had three walls. The fourth 'wall' was an open-plan balcony from where you could see the Brooklyn Bridge, the Williamsburg Bridge and the 59th Street Bridge. We left as the sun went down and took a walk to the Bridge Cafe at 279 Water Street, nestling there beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, a location it has occupied since 1794. It is the oldest continuous business establishment in New York, founded originally as a 'grocery and wine and porter bottler' by Newell Narme. It continued to be a grocery, and then was granted a liquor licence, and in April of 1879 the District Attorney indicted the building as a 'Disorderly House'. The Census noted that it provided facilities for six prostitutes.

Well, here we ate. Seated there beneath the original 1896 Saloon License, we drank a wonderful bottle of wine, we ate soft shell crabs, and then huge hanger steaks. The first of those three things I have done many times, the second and third I have never done. The company was superb, the conversation wonderful, the food remarkable.

Pizza at Lombardi's, the Vesuvio Bakery, the coffee store credited with creating the first capuccino in 1929, the Empire State Building, the site of the two towers (mind-boggling), Gramercy Park, the Hudson, yellow cabs, ten-dollar Rolexes for sale on street corners, the Woolworth Building, Uptown, Downtown, MidTown, Bleeker Street, West Broadway...

I have seen them all in two days. This afternoon I am going out and about to take pictures. This evening I am going to a gig at BB King's House of Blues. Tomorrow we are filming footage for the website all over the city.

I am mostly speechless, definitely in awe, and cannot conceive of the possibility that New York could ever disappoint anyone on any level.

Oh, and this morning I went out for coffee and pastries. I could make coffee in the apartment but I don't want to. I want to 'go out for coffee' in New York. As I was leaving the store I glanced to my right, and there - seated at a table - was a beautiful young woman reading 'In Cold Blood' as she enjoyed her breakfast. As any of you who know me will all-too-quickly understand, that book holds a very dear and special place in my heart. I was reminded of Capote, of his life in New York, and with that came thoughts of Steinbeck (who, I believe said - though don't quote me - something along the lines of 'New York is a dirty, crime-ridden, filthy, dangerous place, but once you have lived here then there's nowhere else is the world that's good enough'), and I appreciate that sentiment utterly.

My editor and great friend Jon Wood, a man who has been to New York many times, was the recipient of the second message after my arrival. Once I had let my wife know that I had arrived safely I sent Jon a text. It read, simply: When I die, I want to die in New York.

I don't know if it has a similar effect on other people, but it has certainly had that effect on me.

And I have to say a few words about Overlook Press - about what these guys have done. We had a dinner on Thursday evening. The menus were personalised to 'welcome RJ Ellory and acknowledge the US release of A Quiet Belief In Angels' (and here I have to say a huge thank you to Meredith for organising such a wonderful evening). Our guests were from BookSense, the American Library Association, the Wall Street Journal, Borders et al. Wonderful people. Hugely enthusiastic and supportive. The Thrillerfest magazine has a full page ad for the book, as does The Strand. There are stickers and pens with the books title on them, and everywhere I turn there are people with Advance Readers' Copies, all of them wanting signatures, all of them wanting to tell me how much they are enjoying the book.

It has taken six years to find a US publisher. I can honestly say that the six-year wait was worth it. Just as I battled to get published in the UK and was eventually taken on by a very brave Jon Wood at Orion, so I have battled here, and to have found Peter Mayer, Jack Lamplough, Aaron Schlecter and David Falk...well, I don't really need to say a great deal more aside from the fact that I couldn't wish for better people. These, let me tell you, are the kind of people who define friendship and quality of life. I feel I have been profoundly fortunate, both in the UK, also in France, Norway, Brazil, so many other places, to have found great people who really seem to understand what I am trying to do with my books, and to now cap it all with an association with Overlook is almost too good to be true.

As Rick says at the end of 'Casablanca', I believe that this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

So, I will gather my things together and go out into the city once more. I will take some pictures for the website gallery, and I will post again when I get home.

Thanks for listening, as always, and I trust all is well with you.

Best wishes,

Roger.

THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME...

Well, I figured I would post this month right at the start as I think it's going to be a hectic month. I am away to do events in Filey and Whitby tomorrow, and then on the 8th I am off to New York for a week. If you didn't catch it on the last post, there's a new American website to promote the September release of A Quiet Belief In Angels (at http://www.quietbeliefinangels.com/).

Initially I was going to NY for Thrillerfest, but the trip has been extended to take in some promotional work, and also set up things for the eight city US tour in October (which will encompass Washington DC, New York, Chicago, Indianapolis, Nashville, Phoenix, Atlanta and Boston). As far as I understand that trip will take in a range of bookstores, and also some radio and TV stuff. Besides that we have Reading and Harrogate and a number of other venues over the summer, so I don't think I'm going to be bored for lack of action!

I have just returned from a four-day trip to Paris. I was esconced in the bar of one of the oldest and most beautiful hotels in Paris, and there I met with journalists from Paris Match, le Figaro, Balthazar, L'Optimum, Elle, GQ and others. I also did a couple of bookstores - L'Arbre des Lettres and Livre Sterling. It was ironic, but when I went to Paris earlier in the year to meet with Olivier Dahan I was strolling around the Champs Elysees, wandering down backstreets and generally staying out of trouble, and I came across this bookstore. Outside they had a table loaded with copies of 'Seul Le Silence' (the French AQBIA), and I went inside and told them I was the author. I asked if they would like me to sign the books for them. Between us we managed to determine that I was not a complete lunatic, and Valerie - the lady who worked there - let me sign all the books. So however many weeks later my publisher takes me to do a bookstore event, and it's the same place! Anyway, Livre Sterling is owned by Emanuel, and has been run from the same location for 28 years. The reception there was tremendous. They brought a huge silver bowl full of ice into the store. They parked a half dozen bottles of wine in it. They had cheeseboards, huge slabs of pate, fresh ham, fresh bread, and people would come from the street, they would eat, drink, talk about books, and then Emanuel and Valerie would introduce them to me, I would talk to them for a while, and then they would buy one or two or three of my books and I would sign them. And this went on for the better part of three hours! Now, I don't think you'll have any diagreement with me if I suggest that this is the way that booksigning events should be run.

'Seul Le Silence' has done very well in France, and they are releasing 'A Quiet Vendetta' there in September (called, simply, 'Vendetta'), and the interviews that I did were very positive. The journalists I had met had read both books, and we very informed about me. It was refreshing to be received in such a way. As I have long said, in England you tell people you are a writer (published or unpublished, it doesn't matter), and the feeling you get is that they think you're doing this because you can't get a proper job. In France it is completely different. They consider it is something of value, and that anyone engaged in the field of the arts deserves a place at the dinner table.

I also made two new friends while I was out there. Firstly, Philippe Aronson, the translator assigned to me for the trip, a man of Franco-American parentage who lives in Paris with his French wife. He is a very charming and funny guy, great company, and I couldn't have asked for a better translator.

Secondly, I met Jenny Macquart. Jenny and I had already been in communication through facebook etc. She is a Professor of Music, a Theatre Director and a composer from Strasbourg. With her fiance, Jerome, she also performs live in the cafes and clubs of Paris and Strasbourg. She is a wonderful musician, and a very talented composer. A while ago she sent me a piece of music she had composed after having read 'Seul Le Silence'. Haunting, evocative, utterly spellbinding, I took it down to London and played it for the collected publishing staff at Orion and they were similarly enchanted. She was great company for the little while we spent together, and I hope that we shall have a chance to meet again. She has recently taken on significantly greater roles at her college and with a theatre group for teenagers, and wish her the very greatest success with her projects.

And so to America...

America is a land untapped and uncharted for me. The release of 'A Quiet Belief In Angels' in September is a landmark for us. It has always been my contention that as far as English authors in America is concerned, it goes one of two ways. Either you secure an American publishing deal right away, or you battle and slog for however many years, and then finally get somewhere. Well it has been the latter for me. It seems that I have spent as long trying to get published in the US as I did trying to get published in the UK right at the beginning. Nevertheless, the initial response to 'A Quiet Belief In Angels' - certainly from other authors in the US, has been tremendous. We also received our first 'official' US literary review last night, as follows:

It is 1939 in a tiny Georgia farming town. Joseph Vaughan, a bright, thoughtful 12-year-old boy, loses his father. That death is followed by a series of horrific murders of very young girls that casts a pall of fear over the town. Joseph organizes his friends into the Guardians, but the murders continue, and Joseph comes to believe — presciently — that they will haunt his entire life. Already a best-seller in England with editions in many foreign languages, this is an unlikely and, in many ways, admirable book. Author Ellory is English, but his evocation of life in the deep South is richly drawn and deeply detailed. His characters are well developed, and portions of the book ably mimic great southern writers, allowing readers to savor both the words and the images they offer. When Joseph flees home and moves to Brooklyn to be a writer, the author changes voice to portray an edgy, exciting, clamorous new world. Although it occasionally drifts into over-the-top melodrama, the novel presents an appealing mix of murder, madness, conscience, lost love, and redemption.

Thomas Gaughan Booklist - Trade Publication for The American Library

We are pleased with the response, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that the Americans will take to it the way the English and the French (and a few other countries) have.

Up-to-date news on future books etc. I completed both 'The Darkest River' and 'The Saints of New York' recently and sent them to my editor and my agent. After having read them, and following a short discussion, we came to the unanimous conclusion that we will publish 'The Saints of New York' in 2010. 'The Darkest River' may or may not be published at some later date...we shall see.

I am currently working on a new book with the working title 'Bad Signs', and the reason for the title comes from the idea that if one is 'born under a bad star' then one carries a bad sign all of one's life. I will say nothing more about it for now, save that it deals with a mid-1960s West Coast killing spree...

Good to hear from you, as always. Keep the letters and e-mails coming, and - as you know - I will answer them personally (always), and as rapidly as I can! If you write and you don't get a response immediately then I am away somewhere and will reply as soon as I get home.

It makes a great difference to hear from you personally, and it is greatly appreciated.

Until we speak again, which I hope won't be too long away!

Best wishes, as always,

Roger.

LAUNCH OF US WEBSITE FOR A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS...

If anyone is interested the promotional site for the US release of 'A Quiet Belief In Angels' has just been launched.

Click on the following link:

www.quietbeliefinangels.com

Hope you like it!
Best, as always,
Roger.

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM...

Well, if ever I wanted an easy life, I know now that I'm not going to get it!

I have worked like a dog these past few weeks to get 'The Saints of New York' completed. That was done and dusted a week or so ago. Prior to that I completed the first draft of the screenplay for 'A Quiet Belief In Angels', and proof-read the pages for 'The Anniversary Man', due out here in September. I also had to proof-read the American version of 'Quiet Belief' in readiness for its release, also in September. There have been the usual endless procession of interviews, meetings, events and publishers' obligations, and I did all this with the underlying awareness that once we reached June things would start to get crazy. Well, they have.

Next week I am doing three libraries a day for four days in Cumbria; tack on a day travelling at each end and it's a week's tour. I come home for three days, and then I am off to Paris for four days - interviews with Nouvel Observateur, Paris Match, radio stations, events at bookstores etc., some of it further promotion for the French 'Quiet Belief', some of it preparatory promotion for the September release of 'Vendetta'. I am then home for four days or so, and then it's Filey on the 2nd of July, Whitby on the 3rd, home on the the 4th for four days and then out to New York on the 9th. I'm away for six days and will be doing Thrillerfest and numerous interviews and meetings with US bookbuyers and booksellers. A week after that it's 'Bodies In The Bookshop' in Cambridge, then Harrogate on the 25th and 26th...

August looks like I'm home, but you never know.

September we have the UK release of 'The Anniversary Man' on the 3rd, the US release of 'A Quiet Belief In Angels' on the 8th, the French release of 'A Quiet Vendetta' (called simply 'Vendetta'), and Lord knows what else. The release months are always mad-busy, and it looks like we might be doing the UK launch party at Cactus TV in London. Now that would be something special!

The really exciting trip is October. An eight city US tour which will take me back to New York, also to Washington DC, Chicago, Indianapolis (for Bouchercon 2009), Phoenix, Atlanta, Nashville and Boston. That's going to run from the 9th the the 19th.

Oh, and the first print run for the US release is 100,000 (yes, one hundred thousand!) hardbacks. The publisher (Overlook Press) has sent out many, many galley proofs and has secured VERY positive and complimentary comments from the likes of Clive Cussler, Ken Bruen, Alan Furst, David Stone, Otto Penzler, Val McDermid and James Patterson. Overlook have worked extraordinarily hard, and I am indebted to them for their amazing enthusiasm and dedication to this project.

So, as you can see, things have been busy, but it seems they are going to get one hell of a lot busier.

I am looking forward to responses to the screenplay, also the reception for 'The Anniversary Man', and - perhaps most interestingly - the US response to 'A Quiet Belief In Angels'. It has been a hectic six months, but hard work is like heroin to me, and I am in my element when there are deadlines, pressures, impossible demands and more to do than is really possible. As they say, heat and pressure makes diamonds.

One thing I am doing is more reading. I have been reading Cormac McCarthy, Daniel Woodrell, Salinger, McCullers, and have now embarked upon 'The Executioner's Song' by Normal Mailer. And I have started making notes and undertaking research for the next book (which, if they publish the ones I have already written, will be released in 2012). It's working title is 'Bad Signs', and though it more than likely will not keep that title I find it is always better to have something than nothing. Though it will tie into events on the West Coast, also Nevada, it will be placed predominantly in the Deep South. I am not in a desperate hurry to get started on it as I have 'The Anniversary Man' yet to be released, and another two books complete beyond that, but - as is always the case with me - if I am not working on something, even indirectly, then I tend to get restless. If not sat in front of a typewriter I tend to slouch around in a bathrobe, never shaving, always drinking, yelling at kids in the street and taking pot shots at the neighbour's dogs with a BB gun. Oh well, someone's gotta do it, right?

So I trust all is well with you. I believe we are in for a long, hot summer, and for those of you who like that sort of thing...well, go ahead and enjoy it. And for those of you that don't, just find somewhere cool and shadowed, take a pile of books with you, and don't come out until September.

Take care my friends. Best wishes, as always,

Roger.

CONFIRMATION OF RELEASE DATE...

Just a quick note. There has been an ongoing discussion during the last month or so as to whether to hold to the publicised release date of 'The Anniversary Man' of September 3rd, 2009, or if my publisher would hold off and release it in the spring of 2010. I received confirmation today that they are holding to the September release date. The book is finished, of course, and I wanted it to come out in September, and thus I am very pleased about this. I hope you are too!

Best, as ever,
Roger.

SUCCESS IS ENTIRELY DEPENDENT UPON CONSTANCY OF PURPOSE...

I use the above quote (courtesy of Benjamin Disraeli) for good reason. A couple of days ago I did an interview with a very good friend of mine - Ali Karim (he of inimitable taste and style, he of Shots, Deadly Pleasures, CrimeSpree et al), and one of the questions he asked me was about advice for aspiring writers. I have a very simplistic view regarding aspiring writers, and because I went through so many years and so many books 'aspiring' I believe that for once I can be an authority.

Constancy of purpose. It's not complicated.

Hard work. That's even less complicated.

Truth of the matter is that all published authors were unpublished authors the day before they were published. What was the difference between those guys and anyone else? They stuck at it.

The other point that I made was that hard work - in and of itself - is quite addictive. For me it's like heroin. If I don't have enough to do I go find more things to do. I have just done three trips to Paris (one for the award, one for the film - more about that later, and one for the Quais Du Polar Festival in Lyon). I have just agreed to a week in Cumbria, a day there, a day back, and four days in the middle where I will do twelve library events. I spent three days last week at the London Book Fair, meeting overseas publishers, doing what has to be done at such events, and I agreed to go to Dubia, Germany, Finland, Holland, Portugal and back to Paris. I received an e-mail when I got back from London asking if I would do an evening event at the Scottish Association of Writers. I e-mailed back to ask how long the event was. Three days, they said. So why can't I come for three days and do seminars, workshops, readings, spend some time in Scotland and get to know some people? You can, they replied, somewhat suprised. Good, I said. Put my name down for three days. I am also going out to New York in July for Thrillerfest, and then Indianapolis in October for Bouchercon (with Ali, of course!)

Last year I did more than a hundred events. This year I plan to do more. Whether it be a small readers' group in a curry house in Harborne (which I did last night, and it was great!), to the Dubai Literary Festival, the facts are the same. You don't own a readership. You earn it. You don't keep readers because you are charming, because they like you, or anything else. You keep them because you work very hard at the next book, trying all the while to make what you're doing better than what you did before, and you understand that you continue to be published because of the good grace of your publisher and the fiction readers of the world. Forget that, and as far as I'm concerned, you might as well pack your suitcase and go home.

There is nothing that pleases me more than meeting readers, old and new. I love the debates, the questions, the challenges, the disagreements, the criticisms, the suggestions about how I can do my job better. I don't ever do 'readings' at these events, not unless they are requested specifically. That's not what people come to events for. They come to ask questions, to get answers, to find out what I like to read, to share their favourite books, and we all go away with a much rejuvenated love of good fiction.

Anyway, as I was asked the question by Ali, that's how I answered it. Hard work, constancy of purpose, recognition that you have a responsibility to entertain, to evoke an emotion, perhaps to edify, intrigue, educate, counfound or challenge. That's what good fiction is all about.

So, to other matters.

As you know I went to Paris back in March at the request of Olivier Dahan, writer/director of 'La Vie En Rose', the Oscar-winning biopic about Edith Piaf. Olivier had just returned from America where he had completed filming his first English-speaking film, 'My Own Love Song', a film that stars Renee Zelwegger, Nick Nolte and Forest Whittaker. The film has also been scored by Bob Dylan, no less. Olivier had read the French translation of A Quiet Belief In Angels, and he asked me whether I would be interested in working on the screenplay for a film of the book. Yes, I said, of course I would. We spent three days together. He showed some of the great sights of Paris. We ate some great food, and we talked about making AQBIA work as a film. I left with the agreement that he would talk to his production company, and if they were as enthusiastic about the project as he and I obviously were, then he would have them speak to my agent and work out a deal.

Last week we did the deal. Last week Legende Films came back to us and I signed the contract to write the screenplay. I have started work on it already, and have put together three hundred and twenty-two scenes which cover the basic structure and storyline of the book. It has been a very interesting experience, to say the least. And though I am quite prepared for the fact that the film might not necessarily be how I imagined it, I know that it will be a great film, and I feel very privileged and honoured to have been asked to do this by such a gifted and eminent filmmaker.

So to the London Book Fair. I went to LBF last week to meet James Patterson, and to thank him for the very kind words he has quoted for the American release of A Quiet Belief In Angels in September. AQBIA is being published by a firm called Overlook Press out of New York. They are a truly wonderful teams over there, headed up by Peter Mayer, a legend in the publishing industry. My editor, Aaron Schlecter, the publicity director, Jack Lamplough, and the sales director, David Falk, have been working extraordinarily hard. They have sent the proof copies of the US version out to many, many authors, and already we have received very complimentary quotes from James Patterson, Ken Bruen, David Stone, Alan Furst, Val McDermid and Clive Cussler. All of these authors are world-class, they are people I respect and admire enormously, and it is a great honour to be told that they have enjoyed the book. By the way, James Patterson is one of the most magnanimous and kind-hearted people you could ever hope to meet, an exceptionally hard-working writer, and regardless of whether or not you enjoy his books, he is still testament to the quote I used at the start of this blog. The amount of time and money and energy and effort he dedicates to literacy programs and supporting libraries all over the place is staggering just by itself.

Well, where are we now? I got a message from a producer at the BBC (the lady I went to Washington with) to say that she had just completed an interview with Lee Child. I met Lee in Baltimore last year and he was tremendously kind. He was very generous with his time and advice regarding securing the services of a US agent and publisher, and he helped no end. Anyway, she told me that he passed on his best wishes, and that she should let me know that he had a copy of 'A Simple Act of Violence' in the car, which he had bought! I thought 'For God's sake, you'd just have to e-mail me or the publisher and we'd send you one!', but no, it seems he went and bought a copy.

As I said, I am off to NY in July for Thrillerfest, Bouchercon in Indianapolis in October, back to Paris for three days at the end of June for the promotion of the new book ('A Quiet Vendetta' is being released in France in September of this year), and besides that I am done with 'The Anniversary Man' (out here in September), have sent the second draft of 'The Darkest River' (for 2010) to my publisher, and I am about three-quarters of the way through 'The Saints of New York' for 2011. Otherwise, I will be travelling, event-ing, working on the AQBIA screenplay, and generally continuing to act ridiculous and irresponsible as is my wont.

Aside from that, the summer is on the way. The troublemakers are doing their utmost to upset us all with swine flu, just as they are doing with global warming, just as they tried to do with bird flu and God knows what else they spend their time cooking up in the drug company laboratories (don't get me started!), and there are a million stories out there all waiting to be told.

Writing is writing. It is an individual activity. Renard said that writing was one profession where no-one considered you ridiculous if you earned no money. So go earn no money. I did for over twenty years. Not advised, of course, but still a fact. Writing is not dependent upon your mood, the time of day, the weather, other people, or anything else. So for those of you with questions about what to do and how to do it, please send those questions to me, and I will do my best to answer them. But I have to leave you with Disraeli's quote above, and also a few words from Walt Disney, who said 'Do what you do so well that people come back, and bring their friends'.

I trust all's well with you, and I send my best wishes as always,

Roger.