Douglas Skelton will interviewing BBC journalist Louise Minchin and Scottish author Alex Gray as part of Aye Write’s on-going events.
Louise’s first novel, Isolation Island, draws on both her knowledge of TV journalism but also reality TV as a mixed group of individuals agree to take part in a rigorous TV series on a remote Scottish island. Naturally, murder is inevitable!
Alex is well-known for her bestselling Lorrimer series and the latest, Out of Darkness, takes him from the streets of Glasgow to the heat of Zimbabwe. Naturally, murder is inevitable! Again!
Personally speaking, (and it’s my website so I’m allowed) 2022 was a year of incredible highs and devastating lows.
But that’s life, ain’t it? Ups and downs, peaks and troughs, swing and roundabouts. All that jazz. As John Lennon said, life is what happens while you’re making other plans.
As Dickens wrote, it was the best times; it was the worst of times.
So, what was it all about, 2022?
Well, I was on the telly – three times! Four, you could say, because one was a two-parter. I think I was on screen even more than ‘The Heroes of Telemark’ this year, and that’s quite a feat.
First there was a documentary I presented on the Crime + Investigation Channel. Although I’ve appeared on the box many times over the years, it was the first time I’d ever actually fronted a full show and it was an interesting experience. It was filmed in 2021 but didn’t go out until earlier this year, as part of a strand called Once Upon a True Crime, which saw some top crime writers (and me) outline a case that inspired their writing. The other authors were Denise Mina, Mark Billingham and Peter James.
Mine, of course, was about the Ice Cream Wars in 1983/84 Glasgow. I’ve never used them directly in my fiction but I did co-author the true crime account of the case and what I learned during that period has informed most of my stories.
Filming in Glasgow with a lovely car but, for me, hellish to drive.
I had to drive a Ford Capri of the period. No power steering. No ABS. After driving it round and round in order to get the take the director wanted I had shoulders like Big Arnie and I had to start hitting the brakes a half mile before I wanted to stop.
Mr Billingham and I even launched the series at a special event in The British Library in London.
Bestselling author Mark Billingham and I looking suitably sombre for the promotion of the Once Upon a True Crime series in the British Library
Later in the year I was one of the contributors to a BBC Scotland two-part investigation of the case. Reports tell me that the programme makers did a great job, but I still haven’t watched it because I really hate seeing myself.
Those two documentaries will be my last word on the tragic case.
This year I also made my second appearance on David Wilson’s Crime Files. Being interviewed by the professor is always daunting as I feel he is picking up on every bit of body language and psycho-analysing me. In fact, he probably is!
He’s a lovely guy and it was good of him to have me back.
We were talking about the Sandy Drummond case, an unsolved murder from Fife, which I find fascinating. I wrote about it in one of my true crime books many years ago, back when Caxton was still working his press.
When I walked into the studio I was greeted by the face and beard of an old friend – Stan Leech. Now a cameraman, he was part of the crew for the series. Amazingly, in a previous life, he played Sandy Drummond in a Crimewatch re-enactment. It’s a small world, right enough, but as someone once quipped, I wouldn’t like to paint it.
I had two books published – the fourth Rebecca Connolly thriller WHERE DEMONS HIDE (Polygon) and the first Jonas Flynt historical adventure AN HONOURABLE THIEF (Canelo).
Outing no 4 for Rebecca ConnollyThe eye-catching cover for the first Jonas Flynt historical thriller
It’s a thrill to have one book published, let alone two in a year, and I am grateful to the publishers and my agent, Jo Bell, for making it happen. Also to Denzil Meyrick for more or less forcing me to begin writing the Jonas Flynt tales. But that’s a story you should all know by now. And if you don’t, I tell it in the author’s note at the end of the book.
Yes, that’s an unashamed attempt at selling!
The two-book thing will be repeated in 2023, by the way, with another Rebecca, CHILDREN OF THE MIST, and another Jonas, A THIEF’S JUSTICE.
Another high spot of the year was when the third Rebecca Connolly A RATTLE OF BONES was longlisted for the McIlvanney Award.
The longlist for this year’s McIlvanney Prize. Needless to say I wasn’t shortlisted, otherwise that’s what you’d be seeing!
That’s the third time I’ve made that prestigious list. Let’s hope it won’t be the last!
I had a busy year at festivals, appearing in Paisley, Aye Write, Bute, Stewarton, Bloody Scotland in Stirling, Grantown, even a stint hosting a table at one of the dinners in Harrogate. Not sure I’ll be as fortunate in 2023.
Author pal Gordon Brown and I teamed up for a double act to promote out new titles at a few venues, including Stewarton and Glasgow. It turned out to be a sort of Two Blokes in Search of a Plot. Or, given my advancing years, in search of a pot.
One of the best nights of my life, in the Book Nook, Stewarton, with Gordon Brown, who appears to be yawning. And I’m not even talking!
They were all fun and thank you to the bookstores and venues who hosted us.
Book Week Scotland was another busy period and I’m grateful for the libraries in Dundee, Motherwell, Musselburgh and Saltcoats for inviting me. I was crossing central Scotland like a bank robber on the lam.
That leaves the lows.
Ah, the lows.
Charles Dickens again, or maybe it was just Kermit the Frog – life is full of meetings and partings. I experienced both.
There’s a Hollywood adage for romantic comedies that breaks them down into the three-act structure of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. I’ve had the first two but the third is unlikely. Perhaps even impossible. But, as I said above, that’s life/other plans etc. I wish it wasn’t, but there we go.
Throwing myself with dramatic abandon into a slough of despond, I found myself once again grateful for my friends. They rallied round when my wife died three years ago and they did so again when this relationship died. I have some wonderful friends and if they read this – you know who you are, I won’t embarrass you – then I want them to know how much I appreciate them.
I also lost an old friend, who had been ill, on Christmas Day.
Stephen Wilkie was the most knowledgeable person regarding Scottish crime I have ever met. The consummate tabloid reporter, he was the guy I turned to whenever I needed to know something. If he didn’t know about it, it didn’t happen, simple as that. I often urged him to write a book but he never did.
I have many regrets in life. One of them is not being a better friend to him.
RIP, big guy. If there’s a news desk in the afterlife, I’ll lay odds you’re showing them how it’s done.
In addition to sharing the stage with bestselling author Alex Gray, chaired by Theresa Talbot, during Aye Write, Glasgow’s book festival, I’ll be engaged in interviewing duties myself.
On Friday May 13 I’ll be discussing the historical thriller A Contagion of Blood with Ambrose Parry – namely Marisa Haetzman and Christopher Brookmyre.
On Sunday May 15 I’ll be chatting to STV news anchor John MacKay about his book ‘The Road Home’ and its journey from page to screen, with input from the new movie’s director and stars.
I’m chairing a handful of events during Aye Write this year – each one as fascinating as the last.
Please click on the links for details of venue, times and ticket prices.
First up, on Sunday March 17, I’ll be chatting to Ursula Buchan about her astonishingly detailed biography of her grandfather, John Buchan.
Ursula Buchan with a bust of her grandfather
As a crime and thriller author I owe JB, as he is known in the book, a huge debt – The 39 Steps casts a giant shadow over the genre and helped create many of the themes and tropes we use today.
Later that day I’ll be appearing in my own right on a panel about These Bloody Islands. I’ve done a separate post about that. Hey, it’s my website!
On Sunday March 24, Jeremy Dronfield will be discussing an amazing, and moving, true story ‘The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz’.
Jeremy Dronfield
The book is an incredible tale of courage and sacrifice – a boy who refused to leave his father when he was being sent to Auschwitz – and this will be an extremely emotive event.
On Saturday March 30, I’ll be facing the country’s best known criminologist, Professor David Wilson, to talk about his new book ‘My Life With Murderers.’
Prof David Wilson
Well known from TV appearances and a number of books, Prof Wilson has spent his life dealing with violent men – and his book tells us why.
Finally, Sunday March 31, the mood lightens when I meet up with Mike Edwards, Senior News Correspondent with Scottish Television, to talk about his book ‘The Road Home.’
An Inverness native, Mike set off on a trek across the USA visiting every town and city sharing the name of his home town.
His book is travelogue, observational piece and autobiography rolled into one.
Aye Write, Glasgow’s very own literary festival, kicks off again in March.
And I’m lucky enough to be part of it!
On Sunday March 17 I’ll be joining authors Anna Mazzola and CL Taylor to discuss These Bloody Islands.
By a stroke of coincidence – not to mention luck – we have each written new books set on Scottish islands.
Our chair will be the ever-charming Theresa Talbot.
Theresa Talbot
I’m looking forward to this event immensely and I’m delighted to be back at Aye Write answering questions instead of asking them. Although I will be getting my chairman’s jacket on, too – details posted elsewhere.
For details on the island panel and how to book, click here
I’ve appeared in Kilmarnock’s Dick Institute for Libraries Day, been part of the world tour of parts of Scotland that is Crime Factor, judged non-fiction work for the Society of Authors and spoken on putting the fiction into fact and the fact into fiction, released the final book in the Davie McCall series (it’s called Open Wounds, just in case I haven’t mentioned it enough), appeared with fellow crime writers in a comedy mystery radio play in a bookshop, chaired a couple of sessions at Aye Write, taken part in Britcrime’s on-line crime writing festival, sold my books at other people’s launches (it’s called pulling a Bendoris, by the way) and been one of a body of crime writers who wrote a story live on Twitter for the Scottish Literary Festival.
And it’s only July!
Caro Ramsay, Michael J. Malone, Theresa Talbot and some bearded old man in ‘Carry on Sleuthing’ in Waterstones Argyle Street.
But there’s something I’m forgetting.
What is it?
It’s not something I’ve mentioned much, to be honest, which is why I can’t quite remember…
Oh, yes!
Open Wounds has been longlisted for the McIlvanney Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award!
You may have missed that.
So what have I got ahead of me?
First up is the inaugural Bute Noir crime writing festival, on Friday and Saturday August 5 and 6. I’ll be joining a host of great crime authors for the two day funfest – you’ll find further details here: Bute Noir
Douglas Skelton, Neil Broadfoot, Mark Leggatt and GJ Brown will be hitting the road this year as Four Crime Writers in Search of a Plot. Picture: Daniel Morrison
The Crime Factor tour continues with trips to Waterstones in Livingston and Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street on August 11 and 25 respectively. These are great fun and my fellow panel members Neil Broadfoot, Gordon GJ Brown, Mark Leggatt and chair Peter Burnett are a joy to work with.
Well, maybe not Broadfoot.
I’ve also got a new book coming out!
Yes, another one.
‘The Dead Don’t Boogie’ introduces my off-beat hero Dominic Queste and will be launched in Ayr on September 1, with Michael J. Malone, and then in Glasgow on September 8, with Caro Ramsay. I’ll post event links soon.
And the following day I’m off to Stirling for the start of Bloody Scotland. There may be drink taken, especially on the first night as that’s when the winner of the McIlvanney Award will be announced.
The longlist for the McIlvanney Prize 2016. Image courtesy of Bloody Scotland
Did I mention that Open Wounds is in the running?
On the Saturday I’m part of a panel called Scotland the Grave, which debates which location is best. I am, of course, batting for Glasgow. You’ll find more details here: Bloody Scotland panel
Gillian Galbraith, some eejit, Russel D. McLean and Catriona McPherson will argue over what location is best
Later in September I’ve been asked to take part in the first Byres Road Book Festival and also I’m appearing with Michael J. Malone (honestly, people will talk) in the exciting Tidelines festival in North Ayrshire. Further details about both will follow.
Caro Ramsay
Michael. J. Malone
I may even find time to write!
If you can get along to any of these events, please do. It’d be great to see you. Honestly, I don’t bite.
‘The first thing you should know about me is that my name is not Carter Blake.’
Here’s another thing you should know – the author’s name is not Mason Cross. I can’t tell you what his real name is as I’ve signed a confidentiality agreement but I can tell you he is an international man of mystery.
Carter Blake is pretty enigmatic, too. We’re drip-fed tiny droplets of info but not enough to really know who he is or where he comes from. What we do know is that he’s an efficient hunter of men – in this case an escaped con with an agenda which includes killing as many people as he can.
The action covers a goodly proportion of the ol’ US of A at a brisk pace. Cross’s characters are skilfully etched without getting in the way of the breakneck storytelling. The suspense builds sharpely until you’re turning the pages so fast you could get a paper cut.
The second book in the series, ‘The Samaritan’, will be released in July and I believe we’ll learn a bit more about the enigmatic Mr Blake.
You can see the mysterious Mason Cross in Aye Write this year when he hosts a panel of ex-police officers and probation officers who have turned to crime writing. Details here
