NEWSLETTER #2

I hope those of you who received the first issue of the newsletter found it fun and informative, and thanks to everyone who emailed me with their comments.

I know that many of you have been passing the newsletter on to friends (yes, I can see what you're up to!), and that's perfectly fine. Feel free to forward it to as many people as you like.

For new subscribers who missed the first issue of the newsletter, I've posted a copy of it onto the website so you can catch up. But you do need to follow this direct link or paste it into your browser:

http://www.stephen-booth.com/NewsletterFeb04.htm

Don't forget, if you have any suggestions for what you'd like to see in future issues, please don't hesitate to let me know. Send your ideas to:

newsletter@stephen-booth.com

There's lots of news in this issue, so I'll get straight on with it. And, as promised earlier, there are prizes too!

All the best

Stephen Booth

IT'S COMPETITION TIME!

BLIND TO THE BONES

The massmarket paperback of BLIND TO THE BONES is hitting the shelves in the UK and should arrive very shortly in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries (though not in the USA).

I think the paperback looks really good. Not only is it nice and chunky (great value for £6.99!), but as usual, HarperCollins have produced a wonderfully atmospheric cover based on a genuine Peak District scene.

The book isn't officially published until next Monday (5th April), but booksellers have clearly been getting it out on sale as soon as it arrives in the stores, with the result that BLIND TO THE BONES currently sits at number 85 on the UK bestseller list (also known as the Hot 100). A modest figure, but not bad considering there's still a week to go before publication!

If you feel like helping it get a little higher in the chart, now is the time to stock up on a few copies. Perhaps you might want to get half a dozen as gifts for friends? There are some exciting 3 for 2 offers out there, you know! And it's never too early to buy in for Christmas, I always say. Or Chanukah or Diwali, or the Midsummer Solstice...

If you're tempted but still can't make up your mind, the first chapter of BLIND TO THE BONES is available on the website as a taster. Just go to:

http://www.stephen-booth.com and follow the link.

Looking a bit further ahead, a brand new Cooper & Fry novel, ONE LAST BREATH, is due to be published in UK hardback on 5th July this year. That's the good news. The even better news is that I'm going to be giving away six signed hardback first editions prior to publication. Yes, six!

All you have to do to stand a chance of winning a signed copy of ONE LAST BREATH is answer the question below, then send the answer with your name in an email (I'll leave the subject line to your imagination) to:
competition@stephen-booth.com

The competition is open to readers in any part of the world, and I'm willing to mail out the prizes at no cost, wherever you happen to live.

However, you may notice that to answer the question correctly it will help enormously if you happen to possess a copy of the newly-released UK paperback of BLIND TO THE BONES. This is not meant to exclude anybody from entering, but to make the competition suitably topical and relevant, and all that...

Well, okay, it's to twist your arm and FORCE you to buy a copy, just in case the great cover, sample chapter and my general niceness about the whole thing didn't work. Really, it's in your own interests. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

So make sure you get your copy of BLIND TO THE BONES now! If you're not in the UK, buying books on the internet or by mail order is really easy these days, you know - even for people in countries where the dollar is worth about half a bag of peanuts.

The competition closes on 30th April, when the six winning emails will be drawn out of my virtual hat.

QUESTION:

What type of car was the first one I ever owned?

CLUE: It's mentioned on page 189 of the UK paperback of BLIND TO THE BONES.

Good luck!

ONE LAST BREATH

Incidentally, while we're doing the sales pitch, the cover price for the hardback of ONE LAST BREATH in the UK will be £10 (compared to £17.99 for the last one), so it's definitely going to be a bargain wherever you find it.

Interesting news for collectors is that Scorpion Press will be producing a special signed limited edition of ONE LAST BREATH later in the year, with an appreciation by Peter Robinson.

Also, I understand there are still some copies left of the Scorpion Press edition of BLOOD ON THE TONGUE, with an appreciation by Reginald Hill. Reg was so nice about me when he wrote his appreciation that I was sure he must have been talking about somebody else entirely!

The limited edition consists of 80 signed numbered copies and 13 deluxe lettered copies, all hand-bound with quarter-leather spines and marble paper sides over boards, coloured top edges and end papers. The deluxe version is also signed by the writer of the appreciation. Go to:

http://www.scorpionpress.org.uk

There'll be more about ONE LAST BREATH in future issues of the newsletter.

ON THE HOME FRONT

Well, I survived the ordeal of copy-editing ONE LAST BREATH, and it's signed off and gone to the printers. As predicted, I was already getting stuck into book number 6 (as yet untitled) in the Cooper and Fry series, which is scheduled for publication in 2005.

The ideas stage of a book is the most fun and exciting part of the process. In fact, the concept always seems so much better in my mind than the finished product that I once discussed with my agent the possibility of just writing a synopsis and leaving the details of the story to the reader's imagination. She didn't think she'd have much success selling that idea to a publisher!

But I really do think that as a writer my most powerful tool is the imagination of the reader. Readers can form pictures in their heads that are far more vivid than anything I can write on the page. In that way, a novel becomes a two-way process, something that is created jointly by the author and reader. So thank you for your contribution!

THE OFFICE

The office move went surprisingly smoothly. I'm now working at the top of our three-storey Georgian dower house, with a view over the hills and fields of North Nottinghamshire. It's starting to look very green out there again, now that Spring is arriving. One day the sun will come out, I know it will.

Since I moved rooms, I've been abandoned by my Desk Cat, Amy, who was my constant supervisor while I was working. Instead, I have a newly appointed Desk Cat, a grey tabby called Verity, who lives in a cardboard box that some books were delivered in. She supervises me just as closely. But apparently, this room is her territory, not Amy's.

This shouldn't really surprise me. We've always had at least three cats in the house, and I've never been able to escape the suspicion that they have the household organised between them in ways that they don't even bother telling us about!

COOPER & FRY COUNTRY

Later this year, I'll be giving a party of visitors from Texas a personal tour of "Cooper and Fry Country" - the areas of the Peak District which feature as settings for the books.

During the trip, we'll be spending some time in Castleton and the Hope Valley, where ONE LAST BREATH is set. The area around Castleton is limestone and riddled with caves. I had hoped to take the Texas party below the surface for an underground boat ride through an abandoned lead mine (a journey experienced by Diane Fry in ONE LAST BREATH). But at the moment we're dubious about the 102 steps down from the road to the landing stage. Very steep, wet stone steps. Steps in a tunnel so low that you have to wear a helmet to avoid braining yourself on the roof.

Some of us are not as young as we used to be - and going down those steps might be okay, but coming back up is a killer, I can tell you from personal experience. So it looks as though we might admire the cave system from a safe distance - a luxury I haven't allowed Ben Cooper and Diane Fry, I'm afraid!

I know a lot of American readers are unfamiliar with England's Peak District - and I'm sure the same applies to readers in other countries. Yet the Peak District National Park is said to be the second most visited national park in the world (after Mount Fuji in Japan, I believe).

It's a beautiful and fascinating area full of history and varied landscapes - and, of course, some wonderful atmospheric locations for me to use. Please do visit if you ever get the chance.

For more information on the Peak District, as well as some great photos and useful links, there's a special page on the website:

http://www.stephen-booth.com/peakdistrict.htm

READING RECOMMENDATIONS

You may have read the fuss in the media recently about authors who write endorsements on the back covers of each other's books. It turns out that some of them provide paragraphs of gushing praise without even bothering to read the book.

Well, I don't often give quotes for other authors, so I hope to escape being described as a 'Blurb Whore' (journalists have such a great vocabulary). But here are two as yet under-appreciated UK authors whose books I've happily given quotes for recently:

ZOE SHARP for her Charlie Fox series - KILLER INSTINCT, RIOT ACT, HARD KNOCKS, and her latest, FIRST DROP. Ex-army Charlie is developing her new career as a personal-protection expert.

VICTORIA BLAKE for her debut BLOODLESS SHADOW, featuring Sam Falconer. Victoria was part of Orion's 'New Blood' promotion' earlier this year. And there's a second book due out in December, I see.

Oh, and don't forget that competition if you want a signed copy of ONE LAST BREATH. Send your answer in an email to: competition@stephen-booth.com
to arrive by 30th April.

EVENTS

LOVE IS MURDER

I'm chuffed to bits to say that I've been invited to be International Guest of Honour at the LOVE IS MURDER mystery convention in Chicago next February (2005). Honorees in 2004 included Walter Mosley and David Morrell, so I feel as though I'll be following in celebrated footsteps.

The organisers of LIM say they would very much like more British authors to take part in the event, and they're also hoping to get Ken Bruen and Pat Mullan over from Ireland, all being well.

LOVE IS MURDER is so-called because it takes place in February, around the time of St Valentine's Day. Of course, Chicago was the scene of the notorious St Valentine's Day Massacre, when six members of the Bugsy Malone gang were killed by rival gangsters posing as policemen on 14th February 1929.

Chicago is a fascinating city in other ways, too. Not sure about the weather in February, but I'm promised it won't be snowing!

Why not check out the most recent LOVE IS MURDER event on their website at:

http://www.loveismurder.org/

LEFT COAST CRIME

Well, what can I say? What a great time we had in Monterey. Left Coast Crime is one of my favourite US conventions, and this one was superbly organised by Bill and Toby Gottfried and their committee, as well as having a great location on the Central Coast of California. Not much sun, unfortunately, but there was a chance to get out on the ocean to go whale watching!

LCC is a regular gathering place for members of my favourite internet group, 4MysteryAddicts. There were plenty of 4MAers in Monterey, and lots of photos of the convention are available on their website, if you're a member (well worth joining up, by the way). Check them out:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/4_Mystery_Addicts/

CRIME IN THE CITY

Ottakar's bookshop in Glasgow, Scotland, are again running Crime in the City, their three-week festival of crime writing. The programme looks wonderful, but the best evening of all will be 'It's Murder Up North', when I join old friends Stuart Pawson, John Baker and Ron Ellis for an evening at Ottakar's. They chose Thursday 1st April - April Fools' Day - for our event, for some reason.

Forthcoming dates:

1st April, 6.30pm - Ottakar's bookshop, Glasgow, 'It's Murder Up North' with Stuart Pawson, John Baker and Ron Ellis.

2nd June, 7.30pm - Derbyshire Literature Festival. Talk to readers at Wingerworth Library, Chesterfield.

11th - 14th June - Book Expo Canada, Toronto Convention Centre.

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PARANOID CORNER

I AM NOT ALONE #4

US author Thomas Laird has recently had a crime novel published called BLACK DOG - the same title as my first book, number 1 in the Cooper and Fry series. Laird's book is a serial killer novel set in Chicago.

Another American writer, Robert Brace, has a new book in his series about an ex-US Marine due to appear later this year. That, too, is called BLACK DOG.

Well, I think it's a great title, and I can't complain about the duplication, because I wasn't the first to use it - just the first in the crime genre. For example, there was a children's book called BLACK DOG, and a film starring Patrick Swayze. There's no copyright in a title, of course, so it's free for all.

But because I like my titles to be unique, these days I do a search on both Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com to see if I can find anything in print with a title similar to the one I have in mind.

So one more BLACK DOG doesn't surprise me (although two of them at the same time does look like a misfortune, as Oscar Wilde might have written). But I'd be fascinated to see anyone else find a reason for using the title DANCING WITH THE VIRGINS!

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

When BLACK DOG first came out, I had readers endlessly telling me what the term 'Black Dog' meant to them - and they were almost always different from the meanings I use in the book.

For example, I had forgotten that it was the title of a track by 1970s rock band Led Zeppelin, or that it's the name of a pirate in TREASURE ISLAND.

I wasn't at all aware that it was a famous restaurant on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, or a type of beer, or a Native American indian chief from Kansas, or a Led Zeppelin tribute band, or a make of outboard motor, or the name of a village in Scotland.

I'm told that BLACK DOG was also the code name for a secret American plan to use biological weapons against Iraq during the first Gulf War (I have no idea if that's true!).

And a Crown Prosecution Service lawyer told me that she'd expected it to be the mythical black dog that drivers who end up in court blame for running across the road at night and making them crash their cars!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS DEPARTMENT

WHEN WILL THE SERIES BE ON TV?

I sold TV and film options in BLACK DOG almost as soon as the book was published. At the time, the buyers were one of the UK's major commercial TV companies, which no longer exists due to a series of mergers.

An option is just an option, and it only lasts for a year unless the production company renews - which, in this case, they didn't. Anybody in the business knows that lots of books are optioned but never make it to the screen.

There has been some interest since, but at the time of writing the rights remain uncommitted. Sorry!

WHAT DOES BEN COOPER LOOK LIKE?

Some readers think he's tall and dark, some that he's tall and fair. A few readers don't even see him as tall. My wife thinks Ben looks like Ewan McGregor. A lady at a library event I did in Yorkshire was really upset by that idea, because she pictures him more like George Clooney.

As far as I'm concerned, all of these are equally valid. I'm happy for readers to picture my characters in whatever way they want them to look. And I've never yet seen an actor who looks exactly like the picture I have in my own head of Ben and Diane.

SNIPPETS

TRANSLATIONS

Here's what's going on around the world in other languages:

GERMANY: Goldmann have recently published KALTES GRAB (BLOOD ON THE TONGUE) following KUHLER GRUND and DIE SCHWARZE HAND DES TODES.

FRANCE: The first three books in the series of have been published by Le Masque: BLACK DOG, PEAK PARK and L'AIGLE SANGLANT. The first two are now also available in paperback.

NETHERLANDS: De Boekerij released ZWARTE HOND and DE TIENDE MAAGD, but there are no signs of any more in the series.

ITALY: Mondadori are up to number three in their Gialli line, with IL MALE OSCURO, NOVE VERGINI DI PIETRA and IL PASSO DEL SERPENTE.

SWEDEN: Minotaur are doing well with the Cooper & Fry novels. They followed SVARTA HUNDEN and JUNGFRUDANSEN with ISKALLT SPAR (BLOOD ON THE TONGUE), which became a Swedish bestseller.

FINLAND: MUSTA KOIRA and NEITSEIDEN TANSSI have been published by Blue Moon Books. Number 3 is currently being translated.

JAPAN: In January, BLACK DOG was published in Japanese by Tokyo Sogen-sha as 黒い犬  創元推理文庫

DENMARK: Klim currently have BLACK DOG in translation.

THAILAND: Amarin have made an approach for the Thai translation rights to BLOOD ON THE TONGUE.

MURDEROUS COMPANY

A few days ago, I was the after-dinner speak at a meeting of our local Rotary Club, an organisation which represents professional and business people. It was a 'Partners Evening', so Rotary members were accompanied by their wives and other guests, about 70 in all.

I'm pretty sure they'd never had anyone like a crime writer as a speaker before. My hilarious anecdotes about the Yorkshire Ripper and killer rabbits caused quite a stir.

I have this theory that everyone would commit a murder in the right circumstances, no matter who they are. I put this to the Rotary Cub audience and asked how many people there thought they would NEVER commit a murder. Just one lady put her hand up.

It's nice to be proved right, of course. But at the same time, it's just a little unsettling to find yourself in a room with 70 apparently respectable people, all contemplating murder.

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