NEWSLETTER #5

I hope you all had a great holiday period, and that you've made exactly the right New Year resolutions ("buy more books" - that's a good one).

The news this month is that the sixth Cooper & Fry novel, THE DEAD PLACE, is now finished, all bar the editing. THE DEAD PLACE is due for publication in the UK on 6th June (closely followed by Canada, Australia and other countries too numerous to mention).

The USA will still have to wait a while yet - sorry! But US readers should keep an eye out for news of future publication dates.

Meanwhile, the massmarket paperback of ONE LAST BREATH will be released in the UK on 4th April. I've also given this book an extra special polish for its US hardcover launch (date still to be confirmed).

I hope you enjoy this newsletter. Previous issues have been posted on the website so you can catch up. Follow these direct links or paste them into your browser:

http://www.stephen-booth.com/NewsletterSept04.htm

http://www.stephen-booth.com/NewsletterJune04.htm

http://www.stephen-booth.com/NewsletterApril04.htm

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

Scores of new subscribers have been signing up since the last issue of the newsletter, so a big welcome to you all. Feel free to forward this newsletter to friends who might be interested.

And 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

All the best

Stephen Booth

NEWS

ACROSS THE ATLANTIC

As mentioned in the last newsletter, the Cooper & Fry series has a new publisher in the USA, hence the delay in publication of the latest book. Bantam Dell will be publishing the next three titles in the series, starting with ONE LAST BREATH.

For a taster of OLB, the first chapter has been posted on the website:

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

AUDIO BOOKS

I recently went into the studio to record an exclusive interview for Clipper Audio. The interview will be included in the unabridged audio version of ONE LAST BREATH, due for release in the UK very soon. Actor Christopher Kay does a great job with the narration on these:

http://www.ukaudiobooks.co.uk

Meanwhile, in the USA, Recorded Books have bought audio rights to the first four Cooper & Fry novels - BLACK DOG, DANCING WITH THE VIRGINS, BLOOD ON THE TONGUE, and BLIND TO THE BONES. I'm told they intend to use the Christopher Kay narrations to maintain the authentic Derbyshire feel. So watch out for those, too! AUTHOR SQUAD

I recently joined the 'Author Squad', a panel of crime writers who produce guest reviews for the UK's Mystery and Thriller Book Club. The club are the current sponsors of the Crime Writers Association's annual Dagger Awards.

I was Guest Editor of the Mystery and Thriller Club's magazine last month for the Christmas issue, which was great fun to do. One thing I got the chance to do was pick two books from the month's selections that I most wanted to review.

My choices were Andrew Taylor's latest 1950s Lydmouth mystery CALL THE DYING, and a wonderful collection of supernatural short stories from John Connolly called NOCTURNES. Two great books -so watch out for them!

UK readers might want to check out the club's website:

http://www.mysterythriller.co.uk

CONTEMPORARY WRITERS

I'm also honoured to have become one of just 18 crime writers now listed by the British Council on their Contemporary Writers website.

The site features a unique, searchable database containing up-to-date profiles of living UK and Commonwealth writers:

http://www.contemporarywriters.com

EVENTS

BOUCHERCON 2004

Last year's Bouchercon (the World Mystery Convention) was held in Toronto, Canada, where I took part in a panel called 'Should Crime Writing Be Held to the Same Standards as Literary Fiction?' or 'What makes a great book?'.

My fellow panellists were Michael Collins, Christopher Rice and Kim Moritsugu. It was due to the presence of Collins (a Booker Prize nominee a couple of years ago and therefore a "serious" writer) that our panel got a write-up in the Canadian literary magazine, Macleans. We had a good discussion, too.

The Bouchercon organisers persuaded me to let myself be an auction item during the charity auction on the opening night. Or at least, lunch with me was an offer!

Two ladies from the USA "shared" me, and we had a terrific chat over lunch in a Toronto restaurant. The money they bid goes to a literacy charity for young people who are at risk or homeless in Toronto.

This year's Bouchercon will be held in Chicago. For more information, go to:

http://www.boucherconworld.org

LOVE IS MURDER

The website is now up for the 2005 LOVE IS MURDER mystery convention in Chicago next February. I'll be International Guest of Honor at LIM, along with other guests such as Anne Perry. The programme looks like great fun, and I'm really looking forward to it. Why not check it out:

http://www.loveismurder.com/

This does mean I'll miss attending next year's LEFT COAST CRIME, which is one of my favourite US conventions. However, LCC is coming my way soon, because it's been announced that in 2006 LEFT COAST CRIME will be held in Bristol, England. More information at:

http://www.interbridge.com/leftcoastcrime2006/

FORTHCOMING UK DATES:

A series of pre-Christmas events began with a crime afternoon sponsored by Mystery Women, the UK organisation set up to promote female crime writers, many of whom are still under appreciated (yes, I'm proud to be a 'Mystery Woman'!). For details of the organisation go to:

http://www.mysterywomen.co.uk/

For this event in Nottingham I teamed up with fellow authors Clare Littleford and Sally Spedding. I also recently took part in a crime evening in Cheltenham with Danuta Reah and Simon Kernick.

Coming up is another Mystery Women event, which will start my UK appearances for 2005:

Wednesday 9th March, 10am
Talk to readers at Arnold Library, Nottingham, with Clare Littleford and Sally Spedding.

There will be more UK events following the publication of THE DEAD PLACE. Also, in July I'll be one of the speakers at the annual Sussex Writers' Conference in Worthing:

http://www.westsussexwriters.org.uk

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FREQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS DEPARTMENT

WHAT ACTOR LOOKS
LIKE BEN COOPER?

Ewan McGregor and George Clooney have both been suggested by readers. And how about Liam Neeson? Well, that's not how he looks to me! If you have any views on these actors, or ideas of your own, please let me know! Email: newsletter@stephen-booth.com

I also have a suggestion for Diane Fry, too - the actress Lisa Maxwell, who plays DS Samantha Nixon in THE BILL. What do you think?

WOULD YOU EVER
WRITE A DIFFERENT
KIND OF BOOK?
There's one already written! My Lichfield Prize winning novel THE ONLY DEAD THING is put away in a drawer and may come out one day when the time is right.

This is quite a different book from the Cooper & Fry novels - no police detectives, for a start. It's what I call a 'semi historical' mystery, set in the present but with a mystery in the past to be solved. Think of novels such as those by the British writer Robert Goddard (and if you haven't read any, shame on you!).

SNIPPETS

THANKS, PAT!

One of the features of the recent Dagger Awards, presented by the UK's Crime Writers' Association, was an arrangement with the National Library for the Blind to have all the winning books produced in braille for blind readers. The BBC's Peter White recorded an edition of the 'In Touch' programme at the awards lunch.

Although my books aren't in braille at the moment, they're all available in large print and audio versions, and I know there are quite a number of readers with some degree of visual impairment.

So, while listening to 'In Touch' during the evening following the Daggers, I was chuffed to bits to get a plug from Pat Beech of the NLB when she was asked who her favourite crime writers were ("Val McDermid, Stephen Booth and Henning Mankell"). Thanks, Pat!

COOPER & FRY COUNTRY

At the beginning of October I gave a guided tour of 'Cooper and Fry Country' to a party of readers, mostly from Texas.

We visited Castleton and the Hope Valley, the setting for ONE LAST BREATH, where I pointed out the real locations used in the book, such as Peak Cavern and the Cheshire Cheese Inn, and we explored the history of the area.

I always love showing off the Peak District!

These trips to England are organised on a regular basis by Barbara Ford of Country Day Travel in Houston, Texas.

SUMMER WINE

I've had an interesting email from an American reader, Liz Nichols, who mentions that she runs a US fan website for the long-running British TV series LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE.

This programme is set in the quirky Pennine town of Holmfirth, where I lived for a number of years and was Chief Reporter of the local newspaper, the Holme Valley Express. So Liz's site brought back a lot of memories:

http://www.Summer-Wine.co.uk

There's a great little bookshop in Holmfirth, the Toll House:

http://www.toll-house.co.uk

And it has to be admitted that the three old men who appear in BLACK DOG (Harry Dickinson, Wilford Cutts and Sam Beeley) owe just a little to the original characters of LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE!

CRIME SPREE

CRIME SPREE is a great new magazine to come out of the USA, edited by an old pal, Jon Jordan. A dedicated team is working very hard on this mag. Please give them your support:

http://www.crimespreemag.com/

TRANSLATION NEWS

In Sweden, Minotaur have just published the fourth Cooper & Fry novel BLIND TO THE BONES as 'Blindspel'. The paperback of BLOOD ON THE TONGUE - 'Iskallt spår' - is also now available.

Meanwhile, the Finnish translation of BLOOD ON THE TONGUE - 'Jääkylmät jäljet' - has been released by Blue Moon Books, along with the paperback of BLACK DOG - 'Musta Koira'.

In Denmark Forlaget Klim have published the first book in the Cooper & Fry series, 'Sort Lune' (BLACK DOG).

In Portugal, Publicações Europa-América have bought Portuguese translation rights in BLIND TO THE BONES.

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Don't forget to send your comments or suggestions for the newsletter to:
newsletter@stephen-booth.com

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