ONE AWARD, TWO COVERS, BELFAST NOIR LAUNCH AND A REVIEW OR TEN.

I did say last time that I’d blog more often.

I did, didn’t I?

Well, I had good intentions. Too bad. I’m here now. Let’s forget about it. Honestly. It’s okay, have a mince pie. No, not that one, the dog’s been at it. Yes, a bit of bleach and that should come right out.

Anyway.

Since my last post a LOT has happened. There was the amazing launch of Belfast Noir…

And my first public reading at that launch….

A quick word or two on reading in public – it’s a lot more difficult than it sounds. ‘Can you do a short reading?’ you’re asked. Of course I can. I’ve been reading since I was a wee boy – no problem – if I wrote it, surely I can READ it. It’s not like I’ve been asked to juggle chainsaws, fling knives at balloons or speak in moderately coherent sentences, no, this reading lark will be a doddle.

It’s bloody hard.

Yes, of course it’s possible to read something out. But looking up at the audience, making it sound good, giving the language its rhythm, not stumbling over words, all of that takes practice. Done well, it’s entertaining, it’s a performance. Done badly it’s the sound of the cold, dead soul of the very nice lady who tells you what you should do if the lovely plane that you’re in should decide to crash into mountain at four hundred miles an hour. You know the one – nobody listens to a bloody word. Airlines should employ crime writers to read out aircraft safety announcements.

            ‘…in the unlikely event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, for those of you who have upgraded to the Ryanair ‘survival package,’ breathing devices shall be deployed from the panel above you. Those passengers who have not yet upgraded should look under their seats where they will find a set of Rosary beads and a bag with a hole in it. For those of you travelling with small childr…wait…what was that? Did you hear someth…GAAHHHH’

            (silence)

            ‘In approximately one hour we shall be serving our meal; a rather surprising delicacy – served with fava beans and a nice chianti. We hope that you will join us for dinner…’

Anyway, I managed to get through my reading okay. Next time, it’ll be better.

And in case you’re wondering – Belfast Noir is every bit as good as it sounds. Thirteen great stories, and mine. (warning, my story has sweary bits. Practically no sweary bits in The Defence, well, only very, very mild ones. You’ve been warned.)

And in case you missed it….

Here is the UK cover for The Defence

And the German cover with a cool new title – Not Enough Time to Die, which sounds a bit  James Bondy, doesn’t it? I love it.

It’s not long now until The Defence is out in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Germany, France, Italy, Holland, Japan, and the other territories I don’t yet know about.

I also have to thank Alison and A, who helped me with this...

My first author video, which I'm rather proud of because Alison and A took the bad look off me and did an incredibly impressive and professional job. 

In case you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, you can read some lovely things that lovely people have said about the book…

Liz Wilkins, had these cool things  to say over on her blog, Lizlovesbooks. 

Crime writer and reviewer Rebecca Bradley also loved The Defence and you can check out her thoughts by clicking here.

And some vine reviews are filtering though on Amazon…

Click here for Amazon Vine reviews

And early reviews are here on Goodreads….

The Defence Goodreads Page

Speaking of Goodreads – the great people at Orion Books are giving away 10 copies of The Defence right here –

The Orion Books Goodreads Giveaway for THE DEFENCE

I know what you’re thinking – he hasn’t mentioned the award yet. The word AWARD is clearly in this blog title. Maybe he’s imagined it?

Well, for about a week I thought I had imagined it. But it’s true, despite my incredulity.

Last week I got word that I’d been chosen by the Northern Ireland Arts Council as one of their ACES Award winners for Literature 2015.

And before you say it – no, I don’t think they’ve realised that I’m a crime writer. Don’t mention it. I mentioned it a couple of times but I think it got away with it. As a crime (cough)…sorry litterarture writer, I shall be heavily involved with the Arts Council and the Seamus Heaney Centre in Queens University Belfast, creating new work, doing a bit of creative writing tutoring (I’ll have to get a tutor to teach me that) and promoting my work and that of my fellow ACES around Northern Ireland. Seriously though, joking aside, I’m really honoured to receive the award. And yes, Northern Ireland Arts Council did know that I was a thriller writer before they gave me the award – I was just having a little joke (I get a bit embarrassed by praise and I seem to have a need to make it humorous). I’m amazed, yet extremely grateful to receive their support and I can’t wait for the work to get started.

Having said that, if you hear tell of the eminent poet, heavyweight killer critic, and Northern Irish literary legend - Tom Paulin, boaking in a taxi, there’s every chance he’s just read my book (see, there I go again).

So next year sees publication – I’ll be launching the book in No Alibis, and a few other choice bookshops elsewhere in the UK and Ireland, and I’ll be appearing at a few literary festivals including Crimefest and more besides. I could tell you more about some of the cool surprises that are planned for next year, but Angela at Orion would snap my neck like a twig.

So, hope you’ve had a great year and my thanks as ever go to my fellow writers, particularly Stuart Neville, Gerard Brennan, Adrian McKinty, Mari Hannah, Nick Quantrill, Mark Edwards, Declan Burke, Susi Holliday, Stav Sherez and Mason Cross, my twitter pals, everyone at AM Heath, everyone at Orion Books, my Facebook supporters, my friends, the Northern Ireland Arts Council, Matt Craig, Clare Costa, Harry Illingworth, Alison and A, all the booksellers who've given The Defence an amazing reception, David Torrens at No Alibis and everyone, especially the wonderful Mrs C, who has given me their support this year.

Thanks folks.

I’ll need that support next year.

Have a happy and peaceful Christmas.

Steve Cavanagh

PS – this is likely to be the last blog post on this site. In January – a brand new website will be launched with cool insider info on Eddie Flynn, the book, and more besides. The blog will move to the new website, where all three regular readers can find me.

A DRAFT OF THEAKSTONS

 

It’s been a while.

How are you?

Has the cream worked?

Excellent.

So, I’ve had a bit of a blogging hiatus whilst I’ve been up to my hiatus in the first draft of book two in the Eddie Flynn series.

It’s good. I think it could be my best yet. No-one has seen it but me. No-one will see it until it’s ready. It’s a bit like Grolsch, really. Remember Grolsch? “we only let you drink it when it’s ready.”

It was a difficult birth, though, that first draft. Took a little longer than expected (7 months) but it’s done and I have loads of time to redraft until my heart’s content.

So there.

Whilst we’re on the subject of beer, since my last post I’ve been to the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. Met loads of really friendly, funny people who were incredibly warm and welcoming. I had a ball, and I even went to some panels. On the Thursday I had dinner with the good people of Orion Books, met some great authors I hadn’t met before, met some other really cool folk, and enjoyed lots of beer, wine, food and craic. The good people I met at that dinner really made the night special. Graeme Williams, Helen Giltrow and I, kept the spirit of the previous evening going through Friday afternoon. 

I also met some of my twitter pals, which is fantastic and really gives you a renewed sense of how amazing social media is when its powers are used as intended. Too many good people to name, but I had a great time with you all, and I’ve hopefully already mentioned on twitter, how brilliant it was to meet everyone. And meeting lots of new people, great. 

On Friday I had dinner with my agent, Euan, along with Jennifer and Victoria from AM Heath, and we were joined by the lovely and talented Martie Villiers and the fascinating, Parker Bilal. Superb night. 

Some of my other highlights from the festival were Mari Hannah’s single digit salute during her panel (it was amazing), SJ Watson in conversation with Sophie Hannah, meeting my Dutch publisher (he’s a very nice and extremely knowledgeable man), the New Blood Panel, meeting up with fellow Northern Ireland authors Stuart Neville (legend) and Anthony Quinn (legend in the making), the Keeping it Real Panel (probably the best panel I saw) and the extremely talented Luca Veste’s story about his part in the worst play ever performed on British soil.

I’ll take that one to my grave, Luca.

What was it like and what have I learned from my first Harrogate experience?

1)    There’s a beer tent.

2)    It gets hot. Sometimes it rains. None of this matters as I’m safely in the beer tent.

3)    Harrogate is a beautiful, old English town. None of this matters as I’m safely in the beer tent.

4)    Everyone, and I mean everyone, is really friendly, approachable and passionate about crime novels. Especially in the beer tent.

5)    Don’t order Guinness in the bar. It comes from a tin, it’s poured into a glass, placed on some form of unholy vibrating plate, shaken, then left to settle. This is a clear breach of the Geneva Convention. Stick to Theakston’s, they have it on tap in the beer tent.

6)    Oli Munson is indestructible. His powers are particularly strong in the beer tent.

7)    WH Smith run a brilliant book shop right on the festival lawn. It’s next to the beer tent.

8)    The organisers, the programming committee, Steve Mosby in particular, and all the festival staff did an amazing job. The Old Swann staff were great too, and, if I may say so, they performed out of their boots in the beer tent.

9)    Did I mention there’s a beer tent?

10)                       If you log on to crimefictionlover’s web domain  right here you might see a picture of me talking to Stav Sherez and Martyn Waites. Guess where I am?

11)                       I didn’t make it to the Robert Galbraith event. My whereabouts at the time are yet to be established.  

12)                       On a more serious note, it’s the first big writing festival I’ve been to, and it was great to stop being a lawyer, and be somewhere because I’m a reader, a fan, and a writer.

I left the festival with a new sense of purpose, a new vigour, and ever so slightly hung over.

Thanks Steve Mosby, for a brilliant first Harrogate. The first of many, for me.   Get more reactions over at Steve Mosby's excellent blog here at theleftroom.

Steve Cavanagh

PS – There will be a beer tent next year, right Steve?



BELFAST NOIR

It's been a busy old time here. 

As some of you may know, late last year I was invited to contribute a short story for Belfast Noir. This is the latest from the award-winning Akashic Books city noir series. 

It was with some surprise that I got an email from the Stuart Neville, who had apparently been talking to the Adrian McKinty, and in what I can only imagine to have been a beer-fuelled decision, they'd agreed that it would be a good idea to include a story from me in the Anthology. To say that I was honoured, shocked and delighted, just doesn't get close. I duly emailed the Stuart Neville immediately (before he sobered up) and told him that I would certainly write a story. 

We spoke that night and discussed the basis for my story. He explained that the story should be crime based, and set in Belfast, other than that, it was up to me. Before talking it over, I'd had a look on the internet and discovered who else was contributing; Lee Child, Alex Barclay, Claire McGowan, Brian McGilloway, Glenn Patterson, Eoin McNamee, Gerard Brennan, Garbhan Downey, Ian McDonald, Sam Millar, Lucy Caldwell, Arlene Hunt and Ruth Dudley Edwards. 

And now me. 

I gulped. 

That's a lot of talent. Some of my favourite writers. 

My feelings of elation gradually diminished into abject fear. Yes, I've got a great book deal with a big publisher; yes the old debut has been popular with foreign publishers, but there is still that overriding fear that you are an eejit who is simply waiting to be found out. I'm a lawyer during the day (I miraculously morph into human form around 5.30pm every evening) and even whilst lawyering, I still have that feeling that at any moment a man in a white coat may arrive, tell me I've had a good run but unfortunately it's all over now and then gather me up in a big net and take me away. 

The withering looks I sometimes get from posh lawyers in big firms doesn't help either. Although I console myself by knowing that I usually get these looks after the posh lawyer in the bespoke suit has just written my client a rather large cheque.

Lawyering, and writering, it's not good for the old self confidence.

Anyway, I worked away on the short story and I have to say, I'm pleased with it. It was a great opportunity to write something in a different style, with a different voice, and finally write something which contains some swearing. In my novels (one written, one in progress) there is precious little swearing and what there is of it wouldn't be enough to send a ripple through your granny's Horlicks. This was a deliberate decision on my part as I didn't want to put anybody off the book and, in fairness, there's very little swearing in most legal thrillers. So when I had the opportunity to write in the more gritty, noir style, I took the opportunity to let my language be a little more colourful and inject a healthy dollop of humour, while I was at it.

I also wanted to write about Belfast. I grew up in the Holy Lands; a small part of the city where you'll find Jerusalem Street, Palestine Street, Cairo Street etc. As an aside, if you ever visit Belfast do pay attention to the street names. There are various parts of the city with interesting street names. For example, an area of East Belfast (where I also lived for a time) is entirely named after Derby winners. Joy Street, in the city centre, is Belfast's very own red light district. To our eternal shame, before it was foolishly renamed, we had a street called Squeeze-gut Entry. In case you didn't know, we don't have alleys, we have entries, and surely Squeeze-gut Entry had to have been the Prince among entries.

 This Anthology is very important to me, and I know it's important to every single writer that's contributed to it, purely because it has that title - BELFAST noir. When you write about Belfast, for me anyway, there is a certain responsibility.

 Let me explain.

 The BBC series The Fall, was very popular and I can for one can tell you that it is great TV. A fine crime series and no mistake. And we're getting series 2, brilliant!

 The Fall is set in contemporary Belfast. I know that because I can see it on the screen.
But if you took the story out of Belfast and set it in, say, Glasgow, would it lose anything?

 No.

It would still be a great crime series. And good TV.

 But can you imagine Cracker not being in Manchester? or Morse being taken out of Oxford? or Wallander exiting Sweden?

 No. You would lose everything. You would still have a crime series, but it would be very different and arguably nowhere near as good.

 I suppose what I'm trying to say is that although it's brilliant that TV shows are being filmed in Northern Ireland, and the more the merrier, if you're going to set a big budget crime drama in Belfast with a major star then you have a brilliant opportunity there to create something remarkable. The city is on the screen. But it's not a character. And there is no sense of Belfast, or it's people.

 What is that sense? I wondered about that before I wrote my short story. Then I was reminded of it last year.

 A bomb was planted in the middle of the Cathedral Quarter just a week or so before Christmas. People were out doing their Christmas shopping, the bars and restaurants were packed with folks who had come out for their Christmas party, the city was packed.

 Then the bomb scare went up. Now, if this happened in London, Boston, New York, frankly anywhere in the world, Sky News would have a fit, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here would be interrupted with breaking news, there would be a media frenzy, panic in the streets, reporters running mad. A viable bomb planted in any other city centre in Europe would be global headline news and the city itself would descend into chaos.

 Not Belfast.

 Sure, people were scared. There's no doubt about that.

 But quite a lot of people who were out that night thought of it as more of a mild inconvenience. Instead of stampeding out of the restaurants, desperate to get to safety, guys meandered behind the police cordon still holding their plates full of Turkey and Ham, refusing to let terrorists interrupt their Christmas dinner. Within a short time of the bomb being dealt with, the pubs began to fill up and a tweet went out - 'the only bombs we're interested in are Jager bombs!! YEEOOOOO!!!'

Only in Belfast.

So, as much as I could, I tried to inject some of that unique Belfast 'stuff' into my story. Whether there's enough of it, or if it comes across, I leave to you to find out, dear reader.  I can tell you that the Stuart Neville and the Adrian McKinty both said they were happy with my wee story and made very gratifying comments about aspects of it. That made me less nervous, after all, when you look at that list above, I am very much the baby of the group. Albeit a six foot two, two-hundred and fifty pound baby, but a baby nonetheless (and to prove it, I don't have any hair and I will often manage to get more of my dinner on my shirt, walls and ceiling than into my mouth).

 So do please look out for Belfast Noir later in the year - around November. Check out the Adrian McKinty's blog, for finer crafted, more up to date news, written with fewer spelling mistakes and much more intelligence than you'll find here - Adrian McKinty

And if you are desperate for a Belfast Noir fix before November this year, check out Adrian McKinty's Sean Duffy Trilogy, Stuart Neville's Belfast books such as The Twelve, or Gerard Brennan's work such as The Point, or the brilliant - Wee Rockets. 

And if you disagree with me about The Fall, that's fine, I'm willing to discuss it with an open mind.

 And in the meantime, if you click on the new page above entitled THE DEFENCE, you'll find some early cover blurb for my debut novel.

I'll have more news soon. But you knew that already.

 Follow me on twitter if you like, you don't have to, it might be nice, and I'll like it if you follow me, I might even follow you back, but I'm not promising anything, just in case you're an axe murderer.

 @SSCav

 

From Disaster to a Dream Come True Part 2 - Getting a Publisher

In Part 1 I talked about what it was like to be accepted by a leading literary agent and the waiting, hoping and nail-biting inevitably involved when you’re searching for a literary agent. I know what it’s like to be on that search, to have that goal. Once I’d achieved it I thought I’d got it made and the worrying would be over.

I was wrong.

The fear doesn’t go away. If anything the anxious anticipation just gets worse.  

Before your book goes out on submission to publishers your agent will probably want you to do some work on it. For me there wasn’t that much. I was really just tidying up. How much or how little you do is up to you but invariably most of the advice you get at this stage from your agent is probably spot on. The advice I received certainly hit the mark. So after you’ve revised the book, proof read again and again and you send it off, you feel pretty good about the book. For me this feeling lasted right up until the book went out on submission. Then I felt about as confident as an MP submitting his Parliamentary expenses. However much you’ve sweated, lost sleep and swept from the peaks of blissful optimism to the crushing reality of rejection during your search for literary representation – trust me, this is nothing, absolutely nothing compared to the near constant nerve-shredding anxiety that you will go through when you know that your agent has sent your book out on submission to publishers. What if they hate it? What if it doesn’t sell? What if all those rejections I received were right and my agent is wrong? Will my agent drop me? Will they find out I claimed seventy-five thousand pounds for toilet roll and digestive biscuits? (sorry, getting confused with the MP.)

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m aware that a lot of writers have said that this stage was by far the worst and I can only suppose that it very much depends on what type of person you are and how you deal with it. If you do an internet search you won’t find nearly as much out there on what it’s like to have a book on submission. I suspect that the  reason you don’t read so much about this stage of the process is down to one very simple truth - Sadly, most aspiring writers will not get a literary agent. If you blog or write about how nervous you are whilst your book is out on submission to publishers you will not only sound ungrateful for what’ve you’ve already achieved but you will garner no sympathy from the host of aspiring writers who would sell their grandmother to be in your shoes. So you don’t complain, you don’t bitch about it – you can’t because you are so lucky to have an agent that loves your book enough to put their name and their reputation behind it.

The only thing to do is suck it up.

The best advice I’ve read about how to deal with this agonizing waiting game is to simply write something else. I didn’t want to do that. My novel, The Defence, is the first in a series and I knew that the next book I wanted to write was the next book in that series. I didn’t want to do that in case I couldn’t sell the first book. Incidentally, even though my books are a series, you will be able to read them in any order. So I couldn’t write something else. Instead I would have to resign myself to checking my email every five minutes.

So how long does this process last? It can take years. It can take months. It can take re-writes and re-submissions. There are plenty of fabulous writers that have taken a long time to get accepted by a publishing house and some very talented writers (people with a lot more talent than me) that never get their work through the traditional publishing model. I was one of the lucky ones – for me it took about a week.

It took all the will power I had not to phone my agent, or email him to ask what was going on. He’d told me that he would let me know. Of course he would. On the Friday of that week, about 6.30pm I got an email from my agent. I was standing in my hall. I saw the little email icon on my phone. It was an email from Euan. My first thought was that this is an email to tell me not to worry, that there had been no offers but he would be trying the next round of publishers.

Again, I was wrong. The email thanked me for being so patient. Then it said there had been an offer for The Defence. In fact, four publishers wanted the book. Each of the four publishers were from respected publishing houses. Each of the publishers not only wanted The Defence, they wanted the next two books in the series. I had plenty of ideas for the series but at that stage hadn’t managed a single word of prose for any of them. Euan was going to hold an auction. The sums of money involved were life-changing. I almost dropped the phone. My wife was ecstatic. What did I feel? I can’t really describe it. I still feel it. Relief is one part of it.

You see, I didn’t write The Defence for money. I wrote it because I had to write it. Now that might sound a little strange and quite pretentious. I’m not saying that I was compelled, through the sheer power of my own genius to write this book. No, nothing like it.

I wrote this book for my mother, knowing that she would never read it.

The only reason I’m a writer today is because of her. When I was a kid my Dad would take us to Harry Hall’s second-hand book shop on Gresham Street in the heart of Belfast. My Mum and I would pass a morning choosing our 5p paperbacks. When we didn’t have enough money for the bookshop, we went to the Library. When I started to write in my teens she was the person who gave me encouragement. I stopped writing before I turned twenty. At that stage I was writing screenplays, I’d gotten an agent but I could never sell anything. So I decided I was never going to make it as a writer and I stopped writing for the next 15 years.

In 2011 my Mum passed away, suddenly, after a quick and devastating illness. She was the one person in my life who had told me I should write. So I decided that life was too short, I was going to give this another shot and this time it would work. This time, I would write a book and I would get it published. I did this for her. To show her that I wasn’t a failure. I suppose, losing myself in my book helped me push away the pain for a few hours while I worked away on a small, Compaq notebook that I used to write my first draft. While writing the book I was escaping into a different world, a world that I could control.

At that moment in September 2013, standing in my hallway, with the knowledge that my book would be published, I felt massive relief.

The next days and weeks went by in a blur. I would have been lucky and honoured to sign with any of the four publishers that offered and I eventually signed with Jemima Forrester and Jon Wood of Orion. Two great professionals and two thoroughly warm, generous and funny people who have been a joy to work with. I landed on my feet there.  Following a German auction, a pre-empt for Dutch Rights within hours of submission and a pre-empt for Italian Rights at the Frankfurt Book Fair, I felt like a lottery winner.

And it just gets more and more surreal – well known Hollywood Production companies are interested in the film rights, the book will be going out to more and more territories.

I’ve been very lucky so far.  

I hope you will be too.

Steve.