Monday, March 04, 2013

About two years ago I started having trouble keeping up the pace when walking with the Elders. I eventually went to see my GP who referred me to an appropriate clinic, where I was diagnosed as having Parkinson's disease. And no, I didn't feel better having a name for it. Unfortunately there is no cure, but it can be controlled chemically, so it's over to the drug companies.

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Sunday, March 03, 2013

I am occasionally asked for a chronological list of the Charlie Priest books, by readers who like to start at the beginning of a series. They are all individual stories and can be read in any order but I am happy to list the titles as requested. They are available to purchase from www.allisonandbusby.com · The Picasso Scam · The Mushroom Man · The Judas Sheep · Last Reminder · Deadly Friends · Some by Fire · Chill Factor · Laughing Boy · Limestone Cowboy · Over the Edge · Shooting Elvis · Grief Encounters · A Very Private Murder

www.allisonandbusby.com

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Saturday, February 09, 2013

It’s apology time. Charlie receives a steady number of emails from his fans and I try to acknowledge every one. They live as far apart as Alaska and New Zealand and have taken the time and trouble to say they enjoy the books so I feel they deserve a response. Trouble is, the old memory is not what it was and is working hard just to keep up. (That’s the computer’s memory – mine went yonks ago.) And I’ve fallen behind with my correspondence, for which I can only apologise and thank you for your patience. As What’s His Name would say: “leave it with me”.

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Saturday, December 29, 2012

As word spreads about this likeable cop called Charlie Priest more and more readers ask me about the availability of the backlist. (OK, so perhaps that should be just a single "more".) I help where I can but the author's complimentary copies, plus the few I buy for myself, are soon exhausted. However... we live in exciting times. Charging over the hill, bang on cue, came the Seventh Cavalry in the form of Electronic Publishing. My publishers, Allison & Busby, were quick to embrace the new technology by making my early titles available, and by now the full list is probably, and literally, at your fingertips.

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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Back in February Murder Squad were invited by The History Press to submit short stories for an anthology they were about to produce. Five of us (Margaret, Cath, Ann, Martin and SP) produced the goods and the result is called “Best Eaten Cold”. It is available now at discerning bookshops but the official launch is scheduled for 07.November.2011. Further details from www.thehistorypress.co.uk

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Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Many thanks to the readers who have enquired about reprints of the earlier books. Apparently many of you prefer to read a series in the order it was written and have discovered Charlie rather late in his career. Not to worry. Those nice people at A&B have re-packaged some of the earlier titles with super new covers and have also made them available in E-book format. Available so far are: “The Picasso Scam”, “Deadly Friends” and “The Judas Sheep”. Meanwhile I’ll try to keep you informed of additions to the list, as they arise. Happy reading.

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

It's a hard life. Doreen has booked a cruise for us, leaving Southampton shortly, swanning around the Med for a couple of weeks while blathered in Sun Factor 25, then back to Southampton. The ship is P&O's Oriana and they have kindly agreed to have copies of "A Very Private Murder" on board, plus a selection from the backlist, for sale and signature. It should be fun.

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Friday, March 25, 2011

First things first. Readers will be glad to know that all four tortoises survived hibernation and are tucking in to their favourite delicacy - iceberg lettuce. A few years ago I thought about giving them away, but while trying to find a good home for them I fell foul of the law. Tortoises are an endangered species and are protected by CITES (The Committee against the Trade in Endangered Species, or similar.) Any form of trade with them, including giving them away, violates the law and risks an early morning visit from the chelonian police. I have resisted using this knowledge in a story but I do mention somewhere that there has been a spate of tortoise rustling in Heckley. (They are quite valuable, and it happens.)

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Tuesday, February 01, 2011

The period between books, when you are convinced that your creativity has gone AWOL and the thunderous silence of your latest offspring hitting the shelves is still ringing in your ears, is a good time to try something different. So when Murder Squad were invited to contribute to a short story anthology it was just the incentive I needed. Someone (Five’ll get you two it was Sam Goldwyn) once said that a story should have a beginning, middle and an ending, but not necessarily in that order. I couldn’t have put it better myself. I’ve written and submitted two stories, which are different to anything else I’ve done, but I’m worried that they are a bit too clever by half. Fingers crossed that they make the cut.

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Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Allison & Busby have done me proud. To coincide with the paperback publication of "A Very Private Murder" (14th March 2011) they are re-issuing three of the earlier titles, namely "The Picasso Scam", "The Judas Sheep" and "Deadly Friends", complete with impressive new covers. The cover for "The Judas Sheep" is an atmospheric view of the Rotterdam skyline at dusk, capturing the mood of the story beautifully. Many thanks to the team at A&B.

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Sunday, November 14, 2010

Reviews for A Very Private Murder continue to appear on Amazon, etc, and are generally glowing in their praise. Charlie has some amazingly loyal fans, all round the world, who urge me to hurry up with the next book. I like to make each story as original as possible and I try to pre-empt the latest forensic science advances, but it's getting more difficult. For instance, a few weeks ago the newspapers were reporting the first case of a villain being positively identified by his dog's DNA. I'd written about it over a year earlier. I'm also told that the website fills the screen and looks better if you zoom in to 125%. (That's at the bottom right hand corner of Internet Explorer.)

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Monday, September 13, 2010

The Murder Squad (of which I am a member) has been invited to submit short stories to an anthology. I may have to pass on this, although opportunities for short stories are hard to find: everybody says they enjoy them; hardly anybody buys them. They are a different art form and difficult to do well. I haven't mastered them although I was shortlisted for the CWA Short Story Award back in 2006. Robert Barnard won it, so no complaints there.

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Monday, September 13, 2010

"A Very Private Murder" is contiuing to be well received, with one or two readers saying it is my best ever. In the argument of plot versus character I've always had a leaning towards a good plot, which, surprisingly, puts me in a minority. Readers, it seems, like a decent set of oddball characters. I don't mind, plots are hard to come by, but weirdo characters are all around us. In AVPM I've bowed to popular appeal and I'm really pleased with the result. Let's hope the critics like it, too.

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Friday, August 06, 2010

Yippee! My copies of "A Very Private Murder" arrived yesterday afternoon, plus a boxful for me to sign. It looks great, and already one eager reader has emailed me a highly favourable critique. He must have read it while the ink was still wet. (I know, I know. There's an ambiguity back there. Can I point out that there were NO adverse criticisms.) That's it for now; back to the treadmill.

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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

We came back from holiday on July 8 2010 expecting to learn that "A Very Private Murder" had hit the bookshop shelves in our absence, only to find a pile of emails from readers asking where it was. I am now informed by the publisher that the book has been held up by "production problems" and should be available "next week", or, for those demanding a more precise date, week commencing August 16. A thousand apologies to you all for the delay and for being so vague about dates and for not being more helpful. Thanks, as always, for your patience and support. When I have any more news I'll post it on here on the blog. www.stuartpawson.com

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Sunday, March 28, 2010

We'll start with the important news: all the tortoises have survived the winter and are merrily doing what tortoises do. "A Very Private Murder" (aka "AVPM") has survived the editing process, thanks to the wizardry of Louise and others at Allison & Busby, and is still on schedule for publication in July 2010. There's some topical, cutting edge policing in it, so I'm looking forward to its release before topical becomes historical. Remember: Charlie did it first, by about a year. There's nothing to report, I'm afraid, on book XIV. The hardest mysteries to write are the ones with just one murder, so it's looking like we may have to fall back on a serial killer.

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Thursday, January 21, 2010

At last we have a date for the publication of "A Very Private Murder". A lot can happen before then but word has it that Book XIII in the Charlie Priest saga is scheduled for July 2010. If anything changes I'll let you know. So now I have no excuse for not directing my creative juices towards the next volume, Book XIV. In the absence of a blinding moment of inspiration where the full story is revealed to me as I shelter in a doorway from the mother of all thunder storms, I'll settle for determining what time of year the drama will unfold, and, if I'm doing well, on an interesting location for some of the scenes. Hopefully that will get me off the mark but it's not laid in concrete and can be changed anytime. Then all I need is some characters and a plot.

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Monday, November 09, 2009

"Last Reminder" (1997) began with Charlie feeling slightly under the weather, due to over-imbibing in sloe gin the previous evening. Since then the gathering of the sloes has become a rather pleasant autumn rutual amongst the Elders, to provide a special treat in time for the Christmas festivities. Last year the sloe harvest was almost non--existant, but this year it is a bumper one. Walking alongside the River Derwent last week we discovered hedgerows laden down with the berries in almost industrial quantities. The gin is delicious - more-ish, as we say. If anybody needs a recipe let me know and I'll include one in next month's diary. As the Poet said: "I often wonder what the vintner buys, one half so precious as the goods he sells." Well now you know.

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Monday, November 02, 2009

We have some time on our hands, so ought to be doing other, constructive things, like plotting the next novel, writing a short story or two, or even some poetry, to keep the brain cells active. But we're not. Any time now I'll receive the proofs for "A Very Private Murder", and that can be a sobering experience. Fingers crossed that there aren't any major errors of chronology. I am, though, catching up on some reading. I don't read much while I have a book in progress, but try to make amends at other times. Magna have just sent me my complimentary copy of "Last Reminder" on CD and cassette, read by Archers stalwart Andrew Wincott. If it is still raining after lunch I might have a listen.

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Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Yippee! At last we have a name for Book XIII. It has been a long struggle, with dozens of suggestions considered, but we've finally reached a consensus which I believe reflects the essence of the story. Book XIII will therefore henceforth be known as "A Very Private Murder". It's a little different to what's gone before and we are confident it will gain the approval of Charlie's bourgening fan base. (Especially the ending, but no more of that - you'll have to read the book.) The manuscript then goes, electronically nowadays, to an editor and a proof reader. These are weirdly clever people who can spot an illegal semicolon at 500 yards and who cackle with delight if they should happen to find I've said "appraise" when it should have been "apprise". Meanwhile, we are thinking about the next story. Methinks we'll write the title first, this time. Publication date for "A Very Private Murder", alas, is scheduled for sometime next year.

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Saturday, September 05, 2009

We've added a couple of pictures to the photo gallery, one of which shows a location used in "Limestone Cowboy". We intend to add more of similar locations in future updates. Meanwhile, if you have any queries or requests about where Charlie spends his time, let me know. I've received and signed the contract for Book XIII, so all we need now is a title.

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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Someone kindly sent me a copy of Yorkshire Magazine for June 2009, drawing my attention to an article on Public Lending Rights, or PLR. This is the system which keeps track of the number of borrowings of books from libraries and pays the writer a proportionate fee, based on about 5p per borrowing. The article listed the top 20 authors in the county, based on PLR, and there I was at number 10, in front of some really big names. Lydia Monks was top of the league, with one of my favourites, Joanne Harris, in second place.

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Thursday, July 30, 2009

I've been invited to talk to readers at Kippax (Leeds) library on Monday 14th September 2009, 5:30 - 6:30. Y'all welcome. This date and time is now confirmed.

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Thursday, July 30, 2009

We still haven't settled on a title for Book XIII.

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Thursday, July 30, 2009

'Deadly Friends' is now available on cassette courtesy of those nice people at Magna Story Sound, who are based at Long Preston, in the heart of the Dales. It is convincingly narrated by Jonathan Keeble, better known as 'Owen the Rapist' in 'The Archers'. You will need a spare nine hours plus to listen to it, spread over seven cassettes.

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Monday, June 01, 2009

My agent (one of the most respected in the business) rang me to say she thinks the new book is one of my best, which is a big relief. I'll let you know if it meets with the publisher's approval and keep you informed of its progress through the publishing process, or otherwise. I'm really pleased with it but times are hard out there.

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Saturday, May 30, 2009

There have been several enquiries about the health of the tortoises. New readers might, or might not, be interested to learn that I have four. Once there were five, but Number One Tortoise died a couple of years ago. For the benefit of any entomologists out there, the greenbottles were first on the scene, just like it says in the text books. But I digress. They are all well, thank you, and eating me out of house and home. They woke up from their winter sleep in early April and immediately started doing what comes naturally. Their favourite food is iceberg lettuce and they get through one per day, plus assorted vegetables. They do not, unfortunately, eat snails.

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Tuesday, May 19, 2009

We are currently updating and completely re-hashing the Meanstreets website. I hesitate to say the new site will have a blog but the intention is to update it by the first day of each month. We have removed the bells and whistles of the old site and intend to concentrate on news about the books and writing in general, with an assortment of photographs and comments about any burning issue that takes my fancy.

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Monday, May 18, 2009

Latest news (17/5/2009). The manuscript of the next novel, number 13 in the Charlie Priest series, should land on my agent's desk "tomorrow". The most pleasant moment in the writing of a book is when you type those beautiful words "The End". This is immediately followed by the worst part, lasting a week or two, when you are awaiting a response from your agent or publisher. As you put your golden prose down on the page you are convinced it is the best stuff you have ever done. However, by the time you submit it you have probably read it 50 or 100 times, and even you are starting to find it a trifle jaded. So fingers crossed. Nearly forgot - we don't have a title for it yet.

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Sunday, May 17, 2009

Please note that my site can also be accessed via www.stuartpawson.com or via www.stuartpawson.co.uk Emails to Pawson@Meanstreets.co.uk

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