Thursday, October 04, 2007

Just when you thought you'd heard enough from me...

Mes Amis

Starting from the 1st October this year, I got a new gig. The fantastic David Hewson had given me a chance to write a monthly column for the International Thriller Writer's web-letter, THE BIG THRILL.

The idea was to provide an overview of thrillers from the lowly level of an enthusiast and bookseller (hence we called it, VIEW FROM THE TRENCHES), and somehow I passed the audition and got the chance to ramble, on a monthly basis, about news, gossip and silliness surrounding the British thriller market. Now, the word "thriller" is something that no one can agree on. Its an even more slippery term than "noir", believe me. So with David's blessing to talk about anything that's "not cosy" I proceeded to try and crib anything I could find to make that first column. The results are here including news on upcoming British releases for October, a few jokes at the expense of Ian Rankin, a joke cribbed from Mark Billingham's newsletter and more assorted nonsense.

So if you're a thriller writer with a British connection (and even if you're not a member of ITW) or if you know someone who is, and you have some upcoming news/releases/anecdotes to share, feel free to contact me on russelmclean_at_thrillerwriters.org (doing the obvious thing by replacing the "_at_" with an "@", he says with the futile effort at hopefully cutting down spam) and I'll consider anything for the next newsletter. And the one after that... and the one after... oh, you get the idea.

Here endeth the blatant plug.

Au revoir

Russel

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed the first column. Congratulations on the new gig!

Anonymous said...

Just read the first column, waiting eagerly for second. Although I'm intrigued... at the end of the section titled 'Quercus Folk' you said "As a bookseller, I " and the sentence just disappears... any ideas why? Or, at least, what the rest of the sentence is...?

Russel said...

Cheers, Mr Smith!

Mike

You know... no one picked up on that...

have to have a word with me proof readers.

Um... I think the sentence was probably something like, I welcome any new press that's going to give us qiality fiction.

Seriously, cos Quercus are doing some of the best books out there at the moment. Both crime and non... PILO FAMILY CIRCUS was one of the best books I've read in years, and finally something I could actually properly class as "horror" rather than the bullshit that often masquerades as such.

(for another real horror writer, check out Tom Picirilli, who I understand also does a nice line in dark crime fic, too)

Next column is being planned as we speak.

Although the idea of being in any way entertaining on a monthly basis is a tough prospect.

David Hewson said...

The missing sentence trick is something we run from time to time to make sure people are reading. Work dunnit?

Seriously Russel - thanks for joining us on the ITW site. We really want to make the I (for International) live up to its name. The more stuff from outside the US the merrier...