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Category: Colin Bateman
 Thought I'd share the cover of an upcoming anthology one of my short stories has made it into. Purty, ain't it? Edited by Maxim Jakubowski, SITC: Dublin also features stories by Ken Bruen, Colin Bateman, Sean Black, Stella Duffy and others... Pretty good company, am I right?The collection, I'm very reliably informed, is due back from the printers in a matter of weeks and is on schedule for a September release. It can already be pre-ordered now at Amazon, though...And in other quite related news, I've also managed to blag my way into the Best British Crime antho (the 8th volume) that features crime fiction stories published in 2009. My story's a crazy little tale of Rock 'n' Roll excess. This collection is also edited by Maxim Jakubowski and the 7th volume had stories by Alexander McCall...
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 Aka, ‘Top O’ the World, Omagh’. Via the ever diligent Peter Rozovsky comes the news that feisty whippersnapper Ruth ‘Cuddly’ Dudley Edwards scooped the CWA Non-Fiction Dagger at Harrogate for her monumental work AFTERMATH: THE OMAGH BOMBING AND THE FAMILIES’ PURSUIT OF JUSTICE, and hearty congrats to her. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer lady. Word has it that Stuart Neville was on hand to manfully handle the obligatory jeroboam of champagne, and that a good night was had by all. Incidentally, I finished Stuart Neville’s COLLUSION during the week, and the good news is that it’s a better novel that his award-winning debut, THE TWELVE (aka THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST), which I remember Ruth Dudley Edwards praising to the skies for its compassion early last summer. Ah,...
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 Des Kenny has long been one of Ireland’s most respected booksellers, and is still regarded as such, even if the iconic Kenny’s Bookshop in Galway is now largely a web-based business. The video below has Des Kenny waxing lyrical about Ken Bruen’s latest, THE DEVIL - Ken Bruen, of course, being only slightly less famous than the bay itself when it comes to Galway landmarks. I don’t know who shot the vid, so apologies for leaving out the credits … Roll it there, Collette: Incidentally, long ago, when I was still young and dynamic, and Ken Bruen was kind enough to launch my debut EIGHTBALL BOOGIE in Galway, Des brought me into Kenny’s Bookshop, gave me a guided tour and had me sign a number of copies. Thrilling enough for the callow scribe I was then, but Des capped that...
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 Colin Bateman (right) was kind enough to give me a very generous plug last week, in a piece he wrote for the Guardian’s Book Blog, in which he claimed that comic crime fiction is a ‘new and challenging’ way of dealing with what can often be moribund clichés in the crime writing genre. Peter Rozovsky picked up the ball and ran with it over at Detectives Beyond Borders, where the conversation became a debate about the use and abuse of gratuitous violence in crime novels, and particularly against women. There’s no doubt that employing comedy in crime fiction is a high-wire act. Crime is a very serious business, in more ways than one; violence, rape, torture and murder are not matters to be taken lightly. My big problem, as a writer, is that I love the crime novel form, and...
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 Craig Sisterson over at Kiwi Crime was kind enough to point his 9mm at me (oo-er, missus), said 9mm being a quick-fire interview consisting of nine questions, one of which runneth thusly: CS: Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?DB: “Now that’s a tough bloody question. It’s like asking which of your kids you love most. And the honest answer is that I love them all equally, and I’m including those that haven’t been published when I say ‘all’. EIGHTBALL was magic because it was my first, and I’ll never replicate that shining, incandescent moment when I first held the book - an actual book, written by me - in my hands. It happened on a street in Galway, and I believe I kind of blanked out for a few seconds. I’d waited a long, long time to see that book … THE...
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 I happened to catch a couple of very interesting and Northern Irish crime fiction-related interviews on Radio Ulster over the last couple of days.First up, Stuart Nevellie chats to William Crawley about winning the LA Times Book Prize here.And Colin Batemen chats to Marie Louise Muir about The Day of the Jack Russell and The Sunday Times right here.Listen to them as quickly as you can, folks. These Listen Again links have a very short life...
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 Off with yours truly to the launch of John Connolly’s THE WHISPERERS last Wednesday evening, which was held in the very pleasant environs of the Gutter Bookshop in Dublin’s Temple Bar. Being a perverse kind of Dark Lord, JC refused to read from THE WHISPERERS (clickety-click here for the prologue), instead offering a snippet of his current project, which appears to be a follow-up to THE GATES, which is all sorts of good news. The snippet in question featured four of the seven dwarves (that’ll be the recession, then), some of whom were in mortal danger of being tossed due to their unnecessary aggressiveness, plus a boy-band, a crumbling castle and a pop video shoot, and suggests that the book will be a very funny one indeed. As always, JC was besieged by fans afterwards in an...
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 You hear a lot of guff these days from Ireland’s literati about Irish literature’s failure to produce the Great Celtic Tiger Novel. ‘Where, oh where, is the Great Celtic Tiger Novel?’ is the general gist of it, followed by, ‘Why, oh why?’ and ‘Oh when, oh when?’. Well, a little birdie tells me that the wait is almost over. Once Amadán O’Lungamhain concludes IT’S A LONG WAY FROM LICKING GOOBERS OFF THE COBBLES, his five-volume epic ring cycle on the eradication of TB, he’s setting his sights on the Celtic Tiger years. A HILL OF MAGIC BEANS should be arriving on shelf near you by 2051 at the very latest. At the risk of sounding a tad more obtuse than usual, I really don’t get this obsession with the Great Celtic Tiger Novel. Yes, I understand that Ireland...
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 International Thriller Writers are hosting an article of mine that takes a look at three excellent Dublin-set novels; Winterland by Alan Glynn, All the Dead Voices by Declan Hughes and Dark Times in the City by Gene Kerrigan. Click here to read it.Also, there's a great interview with Ian Sansom on the Arts Extra Listen Again thingy from Friday. I recommend listening to Ian Sansom any time you can. Having attended some of his creative writing workshops I rate him very highly as a writer, a reader and a literary guru. Plus, the conversation swings around to JD Salinger at the end...And, finally, I found out from his Facebook page that Colin Bateman's short film Jumpers is available to download on iTunes, he's thinking about writing a new Dan Starkey novel and the University of Ulster is...
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 Yours truly had a piece in the Sunday Independent this week, in which were reviewed the latest offerings from The Artist Formerly Known as Colin Bateman, Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Coleman, and Alan Glynn. To wit: THE DAY OF THE JACK RUSSELL is the whimsical title to Bateman’s latest offering, and the second title in a year from a new Bateman series which features a hero who goes under the moniker of Mystery Man. I use the word “hero” advisedly: Bateman’s protagonist is the owner of a Belfast bookshop specialising in crime fiction, and a man who likes to dabble in puzzles and the solving of crimes unlikely to put him in any serious danger. He is a whinging hypochondriac, a coward and misogynist, a bookworm nerd who nonetheless gets the girl and saves the day. He may well turn out...
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Easily one of my favourite Northern Irish movies is (Colin) Bateman’s Divorcing Jack. It’s the perfect example of what to do when converting a novel to a screenplay. In terms of subject matter, it’s an education in Northern Irish humour and politics. What I find very hard to believe is that it’s 13 years old! It’s amazing how much has changed and yet stayed the same in that time.Anyway, here’s something you should check out if you get the chance (nicked from the QUB website):Divorcing Jack, with introduction by Colin BatemanSunday 31 January, Queen's Film Theatre, 2:00 pm.The regional youth work charity, Public Achievement, is hosting a fundraising event at the QFT on the theme of local pride. They will be showing Divorcing Jack with an introduction by Colin Bateman. A raffle...
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 Hey, hey. I have some good writing news for a change.Writing short stories can be pretty therapeutic for me. It's a smaller challenge than a novel, but there's an disproportionatly sweet buzz to be had from nailing one. Last week I finished a story for an upcoming Maxim Jakubowski anthology. I had a blast writing this racy little tale. My good friend and first-time reader, Mike Stone, gave it the thumbs up then helped me rewrite the ending. And Mister Jakubowski liked it enough to include it! Woo hoo! It's due out in April 2010. I'll post more information as and when it becomes available, but for now; it's called Sex in the City, the city is Dublin and it's rumoured that two of my favourite writers also have stories in it. Colin Bateman and Ken Bruen.I also got two very kind invitations...
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Far Green Fields: Fifteen Hundred Years of Irish Travel Writing
Forget the proverb. You definitely should judge this book by its cover. The illustration is beautifully conceived and appropriate to the wide-ranging delightful tales of Irish travel inside. The cover artist is Philip Blythe (from Ireland, moved to Australia). The publisher is Blackstaff. I salute you...
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 It’s getting to that time of the year again, when the ‘Best-of-Year’ selections are made, and Crime Always Pays has never been backward about clambering aboard a bandwagon. Yep, it’s the ‘Crime Always Pays’ Irish Novel of the Year Award, that somewhat-less-than-prestigious gong coveted by the very few and the ludicrously self-deluded. The usual hyperbole aside, 2009 was a terrific year for the Irish crime novel, and will, I’m pretty certain, be seen in retrospect as a watershed year in terms of quality. Everyone seemed to up their game, in some cases to a frighteningly good level (if you happen to be an aspiring Irish writer yourself), and the result was some excellent novels across the entire spectrum of the crime writing genre. What I’m doing today is...
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 ’Tis the season to be merry, tra-la-la-la, etc. There will, no doubt, be a fair swally of dry sherries lowered in the wake of not one but two book launches next week, with merriment assured at the launch of THE DAY OF THE JACK RUSSELL, the latest offering from The Artist Formerly Known As Colin Bateman. I’m reliably informed that TAFKAP will be doing interpretive excerpts from Riverdance as part of the evening’s festivities at No Alibis (where else?) in Belfast, the shindig kicking off at 6pm next Monday evening, November 17th. I’ve just finished TAFKAP’S A-OK TDOTJR, and enjoyed it even more than MYSTERY MAN, the eponymous ‘hero’ of which returns to investigate The Case of the Cock-Headed Man. Having much more in common with THE MALTESE FALCON than THE DAY OF THE JACKAL,...
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 Colin Bateman - Monday 16th November at 6:00PMNo Alibis Bookstore are pleased to welcome back one of our favourites, Colin Bateman, to celebrate the launch of his latest novel, THE DAY OF THE JACK RUSSELL, the sequel to his hugely successful MYSTERY MAN, on Monday 16th November at 6:00PM.Black Books meets Lead Balloon meets Gavin and Stacey in this hugely entertaining follow-up to MYSTERY MAN, from acclaimed author Bateman.The Small Shop Keeper With No Name is back. Hired to find the vandals responsible for spraying graffiti on an aspiring insurance magnate's advertising hoarding, he soon finds himself up to his ears in intrigue and battling to solve murders which echo in the corridors of power. With MI5 getting involved and everyone on the hunt for a missing Jack Russell, can Our Man...
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 So, today’s the day of my first reading. Less than four hours from now I’ll be at the Lock-Keeper’s Inn with T.A. Moore. I plan to read a short story from my chapbook, and if there’s time, a short extract from The Wee Rockets; the novel that earned me an Arts Council SIAP award and a literary agent. I’d hoped to bring copies of Possession, Obsession and a Diesel Compression Engine with me to flog, but (possibly because of the postal strike) they didn’t make it from the printers. Ah well.I don’t seem to be as nervous as I should be. Maybe it's because I spent a year and a half as a kung fu instructor. I’m kind of used to standing at the top of a room and talking about something I’ve studied inside-out for years. But it’ll be interesting to see how I feel when I actually...
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 A recent email from Amazon:Greetings from Amazon.co.uk,As someone who has purchased or rated The Twelve by Stuart Neville or other books in the Content Stores > Amazon Vine category, you might like to know that Ice Princess (Skate School) will be released on 30 October 2009. You can pre-order yours for just £3.99 (33% off the RRP) by following the link below.Ice Princess (Skate School) Kay WoodwardRRP:£5.99Price:£3.99You Save:£2.00 (33%)Release Date:30 October 2009This is why I shop at No Alibis...And I'll be there on Monday 16th November at 6PM when Colin Bateman launches his latest book, THE DAY OF THE JACK RUSSELL.You should go...
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 Russell. Or, if you wanted to be particularly cruel, Jack Russell. All of which is a non-sequiturish way of announcing (trumpets there, please, maestro) that The Artist Formerly Known as Colin Bateman releases his sequel to MYSTERY MAN on November 12th, said offering being THE DAY OF THE JACK RUSSELL, a title so tongue-in-cheek we’re afraid that said cheek might in fact be a buttock. Quoth the blurb elves: The Small Shopkeeper With No Name is back. Hired to find the vandals responsible for spraying graffiti on an aspiring insurance magnate's advertising hoarding, he soon finds himself up to his ears in intrigue and battling to solve murders which echo in the corridors of power. With MI5 getting involved and everyone on the hunt for a missing Jack Russell, can Our Man Behind the Counter...
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Hi folks, alas it has been a while since we’ve been chatting, but at least on returning it’s to discuss some news of the more positive variety; namely the huge increase in volumes ... more...
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• robertpurfield: 90s goalrush on #lfc tv.we played some nice stuff back then pity we hadnt the steel to win trophies too
• oheyleanne: gonna get off this and go up to my room and read True Blood while listening to music. hopefully it'll drown out the rest of the world (Y)
• Emmet: @nonsequitir 20 minutes each! Somewhere between interviewing and speed dating.
• Andreeeaaaaaaa: Nobody wants to see this. GET IT OFF
• kayLeeSkerritt: @planetjedward I miss Your Smiles <3 xox
• SamLvsShane: Ok Off To Sleep Now Nackered Have To Be Fresh For 2morrow!!! Westlifeeeee Arghhhhh!!@Ashling1909 Send me A Call me When Ur Up So I No Ur Upx
• MondrykBieber: @Axten92 okay it's about random shit & you's two ;) xo
• tibiasyurei: @CHIBAKAZUAKI おはようございます
• wispa9: #thisiswar is never gonna trend. :(
• ianyyy: awwww loads of people are unfollowing me because ima gheyy. or because they shop in LIDL and i offended them
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• IMF Chairman agrees with my assessment that global economy is recovering. :) Pity Ireland is so far behind.
• RT @ConcernWorld U2, spaceships and Croke Park: all in a night's work http://bit.ly/10PiGY
• RT @Mark_Coughlan: I am showing a webinar audience how quickly a message can spread on Twitter. Would you please RT? #watchitspread
• @FreelanceWebDev Reminds me of time a friend told me his wife was stripping downstairs....he meant that she was stripping walls of paper.
• When people are filling in a form for the blog directory, we ask what is it's "Title" - sometimes the answer we get is "Mr."
• @fergalbreen @topgold @Eirepreneur http://url.ie/22w3 if you exclude the north then @Adrienne (ops mgr, Dublin) is the first
• @icedcoffee It's back up now.
• Mercer Press pub'd book of short stories by "talented" young writer, Cork, will give copy to blogger who'll read & post about it
• @sineadcochrane @icedcoffee Thanks for RT but it seems to have made our blog fall over!Your obviously very influential or we've a flaky blog
• @Sinabhfuil Last time I checked we had found over 40k - but that's only the no. we've found. There's bound to be much more than that.
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