Another fine summer day in Harrogate on Saturday 23rd July
Jeffrey Deaver was interviewed by Mark Lawson in the early start at 9am and strangely enough the hall was not full. We had a brilliant hour being enthralled by this great writer and he can talk to. He even spoke about 'Trump' and made his views very clear and he earned a round of applause for that.
After a few questions towards the end of the hour he said to those who wanted his signature can ask any questions that they liked at the signing. What a gent and he stayed signing until after the next event had finished.
Gerald Seymour was next and this provided a good contrast to the previous hour. The quietness of his telling was enthralling. We had the journalist's view on where to get his ideas from which included walking the streets of South London and Tipton and being escorted by a local police officer. Deaver on the other hand gave the impression that he was totally organized and in control. He would complete eight months of planning and organizing before the script began to be written. That is something to think long and hard about.
NEW BLOOD. Val McDermid was there again with four gems that she has unearthed with writers that are relatively new, but all with books being published.
Firstly she spoke with Martin Holman, a Swede, that writes about Sweden in 1930's and his writing is open about sexuality for both sexes. That should encourage some readers,
Then JS Law with an experience of 22 years as a sub-mariner and now a writer in crime. His first is set in a submarine, but his next ones will have to be placed elsewhere as there is only so much killing you can have under the water. Tenacity is the book title.
Thirdly there was Beth Lewis with Wolf Road and set in North-West Canada. The basics are that a child is found and brought up by a killer. She said that she explores how characters behave under stress. I would like the read this book as tales from the wilderness and the two characters mention should help to make it an intriguing read.
Lastly an accountant from The City who has explored some of his origins in 1930's India in the context of the locals versus The Empire. Of course it is a crime novel and so there will death as well as a delve into the past. I like history and so I will look out for it. The book is 'A Rising Man' by Abir Mukherjee.
I sat in and listened to Peter James interviewing Martina Cole although I am not a reader of her work. It maybe interesting for her fans, but I have heard it all before.
KILL ME QUICK:AUTHOR DINNER
This cost the great sum of £30 per head for a meal of fish and chips followed by ice cream. It was not great value and it did not even include a drink except water. Alcohol cost another twenty quid! We have done it before and won and tonight we won again. It was fun and we met a new author (to us), Alison Joseph, together with a free book. Our prize for winning was Peter James' 'Love You Dead' which him to sign for me. Even with two books to take home it was expensive, but we had decided to do it again just for the hell of it and we enjoyed it.
The special guest was Tess Gerritsen and she is a star. She did the presentation by herself and the minutes flew by. She explained in detail how the ideas came to her in the music for Incendio and that she wrote the music. She plays both piano and violin and went on to say that violins need to be played otherwise they can go to sleep. The one that was used to play her piece was on display in a glass case. It is worth millions of dollars and eventually after four hours the violinist was happy with it. Intriguing. The Devil's chords are the ones that causes the trouble. If you read this book you will find out why - no spoiler alert necessary. She showed us photographs of Venice and we had three and half minutes of music. It was stunning. 'Playing with Fire' is the book title.
There was so much seen and heard in another great day.
No comments:
Post a Comment