Ugggh ... Monday Morning!

Trying to turn the cogs in my head this morning and having no luck. Were my brain a Dublin Bikes docking station I'm sure this is how it'd look ... with probably a little more blur! Give me coffee, godammit!

And were my mind a postcard ... you'd just about get a grunt of a greeting!

Sunday Best!

My policy on reading is pretty broad - I'll read anything that sustains my interest, which itself is pretty broad. Though much of what I currently read relates in some way or other to crime fiction, I'm happy to give any genre a go and it happens that the best book I've read in years was a 'literary' one that I bought on a total whim one Sunday while in Reid's of Nassau Street. The book is by the Spanish writer Enrique Vila-Matas and I bought it solely because of its title ... Dublinesque. Doing that is a precarious business, I know, but sometimes it works and this time I was bang on the mark. Dublinesque  is a heady, challenging but insightful read and is broadly about a Spanish independent publisher who has spent his life in pursuit of a Real McCoy successor to Joyce and Beckett but because he/she has eluded him, he eventually gives up in despair and becomes convinced that the literary novel is actually dead. As such, he decides he will conduct a requiem in its memory and where better to have it but in Jim and Sam's home town - wherein the story unsuspectingly comes to life. But it's the sort of life, (i.e brilliantly infuriating), that only Dublin can really do and this, in particular, is what makes Dublinesque so compelling.

Dublinesque ... well brainy!

Suits You Sir!

The suit John Lennon wore in A Hard Day's Night was sold at auction for the princely sum of £26,000 last Wednesday, a day before my own corduroy two piece, which I wore when I did a 45 second interview about mobile phone charges on the Dublin Community TV Channel in 2007, got chucked into the recycling bin at a cost to me (there and back on the bus!) of €4.70. No, I'm not bitter, I'm just sayin'!

 John's old tin of fruit - £26,000: My aul yoke - minus €4.70!

Technology for Bluffers!

Ever think of all those TV series you've heard of but have never seen - the ones that bring on a crisis of self-esteem when people start jabbering on about them because a.) you don't know what they're talkin' about and b.) it will take you years of watching box sets to get up to speed? Me too! Well, our pulses should return to normal now as help is at hand. New technology is coming to the rescue of us gogglebox slackers. It's called 'video summarisation' software and it works by taking a given show, isolating its key moments, discarding the chaff and then repackaging things at a fraction of the original size - giving the viewer the essence of the programme in minutes rather than hours! According to reports, the technology makes its possible for someone to watch a whole season of, say, Breaking Bad, in 20 minutes or The Wire in its entirety in three hours. Exactly what the world has been waiting for - another thing to speed up time so that we can cram more in and save our blushes! I suppose any irony in that last sentence is entirely optional!

My best efforts to illustrate the point!

Ich bin ein Dubliner aber ...

This day 51 years ago a man spoke these words:

"Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was civis romanus sum ("I am a Roman citizen"). Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner!"... All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!"

Amazing how some words can resonate, never losing their power despite the march of time. 

Takin' it Easy - Easy Rawlins - A Chronology in Twelve Seconds!

Walter Mosley's long running Easy Rawlins series of historical novels tracing the exploits of his eponymous central character - an unlicensed private eye working the streets of LA in the the middle part of the 20th century - has been a central component of my reading for the last fifteen years. I highly recommend it (or any one of them) to anybody looking to enjoy cracking good crime capers that involve roll after roll of engaging and vivacious characters while providing a valuable insight into African American life in the context of the racial inequality and social injustice that existed in those times. Rose Gold, the thirteenth instalment in the Rawlins series which began in 1990 with Devil in a Blue Dress, is due out in September.

12 Easy Pieces!

Oh Yes, They Call Him The Streak!

I've been foaming at the mouth waiting to get at the latest in the Dave Robicheaux series. Und nun zee time hast come come for me to get stuck in! Go Dave!

"Is Alafair (Dave's daughter) now the target of one of the most depraved serial killers who ever lived, or has she unwittingly crossed paths with a murderous psychopath closer to home? Dave enlists the help of his ex cop partner, Clete Purcel, to find out and the pair soon find themselves drawn into a web of evil and corruption that threatens to engulf them for once and for all."

Just the ticket!

Woo-hooo ... Streak's back!

When Scarlet Met Magenta!

I read today that the world's most expensive stamp was sold at auction last week for £5.6 million, a billion times its face value! The stamp in question is the only surviving one-cent magenta stamp from British Guiana, now Guyana, which was first produced in 1856 after a shipment of normal postage stamps was delayed thus threatening to disrupt the then British colony's postal service.

The story put me in mind of my old fave Travis McGee again and, this time, of his 1973 caper, The Scarlet Ruse, where he goes on a "salvage" mission to recover a fortune in missing rare stamps. When he is shown the one-cent magenta he has one of his epiphanies.

"British Guiana. One cent magenta. Valued at $325,000. Unique, meaning there is only one in the world ... if there is only one British Guiana in the world and you own it, you walk about with the knowledge of being the only man who owns it. You are unique ... So what packrat preoccupation did I have? What special artifacts does McGee fondle? As I was about to pronounce myself immune, I suddenly realized I am the worst possible kind ... unique, shameful and totally hedonistic. Misfit. An ant with a grasshopper syndrome."

Way da go, Trav!

Click to find out more about the one-cent magenta

Kurt's Last Waltz

Swedish actor, Krister Henriksson, says he has no regrets about leaving his role as Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander behind him for good but I find that hard to believe, so brilliantly cast he was in the role. I suppose in reality its the end of an era and a fine one at that. The final episode of Wallander airs tonight at 9pm on BBC4. (Doh!! ... it was last night I now see. So even The Guardian (print version) can get it wrong!!)

Så länge Herr Wallander!

LP's a Jolly Good Fellow!

I notice that today happens to be the 66th anniversary of the 12" 33¹⁄₃  rpm Long Playing Vinyl Record - that would be the LP or album to you and me, so I think we should at least doff our hats and acknowledge the huge role that this pioneering technology has played in all our lives. When I think about it, I've probably spent as much time listening to LPs (and, ok, their digital derivatives too) as I've spent reading books or maybe even watching TV so it's only right that I pay a tribute. According to the compewthar, the first 12" LP ever released was the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor played by the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New York which came out some time round about 1948/49 - but I can't say that for certain. What I can say for certain is that the first album I ever bought was Steely Dan's Greatest Hits, which I shelled out four notes for in Harmony Records on O'Connell Street in June of 1978. I'll never forget the utter joy of spending the entire bus journey home with my head stuck in the gate-fold but when I got home and gave it a spin ...well! It was the first purchase of many hundreds of albums that I've made since and which have enriched and influenced my life in unimagined and unimaginable ways. When I think of it, LPs, like books and whatever else yer having, have contributed in no small part and, for good and for bad, to the chap I am today. So for the day that's in it I think I'll dust down the record deck and yank out a random record from the vitamin D deficient pile in the back of the press next to my desk here. Put in my hand ... feel among the square shapes... select one ... pull it out ... adjust the eyes ... and see that it happens to be ... Searching for the Young Soul Rebels. Well, would you believe! Happy Birthday LP.

An' here's one I prepared earlier!

Words in the Post ...

Another submission goes into the gut of the big Green letter monster that is the aul bosca litreach. Agent bound! Why does the third definition make me so uncomfortable!

Meantime, time for a little Adventure!

Well I'll be Darned!

Read a good piece in The Guardian this morning on the origin of words - not all of them - just a few of the quirkier ones invented by fiction writers. Like for example - chortle - a cross between 'snort' and 'chuckle' as penned by Lewis Carroll in Through The Looking Glass. Butterfingers comes courtesy of Dickens in The Pickwick Papers, penned in 1836. Microcomputer was first coined by Isaac Asimov in the July 1955 edition of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and we have John Le Carré to thank for honey trap which debuted in his classic Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in 1974. I particularly like the origins of Work in Progress which Ford Madox Ford used in the context of a not yet completed artistic work when describing the snippets from Ulysses that he published in The Transatlantic Review. There are bucket loads more (meme, tightwad, nerd, factoid, litterbug... ) in a piece that's well worth a goosey, goosey as you sip your lunchtime cocktails on this sunniest day of days. The article is extracted from Paul Dickson's book: Extracted from Authorisms: Words Wrought by Authors.



In a word - perbtastic!

While I'm waiting ... a thriller by M. Millar! - #2: Beast in View

This psychological thriller by Margaret Millar remains a classic of the genre nearly 60 years after publication and begins the with dysfunctional family business heir and (down market!) hotel room recluse, Miss Helen Clarvoe, receiving a rusing phone call from her old school-mate and short-time sister-in-law, Evelyn Merrick, which lures her from the sanctity of her closeted environs into an underworld of extortion, pornography, vengeance, and, of course,  murder. What is notable about this short book is how Millar skilfully cajoles the reader into seeing (and believing?) her central character's point of view point throughout the book only to expose the disturbing truth about her right at the end. Beast in View won the 1955 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best novel and its author, Margaret Millar, who wrote over 40 books, was married to maestro crime writer, Ross MacDonald. Ye could do a lot worse!

Sure it's shockin' stuff!

For the Day that's in it ...

... twould be rude not to!

A Kinda Coin!

Today I couldn't so much as coin a phrase about The Dualist or, indeed, anything else - so I kind of coined a coin or two instead! :)

A Snap of the Ole Blog!

As seen from cyberspace!

Yesterday's Crossword Solution!

Crossword answers are concealed below.

Travis McGee - A Chronology in Twelve Seconds!

John D. MacDonald's long running Travis McGee series of books held a regular place on my summer holiday reading list for a good ten years or so and I finished the last instalment in the 21 year series last summer! This year, I think I'll go back to the beginning!

Trav rocked!

Until The Dualist is published why not read ... #1: The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Almost totally dialogue-led, this is a tale of the day-to-day skulduggery of small-time Boston crook and gun runner, Eddie Coyle, and his 'friends' (the irony being in that term) . A classic from the early 1970s, TFOEC will have you rolling in the aisles or at least wondering how one writer, constraining himself to solely to dialogue, can drive a plot forward with so much fluency, humour and excitement. This was writer, George Higgins', first novel and many argue that it is his best, although several others in his canon of 28 books, most notably (to me at least) Cogan's Trade, The Digger's Game, The Rat on Fire and The Patriot Game will, to varying degrees, give it a run for its money.

Don't make 'em like they used to!

Plan for the Week

This resource pictured below is allegedly a must have for all aspiring authors or for anyone looking to get published. So best to invest before you start. A cursory glance reveals much of interest and of assistance. My objective of course is a simple one: to find an agent that might be interested in my work and it has buckets of info and advice on how to do just that. Not all that many agents will swoon, they say, so it's best to target the closest fit, those that are interested in the type of thing you write about. It also says  not to carpet bomb every agent you select - best to let your opus trickle out one or two at a time. Makes sense, I suppose. Yet even at this early and daunting point, the idea of self publishing, of just sending the work to Kindle, is already lurking in the back of mind. Hmmm ...

A fine companion!

Time for a Kit Kat so ...

Arrived at my desk a few minutes ago only to be greeted by this.

I mean the guy is only here a wet week!

A Message from Our Sponsor!

Welcome aboard!

Right, Here We Go ...!

Right … I’ll Start! I attended a Date with an Agent seminar last week in the hope that my attendance would be enough to ensure the book I have recently completed would be snapped up by the agent I was paired to see. I am a man of high expectations.

That don’t last!

Still I do stand behind the work and I am not about to regret the learning curve I’ve been on in the three or more years it took to conceive, write, re-write, burn, re-start, re-write, burn again and then complete.

The people giving the seminar were pretty au fait with the machinations of the publishing industry and they were at pains to stress that if you want agents and publishers to help you to achieve your goals you have to be prepared to muscle in. Writing the book is apparently only the beginning. So here I am, sleeves rolled up, willing to do all the things that need to be done to make millions for all of us.

My blog is the key.

Rome will burn without it.

So here it is. Entry one. With still no real idea as to how it will work out. I’ll try to make it more interesting for you (and for me) as I go along. And I hereby undertake to update it as often as is possible. Best wishes to you all and if you are interested my new book is a crime novel called The Dualist and I’ll be telling you more about it as time goes by. Meantime here is a selfie of me and it. Perfect couple!

Best wishes

Shay