Promotional events and finishing Book II

I haven’t blogged for a wee while as I’ve been waylaid with promotional matters.
I did an Edinburgh Fringe event at Blackwell’s bookshop back in August, where I and four other authors gave 15-minute speeches/readings. It was brilliantly organised/presented by Ann Landmann and also featured the fantastic Willie Hershaw, Ever Dundas, Jane Tulloch and William McIntyre. I did a live radio interview with Oban FM on August 27. The interviewer Breege really liked The Ghost of Helen Addison and asked excellent questions. I did a whistle-stop tour of four Waterstones shops on September 5 (Perth, Dundee, St Andrews and Kirkcaldy) where the jam sponge cakes I had brought, with the book’s cover on the icing, went down a treat! The first two visits were to in-store book groups, and it was interesting hearing the views of people who wouldn’t necessarily read crime fiction. Angie Crawford of Waterstones did a skilful job of compering these discussions, and even managed to vary the questions between Perth and Dundee. Also in tow were Neil White of BackPage Media who did some recording for a follow-up Debut podcast episode, and Vikki Reilly from Birlinn who drove me around and kept me cheerful. It was a tiring but fun day. At Bloody Scotland on September 10 I did a podcast interview with Neil in the Curly Coo pub, and then at 4pm I got to address Chris Brookmyre’s audience at the grand Albert Halls. This was for my ‘Spotlight’ session in which new crime authors get to speak/do a quick reading for three minutes before a main event. You’d be surprised what you can cram into three minutes… at the rehearsal I hit 2:59:54 – not bad timing! Chris is a masterful and very funny public speaker and it was nice once I had done my nerve-wracking bit to just sit back and enjoy his talk. We then signed books afterwards in the festival shop. I saw several other impressive speakers over the weekend. Bloody Scotland is quite an experience, and I’m grateful to Chris, Gordon Brown and Lin Anderson and for their support on the day, and for folk like Bob McDevitt and Alex Gray for running such an amazing festival. Then I addressed the Dunoon Book festival on September 15 run by Dinah and Ann, which was a nice trip ‘doon the watter’. I’ve got further events coming up in Tarbert (Loch Fyne) and Dunfermline this autumn.
I’ve also been very busy getting the follow-up to The Ghost of Helen Addison ready for the publisher. After a long period of preparation and a year of quite intense work on it, it’s nearly set for submission, and although I’ve still got to go through an editorial process, I have to say I’m pleased with it. It’s called The Shadow of the Black Earl, and if you liked Helen Addison I’m confident you will enjoy it. It features some of the same characters – Leo Moran, obviously, but also Stephanie and Fordyce. In fact, most of the book takes place at Fordyce’s country seat ‘Biggnarbriggs Hall’ in Kirkcudbrightshire. In contrast to Helen Addison, it’s set during a long, hot, dry Scottish summer (yeah, I know – I’m stretching the readers’ credulity there!). It’s out 2018… here’s the blurb:
Devastated by a sudden bereavement, Leo Moran is invited to spend the summer at Biggnarbriggs Hall in southern Scotland, the stately residence of his friend Fordyce Greatorix. He is overjoyed when romance blossoms unexpectedly, but he finds himself haunted by visions after a local girl goes missing, an incident which has chilling echoes of a similar disappearance thirty years previously. As he investigates a host of curious and dubious characters, Leo finds that the very bedrock which surrounds Biggnarbriggs Hall is poisoned by an ancient malevolence that will have its terrible reckoning.