Mystery at Sea

Has anyone worked on a cruise ship?

So asked author Linda Collison (Barbardos Bound)  

Yes, said I.

I do, for part of the year -- but it's not novel material More like a TV series.    The closest to a cruise ship novel I have read is Gwyn Griffin's "Shipmaster" -- highly recommended, but no advertisement for cruising.

 

Then author (Hell Around the Horn) and blogger (OldSaltBlog) Richard Spilman entered the conversation.

 

I think that a mystery writer could do a fantastic series of books on cruise ships with an insurance investigator as the designated detective. You have exotic locales, muddled legal jurisdictions, affluent vacationers, too much alcohol, sexual imbroglio, easy disposal of bodies, as well as multi-national and often underpaid crews. The crimes could range from simple disappearances, to drug smuggling, to sexual assault, to modern slavery. With all the tacky glitz of Las Vegas or Paradise Island, you could add in storms at sea, mechanical failures, fires, flooding, grounding and even the norovirus.

I am not a big reader of mysteries (he went on) and I generally am not overly fond of cruise ships so I suspect that I would have a hard time maintaining my enthusiasm, but I think that there is potential for the right writer or writers.

 

So that is when I made my Announcement.

Talking of mysteries set at sea, I have almost finished the fifth Wiki Coffin adventure. So I was interested in Rick's list of pluses. Instead of an insurance investigator, I have a sheriff's deputy with a Letter of Authority from Virginia. The exotic locales are definitely there (the setting of the fifth is Cape Horn), and definitely the muddled legal jurisdictions (the legal beagles on various shores are confused enough by Wiki's Letter of Authority to accept it), and certainly too much alcohol. And we all know about Wiki's weakness for women. But those affluent vacationers are absent, sadly. All I have is a bunch of naturalists and geologists, plus one Maori circus actor (not Wiki!) who is heading home. And, as for that last comment about how much the reader can take about cruise ships, sadly true. Keeping the reader engaged in the story of the Great United States Exploring Expedition, is a challenge, to say the very least.

What do you think?  A modern series featuring murders on a cruise ship, or historical mysteries featuring an exotic Maori-Yankee detective?

Mick Jagger Love Letters

Mick Jagger love letters up for auction

Marsha Hunt was the inspiration for Stones song Brown Sugar

A series of letters sent by Mick Jagger to his secret lover, the American singer Marsha Hunt, are being put up for auction.

Described as "beautifully-written and lyrical", they were written in the summer of 1969 while the Rolling Stones singer was in Australia.

The letters include song lyrics and references to the first moon landing.

They go under the hammer at Sotheby's in London on 12 December.

"These beautifully written and lyrical letters from the heart of the cultural and social revolution of 1969, frame a vivid moment in cultural history," said Dr Gabriel Heaton, Sotheby's Books Specialist.

"Here we see Mick Jagger, not as the global superstar he has become, but as a poetic and self-aware 25-year-old, with wide-ranging intellectual and artistic interests."

The letters were written while Jagger was filming Ned Kelly in Australia

The letters, written by Jagger while filming Ned Kelly in the Australian outback, will be the centrepiece of an English literature and history sale.

Read the rest of the BBC story

Seven Stories Changes its Name

Seven Stories book centre given national status

Seven Stories patron Jacqueline Wilson is arguably most famous for the Tracy Beaker series

The BBC reports that Newcastle's noted Seven Stories book centre is to be renamed the National Centre for Children's Books, Arts Council England has confirmed.

Seven Stories is the only museum in the UK that specialises in children's literature.

The centre opened in 2005 and hosts exhibitions and learning programmes.

Author and patron Jacqueline Wilson said she was "delighted" and praised the centre's "excellent comprehensive and creative work".

"It's established a wonderful exhibition programme to delight families and built up an outstanding archive of children's literature," she added.

The collection contains literature from the 1930s to present day, including the work of more than 100 authors such as Philip Pullman, Judith Kerr and Enid Blyton.

In 2011 a trust set up in Blyton's name donated £750,000 to the centre.

Amongst some 30,000 books are first drafts, dummy books, illustrations and related correspondence.

Amazon buy buttons vanish

Amazon Cites "Technical Issue" for Kindle Buy Buttons That Disappeared--and Returned--Overnight

It's nothing unusual for the Amazon.com site to have problems. There is even a glitch that seems confined to me -- I can't post reviews of books on the US site, while I have no trouble posting them on Amazon.uk  I even find it very hard -- shock, horror -- to buy books from Amazon.com!

 

So it was no surprise to me to read on Publishers Lunch today that Amazon.com buy buttons are vanishing and reappearing like the Tardis in Doctor Who.

 

Late Thursday evening Amazon customers began to notice that buy buttons for Kindle books published by agency model publishers Random House, Penguin, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster and Hachette had disappeared, with Harper buy buttons dropping off after a twenty-minute interval. The deactivation was limited to the six agency model publishers, and affected Amazon's US store only.

At 1:28 AM Friday, an Amazon spokesperson told us and other outlets "the Kindle Store is experiencing a technical issue. We're working to correct it." A different spokesperson wrote back at 7 AM Friday to say "the issue had been fixed." It remains unclear what the specific "issue" was or why such an issue would only affect agency (and agency lite) publishers. But there is no shortage of theories!

Dark Lord wins "funny" prize

Dark Lord: Teenage Years wins Roald Dahl Funny Prize

Thompson says he is "chained to a desk, where he spends every day writing for his overlord. Or else".

The BBC reports that a fantasy book about a dark lord who is transformed into a chubby teenager has won this year's Roald Dahl Funny Prize.

Dark Lord: Teenage Years by games developer Jamie Thompson won the prize for the funniest book for children aged seven to 14.

He beat other short-listed authors including David Walliams and Frank Cottrell Boyce.

Rebecca Patterson's story about a toddler's tantrums - My Big Shouting Day - won the under-six prize.

She was up against books such as Stuck by award-winning illustrator Oliver Jeffers.

Each winning author collects £2,500 in prize money.

Former children's laureate Michael Rosen, chair of the judging panel, created the competition along with the reading charity Booktrust.

Commenting on Dark Lord, he said: "This is a wonderfully absurd take on beings from another planet or another world and like all books with this theme it makes us think about how odd and crazy we are."

Inter alia. Children's laureate?  I didn't know there was one.  And I can't help but wonder what happened to that very shortlived sensation, Go the F**k to Sleep...

Itch

Simon Mayo can multi-task

Not only is he a DJ for the BBC, but he can write well-reviewed page-turners for young adults

Itch, his debut, was promoted by none other than Anthony Horowitz, the author of the hugely popular Alex Rider series, featuring a teenaged special agent in the James Bond mode.

'A great debut. You'll be itching to read more.' Anthony Horowitz

Meet Itch - an accidental, accident-prone hero. Science is his weapon. Elements are his gadgets. All-action adventure perfect for fans of Alex Rider and Young Bond.

Itchingham Lofte - known as Itch - is fourteen, and loves science, especially chemistry. He's also an element-hunter: he's collecting all the elements in the periodic table. Which has some interesting and rather destructive results in his bedroom.

Then, Itch makes a discovery. A new element, never seen before. At first no one believes him - but soon someone hears about the strange new rock and wants it for himself. And Itch and his family are catapulted into a breathless adventure with terrifyingly high stakes . . .

The debut novel from BBC radio presenter Simon Mayo.

Not only has Itch flown to number one in its category on the AmazonUK list, but it has been nominated for the prestigious Carnegie Medal, which counts CS Lewis and Philip Pullman as previous winners.

The Carnegie Medal is an annual award made to the writer of an outstanding book for children.

The winner is chosen by librarians and other writers, including Frank Cottrell Boyce who won the award in 2005 and worked alongside Danny Boyle on the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony.

Chair of this year's judging panel, Karen Robinson, said: "This fantastic longlist - the largest ever - represents the high quality of children's publishing that we have here in the UK and is a testament to the enthusiasm of children's librarians across the country.

"In these difficult times it is really heartening that more librarians than ever can still find the time to nominate.

"Judges have a hard task in front of them to read and assess all these exceptional books by our specific awards criteria but their dedication and enthusiasm is second to none and we are all looking forward to the challenge," she added.

Other names on the longlist include Irish novelist Roddy Doyle who is nominated for his book, A Greyhound of a Girl.

Last year's winner was Patrick Ness who was chosen for his book, Monster Calls.

The shortlist will be announced on 19 March, with the overall winner - chosen in June - receiving a gold medal and £500 worth of books to donate to a library of their choice.

Show More

Show Less

Indie romance writer alert

Get published by Avon

From GalleyCat at Mediabistro.com


Editors at HarperCollins’ Avon Books are looking for NaNoWriMo romance novels, sponsoring “National Romance Writing Month”–encouraging writers submit their work directly to the imprint. Check it out:

Avon editors will make themselves available to the author community via online forums at www.nanowrimo.org, and by sponsoring “NaRoWriMo,” the publisher hopes to acquire original works of romantic fiction, to be released in 2013 by Avon Impulse. ”NaRoWriMo” romance fiction submissions should be submitted by December 10, 2012 to Avon Romance’s online submission portal (www.avonimpulse.com), and tagged “NaRoWriMo.” All novel and novella-length submissions (50,000 words and above) will be reviewed, and will be considered for publication through Avon Impulse, the publisher’s digital-first arm.

Bounty Obituary

A beautifully written description of a tall ship's end

From the New York Times,

By Dan Barry

A fateful meeting of the maritime past and present began amid the Monday morning dread of Hurricane Sandy, when distressing word came from the murk of the roiling Atlantic: the captain and crew of the H.M.S. Bounty, a vessel of timber rigged to evoke 18th-century adventure, were abandoning ship ...

On Friday, the Coast Guard announced a formal investigation into this terrible adventure at sea, one filled with a dime novel’s blend of heroism and tragedy. Fourteen of the 15 crew members were rescued. The body of the 15th — a woman who claimed relation to the original Bounty’s leading mutineer, Fletcher Christian — was recovered. And on Thursday night, the Coast Guard reluctantly suspended its search for the longtime captain, Robin Walbridge, 63, who was said to consider the Bounty an extension of himself.    

So ... why did this famous replica go out to sea, in a doomed attempt to avoid the teeth of a major storm?  Who were the heroes who went to the rescue, and what huge challenge did they face?  Is there anything to be learned from this tragedy?

Read the story
         

Discoverers' letters inspire poets

Robert Falcon Scott and Charles Darwin inspire modern poetry

 

The BBC reports that ten of the UK's top poets have been commissioned to write works inspired by unique museum exhibits.

RF Scott, with his wife, Kathleen

The poets have been matched to collections at Cambridge University, which include objects such as Captain Scott's farewell letter to his wife and Charles Darwin's zoological specimens.

The project, known as Thresholds, includes the poets Daljit Nagra, Don Paterson and Jo Shapcott.

Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy described it as "an unprecedented initiative".

Each poet will spend two weeks in residence between January and March meeting researchers and exploring the collections. They will then write a poem inspired by the experience.

"This is a stunning level of commitment to poetry and poets," Duffy said. "These 10 residencies will create a unique collaboration of poets, creating a meeting of minds and disciplines and providing a catalyst for ideas."

Letters from Kurt Vonnegut

I have mixed feelings about advances on first books. They are hard to get, for one thing, and are usually so small that they tie you up without appreciably improving your financial situation. Also: I have seen a lot of writers stop writing or at least slow down after getting an advance. They have a feeling of completion after making a deal. That’s bad news creatively. If you are within a few months of having a finished, edited manuscript, I advise you to carry on without an advance, without that false feeling of completion, without that bit of good news to announce to a lot of people before the job is really done.

Kurt Vonnegut, writing to his son

This extraordinary collection of personal correspondence has all the hallmarks of Kurt Vonnegut’s fiction. Written over a sixty-year period, these letters, the vast majority of them never before published, are funny, moving, and full of the same uncanny wisdom that has endeared his work to readers worldwide.

Included in this comprehensive volume: the letter a twenty-two-year-old Vonnegut wrote home immediately upon being freed from a German POW camp, recounting the ghastly firebombing of Dresden that would be the subject of his masterpiece Slaughterhouse-Five; wry dispatches from Vonnegut’s years as a struggling writer slowly finding an audience and then dealing with sudden international fame in middle age; righteously angry letters of protest to local school boards that tried to ban his work; intimate remembrances penned to high school classmates, fellow veterans, friends, and family; and letters of commiseration and encouragement to such contemporaries as Gail Godwin, Günter Grass, and Bernard Malamud.

Vonnegut’s unmediated observations on science, art, and commerce prove to be just as inventive as any found in his novels—from a crackpot scheme for manufacturing “atomic” bow ties to a tongue-in-cheek proposal that publishers be allowed to trade authors like baseball players. (“Knopf, for example, might give John Updike’s contract to Simon and Schuster, and receive Joan Didion’s contract in return.”) Taken together, these letters add considerable depth to our understanding of this one-of-a-kind literary icon, in both his public and private lives. Each letter brims with the mordant humor and openhearted humanism upon which he built his legend. And virtually every page contains a quotable nugget that will make its way into the permanent Vonnegut lexicon.

• On a job he had as a young man: “Hell is running an elevator throughout eternity in a building with only six floors.”
• To a relative who calls him a “great literary figure”: “I am an American fad—of a slightly higher order than the hula hoop.”
• To his daughter Nanny: “Most letters from a parent contain a parent’s own lost dreams disguised as good advice.”
• To Norman Mailer: “I am cuter than you are.”

Sometimes biting and ironical, sometimes achingly sweet, and always alive with the unique point of view that made him the true cultural heir to Mark Twain, these letters comprise the autobiography Kurt Vonnegut never wrote.