This year I attended CrimeFest for the very first time. The event took place at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel and it was a good venue because it was in the heart of the city centre. As it was my first time at the event I wasn’t sure how many people I’d know and I was feeling surprisingly shy as I rocked up alone for my first panel. This was indeed a baptism by fire as I was moderating a panel called BUBBLING UNDER: CREATING TENSION and this took place on the first afternoon of the event.
The first thing that struck me as I registered and collected my pass was how friendly everyone was when I arrived. I was given direction to the green room, the panel rooms and I went away to explore the ballroom in which Waterstones had set up a very long table on which to sell attending authors’ books.
When I arrived some panels were already under way and so the bar area and the lobby of the hotel was quite deserted, however I bumped into CWA Chairman and top editor and writer, Maxim Jakobowski. I have had the tremendous pleasure of working with Maxim in recent years. As Editor for Telos Publishing I worked with him on his fabulous novel THE PIPER’S DANCE. Maxim also recently accepted my short fiction story TROPHY WIFE for a Connell Woolrich tribute anthology called BLACK IS THE NIGHT and another story for a J G Ballard tribute which I’ll be able to tell you more about in a few months time.
On my look around I also spotted crime writer Mike Ripley. Telos publish some of Mike’s fabulous Angel books and so I was very aware of his work. Although I hadn’t met Mike before, he had kindly read one of the novels I’d written under the Sam Stone pen name which was a supernatural crime thriller called POSING FOR PICASSO and he’d given me a wonderful quote to use for the book. I thanked him for this and we exchanged many a few pleasant words throughout the weekend. It was a real honour to meet him.
After this, I dutifully went to the green room 20 minutes before my panel to wait for my panellists to arrive.
The panel went very well indeed and although I’d researched all the writers and their books I learnt a lot more about this lovely group throughout the discussion in which we explored the art of writing tension. (Left to right – Cath Staincliffe, Leslie Scase, Brian Price and I’m on the end!)
Straight after my panel I went downstairs into the bar and was greeted by the lovely Paul Finch and his wife Cath who I’ve known now for about 14 years I think. Paul is a hugely successful crime writer but also has roots in the horror writing world and is a brilliant editor known for the TERROR TALES series of horror anthologies that are now published by Telos publishing. I recently completed a story for Paul for his next anthology and I’m happy to say he liked and accepted it. More on that when I can! But Cath and Paul really made me very welcome and I was so delighted to be able to hang out with them and writers Alex North and A J Hill as well.
On Friday, my lovely agent Camilla came to the event and I took part in another panel, this time moderated by Alex Shaw. This was a fascinating talk called LIFE IN THE SHADOWS: SPIES ASSASSINS & COVERT OPERATORS and was very relevant because HarperCollins One More Chapter had published three titles I’d written: the THE HOUSE OF KILLERS spy thriller series (THE HOUSE OF KILLERS, KILL OR DIE, KILL A SPY) and I was able to talk about them and spy writing in general with the panellists. (Left to Right Antony Johnson, Tim Glister, Neil Lancaster, Me, and moderator Alex Shaw).
Over the weekend I met up with friends Caroline England and Bryony Pearce. We later went to the CWA reception where they announced the short-list for the CWA Daggers. At this point five stories from CRIMINAL PURSUITS: CRIMES THROUGH TIME (an anthology in support of POhWER I edited last year) had been long-listed. The winners will be announced on 29 June so I’m rooting for Bryony Pearce, Caroline England and Paul Magrs who all made the shortlist and were announced that night.
After the Dagger shortlist announcements I went to dinner with Caroline, Bryony, Vanessa Savage and Libby Carpenter for a great female writers night out. We were obviously celebrating too!!
