A busy month away from the computer

The last four weeks have seen me cover something like 12,000 miles from Corte Madera in California to Phoenix, Arizona, Boston, New York for Thrillerfest, and finally Harrogate for the wonderful crime festival there last weekend.

I don’t honestly know where to begin to thank all the many people I’ve met along the way, authors, readers, would-be writers and just plain civilians out there. To the grand folk of the Book Passage Mystery Writers’ Conference I can only say: thanks for four days of unrelenting enjoyment, good company and great discussions about this great craft. Barbara Peters’ Poisoned Pen in Phoenix was as excellent a place to visit as ever.

Thrillerfest proved itself to be an absolutely essential event in the writing calendar for anyone published in the US or looking to be. At one point I counted myself in a room that contained Clive Cussler, Kathy Reichs, Steve Berry, Douglas Preston, David Morrell, Lee Child, a bunch of other big name authors, the cream of New York’s publishing and agent industry and little old me. Though the highlight still remains Lee introducing the line of ITW debut authors to a packed breakfast. Watching them look a little glazed and scared on the podium reminded me of how lonely it felt when my first book was published - lucky things!

The Harrogate Crime Writing Festival was better than ever under the amiable and deceptively organised stewardship of Simon Kernick. Well done, mate - I’ve never seen so many smiling places around the place. My personal highlight was conning Kathryn Fox into performing a sixty second autopsy on a plush toy Gromit in front of two hundred people. Thanks Kathryn! You are, officially, now a star.

And now I’d better start writing again… before South Africa at the end of August. Next year these three wonderful events take place on three consecutive weekends in July. No prizes for guessing where I will be.