LA Confidential, California Dreaming, etc, etc...

Friday, December 04, 2009, 10:31 PM

It's been the most hectic autumn (or fall, for my American friends) of my life, following the most hectic summer of my life, all as part of the maddest year of my life. Therefore blogging has not been as high on my list of priorities as it perhaps should have been. There have been many things I should have blogged about, not least of which being the follow-ups to my US tour post, or most glaringly absent of all, my account of interviewing James bloody Ellroy on stage in Belfast, which was one of the greatest moments of my thirty-seven years on this planet. I will try to catch up with these momentous events at the end of the year in some sort of 2009 round-up, but I'm posting now about a few things. First of all (deep breath):

I'M COMING TO LOS ANGELES!

Yep, it's rather short notice, but I'll be reading from THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST at the Mystery Bookstore, 1036 Broxton Avenue, Los Angeles on Thursday 10th of December! For anyone in the area, I'd be delighted to see you there to help me celebrate the conclusion to an extraordinary year.

In case you're wondering, no, I'm not travelling all the way to LA just for this reading. Alas, I cannot yet say why I'll be in LA next week, but hopefully all will be revealed soon. In the interests of quelling speculation, however, I will say that it's nothing to do with movie deals.

TALKING OF 2009...

THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST was named as one of the best crime novels of 2009 by both the LA Times and the New York Times in separate features today. Read the LA Times piece here, or the New York Times piece here. Obviously, this is wonderful news.

But there's more...

A week or two back, the ever excellent Declan Burke launched an unofficial Irish Crime Novel of the Year poll over at his Crime Always Pays blog. Voting was mostly conducted by secret email ballot amongst the Irish crime scribbling fraternity (who have a secret handshake and wear embroidered aprons and bowler hats at their clandestine meetings), and I am delighted to say that THE TWELVE (a.k.a. THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST) clinched the top spot! While this is a rather ad hoc sort of an award, it means a great deal because it was voted by the same people who I've come to know and count as friends over the last year or two. So, thank you Dec, and the whole crime fiction family from the Emerald Isle.

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5 Comments:

Blogger Kate said...

Congratulations for all the well-deserved acclaim! And have a wonderful time in LA next week - I'm looking forward to those revelations. I wish I could hear you in LA myself, but I'll just have to wait until you make it to Dallas some day.

6:49 AM  
Blogger moonrat said...

oh my. you've had quite a week.

7:46 PM  
Blogger Stacy said...

Hey Stuart - I received and read the book. Thanks!!

6:18 PM  
Blogger Gary Corby said...

The reason for all the top spots and recommendations is simple: your book is beyond awesome.

I re-read The Ghosts of Belfast last night, and it kept me up half the night again. Not many books can do that.

4:58 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If it's not a movie deal, what else is there to do in LA? You're becoming a professional surfer?

I know you have a publicist and all of that, but you might drop by Goodreads.com and fill out your profile. I'd do it, but I might share dirty secrets you don't want publicly known.

No, I don't really know any, except that you give the sweetest nicknames to the Person in Your Life.

But, then, I always thought you and Steve Parrish made a sweet couple.

3:28 AM  

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