THE TWELVE Out in Paperback Today! Win Signed Copies of COLLUSION and THE TWELVE!

The paperback edition of THE TWELVE was officially published today by Vintage Books, and they're doing a big old marketing campaign to get it out there. Part of that campaign is the lovely poster pictured here which should be appearing in train stations all around Britain and Ireland right about now.

To celebrate this fact, how about a contest? It's simple: if you see one of these posters on your travels, take a photo and email it to contest@stuartneville.com! The first three senders will each receive special signed limited edition proof copies of not only THE TWELVE, but its sequel, COLLUSION, which won't be in the shops for another month.

There's no closing date as such, so keep sending those pics...

Win Proof Copies of THE TWELVE and COLLUSION

I'm giving away five signed pairs of proofs of the Vintage paperback edition of THE TWELVE and an advance copy of its sequel, COLLUSION. The special paperback edition of THE TWELVE is a very limited run and has never been for sale, and you can also get to read COLLUSION two months before anyone else!

To enter, you need a Twitter account to answer a very simple question: Which major literary prize did the American edition of THE TWELVE, called THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST, win? The answer is right on my home page at http://www.stuartneville.com/! To enter, just tweet the following, replacing the asterisks with your answer:

THE TWELVE, aka THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST, by @stuartneville won the *** ******* ***** Book Prize!

Remember, your tweet has to be exactly those words, including my Twitter name, @stuartneville, or I won't see your entry.

The contest closes at 12:00 noon UK time on Monday 7th of June, after which five entries will be chosen at random. Good luck!

On Recognition, Or Otherwise, And Why My Diamond Shoes Are Too Tight

I did a live radio interview today with Wendy Austin on BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme. I've long since gotten over any nerves that I might have had in earlier radio appearances, so even when we couldn't get the microphones to come on in the remote studio (I was in Armagh, Ms Austin was in Belfast), I didn't panic. You can hear the results here, if you so wish.

Anyway, right up front, Wendy rattled off a list of quotes from the great reviews I've had on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as the best-of-2009 nods from both the New York and LA Times, as well as mentioning that THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST (a.k.a. THE TWELVE) has been optioned for a movie. Wendy asked how all this recognition felt, and at first I could only answer: "Not bad."

Then on further consideration, I made the point that recognition for one's writing is a wonderful thing. And it's not entirely because of vanity, though in all honesty, that must be a part of it. In reality, it's more about insecurity. I've made this point repeatedly in interviews, but it bears even more repeating: In my experience, writing seems like a completely ridiculous thing to waste one's time on. To sit for hour upon hour, staring [delete as appropriate] (a) at a blank screen (b) out the window (c) into space, deleting more words than you leave on the page, with no realistic prospect of anyone ever reading what you've done, is a completely daft thing to do. There are so many things one could do instead: clean the bathroom; take a walk; gather together bank statements and invoices for the accountant; play Grand Theft Auto 4. The list goes on. But instead, you sit there and grind it out, word after word.

Apart from the people I knew online in that clandestine way one knows people online, I didn't tell anyone except a very close friend that I was writing. I kept it secret, even from my closest family members. Why?

Because I was embarrassed.

If you come from the kind of working class background that I do, intellectual and creative expression don't come as second nature. And if, like me, you somehow get promoted from the working class educational stream to the lofty heights of a predominantly middle class grammar school by way of passing a few exams, you're taught to keep your mouth shut and be grateful for the chance to study algebra in such a rarefied environment.

I've told this story before on my blog, but here it is again: I spent my first two years of education at the little school on our housing estate that normally kept kids for three years. Because my reading was ahead of my classmates, I was moved a year early to the big school in town. On my first day there, at the age of six, the headmaster came around to see the new boy. He said he'd taught my dad years ago. He asked me if I was as stupid as my father was. This pretty much set the tone for the rest of my school life.

So, when the Observer or the Daily Mail, or indeed the NY or LA Times, heap praise upon my novel, it's not just the massaging of my ego that I enjoy (and of course, I do enjoy that a lot, I'm only human after all), but most of all it's the vindication. It's knowing that I haven't wasted years of my life chasing a dream that I could never hope to make real. It's realising that despite Mr Moffat dismissing me as just another dimwit from the estates, I can prove that old bastard wrong and achieve something truly worthwhile. Something I can be proud of.

And the recognition doesn't have to come from a famous newspaper or a well-known author. I get more emails from readers than I can ever hope to reply to, and they all make my day brighter. If someone tells me they couldn't put the book down, that it scared the bejesus out of them, then fantastic. If they tell me they learned something in the process, then even better.

The great reviews on Amazon mean a huge amount too, both in the UK and the US. But the shine can be dulled, if you let it, by a few people. I've had overwhelmingly positive feedback from Irish Americans who bought THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST for the obvious reasons. Many have told me they connected with the book in a very personal way, and that's wonderful. It would be easy to let a tiny minority of readers spoil that buzz when they express how much they dislike having their green-tinted glasses dislodged, but really, what's the point?

If, like one Amazon.com reviewer, one of your main criticisms of the book is based on where I went to school, and its sports curriculum, how can I take your views seriously? I didn't like my school either, or its sports, so what does that prove?

Or if, like a couple of Amazon.com critics, you start throwing words like "orange" around, then that says more about your prejudice and ignorance than it does about the book. As soon as your review is tainted by sectarianism, no matter how well-informed about the land of your forefathers you might think you are, I stop placing any value on your opinion.

And then there's the charmer who has so far placed six negative reviews, under three different screen names, across two editions of THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST/THE TWELVE, spread between the UK and US Amazon sites. The same wannabe critic also has grudges against my friend Tom Piccirilli, crime writer Laura Wilson, and, of all people, the velvet-voiced radio and television presenter Terry Wogan. On the spectrum of offensiveness, Terry Wogan is somewhere between vanilla ice cream and warm scones, so I really can't imagine what he's done to upset this particular critic.

A few days ago, I expressed a small amount of chagrin to my girlfriend about these minor blemishes on my otherwise shiny and bright critical landscape. As girlfriends are wont to do, she responded with some simple but truthful wisdom: Me complaining about such trivial annoyances is rather like that scene in FRIENDS where Chandler says, "Oh no! My wallet's too small for my fifties, and my diamond shoes are too tight!"

Yep, she nailed it.

Instructive, constructive, intelligent critique is a good thing. Affirmation from those who appreciate what you do is also great. Attacks from the ignorant and ill-informed are nothing more than a minor annoyance, like flies buzzing around the arse end of a cow.

So, with joy in my heart, here are a few other things that are currently floating my boat:

Tomorrow night, Thursday 8th of April, I will appear on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS. I'll post a YouTube clip as soon as it's online so that, even if you're not domiciled in the USA, you can witness me blinking like a bunny in the headlights and mumbling incoherently on national television.

THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST is a finalist in the Mystery/Thriller category of the LA Times Book Prize! The winner will be announced at the LA Times Festival of Books, where I'll be appearing on a panel with fellow nominees, as well as signing at the Mystery Bookstore stand. Check my website over the next day or two for details.

THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST is also nominated for a Spinetingler award - you can vote here!

The audiobook of THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST has been awarded the Earphones accolade by Audiofile Magazine in a rave review that described it as "everything a listener could want from an audiobook."

And that's all for now. I'll try not to leave it so long next time.

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

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.

Catch a(n Amazon) Rising Star and Put it in You Pocket...

Now that Declan Burke has put the Crime Always Pays blog out to stud, someone has to come up with cheesy puns for blog titles. It might as well be me.

Anyway, it's been a while - just over three weeks, in fact - and a busy three weeks it has been. Most of my time has been taken up by finishing the sequel to THE TWELVE (a.k.a. THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST), and giving it a very quick spit and polish before sending it to my agent, and a couple of critique angels. Now I am filled with dread, wondering what my agent Nat is going to think of it. Nat Sobel does not mince words, so I am bracing myself.

There has also been a rather splendid development, which I would like to illustrate with the following image:


THE TWELVE has been selected by Amazon UK's reading panel as one its eight Rising Stars for autumn 2009. Once every six months or so, Amazon chooses eight debut novels as part of the Rising Stars initiative to highlight new authors. I am delighted to be one of them. And there's more - at the end of the promotion, whichever book has the most good reviews will be deemed the winner! So, if you've read THE TWELVE, please do me a solid, and click here right now to see my Amazon page and submit your review. And as an extra favour, you could spread the word and encourage other people you know have read it to do the same. My book is the first to be featured, and the page includes a brief Q&A with yours truly.

In other news

More press reviews of THE TWELVE have been coming in, including the Sunday Tribune who said it was "A stunning first novel", while London Lite said it was "an unqualified triumph."

It may have escaped your attention, but the USA publication of THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST is fast creeping up. I've temporarily taken down the dedicated website for it with a view to revamping it in the coming days. I will have much more to say about that in the coming weeks, including getting all gushy and excited about the accompanying American tour where I will cross the entire continent just a few days, and meet lots of people I've been dying to meet for ages, including a certain Betsy Dornbusch, and hopefully Aerin Bender-Stone. Which is nice.

I'll make another blog post next week in which I will officially reveal a very poorly kept secret about an event in Belfast this coming November...

Daily Mail Review

I didn't get hold of it until today, but a very nice review of THE TWELVE appeared in the Daily Mail on Friday as part of their 50 summer reads feature. THE TWELVE was their #1 thriller of the season, and they had this to say:

"If you read only one thriller on your summer holiday, then make sure it is Neville's stunning debut. It's an astonishing first novel, set in today's Northern Ireland, and the subject matter could not be more controversial: it features a former paramilitary contract killer who is haunted by his victims. Twelve ghosts shadow his every waking hour and scream through every single one of his drunken nights. Written with a wonderful touch for the politics of the post-Good Friday agreement, it is as fresh and subtle as you could wish for. Awesomely powerful, fabulously written, and with a hero who is also a villain that you cannot help sympathising with, this novel is simply unmissable."

A Great Review, and Assorted Links

A fantastic review appeared today in The Observer newspaper, written by Nicola Barr. She said: "THE TWELVE is a brilliant thriller: unbearably tense, stomach-churningly frightening. This is the best fictional representation of the Troubles I have come across, a future classic of its time. Stuart Neville has finally given Northern Ireland the novel its singular history deserves." Read the full review here.

This review seems to have led to a boost in sales at Amazon.co.uk, pushing THE TWELVE into the top 100 fiction books, peaking at #65, and #10 in the Mystery category, sitting alongside the likes of CJ Sansom, Kathy Reichs, John Connolly, James Patterson, Patricia Cornwell, Stieg Larsson and others. Even now, at around 10:30pm, I'm hanging on at #67 in fiction, and #135 in books in general, and in Amazon's top 20 crime books - which I think is pretty good for my first weekend of publication.

I discovered today that Matt Beynon Rees, author of the Omar Yussef mystery novels set in Gaza, is not only a Soho Press stable mate, but he's also represented by my UK co-agent, Caspian Dennis of the Abner Stein agency. Matt kindly got in touch to tell me he'd reviewed THE TWELVE, and a very nice job he did too, saying: "As thought-provoking a book on the aftermath of conflict as you'll ever read. Neville's book is a thrilling record of the traces of crime and blood left behind when the politicians command us to move on." Read the full review here.

Finally, you may remember I mentioned an interview I did with journalist and broadcaster Malachi O'Doherty for BBC Radio Ulster's Sunday Sequence programme. It was for a feature on ghosts in contemporary fiction, and it's an interesting piece. You can listen to it online care of the BBC's iPlayer service. It starts at around sixteen minutes in.

My Blog Marathon is Over

I have now fulfilled my commitment to blogging every day up to publication. I think I did pretty well, all things considered. I only missed one day, and that was because I just plain forgot. And this post compensates for that one, seeing as I'm not really obliged to blog today. And I don't think the content of my posts was too bad. Sure, there were some fillers, but there were also some more substantial efforts.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is just to share a couple more photos. The first is from my joint launch with John Connolly at No Alibis last week. Can you tell it was a rather warm evening? Can you tell I was on my third beer?



And the next is to illustrate what being Waterstone's Irish book of the month looks like (courtesy of Keith at the Lisburn branch):



Incidentally, at the time of writing, THE TWELVE is at #265 in Amazon.co.uk's sales rank, #34 in Crime/Thrillers/Mystery, and #21 in the Mystery subcategory. Which is nice (waves at Aerin). :)

Update: Make that #237, #31 and #18. Which is even nicer.

Publication Day (and a little clarification)

So I got published today. Which is nice.

To be honest, today was a little bit like birthdays are when you get past thirty. It's a day much like any other, but you know there's a milestone at the back of your mind, that today isn't really like other days. But you still have cornflakes for breakfast, and you still get annoyed cos your internet isn't fast enough, and so on. My epiphany moment was last Friday when I first saw the books on the shelf at my local Eason's, so in my mind, publication day was really last week.

Anyway, on to a small bit of housekeeping...

During yesterday evening's interview on Radio Ulster, and at my reading at Lisburn Library (which was fun, by the way), I was questioned about who the characters in THE TWELVE were based on.

The truthful answer is this: NOBODY.

THE TWELVE is a work of fiction, and no major characters are based on anyone real (see caveat below). When I said as much yesterday and today, the questioners scoffed somewhat, said that obviously, this character was based on (insert name of prominent public figure here).

No they weren't.

I did base some of the characters on archetypes. There are certain kinds of people that exist in Northern Ireland, and I did use those broad groups as the basis for some characters.

For instance, there's a lawyer who makes his money defending people he knows to be guilty, but publicly describes himself as a "human rights lawyer". There are many lawyers here who do just that. The character is based on them collectively, and not any one individual. Just because a reader makes a comparison between the portrayed archetype and someone they know who fits that archetype, doesn't mean the character is based on them.

Another example is a British politician. On the page, he performs two roles: one, to frame the events of the book in a wider political context, and two, to provide some comic relief from the relentless darkness throughout the rest of the book. He regards his administrative role in Northern Ireland as a poison chalice, the job that no one else wants. He is an archetype, and one every citizen of Northern Ireland will recognise in every Secretary of State we've ever had. But he is not based on any of them (he's not even the Secretary, but rather his assistant), even though people are jumping to conclusions.

Likewise, there's a character who is based on the archetypal rural gangster. There are many such people who make their money in similar ways and live in similar places. The character portrayed is an archetype. Again, just because there's someone you're aware of that fits that mould, it doesn't mean the character is based on them. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of people who could match that archetype. The character in the book is not based on a single one of them.

So there.

I guess the lesson in all this is that readers will bring their own preconceptions to a piece of fiction; they'll see the things that they want to see in it. For instance, I am constantly surprised that some readers are quite adamant that Gerry Fegan's spectres are merely psychological manifestations of his own guilt, while others are positive they are supernatural. Even when the book shows their true nature in the closing pages, some readers will stick to their orginal assumption - in other words, they find what they want to see reflected in this mirror, regardless of what's really there.

About that caveat...

I did base a couple of minor characters on real people. They are blink-and-you'll-miss-them roles modelled on people I actually know, but as it turned out, the people in question didn't think it was the jolly jape I thought it was. In fact, they were pretty offended. There's a lesson there too, kids...

Twas the Night Before Publication...

Tomorrow, I will be officially published. I'm pretty sure I won't feel much different tomorrow than I do today; I've kind of had my epiphany moment when I first saw my book on the shelves of my local Eason's. I have no real observatiions to make, I'm afraid. Instead, here is an interview that was broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster earlier this evening:

Interview with Marie-Louise Muir on Arts Extra.

On an entirely unrelated note, I went to see Jeff Beck play at the Ulster Hall last night. It was one of the greatest concerts I have ever been to, despite the best efforts of a bouncer who interrupted Jeff's performance of, and the audience's pin-drop-silent attention to, Where Were You (an extremely difficult piece that I imagine requires Mr. Becks absolute concentration) by shouting at the audience members not to take photos. An arsehole, who deserves to be fired by the Ulster Hall's management.

Anyway, not only is Jeff Beck one of the greatest living electric guitarists, if not the best, he also has one the most extraordinary jazz-fusion bands behind him. Note the extraordinary Tal Wilkenfeld, who despite appearances is a little older than fifteen, and an incredible bassist:

CONTEST - Win signed copies of THE TWELVE and THE SIX!

To celebrate the fact that I am two days away from my official publication date, I'm giving away two signed copies of THE TWELVE, and as an extra special prize, the two winners will also receive one of only fifty paperback copies that will ever be produced of my short story collection, THE SIX. These limited edition paperbacks will be signed and numbered, and will soon be collector's items.

To be in with a chance of winning, just read the excerpt from THE TWELVE on my website, and answer these two questions:

1. In Chapter One, what is the barman's first name?

2. In Chapter Two, what Belfast entertainment complex do Gerry Fegan and Michael McKenna see across the river?

Please don't leave your answers as comments; instead, email them to contest@stuartneville.com, and remember to include your postal address. Two winners will be selected at random from those who answered correctly on Friday July 17th. Good luck!

The Day After

I'm sorry, I'm just too tired to write up a proper post on yesterday's launch of THE TWELVE at No Alibis in Belfast. I'll hopefully have mustered the energy to come up with a full report by tomorrow. In the meantime, I shall leave you with a few photos from the last twenty-four hours.

First up: On my way to Belfast, I stopped in at my nearest Eason's at Rushmere Shopping Centre in Craigavon. Eason's usually put books out before their release dates (unless it's Harry Potter or something), and I'd expected mine to be there before now. But yesterday, there they were, in all their glory. And they're in a primo front-of-store spot right at eye level - I saw them from outside as I was walking up. Here they are:



And this was the moment I've been waiting for - that moment when it clicks that I'm now a published author. It finally hit home. I was a little nervous when I asked the staff if I could sign stock, but I needn't have been - they were very kind and enthusiastic and brought armfuls of them to the counter for me to autograph.

Likewise the Belfast Eason's, though putting the book under 'Bestsellers' might have been a little premature - but I'm not complaining.



Then the very lovely Tamsin at the Belfast branch of Waterstone's, where THE TWELVE will be a book of the month for July, also let me sign stock (incidentally, I bumped into a certain mister John Connolly at Waterstone's as he also attacked a stack of books, pen in hand).



And then, of course, there was the main event: No Alibis. David Torrans had lots of stock for me to sign:




And David may also have had a little something-something I've been dropping hints about...

A Crazy Day

It's coming up on midnight, and I've been sat on this chair (aside from meal, toilet, and exercise bike breaks) since around 9:45am. And how much progress did I make on the new novel?

None. Nada. Sweet Fanny Adams.

Not that I'm complaining, really. I got a lot of promo stuff done today, not least of which was revamping my home page and getting THE SIX, my free downloadable short story collection, online. I also set up a contest while I was at it. Simply by entering your email address at the point of downloading the collection, you could win one of five of the limited run of fifty signed and numbered paperback editions of THE SIX.

There was also some good news today from the publicity folks at Random House, namely that THE TWELVE was named as one of fifty best summer reads in Saturday's Independent. This might explain the sudden spike in my Amazon sales rank that happened over the weekend. The publicity department tells me there is more good news to come, so I shall keep you posted.

Oh, and there's that fabled extra special giveaway I've been bleating on about here for a while. That took a step nearer reality today, so I'm hoping I can post about that towards the end of the week. I've been thinking about the contest - it's going to be something extra challenging, as befits the prize.

And speaking of the end of this week - it may have escaped your attention, but this Friday evening, 26th of June, THE TWELVE will be officially launched at No Alibis, Belfast's famous crime bookstore, on Botanic Avenue. It's a joint event with none other than John Connolly, who will read from his latest sure-fire best seller, THE LOVERS, which Declan Burke reckons is his best yet. Although it's a free event, high demand for seats means it will be ticketed. To be honest, I don't know if David Torrans has any tickets left, but you could always give him a try on 028 9031 9601.

If you can make it, do say hello.

Reviews et al

Just a quick filler post this evening. My short story collection THE SIX is almost ready, and I hope to have it online within the next twenty-four hours. There are new reviews appearing all the time, including the string of 5-star comments on Amazon, and a stellar write-up at Eurocrime.co.uk that is scheduled for this week - highlights are: "Grabs hold and doesn't let go ... frighteningly assured ... a tough, uncompromising thriller ... in the best, tragic, noir fiction tradition."

I'm also revamping the home page on my website to reflect all that's going on at the minute, so a link will be forthcoming.

Just a Couple More Links...

Just a couple of links this evening, but they're both goodies, I think.

First, an article about yours truly appeared in The Observer today. Hopefully, a review of THE TWELVE will also appear in the newspaper's REVIEW supplement at some point over the coming weeks.

Second, I've added a new feature to my website: deleted scenes from THE TWELVE. The bulk of them are about Gerry Fegan's early life, and how he came to be a killer, and then tried to turn his back on his old ways.

A more substantial post will appear tomorrow.

The Politics of THE TWELVE

In recent days I have been answering questions about the politics of THE TWELVE. I suppose that was inevitable, given the nature of the story, its setting, and its characters. As I stated in an earlier post, I never intended THE TWELVE as a polemic. It was just a thriller that happened to be set against Northern Ireland's peace process. But everything in Northern Ireland is political, so there's no escaping the issues that have dogged this country since its inception.

I won't go into the background of the novel's setting; there's plenty of material out there on the Troubles. A lot of the information online is inaccurate, substituting fact for opinion, speculation and omitted truth. One only need read a few pages on Wikipedia to see how distorted some of the truth is, but if you read enough, you should get an idea. Revisionism is something we'll have to live with here, as people on all sides cherry pick history to present the version best suited to their own agendas.

Many will use these narrow windows on the past to justify the actions of certain individuals and organisations, whether they are politicians, security force personnel or paramilitaries. If there's a political thrust to THE TWELVE, it's this: the violence was never justifiable. Republicans may argue that armed struggle was the only way to achieve change in an unjust society. I would argue that the use of violence held back societal reform by decades, while the republican leadership used the blood of this country to grease its way to power. Loyalists may argue that their actions were necessary to protect their people from the aggression of insurgents and a hostile neighbour state. I would argue that the greatest threat to ordinary loyalist people is those same loyalist paramilitaries who to this day continue to leech off their own communities.

What I fear history will overlook is that whatever social conditions provided the kindling for the Troubles, it was the personal agendas of individuals on both sides of the divide that made the spark to ignite the conflict. Those individuals created and perpetuated a war to satisfy their greed for power, status and wealth, and when the war became untenable, they reaped the rewards of the peace process that followed. I don't think that's news to anybody here in Northern Ireland, yet we go out and vote for them election after election anyway.

A point that was raised by two of my beta readers when they reviewed early drafts of the novel was this: why did the ghosts (if they are indeed ghosts, rather than figments of the protagonist's guilt-driven imagination) have no names? The reason for this was simple. The victims of the Troubles, mostly civilians despite what paramilitary apologists would have you believe, are by and large nameless. I'm sure most of us can recall some names, perhaps from particularly notorious cases, or maybe people we actually knew who were caught up in the conflict. I would struggle to name more than a handful of people who lost their lives here. The rest have been washed away by time to become just numbers, lost among more than 3500 such people, now remembered only by those who loved them. Sadly, that number continues to grow in our supposedly peaceful utopia.

A line from John Hewitt's The Bloody Brae is quoted by one of THE TWELVE's characters: God forgives all soldiers. Perhaps that's true. This society certainly seems to have done so, but more out of political expediency than compassion for those who were manipulated into committing terrible sins by the politicians of all hues now dividing up the cake at Stormont. And I, like everybody else, can live with that. It seems a price worth paying if it means my children, should I ever have any, can grow up in a happier place than I did. It doesn't mean it's without pain, though.

Like I said, THE TWELVE was not written to make any political point. It was written as an entertainment, a thriller that will hopefully keep you turning pages into the small hours. If it achieves that simple purpose, then I will be very happy. But all fiction has themes, whether overtly expressed or not. And whether I like it or not, these themes are present in the novel. You can make of them what you will, because really, I just want to scare the crap out of you.

And Some More Reviews...

This blog-post-per-day thing will be a doddle if reviews keep coming in. Especially if they're as well written and thought out as this one from an Irish bookseller.

And here's another all the way from the US of A. It's good to know THE TWELVE travels pretty well - it's always been a concern that people from far off places may not get the socio-political aspects, but that seems not to be an issue.

A Quick Review Roundup

You know what the hardest thing about daily blogging is? Remembering to bloody do it. Anyway...

Early reviews for THE TWELVE are starting to creep in. Here are a few highlights:

Just today, Gerard Brennan posted his thoughts over at Crime Scene NI. Gerard mentions, as a few people have, the genre hopping aspects of the book. Yes, it's a thriller first and foremost, but there are paranormal and horror elements in there too. The review also touches on the book's politics, and I'll come back to that in a moment.

And yesterday, of course, I linked to my friend Betsy Dornbusch's review. Then there's the inimitable Josephine Damian's take on things, which I've just realised I hadn't linked to from this blog until now. I linked it from Facebook and so on, but neglected to do it here. That was very remiss of me, so apologies to Josie, particularly in light of her kind words.

There have also been five star reviews cropping up at Amazon.co.uk, Waterstones.com (be sure to click on "Read all customer reviews"), and Play.com, arising from the proof copies sent out by he excellent marketing and publicity folks at CCV/Random House.

I said I'd come back to Gerard's points on politics: Over recent days I've been doing little bits and pieces of publicity work, answering questions, writing small pieces for websites and newspapers. People have started to raise the issue of THE TWELVE's politics. I'm told on the grapevine that some press reviews are going to highlight that aspect.

I never intended THE TWELVE to be a polemic. But there's no getting away from that side of the story; everything about Northern Ireland is political, whether we like it or not. So, at some point in the coming days I'm going to tackle this issue directly. It's not going to be easy, seeing as controversy is intrinsic to politics in this part of the world. But I want to air the topic and perhaps give a better picture of the novel's background. Until then, however, I think Betsy Dornbusch's line is my favourite: "THE TWELVE is the conscience of Northern Ireland."

I wouldn't put it quite so emphatically or dramatically, but the novel is, right down at its core, about guilt. More to follow...

The Dream We All Dream Of: My book is here!

Today I had planned to post a link to a wonderful review on a dear friend's blog, but that has been postponed for one day due to...

A FINISHED COPY OF THE TWELVE!

I was out on an errand this morning, and came home to find a padded envelope stuffed into my letterbox. It had a Harvill Secker address label attached. It was quite bulky. It was approximately the size and shape of a trade paperback book. I tore it open, and this was inside:



Isn't it pretty? And just in case that angle doesn't suit you, here's another:



The design of the whole book is wonderful, including the dual texture laminate (my name and the title are glossy, while the rest is matte) and the colour inside covers. At the front are a few of the great quotes I've been blessed with:



And in the back, there's my ugly mug, floating menacing in space over my bio. One omission is that they neglected to credit the photo to my business partner, Greg Haire. Anyway, it looks like this:



So this is it. The summit to which we all aspire. My own published novel, in my hands. And how does that feel?

Strange. And cool. But mostly strange.

I hope another recently published author, Cindy Pon, might chip in on the following point. I'm curious to know if her experience is similar to mine. Anyway, the point is: Holding the book in my hand wasn't the earth-shattering, life-altering, choirs-of-angels-sing-while-the-world-is-bathed-in-white-light moment I thought it might have been two years ago. Don't get me wrong, it's a truly wonderful feeling, but ever since bagging my agent, the journey to this stage has been a long series of victories, and the occasional defeat. There wasn't one definable moment where I crossed the threshold between hope and actuality. Rather it has been a steady climb to this place where I can call myself an honest-to-God published author.

It's still bloody good, though.

What say you now, doubters? Here's what's coming up...

A couple of you have commented on my previous post, pointing out how fine I'm cutting it if I want to meet my daily target - so here I am, getting in just under the wire. A caveat, however - I promised quantity, not quality...

So, what's in store for the next thirty days? Well, hopefully, lots of links to reviews for one thing. There'll also be some contests to win signed books and collectibles. And a few of those books will be very special.

I think I mentioned a while back, I will be offering a short story collection titled THE SIX as a free download from my website. In addition, there'll be a limited run of fifty signed and numbered paperback editions; these will not be for sale anywhere, and some of them will be given away right here on this blog. You'll have to stay tuned for those giveaways.

And also, there might - just might - be an even rarer collectable being given away before the end of the month. These are so rare that I'll only be able to offer one, if at all. Again, watch this space.

My friend Jospephine Damian has hypothesised that I've given myself such an impossible task that I will end up filling blog posts with random YouTube clips. That's a possibility. More likely, I will be post links to articles on other websites, starting tomorrow with one that has had me smiling all day.

In the meantime, here's a small announcement for anyone in Ireland: THE TWELVE will be book of the month for July in all Irish branches of Waterstone's. There will be more retail promotions (I know some retailers have committed to 3-for-2 offers already) over the coming weeks, but I also would like you to consider the great independent bookshops out there, such as No Alibis in Belfast, where... No, hang on, that's a post for another day...