CrimeFest blogfest IV: Gonzo publishing
(Here's the fourth in a series of posts about authors who'll be at CrimeFest 2009 in Bristol, England, this week. I'll be there, too, standing on my tip-toes in the back row of the group picture.)
Big O author Declan Burke, whose name you may know, has announced an experiment in publishing. My fellow CrimeFest attendee is seeking to make his novel A Gonzo Noir, circulated heretofore in the traditional Internet mode, available in print as well. Join me in wishing the book good luck in finding a publisher.
In the meantime, click on the Gonzo Noir link above and enjoy exchanges like this:
Big O author Declan Burke, whose name you may know, has announced an experiment in publishing. My fellow CrimeFest attendee is seeking to make his novel A Gonzo Noir, circulated heretofore in the traditional Internet mode, available in print as well. Join me in wishing the book good luck in finding a publisher.
In the meantime, click on the Gonzo Noir link above and enjoy exchanges like this:
‘If you want my opinion,’ he says, ‘the conflicts that work best are between the reader and a character they like who’s doing stuff they wouldn’t generally tolerate. Your mistake was to make Karlsson a total wack-job. No one who wasn’t a complete fruit could like him.’© Peter Rozovsky 2009
‘Okay, so we make you likeable. What then?’
‘We blow up the hospital.’
Labels: conventions, Crimefest, CrimeFest 2009, Declan Burke
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 12:14 AM
21 Comments:
Nice.
Peter
I'd like to thank you for Quite Ugly One Morning by Chris Brookmyre which I won in a DBB competition and finished, er, this morning. Its a very raucous and enjoyable book from a writer that I didnt know before, but who I will definitely read more of. He's incredibly talented and, worse, may be younger than me (he was born in 68) but judging from that author pic he's gotta be completely bald by now so thats a - small - compensation. Since the book comes from the Derry library of one one Garbhan Downey with instructions to pass it on, I will now do so...
Cheers mate.
You're welcome, and I'm glad you enjoyed the book. Where is it going next?
Brookmyre is young(ish), he's fairly prolific, he's fired with righteous anger (fook, he's sputtering and unhinged sometimes -- great stuff), he has a love/hate relationship with Queen, and he has a full head of hair.
One of the above statements is untrue.
Young at over 40?
And I don't quite see the "love" part of that love/hate relationship.
Adrian, bald is sexy. Though if you're looking for compensations, he may be shorter than you.
Unlike my v-word, he doesn't pander
Speaking of shortarses, here's Bono's poem about Elvis
Ta for the big-up, Peter ... much obliged, squire.
Cheers, Dec
Well, that Bono piece is not so much a poem as a (very) long list, which you should like, Adrian, but there's something in it. Sometimes. Breaks down a bit when he starts rhyming out of the blue. What I find hilarious is that some professor took the time to do scholarly annotation of it. Probably hoping it will count toward tenure.
YoungISH. Marco, at least compared to McKinty. And to me, you gobshite.
I'd guessed love/hate because of the zest with which Brookmyre embraces Queen in "A Big Boy Did it and Ran Away." Turns out I was dead on. Brookmyre acknowleges in this interview both that he's a huge Queen and that his love of Queen is "a dirty secret."
Adrian, that is the best poem I have read today. Many thanks.
Seana, I assume the professor's analysis of the poem is a deadpan joke. Coming out and saying "This is shite" would not make for very much of a review.
His first footnote reminds me of Woody Allen's footnotes in a mock analysis of a fictional Irish poet, "the most obscure and hence the finest poet of his generation."
"Declan Burke said...
Ta for the big-up, Peter ... much obliged, squire."
My pleasure, sir.
The thing about A Gonzo Noir is that it's all that good.
- Adrian, I'm so used to everyone being younger than me that... no wait, it still bothers me.
John, my Zenlike acceptance my own mortality has gone as far as yours has.
Marco might like my v-word. No, wait. He'd hate it: destra
Yes, obviously I didn't get far enough down the scholar's list, because clearly Bono has started to drive him a bit insane by the end.
I still think the Elvis List is marginally better than the Xmas editorial, though of course that isn't saying too much. However, I notice that all the commenters on that page seem to have been driven to familiar paroxysms of rage. The real question is, who is he selling all those damn records to?
John, it's great to hear A Gonzo Noir is all of that quality.
At a glance, Bono's poetry seems no worse than that of an average earnest, intelligent high school junior. As for the spleen he inspires, such is the life of a celebrity. If he doesn't like it, he can commiserate with fellow celebrity whiner George Clooney.
Come to think of it, I did see the two of them in conversation recently on CNN. Happily, the sound was turned off.
V-word: fuzzleg. Isn't that fun?
Seana
I suspect the professor was critiquing the "poem" in the spirit of Nabokov's Pale Fire. One thing the Prof got wrong though, I think, Bono, like Elvis is a Protestant.
My favourite part of the poem is Bono's copyright notice. It was so good he went and copyrighted it.
This reminds me of when I fulfilled my long-held dream of hearing an Irish person say "shite." It was Ken Bruen talking about how he started writing:
"For years I wrote poems, nothing but poems, and all but five of them were shite."
Still better than Bono's, I bet.
Yes, Destra is not one of my favorite words.
I sympathize with more moderate and centrist positions in the Brookmyrian mold ;)
Perhaps Bruen can recite some of those poems when you guys perform your youthful ballads.
Better than Bono! could be your defiant rallying cry.
Yeah, the copyright does just about say it all.
Marco, your v-word destra is circumstantial evidence that if there is a v-word god, it has a sense of humor.
But wait. If you're a moderate in the Brookmyre style, god is not your thing, either.
Better than Bono!
© Peter Rozovsky 2009
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