Hear and see authors speak

Krimi-Couch ("Denn lesen ist spannender"), host of the video interview with Colin Cotterill highlighted here, has put up three more interviews: one with Mark Billingham and Martyn Waites, one with Karin Slaughter and one with Linwood Barclay.

Some highlights: The Billingham/Waites interview opens with each author introducing the other and then a discussion of both authors' backgrounds as stand-up comedians, and Barclay talks about the surprising benefits of having one of his novels published in Germany before it came out in the English-speaking world.

I've heard Billingham, and the man is a formidable toastmaster. I can well believe that he could sustain the patter long enough to keep a crowd laughing and buying drinks. What other authors have done stand-up comedy?

© Peter Rozovsky 2008

Hear Colin Cotterill speak

I've just found this video interview with Colin Cotterill on Krimi-Couch ("Denn lesen ist spannender") under the title "Wo in Afrika liegt Laos?" ("Where in Africa is Laos?").

Cotterill is the author of six novels about Dr. Siri Paiboun, the oldest and only coroner in Laos after the communist takeover in the 1970s. He talks about crime fiction and his reasons for writing it, about why he chose a protagonist in his seventies, and about war, politics and life in Laos, among other interesting subjects.

© Peter Rozovsky 2008