A Booky Few Days #authorsaremyrockstars

Hiya peeps

I'm still on my wee break, but wanted to share a few pictures and details for some of my book and author stuff from the last week or so.

Last Thursday I was in Waterstones in Glasgow's Sauchiehall Syreet, where a large audience turned out to see Four Blokes in Search of a Plot. The Four Blokes are crime authors Gordon Brown (no, not that one!), Douglas Skelton, Mark Leggatt and Neil Broadfoot.

For those of you who don't know, the Four Blokes write a comedy crime story live. In an hour. The audience choose the main character and the murder weapon, and the guys take turns (again, who writes which bit is down to the audience) to concoct a tale of murder, madness and mayhem!

The fifth, and arguably most important, member of the team is the Tea Cosy Of Inspiration, which is worn by the nominated writer! Clearly the ideas don't come without it! Or something like that anyway. You can see the Blokes, and the Tea Cosy, in action in the pics below. Those not writing take questions from the audience, which in Glasgow included ones on writing styles, backgrounds, planning (or lack thereof), book festivals and all sorts of other stuff.

On the night, the main character given by the audience was fellow crime writer Val McDermid and the murder weapon a welly boot! Somewhere along the line, a guy called Gerald got involved, the boot was covered in glitter and Luca Veste's bass guitar featured. Complete madness! But so much fun - laughed out loud loads. And the guys are always interesting.

The Four Blokes in Search of a Plot will be appearing at Waterstones in Stirling on September 13th and at Rothesay Museum in October 19th. Check out their Facebook page for more details.

My purchases - I already had Gordon's book. 

On Saturday I headed over to Summerlee Heritage Museum in Coatbridge where North Lanarkshire Libraries were holding their Big Day Out.

First up for me was Mason Cross, who spoke about his most recent Carter Blake book, Presumed Dead, which has been longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize at Bloody Scotland. He also talked about life as an author, writing a series and his next book, which will be a standalone set in the UK. And he answered a load of great questions from the audience. You can read my review of Presumed Dead here.

After visiting the sale of ex library books (not at all good for my TBR pile!) and grabbing a coffee and cake, it was time to head back to hear Craig Robertson. Spent a really interesting hour listening to Craig telling us some memorable tales from his career as a journalist, and talking us through his books and plans for the future. In his last three books he has explored some interesting, and sometimes disturbing, topics.

For In Place of Death, Craig researched Urban Exploring, where people go into, up and down abandoned buildings, towers and tunnels. Murderabilia explores the murky world of collecting 'souvenirs' related to crimes and criminals. Apparently it's a booming industry. His most recent book, The Photographer, looks at violence against women, misogyny and the darker side of social media. The Photographer has also been longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize.

I will be reading and reviewing one or two of Craig's books soon, so will probably talk a bit more about Saturday afternoon then.

I was at another event on Saturday evening, but it was very different from my usual crime shenanigans, and so I'll talk about that in a separate post.

Yesterday, I managed to squeeze in a lunch and catch up with author and one quarter of Four Blokes, Douglas Skelton, when he was passing through Glasgow on his way to the Four Blokes gig in Edinburgh. (It was fictional character Carmel Crunch and a typewriter, in case you were wondering.) Douglas has a new book, The Janus Run, hitting the shelves in September 20th. A change in direction for him, this is a standalone crime thriller set in the US. It's next on my list to read, and I can't wait! Look out for my review soon.

I take terrible selfies! Don't even know which way to look! 

Finally, I came home yesterday to #bookpost, my favourite kind of post. I'm thrilled to have received a paper copy of Savage Lies by Peter Boland. It's one of my best reads of the year and I can't wait for the follow up to come out. You can see my review of Savage Lies here.

Phew! Such a lucky girl!

Links to purchase the most recent books, or in some cases pre order the new ones, for all the authors mentioned are below:

Deepest Wounds by Gordon Brown - Waterstones, Amazon
The Janus Run by Douglas Skelton - Waterstones, Amazon
The Silk Road by Mark Leggatt - Waterstones, Amazon
No Man's Land by Neil Broadfoot - Waterstones, Amazon
Presumed Dead by Mason Cross - Waterstones, Amazon
The Photographer by Craig Robertson - Waterstones, Amazon 
Savage Lies by Peter Boland - Waterstones, Amazon 

Laters x