Welcome to my February Newsletter
Driving into Darkness
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My second book, Driving into Darkness was released on Dec 2 and those kind people at Amazon allowed me to add it to the ‘Heist’ category, a specialised listing of about 600 books, rather than general ‘Crime/Thrillers’ listing with over 6,000 books. What do you know? It zipped up the chart and now carries a ‘No 1 Best Seller’ badge.
The battery development side of the story celebrates a great British success story. ARM, based in Cambridge, have microchips are in every electronic device you care to mention from iPads, iPhones to broadband routers and servers. The basic instructions within these chips was written over 20 years ago and developed by a team working under the same frugal conditions as the team responsible for the ‘Suki’ chip at Markham Microprocessors. |
New Book
The name of the next book (providing some other author doesn’t nick the title) will be Fear the Silence. When a woman goes missing, Sussex Serious Crimes Unit are rarely involved from the start, but this is no ordinary woman. She is the former model ‘Kelly,’ married to Brian Langton, once a fearless interviewer and now a successful television producer. DI Henderson’s every move is dogged by the media but there is also a new boss to impress in the form of the fearsome but attractive, Chief Inspector Lisa Edwards. If he didn’t have enough on his plate, he’s not totally convinced of Brian Langton’s guilt and suspects there may be a predator out there kidnapping and murdering defenceless women. Available Summer 2015.
Book Adaptations
Adapting books for television and films comes in fits and starts and for the moment, it’s in vogue. These three are currently being made or talked about being made into television programmes and if successful, should appear on screens in 2015.
Mari Hannah’s books – I’ve just read Monument to Murder and it’s a straightforward detective story with one difference, her main character, DCI Kate Daniels is a lesbian. Her books have attracted the interest of Stephen Fry and he wants to turn them into a television drama. In many respects, the lesbian aspects of the story are a bit of a distraction and I didn’t think the plot has the depth of say, the Anne Cleeves’ novels, set in the same part of the North East.
Cuckoo Calling – Unlike DCI Kate Daniels (see above), JK Rowling was ‘outed’ as crime writer Robert Galbraith. She is currently in talks to have the book adapted for television but I fear the scriptwriters will have to inject some action into the story as although the book is very strong in character development, it is woefully short of anything that might cause an adrenaline rush and is in danger of becoming one of those well-read books that ‘didn’t translate well’ to the screen.
The Casual Vacancy – Sticking with JK Rowling, The Casual Vacancy was her first novel after Harry Potter and it is now being turned into a BBC 3-parter, starring Keeley Hawes and Michael Gambon. If you get hooked on this particular take on village life and would like to see where it’s set, filming is taking place now in Gloucestershire around Painswick.
Kindle Book Prices
You may have noticed the price of any Kindle book you bought recently on the Amazon website, took a leap from Jan 1. This is due to a change in the Vat on eBooks, which has risen from 3% to 20%, in an attempt by the EC to make large international companies like Amazon pay more tax. If you know anything about VAT, you’ll know it’s not an income or profits tax, but a sales tax so Amazon might be seen to be handing over hundreds of millions to the Inland Revenue, but it will not be funded by them; it will be paid by authors, publishers and of course, you dear reader.
Literary Festivals
The first major UK literary festival of the year is likely to be the York Literary Festival, which runs from 19th to 25th March 2015. The festival includes appearances by Dame Jenni Murray, Dr. David Starkey, poet Paul Farley, historical novelist Lindsey Davis, political commentator Polly Toynbee and comedienne and author Helen Lederer. The Festival is also working in conjunction with York St John University to run a range of creative writing courses.
Other Stuff
When I was in Norwich over the Festive Season, I was shown the building where it is hoped the International Centre for Writing will open in 2016. If perhaps you don’t feel Norwich to be a worthy recipient, maybe you didn’t know that the first book written by a woman was published there in 1395 and graduates of East Anglia University’s creative writing course, the UK’s first, include Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, and Anne Enright.
My website has been tweaked to include details of the new book and I’ve made it more obvious where you can add a comment to any of the blogs I’ve posted. Feel free to post anything you like or even suggest topics that might feature in future blogs. The website can be found at www.iain-cameron.com
Contact:
Email: admin@iain-cameron.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Iain-Cameron/635962733162750
Keep reading,
Iain
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