Sunday 14 March 2010

What goes around Comes around.

It's with great delight that I share some news with you about a good friend and top author, Adrian Magson.

But first I'm gonna tell ya a story...

Many moons ago, way back when I was still a struggling writer out in the wilderness and hoping and dreaming of a publishing deal, I used to read the magazines dedicated to writers and writing. One such magazine in the UK is WRITING MAGAZINE, and for some time I'd been following the advice of a collumnist therein, when said collumnist had his own little success story reported. He'd just achieved a deal with publishing house Creme De la Crime, and his first novel, NO PEACE FOR THE WICKED, and the first in a series featuring Riley Gavin and Frank Palmer was about to be published. I was chuffed for him and decided - totally out of form for me cause I'm a shy lad by nature - I emailed the collumnist with my best wishes. Top man that he was, he got back to me and also encouraged me to keep on writing and also to submit to CDLC. I promptly did with my book CRITICAL CHOICES, a standalone, man in peril novel, but was sadly rejected. However, I got some really helpful advice back from the folks at CDLC that helped spur me on.

The years past, and as you know I kept writing, submitting, and finally got my very own deal. Throughout that time I always held a note of gratitude to the collumnist for kindly pointing me in the right direction.

Well, I suppose you've guessed that the collumnist was Adrian Magson. I loved his books. And, you've probably read here before where I've extolled Adrian's worth as an author - not to mention a thoroughly top gentleman. So, two years ago, when in Baltimore, at the Bouchercon World Mystery Conference, I was a little star struck when I bumped into Adrian and his lovely wife, Anne. Adrian 'actually remembered me' and we struck up a firm friendship, and I have to thank him for taking the time to blurb my first book, Dead Men's Dust, and for also featuring me in his 'Debut Authors' collumn in Writing magazine, amongst other things.

I always thought that Adrian should be a far bigger name than he had already achieved, and have also mentioned here that I believed he would become a star in the crime writing scene.

Well, and here's the news....

On Wednesday this week, thanks to the efforts of Adrian's agent, David Headley, who is also the proprietor of Goldsboro Books in London, Adrian signed a 2-book deal for a spy series with Kate Lyall Grant at Severn House, the first of which - 'Red Station' - comes out in August (November in the US).


But that's not all...

...not one to do things by half, David also got Adrian a separate 2-book deal with Allison & Busby for a French cop series set in the 60s, the first of which - 'Death on the Marais' - comes out in October.

To say I'm over the moon for Adrian is an understatement, and I want to say "Well done, mate. I knew you'd achieve everything that you are due, and I can't wait to read all four books".

By the way, Adrian also has a more sedate three part series 'Crimewave at Southbeach' starting at the end of this month (27th March) in MY WEEKLY magazine, if you would like to investigate his more gentle side.

I'm made up.

Matt

To find out more about Adrian Magson just click http://www.adrianmagson.com/

5 comments:

Tina said...

That's great news. As always, it's interesting to hear about your journey to publication. I especially like this one, as I am a huge fan of Writing Magazine and always enjoy Adrian's column. Congratulations to him and well done on a lovely post about his success.

Alan Griffiths said...

Nice post Matt.

It is always nice and interesting to read about the journey of a writer better still when the story ends with success like this. I'll take some time looking around Adrian's site but congrats to him.

Regards.

David Barber said...

Great post Matt. Like the others have said, it's great to read about a writers journey and Adrian sound like a top bloke, like yourself. Great news.

Regards, David.

Adrian Magson said...

Aw, shucks, Matt, I'm blushing here! As you know, I don't often lurk, but a little birdie told me about your very generous comments. Thank you - it's greatly appreciated. And Tina, Alan and David - thank you also for yours. As you can imagine, I'm grinning so much, I think I might need some botox to get me physog back into shape (which I'll have to do because it's inhibiting my typing something rotten!. Adrian

Unknown said...

Top post, top fella, top writer!

I had the pleasure of meeting Adrian, and his lovely wife Anne, at Sheila Quigley's book launch last November and to say I'm well chuffed for them both is an understatement!

I'll be featuring Adrian on my blog in the near future for sure.

Regards,
Col