On the Go...

I've had a crazy busy time of late on the publicity trail for the paperback of Blood and Ashes, and the upcoming sixth Joe Hunter thriller, Dead Men's Harvest, and have had the pleasure of seeing/meeting/chatting with old and new friends in many corners of the UK and also in New York while at Thrillerfest at the beginning of July. I just wanted to give a quick hello shout  out to everyone that I've met along the way and to say thanks for the ongoing support.

So...to everyone at Whitburn library, Middlesbrough Central Library, Carlisle Waterstone's, Kendal Library, Outerwest Library (Newcastle), Nottingham library, Goldsboro Books, Carlisle Library, Thrillerfest (New York), Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival (Harrogate), York, Stockton-on-Tees, and all places in between...thank you.

Oh, and if you can get along to Waterstone's Emerson Chambers, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, tomorrow, Saturday 3oth July between 11:30 and 16:OO...hello and thank you in advance.

Out Now! Blood and Ashes in Paperback

Today is the official release date for Blood and Ashes - the fifth Joe Hunter thriller - in the UK. If you've been hanging on to grab a copy, now's your chance. It's available through all the usual outlets.

Off The Rails

Watch out for these amazing posters appearing up and down the UK rail network over the next week or two. If anyone sees one and has a camera handy. Please snap it, maybe with you in the picture and send it to me and I'll show the pictures here at Matt Hilton Thrills.

Blood and Ashes is published in paperback by Hodder and Stoughton on 21st July in the UK

On The Mean Streets

http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/crimefiction/2011/07/matt-hilton-interview-by-barb-ettridge/

I recently had the pleasure of talking to Barb Ettridge at MEAN STREETS a fresh new crime fiction site, where I spoke about my writing style, my previous work and the influences of martial arts on my writing. Why not pop over and take a look? Some of the questions aren't the type you'd normally expect.

The Full Moon is about to grow Brighter

When a full moon fills the night sky, P I Roman Dalton becomes a werewolf and prowls the dark streets of the city battling creatures of evil. Paul D Brazill's Drunk On The Moon is an intense and hard-boiled noir / horror series, brought to you by some of the finest dark fiction writers around, including Vincent Zandri, Julia Madeleine, Benjamin Sobieck, Richard Godwin, Katherine Tomlinson, Frank Duffy, B R Stateham, Jason Michel, John Donald Carlucci and Cormac Brown....and not to mention PDB himself.

For those of you unfamiliar with PDB's writing...where have you been?

Spinetingler Award nominee Paul D. Brazill was born in England and lives in Poland.His stuff has appeared in loads of classy print and electronic magazines and anthologies, including the 2011 Mammoth Book Of Best British Crime. His short story collection '13 Shots Of Noir' will be published in 2011. He writes a column for Pulp Metal Magazine and contributes to Mean Streets Magazine and has won a legion of readers at his blog 'You Would Say That, Wouldn't You?'.

Paul is the kind of noir/crime fiction/hard boiled/mystery/horror/humour writer who makes others jealous of his inimitable style (yep, and that includes me). Some have even dubbed him the 'Noir Bukowski'. Add to that he's also a great guy who selflessly promotes and supports other authors' work. Drunk on the Moon is Paul's brainchild - a series of ebooks from Trestle Press - that follows his main character Roman Dalton - Ex-Detective, Current Werewolf - through the Sin City-ish landscape of 'The City', and it is a great, rollicking fun read, full to the brim of Paul's usual gritty noir, northern humour and fiendish horror. But PDB being PDB, he didn't want to keep all the fun to himself. he opened the floodgates to other top authors in the field, and future editions of the ongoing series will be penned by those illustrious names above. More will likely join the ranks. I intend being along for the ride (reading the editions as they come out at the very least).

You can get the first part of the series here at Amazon UK for only £0.86. or at Amazon USA for only $1.38.

"A crackling fun read that puts werewolves in a Sin City/hardboiled world" --Dave Zeltserman

"A great, rollicking fun read, full to the brim of Paul's usual gritty noir, northern humour and fiendish horror." - Matt Hilton

  

Me and technology doesn't mix...

So I sold out...

I went and got myself one of those Kindle e-reader thingamajigs, despite my inner protestations. I've held out for a long time (hell, I'm the type who only recently changed from a VHS recorder to SKY+, and still play CDs as opposed to MP3s) in the hope that people would see sense and go back to buying 'real' books.

But I got to thinking. I'm currently doing re-reads of some of my own books, before forging ahead with edits, and with a few long flights ahead of me shortly, thought it would be much easier with them on a Kindle device than carting 600 + pages of one book, and 300 + pages of another, in my hand luggage.

Oh, yes, it's easy to download your own documents. All you do is plug in teh USB lead provided and then drop your files into the Kindle icon. So said the salesman.

Yeah, right.

So how come it didn't work for me? OK, they appeared in the doc folder in the Kindle icon on my computer screen, but they didn't appear on my Kindle.

A google search ensued.

Try compressing the file to a zip. Yep, Zip's the word, because although the title then appeared on my Kindle, the damn thing wouldn't open. Is it me or what?

Now then, the story continues.

Oh, you can email them to Amazon to convert and then they'll send them to your Kindle. Woohoo!

Oops, you need wireless technology to do that.

D'oh! I have my internet hardwired to the router cause I don't get any damn wireless coverage from my network (did I mention I live out in the sticks?)

Then you'll have to up-grade and pay and extra £41 pounds to get 3G technology.

OK, I can do that. Simple swap then and I'll pay the extra?

Yes, but we close in 45 minutes.

78 mile round trip to my supplier (for the second time today).

Oh, didn't I say you needed wireless for this model? says the salesman.

No. You told me I could USB it to my hard-wired router.

OH! Sorry. You need wireless.

So give me the 3G one.

Can you wait? I can't do a refund because our computers and tills are down.

(Back to good old paper and pens, and we get things sorted).

By the way, I'm not sure if you'll get 3G coverage out your way. You might still have to drive to somewhere with more coverage to download stuff. (The salesman is now taking a couple surreptitious steps away and placing a counter between us).

I just scowl.

Back home, I try again.

The email works. Yeehaa! But I can't have a free download, I have to pay, because I'm not using Amazon's free service and the 3G is more expensive.

Why you little.....

So...is it me or what?

Can't see me ever loving these things.

But watch this space.