DC Vertigo Crime

http://www.dccomics.com/vertigo/graphic_novels/?gn=13868

Growing up, I was a sucker for comic books, my firm favourites being 2000AD, Action, Starblazer (anyone remember that one?), and to be honest I've never given up reading comic books - although these days I say "They're not comics, they're graphic novels!!" For years I collected anything and everything related to Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian and all the related characters and to this day have a loft full of carboard boxes filled with...ahem...graphic novels. Lately I haven't had the opportunity to read many, uh, GN's, with the exception of A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE which as you probably know was turned into a tough gangster flick starring Vigo Mortenson.

Any way, the point of this is that I only today received in the post a review copy of DC Vertigo Comics 'The BRONX KILL' written by Peter Milligan and drawn by James Romberger.

Now, the title's cool enough to catch my eye, but the interior is even better. It's 182 pages of top class crime writing and superior art work, and if I say it's as good as any crime book I've read lately I wouldn't be exaggerating. Some people are still a little sniffy about 'graphic novels' thinking them immature and for kids. Well, they couldn't be further from the truth here. The Bronx Kill reads like a classic Hitchcock tale of paranoia, deceit and lies, all the while interspersed with the kind of noir action that is the staple of many contemporary crime novels. So, I guess that you realise that I loved the book? So much so that I let the editor know, in fact.

For a few hours solid reading, that will leave you thinking for days after, why not take a look at the link above.

The Bronx Kill is only one of a number of DC Vertigo's new Vertigo Crime line of books for adult readers. I feel like I've just discovered a new treasure trove to plunder.

I loved it.

JAW gets a new paperback cover

Again, having just spotted this on Amazon, I'm safe to say that I can now show you the new look paperback cover for Judgement and Wrath for when it's released next spring. Hope you all like it as much as I do.

It was a dark and stormy night...

Today I braved the storm of the century that is wreaking havoc in my home county of Cumbria. As I write this the wind is shrieking and unbattened-down items of furniture are rattling around my garden, splashing through the 'new' swimming pool that has appeared where my patio was yesterday. Touch wood: I am far more fortunate than a lot of my fellow Cumbrians tonight. Many people have had their homes and businesses flooded, and this latest round of storms are threatening to be worse than the deluge that submerged Carlisle back in 2005.

Any way, the reason I faced the storms was to drive into Carlisle to the local BBC Radio office to do a pre-recorded show to air at 17.30 on Sunday 29th November on BBC Radio Wales. I had the pleasure of being interviwed by author Phil Rickman, whose show 'Phil The Shelf' is very popular at present. On the show I talk about Joe Hunter, my influences, my take on bullies and the paradox that Joe Hunter faces when dealing with Dantalion - a product of bullying in his formative years. I also speak about the attraction of crime novels, particularly hard-edged action figures like Joe Hunter, Jack Reacher and Joe Pike and why women love them so much. Hope I don't upset any feminists out there. I also give a hint of what might be in line for Joe Hunter in coming books.

I'm looking forward to hearing the finished result, and hope you enjoy it too. I'll post a link as soon as it becomes available.

I was glad that it was radio and not TV: wet through and looking wind-swept maybe wouldn't have went down that well on TV.

But I've made it home, hale and hearty, and hoping that the power lines don't go down before I finish typ

Unsolicited Comments Welcome...

Some of the kindest and inspirational comments I receive about my books come from my friends and family, and I guess that to some extent you would expect that to be the case. I am grateful, obviously, but every now and again I come across a totally unsolicited comment from people who do not know me, who may not have even read any of my books, and these really are touching indeed.

Take for instance a letter sent to Cumbria Life magazine in response to an article published about me in May this year:

WELL DONE MATT HILTON
"Carlisle and Morton School, should be proud of crime writer Matt Hilton (Cumbria Life, May), who did not have the advantage of a grammar school and university education like many other writers, but left school at 15. He must surely be Cumbria's writer of the year."

Well, I'm honoured that someone should even feel like that having read about my story, and to have taken the time to voice an opinion. This was without an agenda or any other reason than perhaps the author of the letter felt inspired by my tale. My huge thanks go to Tom Moore (who I'm pretty sure I've never met before) from Southport for his very kind words. Inspiration is reciprocal, my friend.

...and also thanks to Val, (who is a friend), for buying the magazine, just so she could cut the snippet out of the pages to pass on to me. That's inspirational too.

SLASH AND BURN - Joe Hunter three

When your book covers become available on Amazon (thanks to Sean Black for the head's up) you know that you're safe to share them with the world. So here it its; the first look at the cover of SLASH AND BURN, the third in the Joe Hunter series. On sale first week in April 2010.

If anyone would like to pre-order a copy, then here's the link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Slash-Burn-Matt-Hilton/dp/0340978279/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258474117&sr=1-2

From Blue Suede Shoes to a Cool Blue Cover

Here's a little interview I did regarding my early days and how i got started in the writing game. Hope you find it informative.

http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk/news/learning/my_schooldays/hold_on_to_that_dream_says_cumbrian_man_who_landed_800_000_book_deal_1_625267?referrerPath=news/learning

Of Dandelions and Daffodils...and explosions (just in case you thought I was growing soft)

Flowers have featured heavily in the last couple of days of my life.

Not very 'thrilling' you might think for a thriller author to be talking about flowers, but there is a reason for it.

Explosions, too.

First off, DANDELION.

I had to chuckle when my well-meaning mam said she'd been reading Judgement and Wrath and had got to the point where Dandelion first shows up. 'It's not Dandelion, it's Dantalion,' I explained. 'Oh, well, you know who I mean,' she responded.

Well, actually, that got me thinking. Must make sure that I don't pick a villain's name that is difficult to pronounce in future. Even in Dead Men's Dust, there were different people calling the killer TWO-BALL Cain (which I'm sure as a red-blooded man he appreciated), while me and a few others pronounced his name Chew-bel Cain.

Another thing that has been mispronounced is Arrowsake (the secret base where Hunter trained while fighting terrorists). Some people ( even on the audio reading of DMD) pronounced it ARRO-SACK-AY as though it was a Japanese name. It isn't it's pronounced ARROW (as in bow and arrow) and SAKE (as in oh, for f..k's sake!). My fault entirely, as I used the original base for the wartime Special Operations Executive as the idea behind Arrowsake. This was based in Scotland at Arisaig, which I turned into a phonetic (ish) sounding Arrowsake to avoid the ire of the locals.

With Dantalion, you can pronounce it DAN-TALLION or DAN-TAY-LION but please don't call him Dandelion - I'm not sure that the warped contract killer would care too much for that. Being callled his mother's little angel was enough to send him off on one, let alone being callled her little weed.

Oh, and by the way, the title of DMD is plural - but it still occasionally gets the singular Dead Man's Dust.

Let this be a lesson to all you aspiring authors when considering titles and character names.

Now for DAFFODILS.

Well, what can I say?

As followers of this blog know, I appeared on BBC Radio Five Live on the Simon Mayo show where J&W was reviewed by three critics. Although I kind of expected to be attacked as being a 'commercial' thriller writer as opposed to being a 'literary author, the last thing I expected was for a discussion to spring up as to what two 'yellow things' were on the cover of the book. Someone suggested rubbish, and someone else suggested 'Daffodils', while I was thinking WHAT THE F..K? Did two tiny yellow blobs of colour mean anything to listeners who couldn't even see the book cover?

OK, so I got that the presenter and the critics were only having a little banter, so I didn't feel precious about it, but you could probably hear from my desultory explanation that 'They're lights in the distance.' that i wasn't that chuffed at the direction the conversation had turned.

But, hey, overall, I came out feeling good. Two of the critics liked the book and said so, while the third, although constantly referring to Lee Child as being better also summed up by saying he liked it.

Now for the EXPLOSIONS!!

The feedback I've had has been massive, and very incendiary from some people (get the explosion reference?).

I've had some well-wishers emailing, and some telephoning, and even some demanding that one of the critics be boiled in oil then strung out for the ravens to peck at....and I have to say a HUGE thank you to you all.

Another one for the aspiring authors here: not everyone will like your work. FACT. Some will try to pull it down at the expense of making others sound better. FACT. Critics criticise. FACT. Just take any bad press on the chin and move on.

...although that big pot of oil is approaching bubbling point!!

Seriously, though, here's some quotes gleaned from said radio interview:

“suffused with testosterone. . .. very exciting . . . I liked Joe Hunter.” Zara Husain

“Fun, furious. . . a good read. . . . cracking pace. . . crisp pacey thriller.” Joel Morris

“I enjoyed it. . . classic opening scene. . . last 1/3 really exciting. I was totally caught-up in it.” Boyd Hilton.

So what's there to complain about, huh?

My thanks to Simon Mayo, and to Zara, Joel and Boyd, for featuring me on the show.