6 posts tagged “novels”
Here's an interview I did recently for a website/cable TV thing. I'm talking about Can't Let Go.
(I've taken the interview clip out until I can work out how to embed it without it starting automatically every time the page is opened).
Three books in, I shouldn't get so excited by this, but I do. If you happen to be on the Waterstone's website and do a search of author events, you'll find that I am doing three whole bits of Waterstone's-associated publicity for the new book. Here we are:
We found 3 events for author Jane Hill
Crime Evening
Jane Hill, John Harvey, Peter James
Cold in Hand
WATERSTONE'S SOUTHAMPTON ABOVE
Thursday, 6 March 2008, 7:00PM
£3, redeemable against the purchase of any crime title on the night.
Another of our crime evenings. This time we will have Peter James, John Harvey and Jane Hill in attendence; discussing their own books and the crime genre in general. This is a wonderful opportunity to talk to some of the leading authors in the field in person.
Further details: 02380 633 130
North Herts Literary Festival Crime Readers Day
Sophie Hannah, Jane Hill, Mark Billingham
The Big Sleep - Penguin fiction
The Sun Hotel, Sun Street, Hitchin
Wednesday, 12 March 2008, 1:00PM - 5:00PM
Tickets £6, available from the shop and to include light refreshments
Three bestselling writers discuss three great crime novels in panel format and then in groups with us, the audience! A chance to discuss books with real authors so why not read one (or more!) beforehand and voice your opinion. The books for discussion are: The Big Sleep, A Quiet Belief in Angels and In the Woods.
Further details: 01462 422329
Jane Hill - Talk & Signing
Jane Hill
Can't Let Go
WATERSTONE'S LINCOLN HIGH ST
Thursday, 13 March 2008, 7:00PM
Tickets £3
Jane Hill will be talking about and signing her latest psychological thriller.
Further details: 01522 540011
It's not out until March 2008 but I got to see the cover of my third book Can't Let Go today. It's coming out in hardback, and my publishers keep telling me it's going to be my breakthrough book. I certainly hope so.
Meanwhile my second book, The Murder Ballad, will be stocked by Asda when it's published in paperback in early December. And it's going to be a BOGOF deal! ("Buy one, get one free"). Apparently if you buy the book, you'll be able to send off to the publisher and get a free copy of the first book, Grievous Angel. Because, you know, there are so many thousands of unsold copies out there. The offer is a good thing, I think: it's going to hit Asda in time for the Christmas market. (For my American friends, Asda is a downmarket but hugely popular supermarket that's owned by Walmart.)
After all the agonies of writing it, I'm really pleased with the response that Can't Let Go is getting so far. I went up to have lunch with my editor and assorted sales and marketing people from Random House last week, and when I arrived at the offices the receptionist told me that I'd kept her awake until three in the morning. She'd been reading a manuscript copy of the book the night before, and wanted me to know that she'd had to stay awake to finish it. This meant such a lot to me. She was the first person apart from my agent and editor who I knew had read the book - the first "real" person, if you like - and I was delighted with her response.
Meanwhile my agent is busy, and we're just agreeing foreign rights deals with both Germany and the Netherlands. This is exciting and also very reassuring from a financial standpoint. It's not easy to make money from fiction when you're not a well-known and successful writer, and sometimes the returns seem tiny compared to the work involved. So it's good to get some totally unexpected money coming in from foreign sales.
In my other life, I've had a couple of good comedy gigs recently that gave me the chance to build on what I'd learned at Edinburgh. Comedy at the Kirk is a lovely club above the Selkirk pub in Tooting Broadway, run by people who seem to love what they're doing. It was a return visit, and it was a slow night because it coincided with England-Russia at Wembley. But it gave me the chance to do some completely new material in a supportive and non-combative atmosphere, which was fun.
Big Jack's Laughter Club in Reading was another repeat visit, and another favourite club of mine. I did a 15-minute set there, mixing some old and new material, and was thrilled with my reception. It gave me a lot of confidence, and a reminder of why I love doing stand-up comedy.
Today I re-killed someone who I first killed a few months ago, because I wanted to make it much more chilling and scary. My rule of thumb when writing (for of course I am talking about fiction here...) is that if it sends chills up my spine when I read it back to myself then it's probably going to chill my readers too.
Anyway, today I have managed to chill and unsettle myself, so I'm feeling fairly pleased with my output. I am so nearly there with this book (Can't Let Go). I am doing final, final revisions this week to try to make it genuinely thrilling and involving, and it's quite emotional work.
Also, I have discovered there's a limit to what you can say about blood, besides the facts that it's sticky, it's red, it gets everywhere and it has a vaguely metallic smell.
My new novel Can't Let Go is available for pre-order on www.amazon.co.uk already. This freaks me out a little, because I am still writing it. It's due to be published in November 2007, and the blurb has been written already. Unfortunately, because I changed the name of the main character halfway through the writing process, the blurb on Amazon is a little confusing as the main character is referred to as both "Beth" and "Sarah". So here's the corrected synopsis:
Remember, I'm watching you. I know everywhere you go. When Beth Stephens, a 35-year-old single school teacher, opens the first mysterious note she is terrified. Someone out there, someone who seems to be stalking her every footstep, has pried open the terrible secret she's been hiding for over a decade and he is threatening to exact revenge. All these years, Beth had carefully built her life on a lie, kept to herself, wary of close relationships and protective of her privacy. And now, just when she finally thought herself safe, her days filled with new friendships, a boyfriend and a steady job, everything starts to unravel. Suddenly, she can trust no one, seeing danger everywhere and Beth realises that she has to find the stalker before he closes in on her ...
