Interview with WILLIAM MARTIN

Civilian Reader Interview

MartinW-AuthorPicLet’s start with an introduction: Who is William Martin?

A guy who has been writing stories for forty years, since I left the USC Film School. And I’ve been very lucky. After a few screenplays, my first novel made the New York Times Best Seller list, and I haven’t looked back since. It’s now eleven novels, and counting, a PBS Documentary on the life of George Washington, book reviews, essays, and a cult classic horror film, too.

Your latest novel, Bound For Gold, will be published by published on July 3rd by Forge. The latest book in your Peter Fallon series, how would you introduce the novel and series to a potential reader?

History meets mystery, in a grand intermarriage of past and present. It’s about the California Gold Rush, one of the seminal moments in American history, when anyone could get rich if he was lucky enough, unless he was Chinese or Mexican. Those people, of course, faced the kinds of prejudices that have always boiled over wherever men of different races meet. And they boil over in the book. Continue reading →

An Annotated Chapter of RAVENCRY by Ed McDonald (Gollancz/Ace)

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McDonaldE-AuthorPicWhen I was asked to provide a first chapter critique of my own book, I thought that this was an excellent way to explain the way that my own writing craft works, and to point out the level of complexity that comes into play through many rounds of editing.

I think that I have to stress that the first chapter did not look like this at the end of the first draft. So many of the details, the events, even the character of Levan Ost, all changed multiple times during the editing process. These were the details and events that remained when the dust settled.

Throughout this text I’ve interrupted the narrative to point out why I made particular decisions. Everything in this chapter is a conscious choice, and hopefully I’ve been able to explain why I made some of them. Writing is a deeply personal and individual craft and no two people’s are the same. These were the right choices for me.

It should be noted that although there are no direct spoilers in my commentary, if you’ve not read RAVENCRY yet, then I will be pointing out particular details that are specifically of interest later in the book.

Continue reading →

Recommendation: Penguin’s World War I China Specials

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This series of nine short books is fantastic. I bought them quite some time ago — they were released to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I — but I have finally caught up. If you have any interest in learning about China, then I would highly recommend these books. Each of them was informative, engaging, sometimes entertaining, and frequently brutally honest. Continue reading →

New Books (May-June)

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Featuring: Mark Adams, Tom Barbash, RJ Barker, Laird Barron, Terry Brooks, Jim Butcher, Gail Carrier, Bill Clinton, Nadia Dalbuono, Sebastien de Castell, Nicholas Eames, Joseph Fink, Lauren Groff, Nick Harkaway, Max Hastings, Jon Hollins, A.M. Homes, Phil Kelly, Harrison Scott Key, Steve Kornacki, Dale Lucas, Brian McClellan, David Mealing, Lawrence Osborne, James Patterson, Joanne Proulx, Vivian Shaw, Anna Smith Spark, Tasha Suri, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Tade Thompson, Patrick S. Tomlinson, Jennifer Wolfe

Continue reading →

Upcoming: A DOUBLE LIFE by Flynn Berry (Viking/W&N)

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The worlds of rarefied privilege have always provided rich inspiration and source-material for fiction. Never more so than when something bad happens, or something is thrown into the mix that upends the lives of the privileged. In Flynn Berry‘s upcoming novel, A Double Life, the protagonist is the daughter of one of the “most notorious murder suspects” in the UK — a Lord. I haven’t read Berry’s previous novel, the critically-acclaimed Under the Harrow, but this one has certainly caught my attention. It is due to be published on July 31st, by Viking in North America and Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK. Here’s the synopsis:

Claire is a hardworking doctor leading a simple, quiet life in London. She is also the daughter of the most notorious murder suspect in the country, though no one knows it.

Nearly thirty years ago, while Claire and her brother slept upstairs, a brutal crime was committed in her family’s townhouse. The next morning, her father’s car was found abandoned near the English Channel, with bloodstains on the front seat. Her mother insisted she’d seen him in the house that night, but his powerful, privileged friends maintained his innocence. The first lord accused of murder in more than a century, he has been missing ever since.

When the police tell Claire they’ve found him, her carefully calibrated existence begins to fracture. She doesn’t know if she’s the daughter of a murderer or a wronged man, but Claire will soon learn how far she’ll go to finally find the truth.

Loosely inspired by one of the most notorious unsolved crimes of the 20th century – the Lord Lucan case – A Double Life is at once a riveting page-turner and a moving reflection on women and violence, trauma and memory, and class and privilege.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Guest Post: “The Books That Made Me” by R.S. Ford

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All writers are influenced by stories, be they in TV, film, novels, comics, etc. Nowadays you can throw video games in there for good measure. Influence comes from all sorts of sources, but here’s a list of what influenced me the most when I was but a wee whippersnapper:

2000AD19242000AD

The first reading material I ever consumed voraciously, this seminal British comic gave us such classics as Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Sláine and Strontium Dog. It’s only since I’ve matured that I’ve realise all these characters were basically the same bloke – a hard-bitten future cop/future soldier/bounty hunter/celtic warrior that roams the land, violently being violent to other more violent villains. Obviously, 2000AD also gave us the ahead-of-its-time Halo Jones and the post-modern Zenith, but seven-year-old me was rather too young to appreciate them at the time. Continue reading →

Books on Film: THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB by

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It’s been quite some time since the excellent The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movie, starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. This November, the long-awaited next instalment in the movie series, The Girl in the Spider’s Web will arrive in theatres. This time, though, there’s a new cast (perhaps Craig and Mara were too expensive by this point, or at least maybe their schedules just couldn’t work). This time, Claire Foy (The Crown) picks up the leathers and knives of Lisbeth Salander, and Sverrir Gudnason plays Mikael Blomkvist. The movie also stars Stephen Merchant, Sylvia Hoeks, and Lakeith Stanfield.

LarssonLagercrantz-M4-GirlInTheSpidersWebUKBased on the fourth novel in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series, written by David Lagercrantz, here’s the synopsis:

Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist have not been in touch for some time.

Then Blomkvist is contacted by renowned Swedish scientist Professor Balder. Warned that his life is in danger, but more concerned for his son’s well-being, Balder wants Millennium to publish his story — and it is a terrifying one.

More interesting to Blomkvist than Balder’s world-leading advances in Artificial Intelligence, is his connection with a certain female superhacker.

It seems that Salander, like Balder, is a target of ruthless cyber gangsters – and a violent criminal conspiracy that will very soon bring terror to the snowbound streets of Stockholm, to the Millennium team, and to Blomkvist and Salander themselves.

The Girl in the Spider’s Web is published in the UK by Quercus, and in North America by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard.

Upcoming: BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE

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This just looks cool. Written and directed by Drew Goddard (The Martian, Daredevil, etc.), here’s the synopsis:

Seven strangers, each with a secret to bury, meet at Lake Tahoe’s El Royale, a rundown hotel with a dark past. Over the course of one fateful night, everyone will have a last shot at redemption — before everything goes to hell.

The cast, as you can see in the trailer, is excellent, too. Really looking forward to this one.

Upcoming: LAST NIGHT by Karen Ellis (Mulholland)

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In January 2019, Mulholland Books are due to published Last Night, the second novel in Karen Ellis‘s Searchers crime series. I enjoyed the first novel in the series, A Map of the Dark, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the character(s) develop in this second outing. Here’s the synopsis:

NYPD detective Lex Cole tracks a missing Brooklyn teen whose bright future is endangered by the ghosts of his unknown father’s past…

One of the few black kids on his Brighton Beach block, Titus “Crisp” Crespo was raised by his white mother and his Russian grandparents. He has two legacies from his absent father, Mo: his weird name and his brown skin. Crisp has always been the odd kid out, but a fundamentally good kid, with a bright future.

But one impulsive decision triggers a horrible domino effect — an arrest, no reason not to accompany his richer, whiter friend Glynnie on a visit to her weed dealer, and a trip onto his father’s old home turf where he’ll face certain choices he’s always strived to avoid.

As Detective Lex Cole tries to unravel the clues from Crisp’s night out, they both find that what you don’t know about your past can still come back to haunt you.

Last Night is due to be published by Mulholland Books in North America and in the UK, in January 2019.

Also on CR: Review of A Map of the Dark

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Quick Review: THE MURDERS OF MOLLY SOUTHBOURNE by Tade Thompson (Tor.com)

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ThompsonT-MurdersOfMollySouthbourneAn intriguing, creepy and ultimately tragic novella

Every time she bleeds a murderer is born.

The rule is simple: don’t bleed.

For as long as Molly Southbourne can remember, she’s been watching herself die. Whenever she bleeds, another molly is born, identical to her in every way and intent on her destruction.

Molly knows every way to kill herself, but she also knows that as long as she survives she’ll be hunted. No matter how well she follows the rules, eventually the mollys will find her. Can Molly find a way to stop the tide of blood, or will she meet her end at the hand of a girl who looks just like her?

This is the first book by Thompson that I’ve read. The first thing that jumped out at me was the quality of the author’s prose: it’s pristine, really. It’s journalistic in its clarity, it is gripping, expressive, and a delight to read. Over the course of this short novella, you’ll come to care for Molly, and even some of the mollys. Once again, Tor.com have published a fantastic piece of short speculative fiction. Continue reading →