Category: Events

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Costa Events

Nic Costa's return — see you in Rome, January 22

It’s almost twenty years since I first flew off to Rome to start work on what’s turned out to be the longest-running series of my career, the Nic Costa books.

Now they’re getting a new lease of life in some sparkling editions for the first two books, A Season for the Dead and The Villa of Mysteries from Black Thorn which appear in January.

And what better place to launch them than Rome itself? You’ll find me talking and signing there at the Anglo American Book Store, 6pm, Wednesday January 22. It’s a casual event — no booking needed. Just turn up at Via della Vite, 102, near the Spanish Steps.

It’s a real pleasure to be returning to Anglo American too. When I moved to Rome to research the first Costa book I lived not far away — and used the book store as my go-to place for all the reference works I so badly needed at the time. It’s wonderful such a great book shop is still around and continuing to serve the English language reader in Rome.

The talk will be in English by the way but everyone’s welcome. Hope I can see some of you in the Eternal City in January.

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Events

Find me at Capital Crime, September 27th

It’s been ages since we had a crime writing event in London. So congratulations to all the hard-working folk who’ve finally fixed this ridiculous omission with the creation of Capital Crime which will run from September 26th to the 28th at the Connaught Rooms.

It’s a hell of a line up too. Just take a look at the website to see some of the name showing up from around the world. From my work with ITW I know how much graft and hard labour goes into events like this. So kudos all round for the doughty team that put all this together — hats off to you folks.

I’ll be there for a panel on Friday morning. It’s at ten thirty and on the subject of ‘Crime on a Global Scale’ with Vaseem Khan, Leye Adenle, Craig Russell, Abir Mukherjee and Shaun Harris.

Looking forward to it — and a round of applause to the people behind what I’m sure will become an annual fixture on London’s literary calendar.

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Events

Thrillerfest 2019 – see you in New York?

It’s been a few years since I’ve made it over to the wonderful Thrillerfest run by ITW each year in New York. But come July I’ll be there.

For those who don’t know Thrillerfest is an annual gathering of writers, readers, editors and publishers from around the world, a unique event that’s both a celebration of writing and a very useful networking and educational function for us all. It runs from July 9 to 13 at the Grand Hyatt next to Grand Central Station.

Hard to believe this is the fourteenth in a row — I was lucky enough to be in at the very beginnings of ITW when it was just a handful of us in a room.

I’ll be around for much of the proceedings, and taking part in two specific events. The first is a talk I will be giving at Craftfest on Wednesday, a part of the festival that’s an add-on for people wanting to know more about the craft of writing. I’ll be speaking about the opportunities and challenges of writing for audio at 1pm.

On Friday at 2.40 pm I’ll be on another audio panel as part of the general conference, entitled Voice, Accents or Cues? Jon Land will be moderating and my fellow panelists are Michele Cobb, executive director of the Audio Publishers Association, Stacy Creamer, VP, Audible Studios, long-time actor and audiobook narrator Richard Ferrone, actor and narrator Therese Plummer and Robin Whitten, founder of Audiofile Magazine. Can’t wait to hear what everyone thinks.

But Thrillerfest is a very congenial event (from time to time you even see people in the bar believe it or not 🤔). So feel free to stop me for a chat any time.

You can find the full Thrillerfest schedule here and the Craftfest schedule here.

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Events

How Storytelling Works — a free talk in Bexley

It’s always a pleasure to talk in a library. Next month you’ll find me doing that in Bexley, spelling out a few of my personal theories about the craft of storytelling.

It’s going to be an illustrated talk lasting and hour, and using my current books, The Savage Shore, Devil’s Fjord and Juliet and Romeo as examples of how very different stories share the same kind of architecture and structure. If you’re a reader wanting to see inside the mechanism of stories I hope you’d find it interesting. If you’re planning to write yourself it should give you an insight into how this business works for me.

I don’t believe writing is governed by rules. We all work differently. But it can be useful to listen to authors talk about their working methods then cherry pick the tips you feel might work for you.

There’s lots more going as part of the festival too, with appearances from Stella Duffy, Lindsey Davis, Mike Gayle, Jean Fullerton, Alison Weir, Charlie Connelly, Stuart Clark and Nick Barratt. The poet, Wendy Cope will also be coming along and there will also be workshops on creative writing, film-making and how to get published plus much more.

You’ll find me at the Central Library in Bexleyheath at 2.30 pm on Saturday February 23. The event is free but you do need to register in advance here.

You can find out more about the festival here too.