Manuscripts, Murdle, and Manifestations
Work progress & appearance dates for National Crime Reading Month
Third Dog’s the Charm
Earlier this month I turned in the manuscript for the third Dog Sitter Detective book, tentatively titled The Dog Sitter Detective’s Deadly Rival (that may change; titles often do!)
Now the book begins its journey through the editing and proofreading process, with a planned release in January. Hopefully I’ll have a cover, official title, and synopsis to share with you all soon.
(But I can tell you the featured dog breed this time around is a Jack Russell Terrier 😍)
Can You Write the Murder?
Meanwhile I’ve been hard at work on Can You Solve the Murder, the interactive crime novel I told you about in my last newsletter.
How’s that going? Well, books like this don’t only need to be plotted; they also have a game element which must be designed. Here’s what the Miro document & flowchart looks like so far…
(😅😅😅)
Complexity aside, it’s going well and as of today I’ve just passed 46,000 words – around 2/3 of the planned final word count.
(Fear not, process nerds, I’ll write up the full process for creating this book at a later date. It’s tricky to talk about it in too much detail at the moment because it would literally give the game away. But rest assured that I love a peek behind the scenes at game and puzzle design as much as you do, so eventually I’ll tell all.)
The reception to Can You Solve the Murder’s announcement blew me away. Honestly, at every stage of pitching this book I was prepared for people to tell me I’d lost my mind, but to my surprise quite the opposite happened, and every publisher we approached was very enthusiastic. So were foreign publishers (we’ve already sold the rights for several translated editions) and readers, who’ve been overwhelmingly positive and told me they’re greatly looking forward to it.
I’m working as hard as I can to ensure the book lives up to those expectations. Hence driving myself mad with charts like the one above…!
A Night of Murdle
Speaking of crime-slash-puzzle books, at CrimeFest this year GT Karber held a Murdle Live event, which was truly chaotic and enormous fun. I also got to chat with GT (aka Greg) and wasn’t surprised to find he’s a smart, fun guy. Last I heard Greg was touring the UK doing Murdle Live events at bookstores and libraries – if he comes around near you, I recommend it.
The evening at CrimeFest was written up in The Observer, where I’m both quoted and pictured in the article.
To save you needing a magnifying glass to read that, here’s the online version:
The Usual Suspects
Elsewhere at CrimeFest I was on a panel with Janice Hallett, Fliss Chester, and Katherine Black, talking about the Modern Cosy (which regular readers will know is a term I’ve been advocating for some time, to describe what authors like us all do) and the evolution of the subgenre into a broad and diverse style.
It was a really great panel – several people told me afterwards they thought it was the best all weekend – so I’m very glad that Fliss thought to take a pre-event selfie:
Fliss Chester, Janice Hallett, Katherine Black, some geezer
Crossing Genres (again)
I’ve been announced as one of the authors taking part in a new cross-genre anthology edited by Jendia Gammon and Gareth L Powell, which I believe will be the launch title for their new publishing imprint.
All I’m ready to say right now is that my story will be a quasi-cyberpunk SF yarn with a twist. Hopefully it won’t be long before there’s more to announce and talk about.
National Crime Reading Month events
As always, NCRM (as it’s commonly known to the relief of typists everywhere) takes place in June this year. I’m involved in three live events during the month, all in the north of England:
UK Crime Book Club Live: Leeds, June 8
I’m on the cosy crime panel at the second UK Crime Book Club all-day live event, held at The Carriageworks in Leeds. With me will be Fiona Leitch, Susan Willis, and Heide Goody.
Crime Fiction Writers at the library: Leigh, June 20
Caroline England, Paul Finch, Norman Wells and I will be on a panel of crime writers at Leigh Library, followed by a book signing. But this is no ordinary panel: the ticket price includes a fish ’n’ chips dinner! 😮😃
Bradford Literature Festival: Bradford, June 29
I’m appearing at the Bradford Literature Festival, on the panel “Can Crime Ever be Cosy?” alongside two good friends, who also happen to be two of my favourite modern cosy authors – Katy Watson and JM Hall. Although it’s part of the festival, tickets are also available on a per-event basis.
AB > FG?
Imagine my surprise when this popped up on CBR: a piece reacting to the success of director David Leitch’s new movie The Fall Guy with an argument that Atomic Blonde remains his best film.
The State of Play
It’s hard to argue with this Jacobin piece on the problems facing videogame development right now.
I truly love working in games, but the article’s points about companies chasing share price at the expense of their own products, and a refusal to make small, profitable games because they won’t make “enough” profit, are industry-wide issues that I’ve been banging on about for many years.
Page One interview
This podcast chat with the guys at Page One was fun: we spent quite a bit of time talking about my early career, as well as more recent work.
The Incomparable interview
And finally, I spoke to my old friend and fellow author (not to mention fellow podcaster) Dan Moren about the Dog Sitter Detective books. I’ve interviewed Dan several times in the past, so it was fun to have the tables turned for a change!
Barely Missed the Saving Hand
Which social media platform will eventually win the ongoing battle for supremacy? Who knows? For the moment, you can find me on most of them – simply search for my username @antonyjohnston, or check the Contact & Follow page of my site for links to the most popular networks: https://antonyjohnston.com/contact/