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The Times seems to be having a run on Crime Authors this week.  They’re serialising Patricia Cornwell’s new book every day this week (of course the advert on the radio had to be played just as I got to work and not as I was passing a news agents… typical).  So I’ve had a quick read of the interview with Cornwell, which was insightful, if not a little chilling (she really is as cold as I thought she might be).  I will read the book, even though I think that Cornwell has gone down hill since her main protagonist was forced out of her job, making me think that her books had lost the passion that had made them so good to begin with.

Anyway, there is a list of the Top 50 crime authors.  I’m incredibly disappointed.  Only about four people in there who I think should be there, and a whole load of others are missing.  Where is Michael Connelly, John Connolly, Robert Crais, and Lee Child (just to name four who should be there).  Seriously, how can you have Dennis LeHanne, when he hasn’t written a decent book in years!  You put the likes of Harlan Coben (who’s latest book is as good as ever), without any of these modern writers.  Shame on you!

If you want to take a look at the list and get annoyed as much as I have, please click on the link below:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/global/article3773630.ece

As a foot note, what’s particularly interesting is that both Mark Billingham and John Connolly were invited speakers at this year’s Times Oxford Literary Festival… the key thing here being, they’re both celebrated crime authors, and it was a Times event.  Some what hypocritical I feel, but such is life.

UPDATE: Just realised that my install of MT has had a bit of a flip out and for some reason had published this entry, twice with no heading and no footnote.  I have no idea why, it’s a bit stupid really.  Anyway, I’ve deleted the two erronous entries.  So the person who’s just read the post by clicking on the link sent to them in an email… it’s nothing personal, it’s just a mess to have the same entry posted three times. 

I was going to post something about the snow we had this morning… but I’m having *issues* with the photographs… so I’ll post it when I can get the photos down to a size that doesn’t make me look like a complete n00b. 

Instead, I’ll post about the Times Literary Festival which I’ve just been to.  WOW.  I’m going to back track a smidgen first.  I’m not overly awestruck by celebrities, they’re ok and all that but to most it’s a case of “yeah but what have you done?” You ponced around a bit for a few months acting.  It’s great for entertainment but you don’t bowl me over.  When it comes to Authors however, I’m in complete awe.  They’ve spent months writing, creating something out of nothing for thousands of people to enjoy.  Words, on a page, mean something.

So to be in a small gathering of people there to watch John Connolly and Mark Billingham talk about their craft and read excerpts from their books is pretty amazing.  So far to date I’ve met two authors, one, James Patterson, I found so utterly repellent I could no longer read his books for I found them to be as arrogant and pathetic as he was.  The other was a wonderful person, but I just don’t have the desire to read his books, (that was Iain M Banks). 

So I’ve finally met authors who I thought, were brilliant.  That said, I haven’t read anything by Mark Billingham, but having heard him read the first few pages from his latest book (which I bought but haven’t read yet… gimme a chance, I’m good but not that good, it was three hours ago), I thought how well the words were crafted that it made me re-think, and now I’ll go and read all his books.

John Connolly however was brilliant, I have his first book autographed, and personalised.  I wanted to ask more questions, but I couldn’t remember them until I got in the car, and now I’ve forgotten them again…. well when I remember I’ll post them up here.

Right, I have a mountain of books to read now, as I raided Waterstones in Bath yesterday (three for two dharling) and I went all cultural, (after all I was at a literary festival in Christ Church College Oxford), so I’ve got a book on Parallel Universes by Micho Kaku and a Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.

I’m wondering if it’s me, or if author’s just suddenly get bad? I’m talking about works by an author that you’ve previously loved, and perhaps do, but when they bring something new out, it’s just awful, like they’ve lost their readability? So far, to think of it, it’s only happened to two authors.

The first one, I had the displeasure of meeting, wish I hadn’t, the guy was so far up his own arse it’s a wonder he didn’t have someone else there signing books on his behalf.

The second one… I don’t know it seems like she started scrapping the barrel to bring plots back to books, and once the main character’s mission in life was gone, it seemed like it just wasn’t worth her writing books anymore… I should have realised when the spin off series she started writting was utter drivel, to give up and find someone else to read.

I finally finished, after a week of trying, to read The Constant Gardner by John Le Carre. Good book, if not a little hard to follow in places. It seemed like an awful lot of thought an effort with an anti climactic ending… c’est la vie.

I was going to post a comment over at John Baker’s blog, but thought it had the makings for a post so, my comment is over here (sorry John).

I had an argument with someone about how much money Dan Brown had made out of the Da Vinci code, the same person had also cited the money that J K Rowling has made on the Harry Potter books. I had to question whether the person I was arguing with (all the while trudging through Waterloo station with a very heave suitcase and bag), had it in for famous authors. They said maybe they did.

I had to point out that although the book maybe badly written, the theme appealed to people, it (although fictionally) questioned the truthfulness of the church. If Dan Brown hadn’t started it, I guess someone else would have done. It’s also fair to point out that all his other books hadn’t done so well for themselves up until everyone cottoned onto the Da Vinci Code.

I had to say the book called to me, and I resisted it for a long time, well not too long as I own a hardback version of it. I don’t know what it is, but I seem to be able to pick up a book and know it is going to sell millions, it’s going to make the author a lot of money. I can distinguish between a book that satisfies me and a book that is going to do exceptionally well, and ones that are absolutely awful.

With the Da Vinci Code, I knew it was going to be a big seller. Now I could be jealous of the wealth amassed by authors who sell all the rights of their book to kingdom come. Sure I’m envious of them, I’d love to be an author, I’d love to write a book, and for it to be shared and consumed by bibliophiles across the world in the same way that books give me solace. I’m not however critical of them earning the money. I appreciate the work that it takes to create a novel, the research that has to be done to come up with something so convincing it’s a page turner.

So back to the argument, I ended up pointing out that J K Rowling was penniless when she wrote the first Harry Potter book, and although they were popular I don’t think they really went nuts until the second or third book came out. I also said that, any author, who could get children reading, instead of playing video games was a saint in my eyes. The same goes for adults, although there are a lot of us out there that read, I think the Da Vinci Code appealed to those who don’t normally pick up a book. If someone picked it up, read it, loved it, and felt the need to seek out other books to satisfy that urge, then that was also a good thing in my mind.

I feel it’s sad that there are authors out there who write exceptionally good novels, but do not receive the credit they deserve, be it monetary or through fame (although fame often brings financial rewards). At least with authors, they are not famous for being famous like this next crop of Z-List celebs Big Brother are producing. Authors of the world bring something to the world that vacuous air heads like Chantelle do not.

So I’m just wondering with the Da Vinci code author being taken to court in regards to plagurism. Are the authors of the The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail implying that their research is fiction or are they saying Dan Brown’s book is too close to the truth?

This comes back to the vatican complaining about the book saying it’s blasphemous… well have they not checked out what section the book is in? Fiction… so are they saying the book is the truth then? Is art imitating life or is life imitating art. It’s an interesting concept. I wonder who will win?

Am I being unreasonable? but is it so hard to find a job that doesn’t pay peanuts out there? OK yeah I know I’m a techie, but ‘cmon people, there has to be a job out there that compensates me for selling my soul to the devil (ok so I mean Bill Gates but who else would I mean)?

I’ve heard some stories about what people think of IT support people, and to a point I can understand it. However I’ve read a few things recently that make me want to scream at the authors. Yes there are idiot IT support people out there with the charisma of a potato, and they are the kinds of people who break more things than they fix, but don’t tar us all with the same brush PLEASE!! I work hard at what I do, and in that I try to work hard at communicating what is going wrong in terms that the person understands. Also a lot of people assume they are the only person in the whole building with a PC problem. What about the spods who’s killed his PC because he couldn’t be bothered to get some work done on time, and thus can blame the IT support person? There is (yet another) saying “you can’t please all of the people all of the time”. The same goes for IT, we can’t be everyone’s friend, and vice versa.

There’s this thing about workplace bullies, well I pretty much think that all IT staff get bullied by all kinds of people. OK so if you can win them over a bit then that’s pretty cool. However I’m not impressed with the “that’s what your paid for” attitude that most people give you. I mean would they say something like that to their boss? to the police? I’m sure they’d like to, but probably not. So I think people should be more tolerant of techies, we’re people too you know. I’m not a freak, I don’t wear milk bottle glasses, I don’t have greasy hair, I don’t wear geeky clothes (*that much*), I don’t read science fiction/fantasy/romance stories, I’m not really interested in talking shop in the evenings, I won’t start a conversation with “so those new intel processors eh?”, not all my jokes revolve around computers, and I don’t buy computer magazines. This is just a job for me, I do it because I earn good money and I don’t really have to do all that much to get it, it beats making pizzas for a living (I have first hand experience in this btw).

I could sit here and tell you all about the stupid things people have done but hey why humiliate them, I could sit here and list all the stupid things I’ve done with computers, but what would be the point in that? (most of them only techies would understand so there’s no point confussing you!). So why don’t I tell you about some of the nasty things that have happened?!?

I’ll start with the most recent I think. The case of the bolshy person who didn’t want to follow proceedure and felt one rule for them and a different for myself was in order. Long story short, I’d explained something to them that they needed to do as I couldn’t help them in this matter, they didn’t listen, something happened and they wouldn’t listen to me, then I told them “I’m at lunch”. That was like a red rag to a bull and all hell broke loose. A complaint was made (not upheld I’ll add), and she got marked on “the list” You know the one, “when I’m god, I’ll…” The point being that this person won’t do anything for anyone when they were at lunch but when it’s someone else at lunch, they must drop everything and help them. More off, they weren’t in any position of seniority, in theory, I was higher up the food chain and thus deserved a tad more respect! Anyway, there’s a lesson there for people, procedures are in place to assist them, not to make life difficult. I won’t mention this person’s name, but they know who they are and I hope their guilt lives on their concience!

ARGH!! Do you think for the life of me I can get blog rolling to work properly? Can I heck! I will get it working eventually just driving me up the wall at the moment so I feel I will have to give in on it….

Anyway, finished yet another book last night, and it was a good read for a debut novel. Considering the author in question has to live up to an award winning novelest father. The book in question was Judgement Calls by Alafair Burke. It was a bit hard going in a few places but then that could have been down to me being blurry eyed in a few places. However I would say it is a good book, excellent reasoning and a good plot that twists and turns like a french mountain road. It concentrates on the Portland Assistant District Attorney and trying to get someone convicted for attempted murder. Burke cunningly manages to weave two plots into one very smoothly and if you blinked you would most certainly miss it. I’d also say that the characters of the book interact with each other very well, and you tend to end up disliking a few people for various reasons. The book is far from predictable. I’d say she is a budding Linda Fairstein in the making, as I found a few similarities between the two authors writting styles.

I also managed to catch the start of the new series of The Handler. I thought it was going to be bland and un-interesting but it was quite unusual. Considering I’ve never watched an episode of the Sopranos, I only really know Joe Pantaliano from The Matrix and The Fugitive. Nice the way they interwove 4 stories into one rather seemlessly, not giving too much away and having you wanting more. I’m glad I stayed up to watch it, and hopefully will catch some more of the show. I guess they’ve got to have something to replace some of the stuff that’s coming to an end.

There seems to be a lot of new American shows coming to our TV’s, some I don’t watch that people rave about (I’ve mentioned Sopranos), some I just don’t get a chance to watch because I’ve got to share the TV. However I always veto Thursdays in ER/Friends season! And I became addicted to Dead Like Me… ah the new tv season is always something to look forward to.