The Good Thief's Blog

Bouchercon, Houston, Scottsdale

I've been back from the States for a couple of weeks, and now I'm shortly to return again. I really can't wait. We had such a terrific time visiting so many vibrant independent mystery stores in August, and in just a few days I'll be flying via Chicago to St Louis for my first experience of the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, the biggest festival of mystery writing and reading in the world.

As a big crime fiction fan, I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to listen to a bunch of my favourite writers discussing their work (both formally, and a little more informally around the bar). I'm also excited to be joining a trip to a local gun range that's being organised by Zoe Sharp (author of the brilliant Charlie Fox thrillers) and her husband Andy, where I'll get to discover what it really feels like to fire a pistol (and maybe, all going well, the odd flame-thrower, too). I'll also be appearing at three panels during the course of the weekend:

Friday 16 September 11.30am - 12.30pm HOT ICE - Landmark 1,2,3. Caper Novels. Benjamin Whitmer, Eoin Colfer, Sean Doolittle, Chris Ewan, Peter Spiegelman, Keith Thomson

Saturday 17 September 8.30am - 9.30am SECOND OLDEST PROFESSION - Landmark 4. When your hero isn’t a nice guy. Anthony Rainone, Rob Byrnes, Jodi Compton, Chris Ewan, Joseph Pittman, Jason Starr

Saturday 17 September 11.30am - 12.30pm CRANKY STREETS - Landmark 1,2,3. What’s so funny about murder? Peter Rozovsky, Eoin Colfer, Colin Cotterill, Chris Ewan, Thomas Kaufman

I hear Bouchercon takes writing festivals to a whole new scale, so if you happen to be there and you spot me looking kind of dazed, please come up and say hi!

Following Bouchercon, I'll then be teaming up with my good friend Anne Zouroudi, author of the bewitching Mysteries of the Greek Detective, for a couple of author events in Houston, Texas, and Scottsdale, Arizona, where we'll be visiting the legendary Murder By The Book and Poisoned Pen bookstores. The details for these events are as follows:

19 September 2011

Murder By The Book, Houston, Texas (6.30pm)

20 September 2011

The Poisoned Pen, Scottsdale, Arizona (7.00pm)

Lastly, and just in case it sounds like all I do these days is swan off to the States, I should just say that I spent a wet week in my parent's caravan recently, finishing the first-round of edits on my standalone thriller THE SAFE HOUSE, which will be published by Faber & Faber in the UK in August next year (Bookseller announcement here), and by St Martin's Press in the USA. Since then, I've been pushing on with a second draft of THE GOOD THIEF'S GUIDE TO BERLIN, which is shaping up pretty well and should, all going well, be completed before too long...

Right. Time to go pack.

 

 

Seattle and Salt Lake City

The final two stops on our tour saw us visit the Seattle Mystery Bookshop and The King's English in Salt Lake City.

Seattle Mystery Bookshop is in a fantastic location and has a terrific staff, a wonderful atmosphere and a wide selection of signed books. They also have a couple of very nice traditions. One is that they have a guest book that all visiting authors are invited to sign. The other is that all visiting authors are given the chance to contribute to the store's blog. You can find my entry here:
http://seattlemysteryblog.typepad.com/seattle_mystery/2011/08/stealing-seattle.html

The final stop on the tour drew my biggest crowd and we had a truly wonderful time at The King's English. This was my first outdoor event and given the high temperatures in Salt Lake, it was a perfect setting. I'm hugely grateful to Paula Longhurst, who has been a wonderful supporter of the Good Thief books, and to the very generous bookstore staff (including Nathan who gave us a lift back to our hotel!), not to mention the readers who showed up with such enthusiasm and so many good questions.

Stores like these have made the whole trip the very best of experiences.

San Diego and Portland

Just a quick report from two great events. San Diego saw us at Mysterious Galaxy where I talked to a select and enthusiastic crowd. It was really fun to be in a store specialising in sci-fi and crime, with a passionate and knowledgeable staff, and I was delighted to come away with a Mysterious Galaxy mug!

In Portland, we visited the amazing Murder By The Book. The store is laid out in an innovative way with books categorised by sub-genre and I was pleased to find The Good Thief's Guides shelved in International Mystery. We had so much fun with the MBTB team. Barbara, John and Jean are the best of booksellers, introducing me to new books, and Voodoo Doughnuts! What more could you ask for?

LA

We had a really fantastic day yesterday. It started with a visit to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum at the top of a mountain overlooking Thousand Oaks and the arid mountain land beyond. The museum was huge and mightily impressive, and the views were truly breathtaking.

From there, I gave a talk to a really fun and engaged group of readers at Mysteries to Die For, with the event organised by the generous and very welcoming Alan Chisholm. I also signed a bunch of books, which is always nice!

After that, we had a mad drive across LA in what seemed to us to be insane traffic (but was apparently quiet!) until we reached Mystery Ink in Huntington Beach, where I talked to a smaller but no less engaged crowd at Debbie Mitsch's terrific store.

Finally, we drove on to our hotel in Mission Bay, San Diego, where we sat with a glass of wine and watched the nightly fireworks from nearby Sea World.

Next stop: Mysterious Galaxy on Monday evening at 7pm.

M is for mystery

Great event last night at M is for Mystery in San Mateo, CA. It's a fantastic book store and we had a great time. I was lucky enough to be joined by Simon Vance who gave a terrific reading from Venice. Thanks to a lovely crowd for some excellent questions for Simon and I, what a brilliant start to the tour.

US Book Tour

Just a couple of days left now until I head to the US to promote the St Martin's Press edition of THE GOOD THIEF'S GUIDE TO VENICE, which comes out in the States on 2 August. I'll be flying into San Francisco this Saturday, and I have a few days to catch some sights and adjust to the time difference before I set out on the tour itself. I'll post updates and photos from each event here during the next few weeks, and I'm really looking forward to the trip. Oh, and if anyone reading this happens to live near any of the mystery stores I'll be visiting, please do drop by and say hi!

For now, though, here are the dates and venues for the stops I'll be making...

Tuesday 2 August 2011

 

M is for Mystery, San Mateo, 86 East Third Avenue, San Mateo, CA 94401 (7.00pm). (At this event, I'll be joined by Simon Vance, the brilliant narrator of The Good Thief audiobooks, who has kindly agreed to give a reading from VENICE.)

 

Saturday 6 August 2011

 

Mysteries to Die For in Thousand Oaks, Los Angeles. (Noon)

 

Mystery Ink, Huntington Beach, LA. (5.00pm)

 

Monday 8 August 2011

 

Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, CA. (7.00pm)

 

Tuesday 9 August 2011

 

Murder by the Book, Portland, OR. (7.00pm)

 

Friday 12 August 2011

 

Seattle Mystery Bookstore, Seattle. (Noon).

 

Saturday 13 August 2011

 

The King’s English Bookshop, Salt Lake City. (7.00pm)

Good Thief Audio Books

I'm really pleased to say that the Good Thief's Guides have been (or are in the process of being) recorded as audio books for sale in the USA and the UK. Not only is this really exciting for me, but it's also perfect timing because the first audio book title, THE GOOD THIEF'S GUIDE TO AMSTERDAM, has just been released by AudioGo (formerly BBC Audiobooks America) in the USA at the same time as the nationwide celebration of audiobooks, June is Audiobook Month. THE GOOD THIEF'S GUIDE TO VENICE has also been recorded, and will be released in August in the USA. On top of that, PARIS and VEGAS will be recorded for release at a later date.

I'm incredibly fortunate because the narrator of all the Good Thief books is the award-winning audiobook narrator, Simon Vance. As you can hear from this sample of AMSTERDAM, Simon has done a really stand-out job: 

Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam Clip-1

It's strange and really pretty thrilling to hear my words brought to life by a such a talented artist. For lots more about Simon's work, including a number of fascinating video blogs about the process of recording audiobooks, I'd recommend popping over to his website. And while we're on the subject, I'm also delighted to say that Simon has agreed to join me at M is for Mystery in San Mateo on August 2 to give a reading from VENICE as part of my US author tour this coming summer/autumn. (For more details on the events that are lined up so far, check-out the Appearances section of my website).

Finally, here's a video of Simon talking about recording the Good Thief books, which was shot in the AudioGo studios in Rhode Island.

 

 

 

 

More Venice Videos: The Rialto

Thought I'd post a couple more video clips from my research trips to Venice. These two clips date from late November 2009. The city was very quiet, but there was a good reason for that. It was absolutely freezing. Still, that was really helpful. The Good Thief's Guide to Venice is set in January, and since my plan was always to write about Venice outside of the main tourist seasons, it was probably my most useful trip in terms of trying to get a feel for what spending winter in Venice would be like.

This first clip is of me crossing the Rialto Bridge at night. I talk about writing a possible chase scene, and as it happens, a chase scene across the Rialto did find its way into the finished book - it features in Chapter 17, when Charlie and Victoria are pursued by the overweight, shabby guy in the camel-hair coat  and the fedora. In the book, the pursuit takes place in the day, but this clip was something I referred to when I was writing the section. At other times, it was really helpful to me when I was trying to remember what it was like to be walking through Venice at night, when most of the streets were abandoned. The clip was taken in the early evening, and even then, you can see that a popular area like the Rialto was not at all busy.

 

The clip below was filmed a few minutes later. As you can see, I was hunting for a suitable palazzo for Charlie to break into. At the time, I really thought I'd found it, but it turned out I was wrong. I ended up inventing a palazzo and locating it on the other side of the Rialto (and I'll post some clips related to that soon). There were a couple of reasons why this location wouldn't have worked in the book. One was that the palazzos on this stretch of the Grand Canal were set back from the water with a pavement running in front of them - which would have created serious problems for Charlie, given that he was destined to fall from a first floor balcony, and he'd have wound up hitting concrete instead of water... And the other reason? Well, that was something I only discovered the following day when I went and scouted around behind the buildings I was interested in. It turned out they were the location for a major police station, which I figured would be a challenge too far for my hapless thief...

 

Casing the Joint: Venice

I've mentioned before that a key part of writing the Good Thief novels involves me visiting the cities I write about (tough, I know). Generally, I go on three trips. One when I'm building up to start work on a novel, one when I'm some way through a first draft, and a final trip when I'm polishing the script.

It used to be that when I visited cities, I'd spend most of my time scribbling down notes. I'd try and describe as much as I could, without worrying too much about what I was writing. The idea was to try and sum up the sights and sounds in some pretty hasty language, and then tidy up my impressions when I got home to my desk. I did other things, too. I grabbed flyers and took photos. But it was still pretty labour intensive.

That all changed when the iPhone came along. With THE GOOD THIEF'S GUIDE TO VENICE, I was able to shoot quick films of anything that interested me. I could talk over the videos, with notes to myself or ideas or observations. In the end, I came back from my trips to Venice with a whole bunch of videos, and then I watched them over and over again at my leisure and simply wrote about what I'd seen. Much faster. Probably much more accurate, too. And so I thought it might be interesting to share some of the clips here.

First up, I've chosen these two clips, from when I was searching for a likely bookbinding business for Charlie to break into. This is the first burglary Charlie commits in the book, in a darkened alley, at night, when the streets of San Marco are mostly deserted. In order to be sure it was possible, I went out at night myself, and I found two likely locations.

The first one, though, had a problem...

Which is why I settled on this second location as the perfect place for the bookbinding business in the novel. It's where Charlie breaks in more than once, and where he comes face to face with Graziella, the glamorous female cat burglar who taunts him throughout the book.

I'll post more clips during the next few days. And I can only apologise for my terrible attempts at pronouncing Italian words...

 

 

 

 

 

The Good Thief's Guide to ... TV?

I've been waiting a litle while to be able to say this, but I'm really excited to announce that I've signed a television development deal on the Good Thief's Guide novels with eOne Entertainment. eOne are the production company behind, among many other things, HBO's Hung, Syfy's Haven (based on Stephen King's Colarado Kid), and ABC/Universal's Rookie Blue. Amazing to think there's a chance that Charlie and Victoria might make it onto TV!

Here's the official press release...

PRESS RELEASE

Entertainment One Signs TV Development Deal with UK Author Chris Ewan

• Award-winning Good Thief’s Guide novels to be developed into TV series

Entertainment One, the (LSE:ETO), the international entertainment group, is pleased to announce that it has signed a television development deal with Chris Ewan, the UK author of the Good Thief’s Guide series of comic mystery novels, to develop a television drama series based on his award winning series of books.

The Good Thief’s Guide novels, which have been published in ten countries around the world, follow the adventures of struggling crime writer and globetrotting thief-for-hire Charlie Howard. The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam, the first book in the series, won the Long Barn Books First Novel Award, run by the author Susan Hill. Other titles in the series have seen Charlie visiting Paris and Las Vegas, with The Good Thief’s Guide to Venice due to be published in the UK this April and in the U.S. in August 2011. Charlie’s next adventure will take place in Berlin, and Ewan is currently penning this novel.  

Chris Ewan said: “I’m absolutely delighted to have been approached by Entertainment One with the view of turning the Good Thief novels into a television production. Entertainment One has an exciting vision for my books and a fantastic track record of producing top quality television shows. An opportunity like this is what every author dreams of, and I’m so enthusiastic about the prospect of seeing Charlie Howard breaking into television schedules in the near future.” 

Noreen Halpern, President of Dramatic Programming with Entertainment One Television added: “We’re big fans of Chris’s Good Thief series and looking forward to working closely with him to develop a compelling concept for the TV series. We are continually expanding our development slate and increasingly working with authors to turn their great stories into TV content. In addition to our work with Chris, our current production of “Haven” is based on Stephen King’s The Colorado Kid.” 

About Entertainment One

Entertainment One Ltd. (LSE:ETO) is a leading international entertainment company that specializes in the acquisition, production and distribution of film and television content.  The company’s comprehensive network extends around the globe including Canada, the U.S., the UK, Ireland, Benelux, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.  Through established Entertainment and Distribution divisions, the company provides extensive expertise in film distribution, television and music production, family programming and merchandising and licensing. Its current rights library is exploited across all media formats and includes more than 20,000 film and television titles, 2,400 hours of television programming and 45,000 music tracks.

 eOne Television is gaining worldwide recognition as one of the television industry’s foremost creators, producers and international distributors of premium TV programming spanning all genres. The company’s ability to attract an impressive roster of in-demand creative partners, top networks and specialty broadcasters is fueling its rapid expansion along with successes of recent series such as cop drama “Rookie Blue” (ABC/CanWest), dark comedies “Hung” (HBO) and “Call Me Fitz” (HBO Canada) and “Haven” (Syfy/Showcase). Through extensive international sales and distribution channels, the company also overseas sells of global broadcast TV and Digital/DVD as well as TV Basic and Pay rights in France, Australia and Scandinavia for the AMC’s blockbuster series “The Walking Dead” and recently received a full series order from AMC for its contemporary western “Hell on Wheels.”