All is not well Chez Bolton. In the first week of the school
holidays, small (and far too adventurous) child fell off the monkey
bars and shattered his elbow. As I write, we're waiting to hear
whether the joint will mend itself or require surgery sometime in
the next couple of weeks.
Summer plans are now in complete disarray, with hopes of
enjoying our first long haul holiday since arrival of said child in
more pieces than his elbow. We won't now be spending next week on a
yacht in the British Virgin Islands, instead increasingly bored
child and I will be stuck here in semi-rural Bucks, trying not to
drive each other nuts. Nor will we be meeting up with friends in
Devon for a week pretending to be swallows and amazons, because
semi-disabled children and water sports just don't mix.
Oh, I had such high hopes for this summer!
Safe to say Mr B is not at his most sanguine. Neither am I.
Holiday plans aside, I had two major deadlines to meet before we
flew off to Tortola but the various summer camps and activities I'd
planned to entertain child while I was working have also been
cancelled. Looks like the final edit of Book Four and the detailed
synopsis of Book Five are going to be fleshed out between the hours
of ten and midnight.
Still haven't come up with a title, by the way. And lets face
it, Book Four on the cover is hardly going to fly off the
shelves!
Still, every cloud as they say. We were cheered up
considerably a few days ago by a phone call from She Who Is About
To Glide Gracefully Down The Aisle. The Crime Writers Association
have just announced the shortlists for the 2010 Daggers (also known
as The Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards) and Blood
Harvest is one of eight books up for the very prestigious Gold
Dagger. On 9th August the list of eight will be whittled
down to four finalists, with the eventual winner being announced at
a televised ceremony in Grosvenor House in early October.
The annual daggers are a crime writing institution in the UK and
the first tranche were announced a couple of days ago at the
Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate. I'd
have struggled to judge the Dagger in the Library this year, as
three writers I particularly admire were all on the shortlist:
Simon Beckett, Mo Hayder and Ariana Franklin. (Of course, they're
all with Transworld - all the best thriller writers are!) Ariana
won it, with Simon being highly commended. Mo can hardly sulk
though. Her latest, Gone (my favourite Hayder book so far)
has been shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, also to be
announced in October.