4 May 2008

Sunday Salon #7 - 4 May 2008

Sunday Salon now has over 130 contributors. It is awesome to think of all of us beavering away on our postings world wide.

A more controlled week for me with not as many postings as last week, mainly because I was away from home for 3 days doing workshops with educators for work. We were in lovely Brisbane where the weather was warm autumn. The rental car had a talking GPS system which made navigation just so much easier.
Plane flights and all that give me more time for reading. It is the online stuff like keeping up with emails etc. that gets a bit fraught.

My week's summary:
  • Weekly Geek: Week 1
    This week's task was to visit 5 blogs I hadn't been to before. Not so hard you'd think. Just an addenda here - good friend Helen has begun her blogging journey. See It's Criminal on my Blogs I'm watching list and pay her an encouraging visit.
  • Gruesome stories
    A couple of really gruesome stories I came across of serial murderers who seem to have got a way with it. There is another one here.
  • CITY OF LIES, R. J. Ellory
    My review of Roger Ellory's book. My rating: 4.3
  • What's in a meme?
    Memes seem to be a bit viral at the moment. If you tagged me recently this might let you into how I feel about them. I also came across another use of the word.
  • Oh, to be in England
    ITV3 has announced a six-week Crime Thriller season celebrating 6 crime writers they claim are the best. Even if you don't agree with that claim, how lovely it will be to be able to follow the season on television in the UK. Apparently being launched at the Harrogate Festival.
  • Even more awards..
    The 2008 Arthur Ellis Awards shortlist have been announced and there's a Penguin Australia publication in the Best First Novel list.
    John Hart's DOWN RIVER won the Edgar for Best Novel, and Tan French took out Best First Novel for IN THE WOODS. (Does this mean she is now American not Irish? See Crime Always Pays)
    And Sue Grafton gets presented with her well-deserved Cartier Diamond Dagger this week.
  • DEVILS IN THE MIRROR, Lesley Horton
    I've discovered another police procedural writer who is well worth reading. I started with #3 in the series because my library doesn't have #1 or #2 but I suspect if you can get them it would be worthwhile.
Miscellanea
  • This week the Carnival of Criminal Minds moved to Germany at Internationale Krimis. I'm also very pleased to announce that I have been invited to host it at a later date.
  • Over on oz_mystery_readers tomorrow we will be chatting with West Australian author Felicity Young whose 3rd book was published at the beginning of April by Fremantle Press. And then on 12 May we begin talking about Colin Cotterill's THE CORONER'S LUNCH. Our reading calendar is listed on the group's home page. Feel free to join us.
  • Roger Ellory's A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS momentarily fell off the top of the tree on the Amazon UK's bestsellers list where it has been since the beginning of the year. Read about a remarkable four months on Roger's blog.
  • Michael Robotham's SHATTER, which I have yet to read, is wowing people all over the place. Here is just one of those reviews. For his other books see Michael on my list of Favourite Authors.
  • If you are a Reading Challenge person you might like to look at what Marg is doing over at Reading Adventures. I am amazed that she has time to sleep.
See you next week folks. I look forward to reading your postings.

4 comments:

Marg said...

I don;t have trouble trying to find to sleep...it's more the work and housekeeping that I have trouble fitting in!

Thanks for the link!

Anonymous said...

I hadn't seen the announcement about the ITV Crime Season, so thanks for the link. Of course, their choice undoubtedly reflects the material they already have available, so all they are letting themselves in for is the making of the documentaries. Nevertheless, it will be nice to have the opportunity to see some of this work again.

Anonymous said...

I agree that Michael Robotham is a great thriller writer, creating characters who are real and with whom you can empathise.

But he's in Australia and sets his movels in the UK, based on his memories of living there and some subsequent visits for catch up research. To continue with this, for UK readers, he needs an editor with a closer eye for detail. The last two novels showed gaining ground in discrepancies for UK fact; small things maybe, but errors for a UK reader and more in the most recent novel.

He really needs someone more on the ball, otherwise the slippage in the UK will become far too noticeable to the UK reader and put them off.

I've been tolerant thus far, enjoying the pace and main characters.

Anonymous said...

130 is a pretty large number! It's taking all Sunday to read and comment on all of my favorite blogs...lol!

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin