Allergy to Amazon?

Want to buy books but not keen on the universe-swallowing internet giants? Well, now there’s a new way to get your hands on titles from Caffeine Nights – direct from the publisher.

This includes my own book ‘Raise the Blade’, which is gory enough to qualify as a Halloween read. So to get your sticky mitts on a copy in time, head to my author page on the Caffeine Nights website, scroll down, and click the big friendly ‘buy here’ button at the bottom.

While you’re there, why not browse some of the other great books and authors Caffeine Nights has published? Shaun Hutson, Mike Craven, Graham Smith, Lucy Cameron, Paul Brazill… just some of the names you might want to check out. Just head for the ‘authors’ section for more information on all of them.

Getting to grips with html5

You may remember a short(ish) time ago I revamped my website using spiffy new html5 coding. Well, it looked very stylish, but I was such a Coding Doofus that I didn’t understand enough to get more than a single page up and running. This meant I couldn’t have nearly as much content as I really wanted – not least, a whole page for my book ‘Raise the Blade’.

I spray references to the book around on social media and even in real life, and it’s always good to have somewhere to direct people, to where they can find out more. Top of the list in this respect is a nice, easy to remember web link. Bottom of the list is the suggestion that they just go to your web page and rummage around until they find what they’re looking for.

I’ve been managing on that last arrangement for far too long, but I’m delighted to say that I’ve now learned enough about html5 coding to expand my website, so it consists of six separate pages. There’s one for my bio, one for all my books and stories, one for works in progress, and most importantly, one for ‘Raise the Blade’. This includes more details about the book including quotes, blurb, an excerpt, a wonderfully creepy video courtesy of my publisher Caffeine Nights, and links to various articles and blog posts about the book.

Huge thanks are due to those nice folk at Html5-Up, a web design company who provide stylish, idiot-proof and above all, free, templates for lesser-trained users like me. I couldn’t have done it without all their hard work.

You can find the generic web page at http://www.tessmakovesky.com, and the ‘Raise the Blade’ page here.  I hope you’ll find it useful and a bit more informative than the last version!

A brand new interview

I’m delighted to say I’ve been interviewed by the ever-supportive Fiona McVie, who runs a blog devoted to finding out more about authors both established and less-well-known. Answering her questions was almost as much work as my latest novel, and really made me think! I hope you’ll enjoy the results, which include a scattering of details about Raise the Blade (inspiration for the plot and characters; cover art) together with all sorts of information on me, my life, my hobbies and interests, my favourite authors, and a great deal else besides.

I almost missed it, but the interview went live on Saturday – so apologies for the delay in posting about it.  Better late than never, and you can read the whole thing here.

A raffle-y good cause

First of all, apologies for the pun.  I couldn’t resist!  But it really is in a good cause… because on Sunday I went along to a charity lunch on the shores of Windermere.  It was in aid of PIES (Partners in Education Swaziland), which raises funds to provide education to desperately poor people in this particular African country, and is supported by, amongst others, the local Rotary Club and Soroptimists.

The lunch is held once a year at a house on the shores of Windermere, with stunning gardens that sweep down to the water’s edge, and views across the lake to the old Claife Viewing Station, a Victorian relic that the National Trust have just finished renovating.  This year, the weather was kind and we were able to sit at tables on the patio.  Luckily the patio is large, because the turnout was really impressive – over 80 people had turned up for their lovely, home-cooked two course Sunday lunch, plus stalls, plus plant sales, plus a raffle.

Looking around for something I could donate, at the last minute I realised I could take a signed copy of my book along.  The organisers fell on it with glee, placed it at the front of the raffle stall, and it was won during the afternoon by… someone, but I didn’t get a chance to see who it was.  So if you are now clutching a copy of ‘Raise the Blade’ then thank you for choosing it – and I really hope you enjoy reading it.

The event was a resounding success and raised over £2,000 in one day for the cause.  And I’m glowing, because although I never win anything, I won first prize in that same raffle – a M&S gift card to the tune of £50!

Instagram here we come…

I’ve finally got with the latest trend and joined Instagram, no doubt months (or even years) too late!

It was a “right fiddle” getting everything installed.  My mobile phone and/or tariff aren’t capable of supporting photo handling, so I set up an account on the computer.  Then I found I needed to download an app before I could post any photos.  What?  I thought Instagram shared pics instantly and virtually automatically.  Shows how wrong you can be.

I don’t use Apple and don’t trust Google so downloaded the Microsoft version of the app.  It took ages.  Checking files.  Restoring data.  Please wait.  Etcetera.  But after much finger-drumming it was finally ready.  I hit ‘launch’ and prepared to upload my photos.

Except that I couldn’t.  It wouldn’t let me.  There was a nice big shiny button labelled ‘share photos and videos’ right there in the middle of the screen, but it didn’t do anything.  At all.  I tried clicking, I tried pressing, I tried clicking again (and again, repeatedly), I tried swearing at it, I tried a special Tess Makovesky Hard Stare.  But even that didn’t work.

Frustrated, I Googled the problem and found I was not alone – the MS app won’t let you upload photos from your computer unless you have a… wait for it… touch screen.  How nice of them to let everyone know this before they download a useless app.  Not.

Fortunately a helpful techie site came to my rescue by recommending InstaPic, which is free to download from the Microsoft store and lets you upload pics to your Instagram account.  It’s not brilliant – I can only load one photo at a time, then have to close the program and re-open before loading another, single, pic.  But at least it’s something, and has let me get started with a few publicity stills for ‘Raise the Blade’, and some shots of interesting statues around Birmingham that I’d snapped over the years.

I’ll obviously be adding more, including other less well-known corners of Birmingham and some location shots for my book.  So to catch these, do feel free to follow me on  https://www.instagram.com/tessmakovesky/.  I’m looking forward to seeing you there.

New review

It’s always nice to get good reviews of your work, and I’m delighted to have a new one on ‘Raise the Blade’ which describes it as a ‘chilling and memorable book’ and gives it five stars.

To see the whole review, pop over to Amazon.  There are even a few puns I wish I’d thought of!

Tickled Pink…

Having been a massive fan of all things Pink Floyd for most of my adult life, on Saturday I was really excited to be heading for a concert by Think Floyd, one of the top British tribute bands featuring their music.

We’d originally been going back in the autumn but the concert was postponed due to a band member’s ill health, and Saturday was the re-scheduled date.  We’d never seen Think Floyd before and weren’t quite sure what to expect, but boy, was it worth the wait!

The concert took the unusual path of playing at least one track from each of Pink Floyd’s fifteen studio albums, from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn all the way to The Endless River.  Along the way the band visited some of the iconic tracks (‘Comfortably Numb’, ‘Breathe’) but also played some less well known stuff – so much so I’d never heard one or two tracks before.

The four main musicians were perhaps a little less comfortable with the earlier music, with its heavy folk influence courtesy of Syd Barrett.  But once they got onto ‘One of These Days’ from Meddle they suddenly hit their stride, and went from playing cover versions of Floyd tracks, to recreating with meticulous detail the whole Floyd sound and experience.  And when they got onto Dark Side of the Moon, from which they played pretty much the whole of the first side, they were a revelation.  Even better, their rendition of ‘Great Gig in the Sky’ was just brilliant – the best I have heard, anywhere including Floyd’s own concerts, with the exception of the original.  Most modern versions include two separate vocalists due to the sheer complexity of the track, but the young lass singing here managed it on her own, note (and perhaps more importantly, emotion) perfect, and got a standing ovation for her efforts.

And I was absolutely delighted when they also treated us to ‘Brain Damage’, one of my favourite tracks and the inspiration behind ‘Raise the Blade’!

Of course, they aren’t Pink Floyd and nobody but Pink Floyd ever will be.  The show also suffered very slightly, in my opinion, from a tiny (if immaculate) venue with a small stage, which couldn’t live up to the massive stadium concerts Floyd themselves put on.  If nothing else, there was no space for an inflatable pig – or any other sort of animal!  But they were a very, very close second, and since Floyd themselves rarely-to-never perform together (all the more so since the death of keyboardist Richard Wright), it’s a wonderful way of experiencing their music, live, all over again.  We would definitely recommend Think Floyd, and definitely go to see them again ourselves.  And it tickles me er, pink, to be able to say that.

New reviews

There’s a couple of really nice mentions for my stuff turned up in the last few days.

First, Graham Wynd has included ‘Raise the Blade’ in his list of favourite books of 2016, with a great write-up that had me glowing.  You can find the list here; do take time to read all the entries because there’s some other great books featured, including titles by Richard Godwin and Renato Bratkovic, and the Dark Minds anthology.

Second, and rather a long time after publication but still a very welcome surprise, there’s this from the British Fantasy Society about the Drag Noir anthology, which featured my story ‘Wheel Man’ amongst many others.  The reviewer has some nice things to say about the story, although there’s a spoiler alert if you haven’t yet read it yourself because they do rather give away the plot!

 

Belated Christmas present

I’m back from a complete (and much-needed) break over Christmas, following a thoroughly unpleasant bout of flu, with batteries re-charged (bzz) and a lot more energy.  And absolutely delighted to find this gem of a belated Christmas pressie in my inbox today – a super new review of ‘Raise the Blade’ over at Relax and Read Reviews.

You may remember that this excellent review blog was kind enough to publish my guest post – a character spotlight featuring Gillian from ‘Raise the Blade’ – a few months ago.  Now I’m delighted to announce that Joseph has read the book himself, and written an in-depth review about what he liked (and didn’t like, to be entirely fair!) about it.

To say I’m over the moon is quite an understatement.  It’s a very nice discovery to come back to!

Music to write books by…

Today I’m featured over at Sarah Ward’s excellent Crimepieces blog as part of her regular ‘Music to Write Books By’ series.  Although I don’t often listen to music while I write, that doesn’t mean my work isn’t inspired by it – and here I explain how Pink Floyd in general, and their brilliant track ‘Brain Damage’ in particular, helped to inspire my psychological noir novella ‘Raise the Blade’.

Floyd fans and the keen eyed amongst you will spot the obvious quote in the title, but it went quite a bit deeper than that with all sorts of hidden references (although no actual lyrics, for obvious copyright reasons).  I don’t spill the beans on what the references are (you can have fun spotting them when you read the book) but I do explain more about how the track worked its magic on me while I was writing the book.

You can find the post here, and many thanks to Sarah for taking the time out from Iceland Noir to host me, which can’t have been easy!

Interviewed… round the block

I’m delighted to announce that I’m interviewed at Christina Philippou’s super book blog ‘Writing Round the Block’ today.

Christina asked a whole range of simple yet surprisingly-tricky-to-answer questions which had me scratching my head and sucking the end of my pen.  Questions such as where I write, when I write, who my author heroes are, and what the inspiration behind ‘Raise the Blade’ was.

You can find my eventual responses, plus a whole lot of other wittering, over at Writing Round the Block.  I hope you enjoy the insight!

Raise the Blade – the Scariest Part!

Those of you who’ve read ‘Raise the Blade’ know that it’s a little gruesome in places.  Quite a lot gruesome, in fact.  So much so it was edging me towards the very limits of my comfort zone, and as a sensitive flower (ahem) I had to push myself to write the more disturbing sections.

Because the book is written in reverse, with more details about the killer’s methods revealed in each new chapter, it got harder and harder to write.  But which chapter out of all them was the worst?  Well, there is one, but to find out you’ll have to head for Nicholas Kaufmann’s excellent blog The Scariest Part, where all will be revealed.  Not just the identity of the most distressing character to write about, but also what that character’s experiences are based on, and what that meant for me.

There’s also some more detail about the Pink Floyd track ‘Brain Damage’, which formed a significant part of the inspiration for the book.

So to find out all this and more, head over to The Scariest Part right now.  I hope it doesn’t disturb your sleep!