Yesterday saw a lively Curzon lunch in Oxford Circus which had
to be accommodated by a larger table than previously booked.
We were pleased to welcome guest of honour, Barry Forshaw, Crime
Time editor and reviewer for The Independent, The Times and The
Express as well as author of many related books
(including 'British Crime Writing: An Encyclopedia' and 'Rough
Guide To Crime Fiction'). His omnivorous reading tastes
prompted some lively discussion on anything from Poe to Fleming and
we quickly realised that, next month, an evening dinner appointment
would be more appropriate given that gossip and Curzon business
took us through lunch hour and into the afternoon.
We were also pleased to initiate (and obvioucly
this clandestine process cannot be divulged here) a new
member, Cyrus Moore. Cyrus has a controversial city thriller,
'City Of Thieves', just out in hardback from Sphere which taps into
the bonus culture downfall of the city and did so some years before
it happened. Needless to say, it's now selling well.
The Curzon Group Airport Tour was dissected and the
consensus was that it had been a great success with a
supermarket tour already being discussed for December.
We also talked over a potential Curzon compendium book and
a Christmas party to be attended by bloggers, publishers and maybe
a smattering of thriller authors.
We're meeting up again in October and there's plenty on the
agenda for the months ahead - more details on The Curzon Group
site and on Twitter over the next few weeks.
In the meantime, here's an article that I wrote for the Conville
and Walsh website about a subject very relevant to me at
present.
HIGH TENSION
Richard Jay Parker
Narrative tension and character detail - it's a balancing act
that I'm still trying to get right.
STOP ME has only been published a couple of weeks but judging by
the sales on Amazon, Book Depository and at my signings the
Vacation Killer and his deadly SPAM email seems to have captured
the imagination of quite a few readers. This is an auspicious
start but, in the meantime, I'm obviously beavering away on the
second book and trying to achieve the perfect balance of character
depth and action.
My instinct is to move the story along at such a pace that the
reader has whiplash before chapter four. That's the sort of
book that I like to read but I have to keep my own celluloid
sensibility (from my script background) in check and tick a few
more boxes that make the reading experience so different from the
viewing one.
STOP ME has already garnered some good reviews not least for its
pace but there's also been notes from editors about connecting more
with Leo. Some thought he was 'messed up' but 'endearing'
some felt they wanted to know more about his inner cogs.
I've finished the first draft of my new thriller and it was a
relief to have it greeted by Ben (Mason) with some positive
noises. Premise good, central relationship survives the
critique intact. No spine to be ripped out of the story,
which is always a relief. Rewriting is sometimes like being
told you have to move house after you've only just unpacked your
last crate.
There's always work to be done on the plot but it's the
characters that I'll be focussing on. The trick being to give
the reader just enough but not so much that it slows the impetus of
the story.
I've been catching up on some contemporary thrillers recently
and some of them get straight to the meat of the plot without a
pause for the reader to get to know the characters. Sometimes
these books end up being the equivalent of stage directions and I
find my mind wandering as the writer attempts to choreograph
detailed shoot outs/car chases in my head. There does need to
be more environment and character colour but how much before your
thrill ravenous reader gets restless?
Readers are just as prone to attention deficit and when you
present a book that bears the moniker 'thriller' there's certainly
an expectation for something that screws you to the seat of the
chair until the last page is turned. But every reader is
different and demands different things from their reading
experience. I'll never cater for all of them but I can strive
to insure that there's a mixture of story elements that don't
cancel each other out.
That's all I need to do. Simple as that. Take the rest of
the afternoon off.
I hope my next self-contained thriller will have the right blend
but I've a feeling it's going to be something I'll be perfecting
for years to come.