After writing four novels in the Inspector Lucas Rocco series, set in France in the 1960s, it was a bit of a wrench to hear from my agent that the publishers didn’t want a No 5. The reviews had been good – some great – and they seemed to be doing well overall.
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But clearly not well enough.

However, that’s the way of things in this game; if your books don’t get the expected sales, it’s goodbye Vienna (or au revoir, Picardie, in this case).

Instead of wallowing, which I don’t do very well, I decided to get on and write more books, which was also my way of saying ‘ya-boo’. As therapy it works rather well for me, soothing disappointment and a couple of other unwelcome emotions and offering potential in other directions. That’s the thing about writing: you can’t give up.

The first of these, ‘Close Quarters’, is due out in April (signed editions will be available in hardback through Goldsboro Books). The sequel to ‘The Watchman’,the opener in the Marc Portman spy series, which has done very well indeed, especially in the US, it seems to have caught readers’ imaginations. I hope this follow-up will do the same and take the series from strength to strength. It’s certainly great fun to write and the publishers for this series and the Harry Tate spy thrillers (Severn House) have been hugely enthusiastic about it.

The second one was a slight punt, because I wanted to go down a different track and feature a female lead character. It’s called ‘The Locker’ and is the start of a brand new series which has, thanks to my agent, David Headley, been picked up by an American publisher. It’s a thriller… but I’ll write more about that later.

In between these two books – and editing, and writing magazine articles and a lot of DIY (we moved house a year ago and I’ve got the scars to prove it) – I decided that I wasn’t going to allow Lucas Rocco to vanish in the mists and marshlands of Picardie and the Somme Valley, a victim of statistics. Besides, readers are still buying the books and I wanted to keep the name bobbing along out there rather than have him quietly forgotten.
The simplest way (bearing in mind that I invariably seem to be writing two books in any one year, so my writing time is in short supply) was to put together a short story and issue it via my agent on Kindle. That way I figured it might keep up the interest in Rocco and his cast of characters, as well as gaining new readers for the existing series.

The important things for me were to retain the atmosphere of the period, add a touch of real history on which to hang the story, while keeping the main players in useful employment on the pages without overloading the story with walk-ons. Most of all, though, I wanted to maintain the main characters as I’d grown to enjoy writing them – and as many readers had enjoyed reading their exploits. It’s very easy to lose track a little of what you’ve written about if you leave it too long between books; you can find voices sounding a little different, influenced by your other writing, and for details to have changed slightly – both things which keen-eyed readers will notice.

The result is called ‘Rocco and the Snow Angel’ (publ. Cecil Court Press), and came out at roughly 20,000 words. So, not so much a short story, more a small novella. It brings together Rocco, Claude LaMotte (the local garde champetre), Commissaire Massin, Rocco’s boss, his busy neighbour Mme Denis, and others, and takes Rocco on a hunt for a deadly killer from the past.

As usual for Rocco, nothing is without political ramifications or interference. But he has a job to do and will allow nothing to stand in his way.
He’s cool like that.
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Picardie, n. France. A  former village priest is found shot dead, execution-style, in a snow-covered field. The killing re-opens memories of a wartime scandal around the villages of Poissons-les-Marais and Fouillmont, when a young infatuation led to a spate of coldly efficient assassinations. But who’s responsible for this particular murder? And why so long after the event?

For Inspector Lucas Rocco, it means pushing aside the veil surrounding old Resistance activities and fighting dangerous political connections to track down a deadly, long-range killer with the ability to hide in open countryside.

‘Rocco and the Snow Angel’ – available on Kindle right here.
If you read it, I hope you enjoy it.
Adrian Magson
@AdrianMagson1

The decision to leave my job as managing editor of Arcadia was difficult; the decision to start up Orenda Books was not. In fact, within 24 hours of hearing the news that a scaled-down list would make my previous job untenable, the seeds of the new company were sown and three weeks later, my first list was almost complete. Yesterday my very first ‘finished’ book arrived – Paul Hardisty’s stunning thriller, The Abrupt Physics of Dying – and next week marks my first sales conference. It took more than a few things to set this company in motion, but they dovetailed so neatly, it was clear that it was not just the righttime to create a little independent publishing company but the right thing to do.
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I acted upon my ‘snap decision’ immediately, and after a few scrambled-together meetings, I arranged the ebook distribution side of things with Faber Factory, and with the help of my husband, some much-needed funding. The word ‘Orenda’ loosely translates as the ‘mystical energy that drives human accomplishment’, its provenance a First Nations tribe that settled near to a place where I’ve spent every summer of my life and also the title of one of my favourite-ever books The Orenda, by fellow Canadian Joseph Boyden. It was a natural choice for the company name, and when designer James Nunn came up with the beautiful logo and colophon, clearly quite perfect!

As soon as the idea of the company was formed, I made a wish list of authors. My first major meeting was with DHH Literary Agency, where I would pitch toBroo Doherty for Paul Hardisty’s The Abrupt Physics of Dying, and David Headleyfor Ragnar Jonasson’s Snowblind and Nightblind. I’d read Paul’s debut novel when I was at Arcadia and it is one of the most beautifully written, page-turning and evocative thrillers I’ve ever read. His potential is scary, as the early jacket quotes have already confirmed.
I’d had the pleasure of meeting Ragnar at CrimeFest and then again at Bloody Scotland (where we also played football for ‘England’ against a bunch of ‘bloody Scottis’ crime writers), and dutifully watched avid book buyers queue up after every one of his panels to buy books that had never been translated into English. I left Bloody Scotland with sample translations from the Icelandic under my arm, and two days later arranged to meet David.

I was brimming with excitement and plans, and then, about 10 minutes from Goldsboro Books, blind panic struck. What kind of idiotic confidence led me to think that I could persuade seasoned agents to hand over their crown jewels to a company with one member of staff and no track record? But my fears were ill-founded. The support was magnificent and humbling, and Broo and David loved the idea of their authors making their debuts (in Ragnar’s case, in English) with a new, enthusiastic and hopelessly passionate new publisher! A two-book deal was secured for Ragnar’s gloriously atmospheric crime thrillers, and Quentin Bates was contracted to translate. The first draft is in, and it is very clear that my belief in this author (and translator) was not misguided! Part of the Dark Iceland series, Snowblind (book one) and Nightblind (book five) share the setting of Siglufjörður, in northern Iceland, a town accessible only by a single tunnel, with young, flawed policeman Ari Thor leading up the action. Since rights were acquired (also via Monica Gram at Leonhardt & Høier Literary Agency A/S) Ragnar has been invited to new fewer than six literary festivals this coming year, and Snowblind will be published in June, with books available for Newcastle Noir and CrimeFest in May.

Paul Hardisty has the honour of being the first official Orenda author, and he’ll be visiting the UK at the beginning of March to launch the first title in the Claymore Straker series of thrillers. So mesmerized was I by the quality of his writing, his extraordinary ability to produce a readable, highly literary novel set in (as he puts it) ‘the most beautiful and cursed places on earth – Yemen – that I put in an offer for the sequel halfway through the editing of The Abrupt Physics of Dying. The Evolution of Fear will be ready in ebook in November, and in print in early 2016.

Joining Paul and Ragnar are David F. Ross, with The Last Days of Disco, a gorgeous authentic, heartwarming and hilarious tribute to 1980s Ayrshire, published in March and already out on ebook; one of the fathers of Nordic Noir, Gunnar Staalesen, in an ‘acquisition coup!’ – a three-book deal for We Shall Inherit the Wind, Where Roses Never Die and None So Safe in Danger, all translated by the inimitable Don Bartlett and published in March; and, finally, Finnish author Kati Hiekkepelto, with the second in the Anna Fekete series and sequel to her fabulous debut crime thriller The Hummingbird, The Defenceless, translated by David Hackston and out in September.

If I’ve made this all sound very easy, please forgive me. I haven’t slept a wink since starting up Orenda Books, and it’s possible that I will suffer death by drowning in administration. My to-do list is four A4 pages long, and expanding by the moment. But, but … this is one of the most rewarding, challenging and exciting things upon which I’ve ever embarked, and I know that I can do it justice. The crime community has been extraordinarily welcoming and hugely supportive; the IPG have been worth their weight in gold, as have the bloggers, my sales and distributors here (Turnaround, plus Faber Factory for ebooks), in Australia (Australian Scholarly Publishing) and in the USA and Canada (Trafalgar Square), and the agents, booksellers, designers, festival organisers and other publishers who have given so freely of their time and did not call even one of my stupid questions stupid.

The website is now up (www.orendabooks.co.uk), with a short story from every Orenda author, some writing outside their genre and two translated by newbie translators. Ragnar wrote his own in English! Things are definitely coming together and I know that when that first book hits the doorstep tomorrow, every bit of hope and hard work will have been so worthwhile. Now about that sales conference …
Follow Karen on twitter: @OrendaBooks

‘The acrid smell of cordite hung in the air like an accusation. The shot still echoed in my mind, blasting away her smile. Her eyes were open and glassy with death. It was a mistake to pick up the gun, I immediately knew it as my finger curled around the trigger but what choice did I have?’
 
How my debut novel, ‘Deadlights’, actually came into existence is a mystery in itself. One day, the image of a hand gripping a gun popped into my mind and I wrote down the first four sentences. Nothing much happened after that. What I mean is, years passed. The sentences served some hard time in limbo and to keep out of trouble they became an idea. Freedom was restricted to a piece of ripped paper folded within the pages of a notebook.

Eventually, the idea saw the light of a laptop and I settled on a title. I resolved on how I wanted the novel to end at a very early stage, I had a beginning and an end, so far so good, what next? Ah yes, the middle. The majority of my brainstorming is done with good old-fashioned pen and paper. Naturally, I appreciate the expediency of writing on a laptop when the mood takes me but I do enjoy wielding a pen with chaotic abandon… arrows, doodles, question marks (lots of those), smiley faces, ticks, crossings out, even sentences (if I am lucky) litter pages in my notebooks.

While it will be evident that I am a fan of Raymond Chandler’s writing, I am not trying to emulate him (who could?) nor pay homage to him. I wanted to write my own crime story. If I was asked to choose a subgenre to describe ‘Deadlights’, I would like to coin it as noir ultra.

The use of language and pathos in Greek tragedies, Virgil’s ‘Aeneid’, Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ and Shakespearean tragedies have stamped a lasting impression on me. Those writers operated at such an elevated level that their works have stood the test of time. There is tragedy and a bleakness in ‘Deadlights’ that the humour cannot temper but I do not view it as a nihilistic story because the main character believes in doing the right thing.
Cade and I know each other well. We have not gone out for a drink or indulged in a poker night, in fact, we have not even met. If I was in a scrape, Cade would not hesitate to jump in…once he had finished his whiskey of course. I like Cade although I have a funny way of showing it. I think that is why he does not speak to me. He will take on a case with the best of intentions and events will quickly snowball. His life was much easier before I started interfering. I would never say it to his face but I admire him. Where others stumble, fall and stay down, he hauls himself back up. He is loyal, brave and has values. Cade believes he is funnier than he really is. No one is perfect. And that is what he has to contend with, people who have darkness in their souls – they lie, cheat and kill with impunity.

I met David Headley (DHH Literary Agency) at the 2012 Winchester Writing Conference. I had no expectations other than it was a good opportunity to receive feedback from a professional. A third of ‘Deadlights’ had been written and I had no firm idea of how the story was going to progress. The three opening chapters were proferred at the altar of the literary agent. My first impression of David was that he exuded a similar aura to the Winston Wolfe character in ‘Pulp Fiction’. He was disappointed that the book was not finished. A literary agent signing up an unpublished author with an unfinished novel is probably akin to a Grand National winning jockey saddling up a donkey to defend his title. Yet, David made the effort to contact me again during the Writing Conference. Having someone in the industry showing interest in my work was a tremendous boost. Whilst I was enjoying developing the story, it is hard to be objective when the characters lived in my head.

I work full time and often I am too tired to write during the week so I kept plugging away when I was not falling asleep in front of my laptop and being judged by an empty wine glass. I attended the 2012 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and briefly spoke to David who was loitering with intent. Anyone who has endured the London Waterloo train station slalom will tell you it is hard enough to avoid missing a train let alone notice someone you know but David and I crossed paths again. He asked me if I was still writing. I checked to see if I had a tracker upon my person.

Slowly, the jigsaw was being formed, the missing pieces were appearing. It was a unique feeling finishing ‘Deadlights’. The warm glow was cooled by the considerable amount of time I spent trying to proof the work. Rooting out typos, repetition and anomalies required a discipline and patience that tested me. I applaud professional editors, I do not know how they do it (unless they are robots sent from the future to kill us).

While publishers have not taken up the option to pin ‘Deadlights’ to their mastheads, the feedback was positive. The words ‘too noir’ were often stated. I took that as a compliment and think noir ultra sounds infinitely better. It is my simple wish that the reader enjoys the story and roots for Cade no matter what the odds are because he is one of the good guys and we need people like him.

I recently finished the sequel to ‘Deadlights’ and I can tell you Cade has been keeping himself busy so let me sign off with words of wisdom from the man himself… Cade’s Thirteenth Law: There’s always a broad involved.


With the mystery and intrigue of a Raymond Chandler for the modern age, fused with the grittiness and hardboiled attitude of Robert Rodriguez’s groundbreaking film Sin City, this brutal and stunning noir crime story, which reads like a graphic novel brought to life will leave you gasping for breath by the time you reach its shocking conclusion.
Deadlights is one man’s battle to stay righteously afloat in a sea of sin, but nothing will stop him from achieving his ultimate goal: Revenge.

You can buy Deadlights from the Kindle store here: Buy now
Follow Mark on twitter: @Giacomin_Mark13