Val’s Work in Progress…

admin — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:55:16 +0000

Val’s Next Book – Cross and Burn – to be published later in 2013

Val Says: ‘I’m working on the new Tony & Carol book, Cross and Burn — the title comes from the saying, ‘the problem with bridges is knowing which ones to cross and which ones to burn.’ A killer is on the loose, a killer who threatens both Tony and Carol but in very different ways.’

‘…I’m also doing some preliminary work on my contemporary reworking of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey.’ more info

Getting Away With Murder

admin — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:55:52 +0000

Chipping Norton Literary Festival

Date:	Sunday 21 April 2013
Time:	17.30pm
Place:	The Theatre, 2 Spring St, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire OX7 5NL
Cost:	£12

Getting away with murder

How better to finish the 2013 festival than with a murder? Or several murders? Join ChipLitFest Patron Mark Billingham and his panel of best-selling crime-writers, Stuart MacBride, Val McDermid, and Martyn Waites, for a thrilling evening of criminally great entertainment.

More information:

http://www.chiplitfest.com/events.asp?id=41

Val on the Culture Show

admin — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 12:10:35 +0000

Val on The Culture Show

Date:	Wednesday 13 February 2013
Time:	10.00pm
Place:	BBC 2
Cost:	-

Val McDermid inspects British Library’s crime-fiction

Alastair Sooke explores the work of American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein as Tate Modern prepares for a major retrospective, and Cerys Matthews visits Cardiff’s National Theatre Wales ahead of its premiere of De Gabay, a performance based on the lives of the Somali community in the Welsh capital. Writer Val McDermid inspects the British Library’s crime-fiction exhibition to learn about the history of the whodunit, and there is music by German electronic music legends Kraftwerk, who are in London to perform for the first time since 2004.

Andrew Graham-Dixon presents.

More information:

http://www.tvguide.co.uk/titlesearch.asp?title=The%20Culture%20Show

Let’s Talk Libraries

admin — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 12:08:24 +0000

Saving Library Event in Newcastle

Date:	Saturday 09 February 2013
Time:	10.30am
Place:	Cruddas Park library Westmorland Road Newcastle upon Tyne NE4 7QY
Cost:	-

Let’s Talk Libraries

Celebrate National Libraries Day with an hour of events across the city of Newcastle:

Ann will be at Cruddas Park library for a special crime events with fellow crime-writer Val McDermid, artist Emma Holliday and music by the Cornshed Sisters.

More information:

http://www.anncleeves.com/events.html

Lambda Literary Review

admin — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 13:13:28 +0000

LAMBDA LITERARY REVIEW

‘The Retribution’ and ‘The Vanishing Point’ by Val McDermid

Val said. “The sort of review that makes me want to get down on my knees and thank a critic who reads with care and gets what I’m trying to do. Made my day.”

‘I can’t recall ever reading a novel by McDermid that hasn’t gripped me from the outset. McDermid knows crime, but more importantly, she knows the dark side of men and women and the havoc they can wreak on each others’ lives. A recipient of the Lambda Pioneer Award and numerous other crime writing awards, with close to 30 novels to her name she’s been churning out at least a book a year for, well, quite a while.

Her two latest–released in the U.S. back-to-back—are very different. The Retribution is the latest in her popular series involving Tony Hill and Carol Jordan.The Vanishing Point is a stand-alone and does it ever….

The Vanishing Point – paperback

admin — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:20:52 +0000

The Vanishing Point out in paperback – 31 January 2013!

Synopsis

It is every parent’s worst nightmare. Stephanie Harker is travelling through the security gates at O’Hare airport when she is taken into a perspex box having set off the metal detectors. Made to wait outside, five-year-old Jimmy is led away, by hand, by a uniformed officer. Stephanie’s panic and shouts lead security to believe she is a threat, and she is tasered brutally to the ground amidst her screams of protest while Jimmy disappears into the distance unnoticed by anyone but her.

However, when Stephanie has a chance to tell her story to the FBI, it becomes clear that everything is not as it seems. Unanswered questions surround Jimmy’s background and why someone would want to abduct him. But it is Stephanie’s close friendship with reality TV star Scarlett Higgins that appears to lie at the bottom of a tale of death, deception and the extraordinary lengths to which a parent will go to protect their child.

More Info: The Vanishing Point

Oslo Crime Writing Festival

admin — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 17:59:27 +0000

Oslo Crime Writing Festival

Date:	Thursday 07 – Sunday 10 March 2013
Time:	TBC
Place:	TBC
Cost:	TBC

Oslo Crime Writing Festival

Val will be taking part in Oslo’s Crime Writing Festival – more details when we have them…

Val returns to Oxford to give Lecture

admin — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:33:15 +0000

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender month – Oxford

Date:	Wednesday 06 February 2013
Time:	6pm
Place:	Jacqueline du Pré Music Building St Hilda’s College Cowley Place Oxford OX4 1DY
Cost:	Free event but booking is essential

Lecture – “A Queer-Like Smell”

Val McDermid (Best-selling crime writer and alumna of St. Hilda’s College) will return to Oxford to give the annual Oxford University Lecture for LGBT History Month. The lecture titled “A Queer-Like Smell”, in reference to her home town of Kirkcaldy and a poem by fellow Fife-er, Mary Campbell Smith, will touch upon themes of growing up gay in a world of silence and how finding her voice as a writer was tied inextricably to finding her gay self.

Please join the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Andrew Hamilton and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Personnel & Equality), Dr Stephen Goss in welcoming Val to Oxford.

More information:

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/eop/sexualorientation/

Portsmouth Book Award

admin — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 12:12:48 +0000

Orchard (2012)

Val’s first book for children ‘My Granny is a Pirate’ has been shortlisted for the 2013 Portsmouth Book Award, Picture Book category.

The shortlist is as follows…

John Hegley and Neal Layton ………. Stanley’s Stick

Val McDermid and Arthur Robins ………. My Granny is a Pirate

Anna Kemp and Sara Ogilvie ………. The Worst Princess

Sean Taylor and Hannah Shaw ………. Who Ate Aunt Iris?

More Info: www.portsmouth.gov.uk/

Crime writer Val McDermid attacked by OAP in Sunderland

admin — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:33:40 +0000

The Scottish crime writer was meeting fans after appearing as a guest speaker at a public lecture at Sunderland University when a woman, believed to be in her 60s and wearing a blonde wig and trilby hat, pulled out a bottle of ink and poured it over the shocked 57-year-old.

Crime writer Val McDermid pictured at the Murray Library lecture theatre where she was giving a talk as part of the Sunderland University’s year-long public lecture programme.

Black ink was pelted at murder writer Val McDermid as she gave a public lecture at Sunderland University on her illustrious career.

An OAP wearing a wig and hat made the attack at the end of the 45-minute talk as Val signed a book for her, before running away.

Shocked Val dubbed the stunt “bizarre” and took to Twitter to say: “I’m fine, a bit shaken, never had anything like that before.”

She added: “No accounting for nutters. First incident like this in 25 years of book events. Who knew I could provoke such unpleasantness from a stranger?

“She walked out before anyone grasped what had happened. Everyone was stunned.”

Northumbria Police launched an investigation into the attack which happened last Thursday and inquiries are still ongoing.

More Info: www.sunderlandecho.com