The highlights of 2012
2012 was another busy and rewarding year and in the time
honoured tradition I thought I’d do a round up of the highlights of the year.
New Books for 2012
The seventh in the DI Andy Horton series of marine
mystery crime novels set in the Solent area on the South Coast of England, A Killing Coast was published in
hardcover by Severn House in the UK on 26 January 2012 and in the USA in May
2012
And Death Lies Beneath the eighth
in the DI Andy Horton series was published by Severn House in hardcover in the
UK in July 2012 and in the USA in November 2012.
A Killing Coast, was also published as
an ebook on 1 October 2012 and Death Lies Beneath, was published as
an ebook on 1 November 2012.
Footsteps on the Shore, the sixth in the DI
Andy Horton series was reprinted in paperback
in October.
Reviews
Both A Killing Coast and Death Lies Beneath received some
good reviews.
On Mystery
People, a website that specializes in promoting crime fiction, reviewer
Lizzie Hayes says of Death Lies Beneath, "This is a fast paced excellent
mystery, with an interesting diverse set of characters, and an intriguing hook
at the end that has me eagerly awaiting the next instalment in this series.
Highly recommended"
And from the USA...
American Book reviewer, Kirkus says, "Horton’s 8th is a
treat for fans of the puzzle-box mystery."
And from the highly influential International publication,
Publishers Weekly, "Rowson’s solid eighth police procedural featuring Det.
Insp. Andy Horton… convincing characters and a coherent plot bolster a crafty
solution to the crimes."
A Killing Coast also got some good reviews from the USA
"The plot is multilayered, twisted, and complex...
readers will be rewarded with a surprising conclusion and a satisfying read.”
Booklist
"Meticulous police work leads Horton to a particularly callous and ruthless killer as well as theft and blackmail…includes a few unexpected twists.” Publishers Weekly
"Meticulous police work leads Horton to a particularly callous and ruthless killer as well as theft and blackmail…includes a few unexpected twists.” Publishers Weekly
Footsteps on the Shore got a great review on BBC Radio
Kent's Book Club on the Pat Marsh Show on Tuesday 29 May. “Andy Horton
instantly appeals to readers.”
In translation – deals done
Translation Production Rights were sold to my DVD, Successful Selling, by Summersdale Productions to Indonesia. PT.UNGGUL CIPTA PIRANTI of Komplek Agung Sedayu bought productions rights from Summersdale Productions. My Successful Selling DVD will be dubbed in the local language, Bahasa.
Deadly Waters ( China) |
Just days ahead of the London Book Fair, translation rights
were sold to China for six crime novels in DI Andy Horton series. Nanhai
Publishing Company of Haikou bought translation rights through my Chinese Agent,
Chengdu Media.
Tune in - Radio Interviews
It’s been another good year for radio interviews, which I
love doing.
Pauline Rowson and Julian Clegg |
I appeared on the Julian Clegg Breakfast Show on BBC Radio
Solent on 26 January, 21 March, 6 July and 29 October. BBC Radio Solent 96.1
and 103.8 FM and DAB Digital Radio
I was on air with Pete Walkden on Vectis Radio, on 26 April talking about my crime novels. Vectis Radio is an online internet radio station dedicated to Island Residents and beyond. You can listen via the internet on WiFi Radio or even certain mobile phones.
I was on air with Pete Walkden on Vectis Radio, on 26 April talking about my crime novels. Vectis Radio is an online internet radio station dedicated to Island Residents and beyond. You can listen via the internet on WiFi Radio or even certain mobile phones.
On Thursday 17 May I was talking live on Angel Radio Isle of Wight to
David Nove.
My interview with Tony Smith on Angel Radio Havant was broadcast on Friday 26 October on 101.1 FM DAB. You can hear part of this interview on my You Tube Channel at www.youtube.com/paulinerowson13
My interview with Tony Smith on Angel Radio Havant was broadcast on Friday 26 October on 101.1 FM DAB. You can hear part of this interview on my You Tube Channel at www.youtube.com/paulinerowson13
Pauline Rowson with Pete Walkden |
I was also on Express FM 93.7
FM on 31 October
And in an interview on Expats Radio in November I revealed my thoughts on the publishing industry, getting published, authors’ advances and the rise of e books.
Public Appearances, Talks and Events
The year kicked off with a visit to Crown House, Portsmouth where I was
delighted to donate a couple of my crime novels to help raise funds for
Victim Support and Witness Service.
Mary Waldron, Pauline Rowson and Dawn McGee |
I was also guest speaker at the Victim Support Volunteers
meeting on 27 March where I talked about my writing and my marine mystery crime
novels to the staff and volunteers of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Victim
Support Services.
Victim Support is a national charity which provides free and confidential help to victims of crime, witnesses, their family, friends and anyone affected across England and Wales. They also speak out as a national voice for victims and witnesses and campaign for change. They are available to help any time after the crime has happened, whether it was yesterday, last week or several years ago. I know from personal experience in my family that the trauma of being a victim of violent crime never goes away. It can remain as painful in thirty, forty and over fifty years later.
London Book Fair
Jessie Wang and Pauline Rowson |
Next up was my visit to the London Book Fair in April where
I was delighted to meet up with my publisher, Severn House and my Chinese
agent, Jessie Wang of Chengdu Rightol Media who represents my novels in
China.
Policing the Solent
and the Crime Writers’ Association Conference
Also in April was an appearance at the Crime Writers’
Association Conference, which this year took place in Southampton, and with me
were police officers of the real Marine Police Unit in Hampshire as opposed to
my fictional marine unit in the DI Horton novels, Sergeant Dai Elkins and PC
Ripley.
Pauline Rowson introducing the Hampshire Police Marine Unit |
PC Kerry Murray |
PCs Kerry Murray and Matt Gransden entertained crime writers
from the CWA by providing a fascinating and informative talk about the splendid
work they do which includes counter terrorism patrols, the reduction and
detection of marine crime, investigation of marine incidents and fatalities,
policing large events, supporting the UK Border Agency, Coastguard, and Harbour
Authorities and responsibility for countering serious and organised crime and
preventing child abduction. They gave me
plenty of ideas for plots for future DI Horton crime novels.
The Solent is the busiest waterway in Europe and one of the busiest in the world with around one million commercial and Naval shipping movements per year and in excess of 10 million pleasure craft movements per year. The unit consists of one Sergeant and nine PCs, policing with three semi displacement launches covering an area that stretches from Dorset to Sussex and out to 12 miles offshore.
You can follow the Hampshire Police Marine Unit on Twitter @HantspolMarine
The Solent is the busiest waterway in Europe and one of the busiest in the world with around one million commercial and Naval shipping movements per year and in excess of 10 million pleasure craft movements per year. The unit consists of one Sergeant and nine PCs, policing with three semi displacement launches covering an area that stretches from Dorset to Sussex and out to 12 miles offshore.
You can follow the Hampshire Police Marine Unit on Twitter @HantspolMarine
Crimefest
May 2012 saw my annual appearance on a panel at Crimefest
2012 with other top crime writers.
Pauline Rowson (centre) |
Crimefest is a crime fiction
convention which follows the format of US conventions and includes interviews,
panels, and a gala dinner. It attracts audiences from all over the World.
Crime
genre, sub genres, secondary characters and fictional detectives was the
subject of my panel at Crimefest where I appeared with my fellow crime writers,
Frances Brody Mary Andrea Clarke and Leigh Russell. Crime author Adrian Magson
was our moderator.
Party time
After the panel events it was party time with publisher,
Severn House, and the CWA Daggers Reception.
Pauline Rowson with her publisher Severn House and Simon Brett |
Pauline Rowson and Simon Brett |
At the CWA Daggers Reception |
A packed U3A
audience
Also in May I gave a talk to a packed U3A audience at Hook in Hampshire about my
crime novels. Over a hundred people turned out on a damp May day
to hear me talk about my novels and how I write. Thanks to the programme
secretary Angela Powell for organising the event who was kind enough to say, “I
can mark that as another successful afternoon, with your very able assistance
of course, thank you so much. You obviously have the talent and the ability and
the personality."
I have lots of U3A talks lined up for 2013. Checkout my Events Page.
With
criminal intent
On 5 July I was invited onto a panel at the British
Society of Criminology Annual Conference at the University of Portsmouth,
Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, (ICJS).
I appeared on the panel with fellow crime writers,
Graham Hurley, Peter Lovesey, June Hampson and Linda Regan. Over 300 delegates from around the world
attended the conference was which themed around ‘Criminology at the borders’ and
coincided with the twentieth anniversary of ICJS. I met some lovely people who bought my crime
novels to take back to the States and Australia.
Graham Hurley, Peter Lovesey, Pauline Rowson, June Hampson, Linda Regan |
The panel was introduced by Dr
Diana Bretherick, Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice of the
University of Portsmouth. The audience of academics and practitioners
operating at the cutting edge of thinking on crime and justice asked us
questions about our crime novels, including how we researched them, why we
enjoyed reading and writing crime fiction, the writers who had influenced us and
what made them choose the locations for our crime novels. It was great fun.
Author
on the Bridge
My crime novels and thrillers are
set in the Portsmouth and Isle of Wight area so in September I took a special
trip across the Solent on the Wightlink ferry, St Clare, to sign a copy of the
DI Andy Horton novel Death Lies Beneath
which is dedicated to the Captains and crew of the Wightlink ferry service
between Portsmouth and Fishbourne which features regularly in the Horton crime
novels and also in the thriller In For The Kill.
Death Lies Beneath is dedicated in particular to Captain Paul Marshall and
Captain John Monk both of whom allow me to travel with them on the Bridge and
have been very helpful in my research.
Pauline Rowson with Captain Paul Marshall |
Crime
fiction meets crime fact at CSI Portsmouth 2012
CSI Portsmouth 2012 was a great success. The third year of
this popular one day event in November saw over 160 people pack the venue in
Portsmouth, England to hear what crime authors and crime experts had to
say. Joining me was best selling crime
authors Stephen Booth, Ann Cleeves, Matt Hilton along with experts
from Hampshire Police and the Universities of Portsmouth and Southampton. Our
moderator was Cheryl Buggy, Station Director of Express FM radio.
The audience also had the chance to put their questions to the panel and to talk to the team from the fingerprint bureau and students from the Forensic Science course from South Downs College who provided a crime scene.
This annual event is part of Portsmouth BookFest and helping me to organise it are Portsmouth City Council Library Service and the Hayling Island Bookshop.
The audience also had the chance to put their questions to the panel and to talk to the team from the fingerprint bureau and students from the Forensic Science course from South Downs College who provided a crime scene.
This annual event is part of Portsmouth BookFest and helping me to organise it are Portsmouth City Council Library Service and the Hayling Island Bookshop.
Next year’s CSI Portsmouth 2013 will be held on Saturday 2
November.
Pauline Rowson, Stephen Booth and Matt Hilton |
The experts on the morning panel |
The Experts on the afternoon panel |
Ann Cleeves and Pauline Rowson |
Back from the North
East
For the third year running I was invited to give two talks
in the North East of England. It was a great pleasure to return to an area
where I am made so welcome and where DI Andy Horton has many fans. On Monday 12
November I was speaking at Newcastle City Library and on Tuesday 13
November I was at Seaton Carew Library, Hartlepool giving a talk as part of
Hartlepool Borough Library twenty first anniversary celebrations. The audience
at both events were as delightful as ever.
Pauline Rowson at Newcastle City Library |
Pauline Rowson at Seaton Carew Library, Hartlepool |
My thanks to both Newcastle and Hartlepool Library Services
for organising the events and to all library staff for the fantastic and highly
worthwhile service they provide to the community. Without the library service
it would be a very barren landscape.
I shall once again be in the area in April 2013 taking part
in CSI Gateshead at Gateshead Library, a mini version of CSI
Portsmouth, and at Hartlepool Library.
Other news from 2012
The Public Lending Rights (PLR) league table for the most borrowed authors from British Libraries put my novels in the top 1.7%. This includes authors of all genres and children’s authors, reflecting the increasing popularity of the Portsmouth based detective, DI Andy Horton. Sales of my crime and thriller novels in ebook format on Kindle and Nook and Kobo have quadruple over the last year.
Footsteps on the Shore, the sixth in the DI Horton series
was nominated by Severn House for the eDUNNIT AWARD at CrimeFest 2012. (Sadly
it didn’t win!)
A Killing Coast was featured as one of the great crime reads
for Crime Writing Month in June organised by the Crime Writers Association
(CWA) which celebrated the crime genre throughout June with a series of talks,
book signings and workshops by crime writers around the country, as well as
some of the hottest new publications of the year listed on its website.
Author on research
My research early in the year took me to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and the the National Museum for the Royal Navy. Both are settings for Undercurrent, the ninth DI Andy Horton Mystery which will be published as a hardcover in the UK in January 2013 and in the USA and as an ebook on 1 May 2013
Getting the facts ( The National Museum of the Royal Navy) |
The National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard |
The Library of the National Museum of the Royal Navy |
Where a body is found!!! |
And my research in November took me to Hilsea Lines in Portsmouth for the DI Andy Horton crime novel I am currently writing.
This looks like a good spot for a body |
The Moat, Port Creek and Langstone Harbour |
Perfect |
And for 2013? Lots of events lined up and a new DI Andy Horton – Undercurrent – being published. Read more on my blog entry on 1 January 2013.
Comments