festival time

One of the nice things about the festival season is getting out and about meeting other crime writers. This summer is going to be very fabby as I am meeting up with many of my fellow bloggers on the murder is everywhere blog site when we are all at Bristol.

Great meeting of literal minds, probably in the bar.

I am moderating a panel for the second time, this is a huge responsibility, a bit like being on a Channel Four late night chat show,  having a lot of prepared questions, trying to get the best out of folk, avoiding them fighting, trying not to be too controversial,  it’s a bloody minefield. Worse than that the organisers have given me foreign writers again ... this time a Frenchman. I know that he will speak good English ... but I don’t, I speak fluent Glaswegian and that’s where the problem lies.

 Also I like to give them a wee heads up on some of the questions I might ask …. So they can appear to be witty and spontaneously wonderful with carefully thought out answers. That might sound like a bit of a con but the audience gets more out it, if I asked you ... what serial killer would you like to invite to dinner and why … the mind tends to go blank, the foreknowledge of that question just might make you think ... then at three in the morning a great idea wakes you up and you think ... oh why didn’t I say that!  I think I might like a word with Harold Shipman, quiet, most folks said he was a good doctor, a kind hearted man. I think that duality in his personality is interesting. So he would get my vote.

I wonder who will vote for Hannibal Lecter!