Two Blokes, Four Blokes and the Exploding Nun.

 Two mates had a book launch in Glasgow last night.

Messers Gordon Brown who I am sure some of you know, and Neil Broadfoot who you  will come across if you are an aficionado of  crime thrillers.

They were interviewing each other, which can get a bit, I'll pat you on the back if you will pat me on the back. How  many ways can we say that  we think our books are wonderful?

This event had no possibility of falling into that  trap as they had left little bits of paper on each table so we could write questions that  we wanted to ask. Big mistake when  the cast of Carry On Sleuthing is in the audience and the cast of four blokes.

  I'm sure the Murder is Everywhere Blogsphere know about the play that  we do called Carry On Sleuthing. Neil and Craig have been known to help  out when we needed extra legs.
 I think that  has resulted in both of them seeking medical help. Sleuthing is dangerous and few folk realise the peril that  we actors risk when we walk on stage  with a sleuthing script in our hands. In fact, I don't know why we have that  script as we tend to make it up as we go along.

Neil and Craig are part of the 'Four Blokes in Search Of A Plot' crew.

I have blogged about these guys before also - you may recall the pictures of four guys sitting on stage  and one has a laptop and a tea cosy on his head.

 You can only type while you are wearing the Tea Cosy Of Inspiration.

Each bloke types for five minutes  using an idea shouted out from the audience. Then the audience select the next writer, and on it goes. They have to pick up where the last one left off.

 I have seen them write a plan for a good thriller with the starting point of Stuart McBride and  a potato peeler .

Every time Mark Leggat gets the laptop, a nun seems to explode.

He's like that.

Craig was launching Highest Lives.

The premise of this series is fascinating. A man who has had some interference from a government agency and when he gets stressed, people die.  If he gets upset, folk around him will start attacking each other.  We have seen that in the Four Blokes audience so maybe that  is where he got the idea.

He did actually get the idea in a  quiet pub in Glasgow when he and his mate were having a  drink. The other folk in the bar were a pair of brothers and a single bloke in the corner reading a book.  The brothers started fighting, the police were called as the furniture started flying.  They got flung out.

 The man in the corner carried on reading his book as though nothing had happened.

Was that man, reading something that really upset  him and did he, in some way, make the other two attack each other?

Was he reading the Wit and Wisdom of Boris Johnson?

That's a very short book.

Or I do wonder....if the reader of the book in the pub was deaf.

I interviewed Neil about this book for Aye Write last year.

I think it goes under the genre of a pacy thriller.  As with all good lead characters, there's more to Connor than meets the eye. It's hinted at, now and again but Neil said that as the series goes on, so Connor's past will reveal itself.

This night was to celebrate the launch of No Place To Die where Neil  kills many guests staying at a small hotel  in Stirling over a period of  48 hours.

And Connor  has to get in there and sort the situation out before more deaths occur.

Neil starts writing the first line and keeps going until he gets to the end. He has no idea what is going  on in his books until he has finished them. 

I wonder if he's ever tempted to write 'Connor managed to fling himself on top of the little puppy, saving it from the blastwave of the exploding nun.'

I am not the greatest plotter in the world but I do know the ending, the characters will decide how I get there.

Caro Ramsay  18 October 2019