Noir At The Bar: Carlisle - Noir At The Bar Comes to the UK

Zoë Sharp

Last week I had the pleasure of being invited to the first Noir At The Bar event held in England. It wasn’t the first one in the UK – that honour was nabbed by Glasgow in June last year.

The inaugural English event took place in Carlisle, at the quirky Moo Bar on Devonshire Street, which is a real-ale-drinker’s dream location. The organisers were three local crime authors – Matt Hilton, Graham Smith and Mike Craven, collectively known as Crime Ink-Corporated.

l to r Matt Hilton, Graham Smith, Mike Craven

When Matt first emailed me about taking part I said yes right away, and only then started to think about what I was actually going to read out. We were each allowed between five and seven minutes, although I’ve always found short and sweet tends to go down better than going on again, on again, on again.

In the end I plumped for part of my Charlie Fox short story ‘Kill Me Again Slowly’, which I wrote for the Bouchercon 2015 anthology, MURDER UNDER THE OAKS. This story had enough of a bizarre setup to be (I hope) both intriguing and entertaining. Seemed to go down well on the night, anyway.

Of course, while the idea of N@tB may be a new one in the UK, such events have been going on in the States since 2008. Crime reviewer, critic and blogger, Peter Rozovsky of Detectives Beyond Borders came up with the original idea, which was held at a bar tended by a friend in Philadelphia, where the décor happened to be all black.

Peter Rozovsky (right) with Ali Karim of Shots eZine
(pic by Ali Karim)

The format for those first evenings was for a single author to read and take questions, but since then – and with more authors wanting to take part – there can be quite a number, reading out short extracts either from a current work or, in some cases, from something experimental that might or might not otherwise see the light of … night.

great pic for N@tB, created by illustrator Brent Schoonover

Dozens of N@tB evenings have now sprung up from New York to LA and all points in between. And then last year two Brit authors decided to bring it over here. The organisers for the Glasgow event were Jay Stringer and Russel D McLean. Jay made it down to Carlisle for last week’s event, and very entertaining he is, too.

As were the other writers on the bill, including Lucy Cameron, Paul Finch, James Hilton, Tess Makovesky, David Mark, Jay Stringer, Neil White and myself. A wildcard name was pulled from a hat on the night – Linda Wright. Some read parts of short stories, work-in-progress novels, current novels and even a great poem. And all with that dark kind of humour that marks out this particular corner of the genre.

thanks to Noir at the Bar for the pic

The place was packed, and by the end of the evening Graham was able to announced that the Moo Bar had happily invited N@tB back again for a return match. I hope I’m lucky enough to be there for it.

l to r Matt Hilton, Lucy Cameron, Graham Smith, Tess Makovesky, Paul Finch, Linda Wright, Neil White, David Mark, Jay Stringer, ZS, Jim Hilton (Matt's brother) and Mike Craven

This week’s Word of the Week comes courtesy of Lucy Cameron’s blog, and is pleonasm, meaning the use of more words or parts of words than are strictly necessary for clear expression. It comes from the Greek pleonasmos (pleon) meaning more or too much. One common example is ‘safe haven’, as if it wasn’t safe it wouldn’t be a haven, so ‘safe’ can be left out. However, sometimes pleonasm is employed for additional emphasis, in case certain words are lost during communication.

Crime and Publishment And the Skinny Pigs

                            


I'd like you to meet Graham Smith.  He's the Crime writer who runs the Crime and Publishment weekend that I did some work for recently, but more about that later. Graham is a very busy man, one of those chaps that always has a pen stuck behind his ear and a thousand things going on on his mind, all in the right order. I think he began life as a builder so this could well be true but I  think all writers should be caught up in the imaginative affray and not that well behaved really.  You know, vast of mind and rampant creative processes  which leads to terrible handwriting among other traits of marvelous.

However to his credit, he does have
                       a) terrible handwriting

                       b) the ability to tell a good story, short and sharp.

                       c) a very quick sense of humour

                       d) a pen behind his ear that I borrowed on many occasions ( I can never find mine!)

                                            
                                                  Graham behind the bar

The Crime And Publishment folk are a very friendly on-line bunch who seem to meet up every now and again to eat, drink and drink some more. As a bit of an outsider I was struck by the support and generosity they have for each other's writing, and was wondering if that was because many of them live in places ( I'm refusing to type the words 'the middle of no where'!)  that are more rural, a little off the beaten track and lack the  physical local writers group that we enjoy in the mid belt. 

I bet they all live in perfectly normal places  but I'm not letting that spoil the blog..

Here's what Graham had to say....

Who and what is Crime and Publishment?

Crime & Publishment is a weekend of crime writing masterclasses. It is held at the hotel I manage on the outskirts of Gretna Green.

                                                   
                                                   The marvelous reviewer Chris.
                                           A well known face from Harrogate and Bristol

What does that location lend to the crime writing.... it struck me how close the motorway was--- for quick get away if I had murdered Chris Simmonds and stuck him in your wheely bin?

Being close to the motorway is great for quick getaways and the fact Gretna Green is a tourist town means there is a constant stream of visitors to the area and therefore lots of stories to be overheard.

Do you meet online? How often do you meet in person?

We have a group on the book of faces (Facebook) It’s a secret group complete with passwords, funny handshakes and a rather bizarre initiation ceremony involving The Da Vinci Code, self-flagellation and the words “I can write better than this”. To supplement this online activity we meet up for a meal and a natter about all things relevant to crime fiction every couple of months or so.

                                                         

Why was it set up and whose idea was it?

I founded Crime & Publishment along with Inga McVicar as a way to help aspiring writers achieve their aim of securing a publishing contract.

                                                               

Can anybody join?

We are open to all writers who are looking to learn more about their craft and improve their writing. We’ve had attendees from all over the country with varied levels of experience and previous successes.

                                              

Many of you seemed very well informed, did C and P stem from any review website?

Thank you for the compliment. Crime and Publishment was only made possible by the contacts I’ve established as a reviewer for Crimesquad.com. Not only have I been able to attract talented authors as speakers, I’ve been lucky enough have attendees who know a certain amount of writing crime fiction.

And what is WCW?

WCW is the shortened from of Word Count Wednesday. This is a regular feature (weekly believe it or not) on our Facebook group. The idea is that you post the number of new words written towards a crime fiction story. It acts as a prompt for everyone and engenders a collective support system. Depending upon everyone’s commitments away from writing and where they are in their novel, the non-existent trophy can pass back and forth between any member.

How long has the C and P weekend been going?

2015 was our third year and I am already starting to plan for 2016.

                                              
      This is Mike Craven, a man who wears Spiderman socks... do not ask me how I know this....

Biggest success, apart from Ms Ramsay and Mr Malone's Jaws oscar winning performance?

I didn’t witness that performance myself, therefore under the mygaff / myrules jurisdiction it cannot be included. In all seriousness, the fact Mike Craven, Lucy Cameron and myself have all earned publishing contracts because of C&P is undoubtedly the greatest success. I never dared to imagine that after running the event twice I would have such a batting average.

                                                 

        Lucy Cameron's pie chart to the great novel.

 I think the orange bit might stand for googling oneself!

Biggest Disaster?

There hasn’t been a disaster as such, but when David Thomas contacted me a week before the event with news of unforeseen family circumstance. I did see rather a large wave approaching my little boat. I was very fortunate that Neil White was able to step in and rescue me.

How do you split writing time with what must be a very consuming job?

It’s a struggle at times but when a story is burning inside me I have to get it out. My shifts at work get me three weekdays a fortnight when my son is at school and I tend to try and get at least an hour’s writing done after 9.00pm every night.

What book are you on now and how is it going?

I’m working on my own edits of a novel provisionally titled “The Watcher” and I’m really enjoying the discovery of all the stupid mistakes I’ve made. I hate the whole editing process but I know how much of a difference it can make. The way this one is going I may have to invest in a larger swear box.

                                        
                                                         And that is a Skinny Pig!

Tell us about the naked guinea pigs....

My wife breeds a rare kind of hairless guinea pig known as “skinny pigs”. I have as little to do with them as possible because of a firm belief they are nothing more than tail-less rats. However, I have writing as my hobby and she has her skinny pigs. With the bald wee buggers selling at over £100 apiece I’m gonna have to shift a lot of books to compete with her financially.

Caro Ramsay 27/03/2015