The Obligatory Round Up And Pointless Best Of List For 2007

Yes, it's that time of year again when people with too much time on their hands make lists of what they've done in the forlorn hope that someone else will be the slightest bit interested. Not that anyone will be - this is my list and I'm not all that bothered.

So here we go. First up, books.

I seem to have read lots this year but managed to avoid most of the books people talked about loudly at parties. I've been mostly reading and re-reading British stuff. Julian Maclaren Ross, Patrick Hamilton, Graham Greene (including letters and Norman Sherry's forest-devastating three volume biography) and, more recently, David Peace's Red Riding Quartet. As usual, Hard Case Crime kept up their usual high standards, notably Charles Ardai's own Songs of Innocence. Ray Banks' Donkey Punch was quite a belter, as was Allan Guthrie's Hard Man. And it was brilliant to see him win the Theakstons Waterstones Best Novel prize in July. The right guy won for once.

Cathi Unsworth's The Singer was, I thought, one of the literay events of the year. And if it didn't get the exposure it deserved, I reckon that was done down to sexism on the part of lots of reviewers. What's the matter boys, scared that a girl knows more than you do about music? And can express it better? The other book that rocked my world was James Lee Burke's The Tin Roof Blowdown. Yes, I know I'm biased and that when he's going less than full throttle he's better than 90% of writers (crime and otherwise) currently operating. But he was at the top of his game for this one. Come the awards next year, he's going to be sweeping the board. And deservedly so.

But I never got round to some of the stuff I wanted to read. David Peace's new one is still sitting there, as is Joseph Wamburgh's Hollywood Station. I'm also trying to work my way through Christopher Booker's The Seven Basic Plots - Why We Tell Stories. A brilliant book but since it took him thirty four years to write it's not the kind of thing you can just skip through one weekend.

And I never read On Chesil Beach. But then neither did anyone else, apparently. They just bought it and didn't get round to it. I didn't even buy it.

TV. Apart from Doctor Who I didn't watch much. But that didn't matter - DW had some of the best stuff I've seen on TV in ages this year. Blink and Human Nature were fantastic, Blink in particular. I was completely in awe of Steven Moffat's writing. Bastard.

I tried to get into Heroes but was away during the summer so got hopelessly lost off. I'm persevering though - I've bought the boxset and will while away the winter with that. Speaking of boxsets, they seemed to be the only way of keeping up with the shows I love. I loved both The Wire and The Shield. If anything they got better. The Sopranos finished, completely unmourned in this house. I long since gave up on it when they tried to get the characters to jump through every decreasingly interesting hoops.

Film. Didn't go. Saw nothing. Apart from Harry Potter, and wished I hadn't. That's the trouble with living out in the sticks. No decent cinema.

Music. Went on a massive Scott Walker kick which is never a bad thing. Re-listened to everything and was once again dazzled by Scott 4 and scared by The Drift. He's the only artist who makes me wish I had synatheasia because his songs sound like colour-filled soundscapes. And I bet I've spelt that wrong.

Listened to tons this year. Really wanted to love Richmond Fontaine's new album, ending up just liking it a lot. Did love Bruce Springsteen's new one (and suprised myself in the process). A real return to form. Hasn't sounded this good for years. And Radio Nowhere was the best song of the year. Apart from Biffy Clyro's Machines, that is. Jim White's new one was a little disappointing although I hope it may be a grower. Richard Hawley came up with another belter but not a good one for listening to in the car - too soporific. Live, CSS were fantastic and erased everyone else I saw from memory. And, although I know it wasn't a 2007 album, the Trials of Van Occupanther was my most played album of the year. Fantastic.


So there you go. Another pointless list. Happy New Year, everyone.

A New Cover . . . At Last . . .

Yes, those of you who've checked my site will have noticed a new cover for White Riot. And it's not even out yet. Well, yes, I must admit I like this one better. I liked the old one too, even though I did have reservations as to whether having a big fist with 'HATE' written on it was alienating the female readership somewhat. I was assured that the female readership would not be alienated by that. Well apparently they were, because we now have a sinister staircase instead. I don't know where this staircase is going from or to, but I must admit it looks rather nice. Apparently there was some research done and it was decided that a sense of location was needed. Although I'm not sure how specific that location was meant to be. I thought they meant something with Newcastle on it but to be honest, most of the shots you see of the city are there to entice the tourists so not very appropriate. So we've got the staircase. Which in actual fact does remind me of Newcastle. In fact it reminds me of the entrance hall to my old girlfriend's flat in Benwell, Newcastle (Google it - they were selling whole streets for twenty five quid there in the Nineties) after a party where someone tried to set fire to the place while we were upstairs in bed. I'm sure if you look hard enough you can see the incinerated Bryan Ferry poster. Ah, happy memories.

This week I read: The Gorse Trilogy by Patrick Hamilton; Fear And Loathing in Fitzrovia - a biography of Julian Maclaren Ross by Paul Willetts

This week I listened to: Lady's Bridge by Richard Hawley; These Were The Earlies by The Earlies

Well my website is finally up and running. What should have taken a couple of months has taken the best part of a year and involved much losing of temper and patience on my part but since it's finally here I'm not going to dwell on that. Much.

So anyway, the story so far . . .

This is the first entry in the blog of Martyn Waites. I shouldn't really be doing this as A) I can't think that anyone would want to read this rubbish and B) I'm supposed to be working on a new novel. Because that's what I do. I'm a writer (novelist mainly but also short stories, journalism, film scripts - anything in fact, as long as I get paid), primarily working in the field of crime. I've written eight novels, the latest being White Riot which is due out January 2008. I've done a bit of blogging before on Sarah Weinman's excellent site and thought I would give it a go on my own. Obviously I want to talk about the stuff I'm writing but I should imagine I'll also be mouthing off about anything that takes my fancy. Other books, films, TV, what's happening in the world, Newcastle United Football Club . . . whatever. I'll try to keep this weekly but we'll see how it goes. This could be the first and last one. A collector's item! Get it while it's hot!

Big news for me at the moment is that the trailer for White Riot is finished and it looks quite spectacular. Trailer? I'll tell you. I was watching TV over the summer and kept seeing (almost on a continuous loop) the trailer for The Bourne Ultimatum. This got me thinking: wouldn't it be a great idea to do something like that to promote an upcoming book? Particularly mine? So, undeterred by the fact that I didn't have a film to accompany it that scenes could be pulled from, a mulit-million dollar Hollywood budget or Matt Damon (actually that may have been a blessing) I set about doing it. I contacted an old mate of mine, Bob Horwell, award-winning actor and director, and told him the idea. Armed with a budget from Simon and Schuster and several well known TV actors (including Mark Wingett who played Jim Carver in The Bill for twenty odd years as Joe Donovan) we set off filming. And the result with chase scenes, exploding cars and gratuitous damage to my mobile phone, is really rather good indeed, even if I say so myself.

The response so far has been overwhelmingly positive which we've been very pleased about. Not to mention relieved. I think it's the first time anything like this has been attempted in this country on this scale and with this brashness. I know there have been tentative attempts before but I think most of them have failed because they haven't managed to transpose one medium to another. Now I'm not saying what we've done is perfect but we've gone for it, so much so that people are now asking when the film is coming out. So are we . . .

So when and where will it be shown? Some time in the next month or two. Probably here, on my website too, FaceBook, CrimeSpace, YouTube and some other places we're still in negotiation with. Plenty of places, in fact. You'll probably be sick of it. But I doubt I will be. Bob and I think we're on to something with this. So much so that we've set up a company, Red Harvest Films, to make (amongst other things) promos for other writers and publishers. Anyone want one?

Still, it's all done now and I should be concentrating on the new Joe Donovan novel, Murdered Sons. (Anyone know where that title comes from? Yes, like the others it's a song, or rather a performance piece/prose poem. Clue: she's playing live in London in October.) I should be, but film making is fun and more addictive than eBaying when you're drunk. So I think we'll be out there with the camera again very soon . . .

And, because apparently this is the kind of thing people want to see, or expect to see, on blogs though god knows why:

This week Martyn read: Songs of Innocence by Richard Aleas. Solid noir and totally involving - One of the best books I've read all year.
And listened to: Scott Walker 1 - 4 (again). Can't get enough, the man's a genius. Especially Scott 4, Boy Child in particular. Music really doesn't get any better than this.