Sunday, July 31, 2011

Writer waffles about writing

Interview with me over at Iain Rowan's excellent "More News from Nowhere" blog. Check it out if you want to know what I think about writing. Then go check the other interviews with the likes of Ray Banks, Julie Morrigan, Keith Brooke, Paul D Brazill, Gary McMahon and literally shitloads of other top book writing folks. Then go and download Iain's collection, Nowhere to Go, onto your Kindle.

Elsewhere, an article about the Royston Blake books with a Facebook angle on Norway's Stavanger Aftenblad newspaper. If you cannot understand Norwegian, fret not - it just looks really interesting. And the word "fart" is in the title.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Blakey on Tour - Aside #6 and final

I have purged Blakey on Tour from this blog. Sorry if you were planning on going back to it (for whatever strange reason). Fact is, I have been working it into a novel offline, which is nearing the end now, so I don't want people discovering the first draft on here. Actually I don't care, but it seems neater this way. Hmm... maybe deleting it all wasn't such a good idea? Fuck it - done now. I'll let you know how the novel goes. If I can only find it...

Meantimes, ONE DEAD HEN publication date is drawing near. You can pre-order it here and here, "like" it here (go on), and read about it here and here. Any way you look at it, Blakey is on his way back.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

One Dead Hen


The new Royston Blake book, ONE DEAD HEN, comes out on August 9th. I have set up a Facebook page to get things going, so if you are a fan of Royston Blake (or just want to support an author) and you are on Facebook, please "like" it. I will be presenting a random "liker" of the page with a free ARC of the book EVERY DAY between now and the 9th. Am I making it worth your while or what? So get liking. And then get reading.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

King for a day


Today marks the re-publication of King of the Road, third in the so-called Mangel Trilogy which is set to become a tetralogy (or let's just say "series"). It comes out from AmazonEncore in the UK/US and I guess worldwide, having previously been done by Serpent's Tail in the UK. In many ways this is my favourite book, and I think it finally has a cover to do it justice.

You can pick it up for £2.49/$3.99 on Kindle and £8.09/$7.99 paperback. Give it a go. If you haven't read the previous two, don't worry - it stands alone. As does Royston Blake. Here is a blurb, followed by a couple of juicy quotes:

Released after a long stretch at Parpham Mental Hospital, Royston Blake finds that the world has moved on. Even in Mangel. Gone are most of his old haunts, including Hoppers. In its place: a huge shopping mall, servicing the town's every consumer need. But not everyone is happy seeing the old ways swept aside, and the "Old Guard" - a mysterious opposition group well known on the letters page of the local paper - sets about recruiting Blake as its agent of retribution. Meanwhile Blake just wants to settle down with Sal, get to know the son he has never met, and do the right thing.

"I can hear the politically correct mustering for duty, sharpening their swords and measuring lengths of rope for Charlie Williams's cheeky neck. They may have a point, for his hero Royston Blake is a psychotic whirlwind whose reason is as fragile and chaotic as his body is strong - but, hell, this is gloriously funny stuff and so original that other writers must be gnashing their teeth in jealousy"
The Guardian

"Blackly funny and bone-jarringly violent... Williams' latest offering comes across like a heady literary mix between Straw Dogs and Pulp Fiction"
Dublin Evening Herald

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Blakey on Tour - aside #5

8 things about "Blakey on Tour", the ongoing story on my blog:


  1. Sorry I have not been updating it

  2. I am still writing it

  3. In fact I am writing it so much that it is going to be another novel (but with a different title)

  4. I have had to go back and put things in, which is why I can't do it on the blog any more

  5. Also some of the material doesn't feel right on my blog, if you get my drift

  6. A huge thanks to anyone who read it up to this point. The fact that people were following it is what got it going. I owe you one. Writing a chapter and then immediately posting it up and seeing hits on it was a strange and exhilerating thing

  7. If this book never sees light of day, I'll try to track down every last person who followed it and get the manuscript to them, should they wish to read it

  8. Royston Blake lives on!

Friday, July 01, 2011

Dancing with himself

I interviewed myself for Nigel Bird's blog, Sea Minor. Check it out here. I've done a few of these self-interrogation things and I'm not sure they're healthy. I think I am going slightly insaner with each one. What makes you think that, Charlie? I dunno, just seems like... hey, pack that in!