Ah, yes… “masterful” indeed.

by Jonathan on November 20th, 2009

I’m posting this review from an English newspaper because I loved the “masterfully”.

I’ll be using the word frequently in my internal narration of my day – “Here is Jonathan Hayes masterfully pouring milk on his Frosties”, “Here is Jonathan Hayes masterfully looking for his pants”, “Here is Jonathan Hayes masterfully freeing the several feet of toilet paper trailing from his shoe”,  that sort of thing.

Here is Jonathan Hayes masterfully blogging despite being still 90% asleep…

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And this just in…

by Jonathan on November 13th, 2009

The prize for First Review of A Hard Death goes to… The Daily Mail! Our heartiest congratulations to them, and my thanks for a great review.

I’m flattered that the critic focuses on Jenner as an emotional character (let’s face it – Jenner’s a bit of a trainwreck). I’m also intrigued that he or she cites the book’s refreshing lack of gore – violence was pretty much the only thing American critics had against Precious Blood.

I have to say that the “too violent” critique didn’t worry me. I don’t want to shock or offend, but I realized, as I was writing A Hard Death, that I write violent. Which isn’t surprising – just as breaking eggs is an unfortunate but necessary step in the omelet-making process, if you’re writing murder…

I didn’t think Precious Blood was particularly violent; rather, the violence was explicit and realistic, but never gratuitous. A Hard Death moves faster, and has a signifcantly higher body count than Precious Blood; it’s plenty violent.

It’ll be interesting to see what other critics think… In the meantime, click here to read the Mail review yourself:

A Technical Note: Airboats

by Jonathan on November 12th, 2009

British readers may be unfamiliar with airboats, which, as far as I know, don’t exist in the U.K.

The airboat is a shallow draft boat, powered by an aircraft engine and propeller in a mesh safety cage.  Because they use air movement, rather than an underwater propeller,  airboats can travel in very shallow water, and even over more solid terrain (for short distances). They’re very popular in the Everglades, which is essentially a vast, extremely shallow river hidden by marsh grass; the first time I rode in an airboat was to get to the scene of a remote airplane crash in a part of the Glades not easily reached by traditional boats.

I found this photo on a web page from the Airboat Association of Florida, a tribute to a man named John F. Schneider. Mr. Schneider was apparently devoted to airboating in the Glades; these photos make it easy to see why. Airboats skim across the surface of the water – they feel incredibly fast, in part because of the roar of the engine behind your head. If you find yourself in Florida, you owe yourself at least one airboat ride.

The Blog That Time Forgot

by Jonathan on October 6th, 2009

Well, yes. I have been a little quiet lately: I blame Facebook, plus the nextbook. But I’m back now. I’m not 100% sure I can remember how this works, but I’ll fumble along.

I’ve finished A Hard Death; the book comes out in the UK on November 5, but we’re still working out the US release date. The feeling at Harper was that Precious Blood rather got lost in the onslaught of “Big Books” that come out in the autumn – yer Koontzes and Kings, yer Browns and Balzacs – so though the book could be ready for release in the fall, it’ll more likely appear in winter instead.

Anyway, more about that later. I’ll post some goofy thing about what I’ve been doing for the last 11 months – mostly finishing the renovation of my tiny place in Paris, writing A Hard Death, and keeping the world safe from evil from a secret New York City location (actually a giant bathysphere somewhere below the icy surfaces of the East River, but don’t tell anyone).

OK. I’ll be in touch!

It feels weird to be back, but kinda good…