The Twelve by Stuart Neville: Out now in paperback.

For any aliens who've just landed on this planet or ex prisoners who've been banged up in solitary with only a Bible to read for the last year there's a book now out in mass market paperback you just have to read. I can't believe it's nearly a year since the book was first published, nearly a year since I enjoyed reading it. It's a book that I just might read again sometime.The book is entitled The Twelve and is written by Stuart Neville.
I've been reading Stuarts blog for a few years now and it's been great to see how the book started and progressed over the years. We even got to read snippets of the book on the blog. Like every good blogger Stuart found it hard to resist a blogging exercise.

and the winner is...

Not just one Northern Irish author, but two winners in the 2010 Spinetingler Awards.

For Best Novel: New Voice The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville

and...
Best Novel: Rising Star Category Fifty Grand by Adrian McKinty

Well done Lads!

Crime writers interrogated on the Beeb tonight.

Two of Northern Irelands favourite radio dj's present  what is called an eclectic mash-up of all things art in Northern Ireland, in a programme entitled Art Space. Tonight's programme, on BBC 1 @ 11:00pm includes...

Donna Legge investigating  the murky world of crime fiction in Northern Ireland.
To help her with her enquires she met Dr Andrew Pepper, a lecturer in English and crime fiction at Queens University.
Donna also interrogated local author Stuart Neville, whose debut novel The Twelve has been optioned for a movie deal and was shortlisted for the LA Times book prize 2010.
Joining her too in the interview room was Brian McGilloway the writer responsible for the critically acclaimed Inspector Devlin series who was shortlisted in 2007 for the CWA New Gold Dagger award and whose books have been optioned for TV.

Vote for these Northern Irish authors

It's ladies first. For MAD Blog of the Year award in the Funniest Blog category, the author of books like Jumping in Puddles and Feels Like Maybe, yer women who has popularised the use of the word 'feck' in local literary circles. Yer woman who spells her surname Allan not Allen, who else could it be but Claire Allan. Her blog is found HERE and the voting booth over here in the corner. She needs your votes, she  once won a basket of fruit in a raffle in school but someone had loaned her the 10p for the ticket so she had to give them the grapes (aka the best bit).

VOTE FAULKNER! No we're not going back in time and I'm not encouraging people to vote for any political party but I am encouraging you to vote for Michael Faulkner. Michael is author of The Blue Cabin: Living by the Tides on Islandmore and Still on the Sound: A Seasonal Look at Island Life and blogs @ ISLAND LIFE: The Blue Cabin Blog and tweets @TheBlueCabin Michael is a finalist in the Author Blog Awards which aim to honour the best blogs by both published and unpublished writers. They will recognise the writers who use their blogs to connect with readers in the most imaginative, engaging and inspiring ways. At the same time they hope to attract new audiences to these blogs and help readers find out more about the authors they love, and new authors too.Vote for Michael here.

Spinetingler promote and enhance the profile of talented emerging writers using the forum of electronic publishing and  two Northern Irish authors names appear in the 2010 Spinetingler Award list. They are Stuart Neville for The Ghosts of Belfast in the Best Novel: New Voice category and Adrian McKinty for Fifty Grand in  the Rising Star category.Vote for them here.

In other news Sam Millar has four of his books listed in the top ten Dark Fiction Picked By Amazon Readers Well done Sam!