At Transworld, we are immensely privileged to have very dedicated authors who meticulous research the content of their books to give the reader a compelling, absorbing and factual account of events past. Sean Black is an author who goes just that one step further to produce his enthralling Ryan Lock thrillers.
In order to get into the head of his main character – Ryan Lock – Sean enrolled on a 24 day close protection course along with several others including an ex-German Special Forces sniper and a member of the Mafia. To add further to the ordeal, Sean was subjected to gruelling training, police drills and ‘simulated’ attacks; at one point he was pushed to the ground at gunpoint and soon learnt why the base used plastic bed sheets…
Ostensibly every man’s dream, Sean was taken to a disused air field, handed the keys to half a dozen cars and taught offensive and defensive manoeuvres before being flown to Prague for fire-arms training. Sean maintains that these were the most enjoyable weeks of his life… to this day we fail to understand why! If all of this wasn’t enough, Sean also did time at Pelican Bay Supermax in California, home to America’s most violent prison gangs where 75% of inmates are serving life without possibility of parole.
So there are writers that research and then there are writers that research and we are glad Sean is the latter as the brilliant paperback of Lockdown hits the shelves today with Deadlock in hardback on the 22nd of next month.
To read more about Sean, visit his website: http://seanblackbooks.com/
Do you love to review books? Do you post reviews on Amazon? Are you an avid blogger? If you answered yes to any of these questions then the Transworld Summer Reading Challenge is for you!
Running from June to September we’re letting bloggers pick four titles from the list below to be sent for review. Review the book on your blog or on Amazon and send us the link, then we’ll send you out the second book on your list.* It’s as easy at that!
At the end of the Summer (fingers crossed for a warm September!) we’ll host a mini shindig for the most active bloggers to celebrate completing the challenge and chat about our Autumn titles. We’d love to meet you in person!
Post this header and the packshot above (we’ll send it to you) linking back to Between the Lines to commence your challenge!
‘I’m taking part in the Transworld Dan Brown Summer Reading Challenge!’
1. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
2. Matters of the Heart by Danielle Steel
3. E Squared by Matt Beaumont
4. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
5. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
6. Forbidden Pleasures by Jo Rees
7. Exit Wound by Andy McNab
8. Second Hand Heart by Catherine Ryan Hyde
9. Assassin by Tom Cain
10. Bryant & May on the Loose by Christopher Fowler
11. Amberville by Tim Davys
12. After You by Julie Buxbaum
13. Lockdown by Sean Black
14. The Wish by Sasha Blake
15. 61 Hours by Lee Child
For more information on any of these titles head on over to www.booksattransworld.co.uk
To take part just post a comment on this blog entry below and we’ll be in touch!
Happy Summer Reading!
*(EU residents only) Must apply by the end of August
The Terry Pratchett Anywhere but Here, Anywhen but Now First Novel Prize!
Sir Terry Pratchett and Transworld Publishers are proud to launch a new award for aspiring debut novelists, The Terry Pratchett Anywhere But Here, Anywhen But Now Prize. Transworld will offer the winning author a publishing contract with a £20,000 advance.
The award will be judged by the esteemed Sir Terry Pratchett, the wise Tony Robinson, the savvy Michael Rowley from Waterstone’s and two members of the editorial team at Transworld Publishers.
Sir Terry Pratchett had this to say:
“Anywhere but here, anywhen but now. Which means we are after stories set on Earth, although it may be an Earth that might have been, or might yet be, one that has gone down a different leg of the famous trousers of time (see the illustration in almost every book about quantum theory).
We will be looking for books set at any time, perhaps today, perhaps in the Rome of today but in a world where 2000 years ago the crowd shouted for Jesus Christ to be spared, or where in 1962, John F Kennedy’s game of chicken with the Russians went horribly wrong. It might be one day in the life of an ordinary person. It could be a love story, an old story, a war story, a story set in a world where Leonardo da Vinci turned out to be a lot better at Aeronautics. But it won’t be a story about being in an alternate Earth because the people in an alternate Earth don’t know that they are; after all, you don’t.
But this might just be the start. The wonderful Peter Dickinson once wrote a book that could convince you that flying dragons might have existed on Earth. Perhaps in the seething mass of alternate worlds humanity didn’t survive, or never evolved — but other things did, and they would have seen the world in a different way. The possibilities are literally endless, but remember, it’s all on Earth. Maybe the continents will be different and the climate unfamiliar, but the physics will be the same as ours. What goes up must come down, ants are ant-sized because if they were any bigger their legs wouldn’t carry them. In short, the story must be theoretically possible on some version of the past, present or future of a planet Earth.”
The deadline for submissions will be 31 December 2010 and a shortlist of six entries will be announced on the 31 March 2011. The winner will be announced by the end May 2011.
Entrants must be over 18, have no previous published full-length works of fiction
and live in the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth. Submissions should be emailed to: pratchettprize@transworld-publishers.co.uk
For full terms and conditions visit www.terrypratchett.co.uk
Dust off your quills and begin!
Transworld Publishers are delighted to announce an exciting new collaboration between Sir Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.
Sir Terry Pratchett first developed his vision of a chain of parallel worlds, The Long Earth, in an unfinished novel and two short stories in 1986, after writing Equal Rites, the third novel in what would turn into the hugely successful Discworld series. Now, at last, this long-gestating concept is to see the light of day in two as-yet-untitled books written in collaboration with Stephen Baxter, author of Flood, Ark and the Time’s Tapestry and Destiny’s Children series.
‘Our Earth is but one of a chain of parallel worlds, lying side by side in a higher space of possibilities, each differing from its neighbours by a little (or a lot): an infinite landscape of infinite possibilities. And you can just step from one world to the next…’
The deal was brokered through Colin Smythe and Ralph Vicinanza and the first Long Earth novel is due to be published by Doubleday in spring 2012.
Additionally, Sir Terry Pratchett has recently completed I Shall Wear Midnight, the fourth in the Tiffany Aching books, to be published in September, and is already at work on his next Discworld novel for publication in autumn 2011. Number 37 in the series, Unseen Academicals, has just come out in Corgi paperback.
by Lynsey on Jun 14, 2010 at 5:37 pm
I’m pleased to report that, in the US, four of our authors have been nominated for the 2010 Barry Awards (winners to be announced at Bouchercon this Autumn):
Tom Cain is nominated for BEST THRILLER (THE SURVIVOR).
S. J. Bolton is nominated for BEST BRITISH NOVEL (AWAKENING).
And both Dennis Lehane’s MYSTIC RIVER and Ken Bruen’s THE GUARDS are on the shortlist for NOVEL OF THE DECADE.
Here at the lofty Transworld tower of art we heard on the grapevine about a sporting contest that happens every four years between teams from all over the world. Having learned about said tournament we decided to adopt it and give it our own spin – after all Unseen Academicals is all about football and being the newest Discworld creation it seemed aptly timed by the literary Gods upstairs to send out the inspiration for the DISCWORLD CUP!
The Discworld Cup is a competition contested by the books of Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series.
The format of the tournament involves 32 teams (otherwise known as books) competing for the title of Favourite Discworld Book 2010 over a period of one month. The 32 teams that start the tournament are made of every Discworld novel in the series, except for those aimed at younger readers and The Last Hero, which was officially known as a Discworld Fable*. Sir Terry Pratchett himself randomly selected the books through a highly scientific process.
Having got this far we realised that a tournament of this sort needs a very shiny, trophy for one lucky participant to kiss and wave about and make everyone else feel thoroughly jealous. Created by the elusive Sergeant Braille we have a cup to rival all other cups! (see below) So to be in with a chance to win the highly covetable, scarily limited edition Discworld Cup make your voice heard and cheer on your favourite Discworld book, I mean team, no I mean book.
All the terms and conditions and voting can be found at www.discworldcup.co.uk head on over and make your vote count!
*The decision to omit certain books was made purely to balance the competition with 32 titles and stay true to a similarly named tournament that takes place every four years. Any issues with this see the management.
The new Jack Reacher thriller, Worth Dying For is coming on 30.09.10.
Here’s some video footage of Lee Child revealing what’s to come in Worth Dying For….
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dya4syRmYFo]
To celebrate the CWA National Crime Fiction Week we have a great line up of crime writing events next week. With fantastic authors such as:
Tom Cain
SJ Bolton
Christopher Fowler
John Macken
Belinda Bauer
… the Summer just got darker.
To find all the information you need visit The Serial Thrillers page on facebook and click on events.
To celebrate the latest releases from three best-selling military history authors, The Tank Museum is proud to be hosting `An Evening of Authors`.
Major Chris Hunter, James Holland and Mike Rossiter are 3 bestselling authors who are coming to The Tank Museum for a special event to discuss “A Soldier’s War”. All 3 have incredible experiences to share with you.
Major Chris Hunter is a decorated counter-terrorist Bomb Disposal Operator who served for almost 20 years in the British Army neutralising bombs and fighting the war against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan and Colombia and many other countries. He tells all in his latest book, Extreme Risk; his reasons for joining the Army, how that long walk to neutralise a bomb feels, his work on the July 7th terrorist attacks in London, and finally why he decided to leave and start his own counter terrorism consultancy.
James Holland is a popular young historian and author of many books on WW2 whose latest book, The Battle of Britain, is currently riding high on the Sunday Times Bestseller list. His research has taken him across the world, interviewing veterans from both British and German forces. His new book sheds new light on the Battle of Britain, he analyses the pivotal role played by Bomber Command and highlights that in fact the Luftwaffe had it a lot worse than our own boys.
Mike Rossiter is an author and documentary film maker. Mike’s work has taken him all over the world, he has been nominated for BAFTA and Emmy awards, he produced the series War At Sea for the BBC and discovered and filmed the wreck of Ark Royal. His latest book, Bomber Flight Berlin, is the remarkable story of a true band of brothers from WW2, the bomber crew of C Charlie. Night after night Sergeant Geoffrey King and his Lancaster Bomber crew risked their lives facing incredible dangers, near misses and close encounters with the Luftwaffe. Now sixty years later, Geoffrey King is only one of this group of friends left to tell the story.
Don’t miss the opportunity to hear these authors talking about their work and discussing the developments of war through the ages. The perfect early Father’s Day treat!
