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Thursday, February 21st 2019 : "A Big Day"
Publication day is always a bit special, even paperback day when the book has already been out in the world for a while. But the back of this new paperback - the eighth and final Shetland book, Wild Fire - contains the first chapter of a book with the title of The Long Call. This is the first book in what my publishers and I have called the Two Rivers series. It's set in North Devon, where the rivers Taw and Torridge flow into the sea, and features detective Matthew Venn. So while today I'm sorry to be marking the end of Shetland (in book form, at least) it's exciting to be sharing a small introduction to something entirely new.
I'm celebrating too, Brenda Blethyn's announcement yesterday that there will be another series of VERA. It's hard to believe that this will be series 10. When the pilot was made, we weren't even sure that the first series would be commissioned. Now the show sells into two hundred territories throughout the world and there's a universal affection for it. It's wonderful to think that very soon the team will be back in the north east to begin work.
Shetland, the TV drama, has been back on our screens for two weeks now. This isn't an adaptation of one of the novels, but an original story by lead writer Davy Kane over six parts, fast-paced, thought-provoking and beautifully acted.
All this is a little overwhelming. For the first twenty years of my writing career I had very little commercial success; few of the novels got as far as paperback and without the support of libraries I wouldn't still be a published author. I hope my story gives some reassurance to new and struggling authors. It's a lot harder now, but it's worth persisting if you love it. The market changes and occasionally a piece of luck might come your way.
Posted by Ann at 02:35 PM GMT
