Mo Hayder Newsletter - December 2011 (Edition 6)

Hey there everyone, I hope this finds you well. Thank you over and over again a) for your terrific support this year (in spite of the recession people STILL buy books, and I can’t tell you how much that means to us authors) and b) for all your comments. I know I don’t answer every post individually, now we’re up to well over 2,000 followers, so to be honest I’d struggle (as well as all the emails that filter through my agent, and through my website), so lovely Amy has taken over my facebook wall. She is a stitch, I love her so much. She’s got a house crammed with kids and animals. And because she’s a fan of taxidermy only about fifty percent of those are living (the animals I mean, not the kids) But honestly I’ve never seen such a menagerie, it’s like a 24 hour carnival, complete lovely chaos, yet she manages to emerge from it every day and come to my house smiling and smelling of buttercups.

But even though Amy is at the helm I promise I read every single comment – and take every single one to heart. This is not just because they are fabulous for my ego (on the whole) but because they help give me an insight into your minds, which is wonderful as it gives me a feel for where all my words are going and how they are received. Our language is a funny thing – it appears to be a tool to communicate, but all too often it creates barriers – simply from the individual’s choice of vocabulary. It defines us and sometimes pigeonholes us, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last twelve years it is how individual every person’s taste is when it comes to fiction. Put simply – I have come to the sad conclusion that there is, and can never be, a definitive gauge of ‘good’ fiction – only subjective appreciation. You can call all this pontificating deep insight, or more simply a cheap justification for the fact I once, in a fit of pique, chucked a hefty copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses out of the window of my father’s French farm house (nearly killing someone in the process.)

It’s a funny thing to write without knowing who’s going to be reading the books. Actually I try hard not to put a face to my readers when I’m working as I worry that it might make me change the writing to suit a particular audience. And I can promise you the one person whose face I most definitely don’t allow into my thoughts is my dear Mum’s! When she first read Birdman she didn’t speak for a week. Seriously – I think when she first opened the book she rather hoped I’d written The Girl With The Pearl Earring. I can only guess her feelings when she saw the number of ‘f’ words on the first page, interspersed with words like ‘necrophilia’ and ‘clitoris’ etc etc. Apparently she got an instant migraine and had to lie down in a dark room. For FOUR days. What kind of migraine was that, I want to know.

Something that seems to come back time after time is that it’s difficult for people to know which order to read the Jack Caffery series. Now it’s rather important to me, in a nerdy way, that the books are read in the right order, not just to prevent spoilers, but also as there are clues planted in the earlier ones, especially in Ritual, which don’t unravel until later books (and future ones). So if anyone cares to be as pathetically nerdy as I am the order is as follows: Birdman, The Treatment (these are the London books). Then the Jack Caffery/Walking Man series starts – as following: Ritual, Skin, Gone. The next in the series (working title Quiet Day) should be out next in the UK next summer – no news yet on European and US release dates on those but I will keep you informed. The standalone titles – Tokyo (Devil of Nanking), Pig Island, Hanging Hill can be read in any order. FYI Pig Island is a fusion of horror and crime, The Devil of Nanking could be called a historical crime novel (though there are modern elements) and Hanging Hill is a much more domestic crime novel – a little more on the side of traditional crime novels. Oh and on the subject of Hanging Hill – no, no plans for a follow up. I’m sorry some of you have been frustrated, and I’m afraid to say that was rather the way I wanted you to feel. I rather like the idea that you’re left to imagine the rest. And that’s all I’m saying.........

Last but not least I have decided in the New Year I’m going to have another try with Ibogaine. That’s the drug that Flea takes in Ritual. All in the name of research, you understand......... Watch this space.

A very Happy Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you all.

Mo xxxxxxxxx