Archive
The Istanbul Puzzle arrives in Poland & a free competition
The Istanbul Puzzle has just been released in Polish. If anyone would like a copy for a Polish speaking friend or family member please share this post (Twitter, Facebook or any other site) and comment below.
I will post a copy to a person randomly selected from the people commenting, to anywhere in the world free of charge, on the 10th April 2013.
As a final piece of news I am working hard, seven days a week, on a second detailed edit of The Manhattan Puzzle. The murderous conspiracy behind the Istanbul & Jerusalem puzzles will finally, and bloodily, be exposed in The Manhattan Puzzle.
Symbol Secrets from The Jerusalem Puzzle & a £100 prize.
The square and arrow symbol in the manuscript Sean and Isabel found under Hagia Sophia in The Istanbul Puzzle returns in The Jerusalem Puzzle.
In The Jerusalem Puzzle the symbol is discovered in the Museum of Antiquities in central Cairo near Tahrir Square. This is the museum where King Tutankhamun’s famous golden mask is on display. The remains of many famous Pharaohs are housed there, as well as items from their tombs, along with a huge papyrus and coin collection on the ground floor.
Sean goes to the museum after seeing a picture of a papyrus fragment in a guide to the museum. Here is the fragment:
My interest in the square and arrow symbol was inspired by this fragment. The caption on the card beneath the fragment reads, according to my notes:
Papyrus fragment found 1984 in rubbish pit near the Black Pyramid (built King Amenemhat III, Middle Kingdom era, 2055-1650 BC), by the Austrian Institute of Cairo. The lower hieroglyph represents the Queen of Darkness. The upper hieroglyph has not been deciphered. The only other example of these hieroglyphs is from a stone inscription at the Gihon Pool in Jerusalem, a Canaanite province of Egypt during the Middle Kingdom era.
The symbol reappears later in The Jerusalem Puzzle when it is used as a marker and also near the end when its purpose is further alluded too.
The Jerusalem Puzzle provides strong clues as to what this symbol means. And there is still a prize of £100 available to anyone who breaks the code contained in the symbol.
Some other possible meanings since I created this original post on what the symbol means, include that it was used as a mnemonic or that it was an old Mandarin symbol for the sun found in the Zhongyuan Yinyun. The character has been simplified in modern Mandarin to 日 (rì) meaning day; sun; date; or day of the month according to that theory.
I don’t know if any of that will help you win the £100 prize! But it just might.
Good luck! And remember – no purchase is necessary to solve this puzzle.
Get Your Writing Noticed: Advanced social media for writers – what works and what doesn’t?
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This is the last in a series of seven posts. The previous post on using emotion in your writing is here.
The question of what works and what doesn’t in terms of social media for writers is complicated by two key factors; each of us will have a unique social media experience based on our own situation and personal preferences, and each of us brings our own baggage to the social media table.
Luddites will deny that social media has any relevance to writing. Social media lovers will say it will change everything for writers and writing.
I fall in the middle somewhere. Here is what I can tell you that has worked for me, and what disappoints me:
* Social media helped me win a global publishing contract with Harper Collins and my first novel is being translated into 9 other languages, partly because I had a presence on social media, (Twitter, a blog, YouTube). I also had a good novel, but the publisher was interested in the fact that I had a following too. This may be unfair, but for me it wasn’t. I’ve been on the other end of unfairness too often in my life to complain about it when I get a break.
* Social media has helped me get through the day. I work at a desk in a small house in a bleak suburb. My social media friends make me smile, make me look at the world outside my little corner, and make me feel connected. Rubbish this if you want. But don’t try and take my social media away. I need it.
* My sales are good for my first novel, The Istanbul Puzzle, the novel has continued to sell nine months after publication and the presales of my new novel, The Jerusalem Puzzle, are surprisingly good too (order it on the right). Yes, you have to have a good novel to sell, but social media allows me to get the word out, to tell people it’s been edited within an inch of it’s life and it’s available .
* Not everything I have done on social media has been a success. I am on Pinterest, Foursquare, Empire Avenue, Sulia, Tumblr, Instagram and a lot of other sites. Their impact has been limited. Much of my time spent exploring the outer reaches of the social media universe has been wasted. The truly most important things I do are my two blogs, this one and www.socialmediaisdynamite.com, my Twitter profile and my Facebook page, because they generate a lot of interaction with readers all around the world. I got 400 hits on my two blogs yesterday. It’s not James Bond, but for me, someone who got only a hundred hits in his first month with a blog, it’s good.
So if you are a writer these are the things I recommend, stick to the main sites, develop a blog and follow people on Twitter and talk to people on each service.
If you want to know more about my views on social media come to one of the courses I will be teaching in Dublin from early next year, or sign up for my blog updates at www.socialmediaisdynamite.com.
Here is a link to my last post in this series on using emotion to keep readers involved.
Please leave feedback, make suggestions and engage. This series of posts needs you to get involved to make them fly.
And please sign-up using the secure sign-up button above right to receive notifications in your inbox when new post’s are released.
If you would like to discuss this post or for me to review your writing and give brief feedback without charge (page 1 of your MS only please) contact me via the comments below or by email: lpobryan@gmail.com
Here are some links to useful information for writers:
socialmediaisdynamite.com for my blog on using social media to get noticed.
The reality of being published – 2 months after my first book came out all over the UK I wrote this post
The Accessible Author – how the author’s role is changing
Frantic Editing – a post on the editing process my first novel went through in the summer of 2011
Finally, a big thank you to all my readers, everyone who comments and everyone who visits. I hope you find this information useful on your journey to getting your writing noticed.
Please reblog, link to, Tweet, post or mention this post. There are links to do that above and mainly below.
Vote for the author. Now is your chance!
I have been shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards, Ireland AM Crime Fiction Award 2012 for The Istanbul Puzzle.
You can vote from anywhere in the world here. The Istanbul Puzzle is half way down, if you scroll down to it. You must leave your email address and you can only vote once.
Please vote for whatever novels you liked or just the crime novel you liked. I will have no way of knowing who you voted for.
It’s a bit strange a public vote for books, but I am sure that voting takes place behind closed doors for all other book awards, so who am I to argue against the choice of the public?
The voting closes November the 18th, so you only have a few days. Do please vote now here.
Thank you, if you do vote for me, and thank you if you vote for some other novel instead. Your opinion is important and no one should tell you what way to vote.
It’s in your hands.
Literary Mysteries at a UNESCO City of Literature event in Dublin
Laurence, far right, speaks at the event. Over a hundred attended.
Author of The Istanbul Puzzle, Laurence O’Bryan, discussed some literary mysteries with Independent.ie’s Kevin Flanagan as part of the UNESCO City of Literature series of events in Dublin at Freemasons’ Hall, Molesworth Street, Dublin in late 2012.
For any of you who didn’t make it below is the Q&A I prepared. There were some extra questions on the night, and a reading of Chapters One from The Jerusalem puzzle, but you will get a good idea of the event from this post:
The other end of the Freemasons main hall, Dublin, where the event took place
Kevin: Are you a freemason, Laurence?
Laurence: No, but I want to thank the organisation for allowing us to use their building this evening. I find this hall fascinating. The whole building is a museum, an architectural gem of Victorian Dublin. The relevance of Masonry is not for me to make any judgements on, but I think if we knew more about their historical role in Ireland’s affairs it would be a good thing.
Kevin: Would you consider yourself to be writing literary mysteries?
Laurence: Yes. Mysteries are distinguished by the reader not knowing what is going to happen or who murdered the victim. Mysteries often start with a murder as The Istanbul Puzzle does. Stories which are mostly thrillers look forward to an event, an assassination for instance, and make you want to read on to find out will it happen. These are the traditional definitions of these two categories of crime novels.
Kevin: Is the mystery novel worthy of a place in the canons of literature?
Laurence: I will quote something from a book called The Technique of the Mystery Story. “A liking for mystery is not a mark of poor taste or an indication of inferior intellect. Its readers form an audience greatly misunderstood by other literary people, whose mentality lacks this bent. But what especial audience is not misunderstood. Do not many people say to music lovers, “I don’t see how you can sit through Parsifal? Do not some scoff at people who trail through art galleries, catalogue in hand?”
Kevin: When was that written?
Laurence: 1913. And it goes on to say, “Supercilious persons who profess to have a high regard for the dignity of literature are loath to admit that detective stories belong to the category of serious writing.” So there has been a long debate about the place of the mystery story in literature. That tract went on to say “We must consider the rightful place of the mystery story in fiction. It is neither below nor above the other types of story, but side by side with character studies, society sketches or symbolic romances.”
Kevin: Let’s move forward a little. What is this mystery about the Big Sleep?
Laurence: Raymond Chandler is acknowledged as one of the finest crime and mystery writers. He wrote novels, and for Hollywood. The Big Sleep with Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart is perhaps his best known movie. The mystery for me and a lot of other people, was who killed the Sternwood family chauffeur, Owen Taylor in the movie. The story goes that in 1946 when the novel was being directed by Howard Hawks, it had been published in 1939, he got into an argument with Humphrey Bogart about who killed Owen, so they telegrammed Raymond Chandler to ask him. He replied, by telegram, “Damned if I know”.
William Faulkner had also worked on that script, but Chandler didn’t blame him, he stood his ground. And there was no reason for Philip Marlow, the private detective at the centre of The Big Sleep to know who killed Owen, so he didn’t feel it necessary to explain every loose ending.
This is one of the aspects of the Philip Marlow books that I like. Every loose end isn’t tied up. Every crime isn’t paid for. It’s true to life in that we don’t get answers to all the questions around us, we have to make do with the little glimpses of the truth we spy now and again.
Kevin: Is that what your novels are like?
Laurence: Yes. Not all the riddles are answered, but the big ones are. By the way The Big Sleep was Lauren Bacall’s renaissance movie. If she hadn’t done well in it she might have been dropped. Some scenes were rewritten and expanded just for her after the test screenings. And she did contribute a good deal to what is now considered one of Holywood’s finest movies.
Kevin: What other mysteries can you tell us about?
Laurence: One that has always intrigued me was who was Godot, in waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett’s world famous play.
Kevin: So what’s your theory?
Laurence: Godot has been suggested to be God, a rich employer or a rescuer of some kind. Hope seems the most likely answer to me, Samuel Becket himself said if he knew who Godot was he would have said so in the play. Perhaps we are all waiting for our own version of Godot. Perhaps waiting is the essence of what it is to be human. If it is, then mystery stories fit in very well with it all. We are waiting to find out the answer to the puzzle of life.
Kevin: So is there a hidden meaning to these puzzle novels you are writing?
Laurence: I’m not sure. Meaning are emerging afterwards. The Istanbul Puzzle, for instance, could be said, on one level, the metaphorical level. to be about the search for love and the value of relationships. The Jerusalem Puzzle, coming out Dec 3rd on ebook and Jan 3rd in paperback, could be considered to be about historical secrets.
Kevin: What historical secrets?
Laurence: Well, I will give you a clue, it’s about the meaning of the symbol they find in The Istanbul Puzzle.
Kevin: And?
Laurence: The symbol is not one of these masonic symbols. It’s a square with an arrow inside. Let me just say this one thing more about it. Imagine what you would think if you saw such a symbol in real life, what it would mean.
Kevin: So that’s all you’re going to tell us?
Laurence: That’s the second clue I have given out about this symbol.
Inside another hall in the Freemasons Hall, Dublin, note the skull and crossbones.
Kevin: Can you tell us where your puzzle series of novels will end up?
Laurence: In Ireland of course.
Kevin: Just to get back to our theme. What is your next literary mystery?
Laurence: What happened to Moriarty, the arch criminal in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Moriarty was believed by the Jesuits at Stoneyhurst in Lancashire, England, to be a Prefect of Discipline there, a priest there where Conan Doyle went to Stoneyhurst as a wayward student. Two students were also named Moriarty at the time Doyle was there.
Actually Moriarty made an appearance in only one Sherlock Holmes novel up to that point, The Final Solution, and the intention seems to have been that his appearance came about to enable Doyle to kill Holmes off, as no greater task would present itself to Holmes than ridding the world of this master criminal.
Moriarty was the crime lord of England to whom many great crimes were attributed and to whom other criminals paid tribute in exchange for his protection. He and Holmes fall over the Reichenbach Falls together in Switzerland, apparently to their death at the end of The Final Solution.
Doyle was forced though in 1905 to publish the Return of Sherlock Holmes after a campaign by his readers to revive the detective after he had been killed off in 1893. Holmes, according to Doyle in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, survived the fall, but Moriarty didn’t. He then went into hiding to avoid Moriarty’s henchmen.
There is a theory though that Moriarty survived as well. Whether he survived a hundred years to be reborn in the BBC1 series Sherlock is another matter. We are still waiting to see how the death of Holmes, his suicide this time, will be resolved in Series Three of Sherlock. Holmes, by the way, is the most commonly portrayed character on screen with over 250 screen adaptations in the past one hundred years.
I for one believe Moriarty is still alive. If Sherlock Holmes survived then so did Moriarty.
The 1st 2 Puzzle Covers side by side:
The final cover of The Jerusalem Puzzle has been released. Here it is side by side with The Istanbul Puzzle cover. I hope you like it.
What I am trying to work out is what colour should the next novel in the series, The Manhattan Puzzle, be. Any suggestions?
Could Video Book Excerpts Help Us all Sell More Books?
Now!
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Short Post: Nominated for Crime Writing Award
My first novel, The Istanbul Puzzle, has just been shortlisted for the Irish crime novel of the year award 2012.
Everyone can vote for this award here. The ceremony is on the 22nd November in Dublin. It will be televised in Ireland on the 24th November.
I am humbled by being shortlisted with such inspiring writers. Thank you all for your support. From being an aspiring writer in search of a contract to being published to being nominated has taken twenty months.
Thank you for sticking with this series, and for buying the books. I hope you will enjoy the rest of this series as it unfolds.
Laurence
Get Your Writing Noticed: How to grab your reader’s attention!
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A key aspect of writing for the 21st century, applicable to non fiction and fiction, is grabbing the reader’s attention.
The number of distractions people have these days was covered in my last post. Here are some techniques for grabbing the reader up front:
1. Establish credibility. If you’re being published by a major publishing house this will help, but even if you’re not you can put your key credential up front. If you spent 20 years as a gardener and you’re writing a book on gardening I will want to know that. ‘Gardening from 20 years experience” is a good title in my opinion. So don’t be shy. Tell us why we should read your book. And tell us quickly.
2. For non fiction, make it practical. I am writing a guide to social media and making it practical is a key consideration. Two of the top five Sunday Times non fiction books this week are practical in some way.
3. Other favorite themes for non fiction, which grab readers are war, for the armchair fighters among us, violent crimes, to make us glad we’re safe, and cooking/homecraft. These areas make up most the remainder of the top non fiction slots.
4. Start in the middle of the action. This standard piece of advice for fiction writers, to cut out the long preamble, to go straight into the action, is also what non fiction readers want these days. In non fiction we want a quick way to move to the key areas of our interest. So let us get to the heart of it, fast.
5. Make a bold statement. In commercial fiction there is often a big scene right at the beginning. This could be a murder, a kidnapping, an interview or a disagreement. The purpose of the scene is to hook the reader in. Similarly, in non fiction you can make a bold statement. If you have something new to say offer it up early, then let us read the rest of your book to find out what’s next.
Digital, whether through blogs, Twitter, Facebook or video/audio are all vitally important to success these days. Whatever you are writing, consider how you can build an online presence which will use the skills you have. The demand for online interaction is high and likely to get even higher. Publishing and being successful with just a printed book is becoming less and less likely.
Other aspects of grabbing your reader’s attention include titles and keywords. Here is a post I wrote, on my social media blog, explaining key words in simple terms.
Beyond key words is the whole area of titles. This is an art, which includes many elements difficult to distill. Taste, fashion and culture are all part of the choosing of titles. My suggestion is for you to consider the most popular current titles in your genre, then to create something totally unique for yourself, which acknowledges what works, yet does not copy it. Not an easy task for fiction.
For non fiction there are staple titles for guides which include fragments such as “How to” – “The Secret of” – “A Way to” – “Get rid of” and words such as quick, solve, easy and free. Again, I recommend looking at the best-selling titles in your area and also to consider what grabs you when you read those titles.
Having participant voices, explaining that you will be reflecting the views of people involved directly in what you are writing about, is my final piece of advice for writing to grab your reader’s attention. It may not be necessary to live in a slum for years to write about poverty, but it is a real way to get attention. Many people want to know what it’s like for people whose voices we don’t normally hear. That in itself is a good thing. Exposing what really goes on in the world is one of the reasons people write.
Telling stories, whether true or imagined, allows us an entrance to worlds we would never otherwise experience.
I wish you all the best in creating yours, and attracting your reader’s attention. And I hope, in the end, we can all do some good with what we create.
Here is a link to the next post on theme, the most important part of writing IMO. And for a previous first post in this series, go here for the post on modern distractions, on writing with accuracy, being fantastic, sensuous and gripping.
This post is the second on a voyage exploring the world of getting your writing noticed.
Please leave feedback, make suggestions and engage. This series of posts needs you to get involved to make them fly.
And please sign-up using the secure sign-up button above right to receive notifications in your inbox when post’s are released.
If you would like to discuss this post or for me to review your writing and give brief feedback without charge (page 1 of your MS only please) contact me via the comments below or by email: lpobryan@googlemail.com
The next post, on Theme, a critical issue, is already up and available here.
Here are some links to useful information for writers:
socialmediaisdynamite.blogspot.com for my blog on using social media to get noticed.
The reality of being published – 2 months after my first book came out all over the UK I wrote this post
The Accessible Author – how the author’s role is changing
Frantic Editing – a post on the editing process my first novel went through in the summer of 2011
Finally, a big thank you to all my readers, everyone who comments and everyone who visits. I hope you find this information useful on your journey to getting your writing noticed.
Please reblog, link to, Tweet, post or mention this post. There are links to do that above and mainly below.
from The Jerusalem Puzzle cover arriving 3rd January 2013.
The Jerusalem Puzzle is Finished!
I delivered The Jerusalem Puzzle to Harper Collins in London last Monday, by email. I had finished it the previous Thursday. I spent most of last weekend doing one final edit.
That was a hundred page a day edit. The kind of edit that drains something from you as you go on and on and on for endless hours each day.
But I did it. And I’m glad I did it. There were logical errors, which you see better when reading through a novel fast.
I fixed an issue in the middle about the dig in the old city of Jerusalem, which they visit in the novel, and I changed a big part of the ending too.
I spent about a year on The Jerusalem Puzzle from concept to fourth draft. I expect Harper Collins will come back in July with a series of suggestions as to how to tighten it up. These I will address during July and August. There may be more editorial suggestions in September too and then some copy editing changes in October, perhaps twice, and that will be it, I hope.
I am pleased with how The Jerusalem Puzzle turned out.
It may even be better than The Istanbul Puzzle! The Jerusalem Puzzle will be released January 17, 2013. It should be available in other languages after that. The Istanbul Puzzle is being translated into 9 languages.
I hope you enjoy The Jerusalem Puzzle when it comes out. I enjoyed creating it. If you would like to pre-order it from Amazon click here.
And I greatly appreciate every comment and kind word and recommendation you give for it.
I will be submitting an outline for The New York Puzzle to Harper Collins in the next 10 days. Once that is agreed I will start writing The New York Puzzle.
Below is a photo of the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem, which I took earlier this year. This is the main entrance to the city from the west. It features in a few scenes in The Jerusalem Puzzle.
