A hectic start to the New Year in Tonto world. March already? WTF is that all about?

There’s been one or two ups and downs. Let’s start with the ups … Tonto has just signed a splendid new book for September: We Are Not Manslaughterers by Martin Knight.

Martin is a prolific writer with an interesting backlist here on amazon.

Here’s some info on the book:

Derby Day 1919 was a day of celebration in Epsom, Surrey, it being the first Derby Stakes to be run back in Epsom since the First World War broke out five years earlier. The euphoria of peace and relief rolled across a squally Epsom Downs. The return of the world’s most famous horse race to its rightful home was a sure sign that life generally was returning to normal. Close to a million people descended on the small rural town that afternoon. With the card finished and Grand Parade the 33-1 victor, the masses streamed home by train, bus, horse and cart and foot and the town’s pavements and pubs were left once again in peace to the locals.
 
Yet only fifteen days later twelve Epsom policemen found themselves defending their quiet, country police station against a 400-strong rioting mob in a vicious hour-long battle of Rorke’s Drift/Zulu proportions. At the end of it many were injured and the dependable Station Sergeant Thomas Green lay dead, his head cracked open from a vicious blow with a bar torn from the station’s own police cell.
 
However, the rioters were not drunken revellers from the racecourse or locals incensed by some injustice or other; they were soldiers, many who had seen gruelling action in France and Belgium and were loyal to the King. Canadian troops stationed at the nearby Woodcote Park Convalescence Camp were bent on releasing their comrades who had been arrested earlier in the evening and locked up in police cells following a minor disturbance in one of the town’s pubs.
 
The murder of a gallant policeman defending his station against the odds was a momentous event then, as it would be now, and never before or since has a policeman died in England at the hands of a mob on police property. Yet the media coverage was relatively subdued, public outrage contained and the path to justice tightly managed. No indictment for murder was ever made. Charges against five Canadians were reduced from manslaughter to riotous assembly and the defendants had been arrested, tried, sentenced, imprisoned, released and were on their way back to their homeland before the year was out.
 
We Are Not Manslaughterers traces the events that led to that final explosion of violence and frustration on June 17, 1919 and explores the reasons why the Government of the day were so keen not to allow the case to become a cause celebre. Future King Edward VIII was scheduled to tour the colonies, including Canada, to thank them for their extraordinary sacrifice for the mother country in World War One. To do this against a backdrop of Canadian soldiers being hung in prisons across Britain did not bear contemplation. Former Prime Minister Lord Rosebery, future Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the then incumbent Prime Minister David Lloyd-George are among the historical figures who were faced with the potential fall-out from the murder; the worst case scenario being the disintegration of the British Empire. Justice was not done for Sgt Green and even his murderer concurred with this.
Among a number of subsequent twists and turns, which include the two daughters of Sgt Green emigrating to Canada soon after, a confession to the murder ten years later and a backdrop of venereal disease this book also unearths a strand to the story which has never been publicly connected and explains even more why the authorities were so keen to wrap up and bury this case so hurriedly and completely as they did. Sgt Thomas Green, it emerges, was not the only fatality of the Epsom riot.
 
Martin Knight, author of Battersea Girl, Common People and George Best’s final autobiography has uncovered and illuminated a fascinating and entertaining slice of social history that is laced with intrigue and mystery as well as a formidable cast of late-Victorian characters.

Martin & Stu sign book deal in York

So, the celeby wedding book is off, Manslaughterers replaces it. A new one gets signed up for October on Tuesday, Shakespeare & Love moves forward to July, Faces was on, then off, then on now definitely off as is My Life on Mars – both due to ‘creative differences’. We’re also looking to get two books signed up by a non-fiction writer I have great admiration for – more news as it happens. So, we lost three titles in three days but gained two and looking to get two more. All good fun.

Robert Endeacott will soon be released from his writing prison if he manages to complete DisRepute: Revie’s England this weekend. He’s been struck down with a rarer form of man illness that I’ve never encountered yet and will be back in the land of the living very soon. His new book will be out in June.

Paperwork week: Accountanty stuff to the accountant, met with the designer about designery things… playing on Facebook…

Of course, Facebook is a brill networking tool and shouldn’t just be used to waste time. We all know that. Oh, and it’s royalty month. It’s a real joy to send royalties out cos I know what I’m like when a royalty cheque comes in. Although in my case, I rarely earn enough for a bag of chips and a can of pop (note to self: another resolution – write a book people will want to read), and PLR payments barely feed the cat.

My intention of reading through a few hundred manuscripts over Christmas didn’t quite work out. I did more sleeping and chocolate eating than reading, but I’d been a good lad in 2009 and earned a bit of time off. I’m through a lot of them anyway and making progress. 

I had a great reply from one author that, unfortunately, got a rejection letter. It’s not like I enjoy sending them out, but there must be at least some understanding that a smaller publisher cannot publish everything that comes in. After my ‘soz and all that, but best of luck’ I got a reply saying ‘what a surprise’. It made me laugh for a bit… but it’s unreal that someone would think to send something like that back to a company they wanted to be published by. If he’d said ‘quel surprise’ I’d have been more impressed. The funniest bit was after I replied with ‘what an attitude’… he asked if I’d be interested in his other work! Priceless.

This year is all but scheduled. I’ve been updating the website with bibliographic data and there’s still a couple more to add, covers to add and a couple of publication date changes to make. There’s a possibility of a couple more non-fiction biog type books from some classic ‘Tonto outsiders’ that I’m hoping will fit into the autumn and then a novel that may get the green light too. 

I’m dead chuffed with the 2010 slate: Sheila Quigley’s next novel is in, I’ve got early drafts of a few others and all is good. Mike Kelly, writer of ‘Shakespeare & Love’ sent the first half of the book and it is an amazing read. Also in pre-production – Faces is going through the edit and Elliot at Preamptive is designing it – early mock ups are brill. ‘My Life On Mars’ is in the edit and looking good too. ‘Dirty Leeds’ is on its way to another reprint in a few weeks and ‘DisRepute’ (Robert’s next book) is being written for a June release. I may even let him out of the Tonto Dungeon at some point for a break if he’s good.

Rather than me ranting on about me me me all the time, if anyone is up to anything writery, give me a shout if you want to plug it on here.