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Oadby Library in LeicestershireÌýwill be staging a fortnight full of creative events during April.Ìý

You can kick off the fortnight on Monday 15th April (7.30pm) by spending an evening with me, when I'll be talking about the Cooper and Fry series and the writing process.

Tickets for the evening are £8, including refreshments. For more information, or to book a place, contact Oadby Library on 0116 305 8763 or email: [email protected]

The full programme for 'Get Creative Fortnight' is available here:


* If you'd like me to take part in an event for your local library, bookshop or festival, just send an enquiry, giving asÌýmany detailsÌýas possible of date, location & type ofÌýevent, to:Ìý[email protected]

This year, the city of Nottingham will get its first ever book festival with the launch of Nottingham Festival of Words.

Next weekend (Saturday 16th February) I'll be taking part in 'Arsenic and Nottingham Lace', a crime and noir panel as part of the festival. Also on the panel are local authors Niki Valentine, Danuta Reah and David Belbin.

Admission is by festival day or weekend pass. Make sure you book now!

The full festival programme is here:Ìý


SATURDAY 16th FEBRUARY, 11.15am -ÌýNottingham Festival of Words - 'Arsenic and Nottingham Lace' crime and noir panel with Niki Valentine, Danuta Reah and David Belbin at Nottingham Trent University's Newton Building, Goldsmith Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU.ÌýEntry with day or weekend pass, tickets available from Nottingham Tourism Centre on Smithy Row, by phone on 0844 477 5678, or online through the festival website:

During the summer, I'll also be taking part in the first ever Gedling Book Festival, which will be held in Arnold in July.Ìý

For details of more forthcoming events, please visit the website:

The ebook of my standalone Nottinghamshire crime novel TOP HARD has been reduced in price! It's available for Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iPad etc. A trade paperback print edition is also out there.

Warm up in the chilly weather with a great crime evening taking place at Heffers Bookshop in Cambridge on Thursday 13th December (6.30pm).Ìý

Books, wine, goody bags, prizes are available, and all of these 10 crime authors will be there to chat to readers:Ìý

Stephen Booth, Jayne-
Marie Barker, Alison Bruce, Mark Edwards, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Elly Griffiths, Kate Rhodes, Michelle Spring, Peter Tickler, Len Tyler.

Ìý

Tickets are £4 redeemable off the cost of a book on the night. Phone 01223 463200 for tickets or more details.Ìý

This is a Mystery People event:

I'm honoured to be appointed Chellaston Library Champion by Derby City Council's library services, and I'll be helping to draw attention to the importance of community libraries like Chellaston and the range of facilities available for library users in the area.Ìý
We all know that libraries are a vital part of many communities. They provide a place to meet, chat to like-minded people, make new friends, or join a club. They offer free access to books, online databases and computers, information about starting a business or writing a CV and job clubs for job seekers. You can read with your kids, help them with their home work, and be a reading role model.
Derby City Council have added over 48,000 new items to their shelves in the past year, including all the latest bestsellers. Fiction, non fiction, large print, audiobooks, magazines and newspapers are all available, as well as craft clubs, author talks, writing workshops and story times for children, a quiet space to work or study, space to sit down and read a newspaper or magazine. From a writer's point of view, libraries are also important as a place where readers discover new authors.

On Tuesday 6th November, I'll be at Chellaston Library to talk about how I became a writer, about why libraries have been so important to me personally, and why I support them. This will be followed by a question and answer session. The evening starts at 7pm.Ìý
This is a FREE event! All are welcome, but booking is recommended. You can phone the library on 01332 702614 for details, or email [email protected]
or book a place online here:
Chellaston Library is on Barley Croft, off High Street, Chellaston, close to the A514 in the south of Derby. The postcode for your satnavs is DE73 6TU, and you'll find car parking close by. There's a detailed map on the event page:
For more details about the library's facilities and opening times, click here:
Following the November event, I'll be back at Chellaston Library in February to talk in more detail about my novels and the Cooper and Fry series. Watch out for more details!

I have three more UK library events coming up in the second half of October. Make sure you book your places now!

WEDNESDAY 17th OCTOBER, 6.30pm
Poulton-le-Fylde Library, Blackpool Old Road, Poulton, Lancashire - talk to readers.ÌýTickets £2. To book a place, phone 01253 888900 or email: [email protected]

THURSDAY 18th OCTOBER, 7pm
Chester Lane Library, Four Acre Lane, St Helen's, Merseyside - talk to readers.ÌýFREE! Phone 01744 677446 or email [email protected] to reserve a place.

FRIDAY 26th OCTOBER, 4pm
Hamstead Library, Tanhouse Centre, Hamstead Road, Great Barr, Birmingham, West Midlands - talk to readers. FREE! Phone 0121 569 2548 or email:Ìý[email protected]

CSI PORTSMOUTH

Tickets are also now on sale for this year's 'CSI Portsmouth', part of Portsmouth BookFest. This is your chance to meet and mingle with top-selling crime authors, police and forensic experts, learn about what really happens at a crime scene, how a fire investigation is run, how the fingerprint bureau works, and even have your own fingerprints taken!

CSI Portsmouth takes place on Saturday 3rd November. I'll be taking part in a morning panel with authors Matt Hilton and Pauline Rowson, plus Crime Scene Manager Carolyn Lovell, DC Terry Fitzjohn of Hampshire Police, and Andy Earl of the fire service's Arson Task Force. Throughout the day there will be a bookshop, and a scene of crime provided by Forensic Science students from South Downs College.

Events will be held at the John Pounds Centre, Queen Street, Portsmouth. Tickets are £6 per panel or £10 for the day, with £3 redeemable against purchase of a book at the event, and a £1 discount for Portsmouth Library members.

For tickets, call the Box Office on 023 9268 8037 (Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm). For more details, go to:


or:


* For dates of more forthcoming events in the UK, please visit the Events page on the website:

With the release of the latest Cooper and Fry novel DEAD AND BURIED in September, the entire Peak District series of crime novels is now available in the USA for the first time.Ìý

For US readers, there's a complete list of the 12 novels on my website, with links to paperback and Ìýebook editions available in the States:



Readers new to the Ben Cooper and Diane Fry series might want to start with Book 1, BLACK DOG, which won the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel in 2001 and was a finalist for the Anthony Award for Best First Mystery:


Kindle:

Trade pbk (Amazon):

Nook:

Trade pbk (Barnes and Noble):

To mark the occasion, I'll be in Cleveland Ohio next month for Bouchercon 2012. If you're there, catch me on a panel discussing 'Murder in the Great Outdoors':

The popularity of Kindle ebooks which we're currently experiencing in the USA and UK isn't matched in most of the other countries around the world.
One of the reasons for this is that Amazon only has three Kindle stores - in the USA, UK and Germany. In almost every other country, Kindle users can only download their books directly by going to Amazon.com in the US.
The other drawback for what Amazon calls "international users" is the $2 surcharge which Amazon puts onto the sale of an ebook for all those countries. This makes a very big difference to the price when you're selling an ebook for less than a dollar, as I am with my Ben Cooper story CLAWS.
An article explaining the current situation can be found here:
But readers in many of those countries who would like to buy CLAWS can avoid the Amazon surcharge by using the dedicated site set up at Westlea Books:
This site is offering ePub, mobi and pdf versions of CLAWS for download. The mobi format is compatible with your Kindle, the ePub format is common to almost all other ebook readers, and a pdf version can be read on any computer or laptop. All three versions sell for £1 (that's UK pounds sterling).
The best news is that the price is the same for everyone, and there is no Amazon surcharge! The ecommerce software can handle sales in more than 50 countries. At present, readers in all of these territories listed below, who would otherwise have to pay a $2 surcharge on Amazon, can download CLAWS for the £1 price at :

Anguilla, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic,Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Uruguay, Venezuela.

Just follow the link:

The Cooper & Fry series has often done well in Canada. I've visited the country twice in the last few years - in fact, the 5th book ONE LAST BREATH had its launch in Toronto (despite me losing my voice within hours of getting off the plane!).

So I'm very happy to let Canadian readers know that new Cooper & Fry novel THE DEVIL'S EDGE is now available in Canada, with its official publication date being today, 7th June. Amazon Canada are currently offering 37% off the trade paperback edition:

This level of discount probably explains why the book entered the Amazon Top 100 in Canada a couple of days after it started to ship. At the time of writing, it's their number 2 best selling mystery title!

The hardcover edition should also be available soon, and the massmarket paperback of LOST RIVER had its Canadian release in April. You can buy a copy here:

or here:

or, of course, find your nearest independent bookstore:

Calling all aspiring crime writers. Here's a chance to listen to me talk about crime writing AND hear my agent tell you how to get published!

I'll be taking part in a Crime Day during Lincoln Book Festival next week, with a full day of crime fiction events taking place on Thursday 12th May at East Midlands Media & Technology Enterprise Centre, part of the Lincoln University campus.

Other authors appearing are Sophie Hannah and Val McDermid, and a panel of experts will give you writing and publishing advice. The panel consists of agent Teresa Chris (who represents me, among many others), editorial consultant Lisanne Radice, senior editor Kate Lyall-Grant, and award-winning author Laura Wilson.

Lincoln is a lovely historic city, and the university campus is on the waterfront at Brayford Wharf. How can you miss it?

Programme for the day:

10:30am: Panel of industry experts talk about how to get published
11:30am: Talk by Stephen Booth
Lunch
2pm: The panel discuss major elements in writing
3pm: Talk by Sophie Hannah
6.30 pm: M eet Val McDermid, creator of psychologist, Dr Tony Hill (tickets £10)

Places are £6 for a half day, £10 for both sessions, £15 including Val McDermid event. For the box office, phone 01522 873894 or go to:

Festival website: