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Yesterday morning I emerged from the MRT (subway/underground) only to find a virtual wall of police and police dogs at the stairs and more police at ground level. Another coup? I wondered. I asked one of the motorcycle taxi drivers what was going on. They often prove to be the most reliable source of information. The driver knows me. He smiled, “George Boossh.” He made the name “Bush” sound like air escaping from a punctured tire and delivered with the famous Thai smile showing no hint of irony. Seems the President was on this way to Father Joe’s Mercy Centre in Kong Toey, and later the President delivered a speech at Queen Sirkit Centre across the street from where I live.
· Progress continues on Calvino #11. I aim to write 2,000 words a day for the first draft. Some days I hit the target, other days I fall short on the word count. I have a reasonably good outline. The emphasis is on reasonable. If I were driving from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, and the outline were my map, I’ve got the road mapped as far as Ayutthaya. In other words, I’ve got a long ways to go and need to figure out the roads as I go along. The risk is getting lost. But this is the only way I know how to write a novel. It has worked before. Hopefully the first draft will be done in three months.
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 This Spirit House continues to occupy the #1 slot on Amazon/Kindle beating The Lace Reader, Moscow Rules, The Last Patriot, Rules of Deception, and a bookshelf of Stephenie Meyer’s vampire books. There is a distinct advantage: Spirit House is a free download for Kindle owners and the promotion last until 15th August. On 16th August, once money must change for the right to download Spirit House I plan to be wearing a parachute to cushion to fall from the K2 of booksellers’ highest mountain.
· Thomas Schmid’s profile titled Introducing Bangkok’s seamy side appeared on Sunday 3rd August in the Macau Daily Times.
·  The Heaven Lake Press edition of PAYING BACK JACK is scheduled for release in Thailand (only) in December 2008. The Grove/Atlantic edition will appear in the autumn of 2009 in the rest of the world.
· For those needing a fix for fiction set in Southeast Asia, check out Timothy Hallinan’s The Fourth Watcher It earned a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly and the reader’s comments on Amazon all agree this is a very strong. One reader said, “It is a finely tuned, spinning tale that spans several subplots converging to form a powerful, explosive ending every reader will thrill to experience!” Also not to be missed is Colin Cotterill’s Curse of the Pogo Stick Colin’s series starring 70s plus Laotian forensic investigator Dr. Paiboun has found a large international audience and the New York Times said, “Wonderfully fresh and exotic.”
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Posted: 8/8/2008 2:31:52 AM |
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 Waking up on a Monday morning in Bangkok to find Spirit House on amazon/kindle’s website is a great way to start the week. The price for the book is certainly right. It is a free download for Kindle owners. The promotion will last until the 15th August.
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 304 KB
Print Length: 304 pages
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic (August 1, 2008)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B0013TPWXM
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)
Popular in these categories: (What's this?)
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Mystery & Thrillers
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fiction > Genre Fiction
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Posted: 8/4/2008 1:15:15 AM |
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Thomas Schmid wrote “Introducing Bangkok’s seamy side: Christopher G. Moore” in the Macau Times on Sunday 3 August. He writes about the publishing background of the Calvino series and the film deal for the books. “His hero Vincent Calvino accomplishes a carefully choreographed balancing act between eastern and western values, which is testimony to Moore’s thorough understanding of cultural differences, an ability which he has nurtured during his many years as a Bangkok resident.”
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Posted: 8/4/2008 12:52:23 AM |
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Most authors understand that without awareness of a book it is difficult to reach readers. Bloggers, some of whom are authors, offer suggestions as to how to break through the noise of the marketplace and attract the attention of readers. It is hardly a science and opinions differ on what works and what doesn’t. The reality is that most books pass an anonymous life to a quiet grave. That fear drives authors to try ways at marketing. I’ve tried as well with my books over the years. An interview here, a review there, and there is a bump in sales. But what all authors wish for is not a bump but a mountain.
My publisher along with Amazon has given me that rare chance to breakout a crime fiction series. The month of August will be a telling one for SPIRIT HOUSE. I could consult a local shaman to read the tealeaves. But tealeaves are better left to brew and the tea drunk. As what happens next no one knows for sure. It is a new experiment. I am told this is the first joint venture of its kind. And it is also an exciting and creative one, finding a way to bring together a traditional literary publisher and with the most significant provider of new technology for reading books. They can see a common interest, and a way forward that honors books and uses technology to expand readership.
Hopefully the results will demonstrate that publishing isn’t a zero-sum game. That an electronic reading devices like the Kindle don’t kill print copy sales; instead, they increase traditional book sales. Or at least that’s the goal. If this works as everyone involved hopes, then publishers and electronic technology providers will have established a common interest beneficial to both.
The deal is Kindle reader can download Spirit House for free for two weeks from 1st August. The trade paperback edition of SPIRIT HOUSE will be released on 28th August in the US.
 This is the press release from Amazon and Grove Atlantic
NEW YORK/ SEATTLE, July 30: SPIRIT HOUSE, a novel by Christopher G. Moore, will be made available free to Amazon Kindle customers before its print publication on August 28. The book, to be published by Grove Press, will be available as a free download for Amazon Kindle customers between August 1 and August 15. Kindle is Amazon’s portable reader that wirelessly downloads books, blogs, magazines and newspapers to a crisp, high-resolution electronic paper display that looks and reads like real paper. For more information on Kindle, or to order a Kindle for $359, visit http://amazon.com/kindle.
“Earlier this year, we introduced this internationally bestselling author to the United States,” said Morgan Entrekin, President and Publisher of Grove Atlantic. “We think this innovative partnership is a great way to expand Moore’s audience even further.”
"Amazon is pleased to work with Grove to make Christopher G. Moore's SPIRIT HOUSE available one month in advance of print for Kindle owners," said Ian Freed, vice president of Kindle. "We continue to offer unique benefits for Kindle owners while adding to the Kindle catalog of over 140,000 books."
SPIRIT HOUSE is the second of Moore’s “Vincent Calvino Crime Novels” to be published in the United States. Another book in the series, The Risk of Infidelity Index was published by Atlantic Monthly Press in January 2008.
In the nearly twenty years he has lived in Bangkok, Moore has written nine novels starring the Calvino character, a disbarred American lawyer working as a P.I. in the dark and steamy Thai capital. Internationally acclaimed, the prize-winning novels have been translated into ten languages. Publishers Weekly called The Risk of Infidelity Index a “complex, intelligent novel,” and according to Kirkus, “the darkly raffish Bangkok milieu is a treat.”
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Posted: 8/1/2008 6:56:12 AM |
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Regulars of the Texas Lonestar Bar in Washington Square gathered to attend funeral services for George Pipas who died in Bangkok last week. George was a fixture in Bangkok expat circles; part of the fabric. At age 84 years old he came to the bar every day for lunch and held court. George had been on Normandy Beach on D-Day; and he’d been to many other places afterwards. He was a genuine character, someone who looked after his friends, and had lived long enough to see major changes in the world. He knew back in December that he had a death sentence. He just got on with his life and never asked for sympathy.
At 9.00 a.m., Catholic funeral services were held at the Church of the Holy Redeemer on Soi Ruam Rudee, and following those services the body was moved to a Buddhist wat for cremation. The local V.FW. Club sent representatives who performed a service for George at the wat.
As a recording of Taps played at the Wat, one could but hear George’s voice, in that throaty gurgle of emotion shouting, “Will someone change that goddamn music.”
The Risk of Infidelity Index was co-dedicated to George who was both a friend and an inspiration for the Calvino series.
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Posted: 7/28/2008 2:39:16 AM |
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 The Independent on 22 July ran Jonathan Gibbs list of 80 detectives from around the world (in no apparent order) by city. Cities included are: London, Oxford, Paris, Istanbul, Madrid, Rome, Athens, Berlin, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Montreal, Havana, Mexico City, Beijing, and Tokyo. A crime fiction is writer was chosen for each of the cities. I was pleased to see for Bangkok:
 "Christopher G Moore has long been a big name in crime for his Vincent Calvino books, based on the exploits of an American private eye in Thailand's seedy underbelly, but they're only now coming out in the UK."
Read 'The Risk of Infidelity Index' (Atlantic)
Full article
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Posted: 7/23/2008 12:08:37 AM |
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 PAYIING BACK JACK, the 10th in the Calvino series will be released in Thailand in December 2008 and in 2009 by Atlantic Monthly Press in New York. ASIA HAND will be released by Atlantic Monthly Press in New York in 2010. Meanwhile I am at the early stages of writing Calvino 11 and that explains for the infrequent updating of the blog.
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Posted: 7/21/2008 4:25:34 AM |
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 Glad to report that Zero Hour in Phnom Penh has been released in B-Format by Heaven Lake Press has been released. Third in the Vincent Calvino crime series, Zero Hour in Phnom Penh has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Thai and Spanish. Zero Hour in Phnom Penh also won the German Critics Award (2004), the Premier Special Director’s Award Semana Negra (Spain) (2007)
A Bangkok based private detective, Vincent Calvino, takes a case in Cambodia at the end of the devastating civil war. In the early 1990s, UN peacekeeping forces try to keep the lid on the violence. Gunfire is heard nightly in Phnom Penh, where Vietnamese prostitutes ply their trade among UN peacekeepers from the balcony of the Lido Bar.
Calvino traces a missing farang, through the Russian market, hospitals, nightclubs, news briefings, and UNTAC Headquarters. Calvino’s buddy, Colonel Pratt, knows something that Calvino does not: the missing man is connected with a cache of jewels stolen from the Saudi royal family. Calvino discovers that he is not the only one looking for the missing farang and that murderous forces of evil continue to swirl in the alleyways of Phnom Penh.
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Posted: 7/21/2008 4:25:12 AM |
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 The Evergreen Review’s Jim Feast reviewed Risk:
“For writers in the private eye genre, such as Christopher Moore, who take up the traditional form, as he does in The Risk of Infidelity Index, originality is not measured by examining the plot. This never varies. A client hires the gumshoe to investigate a matter, which turns out to be much more complex than it appeared. Neither does it appear in the creation of novel character types, since these, too, are largely invariable and include the heroic but flawed hero, a cop who hounds but also befriends the detective, a treacherous blonde, and so on. The true measure of originality lies in the invention of atmosphere.
By this term, I mean to convey a tonality that combines attention to setting and the details of everyday life as well as the creation of characters who emerge naturally from the milieu.
The fine accomplishment of Moore in this book is to excel in all three areas of atmosphere creation, as I will illustrate in a moment.”
http://www.evergreenreview.com/contents.htm
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Posted: 7/21/2008 4:22:55 AM |
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