Hello, Cleveland! ... I mean, Darmstadt

On Saturday I'm going to Germany for the Darmstadt Book Festival, where I'm taking part in the BRITISCHE KRIMINACHT (British Crime Night). This is not, as you might suspect, a celebration of soccer hooliganism and recreational rioting, for which we British are still so famous. It is all about British crime writing. This explains why British thriller writers Matt Beynon Rees and Martin Walker are appearing alongside me; it does not entirely explain why I am appearing alongside them. The reason, of course, is that The Einstein Girl has been largely marketed in Germany as a crime thriller, which it really isn't, despite first appearances. Many on-line booksellers have duly categorised it as such, and no doubt many book shops have too. Personally, I don't have a problem with this, although some disappointed crime addicts might.

Das Einstein-Mädchen was on the official best seller list for nine weeks recently. It will be interesting to see if that has any impact on the size of the audience. I'm looking forward to it anyway.

Details of the event can be found here:

http://venyoo.de/s298731-7-kriminacht-very-british-mit-martin-walker-matt-rees-philip-sington#6264830

84 authors, 24 hours

Starting at midnight, Berlin time (otherwise known as Central European Time, which is UK time +1), a total of eighty-four authors from around the world will participate in a 24-hour on-line reading event. The aim is to support the UN-designated International Day of Peace. The event has been organised under the auspices of the Berlin Literature Festival, and, if all goes to plan, it will set a new world record. The readers mainly begin in the Far East, moving slowly westward and ending up on the PacificWest Coast. I'm on at 11.45am UK time, assuming Leo doesn't smash my computer before then.

Details of the event, the schedule, participating writers etc. can be found here:

http://www.authorsforpeace.com/index.html

You can view the event live either via the Cisco Systems site; or via the Berlin Literature Festival site. The Cisco url  is below. This offers an interactive viewing possibility. Viewers will need to log in to watch, and give a user name (it can be made up) and a genuine email address (Cisco will not use this for any other purpose). As Cisco indicates on the page, the log-in password is always PEACE:

https://seemea.webex.com/seemea/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=703224311

On the festival website, viewers should be able to watch on this page:

http://www.literaturfestival.com/service/das_festival/sonderprojekte/authors-for-peace

Too many people in world, including powerful people, are tempted to believe that war is not their worst possible option. In reality, they are almost always wrong. We can't be reminded of that too often.

Leo joins the Fire Brigade

Yesterday (and again today) Leo wandered into our local Fire Station uninvited. Fortunately a very nice fireman there showed him around. Careers advice is now surplus to requirements, at least for the time being. Well, at least I can breathe easy that my eldest doesn't want to be a writer...