My debut novel Tombstoning is getting a new lease of life, a twentieth anniversary reissue by Orenda Books, complete with new introduction by Chris Brookmyre. I’ll be chatting to Chris about it at my local Portobello Bookshop on Wednesday 25th February. I suspect subjects will include Scotland’s drinking culture, school reunions, the misery of watching football at Gayfield Park and much more. There will also be a special musical performance that I’ve never done before. You can get tickets here and order special signed and dedicated copies of the novel from the bookshop’s website.
It’s the tenth birthday of Granite Noir, and this year’s festival is coming very soon. I’ll be therein Aberdeen on Friday 20th February talking to the lovely Bryan Burnett about two decades as a published writer. I’ll also be playing a couple of tunes as well, so consider yourself warned.
The good people of Edinburgh International Book Festival are running Paper Trails, a winter mini-book fest at Muirhouse Library, and I’m delighted to be appearing on Wednesday 11th February, chatting to Nyla Ahmad about twenty years of sweary nonsense. (Warning, this even will probably also contain vaguely relevant live music.) It’s FREE but ticketed, go here to sort yourself out.
Tombstoning looking pretty good for 20 years old! Love these new proofs going out into the world. Published 12th Feb by Orenda Books. Preorder here: geni.us/Mb0bqB
I am THRILLED that my second novel, THE OSSIANS, is getting a shiny new reissue in April next year by Orenda Books with a lovely introduction by none other than Val McDermid! It’s a wild ride of a book, for sure:
Connor is twenty-four, brilliant, broken, and out of control. He’s the swaggering frontman of The Ossians, a Scottish indie band on the brink of signing a major record deal.
Desperate to make their mark, they head off on a two-week winter tour across the cities and hinterlands of Scotland – a last-ditch attempt to find fame, purpose, and themselves.
But the tour soon spirals into a surreal, chaotic odyssey. From seedy bars and snowbound towns to a final, defining Glasgow gig, the band hurtles through a whirlwind of seagull massacres, botched drug deals, a mysterious stalker, radioactive beaches, bomb-testing ranges, epileptic fits, riotous Russian submariners, deadly storms, epiphanies, regular beatings and random shootings.
Raw, darkly funny and wild with energy, The Ossians is a gloriously anarchic story of rock’n’roll obsession, national identity and self-destruction, and what it means to belong – in a band, in a country, in a life unravelling at speed.
You can pre-order it here: geni.us/49IJe, or at your local indie shop. Looking forward to getting out and talking about this one again after all these years!
Finished a messy first draft of the next Skelfs book this morning. Still LOADS of work to do, but always happy to reach this stage. Ghost Notes, my 20th novel, will be published in August by Orenda Books.
Doug Johnstone 