August charts

Hey, do you like fags? Do you like lager? Good, because FAGS & LAGER (AKA Booze & Burn) was last month's number one seller out of all my books!

1. Fags & Lager
2. King of the Road
3. Deadfolk
4. One Dead Hen
5. Made of Stone
6. Stairway to Hell

A little disappointing for Made of Stone there, pulling up the rear in its year of birth. More effort required there, methinks. Made of Stone, get the hell out there and earn your keep. You want the shame of Stairway to Hell beating you? It can happen, boy - believe me. It's up to you now. It's all about the response.

Erm, what was I saying? Oh yeah - Fags & Lager. Well done to that book, which Metro described as "yokel Tarantino", Birmingham Sunday Mercury called "unputdownable" and Tangled Web hailed as (my favourite quote of all time) "300-odd pages of squalor, f-, s- and c- words, extreme violence and drugs, the odd hint of perversity, monstrous sly humour and all with no redeeming social message whatsoever". 

Have a good month. And if you haven't done so already, consider purchasing Made of Stone. Let's pull it out of the doldrums! This book features Highlander heavenly. I bumped into Greg Widen the other week (he wrote Highlander) and mentioned it to him, and he didn't seem bothered either way about it. Greg, for Royston Blake to be obsessed with a film or TV series is the highest honour affordable in showbiz (thus far awarded to Sylvester Stallone, Clint Eastwood, Don Johnson. David Rasche, Dennis Waterman - all the greats).

I Hear Thunder

I have been neglecting this blog of late, so it's good that from now on I have an excuse to update it at least once a month. Yes, I speak of the monthly book charts. July was good, but not as good as June, which was pretty awesome by Mangel standards. (But hey, Mangel standards are pretty low. There probably isn't even a bookshop in Mangel. But there *is* a tattoo parlour.)

So, without further prattle, and with the thunder and lightning kicking off behind me, here are July's charts:

1. Deadfolk
2. Made of Stone
3. Fags & Lager
4. King of the Road
5. One Dead Hen
6. Stairway to Hell

So that's pretty much no change, other than #1 and #2 swapping. And the fact that I called it "Fags & Lager" instead of "Booze & Burn" this time. Obviously Fags is my preferred title, but titles are overrated anyway. Charles Willeford's THE DIFFERENCE is still the same book if you call it THE HOMBRE FROM SONORA. And a hell of a book.

The Hit Parade

Now that I've discovered this books sales thing I can give you the book charts every month, straight from the horse's mouth. (Did someone ever actually get something from a horse's mouth?) Not that I'm hung up on charts or anything. But hey, here they are:

      1. Made of Stone
      2. Deadfolk
      3. Booze and Burn
      4. King of the Road =
      4. One Dead Hen =
      6. Stairway to Hell

Good to see Made of Stone way out in front, where it ought to be in its year of publication. And quite a dog fight there for fourth place, with King and Hen both tied. Stairway to Hell, you need to start performing. They're talking about introducing relegation.

Book charts

Dunno if you're interested in these things, but here are the six novels I have published in order of sales (so far this year):

One Dead Hen (2011)
Deadfolk (2004)
Made of Stone (2013)
Booze and Burn (2005)
King of the Road (2006)
Stairway to Hell (2009)

The year in brackets indicates first publication. You might think that the most recent one Made of Stone would be the winner, but things don't work that way with a series. People often want to go in at the start (even though I sweat BLOOD to make sure you can read each of these things as a standalone, dammit!) But hey, I'm more than cool with that. One Dead Hen's dominance can be explained by one or two special offers from the publisher, I think. Stairway to Hell because it's a different publisher with less marketing effort for back-list titles. Also I guess it's going out of print as a paperback (which is sad but comes to us all in the end). (And hey, it's still there for Kindle (US / UK).)

It bothers me a bit that Stairway pulls up the rear. I like that book. Some of the characters from it still rattle around in the semi-deranged corners of my head, and of course I always think of the final chapter when I see Simon Cowell on the TV. But hey, that's book biz. And if anyone at all is buying it and reading it, I'm happy.