Fancy a quickie?

Because that's all you're going to get today. I am very behind (does my bum look big in this blog?)

I was at the CWA lunch in Glasgow last week - lovely lunch, even lovelier people. There was a wee bit of chat about the Scottish crime fiction convention Bloody Scots, which is all sounding very exciting. It will be held in mid-September 2012 in Stirling and some top Scottish names have already signed up. More in due course. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it develops.

And now a wee bit of Scottish crime fiction news.

Doug Johnstone's SMOKEHEADS is now out and there's a great article on him in The Skinny. And, in a conversation on Twitter with Russel McLean, Doug mentions that he was asked about swearing in his books. The comment was - can you believe this - "I think your book is disgusting." Actually, if I hadn't already bought the book, that comment would make me rush out and buy it. Incidentally, Russel's response was that someone once spoke to him about his book, without realising he was the author, saying "I couldn't have such filth in my house. So I burned it." Reporting a Twitter conversation makes me feel like some creepy eavesdropper, standing behind a wall, while all the cool kids chat. But there you go.

Talking of Twitter, Ian Rankin gives his views on the subject.

Val McDermid talks about Irish crime fiction.

And Ian Rankin again - this time he's asked 7 questions by Book Page, Crime Watch interviews Liam McIlvanney, and Quercus interviews Peter May.

Alexander Mc Call Smith's THE MEMORY OF LOST THINGS is reviewed in The Herald.