Don't Ask Me, I'm a Hermaphrodite From Venus

First of all, this weekend's film viewing consisted of Toy Story 3 which was funny and clever and made me cry followed by the brilliant and dark Argentinian crime thriller El Secreto de Sus Ojos, which is about a policeman who is so haunted by an old case - the rape and murder of a beautiful young woman in the 1970s - that he decides to write a book about it many years later. Excellent stuff. It beat the marvellous French film Un Prophete (sorry, don't know how to do the accent on blogger!) to the best Foreign Language Film Oscar. I think I possibly slightly preferred Un Prophete, but it's a close call.

You can get news from the Scottish Publishing industry - including a nice round-up of book festivals - here from Publishing Scotland.

The lovely Declan Burke recently asked various writers for their favourite last line in a novel.

A Mysterious Writers interview with Bill Kirton. And a couple of interviews with Val McDermid who's appearing in Australia and New Zealand (I was going to say 'downunder' but that just didn't sound right).

Irvine Welsh on forcing addicts into rehab. And in a 'when worlds collide' moment, books and music meet again - I didn't know that Irvine Welsh and Vic Godard had collaborated on a musical. I remember going to see Vic Godard and the Subway Sect in Bristol in the early 1980s. They were great fun.

Iain Banks at the Edinburgh Book Festival.

Dogeared Snippets with a delightfully quirky look at Denise Mina's SLIP OF THE KNIFE and M C Beaton's DEATH OF A WITCH.

And, finally, is it unnatural for a woman to write an intellectual novel? Don't ask me, I'm a hermaphrodite from Venus.

Sunday Gallimaufry

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the lovelyTony Black's book launch last week, but, apparently, both Ian Rankin and William McIlvanney made it. Damn - I always miss the best parties. But if like me you couldn't make it here's a video featuring the new book LONG TIME DEAD. And Tony tells the Press and Journal how he recently shared dinner and funny handshakes with the Freemasons. And a review of the book by Paul Brazill who calls it an urban classic - nice.

The charming Michael Malone interviews Bill Kirton.

Christopher Brookmyre with some schoolboy memories on video for BBC Radio Scotland.

In a recent blog post from Craig Robertson, he says he has just finished writing SNAPSHOT, the follow-up to his debut novel RANDOM.

Iain Banks' new book comes with an iPhone app.

Creative Scotland is officially launched.

The shortlist for the Theakstons Old Peculier crime novel of the year has been announced. Congratulations to all nominees.

The latet reviewingtheevidence round up has a couple of reviews of Scottish books - first of all Catriona McPherson's DANDY GILVER AND THE PROPER TREATMENT OF BLOODSTAINS and also Stuart MacBride's DARK BLOOD.

There's a hunt on for the lost manuscripts of Robert Louis Stevenson.

Football, Flashers and Flying Across the Clyde

Craig Robertson and others talk baddies to Bookdagger.

Edinburgh's Tales of One City has a Youtube channel. See Iain Banks, Doug Johnstone, Irvine Welsh and much more (thanks to @scottishbooks) .

Ian Rankin - celebrity whale watcher. And he is great to follow on Twitter "Apparently, my brand new Inspector Rebus short story, 'The Very Last Drop', will be published in Friday's 'Scotsman' newspaper", he says. Yippee! He also says: "wondering if the couple who won me on ebay left positive feedback..."

A great article in The Guardian on John Buchan's Richard Hannay books.

The lovely Karen over at Eurocrime comments on several books with a football focus, including books by Scots Bill Knox, Alex Gray and Alexander McCall Smith.

More from The Scotsman on Creative Scotland and the potential pitfalls which need to be avoided.

A reminder of a rather excellent sounding event with Ray Banks on Friday if you are in London.

Booksquawk reviews THE DARKNESS by Bill Kirton. The South African Times Live reviews Ian Rankin and Philip Kerr. And the delightful Bernadette in Oz enjoyed Caro Ramsay's SINGING TO THE DEAD, but has a double pronged rant about authors who do not update their websites and how all Scottish authors end up being called "the next Ian Rankin", even when they patently aren't. Well said, that woman.

The Chicago Tribune on why mysteries still matter.

Carol Anne Davies on a recent Home Office report which recommends that police stop talking about crime because it upsets people. Her story of being flashed at reminds me of when a friend and I were once flashed at in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

And, finally, there's only a week or so to go, so I'm getting as many plugs in as possible for my death defying plunge across the River Clyde on a piece of string. All sponsorship or encouraging comments gratefully received.