Traditionally I write something for Granite Noir - traditionally, however, it isn't on line and I'm running back and forth to the Lemon Tree or the Music Hall or the Central Library or wherever and grabbing a cafe coffee in between.
This evening, however, I'm in my armchair with a hot toddy, watching on my laptop. The cat is occasionally watching over my shoulder, there's no one coming in late to squirm into an empty seat beside me, and there's no to and fro between speakers and audience, sadly. But here we go:
Not the typical Granite Noir and Day One is really Friday
evening, not Thursday evening. Being able to go and top up my hot toddy between sessions, but having to involve No.3 Cat in the entertainment, is
definitely odd. The first session was Stuart MacBride and Ian Rankin, chaired
by Fiona Stalker – Stuart against a strange greenscreen of a sideways cat. I felt
Stuart didn’t come across as humorously as he usually does – Zoom makes us all
more sententious – and it took a while for these two prominent authors and
broadcaster to relax and settle into the whole business of being away and present
at once, and to work round the ‘here we are in a pandemic’ subject to things we’re
actually interested in.
Next session – Alex Clark interviewing Attica Locke. I’m not
saying I want politics to swamp Granite Noir, but this was a good session,
looking, with remarkable balance, at Trump, modern America and black lives
mattering, but not without reference to writing and reading and crime fiction.
Lots covered here! And I think I want to sit down and have a coffee, or glass
of wine, with Attica Locke. She just seems like great company.
And now I don't even have to walk home!
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