“Declan Burke is his own genre. The Lammisters dazzles, beguiles and transcends. Virtuoso from start to finish.” – Eoin McNamee “This bourbon-smooth riot of jazz-age excess, high satire and Wodehouse flamboyance is a pitch-perfect bullseye of comic brilliance.” – Irish Independent Books of the Year 2019 “This rapid-fire novel deserves a place on any bookshelf that grants asylum to PG Wodehouse, Flann O’Brien or Kyril Bonfiglioli.” – Eoin Colfer, Guardian Best Books of the Year 2019 “The funniest book of the year.” – Sunday Independent “Declan Burke is one funny bastard. The Lammisters ... conducts a forensic analysis on the anatomy of a story.” – Liz Nugent “Burke’s exuberant prose takes centre stage … He plays with language like a jazz soloist stretching the boundaries of musical theory.” – Totally Dublin “A mega-meta smorgasbord of inventive language ... linguistic verve not just on every page but every line.Irish Times “Above all, The Lammisters gives the impression of a writer enjoying himself. And so, dear reader, should you.” – Sunday Times “A triumph of absurdity, which burlesques the literary canon from Shakespeare, Pope and Austen to Flann O’Brien … The Lammisters is very clever indeed.” – The Guardian

Friday, June 8, 2007

Funky Friday’s Free-For-All: The Interweb Mash-Up That All The Other Mash-Ups Call ‘Creamy Potatoes’

The June edition of Thuglit is on the interweb streets, folks, with stories by Keiran Shea, Ed Lynskey and Geoff Hyatt (among others) jammed between its electronic covers. The better news is that Thuglit has scored a publishing deal with Kensington Books, which has agreed to publish three annual Thuglit anthologies, kicking off in spring 2008. Jump over to Outside Left for an interview with founder-editor Todd ‘Big Daddy Thug’ Robinson (above) … The third annual Kinsale Arts Week runs from July 7-15, and boasts a heavy crime fiction presence. Actually, no: the best we can say is that John Boyne will cruise into town on his new yacht to do a reading in the Friary Space – more details as they arrive … Bookwitch gives the glad eye to Siobhan Dowd’s The London Eye Mystery, which was launched yesterday, June 7 … Meanwhile, over at Contemporary Nomad, Kevin Wignall reflects on what it means to be nominated for the CWA’s short story Dagger. You may or may not be shocked to discover that he’s ‘honoured just to be nominated’ … Fans of Michael Collins (left) can catch an interview with the mean ‘n’ moody one at Orion Books, while the vid below represents the absolute worst attempt at a video interview we’ve ever seen … you have been warned …



Finally, Ken Bruen has a short story, Words Are Cheap, in the first ever issue of Murdaland (‘Crime fiction for the 21st Century’, it says on the tin). Sir Kenneth of the Tribes is also interviewed by Reed Farrell Coleman over at Mystery Readers International in their ‘At Home’ series, in which he holds forth about the whole blogging malarkey, to wit:
RFC: On the whole, do you feel that the internet and the blogosphere has been beneficial for writers? Or do you feel that much of the time people spend blogging would be better spent doing work?
KB: It’s here to stay. I blog on Murderati twice a month purely to stop the evil vile shite the blogs are currently pushing, and I took the gig to put it back to writing, books and all of that. What the rest do … way I see it bro, you need to thrash somebody and you think doing it publicly on a blog is the way, God freakin’ help you.
Amen, brother. And that’s it for another week, folks – thanks for stopping by, and y’all come back now, y’hear?

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