Photo Diary

There are one hundred of these pens available – both as fountain pens or as roller ball pens. For those who are interested, contact me from my website and I can give details of how to acquire one.
As for the Detection Collection, the next author has already agreed to write a short story and is enthusiastically looking forward to working with Conway Stewart to design his own version. I have to admit I am looking forward to helping him on the project too, for he is a writer I’ve admired for some years. And after that? There is a lady I know who would, I hope, appreciate a fine pen as well, and Conway Stewart are very happy with the initial take-up of this series, so with luck there will be many more pens in future.
And so, on Wednesday 18th August 2010, I will be in Conway Stewart’s offices outside Plymouth to sign 100 copies of The Church House, a short story only available with the pen. For keen collectors of my books, don’t panic: this isn’t a Baldwin Furnshill/Simon Puttock story, but a modern horror story which seems to work, I’m glad to say. Maybe I ought to take up gothic horror tales . . .
No. I’ll stick to what I know best!

DSC_0008, originally uploaded by michael_jecks.

At last, it has happened. The silly season must be here!

It was last November when I had the idea to work with Conway Stewart on a series of pens.

Sounds a bit cocky, I know, but it’s how it happened. You see, I was walking the dogs up towards Spreyton and thinking about ways to move a story on, and wishing I’d brought a pen with me, when I began thinking about my pens.

Some years ago when I had one really good royalties payment, I invested the proceeds in a complete set of PG Wodehouse books that were still in print. That was about ninety books, and kept me quiet for months. Lovely.

The next time I had a good payment, however, the idea of a new pen had grabbed me. I thought of all the famous pens I knew of. I was determined to get something that was large and solid, a pen with a feel of the heyday of British pens, which to my mind is the 1930s to 1950s. So I looked around . . . and found Conway Stewart.

I remembered them from years ago. I think I used to have one when I was at school in the ‘60s, a gorgeous old black pen – but my memory could be playing me false.

Still, when I checked, Conway Stewart had a lovely black pen decorated with a series of solid gold bands. It had the look and feel of a 1940s pen, and the impression was only enhanced by its name: the “Churchill”. Well, since he’s a hero of mine, I was convinced. I bought one. It was with me for all the meetings I held with the Crime Writers’ Association while I was deputy and then Chairman.

A few years later, I decided I had to give up pistol shooting at last. In the past I’ve always been a keen pistol shooter, a great sport with an honourable tradition going back from modern men like Michael Bentine to Winston Churchill himself. It’s still appallingly ironic that it took a Scottish police force’s incompetence and twisting of the firearms rules to deprive hundreds of thousands of their sports.

But for me, air pistols were in no way comparable to firing real firearms. Although when my guns were taken away, the limited compensation went towards a very good airgun, it just wasn’t the same. So after a few years, I sold that pistol and bought with the proceeds something to allow me to remember my sports: a Conway Stewart Drake fountain pen.

These two pens, the Drake and Churchill are with me now as I type. They are used daily, and I adore them both. And it was because of these I began to think about Conway Stewart and a collaboration.

You see, as a company they have great products. But most were named for historical characters like “Drake”, “Raleigh”, “Nelson” and so on. Why not, I thought, have a series in which authors worked with Conway Stewart’s designers. The author could help by choosing the colour of the pen, advise on the weight, choose the number of gold rings to decorate it, and select an ink to go with it. And then, I thought, why not have the author provide a short story to go with the pen, something unique to the limited edition pen, that wasn’t available elsewhere? It would be fun for many authors to work on a project like that, I thought.

I didn’t expect to be asked to be the first author, though. Still, I am.

So far three today. All the rest are deleted already, but here’s another one. See below.

I can only assume someone is daft enough to believe this kind of crap. The gangs responsible for these emails are not fools, and won’t waste their time unless they can see that they can get a 1% or more hit rate. All they need is a few folks to respond, and guess what. They have your details and your money. Not only that, they’re leaving you liable for repayment of the money  they’ve taken.

What happens is, the firm will send money through to you. You take your percentage, and send it on to the next person in the chain. It is money that has been stolen, laundered or similarly illegally grabbed. The thieves only have to break it up into smaller chunks, so that the money is below the American legal reporting levels, and then they send it to you. You post it onwards, and it will eventually wind up in Russia, or Ukraine, or some similar lawless part of the world.

Good, eh? You’ve made your little percentage on the transaction, and you can’t possibly be caught out?

Wrong.

First, the US authorities are pretty hot at chasing down people who’ve received funds. They can see the audit trail of the money by following the emails and wires. Not that difficult today. And when they track you down, you become liable for the full amount stolen. Because you were the receiver of stolen goods. So suddenly you’re the criminal.

But of course it gets better. As soon as you contact your recipient, the lines will close. They don’t want to know. And although you can pass on various contact details, you can also bet that they’ll all be closed down by the time the police get to them. And then, to add insult to injury, the second level kicks in. At some point in the future, you will find that your bank has been raided and your funds removed, that you’ve had a new set of credit cards issued in your name, and that you have built up a huge debt.

It has happened already. This isn’t just an author’s imaginative wittering. So many people have been hit, it astonishes me that there are still so many who believe the guff they’re fed.

If you doubt my word, look up Krebs Security on the web and read a few of his pages on scams. It’s sad reading.

And meantime, read this and wonder: “would I have fallen for that?” Because a lot of people no doubt have!

BEGINS

Compliments


I introduce a large multinational enterprise the co-worker of the HR department of which I am. Our enterprise is connected with a great number of various activities, like:
– real estate
– companies setting-up and winding-up
– bank accounts opening and maintenance
– logistics
– private undertaking services
– etc.

We need a person to fill the vacancy of a regional manager in Europe:
– earnings 2300euro+bonus
– 2–3 working hours per day
– free timetable


If you are interested in this job, please, send us your contact information on email:
c v @ h i r i n g – w e s t u n i o n . c o m [please delete spaces before sending]
Full name:
Country:
E-mail:
Mobile phone-number:



Attention! We are looking for the people who have a right to work in Europe!

Please, write your Telephone Number and our manager will contact you to conduct an interview.

ENDS

OATH HB, originally uploaded by michael_jecks.

This is what the glorious new cover of The Oath will be like. Very dark and brooding, but entirely suitable for the thrilling tale inside.

The great thing is, that Conway Stewart pens have made me the first of their limited edition subjects. They’re creating a Detection Collection of pens, each designed in collaboration with an author, and the first will be the Michael Jecks pen. The really nice thing about it is the fact that Simon & Schuster and Conway Stewart will be running a couple of competitions, so readers and pen collectors can win either a free pen, or some pen buyers can win a free book – keep your eyes on the website for more information on this.

Personally, I’m just really looking forward to grabbing hold of the pen for the first time!

DSC_0008, originally uploaded by michael_jecks.

And here we have the weather at the fag-end of March. Cold, wet, overcast – and bloody snowing, for God’s sake!

DSC_0006, originally uploaded by michael_jecks.

So this is what the weather was like two weeks ago, on Mother’s Day. 14th of March we went off to the sea side with views over to Burgh Island. Lovely – especially since the sun was out and it was gorgeous weather.

This is a short note, folks, just to show what Simon & Schuster are doing with the covers for the new titles.

The first title from Simon & Schuster, number 29 in the series, will be called THE OATH, and I reckon that the jacket tells pretty much what the book is going to be like. What do you lot think?

Been a busy week, but worthwhile. I’ve managed to get the basics sorted with Conway Stewart for a pen, to be called the Michael Jecks, oddly enough. It’s going to be a limited edition pen, a “Winston” in Conway Stewart’s Dartmoor resin, a really lovely dark colour, with gold bands and nib. Very attractive. I’ve also agreed some other interesting projects with them, I’ve mostly completed an introduction to a new series, and now I’ve got a picture for the book to be published in May – and I’ve figured out a whole chunk of book 30 too! Which is good because next week I have two days in London, and a third on 24th, when I’ve a bunch of meetings with my new publishers.

A busy time – but fun!

Let me know what you think of the book cover!

CRB Checks Reviewed

What is the point of them? Will they work?

What really gets to me is, there was a programme last week on this issue. The first thing they learned was, there were no figures on how many children were saved or helped by the checks now in place – let’s not forget: over 11,000,000 UK adults are expected to have their backgrounds checked now. Some because they are trying to gain jobs as teachers, some because they have children in a club and have offered to regularly drive friends’ children to the same venue.

The best that they could do was contact Childline, a UK charity for children to call when they feel threatened.

Childline checked the figures, and found that of 12,000 calls alleging abuse last year, 3 – yes, 3 – could have been prevented with the checks being imposed. No more.

The ISA and CRB checks wouldn’t have stopped Ian Huntley and the Soham murders, for example. He got access to his victims through his girlfriend, and the CRB checks specifically exclude partners and others in the same household. Many offenders are not strangers, but members of the family. CRB checks will not uncover them, either.

It is said that if one life is saved, it’s worth it – but is it? It’s a brilliant piece of political spinning. Automatically anyone who argues is put to the side as a deeply unpleasant person. Clearly all children are ‘innocent’ and should be protected.

Yes, they should be protected. But that does not mean it is right to impose a new bureaucrasy on the nation, affecting millions, without thought. Especially when the actual result may be disaster for hundreds or thousands of children each year.

Because we don’t know how many innocents are accused maliciously and see their careers blighted or destroyed.

It is already all too common in the UK to see teachers accused of inappropriate behaviours by children. Unsupported accusations can cause teachers to lose their careers, to lose their spouses, to see everything they have worked for being destroyed.

How many innocents is it acceptable to see ruined? No need for a court hearing, because these are simple administrative matters. But the long term impact is appalling, especially when the matters do get the attention of the English courts, because then all publicity is illegal and contempt of court. So an accused is not permitted to allow information to be released into the press that could, say, verify an alibi. It is illegal in case the identities of the affected children are released.

So the innocents are assumed guilty, denied the ability to defend themselves, and all on the word of children who may be acting from malice or a frivolous inclination. But those same devastated teachers may have their own children, who can be taken away from a supposed abuser. So, how many families broken apart, how many children ripped from their parents to live with single parent families or adopted because of these accusations, balances the death of the one child?

Worse, perhaps, are the families ruined because of clumsy clerical officers putting allegations against the wrong name. Data entry is inherently unreliable. Humans are fallible – especially those humans paid pathetic amounts to sit at a screen and input data. Incorrect data was logged against names 1,570 times in twelve months in the CRB to March 2009. That is 1,570 people who had to bear the horror of utterly unsupported allegations. Out of that number, how many will never again feel comfortable working in their career? How many will lose their spouse?

The damage done to innocent families outweighs the damage to one child, I’m afraid. It’s sad, but evil things will be done to kids.

No system of checks can work. We now have the most controlled society in the western world. Hitler and Goebbels would have been delighted to see how the English would embrace these new technologies. Computers cross referencing the locations of cars by number plate, checking where any mobile phone owner may have been at any time, the checking systems are pointless, foolish, time-wasting, expensive, and seriously damage our society by creating an atmosphere of distrust.

And now they stop authors from giving talks. Marvellous!

CRB CHECKS

For some months now I have been negotiating with Caerphilly Library Service to go and hold a Medieval Murderers event with Bernard Knight for them.

It was to be a great little gig: Bernard and I always enjoy working together, and both of us like visiting different areas, but this would have been much more special. We were going to hold it in Caerphilly Castle. A great location for a talk, being atmospheric, scenic, and, most importantly for me, it’s one of the scenes for my next book. Number 29 will have a large chunk of action in and around the castle, because it was not too far from there that King Edward II was captured. Yippee.

But the show has been cancelled.

In the past I have cursed our modern nanny state and the way that there is an overriding presumption of guilt that pervades every aspect of life.

When I was a boy, I started carrying a penknife with me from the age of about nine. I cut myself many times, and learned to be more circumspect in the way I handled knives, and when I was (once) stopped by police as a teenager, my reason for owning the lock-bladed knife in my pocket was accepted by the officers involved – I used it to clean my pipe. Yes, even then I was a rebel and preferred a pipe to cigarettes.

In recent years, the number of stabbings has increased. Therefore, the government has made it illegal to carry knives with blades longer than three inches. Even folding penknives with locking blades are now illegal unless you can show you need it for work, or some similar excuse. I think it’s nonsense, but it does at least have the benefit of some logic. Knives can hurt people, so stop people carrying knives.

But the new laws don’t stop there. Now all adults, especially males, are looked upon as paedophiles in waiting. We are all suspects. And that is why I am fuming here as I write.

Because Caerphilly is cancelled, not because of anything I have said or done, nor because of Bernard – but because the Council has a “Corporate Policy” of demanding that all performers have a CRB check.

So now, CRB checks are to be used to prevent authors from going on a stage in front of consenting adults.

Well, it’ll leave the field open to a number of other authors, because I for one will not agree to paying for someone to go through my records and keep yet another reference to me on a database for no purpose.

Angry? Moi?

Get your criminology degree online.

An interesting question from a reader last week – and I’ve been intending to get round to answering. Today I did, but it makes a good topic for the blog, because it is something I’m asked fairly often nowadays. There seems to be a belief among readers that every attitude in my books must reflect my own. Well, no, they don’t. My job is to get inside the heads of other people and explain their thoughts and motives. In the same way that I don’t have to experience the joys of killing other people to write crime,

Why do I have so much misbehaviour in my books?

Because it’s what happened. Seriously.

I’m very happy with the church generally. I’m proud to be able to call the Rector of Crediton a friend. And, in my defence, you have to bear in mind that in my books I use characters like Peter Clifford, Abbot Champeaux, Bishop Walter II, the Dean of Exeter, and God knows how many others who are all decent enough guys. The bad ones tend to be a rarity, really. If you add up all the good monks, the pleasant clerics, the recorders and clerks, you’ll find plenty of amiable, patient fellows.

However, you have to bear in mind that when an organisation directly or indirectly employs somewhere in the region of a third of the total male workforce of the country, there will be some bad apples.

The cases I use are generally from documents.

So the Parson of Quantoxhead is genuine;   the Exeter Canon who broke into a house and stole goods is genuine (John Dyrewyn);   as is the case of the priest ( John de Thorntone) who kidnapped a woman, raped her, ransomed her, and then kept both woman and ransom without making restitution.  The case of the eleven who broke open St Buryen Church and beat the Dean and attendants so harshly that their lives were feared of was true, as was that of the three priests of Crediton guilty of gross immorality. As was the story of Stapledon breaking into the Dominicans; the misbehaviour of the nuns at Belstone (culled from the cases at two other Devon convents recorded in Bishop Grandisson’s rolls); the robberies, the extortion, all the cases I’ve given are from the records. As is the story of the Mad Monk of Gidleigh – except he was called the Mad Monk of Haldon Hill in the court records.

And in case you think Devon folk were uniquely venal, don’t forget that it was at this time that the Crown Jewels were moved from Westminster Abbey to the Tower of London because the monks at the abbey were complicit in a theft of the jewels in 1303!

I do see my job as being moderately impartial. I like to show how things really were, not either as a rosy-tinted view of ye olde England, nor as a repellent neo-Marxist tale of grim, unrelenting misery. I try always to tell it as it is.

Unfortunately (or, rather, fortunately since I’m a crime writer!) there are just a vast number of cases of misbehaving nuns and monks and clerks and priests and all the rest of them!

It’s why Medieval England was such fun!