Tonto Author Profile #3: Mark Jones

The third of the Chronicle's profiles is The Burglar's Dog author Mark Jones:


It was never the intention of pub enthusiast Mark Jones to become a published writer.

But not only has he achieved this, he has also gone on to become Tonto Press's biggest-selling author.

His book The Burglar's Dog gives honest and frank reviews of more than 150 pubs around Tyneside. Disguising himself as a dog (in the book, not in the pubs) Mark gives his own views on our region's pubs, covering everything from toilets to DJs.

"It all started on my website. I never imagined it would become a book. I didn't like the idea at first when the publishers approached me so I turned them down. But they eventually twisted my arm and I agreed, I'd just never thought of it as book material.

"It's strange seeing my book on the shelves. I don't tell people it's me so that I can stay as neutral as possible."

Mark likes to keep his identity anonymous so as not to complicate his work. For the sake of his art Mark consumed 154 pints in 154 venues over a three-month period. "I can think of worse jobs. But at one point it did get a bit ridiculous. I was drinking six or seven pints a night.

"I've been really pleased with the book's response. I never expected it to do this well."

You can read more about The Burglar's Dog and get a copy here.

Paul

Tonto Author Profile #2: Pete Tanton

The second of the Newcastle Evening Chronicle's writer profiles, today Johnny Lonely author Pete Tanton:

COMIC SUCCESS: English teacher-turned author Pete Tanton has plaudits for his humorous work
English teacher Pete Tanton is never short of inspiration for his humorous writing.

Originally from Alabama, USA, Pete settled in the North East after meeting his Geordie wife Louise more than a decade ago.

He has worked as a travelling violin salesman, a publisher's stockroom assistant, professional musician and bicycle racer before settling down in a teaching role at St Thomas More School in Gateshead.

By pure coincidence, Pete's grandad was born in County Durham so he was familiar with the Geordie way of life.

Last year the 39-year-old was picked from 400 entries as best new novelist by UK publishers Tonto Press, based in Newcastle. As well as the kudos, part of the winning package included a publishing deal for his entry novel Johnny Lonely.

It's the story of a neurotic young musician who leaves his parochial Alabama home town in search of his estranged brother in Los Angeles. It has proved a massive success already.

In 2004, an early draft won the Fresh Fiction Prediction award at the 2004 New Writing North Fresh Fiction Festival.

"The story starts out in Alabama but I think it translates beautifully to Newcastle," the dad-of-one explains. "It's a beautiful and vibrant city but there is still a very small town feel.

"A lot of the kids I work with want to leave and 'make it', but will probably come back. They think Newcastle is small but actually there's so much here, and they'll realise that.

"My book is a comedy, really. I don't think there's a moral message in it. It has happy ending and is hopefully a good, fun read."

Johnny Lonely is available from Tonto Press now.

You can read more about Johnny Lonely and pre-order a copy here.

Tonto Author Profile #1: Ros Wyllie

The Newcastle Evening Chronicle ran a double-page feature profiling three Tonto writers yesterday. As it was published on a Bank Holiday and misprinted over non-consecutive pages (!) we'll reproduce it here over the next few days. First up, here's More Tonto Short Stories contributor Ros Wyllie:

Who will be the next to light up the literary world?
Mitya Underwood, The Evening Chronicle, 28 May 2007

DETERMINATION: Heaton scribe Ros Wyllie

"I have always been into writing stories, I was a bit of a dreamer as a child," says part-time author Ros Wyllie, grinning.

"It's a very good way to get the fantasies and neuroses out in a constructive way."

Ros spends half her week trying to write witty, intelligent and hopefully best-selling books, and the other half working in children's services at Newcastle City Council.

At the age of 37, she has already had various short stories published, won numerous writing competitions and seen her scripts turned into popular stage plays.

But like so many writers, she is still chasing that elusive publishing deal for the book she has dedicated the last two and a half years of her life to.

"I've been really lucky so far. Some writers spend their lives writing things which never get recognition or published.

"I've been lucky enough to see my work on stage at the Customs House in South Shields, and get my short stories published, I certainly can't complain. Ros, who has kept a diary since she was 17 ("That's 20 years of self-obsession!") thinks part of her ability to write comes from her own passion for reading.

She is a big fan of female authors like Margaret Atwood, Carol Clewlow and Carol Shields, but is always happy to read new novelists. She started concentrating on her own writing 10 years ago, but only for her own pleasure.

And it wasn't until her cousin died suddenly six years ago, aged just 35, that Ros decided to turn her dream of being an author into reality.

"It made me realise you should do with your life what you want. So I gave up my job and went to Brazil for three months to stay with a friend.

"It was really amazing. I wrote the first draft of a novel, A Case of Pomba Gira, about a Brazilian girl looking into the religion Umbanda.

"I wrote it for myself, I had to discipline myself to write 70,000 words, which isn't always easy."

In 2003, Ros, who lives in Heaton, Newcastle, with her partner Paul, decided she wanted more training and did an MA in creative writing at Northumbria University, balancing this with her job as a drugs worker in Blyth.

Her most recent effort, Everything You Ever Want, is "part thriller, part coming-of-age story". Set in a hostess club, it tells the story of two very different women who are thrown together after a murder.

It is her favourite book yet and she has spent hundreds of hours making minor and major adjustments to give it the best chance of being picked up by a publisher.

She is currently in talks with a few agencies in London but after more than two years' work, knows it can be a long and tiring process and that the chance to get published are few and far between.

"I'm three quarters of the way through another play because I just can't bear to look at my novel," she laughs.

"It's had even more encouraging responses, which is great, I'm just waiting now.

"The thing with writing is you can get 19 rejections for every one acceptance. I have to believe.

"Lots of people write for years and are never published, but if you were to give up you might miss your one chance."

One of her other favourite works is a short story called Possibilities, set in the North East coastal village of Seahouses. It tells the story of a how a little girl deals with grief by imagining her absent father living under the sea with mermaids.

"What is really good for people like me in the region is there is so much support from agencies who want to encourage new writers.

"And there's lots of places to look for inspiration. That's probably why the region has a long history of successful authors. I just hope it continues the same way."


You can read Ros's work in More Tonto Short Stories and the original Tonto Short Stories.

You can read the full Chronicle article here. More recent coverage of Tonto Press and our authors can be found here.

Paul

More Tonto Short Stories OUT NOW!

Our brand new collection of shorts, More Tonto Short Stories, is out now and available to purchase from all good book shops! It's a brand new anthology of sixteen fresh short stories by exciting new writers, following the acclaimed original Tonto Short Stories. You can meet the authors and read more about the book (and order a copy) here.

Paul

Writers for courses

Get writing this summer!

Yep - we are now taking bookings for our next Creative Writing course. It runs from 23-27 July, so book early to avoid disappointment. The big difference this time round is that it will take place in our own building. The course is practical, comprehensive and fun - ideal for writers looking to develop their writing with a view to publication. The student-centred courses concentrate on prose, covering both short stories and novels. Uniquely, attendees receive practical support from professional writers on improving their writing, AND constructive advice from publishers seeking to discover and develop new talent.

The feedback has been brilliant. We are confident that we are offering something useful to writers. We know about publishing, we know about writing and how to find a home for your work. Writer development is what Tonto Press is based on.
See details of the course here.

Would you be interested in an internet-based Creative Writing course? We don't know - if there are enough interested writers, we'd like to get it off the ground. Let us know on the feedback form.

Stu

A Moving Story

We did it! On 23 April 2007, Tonto Press made a giant leap for writer-kind by taking a studio at the Brick Works, in Newcastle upon Tyne. Eager as ever, we even moved in before all the building work was complete and were the first to settle in. In the days that followed, all the other artists and makers moved in, establishing a thriving community.

As you can see on the website, the building caters for a variety of creative businesses, with 12 studios and conference room facilities.

Jamie, Hannah and actor Phil Hoffmann stopped by to offer support, eat our food and drink our beer

There was an opening event held on 3 May where press and funders attended to see what we were all up to before the building was officially opened up to all the riff raff – friends, family, and the like – for the first time. It was a great night of networking, with a trip to a local drinking establishment to round the night off perfectly.


What does this all mean for the future of Tonto Press? Well, we have a number of projects in development at the moment. We are poised to release More Tonto Short Stories and will be publicising it and the others in the very near future. We are also developing our educational work, running more creative writing workshops in-house, and are in discussion with various groups to widen the participation of workshops to those other than experienced writers.

Stay tuned for more news…

Stu

More Tonto Short Stories results

We've not blogged for a while, partly because we're moving office and partly because we couldn't figure out this "New Blogger" thing, but now we're back with a big post and big news, namely the results of our More Short Stories contest.



We received hundreds of entries, so thanks to everyone who took the time to write something and send it in. We've chosen 16 stories to be published in the anthology, and they are:

ERIK GLAMBIK-BOE'S ANGEL by LOUISE HUME
THE DAY OF THE DEAD by DANIELA I NORRIS
GUESSWORK by ROBIN MARSDEN
BREATHE REVEREND BREATHE by AMY OLIVE
VIOLET by NIKKY JORDAN
THE ADVENTURES OF ANNA HALDORSEN by NICK MONTGOMERY
SEAHOUSES by ROSALIND WYLLIE
EXECUTIVE SAILS by PETER PARRISH
LOST AND FOUND by SAM MORRIS
BOLTED BUT NOT LOCKED by KEVIN BROOKES
MY BROTHER DIED AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT by KEN PISANI
THE REMAINING HALF by JOLENE HUI
SLAPSTICK AND TICKLE by SIMON ELLINAS
JOE'S ARK by KATIE-ELLEN HAZELDINE
BECOMING FRIDAY by SARAH JANE MARSHALL
DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME by STEPHEN SHIEBER

More Tonto Short Stories will be published on 21 May, but readers who have pre-ordered the anthology can expect to receive it several weeks in advance of that. You can pre-order More Tonto Short Stories here.

And now you can meet the authors...

Kevin, Simon, Katie, Jolene

KEVIN BROOKES was born in Birmingham in 1958. He has written for many years but has only recently tried to get published. He used to be a science teacher, but took early retirement. Now he wants to spend much more time writing. He loves music, reading and nature.

Half-Irish, half-Greek SIMON ELLINAS was born in London during the 20th Century. Afflicted with the need to make people laugh (there's no cure), he works as a cartoonist and occasionally ambushes comedy clubs. He lives in London with a family, a dog and a goldfish. His blog is at humorousarts.wordpress.com.

KATIE-ELLEN HAZELDINE is originally from Durham City, and now lives in Lytham St Annes in Lancashire. She is 43 and married, with two daughters. She has rheumatoid arthritis and works from home as a professional tarot reader. She is seeking publication of a completed first novel and is working on her second.

JOLENE HUI is a writer/actress with a severe addiction to sugar. She's a horror buff who writes a column for TheFleshFarm.com. One of Tonto Press's first authors in 2006, she has also been published by a variety of newspa-pers, magazines and Cleis Press. She is based in Los Angeles.

Louise, Nikky, Robin, Sarah Jane

From Wakefield, LOUISE HUME lives in Brighton where, for a living, she is a guide at the historic Royal Pavilion and Museum. She has just written and directed a short film, and co-wrote with eight others, a feature length script about 24 hours in Brighton. Easily distracted by shouty guitar music, much of her writing energy goes into articles for the Wedding Present fanzine. Seven years ago, she started, very slowly, to write a novel.

NIKKY JORDAN lives in the West Midlands with her part-ner, son and a nomenclatively dubious cat. After a varied ‘career' she studied English and Creative Writing at university. Fun includes reading, yoga, making soap and frighteningly competitive bouts of Monopoly. She is currently working on her first novel.

ROBIN MARSDEN's first short story appeared in Tonto Short Stories in 2006. Since then, he has published pieces in the UK and USA, and his work has been long listed for Fish Short Story Prize. Robin lives in London, where he is currently working on a novel, Why the City Never Sleeps.

SARAH JANE MARSHALL lives in London writing reports on public health for the government. She has worked as a journalist for The Sunday Times and news editor for the United Nations. She is currently writing a novel inspired by her life in Kenya managing a livestock ranch and wildlife reserve. She is due to complete an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck later this year.

Nick, Sam, Daniela, Amy

NICK MONTGOMERY graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford, before joining the band Microdisney, a John Peel favourite. After receiving a Doctorate on Virginia Woolf from Newcastle University, he is currently working on a novel, two screenplays with artist Tracey Tofield and a music project with composer and producer Ema Lea.

SAM MORRIS lives in the UK and started writing fiction some years ago to fill those long grey Sunday afternoons. He soon became immersed and now tries to write at least once a day. First published in print in the original TONTO SHORT STORIES, he is currently at work on his first book.

DANIELA I NORRIS is an ex-diplomat, ex-editor and now a writer. She was born in Romania in 1971 and had since lived and worked in Israel, Canada, Angola, Peru and France. She currently lives near Geneva with her husband and two young boys, and works as an adviser to one of the Permanent Missions to the United Nations. She has recently written a novel, which she is hoping to publish.

AMY OLIVE was born in 1980. She spent the first years of her life in a cottage by the Grand Union Canal, and the rest of her childhood in Mayenne, France. She started her working life as a journalist and now works for a charity. She is about to finish a degree in English and German at the University of Northampton. She will then continue to study whilst working on the second draft of a novel. She lives in Northamptonshire with partner, Alan, and cat, Pablo.

Peter, Ken, Stephen, Rosalind

PETER PARRISH does not pick pecks of pickled pepper, unless you ask him nicely. He has been a music writer since 2004 and regularly gets over-enthusiastic about goth records for stylusmagazine.com and emusic.com. This is his first appearance in a published anthology of fiction. He is 24, lives in North Yorkshire and usually needs a haircut.

KEN PISANI has written and produced a variety of televi-sion programs, including sports (where he met many famous athletes only to wish he hadn't) and comedy (something that was not always evident by the time those shows aired). He currently lives in Los Angeles with his lovely wife, Amanda, the yang to his yin. Ken hopes to publish his unpublished novel, finish his unfinished one, and then find some other un to undo.

STEPHEN SHIEBER lives in Newcastle and, in his real life, teaches in a local school. When he writes, Stephen prefers short stories, although his burning ambition is to write a first-class gothicky crime novel. A number of people have kindly published him, but Tonto Press have been particularly generous. His collection Significant Others is currently looking for a benefactor.

ROSALIND WYLLIE lives in Newcastle and has an MA in Creative Writing from Northumbria. Her short story Freshers was published by Tonto in their Tonto Short Stories anthology and led to readings for Pulp.net and to her story Departures being showcased on Laurahird.co.uk. Her first stage play Green Beans was staged in 2006 to critical acclaim and she is currently working on a film script, novel and a new stage play.

Thanks again to everyone who submitted stories or pro-ordered More Tonto Short Stories. We hope you'll enjoy reading it.

Paul

More Tonto Short Stories cover preview

We are currently working through the submissions for More Tonto Short Stories, and hope to have the finished anthology on the shelves by May. In the meantime here's a preview of the cover design. You can preorder the book here.

One window closes, another one opens...

The submissions window for our More Tonto Short Stories anthology of new writing is now closed. Many thanks to the hundreds of writers who took the time to send us their work.

We are now accepting good marketable non-fiction titles, and we're inviting interested writers to send us brief outlines. Full details are here.

In other news, we've announced the winners of the Wor Al superfan contest. Details of that can be found here.

Esquire Napkin Project

There are now less than three days to go before we close the submission window for More Tonto Short Stories, so if you were intending to send us your short story you should probably pull a finger out. Full submission details are here.

On the subject of short stories, US Esquire is currently showcasing an interesting project on its website. Inspired by the idea of scribbling ideas on napkins, the magazine sent 250 napkins, some say serviettes, to writers. The results are incredibly various in content and quality, but well worth a look. Particularly notable are efforts from Rick Moody and Kent Haruf, a plan for murder from Ben Percy, and a beautifully crafted tiny novel by ND Wilson. You can read them, and plenty more, here.

As a former men's magazine 'staffer' it's good to see that US Esquire (like US GQ) remains one of the best places to find top quality writing, fiction and non-fiction. (UK men's mags, meanwhile, are the best places to find pictures of reality TV stars in their smalls. Ho hum.)

Catch-up

A belated Happy New Year from us at Tonto Press. We've been very busy preparing for our next creative writing course and receiving submissions for More Tonto Short Stories.

The 5-day course takes place in Newcastle from 19th to 23rd February (half-term week) and at the time of writing there are just 3 places remaining. You can book a place here.

The deadline for short story submissions is 31st January. You can see full submission details here.

1,500 people downloaded our free Tonto Christmas Short Stories anthology, and we've heard many tales of people passing it around to friends and family either via email or as a printout. We hope everyone enjoyed it.

Tonto is currently featured in Laura Hird's Best of 2006 list.

There was an interesting piece in Saturday's Guardian by Zadie Smith on what makes a good writer, titled Fail Better. Smith argues that, while she has "no objection to books that entertain and please, that are clear and interesting and intelligent, that are in good taste and are not wilfully obscure... writers have only one duty, as I see it: the duty to express accurately their way of being in the world." Yes, but if writers are not writing to entertain and please, what right have they to expect readers to spend hard-earned cash on their books?

BBC Radio 4 are this week running a series of classic short stories in their Afternoon Reading slot. You can listen to them for seven days after broadcast here, although the website's content listings have not been updated. The featured stories are:
Monday: The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe
Tuesday: The Gypsy's Baby by Rosamond Lehmann
Wednesday: The Gardener by Rudyard Kipling
Thursday: Cathedral by Raymond Carver
Friday: Heavy Weather by Helen Simpson

Beware of the dog

CityLife, a Newcastle Council publication that is pushed through the door of every home in the city, has a feature on the Burglar's Dog. Click here to view a PDF.

Paul

Season's greetings

Apparently, the entire publishing industry shuts down over Christmas. That's news to us, but it's probably the right time to say we hope you have a great Christmas!

If you're not one of the 1,200 people who has already downloaded our free Tonto Christmas Stories e-book, you can still do so until the end of December. Why not print it out and read it by the Christmas tree with a mince pie and a glass of eggnog?!

Thanks for supporting Tonto Press in 2006. You can read about what we got up to over the year here.

Have a great 2007!

More Burglar's bits

A nice double-page feature on The Burglar's Dog in the current issue of The Crack. Click on the image to read it.


There's also a feature on Tonto in the latest Writers' News - see it on our media page. The article is slightly confusing in that it announces Pete Tanton as the New Novelist project winner but then invites further submissions - to clarify, the novelist project is finished and no further novel submissions are being sought. We are, however, accepting short story submissions here.

TBDCPPBG update

The Burglar's Dog Christmas Promotion Push Badge Giveaway continues apace. Gary Taylor tells us he has persuaded "at least three people" to buy the book, and, more impressively, claims to have handed out copies of reviews "to muppets queuing to get into Mood". Dave Lynn from North Shields has recommended the book to the lads at work. "Do I qualify?" he asks. "Please, please let me qualify, I've never won nowt in me life." Henry Holden from Low Fell has sent emails and spread the word. And John Conway from Newcastle posted a review on Amazon and wrote about the pub quiz on his blog. Apparently he won it. The quiz, not the blog. Can YOU do better than these hardy TBDCPPBGers? You'd have to think so. See here for more details.

FREE short story anthology

Pretty self-explanatory - click on the ad for full details.

The Burglar's Dog Christmas Promotion Push Badge Giveaway

Or TBDCPPBG for short. It's your last chance to get a Burglar's Dog badge FREE, no purchase required! All you need is a bit of creative thinking... We'll post the best efforts here on the blog. Get full details here.

And the winner is...

We're delighted to announce that the first name pulled from the hat (okay, it was actually a rather tatty envelope) and the winner of the signed copy of The Burglar's Dog, plus a snazzy enamel badge, is Linda Wada from Oregon, USA. We'll be remortgaging Tonto Towers to send Linda her mighty prize via Airmail today.

The Burglar's Dog sketch book part 5

Below is the last of the Burglar's Dog cover sketches by Garen Ewing. Click to enlarge.

Also, because it's Friday, here's a chance to win a signed copy of The Burglar's Dog personally scrawled upon by author Mark Jones plus one of our much sought-after Burglar's Dog enamel badges. To be in with a chance, just email us your name and address here with the words "dog compo" in the subject line of your mail, before midnight on Sunday. Good luck!

The Burglar's Dog sketch book part 4

Another of Garen's cover sketches:

The Burglar's Dog sketch book part 3

Another Dog sketch from Garen:

The Burglar's Dog sketch book part 2

Another Burglar's Dog cover sketch by Garen Ewing. Click to enlarge.

The Burglar's Dog sketch book part 1

The finished cover for The Burglar's Dog has received a lot of praise, but how did we come up with it? Basically, we provided a brief to designer Garen Ewing, he outlined some ideas in sketch format, and then, along with author Mark Jones, we knocked ideas back and forward before settling on the final design. Every day this week we're going to be posting one of Garen's rough cover sketches on the blog. This is what the dog could have looked like. Click on the image to see a bigger version.


This week we're also offering another chance to get a Burglar's Dog enamel badge. Click here for details.

Pub Quiz video

A quick look at the mayhem that was The Burglar's Dog pub quiz. (Thanks to Lee for the vid.)

Christmas catalogue

The Hexham Courant's Christmas Catalogue features reviews of both the Burglar's Dog and Wor Al. You can view PDFs by clicking on those links.

Plugging the Dog

Two nice bits of publicity for The Burglar's Dog in The Journal newspaper this week. First up an interview with actor Craig Conway, who offers up a shameless plug for the book, even managing to squeeze in the RRP. Good job that man. Next a huge two-page spread in the Culture section, bumping Patrick Stewart and the the RSC across to a side column. Sorry about that Patrick, but when you're hot you're hot...

Pub Quiz photos

Quizmaster Phil Hoffmann with the Burglar's stunt dog

Stu from Tonto gets to know the dog

The winning team, clearly delighted with their Geordie hamper

The Burglar's Dog gets quizzical

Chaotic, foul-mouthed and a lot of fun - last night's The Burglar's Dog Pub Quiz was a very fitting way to launch our latest book. The venue was the Newcastle Arms, the Dog's favourite bar - and one of the few he doesn't slate in the book. It was standing room only and clipboards and biros at the ready as 16 teams did battle over three very taxing rounds.

Image from www.theburglarsdog.co.uk. We forgot to take a camera, so if anyone has any digital photos of the event please email them over!
There were hiccups, naturally. Compere Phil Hoffmann managed to read just one solitary question before the PA system packed in. Not to be defeated, Phil leapt onto a chair and delivered the rest of the quiz in very loud voice. The general knowledge round was mindbending (Sample question: 'What is the combined number of whole legs owned by Paul McCartney's wives?' Answer: Three), and the picture and music rounds were extremely testing, but by the end there were three teams tied in first place with 41 points out of 60. A quick tie-breaker saw one lucky team walk away with a 'Geordie Hamper' containing Brown Ale, stottie cakes, pease pudding, pickled onions and black bullets. What a result.

Thanks to everyone who came along and took part in the quiz, and bought books and badges. Special thanks to Phil Hoffmann for doing a great job as compere in testing circumstances. Thanks also to Burglar's Dog author Mark Jones and Burglar's co-pilot John Egdell for helping organise and run the night, and to the staff at the Newcastle Arms for serving up the booze. The Burglar's Dog is available from all good bookshops. Get more details here.

Burglar's Dog 'bigger than the Bible'

It's only ten days since The Burglar's Dog was released, but we're already happy to label it a resounding success. Mark Jones's vitriolic Newcastle upon Tyne pub guide has struck a chord regionally and nationally, and booksellers are (almost) falling over each other to stock up on copies before Christmas. We're calling it 'the North East publishing sensation of the year', but we're not sitting back with the cigars yet. The success (albeit on a relative scale) has been built on a lot of hard graft, and there's plenty more to do as the Christmas shopping period gets into swing.


So why has The Burglar's Dog succeeded where so many other independent publications have failed? The most obvious reason is that the content is fantastic. In terms of writing quality, Mark Jones's 'non-fiction pub guide' wipes the floor with many of the supposedly 'more literary' tomes around at the moment. Ian Robinson of BBC Radio Newcastle said during an interview with Mark, 'It's a great book, it's beautifully written, and it's very, very funny'. His co-presenter Paul Wappat added, 'For a tenner, you'll never laugh so much.' We very much concur. The book has also enjoyed invaluable 'word of mouth', building on the popularity of the Burglar's Dog website to become something of a cult, and it has been great to overhear people discussing the book in pubs and at Newcastle United football matches!

Another reason is that the book looks great. It has an eye-catching cover by Garen Ewing, and we made the decision to get it printed on good quality paper by a printer used by many of the UK's biggest publishers. At 304 pages it's a hefty volume that feels very satisfying in the hand, something that means a lot to book broswers (on the downside it costs us a fortune to post). Some might say it's 'bigger than the Bible' (bigger than those Gideon hotel ones, anyway).

The third reason is that we've put a hell of a lot of work into this, spending weeks hitting the pavements and phone lines attempting to drum up interest from wholesalers, booksellers and the press. This would be a good place to thank everyone who has supported the book - there are still a lot of people in the book industry who are passionate about books. Naturally there are also plenty who don't appear to know their A from their E, and we've suffered plenty of bloody noses after running into their brick walls. But, hey-ho, that's life for you.

Overall the experience has taught us who we can rely on and who we can't, and allowed us to build up an invaluable list of contacts. The process has had a very steep learning curve, and that's the main thing we've gotten out of the project as publishers. Friends who have watched the book's success have asked how much money we're 'raking in'. The honest truth is that we're probably not going to make a penny. The book should eventually make a small profit, but that will go back into the company to fund future projects. This has been about putting out a book we believe in, and making it a success. We've achieved that and are pretty proud of it.

Our recent attempt to make The Burglar's Dog an Amazon bestseller (i.e. hit the Amazon Hot 100) very nearly came off, with the book reaching a ranking of 189 on the day of our 'Burglar's Dog Enamel Badge Giveaway / Amazon Bestseller Attempt', still quite an achievement. [UPDATE: It later hit a rank of 165 before Amazon temporarily ran out of stock, scuppering the plan!] The book DID oddly top the Atlases & Maps bestseller list, ranked number 1, so we did sort of make The Burglar's Dog an Amazon bestseller - an Amazon Travel & Holiday: United Kingdom: Atlases & Maps bestseller. And that's got to count for something, right?!

Recent print coverage for The Burglar's Dog has included Accent, The Informer, Neon, The Sunday Sun, and, as previously blogged, Viz. The book is available from The Back Page, Blackwell's, Bookworld, Borders, Fenwick, Waterstones, [WHSmith is missing from this list for reasons which will be blogged about soon...] Amazon.co.uk, and from tontopress.com. And I can add, quite honestly, get it now while stocks last...

We're holding an 'exclusive' Burglar's Dog Pub Quiz tonight. A report and pictures will follow.

Alas WHSmith and Tesco

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about our attempts to try to get our books stocked by bricks and mortar booksellers. Since then we've had further successes, and further setbacks. So here's an update...

Our books were already stocked by Gardners Books ("the UK's leading book wholesaler" - www.gardners.com), and now they're also stocked by Bertram Books ("the UK's leading book wholesaler" - www.bertram.com). We've naturally found it much easier to get our books stocked in local branches of major bookshops, but this week Borders decided to stock The Burglar's Dog nationally. But the big news is that we have finally managed to get Wor Al and The Burglar's Dog in WHSmith - in one location at least. Visitors to the Gateshead Metrocentre will now be able to purchase both books from that branch of Smiths, although other branches remain unmoved. The big WHSmith on Newcastle's Northumberland Street is now the only book shop in the city that isn't stocking either book. We're still working on them, but in the meantime shoppers might like to cross the street to Virgin or Fenwick, walk up to HMV, or down to Waterstone's, or across to Blackwell's, or drive across to Borders... You get the idea. Tesco are the other retailer that remain uninterested but on our hitlist.

On the subject of problems getting the books on the shelves, this week we had an astonishing exchange with out local library service. Details will be posted soon...

Meanwhile, The Burglar's Dog is out on Monday. It's beginning to get publicity, which you can see on our media page. And if you buy the book from Amazon on Monday you can get a free Burglar's enamel badge. Full details here.

Stu Recommends Again

Book - Complicity by Iain Banks

Ah... Iain Banks. This book was first published in 1994 and went straight on my Christmas present list. I hadn't read any of his work for a while and thought I'd pick this book up again after discussing it on Tonto's Creative Writing course over the summer. Banks is an absolute master - This book is a fine example of how to switch point of view from first person to second person and also one of the most unsettling openings to a novel you'll read in a long time. I prefer to see his books in the old black and white covers, although with this version, you can pick it up for one pence! That's right... a single English penny! Complicity is a stunting exploration of the morality of greed, corruption and violence, venturing fearlessly into the darker recesses of human purpose. Add to that some sex, mystery, S&M, computery stuff, some more corruption and murder and you're back in the familiar world of Iain Banks.

Music - Hit Parade by Paul Weller

All the die hard fans have been complaining about this box set. It hasn't got any demos, alternative versions or unreleased tracks on it. So what? It's a four disc set of practically everything Weller has done from The Jam to The Style Council to the Paul Weller Movement and plain old Paul Weller.

Weller is more popular now than he's ever been, attracting a whole new generation of listeners through his influence over all these new indie kid guitar bands and maybe this set is just what a new listener needs. It's just a shame he invited some of them on stage at the BBC Electric Proms recently to murder some of his most dearly-held classic tunes. If you're one of the die hards... you know you'll buy it at some point, even if it's just for the booklet included. Hit Parade could be sub-headed: Every decent Weller track you need without having to buy albums or find and download off the net.

Film - Yellow Submarine by The Beatles

It'll cost you an arm and a leg on Amazon, but every household should have one.

Ch*ff*ng br*ll**nt!

We've teamed up with Viz comic, Newcastle's finest potty-mouthed periodical, to promote The Burglar's Dog on the famous Letterbocks page. In the brand new issue 160 you'll see this:


Readers without jeweller's eyepieces can click on the image to see a bigger version. We *think* the sender of the Star Letter gets a free copy of the book. That'll be "Charles Turner", then:


Meanwhile, we're holding a Burglar's Dog pub quiz in Newcastle on Thursday 16 November. It's an exclusive no riff-raff invite-only type affair, and if you're quick you can get an invite here.

Burglar's Dog fans will also want to get hold of one of our exclusive enamel badges. Get more details about that here.

More Paul Recommends

It seems everyone else is recommending The Burglar's Dog, and rightly so, and this month I'm also recommending:

Book: Twelve Grand Jonathan Rendall

Rendall, a boxing writer, was handed a £12,000 advance and told to gamble it and write up the results. But things didn't go to plan, and what starts as an account of a humorous gambling journey turns into a drink-addled tale of personal hell. It's highly original, brutally honest, and brilliantly written - Rendall's occasional columns on boxing, gambling and drinking in various broadsheets are always worth reading regardless of your interest in the subject matter. Subtitled 'The Gambler As Hero', the book inspired a Channel 4 series, which was also excellent and deserves a repeat on More4. You can get Twelve Grand for as little as 50p here. And you can read his brilliant recent Observer piece on tracking down his birth mother here.

CD: Give Up The Postal Service

Combining the melodic pop sensibilities of (Death Cab For Cutie's) Ben Gibbard and the electronic beats and twiddlings of (Dntel's) Jimmy Tamborello, The Postal Service is a side project that is much better than either musician's day job. I normally have an aversion to 'electronic' music, but this is something special - gems of pop songs dipped in shiny beats. Think Technique-era New Order polished up for the noughties and you're partway there. As a taster, you can see Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess's excellent video for cheery nuclear holocaust anthem We Will Become Silhouettes here. You can get Give Up here.

DVD: A Room For Romeo Brass

This Shane Meadows movie starts off with twelve year-olds Romeo and Gavin befriending grown-up loner Morell (Paddy Considine), and for the first act it could easily be an old Children's Film Foundation picture. But everything changes when Morell, obsessed with Romeo's sister, becomes unpredictable and violent. The film then revolves around a brilliantly edgy and genuinely terrifying performance from Considine - certainly living up to his reputation as a British De Niro. His final confrontation with Gavin's dad is one of the scariest and most intense movie scenes I can remember. Morell is a psychopath, but in Considine's hands you can't help feeling sorry for him. You can get the DVD for just £4.97 here.

More news

Would you Adam ‘n’ Eve it?

Our latest title, to be released on 06.11.06, has appeared on Waterstone’s We Highly Recommend list.

The Burglar’s Dog is getting heaps of publicity in the run-up to officially hitting the shops. We could (and will, someday) rant and rave about the difficulties of becoming a ‘new’ and, God forbid, so-called ‘local’ publisher, so having the backing of a major seller in our hometown is a BIG deal.
If you can make the photo out, you’ll see the manager’s comments saying it is on their essential reading list and that it is one of the funniest books he has ever read. Sans bribe, I may add.

Interestingly, if you look closely at the photo, you may be able to make out another book below The Burglar’s Dog. It's by some fella called Dan Brown, I think.















We'll be posting regular updates on the progress of this title. For those who are aware of The Burglar's Dog already, you'll understand why this is a eagerly anticipated book. We've actually had press contacting us to conduct interviews and features, which was a refreshing change.

It will be launched in Newcastle on 16th November and as the saying goes, is available in all good bookshops as well as online stores and our own website.

Loads of news

We're announcing lots of new stuff today, and it's probably best if I just paste in our newsletter announcement:

*More Tonto Short Stories - submissions invited*
Following the huge success of Tonto Short Stories, we're delighted to announce submission details for More Tonto Short Stories, a further anthology of new writing. This is your chance to have your story published in a top-quality anthology distributed worldwide. Get full details here:
http://www.tontopress.com/submissions.html

*New creative writing courses announced*
The website now contains details of a range of brand new courses for early 2007. Practical, comprehensive and fun, they're ideal for writers looking to develop their writing with a view to publication. Book your place here:
http://www.tontopress.com/courses.html

*New manuscript critique service*
As part of our comittment to encouraging and developing new writing, we're launching a unique and valuable crit service that's all about developing you as a writer and improving your manuscript. As an introductory offer we're offering 30 percent off the service, so hurry along here:
http://www.tontopress.com/crit.html

*Free UK shipping on all current titles*
Christmas is inevitably approaching fast, so were offering free UK shipping on all of our current titles, including the brand new The Burglar's Dog, plus a range of other offers including double packs and money off specials. See here:
http://www.tontopress.com/books.html

There have also been a lot of changes to our website, hope you find something there of interest. Let us know what you think.

The smell of old books

Paul Smith has launched a new aftershave called 'Story', described this month by Arena magazine as 'the smell of old books'. 'I love books,' Smith explains on his website. 'When you open one it's exciting. You're about to discover something new or enter a different world.' The bottle and packaging are very nice, with the logo typed on Smith's old Olivetti typewriter. I haven't had a chance to sniff the stuff, so can't confirm that it has 'the distinctive smell of antique books – of ageing paper and leather, the essence of time gone by', although if the nice people at Paul Smith would like to send me a bottle I'd be happy to oblige. See more at http://www.paulsmithstory.com/.

Free Book

Congrats to Lee Rourke who was the random winner picked from the Tonto Press random winner picker.
Stay tuned for more free stuff in the future...

Tonto Press Free Book Giveaway!

Good afternoon
Feeling lucky?
As it is Friday the 13th, we're breaking the rule and making something good happen. Today we're giving away a Tonto Press book to one lucky person. All you need to do is email us.
We'll randomly select one person from the emails we recieve, which will end at 4 pm GMT today - 13.10.06
Please put 'Give me a free book' in the subject line of your email.

The Night Shift

Theatre fans may recognise a familiar face at Northern Stage next week. Our mate Craig Conway, seen last night in Wire in the Blood, is appearing in The Night Shift from 18-21 October. The play goes on tour around the UK after the Newcastle dates, so watch out for it in a theatre near you. Oh... and tickets are free... get yourself along!

The hard sell

When Stu and I started Tonto Press we reckoned that between us we had just about all the skills necessary to run a successful publishing company - except one: neither of us had any experience of selling. Although we both had a lot of experience of marketing our own books, we'd never actually had to go out to wholesalers and retailers and get them to stock the things. So we've had to learn it from scratch, which hasn't been easy given the oddly secretive nature of the publishing industry. (Try ringing Tesco head office and asking to speak to a member of the book buying team. It's a secret society worthy of a Dan Brown novel.)

We actually put out a book I had written, The Unofficial Football World Championships, to test the water in terms of sales and distribution, and subsequent titles have benefitted from that. We've had some success, getting our books stocked by the UK's largest wholesaler, becoming a Waterstone's 'approved retailer', and also being stocked, at least regionally, by Asda, Blackwell's, Bookworld, Borders, Fenwick, HMV, and in independent stores. But we've also come up against a fair few brick walls, most notably at one of the country's biggest bookseller, WHSmith. We've had three laughable encounters with that chain's local book buyers which left us (and, to be fair, WHSmith head office) extremely frustrated. The full details of the encounters are probably best left for another time, but the crux of the problem was that none of the local book buyers knew how to use Smith's ordering system, even though it had been in use for some months. So unfortunately our books aren't currently stocked by WHSmith, although we live in hope. I imagine if we coughed up the £50,000 Smiths are demanding from publishers to place books on their Christmas recommended list we'd have had more luck. Unfortunately, that seems to be indicative of the incentive-based road that many retailers are heading down.

Of course our books can be ordered from Smiths, or any 'bricks and mortar' store, but we'd much rather see them on the shelves. Online sales are much easier to navigate. Amazon in particular is a level playing field for publishers - they don't really care if you're HarperCollins or Tonto Press as long as your book sells.

What all of this is leading up to is that we've just sent our new Autumn / Winter catalogue out to just about every major bookshop in the country. You can see a PDF of it here. As a folded leaflet it doesn't quite compare to an Argos catalogue, but we think it looks pretty good thanks to the use of Garen Ewing's Burglar's Dog artwork. Let us know what you think.

New creative writing course

We'll be holding another of our creative writing courses this coming half-term week, 23 to 27 October, in Newcastle. Get in quick to reserve your spot - places are limited. See full details here.

Darlington Fiction Week

Event

As part of Fiction Week, organised by New Writing North at Darlington Arts Centre, Inependent Northern Publishers were kind enough to invite Stephen Shieber to read 'The Good Little Wife' from the Tonto Short Stories anthology.
On a double-bill with Michael Edwards, Stephen will be at the cafe at Darlington Arts Centre on Saturday 23rd September from 12.30pm - 1.30pm.
Ros Wyllie (also featured in the book) will be reading from her novel in development. Good luck to them both!

Stu suggests

Well, here's my first selection. This is what I'm reading, listening to, and watching at the moment... not all at the same time.

Book
Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried published in 1991 by Flamingio.
Synopsis: A sequence of stories about the Vietnam War, this book also has the unity of a novel, with recurring characters and interwoven strands of plot and theme. It aims to summarize America's involvement in Vietnam, and her coming to terms with that experience in the years that followed.
Another one we discussed on the Tonto Creative Writing Course, this is an excellent example of story writing. 20% off on Amazon and loads of used ones at a good price too.


CD
Larry Page Orchestra's Lounge With Larry. He is described as an influential manager and producer during the British Invasion, Larry (born Lenny Davis) did a lot for the Kinks in their early career, although he was muscled out of the picture after their first couple of years of success. He had a lengthier relationship with the Troggs, whom he produced in the 1966-68 period that yielded their big hits. I don't go anywhere without Larry Page tunes these days. Best listened to in a smoking jacket and cravat, this is one for the modern English gentlemen out there - perfect for any occasion.

Film
The Descent (2 disc special edition) by Neil Marshall is amazing. Neil's second feature film has a 4-star rating on Amazon where 93 people took the time to review it. With Doomsday on the way, Neil is the hottest new director in the UK at the moment. The film stars Tonto Press' mate Craig Conway, reader of The Last Smoker at the launch of the Short Stories Anthology. This special edition is worth buying just for seeing Craig's dance in the extras. Amazon are doing a deal where you can buy this and Wolf Creek in one go.

Paul recommends...

We're currently putting the finishing touches to our autumn/winter catalogue and the New Novelists shortlist (more details soon) but I'm taking a break to post the first of our occasional 'recommends' features - basically Stu and I pointing out some books, CDs, and DVDs you might want to check out. It seems appropriate to start with a book...

Book: The Ice at the Bottom of the World Mark Richard

I recommended this little book of short stories during our first Tonto creative writing course, and I'm happy to do so again today. Richards is the most dynamic writer I've ever encountered - his language and description are a delight to read. He's from Louisiana, and his stories are set in balmy bayous populated with an assortment of fascinating low-lifes. Opener 'Strays' is a fantastic introduction to Richard unique, addictive style, and 'Her Favourite Story' is as good an example of a short story as you're ever likely to see. The collection was published in 1990 (it won the 1990 Ernest Hemingway Award) and is now out of print, but, at the time of writing, Amazon's Marketplace has a few second hand copies in stock for less than a fiver. We'll be linking to all of our recommended picks at Amazon to make it easy to get hold of them. Get The Ice At The Bottom Of The World here.

CD: Nashville Josh Rouse

Josh Rouse is a gem of a singer/songwriter, and Nashville, his last-but-one CD, is probably the best introduction to his talents. A melodic treat of country-tinged classic pop songs, its a CD I've still got in heavy rotation more than two years after its release. If you want to sample a track on iTunes, try It's The Nighttime. Josh regularly visits Tonto's part of the world and is well worth seeing live. And if you like Nashville, Josh's Subtitulo, 1972, and Under Cold Blue Stars are also essential purchases. Get Nashville here.

DVD: The Wire Season One

A TV show, you say? But isn't all TV rubbish? Not when it's made by HBO it isn't. The US cable channel has already brought us The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Deadwood, Six Feet Under, The Larry Sanders Show, Band of Brothers, and Ricky Gervais's Extras, but I'm here to tell you that The Wire might just be the best of the lot. A dense, uncompromising crime drama, The Wire tells the story of Baltimore's drug trade through the dual viewpoints of the police and the dealers. It's brilliantly written - almost novelistic in style - and the vast cast of characters are brilliantly realised and portrayed. If the ensemble cast has any stars, they're both British - Dominic West as flawed detective Jimmy McNulty, and Idris Elba as charismatic drug lieutenant Stringer Bell. I could go on all day about how good The Wire is, but suffice to say every single episode is better than any movie I've seen in the last two or three years. You need to start with Season One, but Seasons Two and Three are even better. Amazon are currently doing Seasons One and Two for an amazing £24.97 each - that's less than two quid an episode! You can also rent it using the same link. Get The Wire Season One here.

Al Reet

A week after the book launch and we are pleased that Wor Al is doing so well. The launch night proved that not only was there support for Shearer himself, but for Tonto Press. The positive feedback from contributors and readers has been very encouraging indeed. It is nice to know that there is interest in what we are doing, and as a reminder, you can keep up to date with Tonto goings on by subscribing to our newsletter. So what are you waiting for?

Monica Harris and contributor Christopher Short

Again... big thanks to Monica on the night for helping raise so much money for the NSPCC. Without her, we would have modelled the signed shirt ourselves and probably raised 7 pence in the process. Cheers to my good mate Phil Hoffmann for MCing - he's a great actor and when he's not in one of my own shoddy productions, he can be found in decent plays 'n' stuff.

Phil aka Patrick Hoffmann playing Dan in Gorgeous Avatar

More thanks to all those who Paul already mentioned, and no thanks to all those friends who said they'd come along and then stayed in because of a bit of rain.

Well. There's my first Blog. Bye for now.

Wor Al launch

Despite monsoon conditions and a live England match on BBC1 (Studio pundit? A. Shearer!) a good number of folk came out to Shearer's Bar at St James's Park last night to celebrate the launch of Wor Al.

Monica Harris with some of the prizes

Among the fun and games on offer were a prize draw, a picture board quiz, a raffle, and a sweepstakes to win, among other things, a Newcastle United shirt signed by Shearer, Given, Duff and Owen, a framed England shirt signed by Shearer, the signed original Wor Al artwork, various other signed goodies, and real cash money. All proceeds from the games went to the NSPCC, as does 50p from every copy of Wor Al sold.

"Wor Al" contributor Barry Hindmarch

Once again we were amazed by the distances people had travelled specifically to attend our launch. Thanks to everyone who turned out, bought books, coughed up for the games, and helped us raise a few hundred quid for the NSPCC in the process.

Monica and contributor Stephen Miller

Big thanks to Monica Harris for doing the hostess thing (fans should check out her website www.monica-harris.com), Phil Hoffmann for acting as compere, Danny Mitchell for donating the England shirt and representing the NSPCC, Lisa and Ray for handling the book sales, Dave Lynn for organising the sweepstakes, Tony O'Donnell for donating the original artwork. Stu and I really appreciated it, ta.

*Earlier in the day I plugged the launch on BBC Radio Newcastle, and they put together a nice montage of voiced extracts from "Wor Al". Listen to it here (mp3, right click to "save as"). The full interview is on our media page.

Write-on

Here are some photos from the very first Tonto Press creative writing course, held in an inspiring but somewhat spooky 200-year-old building. Thankfully there were only two reported supernatural events during the week-long course, and all attendees seemed to enjoy and get a lot out of it. We'll be running more courses in the future - check here for more details.

Stu overseeing a workshop in the library

The mysterious painting that watched us all week.

The scary painting reminded me of a feature I wrote for the Sunday Herald a couple of years ago called "Art Of Darkness", about a the famous eBay Haunted Painting. "When this painting appeared for sale on the internet, some who saw it wept in terror!" You can read it here with photos over three JPG pages: page 1 / page 2 / page 3

Off now to make final preparations for the big "Wor Al" book launch, details of which are here. We'll post pics and reports from the launch here soon.

Latest press & media coverage

Adam Maxwell was on BBC Radio Newcastle today talking about Dial M For Monkey. The book was also featured on Grumpy Old Book Man and recommended by Buy A Friend A Book.

There was an interview with Short Stories writers Phil Jell, Stephen Shieber and Jolene Hui in Medium magazine, and a feature on our New Novelists project in Writer's News.

Paul