Official Website of Jason Pinter

I have only three hours left in London before catching a train to Bristol for the CrimeFest convention. This is CrimeFest's inaugural year, and was apparently inspired by the success of Left Coast Crime which was held in Bristol in 2006. (I heard a funny story regarding Tony Blair and the city of Bristol, which will be a great icebreaker at the bar)

A slew of terrific authors are attending, including Ian Rankin, Jeff "Dexter" Lindsay, Karin Fossum, Laurie R. King, and many more. I h

ave two panels on Saturday, the first at 9:00 am as a participant:

Moderator: Declan Hughes

Katherine John

Michael Morley

Jason Pinter

James Twining

Then I'll be moderating a panel at 1:30:

Moderator: Jason Pinter

Steve Mosby

Kevin Wignall

Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Laura Wilson

And if I may digress, I noticed perhaps the strangest sentence in the history of newspapers this morning while reading The Daily Telegraph. In the (very good) review for Ben Affleck's "Gone, Baby, Gone" the reviewer wrote, "(Michelle) Monaghan, who bears an unfortunate resemblance to Janet Jackson..."

And I was thinking, wait, is there a different Janet Jackson I'm not aware of? Because here is what Michelle Monaghan looks like:

And here is what Janet Jackson looks like:

My time in London has been wonderful, though I'll have to take another trip back to stay here and in Dublin for a good old touristy trip soon. Yesterday alone I had six interviews and three stock signings, and at one point I actually fell asleep for ten minutes in the waiting room at the BBC Radio studios in Oxford Circus.

Last night I had drinks and dinner with the UK publishing team. Lots of wine was consumed, and a good time was had by all.

And in a moment that has to mean something...when we walked into the Naked Turtle restaurant for dinner, the haunting Johnny Cash song "I Hung My Head" was playing over the speakers. In my second novel, THE GUILTY (due out in the UK in December), there's an epigraph. And that epigraph is from...wait for it..."I Hung My Head" by Johnny Cash.

I literally got chills. And if I didn't know before, that moment confirmed that this trip has been worth every second.