“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

Sunday, December 19, 2010

GREEN STREETS, Green Light

You win some, you lose some. Sauntered down to the dentist yesterday, to pick up a prescription for an antibiotic for a gum infection, and wound up in the dentist’s chair for three hours getting a double root canal treatment (Part 1). Am I the only one who sits in the dentist’s chair and, despite his best efforts, can’t help but channel his inner Dustin Hoffman?
  In better news, I heard this week that GREEN STREETS (or DOWN THESE GREEN STREETS, to give it its full title) got the green light, and will be published in hardback by Liberties Press in March or April. As all three regular readers will be aware, GREEN STREETS is a collection of essays, interviews and short stories about the recent explosion in Irish crime writing, as written by the authors themselves. Contributors, in no particular order, include John Connolly, Colin Bateman, Tana French, Adrian McKinty, Declan Hughes, Niamh O’Connor, John Banville, Alan Glynn, Cora Harrison, Ken Bruen, Ingrid Black, Gene Kerrigan, Arlene Hunt, Brian McGilloway, Gerard Brennan, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Eoin McNamee, Cormac Millar, and many more. I’m biased, of course, but I think it’s a terrific collection. More of which anon …
  I also signed contracts that will see THE BIG O published in Italy next year, by Comma 22, a very funky publisher that also, in its wisdom, sees fit to publish Cormac Millar, who could very probably write novels in Italian rather than wait for them to be translated.
  A good week, then, all told, especially as I’ve been cracking on with a new story of my own that I’m not entirely sure about at all, which is generally a good sign. It started out as a YA novel but has since morphed into a Big O-style caper (albeit one with a 14-year-old heroine) with added Greek gods and monsters, and heavily influenced by some teenage favourites of my own, including THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY and THE PRINCESS BRIDE. And, I fear, a little too much by John Connolly’s THE BOOK OF LOST THINGS. Still, if you’re going to steal, steal big, right?

11 comments:

Photographe à Dublin said...

Many congratulations on the publishing deal.

The book should be very well designed as everything is so beautifully presented in Italy.

Unknown said...

exciting times, Dec. All the best with everything.

Paul D Brazill said...

Congratulations, all good. I always think 'Is it safe?' and recently tried to explain the reference to my dentist who had never heard of the film and has limited English. Lead ballon time. Again!

pattinase (abbott) said...

Congratulations! and as someone who has spent enough hours in a dentist's chair to buy a house on the lake for the dentist, I feel your pain.

seana graham said...

Bad luck about the teeth, but everything else sounds great!

I'm really looking forward to that anthology.

lil Gluckstern said...

Hope your teeth are much improved. I, too, have bought my dentist many things, including his XKE, funny how that works. I look forward to your new book. My kindle is arriving after Xmas (high demand), so I won't be left out anymore. Your anthology sounds fascinating, as does your YA, which hopefully is most of us at times. Happy holidays.

Peter Rozovsky said...

Congratulations on what I hope was successful work on your teeth.

Good news about the books, too.
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

It's an epidemic. I did that a couple of months ago, only to be followed by daughter a few weeks later. And now you. Must be contagious through the internet.

Donna said...

Brilliant news (well, not the dentist bit, obviously, but everything else). Big-O style caper? Count me in for some of THAT reading pleasure. Congratulations Dec, I'm well chuffed for you.

Uriah Robinson said...

Congrats on the publishing deal, and being brave at the dentist.
Any root canal therapy is traumatic, and three hours at xx euros per hour is very traumatic!
Incidentally my patients were always very nervous the day after Marathon Man was on TV, even though I am more Dustin Hoffman than Lawrence Olivier. ;o)

Anonymous said...

three months ago i ran into a problem which is typical of many of us ! what to do and how to go on living, I can not understood ((I stopped smiling at ALL!!!! :( yes!!,i have bad looking teeth because of heredity ... why it so? Teeth is the first thing you see when meet anybody,or doing smth like that, I found a solution in putting lumineers ! and i can say it has guaranteed 100% result,now i know its a good investition