Here’s where you can find details about Virtual Noir at the Bar, Noir from the Bar and Bay Tales. What’s all that about? Well, read on to find out more.
Virtual Noir at the Bar
In 2020, I joined up with Vic Watson, who had been running Noir at the Bar in Newcastle for four years, to start running Virtual events online during the Covid 19 Pandemic. Over the course of more than 20 weeks we ran a weekly online show featuring over 200 authors including best-selling writers like Ian Rankin, Ann Cleeves, Gregg Hurwitz, Joe Lansdale, Harriet Tyce and the legendary Lawrence Block.
The show was a great success – attracting a regular and ever growing audience and was a finalist in Futurebooks’ Event of the Year alongside the likes of The Sunday Times, The Cheltenham Literary Festival and other big deals in the publishing world.
You can see recordings of pretty much all the shows we hosted by clicking on the image above which will take you to the Bay Tales website where we keep our archive of all recordings. If you’re looking for a new author, this is the perfect place to go!
Noir from the Bar
During our Virtual Noir at the Bar run, we made all shows free for the audience but invited donations to help cover costs and any excess was donated to NHS Charities.
We decided we would try and do a bit more and thanks to the generous donation from 30 writers who appeared on the show, we created, designed, and released a short story anthology in one month, with all profits going to the NHS.
The book is still available and still raising funds, so if you want to read short stories from the likes of Suzy Aspley, Alison Belsham (The Tattoo Thief (Sullivan and Mullins)), Simon Bewick (You Could Make a Killing), Sharon Bolton (the Lacey Flint series), Neil Broadfoot (the Connor Fraser series), Philippa East (Little White Lies), Ashley Erwin (A Ballad Concerning Black Betty or the Retelling of a Man Killer and her Machete), Derek Farrell (The Danny Bird Mysteries), Margaret Kirk (the DI Lukas Mahler series), Neil Lancaster (The Tom Novak series), Louise Mangos (Strangers on a Bridge), Danny Marshall, Chris McDonald (A Wash of Black), Kirsten McKenzie (The Old Curiosity Shop series), Effie Merryl, Phoebe Morgan (The Doll House), KC Murdarasi (Office Life (and Death)), Rob Parker (The Ben Bracken series), Robert Scragg (The Porter & Styles series), Zoe Sharp (the Charlie Fox series), Sara Sheridan (the Mirabelle Bevan series), Dave Sivers (the DI Nathan Quarrel and Archer & Baines series), Graham Smith (the Jake Boulder series), DC Smith, Eve Smith (The Waiting Rooms), Martyn Taylor (The Price of Everything), David Turton (The Malaise), Fiona Veitch Smith (The Poppy Denby Investigates series), Roz Watkins (The DI Meg Dalton series) and Olga Wojtas (The Miss Blaine’s Prefect series), just click on the image below to order from Amazon…
Bay Tales
In November of 2020 we created the Bay Tales website (visit http://www.baytales.com or click on the image below. On the website you’ll find over fifty short stories and twenty non-fiction pieces donated by some of the best crime and mystery writers around. From best-selling authors like Helen Fields, Cath Staincliffe and Martin Edwards to up-and-coming names like Danny Marshall, Derek Farrell, Rob Scragg and more.
In addition you’ll find all the recordings from Virtual Noir at the Bar and the shows we’ve been putting on since January 2021 under the moniker of Bay Tales – a monthly magazine style event featuring book reviews, readings and extended interviews with the likes of Ann Cleeves, SJ Watson, Peter James, Steve Cavanagh and many more…
Just click on the image below to visit the site.
Bay Tales Live
And now we’re working on our very first live physical event.
On Saturday 12th February 2022 we’re hosting 20 of the biggest and best crime & mystery writers at Whitley Bay Playhouse in six panel discussions for the area’s very first crime fiction festival.
For just £30 (plus booking fee) you can spend the day in the company of the likes of Ann Cleeves, Vaseem Khan, Trevor Wood, Howard Linskey, Gytha Lodge, Tim Weaver, Amy MCCulloch, Sarah Vaughan, Louise Candlish, Amen Alonge, Nikki May, Olivia Kiernan, Russ Thomas, Lesley Kara, Lauren North and the UK’s most prominent forensic pathologist, Dr Richard Shepherd.
Just click on the link below for more details and a link to book your tickets for what we’re sure is going to be a great day of Crime and Mystery fiction.
