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Since Leonora’s interview on Radio Netherlands worldwide we have seen sales of her book come in from the United States of America and Australia. That’s the beauty of stories. You find them, or they find you, you polish them up with a bit of editorial shine, wrap then up in great covers and send them out into the world all on their own, and then wait. And you know you’ve succeeded when people email you with great comments.

One lady, a vicar, has said that ‘The book has changed her life’. Another from Australia can’t believe that the authorities in this country have behaved in such a draconian fashion. Neither can I. The truth has a way have catching up with those that have manipulated a system for their own means.

Watch out officials, the story is coming to get you.

Can we possibly do it two years in a row?

PIG IRON by Benjamin Myers has been shortlisted for the 2012 Not the Booker Prize run by The Guardian. We had outstanding success with this prize last year when our book, KING CROW by Michael Stewart, won the prestigious mug / trophy. Here is the full list of shortlisted books:

• The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder by J W Ironmonger
• Paint The Town Red by A J Kirby
• Life! Death! Prizes! by Stephen May
• Tales From the Mall by Ewan Morrison
• Pig Iron by Ben Myers
• The Revelations by Alex Preston
• The Casablanca Case by Simon Swift

One of the books is reviewed each week and at the end of the process voting is opened to Guardian readers who have previously left a review of the book they are voting for. We’re not yet sure when voting will start, but will keep you up to date. The winner is announced on 15th October.

Pig Iron is due to be reviewed some time during the week commencing 17th September. Watch this space for more information.

Big thanks must go to all our readers and supporters of Bluemoose Books who took the trouble and time to vote Pig Iron onto the shortlist. It would be amazing to win this prize again, a great feat for a small publisher like us, but let’s be honest, it is a fabulous book, even if we say so ourselves!!

Pig Iron by Benjamin Myers was published at the end of May and has had a great response from critics and readers alike. For an outline of the story see our previous post below. Here’s a flavour of some of the write ups the book has received:

Myers’s poetic vernacular brims with that quality most sadly lost in the Thatcher years – humanity.
Cathi Unsworth in The Guardian

This is yet another singular portrait of an outsider from Myers. And delivered through authentic characterisation, a monstrously compelling plot, and frequent humour – a rare combination of such successfully crafted elements – Pig Iron deserves to find itself on many a reading list, if not the National Curriculum.
Declan Tan for 3:AM Magazine

Benjamin Myers’s influences are clear — David Peace’s northern brutalism is evident and there are suggestions of Salinger and Golding but Pig Iron’s savage vision is his alone. Pig Iron is an utterly compelling book because the twin desolations of blighted sink estate culture and the emotional alienation of the main character are evoked unrelentingly and the grim conclusion is almost inevitable.
Steve Ely for Morning Star

After a slight blogging sabbatical, we are back on track!

Check back here over the coming days for news, author events and other stuff. Thanks for your patience while we’ve been gone. We’ve been working harder than ever at Bluemoose and look forward to telling you all about what we’ve been up to and what we have planned for the next few months.

Leonora Rustamova, author of STOP DON’T READ THIS is on the award winning radio show THE STATE WE’RE IN, this afternoon at 2pm. It is broadcast by Radio Netherlands and can be heard in the USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa and all of Europe.

The Bluemoose Summer offensive is bearing fruit. First Russia, then Bulgaria, Holland today and before you know it Col. Gaddaffi will be surrendering to all at Moose Towers. Let us hope the international community are generous with their support.

It’s been a busy week in Mooseland. Our foreign rights people have been meeting European Agents. Sounds all very James Bond, but the deal is, prior to Frankfurt, the biggest rights fair in the world, the agents are told about all the new titles that are to be published in the next 12 months and some books they may have missed that we recently published.

This year we have already sold two of our books to a Russian Publisher AZBOOKA-ATTICUS, who are based in St Petersburg. They bought GABRIEL’S ANGEL by Mark Radcliffe and KING CROW by Michael Stewart. Yesterday we sold KING CROW to a Bulgarian Publisher called ARTLINE. Extremely pleased. The book is out with at least another 10 European publishers, so no doubt we’ll have more good news soon.

I phoned Michael to impart the good news that KING CROW would soon be hitting the bookstands of Sofia. He was suitably pleased but the line seemed a bit distant and as he only lives near Bronte country just over the hill I asked why? ‘I’m still stuck in New York courtesy of Hurricane Irene.’ He said. He was on his mobile and I was on the Moose landline. I did a quick calculation and ended the call. He’s back on Saturday and we’ll have a proper chat. I don’t want to be wasting too much money on transatlantic phone calls when I should be investing the hard stuff in new writers.

Wasn’t there an incident on London bridge many moons ago about a Bulgarian diplomat being killed by an umbrella to the leg? Still the wall is down now and we’re all chums, especially when it come to reading the same books.

Bluemoose editors are in the final throes of finishing the edit for PIG IRON by Benjamin Myers, which we’ll be publishing on May 31st 2012.

PIG IRON is a beautifully written book by a very gifted writer.

The story

John-John wants to escape his past. But the legacy of brutality left by his bare knuckle boxer father, self-styled King of the Gypsies, Mac Wisdom, looms large over his life. John-John’s new job as an ice cream van man, should offer freedom, but instead pulls him into the dark underbelly of life in a northern town where his family name is mud.

As John-John attempts tp trade prejudice, parole officers and local gangs for ‘the green cathedral- – the rural landscape that provides solace for him – the story of Mac’s rise and spectacularly bloody fall unravels.

PIG IRON is the story of a traveller who hasn’t travelled; a young man fighting for his very survival.

Michael Dean, author of THORN, will be signing copies of his new book at Waterstones’s in Chelmsford on Saturday between 11am – 1pm. Award winning writer, David Nobbs, creator of Reggie Perrin, amongst others, has called it an, ‘astonishing and powerful novel.’ Come and meet Michael, myself and Hetha as we bring news of Bluemoose to the southern climes and educate those that have been in darkness for so many years.