Friday 26 November 2010

Notes from the frozen north # 2

It will be obvious to anyone who has spent time in Scotland, particularly around Glasgow, that the country is short of names. Many men seem to be called Jimmy and many women Hen. This lack of names clearly affects Scottish writers too. Five Leaves has five Scottish writers on its list, or coming onto its list. One is J. David Simons. That is is name but if it was just David Simons the J. would have to be added to avoid confusion with the slightly better known American writer David Simons. Russel McLean became Russel D McLean to prevent confusion with someone similar. And we now have Michael Malone from Ayr joining us, his first crime novel will be out in 2012. Unfortunately there is already a crime writer called Michael Malone so he, ie our one, will become Michael J Malone. So that's 60% of our Scottish writers needing to use an initial due to this acute name shortage. Something needs to be done. Michael Malone though will have some problems as he is already a published poet sans J. So there is now Michael Malone the crime writer, Michael Malone the poet and Michael J Malone the crime writer. Surely some enterprising literature programmer should put them all on the same bill, for an evening with Michael Malones.

5 comments:

Paul D Brazill said...

Looking forward to Michael Malone's book.
I was drunker the one time I went to Nottingham than the 3times I've been to Scotlan combined. just thought I'd let you know.

Ross Bradshaw said...

Paul - are you boasting or complaining?

Paul D Brazill said...

Not sure! I remember Nottingham being pretty expensive!

Thea said...

I certainly hope Michael J Malone's books can be purchased in the US because he's got a fan base here, too!

David Belbin said...

Michael Malone the crime writer is very good as I recall. However the genius behind Homicide and The Wire is called David Simon, not David Simons. Suspect you still need the j.