April 25th I will begin teaching a six-week course on crime writing; all relevant information can be found – here.  Hopefully by then I will have had time for a haircut and won’t look quite so wild and woolly.

In other news, the official release date for The Chosen, paperback version, is May 1st, which naturally means another round of publicity and so forth. To that end it was terrific to find a review of The Chosen in The Irish Central this morning.
Review can be found – here.

In between teaching and attempting to seduce the media I have been working on the new book, working title, ‘Feral’. It started off one way, veered another and is currently a real heart-breaker. I’ve genuinely had moments where I need to get up and take a trip around the garden to give my my mind a break, not because it’s hard work or anything, but because I’ve found myself feeling very protective of one of the characters and her plight is upsetting. Does that sound strange? I mean her destiny is in my hands after all, but also it’s not: her path has been set, her decisions are almost hers and hers alone.
Pah, maudlin, must be the weather.
Take care everyone, hope the sun comes back out. That better NOT have been summer the other week.
Arlene

I’ve been to this festival before and it’s always terrific fun with lovely people, should you get a chance to stop by and say hello, please do.

Here’s an interesting artice– I think– on ebooks and price. See you guys tonight at H&F!

Folks, next week, Feb 22nd contains the following – “Crime Night! Hodges Figgis kindly invite you to a Crime Fiction Night taking place in our store on Dawson Street, Dublin 2, on the 22nd of February at 7.30pm. We have three well known Irish authors taking part: Declan Burke, Arlene Hunt and Conor Brady. The night promises to be an interesting one, with some extract readings and a questions-and-answers session based on what special qualities an Irish writer brings to the genre. Contact one of our Booksellers or our Secretary to book a free place to avoid disappointment.”

Do pop along if you are in the vicinity.

Rest of the review can be found here- Review.

How is everyone? I hope we’re all past the ‘oh no Christmas was only yesterday’ blues.

Arlene

As I said over at Elizabeth’s blog, research for The Chosen was more pleasure than pain, but also something I undertook quite seriously.  American Crime fiction has been my ideé fixe in some form or other for the last near 40 odd years, so I am very pleased indeed to think that people are enjoying this particular novel. Though my next novel is set here in Ireland, I would like very much to return to the States and do another in the very near future. I doubt you could keep me away at this stage.

Arlene

Bearing in mind the day that’s in it, I’d like to take the time to wish all of you a very Happy New Year, see you in 2012 and take care.
Arlene

Horrific Massacres of children have stunned the world in recent years – from that at Columbine High School in 1999 to the harrowing slighter of teenagers at the Norwegian summer camp this year. Irish crime writer Arlene Hunt uses similar sickening violence to provide the dramatic opening to The Chosen, which is set in Rockville, a small American town.
Jessie Conway is a teacher at the local high school. Her ordinary appearance – ” 38years old, tall but evenly proportioned, with shoulder-length hair” –mirrors her quiet marriage to Mike, the town’s mechanic. Her peaceful existence is shattered on a summer’s afternoon when two students embark on a killing frenzy in the school. Jessie single-handedly takes down the two armed boys, saving the lives of many of her students. Still traumatized, she is branded a hero and catapulted into the media spotlight. It is this frenzied attention that draws the predatory gaze of Caleb Switch, a serial killer.
Disciplined and meticulous, Switch views people as animals to be categorized and hunted. His job volunteering for a church provides an ideal opportunity to prey on the vulnerable, filtering out the weak ” category Bs” who he kills for a new identity or money. “The category As” – women like Jessie, wit an instinct for survival – are kidnapped and released into the wilderness of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. His game is always the same: his victims get a five-minute head start before he follows, armed with a longbow.
Hunt’s novel, the first she has set outside Dublin, is a gripping read with plenty of twists and turns. The chapters narrating Jessie’s desperate attempt to out-run Switch are spliced with Mike’s frantic searching, and Hunt gradually increases the pace, mimicking the stealth of a hunter stalking its prey.
Jessie’s determination to cling to life ultimately transforms The Chosen into an uplifting story about the power of love and hope.