AmeriCymru:  Hi Chris and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. You have visited Portland before. Care to tell us more about your experiences on those occasions?

Chris: Portland is a wonderful, vibrant, hospitable city, full of life and colour and brilliant, creative people. I love downtown, and the river, and the size and scale of all that, and the detailed infill of bars and dance-halls between massive locations - iron bridges and docks, and steel and glass sky-scrapers, and then the suburbs, winding up into melancholy foothills, and freight-trains calling in the night; and the numbing vastness of the forest all around. I’m really looking forward to being back!

AmeriCymru:  You are presenting a workshop at Wordstock titled 'Sex and the Serious Novel'. Can you tell us more? When and where will the workshop take place?

Chris: My workshop is on Saturday October 5th, at the Oregon Convention Centre, from 4.30 to 5.45 pm, followed, for me at least, by cocktails. The workshop will look at the role of the erotic in literary fiction: sometimes moving, sometimes embarrassing, sometimes unintentionally hilarious. Sex is a major part of life; why do so many good writers have so much trouble with it? We’ll look at examples from the sublime to the toe-curling, in a format that will be participatory, discursive and interactive. Or, as the Festival programme puts it: Let’s get seriously sexy!

AmeriCymru:  You will also be giving a reading from your novel ''Flirting At The Funeral''. Will there be a Q&A session afterwards? When does this take place?

Chris: I’ll be on-stage with the fantastic Chelsea Cain from 2.00pm to 3.00pm at the Convention Centre. We’ll both be reading from our books, and there’ll be a Q&A session, and lots of black humour and serious fun. If you’ve got a ticket to the Festival, the event itself is free, so there is absolutely no excuse for not being there.

AmeriCymru:  You are appearing at the AmeriCymru/Portland State University panel discussion on the subject:- 'Culture Wars, Should Welsh Writing in English be taught as a separate course or module in U.S. Universities?' What are your initial thoughts on this topic?

Chris: I’m looking forward to this: an interesting question, and excellent fellow-panelists. It seems to me there’s a real issue here: in the wide world, UK literature tends to get called ‘British’ literature, but there’s a tacit or out-loud recognition that writing from Scotland occupies a territory of its own; and of course Ireland has a distinct national cultural voice. This leaves Wales annexed to England, in a long and unhappy marriage that badly needs relationship-counselling.

WORDSTOCK

Find AmeriCymru at stall 718 (see floor plan below, click to enlarge ).

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CULTURE WARS - OTHER VOICES IN BRITISH LITERATURE

Presented by AmeriCymru and the Portland Center for Public Humanities

Portland State University, Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 327/8

Fri Oct 4th 6.30-9.00 pm

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BUY THE VANITY ROOMS HERE

Penarth author Peter Luther, whose supernatural thrillers have resulted in him being dubbed by critics as the Welsh Dan Brown, is about to launch his fourth novel.

A successful solicitor and an accomplished musician, Peter Luther’s first novel Dark Covenant became a word-of-mouth publishing sensation and has already been reprinted twice by Ceredigion-based publishers Y Lolfa. Following the success of the widely acclaimed Dark Covenant and his follow-up novels, The Mourning Vessels and Precious Cargo, the man critics have dubbed the Welsh Dan Brown will be launching his fourth novel in Cardiff Waterstones on Friday evening.

The Vanity Rooms is located in Cardiff Bay, in a decrepit building that offers free accommodation to wannabe actor Kris Knight. His room contains a chess game which has a life of its own, where the pieces come to resemble real people, and very soon the game becomes a ruthless one of life and death. The Vanity Rooms is the third in a series featuring Tristyn Honeyman, a Welsh minister and spiritual detective on the trail of a secret society.

Peter describes his books as supernatural thrillers with historical backdrops, but which have modern, relevant themes at their heart. “I write in an unfashionable genre – the supernatural thriller without vampires,” explains the author. “All of my stories are set in Wales, as it’s a beautiful, dramatic country with inexhaustible sources of inspiration. The majority of my scenes are, however, set in my home city of Cardiff, because of my familiarity with the area.”

He admits that his fictional work is influenced by his personal experiences. “I’m a great believer in writing what you know about, and this is true even of supernatural thrillers. My stories aren’t set on some alien planet or alternative reality. Cardiff is an important location in my books, and the characters are normal people with normal lives.”

Peter Luther has built a loyal band of followers, as testified by the response to his first three novels on his website, www.peterluther.co.uk . The Vanity Rooms will be launched in Cardiff Waterstones tomorrow night, Friday, 22 February at 6.30pm.

Acclaim for Peter Luther’s novels:

“This captivating story will keep you reading until the last page… Five stars.” Waterstones

“This is classic good versus evil horror stuff, enough to make you flinch at times, while admiring the imagination and accomplishment of a very fine author.” Western Mail

The psychological heartache after successive failed attempts at IVF treatment has inspired a new novel by Cardiff author, Peter Luther . Describing the IVF lottery of success as “absolutely horrible”, he has used the experience as a basis for the second installment in his Honeyman series of novels.

Precious Cargo  promises couples beautiful and gifted children when all other means have failed, but it’s a lifetime deal. The newborn children are ruled by its Trustees’ baptism gifts, handcrafted toys that nurture their talent and aspirations. The toys also understand what’s at stake, for while two Precious Cargo children are born every year, only one survives past age sixteen. Their fate seems linked to a Fabergé egg with an impossible lock, the clue to an old, fanatic crime…

As with all Peter Luther novels, the concept behind the story is bizarrely original: handmade toys communicating with a terrifying code, and a mystery that reaches back to the era of Marie Stopes.

Peter says of his third novel, “This is my most ambitious work to date. I always feel a sense of trepidation when my books are released because the ideas are so left field, so I wonder how they will be received. Fortunately, my readers have shown themselves to be very receptive to something which doesn’t neatly fit into one particular genre. In truth, my novels are human interest stories masquerading as supernatural thrillers, albeit with some entertaining twists.

“As someone who has trod the bitter path of IVF, Precious Cargo is also inspired from experience. The book is dedicated to my wife, the most courageous person I know.”

Peter Luther , a successful solicitor and an accomplished musician, lives in Cardiff and has already published Dark Covenant and The Mourning Vessels , supernatural thrillers which have been widely acclaimed in Wales and beyond. He has been called the ‘Welsh Dan Brown’.

Precious Cargo is published by Y Lolfa and was launched at Waterstone’s, Cardiff on 16 April 2010.

Peter Luther ’s debut novel, Dark Covenant , is having its third reprint this month. The novel was published in February 2007 and features a magazine with a mysterious crossword, which is completed as the story progresses and spells out a satanic code.

Peter , a Cardiff solicitor, was delighted at the news, saying, “It’s wonderful to have received such a positive response in a genre that’s so difficult to penetrate for a new author. I believe Dark Covenant has appealed to a wide range of readers, notwithstanding its ‘supernatural’ tag. This is perhaps because it explores the oldest of stories, that of gaining the world to lose your soul.”

Peter writes completely original supernatural thrillers, which address real life themes. His second novel, The Mourning Vessels , was published in October 2008 to critical acclaim and is the first in a series featuring Tristyn Honeyman, a Welsh minister on the trail of a nefarious secret society. The next instalment in the series, Precious Cargo , will be published by Y Lolfa in February 2010.

Peter Luther 's Website

Y Lolfa's Website