BEST-selling horror writer Joe Hill will be hosting An Evening With Joe Hill, discussing his new book N0S4R2 and taking questions from the audience in an evening event at Waterstones Liverpool One this week.

The US-based writer has a slew of awards for his books and short fiction, which include the Locke and Key series of graphic novels. His 2010 book Horns is being turned into a film, starring Harry Potter's Daniel Radclife in the lead role. Hill also happens to be the son of horror writer Stephen King, but chose not to use his surname so his success would be based on his own merits.

N0S4R2, published by Gollancz on May 30, is an old-fashioned novel brought up to date.
It's a terrifying tale of Charlie Manz who kidnaps children and takes them to a place he calls "Christmasland". He has been caught once and dies in custody but then his body disappears after the autopsy. Only Vic has a secret gift that may stop him - if she can control her own fears.

I CREATED this literary walk to celebrate Liverpool's In other Words festival. Hope you enjoy it:

View Literary tour of Liverpool in a larger map

1. OUR walk begins in Derby Square, where Redburn, a young sailor, has arrived by tracing the path his father took through the city many years before. Herman Melville, who is best known as the author of Moby Dick, based his 1849 novel Redburn: His First Voyage on his own experiences of life at sea. Redburn has made his way down Old Hall Street to Exchange Flags:

"There, leaning against the colonnade, I took out my map, and traced my father right across Chapel-streetcor, and actually through the very arch at my back, into the paved square where I stood.

"So vivid was now the impression of his having been here, and so narrow the passage from which he had emerged, that I felt like running on, and overtaking him around the Town Hall adjoining, at the head of Castle-streetcor. But I soon checked myself, when remembering that he had gone whither no son's search could find him in this world."

Now, walk to the front of the Town Hall, cross the road and head down Castle Street to Derby Square.

THE Dinner author Herman Koch will star in the High Impact festival - touring six top writers from the Low Countries to six cities for six nights of readings and debates - when it calls into Liverpool next week.

All featured authors are all prizewinners and best-sellers back home in Belgium and the Netherlands, and all write in Dutch.

They are:

Lieve Joris:whose journalism and non-fiction books on Africa, China, the Middle East & Europe have earned her the reputation as the vS Naipaul or Ryszard Kapuscinski
of the Low Countries. Author of the acclaimed The Rebels' Hour (ATLANTIC, 2008)

Herman Koch: Former actor and comedian,
best-selling novelist - in the Netherlands and round the world - of the The Dinner (ATLANTIC, 2012)

Local writer Laura Rose believes talent has taken a back seat when it comes to fame. What do you think?

I AM excited to announce the release of my debut novel, Just Wishing.

A contemporary story with a fantasy element, Just Wishing centres on the life of Pamela Cox, a bored secretary who whiles away her days envying the lives of reality-TV celebrities and WAGs. One night, Pam stumbles upon a tongue-in-cheek website which, in a nod to the old genie of the lamp tale, promises its visitors three wishes. The next morning, all Pam's dreams have come true.

CHESHIRE-based author Nick Pope l contacted me about the publication of his first book, Off Plan, which he has written despite being diagnosed with terminal cancer. He is donating his loyalties from the first 1,000 copies sold to The Roy Castle Lung Foundation.

I found his story very inspirational so asked him to share it here...

I HAVE been battling against cancer since early 2009, first throat cancer which was quickly followed by lung cancer. My prognosis is not good as the cancer has split to my spine and last August I was given just three months to live. I have managed to keep my spirits up and have just had my first book entitled 'Off Plan' published. Given my circumstances I am donating my proceeds to The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, a local charity based here in Liverpool.

I'M BEGINNING this post with a taste of the absurb because it feels on this dreary Thursday afternoon that we could do with some. First up, I received a little book of Edward Lear poetry through the post. It's been self-published by London-based cartoonist Zhenia Vasiliev - the text is out of copyright - and is really lovely. I was originally speaking to Zhenia about running some of his cartoons as a picture gallery for LiveRead - given Lear's links with Merseyside (he was employed by Knowsley Hall to draw Lord Derby's menagerie) - but they weren't ready in time. Perhaps we'll be able to do something with them next year instead but for now here is a suitably ridiculous limerick:

LIVEREAD, the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo's online literature festival, starts tomorrow and ironically it's been so busy that I haven't had time to read any books lately. I found the same thing when I was studying for my MA in art history and working full time so barely had a spare moment to visit a gallery (obviously I wasn't doing this job then).

But I tend to think that some things are worth putting yourself out for, and fortunately so does the newspapers' web team who have spent the past few weeks filming author readings, interviews with curators and creating picture galleries while I've been working on the rest of the festival.

LAST year I was honoured to be asked to judge a heat of Writing on the Wall's Pulp Idol competition, the result of which has just been published in a book - Pulp Idol Firsts.

Competitors had to read out the first chapter of their novel - some completed, others still only a single chapter - and then answer the judges questions. Two writers from each heat went forward to the grand final.

Pulp Idol Firsts is an anthology of the finalists' first chapters so is a really good mixture of genres, subjects, characters, voices. The only drawback is it makes you want to read on but the rest of each book isn't available. We'll have to hope that the authors all win publishing contracts so we can find out what happens next.