Yes, at last it's finished. I've finished editing the third book of the fantasy trilogy I've been ghosting over the last eighteen months, so the whole mammoth project is now officially done and dusted, off my plate, over and out. I can't say any more about it for contractual reasons - I daresay you'll breathe a sigh of relief I've now stopped not talking about it in this blog.
Meanwhile, the second book in the series is due to be published in a couple of months. When I get my advance copies, you can be sure I won't talk about that either!
Saturday 16 October 2010
Don't trust the blurb
Funny how the blurb doesn't always match the book, isn't it. A couple of posts back I mentioned my recent novel Close Enemies, which is all about diplomatic action in the fictional African country of Rezengiland. Except it isn't. Well it is, but ...
Okay, when I wrote the book, the place really was called Rezengiland. But late on in the editing process it got changed to the Republic of Limpopo. Trouble is, by then the blurbs had all been written. So if you look it up on the web (yes, even on my own website) you'll find the old name stands. It's even on the back of the paperback edition, despite what's written inside. Publishing is all about dots, you see, and sometimes they don't all join up.
Something similiar happened with my earlier novel Stone and Sun. I had a character called Tom Steppe, but changed his changed at the eleventh hour to Tom Coyote. Unfortunately, all the advance blurbs had gone out to the book press and retailers, so for a while both names were flying around.
It just goes to show you can't trust anything you read in the media - or even necessarily on the back of a book. Your best bet is to buy the damn book and read it for yourself!
Okay, when I wrote the book, the place really was called Rezengiland. But late on in the editing process it got changed to the Republic of Limpopo. Trouble is, by then the blurbs had all been written. So if you look it up on the web (yes, even on my own website) you'll find the old name stands. It's even on the back of the paperback edition, despite what's written inside. Publishing is all about dots, you see, and sometimes they don't all join up.
Something similiar happened with my earlier novel Stone and Sun. I had a character called Tom Steppe, but changed his changed at the eleventh hour to Tom Coyote. Unfortunately, all the advance blurbs had gone out to the book press and retailers, so for a while both names were flying around.
It just goes to show you can't trust anything you read in the media - or even necessarily on the back of a book. Your best bet is to buy the damn book and read it for yourself!
Sunday 3 October 2010
After the draft
I'm busy working through the second (and for me final) draft of the novel I'm ghosting. It's the third act of a trilogy, so by the end of the editing process ie the end of the month I'll be ready to move on.
What's next, I hear you cry?
Could be any one of a number of things, some of which I've already talked about on this blog. I have a couple of outlines under development, one of which I want to flesh out into sample chapters, although the historical setting means doing research - always a chore for me, although I enjoy the rewards. I'm also tinkering with an old, old idea I've had on the back burner for a very long time. If it ever comes to fruition, it'll be a mammoth project, my most ambitious yet. Up to now, I've only ever had shards of story, half-formed characters and a vivid series of mental images, all bobbing around like untethered balloons. Oh, and 22,000 words of manuscript for an aborted novel called Pilot that only my agent and I have ever read (we both agreed it wasn't going anywhere). Just lately though I've begun to see a shape for the thing, a structure on to which I may actually be able to attach some of those balloons. If the structure holds up, maybe I'll tell you about it ...
What's next, I hear you cry?
Could be any one of a number of things, some of which I've already talked about on this blog. I have a couple of outlines under development, one of which I want to flesh out into sample chapters, although the historical setting means doing research - always a chore for me, although I enjoy the rewards. I'm also tinkering with an old, old idea I've had on the back burner for a very long time. If it ever comes to fruition, it'll be a mammoth project, my most ambitious yet. Up to now, I've only ever had shards of story, half-formed characters and a vivid series of mental images, all bobbing around like untethered balloons. Oh, and 22,000 words of manuscript for an aborted novel called Pilot that only my agent and I have ever read (we both agreed it wasn't going anywhere). Just lately though I've begun to see a shape for the thing, a structure on to which I may actually be able to attach some of those balloons. If the structure holds up, maybe I'll tell you about it ...
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