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Thursday, November 23, 2006

NOVEMBER UPDATE...

Just to keep a handle on things and let you know what I've been up to. Couple of weeks ago 'The Patron Saint of Thieves' was completed, forwarded to my agent who felt that it was not the right book to follow 'A Quiet Belief In Angels' (out in August 2007), so I have returned to the work that I mentioned previously - the CIA-based thriller, which was - as a working title - going by the name of 'The Night Skater'. This title won't stay - it's far too 'small' a title for such a big book.

Meanwhile received the editorial notes for 'A Quiet Belief In Angels' with a deadline for December 1st to get it all wrapped for copy-editing. Also have seen the proofs for the cover, and they are really very good indeed. Exactly the sort of feel and atmosphere I wanted. Far and away the best cover design for any of the books thus far. Credit goes to Emma Wallace for that.

Went to London last Thursday - recorded a show for One Word radio with the irrepressible and remarkably brilliant Paul Blezard. One Word is a radio channel that falls under the Channel 4 aegis, and can be found on digital radio and on the net. Paul is a superb interviewer, and over the past few years he has become a great friend. One Word is a radio station that specializes in everything literary, and I highly recommend you check out the website, get the details of how to find the station and make yourself a regular listener.

So that's me for November - completing A Quiet Belief In Angels, second draft; ploughing into what is now the new Number 6 that will go out in 2008 instead of 'Patron Saint of Thieves'; dealing with the ever-increasing demands of my nine-year old son as we approach Christmas, and generally working far too hard for far too many hours. I told my agent in our last conversation that though such a luxury is not in my contract I shall be taking an hour off when I've completed 'Quiet Belief'...I have yet to hear word back, but the mere fact that such a suggestion was met with stony silence suggests that maybe I won't be doing that after all!

Sure I'll post something again before Christmas, but meanwhile I trust all of you will have a great one. Think ice-skating in Central Park while an orchestra plays Strauss waltzes...think snow falling as you leave Harrods or Bloomingdales, trying to hail a cab with armfuls of wrapped gifts...think families and too many kids and riotous noise, and being woken up at 5.00 am by a five-year old who wants to start opening stuff Now Now Now! Think log fires and fur rugs and galoshes and snowballing and freezing cold hands and ice sculptures and egg nog with warm danish pastries...and Christmas dinner with all the trimmings and everyone you love, and even people you don't know with smiles on their faces...

That's Christmas for me...not necessarily how it will be, but how I would like it.

Hope you all get what you want.

Best wishes.

2 comments:

LibraDoodle said...

Aside from feeling the urge to castigate RJE for being a poor judge of character (I am neither irrepressible nor brilliant as anyone will confirm) I write for two reasons; to urge those who have not yet read 'City of Lies' to do so as it is a yet more complex and crafted work than RJE's previous (and yes, that IS saying something) and will reaffirm your faith in great stories being well told, and also to ask RJE what he thought of "Loose Change 2' which he refers to in an earlier post. And finally a thought I had over Christmas, when the Puzo estate were looking for an author to pen the Godfather follow on, did they contact you (RJE)? If not, why not? I feel we should be told. May 2007 bring you joy, peace and readers aplenty... and the rest of us more of the tales you have to tell.

R J Ellory said...

No, I was most definitely not contacted by anyone from the Puzo estate! What did I think of Loose Change 2...well, accurate I'm sure, perhaps a little pedantic and over-simplistic in its presentation, but what can you say? The 9/11 conspiracy has now taken its rightful place alongside the Kennedy assassinations, the murder of Martin Luther King and numerous others as one of the most brilliant whitewashes of all time. What did Hitler sauy in Mein Kampf? I think he said 'The bigger the lie the more easily it will be believed'.