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Monday, April 30, 2007

BOUND PROOFS, TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS, REWRITES AND NEGOTIATIONS...

Has been an extraordinarily busy few weeks. The bound proofs for 'A Quiet Belief In Angels' are coming in five at a time from the warehouse, so those of you I promised a bound proof to who have not yet received one, I am sorry. I am doing this in alphabetical order. Couldn't think of a fairer way to do it!
Received the proof pages for the paperback version of 'City of Lies', also the hardback proofs for 'Quiet Belief', and those proof corrections have now been done and sent on to wherever they go.
I also received two invites - one from Ali Karim of Shots Mag fame to join CRIMESPACE, a new web-based forum and meeting place for anyone and everyone interested in crime fiction, and another invite from an American writer called Morgan Mandel to join an offshoot of Crimespace called BOOK SPACE. Have received numerous new 'friends' on both of these, and it seems a good way to connect with numerous other people in the writing, editorial, promotional and publicity field. A most excellent way to engage and communicate about something we are all passionate about.
The second rewrite of the first 30,000 words of the CIA thriller have been done. I have mentioned this on earlier posts - the working title was 'Night Skater'. There is a French phrase that I've used in the book - monster sacre, meaning 'sacred monster'. Literally, it means the Frankenstein we have created, the thing we have brought into being that we wish we had not. Between my agent and I we have jokingly referred to the book as our Sacred Monster, and hell, it may even end up being called that! So that is now done, and I will begin the process of negotiating a new publishing contract in a week or two. Given past experience, contracts are usually structured to encompass two books - Sacred Monster, and then beyond that Book #7. I hope with everything I have that a new contract will be forthcoming. Though I am a little over 160,000 words into Sacred Monster, and perhaps have another 40,000 or so to go, I have started work on Book #7 - just a few ideas, the first five pages or so, and we will see where that adventure takes us. Right now it is set in New Jersey, Atlantic City, and will encompass small-time organized crime fraternities and their co-operation, also lack of, with one another. It will be told from the perspective of a teenage Irish-American whose father owns a bar and restaurant called The Connemara, and where the Irish, Italian and Jewish small-time organized crime fraternities meet and eat and discuss and plot their latest escapades. That's where I'm going right now, but who knows, eh? Sometimes I start one thing only to feel that it's not working, and then I'll switch completely and write something utterly different!
So that's what I've been doing. May is almost upon us, and I have at least seven library events in and around the West Midlands scheduled.
I think it's going to be a hot summer...and I hope, I really do, that in a couple of weeks I'll be able to post a new item and let you know that A Quiet Belief In Angels was not the last Ellory book to reach publication, but merely number 5 in a long line of novels to come!
Best wishes to all of you...take care...
Roger.

1 comment:

Sguffalo Bill said...

Dear Mr. Ellory, also in my experience I found that typographycal errors can be very dangerous. For instance, somebody wrote sgoofala instead of SGUFALA.
Finally I want to thank you very much and congratulate for your wonderful and useful blog.