Two Times Murder is out in the world! Yay! The early reviews are in, including a starred review from Kirkus. People seem to like it so, phew, thank goodness for that! Some of my colleagues at the day job have come up to me and said nice things (not a given in my work environment!) which has generated a warm fuzzy feeling that I don’t usually experience at the office.
Writing is odd, though. While my writing life is outwardly filled with Two Times Murder, there are two other books fighting for attention inside my thick skull — and I’m really bad at multi-tasking.
The first is E________, which is now hurtling towards publication (May next year, since you ask). Unlike Two Times Murder, which is published on both sides of the Atlantic by Severn House/Canongate Books, E________ has two publishers: DAW Books in North America, and Arcadia/Quercus in the UK. Apart from some corporate reshuffling, this is the same arrangement as for Braking Day. Unlike Braking Day, though, DAW and Arcadia have opted to commission separate covers. The North American one is basically set and I should be able to do a cover reveal soon. It’s incredibly eye-catching and I hope you guys like it as much as I do.
The UK cover is still on its journey. I have been genuinely amazed at how generous Arcadia and its art department have been with their time and talent. Were I a publisher and one of my authors came to me and said, “I’m really not sure about this,” in respect of something my team and I had worked really hard on, I’d most likely have told said author to pound sand. Not Arcadia, though. They went away and came back with a whole new concept. We’re not quite done yet, but I think we’re essentially sorted and have moved on to the tinkering stage. The base concept is awesome and while it’s very different from the DAW cover, I think UK readers will enjoy it immensely. If they don’t, the fault is entirely mine. Fingers crossed!
The second thing I’m thinking about is, well, writing. I’ve promised DAW a new SF manuscript by August of next year. As some of you will be aware, my mind had gone completely blank when it came to writing something new. Fortunately, I am through that stage and am now settling down to craft an outline. OK, not an outline, exactly, more like the outlines of an outline. The point, though, is that we’re on our way. So, when I recently met with Aranya, my new editor at DAW, to discuss my new book, I had quite a lot to say about it.
Until, that is, she asked me about the title.
My mind, it turns out, is blanker than I thought.