On my Doctor Who calendar at home I have ringed September the 30th in thick red pen because that’s the day my debut novel, ‘Terminus’, arrives in the (digital) world. The 30th is a Friday, I note. Friday is my favorite day of the week. Well, Friday means that I don’t have to go to work the next day, I can drink beer until I collapse in a heap on the living room floor and it’s Saturday the next day, the second best day of the week. This could actually be the best Friday of the year for me, beating the Friday I spent at the Dartmoor Folk festival drinking lots of real ale and the Friday I spent at the Northampton beer festival drinking lots of real ale. I’ve also seen the price of the novel. (see above). Drent me, if I was in Waterstones and I saw a gothic horror/ sci-fi novel that cheap I’d snap it up!
When I first began writing I tried to imagine the day I got published. I imagined that a printed novel would arrive through the post with an advance for fifty thousand in the form of a cheque. I imagined turning up for work and telling my boss to shove it to a round of applause from my beleagured work mates as I exited the office forever to move to a cottage in Devon and scribe to the sound of seagulls. (Actually, my boss is quite nice and I spend more time drinking coffee than working and I hear the sound of seagulls everyday because our office is near the local tip) Ha, how innocent I was. In reality the actual process of publication I’ve encountered was probably far more spiritually satisfying than just getting a cheque for fifty thousand pounds though the post. Really, it was. My editor and I (errr…I sounded like the Queen then, sorry) have been mailing back and forth swapping ideas and generally getting exited about the whole thing. I’m amazed on how flexible he’s been and what a good supportive chap he’s been over the last few months. Even helping me when I’ve managed to lock myself out of wordpress and twitter (yeah…I know…like…durrr….). So that’s Mr Tim C. Taylor of Greyhart press everyone. I also remember getting exited by the cover art, skillfully realised by Mr Andy Bigwood. Thinking about it I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Over the next couple of weeks I’ll give you an insight into the culture and language of Skyfire, especially the language. Drent, vulley, skangat. All will be explained in the lead up to publication.
Oh, drent! What monster have we created? And Paul used to be such a quiet fellow.
You are breeding a race of monsters. I morph as I await with slavering jaws the date of my digital loss of virginity. It’s the quiet ones you have to watch.