Dr Sylver book 3. Paul's book no. 7. Nightmare no. 73.
Categories: books, general-stuff
Tags: Dr Sylver, Dr Sylver and the Tapestry of Time
Date: 12 October 2010 09:13:36
Forgive the slight allusion to Larry Norman. He's still one of the masters of storytelling and I couldn't resist.
In two weeks time Dr Sylver 3 finds its way to shops. Which shops? Well....
It's been a protracted, hard, tricksome and odd slog, the writing of this book. In ways it's put me off writing for life and in others I'm more excited about this project than any I've worked on. I love drawing, I love writing and each has a different place in my heart. Tapestry is the best thing I've written, a couple of editorial issues possibly aside (thanks Nick :) ) and the end is a suitable finale for Jamie's tale.
but OH BOY, have there been problems. A rewrite to excise a character that I decided to hold into for book 4, if such a thing comes to be, an update to the end to make it a hundred pages more punchy :) printer/publisher issues, file corruptions in transit, you name it this book has done it, write, right and rong.
Sorry, couldn't resist that also.
Anyhow two weeks time, Oct 22nd, it hits the shelves, on the eve of a collaborative artwork I've been setting up that I'll mention later. Let's just say that this is a glitch of timing that seems perfectly in keeping with the project from the get go.
In other news I have almost a hundred new students and three new courses to work on. Hmmm, how to get them to buy a book each :) Say there's an extra 5% mark in it for them?
I jest and actually that points to my greatest failing - I'm rubbish at mentioning I've even written a book. I find it still hard to tell people I write because so many know me as a happy scribbler I feel that the likely expectation is that I've written carefully constructed sentences of 10 words or fewer, no more than 20 syllables on each page. Presumably all in crayon although, truth to tell, I prefer water soluble pencils, Albrecht Durer if they're going, thank you very much.
So now I come to the same old problem - I need to sell my wares all the while preferring to be the one who chats to teens, does shrink plastic artwork with them and tries to tease out the best in them, helping them to overcome/defeat the worst. Funny old world. But this time I feel a little more imperative: this is book 7, surely something I do should gain some notice (if it's worth it, that said).
So far the previews have been good, the reviews, well they've been hard to come by but work's a doozy at the moment and my alleged four day week has yet to show any care to arrive and greet me. I HAVE clocked up a fair amount of TOIL at the mo but the likelihood of me getting any of it? Hmmm...
I shouldn't complain and I'll try not to over the coming weeks. I've been gifted a lot and to have a book published is something I'm mindfully grateful for. For the most part I wish I could help the publisher receive the reward for the faith he's shown me, at the time a new writer with only a story to offer. Now that I'm a city eating egotist I feel he and Highland deserve to be seen as the ones who let Egozilla loose on the world :) As a friend mentioned when I joked about it "I should own my inner Mr Rampaging Egotist" but I do think it's something I should also share with others :)
Righto as ever - miles of paperwork to do - the nemesis of Dr Sylver but hey ho. I need to find the balancing act if I can. That starts with a second cup of coffee I think...
((The Daisy filter - named after one of my new students who's taken to adding this effect onto pictures but does it better than I do. Still makes me smile to see students coming up with new stuff, this filter being one of my favourites after the past three weeks of taking on the new class...))