Today, the Advance Reader’s Copies of my novel, SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB, arrived here. The are incredibly shiny, colourful and full of yummy chocolate goodness (well…)
Steph took some photos and a video of me opening the package (I wasn’t sure what was in the package, because I had no idea the ARCs had been printed yet). Here we are though:
And here is the video where you can get a better look at the ARCs! (My first attempt at a YouTube video…)
The cover and the internal illustrations are all by Jeremy Holmes!
Stephanie Burgis tagged me for this fun Ten Terrible Titles meme. Here are the rules:
Scroll through your manuscript and stop on a random place, ten times. Whatever you land on becomes one of ten terrible titles.
I did this for SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB. Basically, I opened the PDF of the galley, closed my eyes, scrolled and then dragged the cursor across before opening my eyes. Whatever was highlighted I chose (and, hey, I even found a typo on the way…)
The only changes I made were to make sure I had either full sentences or coherent clauses. Oh, and I left out one that would have been a total spoiler for the end of the book.
So, enough waffle, here they are, in no particular order (well, in reverse order, because, you know, just because I can):
We have improved upon them beyond recognition.
Smaller glass windows at the side. (Doesn’t that one sound exciting…)
The moons were high and the sky clear.
We plunged through the grass.
All I could see were the whites of her eyes.
The next moment, it regained its footing and came for me again.
Mama’s eyes flashed. “And as for you, Edward!”
A snapping serpent oak lunged out of the darkness.
Their enormous pale eyes staring like mad moons.
Hanging from a dragon’s claws far above the ancient Martian landscape.
Actually, SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB had quite a few terrible titles before I got the one I wanted, but none of them as bad as these, I hope.
This is kind of weird for me. I used to write lots of short stories, and I published maybe 17 or so of them before I decided to switch to writing novels, and then I stopped on the short stories altogether. In fact, I’m struggling to think when I last wrote a short story.
According to my website (which is the source of all wisdom), the last short story I published was in June 2011. It was a fairly short piece called The Equation and I wrote it all in one go on Christmas Eve in 2010 as a Christmas present for Steph. I wracking my brain, but I really think that was the last short story I wrote.
However, with SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB due to be published in January 2016, I figured it might be nice to write a tie-in short story as an introduction to the world or as something for people who liked the book to read. And also because, you know, writing a novel is such an enormous job that sometimes I need a break.
I made an attempt a couple of months ago, but the story got carried away and turned into a novelette, called The Dinosaur Hunters, which I will revise and try to publish (or self-publish), but I still wanted to do a short story.
And today I finished it. It’s just under 5,000 words on first draft, so it is definitely a short story this time around, and it’s called The Bad Guys. SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB is a middle grade novel, but The Bad Guys is definitely an adult story, not least because it has *whispers* rude words in it.
Anyhow, the next thing to figure out is whether it’s actually any good. I’m rusty at the short story game. I’m just hoping I haven’t completely forgotten how. Wish me luck!
First up, my book Secrets of the Dragon Tomb, and its sequel, The Emperor of Mars, have been resold for publication in Germany. They’re going to be published by Loewe Verlag. I have absolutely no details about when the books will be out (or really anything else, for that matter), but it is so cool that the books are being translated into German. I did three years of German at school and lived in Vienna for six months, so I’m going to make an attempt to read it in the German. Mind you, my German is kinda rusty.
It’s all completely cool and completely unexpected.
The morning after Vaidwattie left, Srilal found the first thing of beauty. It was lying on the damp pavement outside his house, where a thousand boots trod every day. The first thing of beauty was an origami bird so delicate and fine that when Srilal lifted it on the palm of his hand, he thought it might fly away.
There are a couple of absolutely awesome-looking debut middle grade novels coming out really soon. In case you’ve been living under a rock (it’s nice under there; the worms are friendly) or in case you don’t normally read middle grade, this is they. I’ve read the openings of both of them (see below for links) and they look fantastic.
The Dreamsnatcher, by Abi Elphinstone
Release date: February 26th, 2015
Goodreads Description
Twelve-year-old Molly Pecksniff wakes one night in the middle of the forest, lured there by a recurring nightmare – the one with the drums and the rattles and the masks. The Dreamsnatcher is waiting. He has already taken her dreams and now he wants her life.
Because Moll is more important than she knows… The Oracle Bones foretold that she and Gryff, a wildcat that has always been by her side, are the only ones who can fight back against the Dreamsnatcher’s dark magic. Suddenly everything is at stake, and Moll is drawn into a world full of secrets, magic and adventure.
Here’s the book trailer (I don’t normally bother with book trailers, but this one is great).
The D’Evil Diaries, by Tatum Flynn
Release date: April 2nd, 2015
Goodreads Description
A hilarious, crackling, original debut about an unlucky demon, perfect for fans of Derek Landy and Eoin Colfer.
Twelve-year-old Jinx is hopeless at being evil. Which is a bit of a problem when you’re Lucifer’s youngest son. But when Jinx runs away from Pandemonium, the walled city he’s lived in all his life, he bumps into dead girl Tommy – who’s been sent to Hell for accidentally feeding her nasty uncle to a circus lion – and unearths a conspiracy that could up-end the entire underworld.
Cue shenanigans involving carnivorous carousel horses, death-trap-riddled libraries and hungry quicksand. Now the fate of the realm rests in the hands of its most unlikely demon and a girl who shouldn’t be in Hell at all…
So, I’ve just finished the copyedits for Secrets of the Dragon Tomb. This is actually the first time the book has felt really real. Obviously it’s not laid out yet, or bound up in a cover or anything like that. It’s still a printed manuscript. But seeing it like that, covered in copyeditor and editor marks, with notations for the layout and so on, well, that basically says: this is going to be a real book. Everyone involved is acting like it’s going to be a real book. It’s not just in my head. A machine is in motion and it’s gaining momentum.
Anyway, that’s not what I was going to blog about. I was going to blog about copyediting.
This manuscript, this Secrets of the Dragon tomb has been read dozens and dozens of times. It has been read by me (over and over and over and over again), my critique partners, by Steph, by my agent and my editor. It’s been reworked and revised and polished repeatedly. So it should be good. It should be a shining jewel of sparkly unicorn-ness. Right?
Oh dear.
This, folks, is why we have the absolute lifesavers called copyeditors. These wonderful, lovely people seek out errors and inconsistencies like I seek out the last square of chocolate in the house.
Here are just a few of the errors that my lovely copyeditor picked up:
I used two different names for the same character in the first two pages (oh, and since you ask, this is the version currently doing the rounds on international submissions…)
I clearly have no idea how to use hyphens. Not the slightest idea. At least 90% of my hyphens were deleted by the end
Similarly, me and commas have only the slightest acquaintance. Indeed, if we were at a ball in Regency England, we would need a third party to introduce us before we could properly speak to each other
And so on. That’s just the beginning of it.
I know not everyone goes through a traditional publisher when they put their book out. I know a lot of people self-publish (and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that; it works for a lot of people, and very well). But if you do, for all that’s holy, please, please do yourself a favour and employ a copyeditor, because no matter how well you thought you did it, you absolutely have to realise you are but a worthless worm of incompetence without them.
An aside (or a below)
You can now pre-order Secrets of the Dragon Tomb pretty much anywhere except Amazon.com (because they are being weird):
It looks like the publication date of SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB has been pushed back once again, this time until January 12th, 2016. Sometimes publishing feels like being Alice through the looking glass: no matter how fast your run, things never get any closer.
Image copyright to me (Patrick Samphire).
So, yeah, I can’t say I’m over thrilled by this development, but, you know, it gives me the incentive to just get on and write something else entirely. With so long until SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB comes out (and who knows for sure that it won’t get bounced again), I can probably write an entirely different novel between now and then. I’m thinking of having a go at an urban fantasy, because I’ve been reading a lot of urban fantasy and really enjoying it (and I have some ideas, which always helps…).
So, does anyone have any recommendations for good urban fantasy? I love Jim Butcher and Laurell Hamilton and I’ve enjoyed books by Patricia Briggs and other similar writers. I also love some of the more British urban fantasy writers (who often edge into horror) like Mike Carey and Ben Aaronovitch. Steph has recommended Ilona Andrews.
So, what else should I be reading in the genre?
Update: Over on twitter, C.G. Cameron recommended Tanya Huff, so that’s going on the list, if you’re looking for UF books yourself.
So, I’ve been buried deep in revisions of SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB these last three weeks or so, hiding in the corner of a cafe for four or five hours a day whacking away about it.
While I was busy working a few very cool things showed up.
First up, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and the rest are now all listing the publication day for SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB as August 18, 2015. I haven’t heard anything official, but for now, I’m going to assume this is right.
Second up, SECRETS… is now actually available for pre-order from Book Depository, Books-a-Million, various international Amazons, including Amazon UK (although oddly not Amazon USA, which is peculiar, because right now it’s only scheduled for North American publication), and it’s listed on Indiebound, although whether you pre-order it probably depends on your local indie store.
There’s no cover or book description up on any of those sites yet, but you can preorder anyway! (Here’s some info about the book right here on this lovely website, just for you.)
Well, good morning everyone! (Or, you know, good some other time of day. Whatever.)
Today I’m really excited, because it’s the day that Stephanie Burgis’s Courting Magic is published. This is the fourth book in the Kat, Incorrigible series, which started with Kat, Incorrigible (titled A Most Improper Magick in the U.K.)
Courting Magic takes place five years after the last book, with our heroine, Kat, just about to enter Regency society. But Kat is not just any young lady, she is a magical Guardian and a witch, and she’s been given a mission to uncover an illusionist who is infiltrating parties to steal from the guests.
Courting Magic is a novella, so it’s about half the length of the Kat novels, but it’s still got everything you’d expect from a Kat novel: adventure, romance, magic, and one of the best heroines you’ll read.
This is the blurb:
In Kat Stephenson’s Regency England, magic is even more shocking than a stolen kiss. But now that she’s eighteen, it’s time for wild and magical Kat to be introduced to high society by her older sisters, whether she likes it or not…and to finally have a romance of her own!
Of course, her true love is hopelessly ineligible. But when has Kat ever let Society’s opinion stop her from making up her own mind? Once she realizes she’s found her perfect match, she’s not going to let anything or anyone stand in their way – even if she does have to solve a magical mystery, matchmake for an old friend, and break a few rules along the way!
“Courting Magic” is a sparkling 34,000-word Regency novella set in the world of Kat, Incorrigible.
Courting Magic is available as an ebook pretty much anywhere you can buy ebooks.
Yes, I’ve just received my editorial letter for my first novel, Secrets of the Dragon Tomb. For those of you who don’t know about such things, you get an editorial letter after you’ve sold your book, as part of the publishing process. It’s where the editor goes through in detail what you need to change to make the book publishable. Pretty much every book gets one of these. Maybe there are a few bestsellers who don’t, but everyone else does. The edits can be minor or incredibly major (and if you self-publish, you’ll need to hire an editor to provide the feedback for you, because you always need it).
Anyway, this is basically the feedback I got in my editorial letter:
Or something like that… :)
As my book is a middle grade book, a couple of the things I’m having to fix are making the protagonist younger (he’ll be 12, instead of 14 as he originally was) and making the book shorter (it was 100,000 words in the first draft, 75,000 words in the draft that my editor bought, and will now need to be closer to 60-65,000 words.
I’m also going to have a map at the front of the book. I love maps at the front of books! In fact, it’s not really a book if it doesn’t have a map, right???
Luckily for everyone, a proper artist is going to draw the map, but I had to provide a rough version for them to work with.
So, as a kind of peek, here’s the map I sent to my editor.
Mars in 1816. Image based on Google Mars images.
I don’t intend to explain what any of the things are on the map. You’ll have to wait for the book. I did decide to alter the geography of Mars a bit, because I have the power.
