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Ergon-omics
Browned Off
Just a shame that the book and author combination at #1 is unlikely to shift from that position until, oh, about next March.
Anyway, two bits of other news: the first is that THE CULT OF OSIRIS has been sold to Thai publisher Phoenix, and the second is that Book #7 (at which I'm still pounding away - and anyone who's worked in the same room as me knows that 'pounding' isn't an exaggeration when it comes to my typing style) has at last had its title finalised. It's no longer THE GOLDEN EMPIRE, as it was a couple of weeks back: instead it is... EMPIRE OF GOLD. A slight change, but one that everybody's happy with! Now, to finish it...
Brazilian Trax
Meanwhile, from North America, I've been sent the cover of the Bantam edition of THE SACRED VAULT, to be published in the US and Canada on 22 March 2011. Like most of the other American covers when compared to the British ones, it's "the same but different", and I like it!
Work on THE GOLDEN EMPIRE is going well; after exactly a month of writing, I'm at the halfway mark, and the action is about to go crackers in Caracas. Speaking of action, just for fun I asked a friend of mine in Hollywood (who's produced some very successful movies) to put on his producer hat and come up with a ballpark figure for how much it would cost to film THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS, every action sequence included. His estimate: over $200 million, which would make it one of the ten most expensive movies ever made. As he put it, "Yikes!"
Silence Is Golden
While I'm here, I'll show off two new international covers: the French mass-market paperback of THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS (which went on sale yesterday) and the German edition of THE TOMB OF HERCULES (which comes out in, er, March 2011. All good things, and all that).
I have to admit to finding the French cover design an unexpected choice - to me it suggests a heartfelt tale of separated lovers more than lost civilisations and exploding helicopters! (Somebody's in for a shock if they pick it up thinking Atlantis is going to be a romantic metaphor for unattainable love...) But the publishers know their market a damn sight better than I do, so it'll be fun to see how things go.
7's Up
(If you're thinking that a dinner party doesn't sound like much of a way to start an exciting adventure thriller, don't worry - the prologue, which for the first time in the series features one of the main characters in their younger days, kicks things off with a colossal bang. More than one, in fact.)
As for when Book #7 will be published, the hardback and trade paperback are due out in February 2011, with the mass market paperback following four or five months later. But I'm supposed to have it finished by the end of September, so I'd better keep at it!
Pole Star
Four Fronts
The planning for Book 7 is now almost complete; just the last couple of action sequences to work out and I'll be ready to start writing. It'll be good to be back!
Turn It On Again
Very Good Friday
If you're thinking that looks an awful lot like the cover for THE CULT OF OSIRIS, that's because it's the same book under a new title, as I will keep on reminding people for the rest of the year. (Seriously, if I go on Amazon.com and see a one-star review from someone complaining that "It's the same book I already bought, what a rip off", I'm going to go to their home and hit them with a fish.)
Development of the still-untitled Book 7 is coming along nicely, but to illustrate just how malleable things are even though the overall plot is more or less finalised, in the last couple of days one character split into two different people, and one of them went from being a Colombian drug lord to a Peruvian Maoist revolutionary. Quite a career change!
Dropping On To Shelves Like Tetris Blocks
Is Nothing Sacred? Well, There's This Book...
In addition, thunking through my letterbox today was the Dutch edition of THE SECRET OF EXCALIBUR, making an interesting contrast to yesterday's American treatment of the same cover. (If the title looks a bit "fake", it's because the real book features a rather nice gold foil effect... but like a vampire my scanner has an aversion to reflective surfaces, so I had to use Photoshop to fix what came out as a big black blob.)
With THE SACRED VAULT now almost sorted (I've got one last set of proofs to check before it goes to the printers, which I'll be doing later in the month), my attention's switching to Book 7. I've got a pretty solid sense of the story as a whole, so it's a matter of sorting out the details and answering the thousand and one questions that come up with when developing a book: the most important of them being "Why doesn't the bad guy just shoot Nina and Eddie in the head the first chance he gets?" Once they're all answered (or at least Goodyear Blimped sufficiently that nobody has time to ask them...) I can start writing!
Well Red
THE TOMB OF HERCULES has also been sold to two more countries: Denmark (published by Cicero) and China (published by Global Group).
If You Take A Walk I'll Tax Your Feet
And now, a rant. Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs has decided, as far as I can tell solely in the interests of avoiding paper cuts when opening envelopes and/or sheer laziness, that it wants self-assessment tax returns, as required for self-employed types like authors, to be done online. I'm fine with that in principle; save a tree, carbon footprint, yadda yadda. But I'm bewildered (read: driven to an uncharacteristic seething rage) as to why said online system doesn't bother using the ability of a computer to, y'know, COMPUTE things. Like the actual amount of money you're supposed to pay.
Here's a thought: how about, if I make an adjustment to the "payment on account" towards next year's expected tax bill once I have a clearer idea how much it's going to be, the COMPUTER then COMPUTES how that will affect my final bill for this year? Rather than, say, not doing so and then several months later earning me an angry red letter threatening legal action and charging interest on unpaid tax I didn't even know was due. Because I foolishly assumed that the amount I was told was payable was the amount I had to pay. Just an idea.
I wonder if tax-free Monaco'll have me after what I did to the place in THE CULT OF OSIRIS? (One thing's for sure; I'm going to be hiring an accountant to handle all this crap for me in the meantime!)
Three Little Words
On the subject of covers, here's the 'Chinese Complex' edition of THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS; if the colours look a bit odd, it's because it actually has a funky holographic effect. It looks very cool in person, but my scanner wasn't keen on it!
It's All My Vault
After that, it'll be on to Book 7 - which at the moment is in an unusual position, in that I know what the personal storyline for Nina and Eddie is going to be, but I'm not yet 100% sure which ancient legend they'll be hunting for! I have some ideas, but they need to be researched, especially as events in Book 7 will directly affect Book 8 (where I do know what the quest will be). Now, I wonder if I can find some gorgeous tropical beach with wi-fi so I can work while I relax...
The new North American title for THE CULT OF OSIRIS has been confirmed, by the way: it'll be published as THE PYRAMID OF DOOM on 28 September. Same book, new title - so if you're in the US or Canada and you've already bought THE CULT OF OSIRIS as an import, don't buy it twice! (Unless you really want to, in which case go right ahead.) It's weird getting used to the new name, but I quite like it: it has the same pulpy, melodramatic feel as a 1970s Doctor Who story.
Just to wrap up, here's the cover of the just-published Danish edition of THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS!
Das Ist Gut!
Also dropping through my letterbox today were the UK large print edition of THE SECRET OF EXCALIBUR and the Turkish translation of THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS. Covers for your perusal below!
Vaulty Towers
As for what I'm working on right now, I just printed out the revised second draft of THE VAULT OF SHIVA, which still needs a bit more work - it's too long, for a start, and there are a couple of sections that need rewriting. But it's almost done! The extra work does mean that its publication date will be moving back a little, though - sorry to disappoint anyone who was hoping to have Nina and Eddie's latest adventure in their hands on the first of April, but I don't want to rush things and put out a story that I'm not happy with. (Major props to Headline for being both understanding and accommodating!) The new date hasn't been finalised yet, but will probably be in June or July. Also, it's almost certainly going to have a title change for marketing reasons, as will the North American edition of THE CULT OF OSIRIS - I'll announce both new names here when they've been confirmed!
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