Heatseeking Vlad

Fri, 5 Mar 2010 16:26:10 -0800

I am sorry if I have blogged with this photo before. But I needed something to showcase the excitement of ‘Vlad, The Last Confession’, hitting the stores in the UK this week.
Its the paperback version, with the epic new cover I wrote about before. This cover and shot was when it was in hardback at Heathrow a year ago. But the mass market version is doing even better. Sold 1200 the first week, 2400 the second, 2800 the third. And it appeared in the Bookseller’s ‘Heatseeker’ chart, straight in at number five. These are for books ‘bubbling under’ the regular charts. And I believe it is bring ... twittered? Tweated? Anyway, one of those. My agent sat next to a woman on the Tube and she was raving about the novel to a friend, totally obsessed with it.
Could this be the fabled, ‘word of mouth’ I have always sought and never quite found?
As I said for Canada last week, so I say for ‘my boy’ now...
Go Vlad Go!

Olympics

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:03:28 -0800

Of course, being a resident of Vancouver, I should blog at least once about the Olympics. But what aspect to tackle? The protests? The organization, plus and minus? Sport itself?
I am not really qualified on any of it. But I can tell you of the excitement on my six year old’s face at his first ever hockey game (that’s ice hockey to you non- Canadians). The game, pictured above in a brilliant sporting shot - he loved it, cheering his country on, adding to his collection of Olympic badges, waving the flag.
I believe the whole event has gone so well and that Canada has shown itself off at its best. It is one of the national mixes that makes me up - the others being English and Norwegian - and I like that side. Proud, welcoming, patriotic without being chauvinistic - and beer drinkers that have already consumed more than at Turin and Salt Lake City combined.
Its hockey gold we are eyeing. Now, if we can just beat the Germans, the Russians and the Americans... non chauvinistically that is...
I once said that I felt my body was Canadian, my head English and my heart Norwegian. But now, with five days to go I can say, with all my heart:
Go Canada Go!

Opposite Extremes

Mon, 8 Feb 2010 14:51:14 -0800

My last photo was of the Hagia Sophia, in Constantinople. I wrote about how I was beginning the journey of a novel about that place.
This shot above, taken just now at my desk, is about a journey near ending.
It is the first page of the copy edit. My editor, and a specialist copy editor - who checks sense, time-line, grammar and spelling amongst a host of other possible errors - have put together this manuscript for my close inspection. Suggestions have been made. Its up to me to accept or reject them. This is really my last time to ‘rewrite’ and to consider the wisdom of editors. Its a fun stage of the process, the real fine polishing.
Contrast this with the week I have just spent - writing the first pages of the new novel. Every day a blank screen to be faced and filled. The joy of discovery, sure - but also the feeling of it just not being right! I always keep reminding myself - being right is not what this draft is about. This is about discovering the story. Finding the characters. But its hard to struggle daily with one’s inadequacies - and then see a polished copy edit, the nearly completed task. (Though you can see quite a few cross-outs above. What have I done wrong?)
Its fine. I discovered some great stuff on the road to Constantinople last week. So what if its a bit meandering, not phrased nor constructed impeccably? Its not meant to be. That’s for its copy edit - a year from now perhaps. Sometimes I wish I could just jump to finished product. But I wouldn’t be a novelist, would I? It’s all process.