Cellophanes

After Continuum I'll have to think more seriously about what I do to celebrate Cellophane (the book, not the crackly substance). Right now I'm calling it the undead novel, for it's in between lives, but rebirth is approaching apace. I have a couple of blog visits planned, and possibly a giveaway. Maybe a meeting over dinner in Sydney or Canberra to toast it? If anyone has any ideas or would like me to drop in on their blog or answer questions or feed them cake, just say.

For those who are new to the Cellophane saga, Eneit Press published Life Through Cellophane not too long ago. The reviews were good and it was a Ditmar finalist, and it sold out very quickly. It sold out despite bookshops never quite getting around to stocking it. It still strikes me as weird to have a print run go so quickly with only five copies ever reaching shops.

Before reprints could be contemplated, Borders collapsed, dragging Eneit Press with it. Eneit Press gave me back my rights. It was uncomfortable to have my rights back eighteen months after publication, with the book being liked and people asking me how Elizabeth (my main character) was doing. Eneit Press deserved better, but they were generous in letting my rights go before they actually closed shop. "We can't do a reprint," Sharyn said, "It's not fair on you to hold it." Or words to that effect.

At that point (the middle of last year) I was in the UK, talking about the book to a group of very interested BSFA members, not having any idea whether there would be a book again. I knew that I have the wrong personality for self-publishing, which made that an option I didn't want to pursue. As recently as last June, there were very few venues that considered reprints. It felt as if everything were just impossibly wrong at that point - it was the mid-point in my unluckiness on so many fronts and I had depression (is this the first time I've actually admitted that in public?).

On the back of everyone else's enthusiasm, I sent a proposal to Momentum (the Pan Macmillan e-imprint), not expecting anything. They took it. Instantly. Publication will happen in a few weeks. DRM-free. All major online bookshops and many minor ones. Even iTunes!

Given you've all dealt with the negatives this last couple of years, it would be rather nice to share this happiness with you. I feel fairly safe in saying that this is the first fantasy novel about a sacked Canberran middle-aged public servant to be sold in this way. So, how do we celebrate?

(no subject)

I have done something very cautious for Continuum. It wasn't intentionally cautious!

I mentioned to a friend that I was giving a presentation at Continuum. She knows about fifty times more than I do about the subject of the presentation. It may be 62 times, maybe 105 times - we've never measured the differential. At any rate, she is totally awesome and knowledgeable and full of wisdom on all matters of Medieval craft. We talked the presentation through and she added some things I'd forgotten and she says I'll be fine. I have notes, though, just to be certain. I've been checked by a subject expert!

I'm hopefully getting more subject expert checks (science, this time) for the novel. I don't usually go to such lengths, but the time travel novel is a very special case. I'm playing with notions of fiction being a part of the historical discourse, and I'm also trying to demonstrate that time travel novels can have solid science *and* be successfully character driven and don't have to cut some of the corners of both history and people that many have done. The first six months of my doctorate I read all the time travel novels I could get hold of, and none of them are like mine. This ought to be a good thing, but instead it's prompted me to caution on the expert areas.

The other cautious thing I've done today is to print out my plans from now until late October. They're on the back of my door. If I meet every week's goal, then I shall be through this doctorate in next to no time. Alongside this there is the Beast, and after this I need a job. (I had intended to start applying for jobs now, but I won't be finished quite in time - I'll have to start applying when the next half-season of advertisements comes round.)

The back of my front door looks so very educated! The rest of it, well, I have show and tell for the Continuum talk, and I also have notes. This is more than I usually have. And if it all goes hopelessly wrong, I have promised Sean Wright jokes about a certain saint. I didn't actually promise him them in my talk, but I did promise. Also, I have distinctly unmedieval chocolate for all my panels and presentations from Saturday morning*.




*Friday night is not as well supplied unless I can manage Canberra-Glenhuntly-Continuum in the appropriate time.