Well, once you've got the long-awaited book deal, what happens next? I had no idea what to expect. I thought you wrote the book, it got itself a cover and a blurb and then Abracadabra! a couple of weeks later it ended up in a book shop near you. Not so.
If you've taken the time to read this, I think I ought to give you something interesting to mull over. So, perhaps you'd like to know how I came to get a publishing deal with Penguin. This is indeed a good tale. Well, I think so anyway. When I was an author minus a book deal, I hunted the net, searching for stories of success and triumph - for people like me who were writing away and had actually made it; if my suspicions are correct, there are an awful lot of us writing out there, all with the hope of seeing something we've created make its way onto a book shelf, somewhere, anywhere, please. I rarely found any stories to give me hope, or at least to give me the kind of detailed insight into what it would be like to actually achieve my dream. So, in case you, like me, want to be inspired by the thought that yes, it can actually happen, then read on. But I warn you. This isn't just a case of talent will out, there is a bit of luck thrown in for good measure too.
It would be very easy to become quite obsessed with the things readers are saying about your book, and before it's even been published. To avoid such a fixation, I am instead focusing on writing the next one. However, I have discovered some great books recently, because of the comparisons being made between Black Heart Blue and other novels. For example - "What They Do in the Dark" by Amanda Coe and "Abomination" by Robert Swindells. I'm half-way through WTDITD and really quite engrossed - I'm certainly delighted to be compared to this writer, although I fear it's more through subject matter than style. My only moan is that the narrative strands in which I'm most interested, are interrupted by one that is slightly less compelling. The experimentation with form and narrator though, is right up my street. I've never read "Abomination" either - although I loved "Stone Cold" - and Swindells is an utterly fabulous writer too, so I look forward to getting hold of a copy and seeing what it's about. I guess it'll be pretty dark. So, it seems like my reading habits will be taking some interesting new directions. I may post some musings on these two once I've finished them.