An Interview with Alaskan Bookie

What I can mention is a great review I found at 1889 Labs just now by author MCM. One of the delights of having a book [...]]]>

TimeSplash has been having a good day. Sadly, I can’t tell you about most of it (sorry) but I hope to be making a very exciting announcement soon.

What I can mention is a great review I found at 1889 Labs just now by author MCM. One of the delights of having a book ‘out there’ is that, sometimes, reviews just pop up out of nowhere. This one was a particularly fulsome one but, better still, MCM really appreciated the world-building and research that had gone into making the future world of TimeSplash as rich and believable as possible. I really take a pride in making sure I get everything as close to plausible as I can, so it is is great when a reader notices.

Like every reader of every book ever written, MCM didn’t think TimeSplash was quite perfect. For him (I think it’s a him!) the protagonists were just too young to be saving the world. He was especially concerned that Jay (who is just 20 at the end of the story) is working for MI5 and wouldn’t have had time to complete his training. Luckily, I can set MCM’s mind at rest on this one, as this just happens to be one of the things I was careful to check as I wrote the book.

MI5 takes in recruits at all age levels from school-leavers (18) upwards. They give intensive training courses and these don’t take as long as you might expect. A graduate recruit will be given six months of training (plus training in specialisms as their career develops.) For comparison, this is a few weeks longer than the 20 weeks of training given to FBI Special Agent recruits at Quantico. When we meet Jay the second time, he has been in MI5 for two years, has been in training for a lot of that time. He has also gained a fair amount of field experience.

I think it is also fair to say that Jay’s prominence in the action is not at all of his own choosing. He is pushed forward (manipulated, you might say) by superiors, and thrust reluctantly into the limelight when he teams with Sandra. Nevertheless, he is a very highly-motivated young man – for reasons that come up early in the book – and, while he’s no genius, he’s not daft, either. When he is given an opportunity to make a difference, he takes it without (much) hesitation and does a good job.

But why did I make Jay so young?

There are two reasons. Firstly, Jay and Sandra were both part of the splashparty scene at the start of the book – no grown-ups allowed. Secondly, as the book proceeds, a relationship builds between Jay and Sandra. Now, neither of them is stupid, yet they are both pretty inept at making it work. True, they have their problems, but if I’d made them both mature adults, the only real excuse they could have for not being sensible about their feelings, is that they are idiots. I didn’t want people to think that, or to lose sympathy with them. So I made them young and (especially in Jay’s case) inexperienced.

Planning a book is a tricky thing. You have endless choices to make and a huge number of parameters to nail down. It is probably the part of writing a novel that I enjoy most. It is certainly the most creative part. I don’t know what it would take to make a book that everybody agrees is perfect. (Genius?) Perhaps it has never been done – I can only think of a couple of books off-hand that are almost there. Even Lord of the Rings had the irritating Tom Bombadil

The amazing thing about Ms Harte’s review is her summary of the book. It is far better than any that I have written and better than the one my publisher is using. If [...]]]>

And, hot on the heels of the review by Booktaste, this wonderful review of TimeSplash by A. M. Harte at Quillsandzebras.

The amazing thing about Ms Harte’s review is her summary of the book. It is far better than any that I have written and better than the one my publisher is using. If only she could bottle that skill, there are a million writers out there struggling with synopses who would pay large sums to acquire it.

Well, actually, even more amazing – or, at least, gratifying – is how well she speaks of the book Just listen to this:

Set in the near-future, the novel is action-packed, full of political intrigue and a sprinkling of romance. Look out — science fiction is far from dead!

I think I’m going to grin broadly all day.

And, don’t forget, while you’re over at Quillsandzebras, to have a look around the blog – lots of book reviews, author interviews, events, links, and more – and the quality is excellent.

I’d like to thank the dozens of people who joined in with me as I rocketed around the world gibbering inanities, [...]]]>

Well, it didn’t kill me, and, considering how I felt when I reached Europe and still had nine hours to go, the tour not killing me is something for which I’m very grateful.

I’d like to thank the dozens of people who joined in with me as I rocketed around the world gibbering inanities, and the dozens of new Twitter followers I picked up along the way – some from as far away as the USA (and some from places closer to home, like Russia and India.) I picked up some very odd bots too – like the one from Syria that was retweeting me – but we won’t dwell on that. I was very glad of the company and enjoyed myself immensely. Some people (like my friend Em) went out of their way to offer me succour on my long march. Some (like Merrilee and George and Joanna and Jan and Valerie and lots of others) shouted out welcomes as I passed through their neck of the woods. It was all very much appreciated.

I was expecting it be a fairly humdrum affair, with me blethering about the book and people politely ignoring me (and some not-so-poiltely telling me to shut up already.) It was exactly the opposite. It was exciting and intense (for me!) and I often had several conversations going at once. People actually said they enjoyed “following” the tour around the world (bless you all!) But I have to say, virtual though it was, I really felt at times that I was on the frozen Siberian wastes, or back in California, or watching scenes from TimeSplash in the back-streets of Berlin. I’ve travelled about a bit – in real life as well as in my fiction – and it was great to go back to some of those places.

Many people retweeted my posts and the wonderful Andy Shackcloth kept up a constant sream of tweets about the tour and the book. Best of all (I mean, given the reason I did all that) was that people actually bought the book and even read some of it during the tour, telling me about it in real time. One person bought and read the whole book, and blogged about it before the tour was over! Aren’t people great?

But the 24-hour non-stop round-the-world Twitter tour was just a sideshow to the main event: The TimeSplash 2010 Blog Tour. Some great things have already happened there – including Andy Shackcloth’s thoughtful review and Luz Zakari’s impromptu interview. But check the schedule and stand by for lots of fun over the next couple of months.

Luckily he lives far away, or I’d be round there to give him a hug!

Read Steven’s review of TimeSplash here.

You’ve heard me ranting about the book for weeks now and you’re probably wondering if it’s any good. All I can say is, go right now to Andy’s blog and get [...]]]>

The first official stop on the TimeSplash blog tour is Andy Shackcloth’s blog where he has posted the world’s first review of TimeSplash.

You’ve heard me ranting about the book for weeks now and you’re probably wondering if it’s any good. All I can say is, go right now to Andy’s blog and get his opinion.