Monday, January 28, 2008

Teaser (self-promotional)

I still don't have a digital image of the cover of The Explosionist, but I did have the exciting job this weekend of proofreading the final typeset pages. I've picked a page more or less at random (one that doesn't give anything of the plot away!) so you can see how it looks....

(I will just add, though I am not sure it is discreet--and certainly it's a subjective judgment--that I think I have done something relatively unusual, which is to say written a book whose second half is better than its first! I like the first half too, but it moves at a more leisurely pace--things really pick up adventure-wise once it hits the halfway point--this is perhaps not as practical as the other way round, since [most!] readers will after all read the first half first, and a gripping second half will be wasted if people don't make it there in the first place!)

9 comments:

  1. Exciting!

    I love the graphic above the chapter number.

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  2. The Name of the Rose is slow for the first 150 pages or so and then picks up pace. Elsewhere, Eco wrote, Eco-like, that he did this on purpose because he only wanted readers who were serious about the book.

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  3. Congratulations, Jenny! Seeing the designed pages must be a thrill, even if it does mean you have to proof them!

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  4. Levi: Yes, a huge thrill, even proofing 'em is kind of exciting!

    Wendy: I too like the little explosionisty graphic!

    Andrew: I think the parallel to Name of the Rose is an apt one--it's the combination of worldbuilding and thriller that's needed for this kind of historical narrative--but I am afraid that NotR was notorious for being much purchased but little read!

    Brent: Very true! Not sure it serves any comparable purpose, though, other than being sort of aesthetically (on model of physiologically) satisfying to pick up the pace rather than starting to lag!

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  5. For your triathlon novel, you must employ this method!

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  6. Jenny,

    It's most important that it's purchased. Then you can worry about it being read....

    OK, now back to finishing my own book!

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  7. Looking very good ...

    (Andrew, I think you've got a writer's priorities backwards. Sounds like you ought to go into corporate publishing.)

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  8. Hello - Have just stumbled across your blog and am now very much looking forward to reading your novel - it sounds fascinating.
    All the best.

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