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Dead Heat cover
The cover for Dead Heat is now final – and it’s stunning!
I am so thrilled with it. The draft was great, and everyone who’s seen it liked it – but the designer has tweaked a few things and made it even better. I am so looking forward to seeing it on the book itself, in just a few weeks!
Here’s proof…
… proof pages for Dead Heat, that is! This is the final stage in the book preparation – the proof pages of the book, and the very last chance to make any changes:
There wasn’t a lot of time between copy edits going in on the 9th January, and the proof pages arriving, but I did have time to have lunch with my friend Gemma, a local police sergeant who’s given very helpful procedural advice for each of my books:
Today I had lunch with Emily, my National Park ranger friend, who’s also been a fantastic help for Dead Heat – but I didn’t get a photo of her, this time.
Now it’s head down time, concentrating on getting the proof pages done so they can be mailed on Monday morning! The rest of the ‘family’, however, are having a much more relaxing time…
…. except for when they’re watching out for wildlife…
… but they didn’t see these two visitors:
I’ll be back to more regular blogging next week, after those proof pages are on their way back to Sydney!
Finished
I’ve finally finished the solid draft of Dead Heat and sent it in to the publisher. Now of course I’m chewing my fingernails waiting to hear if it’s accepted. I know it does need some more work – a little more smoothing and layering – but there are also some elements that are darker than my previous two books, so I’m not sure what she will think of those and whether they will work for the market.
However, after fifteen months, minor surgery for a breast cancer scare, brain surgery to bypass the aneurism in my internal carotid artery, a very demanding full-time-and-a-half first semester teaching at uni, and my Dad’s serious illness, I have finished writing a book – the first one I’ve finished since Dark Country in early 2009. It’s a darn good feeling – but I’ll breathe much easier after I’ve heard back from the publisher!
Now I have a few days of breathing space to get over my bad cold, maybe do some much-neglected housework and tidying, mark some student assignments, and try to work out what it is that one does when not writing or working!
Great new cover
As Darkness Falls, which is published in Germany as Schwarze Dornen, will be coming out later this year in mass-market paperback format, with a new cover – and I love the cover!
(German readers can read more about it at the Blanvalet site.)
Large Print and e-Formats
The Time-Warp Fairy has obviously been around, because it really doesn’t seem like a month since I last posted. Although I did warn you, gentle readers, that I might be somewhat distracted!
A couple of pieces of news to share – first up, the other day I received my two copies of the Large Print edition of Dark Country. I think that libraries are the biggest buyers of large-print books, so for the librarians out there, the publisher of the large print edition is ISIS Publishing of Oxford, and a Google search suggests that they can be ordered from Ulverscroft in the UK.
The edition is a hard-cover, with a simple but stunning cover:
And in other format news, As Darkness Falls should be available as an e-book in the Australian Apple iBookstore any day now, with Dark Country coming soon. ADF has been uploaded to Apple, but they’ve apparently got a backlog getting titles on the virtual shelves. I’m not sure, though, whether it will only be available for Australian/NZ readers, or more widely. UK readers can already buy the e-book of the UK version of both books in major booksellers in the UK, and German readers can buy the German e-book from all major booksellers, but as far as I’m aware so far it’s not available (legally) elsewhere. It’s a situation that I hope will change shortly, but e-books and territorial rights are a very complex issue – which I won’t get into here just now, as it’s late and time for bed! But please be assured that I do discuss these issues with my publishers, and I do keep them up to date with readers’ views on the difficulties and frustrations!
On a totally different topic, I spent a little time this evening going through photos of the trip my sister and I did last month out to the area that the new book is set in – so I’ll have some more posts with photos in the next day or two!
Here’s a teaser – taken at the Cranky Rock Reserve near Warialda:
(Australians of a Certain Age will appreciate that the atmosphere of this place was such that when Andrea walked ahead and disappeared behind a large boulder, once could almost hear panpipes playing, and there was a strong temptation to call out ‘Miranda! Come back Miranda!’ )
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