And the covers just keep on coming . . . this time from my German publisher, Heyne. Wow.

When I was down in London for the Book Fair last month, Sacha told me I could expect to see the cover art for the German edition within a couple of weeks, and very atmospheric it is too.

I love the subtle detailing. The desaturated palette makes a striking contrast to the rich colour of the other covers for Songs of the Earth, but no less effective.

As usual, click to enlarge. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a higher-resolution image in due course.

To celebrate the launch of my book, Orion are giving away five advance proofs to you lucky, lucky people. All you have to do is answer a really simple question, and your name goes into the draw. Go here – you have until 20th May 2011 – and good luck!

Oh, and for the benefit of anyone who’s been under a rock/on the back side of the moon/in solitary confinement in some Level 10 slam* for the last couple of years, this is the book I’m talking about:

Go on. Click that play button, you know you wanna.
 

*with or without a horse bit in their mouth

On Tuesday 12th April, I went down to London Book Fair. I’d been invited  by Orion to meet up with those of my foreign publishers who were in town for the Fair, and they’d very generously thrown in a hotel for the night, so how could I possibly refuse? I’ve never been to the Book Fair, and I wanted to go and see what it was all about.

Plus I quite like travelling on the train. EastCoast actually make a reasonable cup of tea, and the shortbread fingers aren’t half bad.

I was also hoping to catch up with a writer friend of mine, Judith Kinghorn, who’d just recently been signed by Headline and was due to be at the Fair at the same time as me. We’d first met on the writers’ site Authonomy, and here we were, almost three years later, both with publishing contracts, both marvelling at our good fortune.

Anyway, I arrived at Kings Cross feeling virtuous because I’d managed to do some work on the way down. After freshening up and abandoning the Huge Blue Holdall of Doom at my hotel, I made my way over to Earls Court.

It’s quite an impressive building, if you’ve not seen it before, with the arc of steps leading up to the numerous glass doors that wink at you rather like teeth in a wide, grinning mouth. You get a little holder for your badge in the foyer, then a chap waves a barcode scanner over your left bosom (or wherever you happen to have pinned said badge) and it’s on into the exhibition space itself.

It’s big. Givvus-a-bag-of-crisps big (if that reference is lost on you, scroll down). Brightly lit, and full of people, and there’s books everywhere. All sorts of books. Cookbooks, kids’ books, thrillers, lad lit, women’s fiction, science fiction, you name it. Book porn, as far as the eye can see.

Whimper.

So I got my bearings, and headed for the Hachette UK stand on Aisle H. Head for HarperCollins’ less-than-subtle signage, visible above the heads of the other stands, and it’s just opposite.

And guess what was the first thing I saw? This.

Oh my sweet furry lord.

So I’m standing there, grinning like a loon, wishing I’d brought the camera instead of my crappy old mobile, and it hit me. That’s my book. This is really happening.

Continuing to gawk like a country mouse on her first trip to the Big City, I took a turn around the very smart stand and admired the manor-house-drawing-room styling. Round the far side I found the meeting area, and there was my editor, Gillian Redfearn, who found me a seat and a cup of tea. Over the course of the afternoon I met pretty much the whole rights team, said hello to some old acquaintances, and played text message tag with Judith until she escaped from her various appointments and we were able to meet at last (she’s lovely, and she writes beautifully atmospheric historical fiction).

Sadly, my Dutch publisher was unable to join us for drinks, but we chatted for a while as Day 2 of the Fair wound down, before we collected Stephane and Alain from Bragelonne (my French publishers) and headed off to the pub, where we were joined by Sacha from Heyne and José from Planeta (Germany and Spain respectively). We then ate well, drank well, and laughed much. I seem to remember discussing some sort of pan-European book tour/road trip/pub crawl, but that could have been the beer talking . . .

José also brought me this beautiful boxed proof of the Spanish edition of my book, which is how Planeta are sending them out to the trade. It’s utterly gorgeous: the statue and the ivy are varnished so they shine out from the matt box. You expect to find expensive chocolates inside, or something equally precious. I’ve certainly never seen anything like it before.  The photos don’t do it justice.

On Wednesday I had lunch with my old acquiring editor, Jo Fletcher, pretty much the grande dame of UK genre publishing, who brought me to Gollancz in the first place. It was wonderful to catch up with her; just a real shame we both had to dash off before we got to the bottom of the bottle of wine, her back to the Fair and me to Kings Cross to catch my train home.

The reality of being an almost-published author (63 days to go, not that I’m counting or anything) still hasn’t quite sunk in, but I will admit to feeling a bit more like one now.

——–

McEwan’s Best Scotch TV advert from some 25+ years ago. I’ve scoured YouTube but I can’t find it, which is a shame, because it doesn’t really work in text. Scene: interior, pub, barmaid is pulling a pint of the aforesaid ale (tagline: the one you’ve got to come back for) for a customer recently returned from Germany.

Barmaid: “So how was Munich?”

Customer: “Big.”

“How was the beer festival?”

“Massive.”

<Meaningful pause as she tops off his pint> “And how were the lasses?”

<Cut to flashback of hefty Oktoberfest fräulein> “Oh, give us a bag of crisps.”

If you haven’t already heard about the Genre for Japan auction, where have you been the last few days?

Fantastic lots, many of them pure unobtainium, including critiques, artwork, stuff signed by really cool people like Neil Gaiman and Joe Abercrombie, your name in a book, Stephen Deas to do with as you will (more or less) for two whole days,  . . . and personalised ARCs of M D Lachlan‘s Fenrir and Songs of the Earth from, er, me.

If you’re a writer, a reader, connected with genre publishing or just a fan, you should check this out. Follow @GenreforJapan on Twitter or visit the website, and get browsing, get donating, get involved.

And get your bloody wallet out!

It’s amazing what you find when you’re poking around your website stats on  a rainy Saturday evening when there’s nothing on the TV.

Flicking through the “Referrers” list, which shows me where people have come from when they land on my site, I found a site I recognised: Meulenhoff Boekerij, parent of my Dutch publisher Mynx, which led me to the cover of the Dutch edition of Songs of the Earth, a.k.a Het Lied van der Aarde. Heel mooi!

Click to make it (not very much) bigger – hopefully I’ll get a higher-resolution version in due course.

Always a daunting moment, reading the first review of your first book. Will it be good, filled with effusive praise about my world building, my fascinating characters and original plot? Or will it be “D-. Must try harder.”

Judge for yourself, over at the Wertzone. I’ll wait.

. . .

. . .

[whistles tunelessly]

. . .

. . .

Ah, you’re back. Well? What did you think?

Solid, I thought. Very fair. Well pleased with the liberal use of “intriguingly” and “subtle” and “interesting”, and the lack of words like “dull” and “predictable” and “unconvincing”.

Cheers, Adam. The cheque’s in the post.

I can’t believe my eyes – I must be dreaming… — Jack Skellington

A parcel just arrived here at Cooper Towers. A thick, heavy parcel, bound in sticky tape and bearing the blazon of none other than Orion Books.

So, naturally, I opened it – or tried to. Application of fingernails, scissors and finally brute strength was required (I don’t know where Orion gets their Sellotape, but this is definitely not regulation Sellotape, being fiendishly sticky and stubbornly durable).

Eventually, the ungodly stuff was overcome, and the parcel disgorged this:

Yup, the page proofs for Songs of the Earth just thudded onto my desk. Ooh. Exciting.

Now I get to read my book for the umpteenth time, looking for errors, misspellings, infelicitous word-choices etc – though hopefully I’ve already eliminated most of the outright clunkers by now, leaving only my prose, to stand or fall on its own merits.

It looks lovely, by the way. Absolutely lovely, like a child in its christening robes, all white and perfect. Sniffle.

Sorry, I seem to have got something in my eye.

There’s white things in the air — Jack Skellington

It bloody well is, you know.

Songs of the Earth is now manifest in physical form, and doesn’t it look pretty, all shiny and clean, ready to be launched into the big bad world to be variously picked apart, analysed, sneered at, reviewed, raved about, blogged over and ignored. Gulp.

I feel like a mother on Junior’s first day of school. Proud, and slightly nervous, smiling brightly and waving goodbye with an emergency hankie or two stuffed up my sleeve.

Actually, scratch that. Junior’s got rather more to worry about than a wedgie and having his lunch money stolen. Some of those reviewers can be downright merciless; it would be an entirely fitting allusion to say I feel like a gladiator’s mum before his first bout, having just walked through the armoury and past the wild-animal enclosure with the screams from the infirmary ringing in my ears.

Still, I’ve done my best, and he’s on his own now. I’ll be proud of him whatever happens. Go get ‘em, kid.

It’s been a long road to get here. Two different artists, neither quite capturing what the publishers were looking for, designers being admitted to hospital – you couldn’t make it up.

But here it is, as close to final as I’ve got. There’s still a teensy bit of smoothing-out and finessing to do, but imagine, if you will, matte gold foil on the title, and a spot-UV treatment on the twiddly bits to make them shine in the light, and you have it.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the UK cover for Songs of the Earth:

Ain’t it pretty? You can click on it to make it bigger. Go on, you know you want to.

So the first of the cover art is in – and from Spain, no less.

It’s not a scene I would have chosen from the book, I admit, but it makes a damn fine cover nonetheless. Apparently this is a very commercial treatment, in the Spanish market.

The title translates as “Under the Ivy”. Click on the image to see it in all its 2.5Mb loveliness. Muy bonita, no?

Rumour has it there may be a Part II to this post at the end of the week, when the UK cover art is in. Rest assured I will be sharing it with you just as soon as I can.