Shadows of the Apt

Shotgun Linkstorm is most definitely my new band name. Anyway, dragging myself from the hibernation pod for another year I discover it's 2014. It's way too early in January to expect anything coherent so: Super Secret Project Zeta I will most definitely have some news on this, probably even next week. It's very exciting. To me, […]

A brief but happy post to announce that Shadows of the Apt, like a good missile, has now gone intercontinental. In early 2010 expect to see the first three books turn up on US shelves at intervals of around a month, bringing America up to date swiftly. Credit for this goes to Lou Anders and Pyr, the SF […]

Well, the moment fast approaches to see whether this beastie can survive in the wild, so… To celebrate the publication of his debut novel, Empire in Black and Gold   ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY   will be signing copies of the book at Waterstone's, United Reform Building, 89a Broad Street, Reading RG1 2AP   SATURDAY 5^th JULY, 3–5pm     […]

So the call comes at last that I should meet with my agent and my editor in London for lunch. The publisher’s lunch is rightly famous, to the extent that the name graces a trade magazine for the industry, and Douglas Adams incorporated a homage to it in Life, the Universe and Everything (1). In a world gone mad for […]

I’ve stressed the fact that waiting comes into this business with distressing regularity. The truth is that the beginning is all wait: you write, and you wait. If you return to the writing board, the waiting continues. Many years go by waiting for that first moment of contact, like a forgotten spy checking the same safe-houses […]

Noël Coward said (1) “I love criticism so long as it’s unqualified praise.” My own relationship to criticism has been long in developing. As an unread author, to start with, you tend to be short of any actual constructive feedback. It is a curse, and it is also a shield. Whilst the only criticism you might get […]

So, I’d sent the completed manuscript of Empire off to my agent, and another of these habitual long waits ensued. Mind you, if by this stage you’re not able to deal with long waits, then, well…   Actually, that’s bunkum. Hope is a curse. It inflames the senses. Sentence a man to ten lashes, and the eleventh lash […]

After the writing and the re-writing, After the striving, and the despicable cost of postage, After the rejections and the resubmissions, After all of these things, and so ad infinitum, And if your gods favour you, You may hear the Call.   The Call should, if there was any poetry or justice in this world, come […]

So, what would be the point of submitting the same book again? I myself have tended to drift on to new work following each round of rejections, but I know that other people continue to cut and prune their magnum opus for resubmission at a later date. There is a hidden calendar involved, and it is worth keeping tabs […]

Suddenly… nothing happened. But it happened suddenly. (1)   You’ve dispatched your sample chapters to agents and/or publishers. Now what?   Well, very little. Wait for the little rejection slips to come fluttering to your door. As mentioned, even that can take some time. When you finally strike gold you’ll know about it but,before then, you’ll […]