James Lovegrove – author

And here’s another cover image, which I forgot to tag onto the previous post.  It’s for the Age Of Satan ebook, and thus devilishly good little number comes courtesy of Mr Simon Parr.

Or soon will be, at any rate.  To the right you will see Jake Murray’s cover art for the compendium collection of my three Pantheon novellas.  It is truly a thing of beauty, is it not?  It was a shame that Marek Okon, cover artist for the series so far, is no longer available (something to do with his signing an exclusive contract to some design company or other) but in his absence Jake is a more than welcome replacement.  He’s brought his own style to the party, clean and cool, and frankly everyone at Solaris is pretty excited about what he’s come up with for the book, and so am I.  I can’t wait to see what he does for Age Of Shiva.

Age Of Godpunk, for that is what we are calling this collection, brings together in physical format the three novellas which have so far only been published as ebooks.  They are Age Of Anansi, Age Of Satan and Age Of Gaia.  The last of these hasn’t actually appeared yet, mostly on account of the fact that, as of this moment, I haven’t begun writing it yet.  When it’s done, however, I think it will sit nicely alongside the other two, and the three of them together should make for an interesting read.

With the novellas, I’m straying somewhat from the military-SF theme of the Pantheon novels, exploring aspects of divinity and the human/deity relationship in different ways.  The tone of them is somewhat lighter and less serious, and there’s minimal gunplay.

In other news, I’ve submitted my manuscript for Sherlock Holmes: The Stuff Of Nightmares for editing.  I wrote this one in an absolute white heat of creativity, a full-length novel in eight weeks.  I was hurrying to meet a tight deadline, but also I was enjoying myself so much, I could hardly stop writing.  The result is, I hope, both a faithful Conan Doyle homage-slash-pastiche but also a bang-up,  full-bore steampunk romp.  There are clues, deductions, investigations and all the other Holmesiana we’ve come to love, but also hair’s-breadth escapes, fiendish plots, dastardly villains and a proto-superhero character.

The cover has yet to be finalised, but as soon as the completed image comes in, I will post it here.

I would have blogged about this sooner but I’ve been crazy busy and have only just come up for air.  Here is the first part of the result of an epic-length transatlantic phone interview with Andrew Miller for Geek Asylum.  I really enjoyed myself talking to Andrew, and I hope that shows.

Not much else to report.  I should have a couple of cover images to brag about shortly, but until they come in, all I can tell you is that the nose is firmly to the grindstone.  I’ve begun work on the Age Of Satan novella.  That will be followed by the first of the two Sherlock Holmeses, then the Age Of Gaia novella, then Age Of Shiva, and finally the second Holmes.

By the way, the three novellas – Anansi, Satan and Gaia – are due to appear in a physical-form anthology/compendium in autumn 2013, under the umbrella title Age Of Godpunk.

And after that, we have plans.  Oh yes, we have plans.  But they are secret plans.  So I must keep the secret of the secret plans and not reveal what those secret plans are.  Because they’re secret.

It’s covers a-go-go here at the blog.  First off, the mighty Marek Okon has come up trumps again with this image:

It’s for Age Of Voodoo, of course, and there’s Baron Samedi looking all bony and badass…  And what’s that reflected in the lens of his sunglasses?  Hard to say, but if you squint and look closely, it seems like a manlike figure in motion.  Spooky.

Then there’s this:

Sean Longcroft is the artist responsible, and he also provides illustrations in the body of the book itself.  I’m really hoping Ford and Keane – which features a pair of young detectives solving mysteries in their home town — will do well enough to become an ongoing series.

In other news, I have agreed with Solaris to write two more Pantheon ebook novellas to accompany Age Of Anansi.  The first of these, Age Of Satan, should be out in the spring of next year, while the second, which I haven’t even got a title for yet, is due out in the summer.  Then, come autumn, all three will be gathered together and published in a physical-book omnibus edition, which I’m pre-e-etty sure we’re going to be calling Age Of Godpunk.

Oh, and here’s an internet interview thingie what I done at Sci-Fi Bulletin, along with a pic of my lovely Seiun Award for Best Short Story (Translated):

 (Sorry about the fingerprints!)

Lo and behold, a host of reviews of new and newish releases, plus an interview with me…

First, the interview, with Stefan Fergus at Civilian Reader, and a review of Age Of Anansi to accompany it.

Then there’s this one of Age Of Aztec, plus another one of Age Of Anansi, and a third, of Redlaw.  All three come courtesy of Paul Simpson at Sci-Fi Bulletin.

And, oh, hey, one more for the road (Age Of Aztec again) from Nick Sharps.  Said gentleman is currently languishing in bed with a broken leg, for reasons too spectacularly bizarre to go into here.  Suffice to say that he had an altercation with a car, his own, and the car came off worse.

This one’s been bubbling under for a while but it’s finally come to the surface…

Titan Books have made me an offer to write a couple of Sherlock Holmes novels for them.  I pitched them two proposals earlier this year, and found out this week that they would like to publish them.

To say I’m thrilled about this is an understatement.  One of the great pleasures of my childhood was reading the Holmes stories or having them read to me by my father.  In particular, during a two-week holiday in a clifftop house in Brittany, Dad read the whole of The Hound Of The Baskervilles to us, a couple of chapters an evening.  It was fantastic.

Ever since, I’ve wanted to write a Holmes story.  In fact, Conan Doyle is one of the reasons I became a writer (he and Ian Fleming are two of my earliest influences).  So this is genuinely a boyhood dream come true.

The working titles for the books are The Stuff Of Nightmares and Gods Of War.  They’re not going to be completely straight Holmes tales.  There’ll be elements of cyberpunk and the supernatural in both.  There’ll be plenty of action in them too, but also some good, old-fashioned sleuthing.

It’s too early to announce publication dates.  I haven’t even signed a contract yet.  But the first should be out in late 2013 and the second the year after that.

P.S. There’s also this, an interview I’ve done recently for Keith Brooke, about Age Of Aztec and various other forthcoming events.  It was conducted before the above news arrived.