James Lovegrove – author

(“Revamped”.  See what I did there?  Trust me, I’ll be using that pun again.  Sooner than you think.)

Same brilliant Clint Langley illustration – brand-new title, blurbage and lettering.

That bit directly above my name seems downright surreal.  “New York Times Best Selling Author”?  You could knock me down with a very flimsy feather.

Well, you see, it’s like this…

I know I said I wasn’t going to do another pantheon book.  I’d had enough of gods and families of gods and humans and their families, makeshift or otherwise.  But then Jon the Editor asked would I mind doing another one for him and the other fine gentlefolk at Solaris, and soonish?  And I thought about it, not for very long, and said, OK.  Because I’m a nice obliging chap and because, frankly, I realised I did want to do another one after all.

Soooo…  Dust is going on hold for the time being.  It’s not been abandoned, it’s just being placed on the back burner, where it can bubble and froth to its heart’s content until such time as it’s ready to re-emerge.

Which pantheon will I be covering?  I’ve been having fun with assorted blog-thread correspondents, especially one Nick Sharps, discussing the various deity clusters available, but the one that strikes me as having the most potential is the MesoAmerican lot.  I’m already working up the synopsis, so I can’t say much else here.  But there will most likely be flying saucers.  Yes, you read that right.  Flying saucers.

In other news, The Age Of Odin is doing nicely for itself sales-wise, especially Stateside, where…  Well, take a look for yourself.  You’ll need to scroll down a bit, but there it is, in at #33 in this week’s New York Times mass-market paperback bestsellers list.  Hurrah!  (NB.  The link is valid only for the current week.)

Ugh, weak post title, I know.  Sounds like the strapline for an advertising campaign for a chain of gift shops or a bedsheet company or something.  Let your eye move swiftly past it and on to the content of the post itself.

Which concerns this and this from Solaris.

The former link furnishes pictorial proof of the imminent emergence of The Age Of Odin, conjoined with one of Professor David Moore’s erudite disquisitions.  On this occasion he holds forth on the origin of the names of the days of the week in English, the ones derived from Norse gods, and compares and contrasts them with the names of the days of the week in other European languages, the ones derived from Roman gods.  Interesting stuff.

But never mind that, let’s concentrate on the book itself, shall we?  Snazzy or what?

The latter link displays a selection of cover images for the ebook editions of my backlist, which Solaris are preparing for publication (if that’s the term for what you do with ebooks) in the New Year.  These, too, look very snazzy to me.  I particularly like the little skulls lurking at the base of the anchor on The Hope.  Was unsure about them at first but they’ve grown on me.  A nice touch.  Worldstorm is cool, too.  Something rather 70s-John-Wyndham-esque about it, which naturally endears it to me.  Fine work from Mr Pye Parr.

A fortnight or so ago, Philip Palmer got in touch asking if I’d contribute to the SFF Song Of the Week section on his Debatable Spaces site.  I jumped at the chance, knowing almost immediately which song I’d choose to write about.  Here’s the result.

Philip’s a terrific author.  I’ve just salivated over his third novel, Version 43, for the Financial Times.  Not  literally, as that would be messy.  I mean rave-reviewed it.  The piece should appear in a couple of weeks.

I’ve also included Version 43 in my round-up of best SF novels of the year for the paper.  It really is that good.

Some of you may know that Adam Roberts and I collaborated on an aborted project, a nonfiction book about SF in pop with the working title Geek Musique.  We came up with about 100 songs without even really trying.  Seems like Philip’s trying to do much the same thing online, a very worthy enterprise.

Can’t not draw your attention to this review by Graeme Flory of the soon-to-be-published End Of The Line, an anthology of Tube-themed horror stories.  Not only does it rightly praise the book as a whole but it makes honourable mention of, ahem, my contribution, “Siding 13″.

The story was one of those gifts from the muse that came out in a rush, took only a single morning to finish.  Sometimes when I write that fast I think I must be dashing it off, not really giving it my all.  Then again, when the words are flowing, it’s better to accept this than worry about it.

Anyway, it’s  a terrific collection.  You should give it a try.  Just don’t read it on the Underground.

…except it isn’t dead, it’s very lively and vital and hasn’t (metaphorically speaking) even been born yet.

Newly posted on the Solaris website is this vlog from David Moore.  Watch carefully for an appearance by – well, it doesn’t have to be too carefully, it’s hardly a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo — the cover for The Age Of Odin, which David waggles alluringly at the camera like some flimsily-clad maiden with come-hither eyes displaying her wares.

I’m thinking the cover is the maiden in that simile, not David.

Love the subtitles.

Here, fresh from the publisher’s PC, is Tomislav Tikulin’s image for the cover of Dust with the title and author name added.

Looks even better this way, somehow.  I especially like how the word “DUST” is all sort of, y’know, dusty.  Just as if it’s being scoured away by some type of nanoparticle storm that threatens to consume the world and reduce all organic and inorganic matter to grey powder.

Solaris don’t just throw these things together, eh?

I’ve prepared back-cover blurbage for the book that goes a little bit like this:

An escape of nanotech from a British laboratory spells doom for the world.  The bio-engineered submicroscopic particles are a rapacious plague, slowly spreading outwards, consuming everything they come into contact with and reducing it to grey dust. 

All attempts to contain the disaster fail.  A gradual, irreversible apocalypse looms.  But while most people are running away from the encroaching Dust, one man – author Lucas Harris – is making his way towards it.  His wife and family need rescuing.  But Lucas is also a born nihilist, a man in love with the idea of oblivion and obliteration.  His is an odyssey through a disintegrating country towards some kind of reconciliation with life – and death.

The formidable and indefatigable Andy Remic requested me to provide guest content for his blog.  I chose “1-star reviews on Amazon” as my subject, just for a bit of fun.  I hope I’ve been balanced and non-judgemental.  You decide.

Meanwhile, work has begun on Redlaw and is proceeding apace (20,000 words so far in the space of a fortnight).  The story is taking shape quite nicely and I find I’m discovering all sorts of new things about the world I’ve created, which is always gratifying and helps keep one’s enthusiasm up.  There’s also an element of political satire which is coming out much more strongly than I envisaged, and I’m aiming at greater economy of prose and expression than I’ve ever attempted before.

Plus: plenty of fang-tastic action and, in the shape of the title character, a serious hardcase.  Imagine a thinner, white-haired Ray Winstone cross-fertilised with Solomon Kane and you’ll be sort of there.