Gosh, an unexpected list of congrats... thanks one and all.
My "career," for want of a better word, as an author since 1996 has been marked with all the crushing disappointments, bad luck and setbacks that most authors suffer. This is not an easy game to be in. I got lucky in 1995 thanks to Tim Holman at Orbit; without him I'd be totally unknown. These days, I'm happy to say I'm merely unknown.
I've known Keith Brooke at Infinity Plus for a good few years, and he has always been very supportive of me. So I have him to thank for this latest boost to my "career." Keith is an outstanding author - I recommend his
The Unlikely World Of Faraway Frankie, also all four of the Nick Gifford novels.
As some of you may know, I'm known for environmentally-themed works. A couple of years ago, while stewing in a vat of crushing disappointment, I wrote a short story for Allen Ashley's Eibonvale Press anthology
Where Are We Going?, which I wrote swiftly, but which went well and which Allen accepted. It was one of the most enjoyable writing experiences I'd had for a while, probably because I wrote it almost stream-of-consciousness, and because it was lighter and more surreal than my usual stuff. At the time I knew there had to be at least a novel in the style and scenario, but I put off writing that novel because my career seemed to be going nowhere and I didn't think it was worth it.
Then I decided
Hairy London had to be written. It was enormous fun, and hopefully that surreal sense of fun will come across in the novel. It does have a serious theme though - what is love? In a nutshell, three explorers in an alternate Edwardian London make a wager that one of them will be able to return to their club to declare to all the world what love is. Whether this trio of adventurers achieve their goal, and whether they discover why London is entirely covered in hair, is the narrative of the book.
So, like I said, very different...
