*Oh yes, it is.
About fifteen years ago, I was in mid-town Manhattan standing in the monolithic Barnes and Noble on Fifth Avenue. I’d not long had my first short story published. I’d just bought a copy of Michael Chabon’s wonderful Kavalier and Clay and I remember, idly daydreaming that my own book might be in that book store one day (although at this point, I hadn’t written anything much longer than a shopping list.)
Weeeell. I’m as statistically sure as I can be (without getting actual documentary evidence) that that has now happened.
Achievement unlocked.
So, The Lighthouse at the End of the World, has been out in the world for about three weeks at this point. As you might expect, this is a strange and (mostly) wonderful thing. I think, I’m just about beginning to get my head around it.
At the very least, the next time I’m at a literary cocktail party (of which I attend oh-so-very-many) and someone asks, “have I read anything of yours?” I can just point them at Barnes & Noble or Waterstones.
When the book came out in the US at the end of March, initially, it felt a little abstract. I knew this thing was out there, a stack of papery objects with my name on, about three-thousand miles away on the other side of an ocean. It was a slightly unreal, almost uneasy, feeling.
Then, the managing editor at Titan wrote to me, to tell me that The Lighthouse at the End of the World had been selected by Barnes and Noble as their speculative fiction pick for April.
Publishers are at pains to keep this sort of information completely under wraps, so the cheeky sods at Titan had kept this secret until the day after the US release. To say I nearly fell off my chair is an understatement.
Even so, it did still feel oddly academic until a day later, when I was queuing in the local Londis to buy a pint of milk. A friend of mine based in LA sent me a photo of my weird little tome sitting in the front window in one of Barnes and Noble’s Hollywood bookstores. There it is in the picture below, third row down.
If you’re a mouthy kid from Tooting (and I am), that is a pretty surreal moment.
So, the last three weeks have seen me trying to keep up with publication day without totally losing my shit:
- An interview with Jim Mcleod at Ginger Nuts of Horror. Despite its brilliantly facetious name, this is a really cool site that takes its genre fiction (not too) seriously.
- A guest post on the subject of Monsters at the Barnes and Noble reads blog.
- Appearing at Super Relaxed Fantasy Club in London on 14th April. This is a very friendly meet-up for London-based fantasy fans and happens on the second Tuesday of each month at the Star of Kings pub near Kings Cross. Events are advertised on this Facebook group and consist of a couple of authors doing readings and interviews. The vibe is very low-key and friendly, I really can’t recommend it enough, if you happen to be in the area.
- A conversation with Derek Tyler Attico for the Soul of the Story podcast on the SyFy Sistas YouTube Channel. Derek is a lovely person who I met at Worldcon a couple of years ago. He’s a consummate podcast host, brilliant writer in his own right and a pretty passionate Star Trek fan to boot. (He wrote The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko for Titan).
- In addition, I’ll be appearing at MCM Comic Con in London on Saturday 23rd May @ 2pm on the Debut Author Experience panel. Do come along and say hi, if you happen to be at the event. I was at this last year with my daughter as a punter and so getting to be on a panel here is amazing, strange and humbling all at the same time.
Generally, I’ve been steering well clear of reviews. Not because I’m an ego-crazed narcissist tyrant who doesn’t want feedback, (does two out of three count?) Rather, I really don’t need any extra brain-weevils in addition to the ones I’ve been blessed with kicking around in my head while I’m writing.
That said, here are a couple that my agent has cast in my direction.
Generally, I’ve been delighted with the book’s reception and Mcleod’s conclusion that “this is British speculative fiction doing something different” is the sort of capsule review that I want tattooed on my forehead.
It’s odd now to think back to all that time ago when I was in Manhattan. I hung around Brooklyn hoping to bump into Paul Auster doing a cigar run. Alas, that will never happen now, but at least I might be in the same bookshop as him. And that feels like something to celebrate.
My debut fantasy novel, The Lighthouse at the End of the World, the first in the Cities of the Drift series is published by Titan Books. You can purchase it here.