Finally, the Website

I've been neglecting this weblog over the Christmas break. Poor thing. Now I'm back at work, though, and have time to spare which would otherwise be spent on absurd frivolities like assisting stressed students to pass their A-level exams. So I should be able to start paying attention to it again.

First things first. My website is now approved. It's up and running (pending a handful of minor corrections) at www.infinitarian.com. When March comes and my novel, Of the City of the Saved..., is published the site will be augmented with some commentary and deleted scenes. Until then, though, there's a fair amount to get your teeth into: some background material on my contributions to The Book of the War, unofficial and entirely unendorsed illustrations to Of the City of the Saved... and a fair amount of my pre-professional writing. There's also some stuff relating to my thesis, including an interview with sf author Dan Simmons (Hyperion, Endymion etc) which may be of interest. Just don't read it all at once.

The particularly pleasing thing is that, over the Christmas / New Year break, I finished the novel and sent it off to my editor, Lawrence Miles. January will see the whole editing process come alive like a pretty snowdrop from the earth, and by the end of the month we should have a final text. That will include around 5 000 words of cuts, which makes me nervous -- but really, I'm sure I can cope with it given that there'll be 120 000 or so left.

My thesis was far more problematic -- I had to cut that down from 150 000 words to 100 000. Made me the man I am today.

Anyway. The alleged publication date for Of the City of the Saved... is March 2004 for the paperback, and probably a month or so later for the limited edition hardback (and aren't I looking forward to signing those...). There are plenty of links at the website to places where you can pre-order both. So go on -- buy copies and make me very slightly rich.

My next writing project (which I'm not at liberty to reveal at the moment, largely because it's far from being commissioned yet) will have a running commentary on this weblog as I write it.