Bear with me, please ...
I'm being quiet right now because I'm writing The Wrong Book. Hopefully this will not take too long and I'll be able to get back to writing The Right Book in time to make the deadline ...
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I'm being quiet right now because I'm writing The Wrong Book. Hopefully this will not take too long and I'll be able to get back to writing The Right Book in time to make the deadline ...
Comments
Does The Wrong Book your writing rely heavily on non-ecluidian spaces and a certain British WWI Military figure?
I'll incentivise - I'll send cake if you make both deadlines in time! :)
Posted by: Serraphin | September 16, 2008 3:50 PM
(And damn my bad grammar - apolgies - five hours in the car can do that to a man's brain. Curse you M40, curse you!)
Posted by: Serraphin | September 16, 2008 3:52 PM
<coy>Maybe.</coy>
Posted by: Charlie Stross | September 16, 2008 4:01 PM
Actually that's not a bad idea for a screw-with-the-reader type book - a 'right' book that you open as usual and read ever odd page for the story, with the 'wrong' book one that you open from the back cover and read ever even page forward to the beginning. The 'wrong' would be an alternate, surreal take on the events in the 'right'.
Two goes at getting a decent cover.....
Posted by: Ian Smith | September 16, 2008 4:47 PM
XKCD taught me that if you keep saying "Now, if you'll just bear with me for a moment," you can show totally unrelated PowerPoint slides for hours. Maybe the same thing will work with publishers and books.
Posted by: Tucker | September 16, 2008 4:49 PM
Hmm,
Sounds like The Wrong Book wants to be written somethin' fierce. I recommend fighting only as much as necessary to maintain the deadline on The Right Book.
After all, its not always the writer's choice what order the books come in!
Posted by: TechSlave | September 16, 2008 5:22 PM
Both books are under contract and have deadlines; it's just that they're coming out in the wrong order.
Posted by: Charlie Stross | September 16, 2008 5:29 PM
Having just finished "The Jennifer Morgue" hot on the heels of "The Atrocity Archives", I couldn't be more delighted if that next novel in the sequence comes earlier than expected. JM was extremely enjoyable, and I liked the pretty unique style of both those books. Damn, maybe I will have to start the Clan Corporate set too. ;-)
Posted by: Alex Tolley | September 16, 2008 6:42 PM
... order ... but at present the publishers control the time/order of publication and will have their own ideas concerning a pipeline.
I think often doing what demands to be done covers some subconscious/subliminal work going on on the main project.
Posted by: Adrian Midgley | September 16, 2008 7:15 PM
As long as your writing something I think most of us would be happy. We just want more good stuff to read...
Posted by: MikeB | September 16, 2008 7:24 PM
Alex: unfortunately I could hand THE FULLER MEMORANDUM in tomorrow and it still wouldn't come out any earlier than summer 2010. These publication dates are set in stone.
On the other hand, if I were to finish it this month I'd have time to write something else in 2009.
Up until 2005 I was a year ahead in my SF stream (the first draft of GLASSHOUSE got burped up in four weeks flat). Unfortunately I lost my lead time due to a combination of family crises and illness. Getting it back would be a Good Thing, but would require me to write an extra book one year.
Posted by: Charlie Stross | September 16, 2008 8:55 PM
My sympathy for you is only tempered by the fact that I'll be getting regular doses of your work for the next several year.
That said, I'll stop whining to myself over the dearth of space opera in your pending stream. Clearly you've got enough balls in the air as it is and I'll be grateful for everything I get. :-)
Posted by: Andrew Lias | September 16, 2008 10:57 PM
"The Wrong Book" comes delivered in "The Wrong Box."
Posted by: Jonathan Vos Post | September 17, 2008 12:01 AM
I'm looking forward to the Right Book, but I have to tell you that I CAN NOT WAIT for the Wrong Book!
Posted by: Owen | September 17, 2008 2:56 AM
That is BS, Stross! Summer 2010 is like 22 months away.
I could get married, have kids, get divorced, and die (comically/tragically/mysteriously) by then. And what about you? You better be taking your vitamins and wearing your helmet when you ride your bike!
I'm thinking of hiring some script kiddies to hack your manuscript out of your publisher's vaults. How much could that possibly cost?
Posted by: theDAWG | September 17, 2008 3:53 AM
Charlie @ 0 "...I'm writing The Wrong Book..."
Apparently your muse disagrees... ;)
A writer friend missed two contracted delivery dates (the "right" books) writing the "wrong" book -- but it turned out to be the most successful thing he's written so far!
Posted by: Shannon | September 17, 2008 6:50 AM
On the plus side - if you do manage to get both books (Wrong and Right) done in time, you'll have all the more time to start on "The Armageddon Agenda"!
Which I personally feel can only be A Good Thing.
As always - I offer my time to give either one a read through; backwards to catch any errors. And forwards with a copy-editor style brain on. I've got coloured ticky labels and everything.
Posted by: Serraphin | September 17, 2008 11:46 AM
Wait a minute... while I think you in many ways needs to go where your inspiration takes you I must confess that I can't wait for the next book of the Clan Corporate series. The last book left so many things up in the air and as it will apparently be the last in this time line I can't wait! I think like the Clan Corporate more then the Atrocity Archive. It's good "hard" fantasy.
And while I love the liked the Atrocity Archive and Jennifier Morgue I'm also longing for a slightly harder SF book like the Singularity Sky.
In the mean time I'm currently reading Anathem by Mr. Neal and it's a very pleasant read so far ( I loved Crypto; liked the idea of the Barouque Cycle but found it a hard read ). This from coming of Vinge's latest
Posted by: Robert E | September 17, 2008 2:23 PM
It might be fun to actually title the book The Wrong Book if that would make any sense whatsoever with its contents.
Posted by: mensley | September 17, 2008 4:31 PM
Robert E - two things
1)Don't make me come over there and...I mean...err - never mind.
2)Would you care to put money on the Merchant Princes being fantasy? Because in the last story there were one or two hints that it's anything but :)
Posted by: Serraphin | September 17, 2008 5:50 PM
Ian Smith:
Not exactly what you're after, but close enough?
Posted by: Jp | September 17, 2008 5:56 PM
I am so not getting into this thread. (I have just written 14,250 words in three days and my hands hurt.)
Posted by: Charlie Stross | September 17, 2008 7:25 PM
"I have just written 14,250 words in three days and my hands hurt."
When Isaac Asimov was terribly unhappy at not being able to do anything for his daughter in the hospital, he went home and typed 20,000 words before going to sleep.
Before Word Processors. Just saying...
Posted by: Jonathan Vos Post | September 17, 2008 8:15 PM
Serraphin:
I wonder how the the clan would deal with the current banking issues and credit worries we're going through; how the would capitalize on it; or maybe they are behind it? or will it convince them to stay in the drug business?
Posted by: Robert E | September 17, 2008 8:25 PM
I've observed a strange psychological effect in myself. Sometimes at work I choose to do something which isn't quite the thing I'm supposed to be doing. I guess this is related to procrastination. However, when I'm doing this, my work capacity and enthusiasm seem to double.
Posted by: Astrolabe | September 17, 2008 10:19 PM
It makes me so happy to know that college students like me aren't the only ones writing "the wrong" projects. Of course, failure at a regional university in Oklahoma is probably not on par with pissing off a major publisher.
Posted by: Clark | September 17, 2008 10:29 PM
I can't help misquoting this line from The Wrong Trousers.
It's The Wrong Book Gromit. And it's gone wrong!
Posted by: Neil Willcox | September 17, 2008 11:10 PM
Aaah, drat the publication schedule.
An extra book one year could be painful but is unlikely to be fatal, unless it happens to be one of those books that coincidentally happens to just slip itself out of your fingers and land on the innocent and unsuspecting keyboard some month. In which case, a keyboard could die of overuse.
JVP @23:
That sounds like a choice of pains to give in to: the pain of the life around you, or the pain of giving birth to something though your fingers might bleed and crack on the typewriter.
Sometimes, I swear that once in awhile I find an author had a bit of a penitente outlook on sins, but selected their characters to suffer for it.
Charlie, hang in there and remember to get finger massages once in awhile. Somehow, we'll survive until you're done. I now return to salving my sorrows with Gene Wolfe's newest.
Posted by: TechSlave | September 18, 2008 9:19 AM
Robert E @ 24: I think they'd just start trading gold. I beleive the market has bottomed up on that as a 'reliable' investment at the moment.
Of course I am by no means a financial savvy person - and there are probably rather clever things you could do banking wise with such power.
Of course I can imagine Miriam doing something smarter still - Perhaps opening and investment bank in our world, funded with gold from the Gruinmarket and setting up some form of ethical investment.
Then using the real world profits to start improving her business across the universe!
Posted by: Serraphin | September 18, 2008 11:48 AM
When you've finished it, Charlie, I'd be delighted to offer you a free proofread. Normally I largely stick to proofreading physical sciences (and expect people to pay), but I'll make an exception in this case :)
Posted by: Tigerfort | September 25, 2008 3:03 PM