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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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30 Comments

1:

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! :)

2:

(And damn my bad grammar - apolgies - five hours in the car can do that to a man's brain. Curse you M40, curse you!)

3:

<coy>Maybe.</coy>

4:

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.....

5:

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.

6:

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!

7:

Both books are under contract and have deadlines; it's just that they're coming out in the wrong order.

8:

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. ;-)

9:

... 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.

10:

As long as your writing something I think most of us would be happy. We just want more good stuff to read...

11:

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.

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12:

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. :-)

13:

"The Wrong Book" comes delivered in "The Wrong Box."

14:

I'm looking forward to the Right Book, but I have to tell you that I CAN NOT WAIT for the Wrong Book!

15:

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?

16:

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!

17:

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.

18:

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

19:

It might be fun to actually title the book The Wrong Book if that would make any sense whatsoever with its contents.

20:

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 :)

21:

Ian Smith:
Not exactly what you're after, but close enough?

22:

I am so not getting into this thread. (I have just written 14,250 words in three days and my hands hurt.)

23:

"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...

24:

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?

25:

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.

26:

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.

27:

I can't help misquoting this line from The Wrong Trousers.

It's The Wrong Book Gromit. And it's gone wrong!

28:

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.

29:

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!

30:

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 :)