Amazon.com Guest Post

Just when you thought you’d had enough of me, I start invading American sites. I’m guest blogging over at Amazon.com’s mighty Omnivoracious blog, and the first post kicks off with a lovely intro from Jeff VanderMeer, before I go on to talk about my journey from bookseller to book writer. I’ve two more posts coming later in the week.

I first met Mark Charan Newton in Coventry, England, during a tour for one of my books from Pan Macmillan in, I believe, 2004 or 2005. Mark worked at the local bookstore, and had done a brilliant job of helping set up for the event. We had a great meal at an Indian restaurant. (If I remember right, it was Mark and George Mann and my wife Ann, editor of Weird Tales, so, present company excepted, there was quite a lot of talent in the room!)

During the meal, Mark mentioned that he was working on a novel. A lot of people are “working on a novel,” so I must admit I made polite noises and didn’t pay it much mind. But, then, over the years, it became clear that this guy was for real. He finished one novel, then another, kept plugging away, always improving and always fiercely determined. Now, that determination has paid off, with a multi-book deal both in the United Kingdom and North America. Nights of Villjamur, the first secondary world fantasy in Newton’s Legends of the Red Sun series. The novel shares some affinities with the work of, among others, China Mieville, and will be published by Random House this week.

Read the rest, and feel free to pop any questions in the comments.

And while you’re on Amazon, if you’ve read and enjoyed Nights, why not leave a few lines about it on either .com or .co.uk for that matter? I’m not too proud! it does tend to be a love/hate book, and those who hate it can be very loud indeed. Every little helps.