ELIXIR

So, COVENANT is now completed, with all of the copy-editing done, acknowledgements and dedications fulfilled and cover artwork given a BIG thumbs up. Which means my focus is now entirely on book two, "Elixir".

It's quite a daunting prospect, given the attention lavished upon Covenant by my brilliant publishers Simon & Schuster. There are now expectations to live up to, a bar which has to be equalled or beaten, for if the publisher isn't duly impressed enough by book two then the reading public probably won't be either.

I've been hard at work despite everything that's been happening over the last few months ( see previous posts ), not being the type of person to rest on my laurels now that I've achieved one of those elusive publishing deals that allows me to write full-time. When I signed the deal, I'd already provided a one-page synopsis for books two and three to accompany Covenant, so I knew the subject matter at hand in advance. I've now almost reached the stage where Elixir is about ready to go to Simon & Schuster - probably about a month's more work to do. Book three, however, is still at the one-page synopsis stage: the deadline for the completed work is December this year (!)

So far I'm really happy with Elixir, and feel reasonably confident that S&S will love it too, but you can never be too sure about how a fresh pair of eyes will respond to a new work. Fingers crossed that the feedback will be mostly positive, and I can start looking at beginning the plotting process for book three, "Event Horizon". I've only 8 months to write the novel, but it's taken me just 6 to write Elixir... It's not easy to create a page turner at the same time as doing so much research into the relevant science, but when it comes together it's the best feeling in the world. Can't wait to see what people think!

P.S. I'm also developing a synopsis for books 4, 5 and 6. Great new ideas and a real sense that this series has a long future ahead of it!

Final Copy-Edit hard copy.

The latest news in the COVENANT saga is the arrival a few days ago of the copy-edited hard copy. This represents the novel's final layout, printed on A4 but with the layout scaled to the hardback sized font and format. It looks awesome, especially as it contains all of the pre-lim pages, the acknowledgments, dedication etc. In addition, the first few chapters of my second novel, ELIXIR, are also presented as a teaser for readers who pick up copies of the novel.

It's pretty much the final stage of the process as far as my writing goes on COVENANT, with any final last minute requests to be submitted before the print is locked down, all ready to go into production later this year. All that's really left for me to see is the UK cover-art, and then it's full-steam ahead on books 2 and 3.

I've just finished the first-draft of book two, ELIXIR, so I'm well on my way, but it's quite daunting seeing teaser pages for a novel that's not yet complete. However, publisher Simon & Schuster and Touchstone USA know what they're doing, and having 3 novels published over a 12 month period will hopefully cement me a prominent position on the shelves and the Internet. Can't wait to see it happen!!