Ben Aaronovitch's Blog, page 20

Cover Mock Up For BODY WORK

This is a rough cover mock up for the first isse of the Rivers of London comic due, hopefully, in April 2015.
These will be original stories co-written with Andrew Cartmel, illustrated by Mathew Dow Smith and published by Titan.

UPDATE: Hah, I've been preempted by events as Titan announced the titled at New York Comic Con, hence here is an update prior to their being a date.

Locations, Locations, Locations: The Short Stories

This is actually a test to see how the new Google Map interface works plus the locations of the four short stories so far.

Coming Soon - Now Updated

November - UPDATED!

Friday 7th
7pm Criminal Masterminds, St Albans Lit Festival

Sunday 9th
2-3pm Wimborne Literary Festival

Monday 10th

1 - 2pm Forbidden Planet, London

UPDATED!
6.30pm Waterstones Trafalger Square Talk with Kobna Holdbrook Smith

Tuesday 11th

UPDATED!
1- 2pm Hatchards St Pancras Signing

And then obviously I get hustled straight onto a train.

7pm Nottingham Waterstones Solo Talk

And also I'll be packing my toothbrush because...

Wednesday 12th 

1pm Leeds signing

6.30pm Manchester Waterstones Solo Talk

Thursday 13th

1pm Liverpool Waterstones signing

And people say that being a writer isn't glamorous!

7.30pm Birmingham Waterstones Solo Talk

Friday 14th  

Into the wild west midlands!

7pm Ledbury Books Solo Talk

Saturday 15th

1 - 2pm Toppings Bath Solo Talk 

AND NOW EVEN MORE!



Sunday 30th November
2 - 3pm Reading and Signing at the London Museum of Water and Steam
 DECEMBER
Sunday 7th December
2 - 4pm, Solo Talk and Signing at Kingston Waterstones  

Locations, Locations, Locations: Broken Homes

I haven't quite got the hang of the new Google Maps interface yet so I'm not sure how this one is going to turn out.



View Broken Homes in a larger map

UK Release Date

There seems to be some confusion over the UK release date so here is the latest information.

FOXGLOVE SUMMERUK RELEASE DATE13th November 2014
In HARDBACK and EBOOK

ALSOI do not have a date for the audio but I know they're trying to get it as close to the 13th as possible.
ALSO ALSOMy books are not embargoed which means that bookshops and other distributors will start selling the physical copies as soon as they have them. This can be as early as ten days before publication date - it's a pain but what are you going to do?
ALSO ALSO ALSOAs far as I know the US edition is scheduled for release on January 6th 2015 in Mass Market Paperback and EBOOK.

Coming Soon

Here is a rough list of the events coming up in November. I shall give more details as I get them.

November

Friday 7th
7pm Criminal Masterminds, St Albans Lit Festival

Sunday 9th
2-3pm Wimborne Literary Festival

Monday 10th

1 - 2pm Forbidden Planet, London

6.30pm Waterstones Piccadilly Talk with Kobna Holdbrook Smith

Tuesday 11th

1- 2pm Hatchards Kings Cross Signing

And then obviously I get hustled straight onto a train.

7pm Nottingham Waterstones Solo Talk

And also I'll be packing my toothbrush because...

Wednesday 12th 

1pm Leeds signing

6.30pm Manchester Waterstones Solo Talk

Thursday 13th

1pm Liverpool Waterstones signing

And people say that being a writer isn't glamorous!

7.30pm Birmingham Waterstones Solo Talk

Friday 14th  

Into the wild west midlands!

7pm Ledbury Books Solo Talk

Saturday 15th

1 - 2pm Toppings Bath Solo Talk

Cheltenham Lit Festival

Where?
The Inkpot, Imperial Square um....presumably in Cheltenham.

When?
Friday 10th October 2014 
8:30pm - 9:30pm

Who?
Me, Joe "Cheerful" Abercrombie, Mitch Benn and Sarah Pinborough

Why?
Because even posh people cannot resist the inevitable rise to power of the Cheshire Scouts one true genre. You will bow down before Science Fiction - literary types - you and your airs!

Ahem..
It's a literary festival and we write books - it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Archer Street

Back in the old days, my dad and his mates used to hang out on Archer Street , where the Musicians Union used to be, in the hope of getting work. I’d always imagined it as little knots of musicians dotted along the pavement . Then I saw a photograph which showed the street awash with men in pork-pie hats and Burton suits toting their instruments around like unemployed Mafiosi. It got so crowded and competitive, my dad said, that bands would have secret hand gestures to communicate across the crowd, sliding fist for a trombonist, flat hand, palm down, for a drummer, fluttering fingers for a cornet or a trumpet . That way you could stay friendly with your mates in the crowd even while undercutting them for a gig at the Savoy or the Café de Paris. My dad said you could have walked down Archer Street and assembled two full orchestras, a big band and still have enough bodies left for a couple of quartets.Moon Over Soho

Wakefield Literary Festival

Where?
In the Theatre Royal in lush tropical Wakefield!

When?
The 29th of September at Six O'clock!

Who?
Um....just me but I promise to move about alot to create the illusion that there's more of me.

Why?
To ramble on in the desperate semi-coherent fashion that has become my trademark.

Details are here.

Why Leslie Plays Soccer on the Sidewalk

I was asked about this in a comment on an earlier blog so this should be considered a slightly overblown off the cuff answer - I haven't done any research or read deeply on the subject so all the opinions are mine and some of the facts may be wrong(1).
Roughly the question was - in the US version of the books why is Leslie called Leslie (as opposed to Lesley in the UK editions) and why does she suddenly revert. The answer is simple - cultural dominance and fear.
Cultural DominanceAmerica is currently the culturally dominant nation in the world(2). This is particularly true vis a vis other English speaking nations where domination of the local culture is unmediated by a language barrier. Members of a dominant culture tend to be more resistant to having to familiarise themselves with other cultures including variant spellings and terminology. OK it's not everyone obviously or even a majority but it is enough to have an impact on sales.
FearSo when an American publisher takes up a book by an unknown(3) author set in author's native town and written in the first person in the locality's colourful local vernacular they have a choice - leave the as is and risk alienating a financially significant percentage of the audience or make few harmless changes to smooth things along. It is, as they say, a no brainer.
Lesley vs LeslieThat explains sidewalk, soccer, bangs, chips and hoods - what about Leslie? I originally wrote Lesley's name as Leslie but my UK publisher said that the female version of the name was more usually spelt Lesley - so we changed it. Remember both publishers now have their own copies of the manuscript - they have diverged. My US publisher was quite happy with Leslie and so stuck with that.
However I now consistently spelt Lesley as Lesley in my manuscripts that now went to both publishers. In Moon Over Soho Del Rey, the US publisher, opted to change Lesley to Leslie to remain consistent. By Whispers Under Ground Del Rey, by now disappointed with the sales figures(4), probably couldn't be bothered - its hard to tell from this side of the pond. Anyway DAW took over for the next book Broken Homes and their policy is to just change variant spellings colour to color, herb to erb(5) um...look I can't spell in English English so I'm really not the one to ask about this. So Lesley stays Lesley from now on.
And now a Quick Word to them what don't like Peter saying 'Me and....'
Vernacular
Noun:
The language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people of a country or region:

Adjective:
(Of speech or written works) using the mother tongue of a country or region: vernacular literature


(1) Pretty much internet standard then.(2) Enjoy it while it lasts guys.(3) Yeah, yeah, Doctor Who yada yada - effectively unknown in the US.(4) I currently sell 10 times as many copies in Germany (in German) than I do in the US. Hah! So much for the homogenous Science Fiction anglosphere.(5) Yes I know - this is me being funny (or possibly not).