Life is changing profoundly for me these days. I don't usually discuss private matters as I'm a private person, but my life is — I will say vaguely — going through some challenging but also hopeful times. Partly in response to them, and partly to lead my way out of them, I'm making choices and being contentious about why and thoughtful about what I think they will lead to. My heart plays a big role, but not without some consultation from my head. I think I'm a bit like Sheldon that way. Though I wish I was more like Irv Wylie who really seems to glide through this world with an ease I wouldn't mind having. Lucky guy.
This year I move formally from Norway to Spain. I have taken a villa there, put the kids in school, and I'm writing up a storm to see if I can keep the life I'm chosen.
THE CURSE OF PIETRO HOUDINI is coming January of 2024. My publishers now see me — as I have always hoped they would — as "top self general fiction." It's where I've always belonged because while some of my books are crime, I've never been a crime writer and I know it. When I'm in the room with the real ones, I can feel that we get excited about different things. Ultimately, you can only succeed if you're true to yourself. Fidelity and integrity can be felt.
I am now waiting TRAMUNTANA which I hope will be my 2025 novel (time will tell). Set on the Spanish coast in 1958, it's a family drama, a political drama, and a dash of Hitchcockian mystery. There are white roses, light houses, and a missing teddy bear.
After that? I wonder.
I'm now with the wonderful Writers House Literary Agency in New York City and Simon Lipskar is my representative. We're pressing ahead with foreign rights and exploring the film and TV worlds, though the understandable strikes are changing the landscape at the moment.
I hope you all stick with me, spread the word, and press my novels into the hands of your friends if you think doing so will bring joy, insight, entertainment or distraction to their lives in a way they'd value.
No readers, no writers. That's how it works.
Warmest wishes from Olivella, Spain in Catalonia.
Derek.
Published on July 26, 2023 00:33
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