New books

I knew it was a while since I had posted; coming back here today I see it's six months. Oops. I have some lame excuses about moving house, settling in to a new country and so on, but who's buying it?

The truth is usually that I didn't have anything to say, and in that case, it's better to keep silent. But I have been writing, and working on various stages of different books, and so here's a quick post of what's happening, and what books I hope will appear in 2016.

Have a very good and peaceful holiday.

Mister Memory
My second novel for the excellent people at Mulholland, Mister Memory is scheduled for July 2016, and is the final realisation of an idea I've tried to work with for a very long time, over a decade in fact. Inspired by the real story of Solomon Shereshevsky, it's the story of a man with a perfect memory. Shereshevsky was a Russian living in the early 20th century, who lived a pretty sad life due to his inability to forget. Mister Memory recounts the tale of Marcel Despréz, working in the clubs of Pigalle, Paris at the end of the 19th. It's a tale of murder and of power, but above all of the fact that in order to function, we have to find the balance between memory and forgetting.

Saint Death
October will (I hope) see the arrival of my next book for Orion. I've just finished the first draft, and am trying not to tinker with it for a while. It's set (literally) on the border of Mexico and the United States. It's about death, love, money, power, guns, gambling and lies. It's about three friends who are part of the kind of community that suffers greatly from the narco wars.

Blood Red, Snow White

If you're reading this in the States, however, it's more likely that the next YA book released will be this true story about an English writer and his small but significant role in the Russian Revolution. You can read more about it here.

Snow

Finally, I'm now working on a short book/long essay about one of my favourite subjects, for Little Toller. This is a beautiful series (have a look here) and I'm really happy to be adding to it. It's possible to write about anything, anywhere - but it's fun when what you're writing about is all around you. As I write these words from my new writing room in our new house in the French Alps, with snow lying thickly on the ground, my work as a writer is made that little bit easier.

That's it for 2016, but looking further ahead, 2017 should hopefully see the following books.

Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black

After Dark Satanic Mills, my brother and I wanted to work on something else. This book is the result. It takes the Orpheus legend and recasts it during the Christmas of 1944 in London. Harry Black, conscientious objector, artist, is working as a fire warden as the doodlebugs and V2s pound the city towards oblivion. It's part novel, part graphic novel. There is exciting news about the artist for this one, but I'm not allowed to say who that might be, as yet.

Scarlett Hart: The Tentacles of Terror

Another collaboration, this time with my great friend Thomas Taylor. We've both posted bits and pieces about this long-running project for First Second Books, which has been beset by delays. We're both now happy to say it looks like it's back on track and I hope 2017 will see it emerge. Thomas is doing an amazing job with the art, he's a total natural for comics, and I can't wait to see the finished thing.

First Second :01

Today I did two things I never thought I'd do.

I'm on my way to Chicago for ALA 2013, but stopped over in New York for a couple of days to meet the people at First Second. First Second is an incredibly exciting graphic novel list, and I'm really pleased to say I'm about to sign a contract with them for a book written by me, and illustrated by my old friend, Thomas Taylor.

I headed down for lunch with Mark Siegel and Calista Brill. I'd only met Mark once briefly before and never met Calista except virtually, so it was a great chance today to discuss comics in general and in particular the one Thomas and I are going to make over the next couple of years.

Now the first thing to say about First Second is that, being part of the Macmillan US group, they work out of the coolest possible offices:

Yes, you're right, that is the Flatiron building.

Of course there are bigger, taller skyscrapers in Manhattan, but once upon a time, this was the tallest, and it's still the coolest, with the possible exception of the Chrysler. More than that, from a comics point of view, it's iconic; as Mark pointed out, this building is the home of the Daily Bugle in Spiderman. So it gets a few points for that.

Arriving at the lobby, I rode up in the (original) elevator to meet Mark and Calista who kindly found me when I was looking a little lost, and we headed out for lunch. It was here that I did the first unexpected thing today. We went to a great middle-Eastern place called Ilili, and Mark wondered if I'd like to try this:

Yes, you're right, that is bone marrow.

We ate it, only afterwards wondering what it might have come from.

I digress. After a delicious lunch, we yakked about comics and discussed the project in hand - this is far too early to talk about it much, but it's called Scarlett Hart, and it looks like this:

Yes, you're right, that is very cool. Which is not down to me but the superb skills of Thomas. I cannot wait to get cracking on this book properly, though that's going to be a while off yet.

Then, after lunch, we headed back to nose around Calista's office, which is very cool, since the walls are covered with very cool art (did I mention that these First Second guys are cool? Well they are).

Yes, you're right, I do look like I've just eaten bone marrow. Calista, it turns out, once studied Finnish. Cool, no?

So then came the second thing I never thought I'd do:
Mark said: 'Do you want to go on the roof?'
Me: 'The roof? Of the Flatiron?'
Mark: 'Yes. The roof.'
Me: 'You're kidding..?'

He wasn't:

Here's Mark, by the way:

Mark is of course a superb creator of graphic novels himself: his extraordinary work Sailor Twain is testament to that.


I know the rooftop photos look a little fake, but it was a hazy afternoon and the whole of Manhattan was laid out like a film set. And really, at this point, any pretence that I might be as cool as these guys who make awesome graphic novels in an unbelievably iconic building went out of the window, as I stared around me like the slack-jawed yokel from a tiny village near Cambridge that I am.

Still, who needs to be cool?

If you don't know the great books that First Second make, have a look at their website - it's a great place to explore, and you get a real sense of what they're doing in that fantastic old building on 23rd Street.