Authors Electric

Earlier this month, one of the earliest known books in existence was sold at auction by Christie's for more than £3m... yes, you read that right... THREE MILLION pounds! That's enough to buy a big house with a few acres in the UK. part of the Crosby-Schoyen codex The Crosby-Schoyen Codex  contains the first epistle of Peter and the Book of Jonah, making it the earliest known surviving Christian book (approx 300AD). It was written by hand in Coptic on papyrus, has 104 pages, and apparently took a single scribe 40 years to complete. Fortunately, the scribe lived in an Egyptian monastery at the time so was not trying to juggle a day job and kids as well. First editions of popular books in good condition might also buy you a house (if a slightly smaller one). First edition hardcovers of JK Rowling's debut title Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone are currently listed online for six figures (£100,000+), while first paperback editions of the same title are fetching five-...

This fabulous song by Cream has been in my mind this week, primarily because of the first line of the lyrics, which is the title of this post. I work as an editor, and over the past week have edited a mystery novel, one collection of short stories that are acting as a novel when put together, and five mini pieces from five different authors as part of a small workshop I held, and they were one mystery, two sci-fi/speculative, two memoir/non-fiction. And as part of this week's editing I have encountered a few times what I have come to think of as "the white room," and with that, because that is just how my mind works, the Cream song quickly follows (I do love that song, so maybe any excuse? I mean, those lyrics are great!) Other than containing the white room, the Cream song doesn't actually apply here, but maybe it will help us remember the concept. And perhaps a famous author we have all heard of was also inspired by the Cream song, because she is the correct age to ...

My magical cover quest for  Spellfall began back in 2000. In those days, publishers took care of everything except the writing. They took my manuscript (this book was originally written on a typewriter!), edited it, proofread, formatted, typeset, commissioned the artwork for the cover and sent the resulting book to the printer. They also did most of the publicity, secured reviews and started my book on its journey from warehouse to bookshop, where it could make its way into the hands of my eager readers... provided they liked the cover. Because, no matter how brilliant your story or your editor or your publicist, most of your wonderful words remain hidden inside that cover, and somehow you have to persuade a potential reader to pick your book (from among the hundreds on offer) and open it to see what lies within. I loved my publisher's first cover for Spellfall, and thankfully so did my readers because the hardcover sold out and the paperback went on to sell well, too. SPELLFALL (...

A polite note to drivers everywhere: Those little orange lights next to your headlights are called indicators. You use them when you want to turn left or right – or even change lanes, so that other drivers can anticipate and react accordingly. If we all used them properly, we’d all know what was going on and not have to wait an extra few seconds at every junction trying to guess where cars are going. It’s not rocket science. Thank you for reading. We use indicators in writing too. Readers expect a level of consistency – even an alien or fantasy world has to play by its own rules and follow its own internal logic. I was watching one of the Harry Potter films over Christmas and the lack of any kind of internal logic drove me mad in places. I’m thinking Woah, there! He knew that X was at Y, so why didn’t he just do Z like he did last time? If they can transport themselves instantly when they want to, then why don’t they do it when they need to? Because it didn’t suit the plot, I...

Fuelled partly by guilty displeasures... I've been enjoying, and contributing to, a facebook thread of Julie Burchill's about 'guilty displeasures' - we are all familiar with guilty pleasures, but Mark Mason, in his Spectator column , has exposed some of his GDs, things he hates which are supposed to be cool. In his case, strawberries, Ella Fitzgerald, and champagne head the list. This has got me thinking and raging about my own guilty displeasures, such as classical music. Virtually all of it does nothing for me, though I have a liking for early polyphonic choral music such as William Byrd. Classical music makes a nice soundtrack in films playing in the background while you are watching stuff happen. Classical concerts are the worst, watching people do something totally not visually interesting, with no way of alleviating the tedium. I've been assumed to like it many many times because I'm involved in 'the arts' and have caused shockwaves by sayin...

Well here we are. We have finally reached the end of my countdown of metafictional comics, and it only took nine months to do it. Yes, there are children being born this month who were conceived on the day I began this outting. Hi kids! Y'all got some catching up to do. There have been some  sidetracks ,  meanderings , and just plain  random   laziness , admittedly, but we have at last gotten here. If you are like these kids, you may want to check out the previous list first: You could start with the honorable mentions , then move on to 5. Cerebus by Simms and Gerhard 4. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Moore and O'Neal 3. Sandman by Gaiman and various artists 2. Fables by Willingham and various artists And now.... 1. The Unwritten - Mike Carey (author) and Peter Gross (artist) On the surface,  The Unwritten seems like a conscious rip-off of both Harry Potter  and Neil Gaiman's comic  The Books of Magic . ...

Having been recently forced into close proximity with the section of society that keeps the rest of us from going under, I’ve been pushed to wonder, not for the first time, what writing is actually for. Without going into too much detail, I have been meeting carers, cleaners, bum wipers and suchlike unregarded, ill-rewarded members of our Big Society. All but one of them, so far, has been black, all of them have been on the minimum wage, all of them have got degrees. I have been, ridiculously, too polite to ask them how much they might earn, or if indeed they are on zero hours contracts. I do know however, that they are not paid for their driving time, have to provide their own cars, and pay for their own petrol. This, incidentally, in a rural area far from town, in a village that does not even have a shop, let alone a bus service. It does not even have a public telephone. The oldest of these people is perhaps twenty-eight, from Zimbabwe, and highly qualified in compute...