The Literary Platform

So this lovely, sparkly new website looking at the crossover between books and digital is live now. And here's my piece on apps and art, along with the first public outing for the cover of The New Goodbye.

Also lots of other good stuff on there.

iPhone... therefore I am

For anyone paying close attention, Russell Quinn is the clever chap who’s developing The New Goodbye for me. He also produced the brand spanking new app for Creative Review (if you’re paying even closer attention you’ll know that being a part of the Creative Review team constitutes my day-job). Anyway, this brand spanking new app he’s made for CR is now available on the iPhone and iPod Touch for the princely sum of £2.99. Here’s a demo of it in action.

What of The New Goodbye? I hear you cry. Castles are all well and good but where’s the fiction, people? We can’t all speak Hebrew, you know.

Good point. So to the update. The cover artwork is all signed, sealed and delivered. Nicole has even created a quirky little stop-motion animation of it being put together, which, along with the behind-the-scenes video we have, gives a nice rounded package for that segment. We also have several lovely pictures of some of those women who would be Mila to sit alongside this.

As well as my novel and the Cervantes masterpiece, we’ve decided to include two longish short stories. One is new. Unless you happened to be one of the few hundred people to have a digital copy of the original The New Goodbye, when the title referred to a short story collection, you won’t have seen it. The second is Twenty One Again, which is taken from Elastic Press’s out-of-print The Elastic Book of Numbers, which won the 2005 BFS Award for best anthology.

At the moment, all the text is being typeset by the nice chaps at Mat Dolphin, and the other bits and bobs are being beaten into some form of coherent shape by Russell.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to be putting together a Tumblr site which will have all things The New Goodbye on it.

Aside from my own efforts, there’s also a new website, The Literary Platform, going live this Monday, which will focus on the growing crossover between books and digital. There will be far more authoritative and clever people writing for it than me, but I’ll have a piece on there nonetheless.

I also have a feature in the current issue of Web Designer magazine, which looks at screen legibility for long tracts of text, such as those found in a novel. Alongside this I did a little timeline of type which I think is rather nice. I might have already mentioned this. I can’t remember. But either way, I’m mentioning it here. Again, or for the first time, I don’t believe it really matters.

Hello, strangers

Aliya has gone on holiday. To Wales, no less.

I meantime, am trying to bring together all the strands for The New Goodbye. We have a cover; we have a behind-the-scenes video; we even have a bespoke song and a video team to create a music promo.

What we didn't have at the crucial moment was enough coloured card. We were due to receive two deliveries, but only got one, which meant the music video, which was due to be shot last weekend, didn't happen. Now this weekend the venue isn't available for long enough due to--get this--being double-booked with a writing workshop. Damn you writers! We can't shoot after this week due to clashing schedules, and the app submission deadline, so looks like the first iteration of the app may be without a music video. Still, if a novel, two short stories, a novelette by one of the best writers ever to grace the planet, an original music track and a demo, a beautiful cover and some great additional photography and a two metre long illustration aren't enough for you, well, you're just downright demanding!

So everything is under control. Even the press releases which I've been scribbling together like mad for the lovely ladies who are helping me spread the word, but no music video. As yet. Suggestions on a postcard.

In other news, this morning, in a professional capacity, I'm going to get to nose around the archives of Faber&Faber.

Talking tables

Sadie Jones, she of The Outcast fame, talks writing and common sense over on Untitled Books.