What’s new buckaroo?

I thought some of you might find it interesting to know what’s been afoot on the Red Diesel app front. Well, the biggest change is the title of the book. I figured (and Aliya agreed) that The New Goodbye was a more appropriate title for the novel itself, short story collections of the same name by the same author notwithstanding. This means that The New Goodbye short story collection is now out of circulation. So the few hundred out there who actually downloaded a copy now have in their digital paws something of a rarity. And who knows, maybe a collectible.

Where we’re at now is the photo shoot for the cover is halfway to organised, there’s a lovely title track by my good friend Rich Watson with a kind of Bond-theme/Take That vibe and I’m having a final sweep through all of the prose one last time.

The contents for the app are shaping up to look something like the following:

• The New Goodbye (50k novel, by me) with chapter plates by Johanna
• The Dialogue of the Dogs (by Cervantes) with a very special illustrated app-thingy by Johanna
• Three of my short stories: The Leaving Present (most bits previously unpublished), Twenty-One Again (from The Elastic Book of Numbers) and The Listening (from Gratia Placenti—I just need to check the copyright status of this one come to think of it)
• Several videos, including a little documentary of the cover shoot and the music video

So, it’s coming together; it’s coming on. And a few months and it should hopefully have arrived.

In the meantime I’m working on a feature about text legibility on websites and in apps for Web Designer magazine. Anyone suitably knowledgeable feel free to chuck me some pointers.

I'm getting that Kindling feeling...

The honest truth about my Kindle is that I love it.

Scott Pack has been blogging about his over the last week or so too. I reckon I probably prefer it a bit more than he does, but that's not to say he thinks it's without its merits. Go take a look after you've read this. His latest post is a comparison with the Sony Reader, which might help anyone (Matt) who's considering buying an e-Reader.

I own a batch of books I love, that I'll go back to again and again and the books as objects have sentimental value. There are maybe fifty or so of them. Other books I generally give away, or they end up dusty in the loft. So from now on, that collection won't grow as much as it did. I'll be using ebooks instead, especially for my commute, for which the Kindle is ideal.

What's so good about the Kindle? The main advantage over a computer (or phone or netbook, or, yes, iPad), is that, like all the other eReaders, it uses digital ink rather than a LCD or Plasma display, which is pretty much print-quality text on a screen. (If you've not seen e-ink in action before, it looks like someone has pasted some actual printed text on an acetate to a screen.) Reading from it really is a very similar experience to reading from print (except for light reflection on the screen in dim light.)

I've tried out the Sony Reader and the Sony Reader Touch in a couple of bookshops before, and also the horrible BeBook. Aesthetically, some people, like Scott, prefer the Sony product, some the Amazon. I side with Amazon. But the real advantage of the Kindle over the Sony devices--at least at the moment for UK users--is the Kindle has wireless access to Amazon's Whispernet (using a bunch of wireless networks, including 3G), which means you can use the Kindle without the need for a computer (other than the initial setting up of an Amazon account).

This is getting a bit wordy, so let's try some bulletpoints:

Why I like the Kindle:

• Easy to hold and don't need to hold pages open with your hand
• Shorter width of the page than a standard paperback means faster reading
• No headaches or eyestrain, unlike using an LCD screen
• Can hold thousands of books
• Wireless connection
• Can store other file types (although I think a USB stick or iPod Shuffle is better suited to this, it's good for emergencies)
• Free wireless inbox
• No distractions from other programmes (such as email) while you're reading

I'm also in the middle of editing a good few hundreds of pages of work. The Kindle has saved having to print these out for the final read-throughs, as you can also use the (not-magnificent) keyboard to annotate the work if you crunch it into mobipocket format.

So there you go, my tuppenny worth on using an ereader device. There're lots of other points to consider from the point-of-view of an author, and from the point-of-view of the publishing industry, but more on that another time.

(Bonus points to anyone who can spot the TV reference in the title of this post.)

Dream logic (or The Plot Thickened, and then thinned as if a gallon of water had been added)

In Which Our Hero Realises He Has Taken A Wrong Turning

You know when you have a dream and you're convinced when you wake up in the middle of the night that it contained the complete plot for a novel? Then you wake up in the morning and realise you're an idiot. Here are the plot elements I can recall: A man with a serious injury to his torso who has to look after a cattery with only two cats, but he needs to fly to America only they won't let him onboard a flight. So anyway, he gets to America, and there's an artifact, some museum piece... (this is how my memory returned to me this morning, in instalments, and it's sounding weird, but do-able so far, but then... Oh but then!) The museum piece is MAGIC! Oh dear. At least there was a chase through an elegantly furnished hotel to enjoy after this.

That is all.

I'm back, and armed. En garde!

It's true - I am alive. And armed with Kindle no less. (Believe it or not, I won it from these generous sorts.) So, give me your recommended out of copyright work. I'm currently swashbuckling my way through Dumas' The Three Musketeers. (I'm sure Tim will approve.)

I'll post soon on the Kindle, Amazon and publishers, (Amazon announced today it will be handing over 70% royalties for Kindle sales given certain conditions are met by the publishers applying for the scheme), along with a comprehensive review. At the moment, suffice it to say, the thing is great. A worthy commuter's companion.

Red Diesel

Further to my brief blogpost about looking for women (ahem), yes, it’s true. I’m teaming up with app developer Russell Quinn and the rather fabulous illustrator Johanna Basford to produce a kind of digital über-book. This will contain a rather beautiful version of my literary novel Red Diesel (each chapter takes as its title some form of romantic gesture, from flowers and chocolate right the way up through to diamonds and Johanna is creating frontispieces for each chapter tied to each of the themes), and Russell did the recent McSweeney’s app, so the design should be similarly lovely.

For reasons that will be apparent to readers of the novel, Red Diesel will be packaged with Miguel Cervantes’ novelette The Dialogue of the Dogs as its companion piece. And this is where Johanna’s beautiful craftsmanship will really come into play. But you’ll just have to wait to see that.

In the hope of maintaining the possibility of having a publisher buy the book to release in the traditional manner, this is going to be exclusively for the iPhone. (Frances, an app is like a cross between a small programme and a website that you can install on your mobile – To get a clearer idea of how they work, check out Canongate’s demo of The Death of Bunny Munro app, which is about the best book app I’ve seen to date (that’s ‘cause our one’s not out yet of course).

A good deal of the content will be available as a free sampler on the app store, with the main app selling for around a fiver. The Red Diesel app is due for release sometime in the spring. (Aliya is polishing off the copy edits for me at the moment, and I’m trying to sort out the details of the video content too.)

In the meantime, as I mentioned in my previous post, I urge you to urge others to enter the competition we’re running for a cover model for the app. To enter just join the Flickr group I Am Mila and upload a photo to it.

Here’s the blurb for the book:

Red Diesel

Alex Mooney hasn’t seen his friend Mila since she disappeared twelve years ago. Now she’s turned up on his doorstep looking for a place to stay. Both of them know Alex’s wife and brother-in-law won’t be as happy as he is to see her.

A quiet and introverted man, Alex’s life is world away from Balkan gun-running and Mexican drug dealers, but these appear to be the reasons for Mila’s return.

Red Diesel is a novel about memory, love and the implications of the choices we make, or it’s about guns, sex and death, depending on your point of view.

Come on ladies, don't be shy

Happy New Year everyone. Sorry for my absence over December. I've been working hard, Christmassing hard, and most of all, app-conceiving hard.

See, in around about late March/early April, an 'enhanced edition' of my novel, Red Diesel, will be released. This is being produced by Russell Quinn, who is the same chap that did the lovely McSweeney's app for the iPhone. I'll have lots more news soon, including a proper explanation of what an enhanced edition is, but for now, can I just ask that any lovely ladies frequenting this blog join Ms Whiteley up on the Flickr group 'I Am Mila' as she's feeling a bit lonely. I just want a good dozen or so pics on there before we start promoting the competition to all and sundry, just so newcomers don't feel too intimidated to post having to measure up to just the one beauty. (It's a competition to find a cover star for the app.)

Also, chaps, as you're not allowed to enter the competition, being of the wrong gender, could you please share the news there and thereabouts?

Books, free books and ebooks

Just a quick one - the nice people over at Editotum have launched their Scriptorium, a place to download ebooks (yes including The New Goodbye for free--actually, lucky me, it's the only book on the site at the moment). You can also buy real-life regular paper books from them too if you're so inclined.