Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Firing on Some Cylinders

::Acquired Taste is back after a week in New York. I'm still groggy with jetlag (I don't deal well with anything which mucks up my sleeping patterns) but I'm here just in time for the paperback launch of The Dog of the North, which is released on Friday. My author copies have arrived and they look marvellous: so good, in fact, that you'll want to buy another copy even if you already have the hardback. Even if you hated it... The future of The Last Free City may well hinge on The Dog of the North's sales performance, so let's all buy a couple of dozen copies.

In general I'm not a city person. The only two cities I actively enjoy spending time in are Paris and New York: if Betjamen's friendly bombs are to fall on Slough, they might as well go the extra few miles and take out London while they're at it. My week in New York was hugely enjoyable, if tiring, and two of my experiences were so stimulating that they'll rate their own blog entries once my brain has returned to what passes for normal functioning.

In my absence, a tremendous new blog in the speculative fiction world has launched: SFFE, or Science Fiction and Fantasy Ethics. In genre which suffers more than its fair share of negative criticism--internally as well as externally--SFFE is set up explicitly to celebrate the positive side of science fiction and fantasy. A lot of top authors in the field have signed up to the manifesto--and yours truly--so why not check it out. There's already some great content over there.

Talking of great content, I've ordered today Joe Abercrombie's latest, Best Served Cold. Abercrombie is one of the best writers working in fantasy today so I'm looking forward to this one immensely.

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4 comments:

mattfwcurran.com Web Admin said...

Hi Tim

Despite having the hardback sitting proudly on the shelf with the other MNW titles, I've already got a copy of the paperback on pre-order. Doing-my-bit aside, it's such a damn handsome front cover that I couldn’t resist and it means I can keep the Dog hardback in it's 'read-once' state for good!

Tim Stretton said...

That's the spirit, Matt!

Everyone should follow this example...

David Isaak said...

New York and Paris are the only cities you like?

Hmm. I enjoy both, though I'll take London over Paris. And I'll take Rome over any of them.

Seattle and Portland are good cities, too. And have the highest per capita book consumption of any US cities. (Must have something to do with having about ten months of continuous drizzle per year.)

Tim Stretton said...

I prefer the bucolic ideal, David. Although Rome I've yet to see, and hope to one day.