LUCKY ME!

Hi!

I can finally tell my news - I've been holding it in so long I've almost got a hernia. My next novel, the steampunk/Victoriana fantasy, WORLDSHAKER, which comnes out here from Allen & Unwin in May, has been sold to a major publisher in the US. Yippee! And even more yippees for the size of the advance!


I guess you just never know when the luck will strike. I've been writing and writing, 14 books published with fair success, but never the big breakthrough. Fingers crossed, this is it!

Actually, WORLDSHAKER goes back almost to the start of my writing career - I mean, the start when I actually managed to finish books instead of abandoning them part-way through. It's been 15 years in the planning and about 5 years in the writing - began as 'Leviathan', lived on as 'Juggernaut' and finally changed to WORLDSHAKER.

It's been totally rewritten 3 times - and I owe my ROR buddies a huge debt of gratitude. Firstly, for critiquing the first 20k words, which led to a re-write of all the opening chapters; then for reading and critiquing the first full draft, outside of our normal ROR retreat sessions - which led to the first of the total rewrites.

Looking back, I reckon the gods must've taken pity on me. 'Poor bugger,' they probably said, 'he's been working on it so long and so hard, let's arrange an American contract for him ...'

Yippee!
Richard