Big News!
Well, it has begun.
The new novel is off to a good start. It has a title. The opening is done, and it’s good. If I can keep this up for another couple of months I’ll be putting ‘The End’ at the bottom of another manuscript.
For anyone who is curious, the new title is “The Bonny Bell.” By now you’ve probably noticed that all the Markhat titles are three-word titles. I have no idea why, but it’s worked so far and there’s no way I’m going to risk jinxing it by changing now.
“Dead Man’s Rain” was set in a haunted mansion. “Hold the Dark” takes place all around Rannit. “The Banshee’s Walk” is set in an estate well outside Rannit’s city walls.
“The Bonny Bell” will be set amid the preparations for a fancy wedding.
And that’s all I’m going to say about it until it’s done.
I do have some news concerning “Hold the Dark.” Here’s a schedule of events lined up around it so far:
1) Book reading and signing on February 2nd (a Tuesday) at 5:00 PM, at Off Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi.
2) Book signing at the Barnes and Noble Bookstore on the Ole Miss campus at noon on Thursday, February 4th.
3) Reading with Q&A session afterward at noon on Thursday, February 11th, at the Oxford-Lafayette County Public Library.
I’m a little nervous about the readings, to be perfectly honest. But I like the prologue to “Hold the Dark,” and hopefully by the 2nd I’ll have it memorized so well I won’t even need to look down.
I was even interviewed by The Oxford Enterprise paper last week. An editor and a photographer came out and we talked for a long time. The story will be in the Sunday January 31 edition of the Oxford Enterprise.
I hope anyone who can come to the signings will come. I’ve bought a new sports jacket, and you do not want to miss out on a spectacle of that magnitude.
There is also a rumor going around, which I’m starting right here, that if more than 50 copies of the book are sold at a signing I will eat a live parrot. That is simply not true. First of all, parrots have a gamey flavor, and the meat is stringy and tough. Also, it’s impossible to keep even a small parrot in one’s pocket long enough to finish a reading.
So forget about that. There’s also no truth to the rumor that U2 will be playing, that Conan O’Brien will there, or that I will be arriving via parachute, accompanied by the Flying Elvi. Those are just rumors.
So start spreading them NOW. We don’t have much time…