Five days to go!

I’ve found a printing company who can turn round copies of my spy novel in small quantities at very reasonable costs.  This is great news because it means I can get physical, professionally printed copies into the hands of more reviewers, many of whom prefer that format.  It also means I can give a nice copy with a note of appreciation to the people who have really helped me out like Jeff, Jon, Brian, Steve, Kyla and so on.  I could maybe sell a few too, and thereby offset some of my costs.  I’ve thought about doing a charity thing, where people pay a little more for the book, but I give the proceeds to a worthy cause.

So I’ve been working on a cover layout to send off to this printing company.  I say ‘layout’ because it’s not really a design; it’s a pretty generic book cover and it was Jon who did all the hard work with his incredible cover painting.  He also provided an updated picture of me, which looks a lot better.  My biggest challenge has been how to strip down the ‘blurb’ on the back from 220 words to about 150-160 without totally ruining it, but that’s another story for another time.

Getting back to Jon, regular readers will be familiar with this odd little story, but—would you believe—I share a cover artist with Saddam Hussein!  Amazing as it may seem, the notorious dictator stole Jon’s painting ‘The Awakening‘ for his ghost-written 2000 novel ‘Zabibah And The King‘, on which the upcoming movie ‘The Dictator‘ is based.  The full and very interesting story can be read on Jon’s website.  It is an odd feeling to know that the cover of my espionage thriller was created by the same talent that (unwittingly) painted Saddam’s cover, but it’s a kinda fun little story nonetheless.  Jon’s postscript may cause a wry grin.

Swinging the subject rather radically, my computer messed up this morning and lost an incoming email.  So if you’ve not heard back from me over something important, please let me know.  I’m not being ignorant, I promise!

Roger and out, X.