New Publication Date (and name) for Faeman

For reasons best known to themselves — at least they haven’t explained them to me — Bloomsbury have decided to move publication of my new Faerie Wars novel from autumn of this year to January of 2011. The launch of the book, originally titled The Faeman Girl and now definitely called Faeman Quest (because research shows, according to my agent, that boys won’t buy books with ‘girl’ in the title) now coincides with U.S. publication of the second Shadow Project novel, The Doomsday Box, to be published by HarperCollins in the same month and year.

Madame de Gaulle's Penis

I've finally ventured into the realms of self-publishing with a novel considered far too rude for public consumption by anyone on my agent's extensive list of mainstream publishers. It's called Madame de Gaulle's Penis, a fictional memoir of the Sixties and tells the story of a sex maniac who falls foul of Madame de Gaulle's penis and vows a terrible revenge.

Since several of you out there think of me as a children's author, I have to say categorically that this book is absolutely, positively NOT suitable for children or young adult readers — it's much too naughty — although regrettably I have no way of stopping you buying it if you decide to do so.

Madame de Gaulle's Penis is not, and probably never will be, available through your local bookshop, but you can order a copy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and, more cheaply but a little slower, from Lulu.com. It might even turn up on the Barnes and Noble web site eventually. Search for it by title or author name.

Faeman...?

Ah, the unexpected tribulations of being an author. Just when I thought I was free and clear with The Faeman Girl, my agent emailed to say recent research has shown, contrary to what you might imagine, that young male readers shy away from books with 'girl' in the title. (Unless, presumably, it's preceded with a word like 'naked.') So, despite my earlier assurances, the book will not now be published as The Faeman Girl after all. New titles under consideration are The Faeman Heir or possibly just The Faeman. Any other suggestions, let me know, but make it fast because catalogues are about to be printed.

New Video

Just uploaded a new promotional video I made for The Shadow Project to my Author's Page on Amazon.com. You can view it and see the whole Author Page at http://www.amazon.com/Herbie-Brennan/e/B000APFPGE/ref=sr_tc_2_0

(If you're reading this blog entry on the Author Page already — since blog entries are syndicated there — then it's on your right.)

The important thing about all this is that the cat who makes a brief appearance is The Wobber. (He wanted me to tell you that.) The stone circle is on the front lawn of my home in Ireland. The camerawork and voice over were both by my gorgeous wife Jacks. And, as you might imagine, the video was enormous fun to make.

Now let's hope it sells a ton of books.

Done that then.

The Faeman Girl is finished! A smidge under 91,000 words emailed to my agent yesterday and scheduled for publication by Bloomsbury next autumn. Bloomsbury U.S. are already working on the cover, which they want to have a strong family resemblance to the first four of the Faerie Wars books. Actually the first four, Faerie Wars, The Purple Emperor, Ruler of the Realm and Faerie Lord are really a single story stretched across four volumes while Faeman (the term denotes a faerie/human hybrid) is a stand-alone book set in the Faerie Realm about sixteen years after the time of Faerie Lord. But there are still some familiar faces in Faeman including Blue and Henry, Madame Cardui, Chalkhill and Brimstone and an important bit of Lord Hairstreak. Can't wait to see it in print.

Wexworlds

Spent a delightful afternoon at Wexworlds Sci-fi and Fantasy Fiction Festival yesterday. Driving force behind the three day event, the first of its kind in Wexford, Ireland, was Eoin Colfer who was officially listed as its patron, while James Bacon was the organiser backed by a volunteer team. (Eoin tells me he's currently working on another of his fabulous Artemis books, incidentally — something virtually every kid on the planet is eagerly waiting for.)

The town was buzzing when Jacks and I arrived. A lot of the emphasis was on allowing readers to meet up with their favourite authors and I lost no time in beelining a few of mine. Apart from Eoin himself, there was my old mate Andrew Donkin who'd flown in from the U.K. to talk about the graphic novel adaptation of the first Artemis Fowl book and there was another old friend, Dave Donohue, author of the Speazelbud books, giving the kids one of his fantastic backwards spelling performances. But I also had the pleasure of meeting for the first time Michael Carroll, who was mobbed by fans of his New Heroes books, Oisin McGann, who's just published The Wisdom of Dead Men (great title!), Ian McDonald, who must be positively embarrassed by the number of major science fiction awards he's won, Bob Curley, who both creates, publishes and sells comics, and Sarah Rees Brennan (no relation) who's just started to hit the headlines with her first fantasy novel, published last June.

I must confess I wasn't looking forward to my own small contribution to the show. Last time I did a book signing in Wexford only one person turned up... and I was married to her. But this time my adorable agent (Sophie Hicks of Ed Victor Ltd) had gotten involved and Byrnes Bookshop was packed, so I talked and read and signed like a Trojan, then went off to White's Hotel for tea and a panel discussion on sci-fi career guidance. Great fun. I hope they do it all again next year. (And invite me back.)

Shadow Project looms on the horizon

The HarperCollins publicity machine has started to grind into gear for my new book The Shadow Project which has an official publication date of January 2010, but will actually be in the shops just after Christmas, 2009. So far, I've shot a three-minute video for the book itself and made a lengthy podcast. HarperCollins then selected the book for their Awesome Adventures promotion, so I recorded another podcast by phone and made another video, using something called a Flip camera which they sent me. (Dinky little thing and quite idiot-proof.) Not sure when the actual promotions will start, but close to publication date would make sense.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the book has already become a Junior Library Guild selection. The Guild sent me a gold certificate 'suitable for framing' and a lapel badge, which I thought was very sweet. They mentioned that Guild selections, often made before publication, might be seen as a bellwether of future success. I'd never heard the term 'bellwether' before but I looked it up and hope they're right.

Tomorrow I have to do a reading at the first WexWorlds sci-fi and fantasy festival in Ireland. Won't be Shadow Project, unfortunately, since it's a U.S. publication and not available this side of the Atlantic (yet) so I'm planning to do sections from the Faerie Wars series. Talking of which, The Faeman Child, now retitled The Faeman Girl, is almost finished. Faeman is a stand-alone novel set in the Faerie Realm tracking a particularly tricky adventure of Princess Mella, the only daughter of Henry and Blue from the previous Faerie Wars books. Bloomsbury U.S. have already started working on the cover: they're hoping to publish in autumn, 2010.