Hello! Welcome to my newsletter for January/February 2020. In this issue:
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It's been a head-down, edit-hard month. Necessary work, often eye-watering, but not a spectator sport, so I'll tell you about two people who've had a much more colourful time.
Dramatis personae: longtime friends Aaron and Drew. Drew is also my hairdresser.
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Aaron, staying with family at Christmas, and not with Drew, worries his beard is too grey. Buys dye from pharmacy. Puts plenty on. No, I don't know why he doesn't wait until Drew can sort him out properly.
Reunited with Drew, there is a thing to explain.
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Shamefaced revealing of packets.
'I might be able to fix it,' says Drew. 'With something I got for Roz.'
(You see? I am instrumental, in a tiny way.)
'Red?' says Aaron. 'I don't want to be red!!'
'No, it's blue.'
'Blue???'
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Reader, I did a brief blue period. Just a little streak. Drew had leftovers.
'Can't you put brown on?'
'That won't get rid of the orange,' said Drew. 'But blue should neutralise it. Though,' he added with a snigger, 'it might not.'
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'You mean...???'
'Quite so.'
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Back at my desk, the month goes:
edit;
fret;
eureka.
Repeat to fade.
Email inbox brings a few rum propositions, as usual. Once in a while, they're crazy-good. A few years ago, an editor at Spanish publisher Ediciones Urano wanted to talk about a translation deal of My Memories of a Future Life. Then he abruptly left the company.
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So it's worth taking some of these approaches seriously. This month I searched the mouths of the following gift-horses.
#1 An invitation to a network that would help me reach new readers. I learned enough to know it wouldn't. They replied telling me, rather testily, that I was so, so wrong.
#2 A guy who saw my spots on Joanna Penn's podcast, keen to book me for podcasts he had contacts with. Tell me more, I said, including any costs. He dodged this question for several emails, then said he wanted a few thousand $$$ to join his list, which seemed unsporting.
#3 A Chinese company who was keen on my novels for a serialisation service and possible translation. I'm always interested in translations, but a contract expert warned me their deal was full of vaguenesses and danger areas... so no thanks.
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But lots of work done on Ever Rest. Small, significant and satisfying transformations.
And Aaron? Here he is, also satisfyingly transformed back to brown, via a big blue secret.
(At this point, I feel I should link to the product whose pic I was creatively naughty with, so here it is. Where to buy an orange beard.)
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