Thursday, October 20, 2005

sleep now

I have written a book!!!*

It has eighty two thousand, three hundred and seventeen words, distributed fairly evenly amongst twenty chapters.

It contains sort-of-zombies.

It's a children's book (with sort-of-zombies in it).

And pirates.

And lots of things that fly.

I had that feeling when I finished it (well, finished the first draft, there's lots of reworking to do on it), of 'no idea if anyone else will like this at all, but this is definitely the book I meant to write'. This is a good feeling.

I seem to write about tea quite a lot.

I use the word 'fluttered' five times in the book.

Also the word 'vortices' once, which I was quite proud of. Although I had to check the spelling.

People 'narrow their eyes' in my book quite a lot (again, five times in total - perhaps they're annoyed at all the fluttering). Clearly I am at all times trying to write scenes for Ori. I worried about whether I should have a scene where all the people un-narrow their eyes, lest people think they squint for the remainder of the story, but on balace, I think I was right not to write this scene.

I'm going to have a cup of tea now. And then a nice lie-down.


*apologies to JonnyB

16 comments:

Izzy said...

congratulations!

you can come and celebrate at the beer festival on Friday...

Miss Moon said...

Yey!!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait to read it. Well done! Guess what? I finally finished my MA today!!! Look I'm using so many ! it must be all these TV related magazines I'm working on. I hope you get squillions pounds advance for the cabinet.

patroclus said...

Oh James, congratulations. Can't wait to read the whole thing.

Now for the, erm, easy part, eh?

Kt said...

Woohoo!
[passes James virtual bottle of bubbly]

James Henry said...

Thanks chaps. The virtual bubbly is nice, and on friday I may well treat myself to a pint of 'writer's beer', with a lemonade chaser. And well done on finishing the MA Mooney.

Anonymous said...

So "The Curious Cabinet" is finished, then? Did the Phoenix blanket make it to the final cut?

James Henry said...

Well, the first draft is finished, but I'm sure there'll be plenty of rewriting to do. And yes, there is a certain slightly burnt blanket tucked away in there...

the triple T said...

See, now is when you get to get up and dance the James Henry Victory Dance.

Would you mind having someone film it, and then post it on the internet, for the legions of fans?

I mean, just to hold us over until the book comes out, of course.

James Henry said...

Many have tried to capture the famous but elusive SexyDance. Others suggest that it is a myth, a fiction, a thing too rare and beautiful ever to exist in the real world.

But oh my friends, it is all too real. And one day, when the stars are right, and the moon is full, and the band is playing*, the SexyDancing will be unleashed upon the world.

But not yet.


* Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band, to be precise.

cello said...

Cabinets-a-go-go! I raise my cup of fruit tea to you. Glad you made it before the clocks go back. Not sure why.

Johanna said...

whahey! well done you. So how long now until we can buy it in paperback?

Anonymous said...

Well done sir - you deserve a whole pot of tea. And doubly well done as final GW ep was 'published' on Friday.

James Henry said...

Huzzah!

And guessing the publishing date might be a bit previous, as it might technically have to be run past a 'publisher' at some point. I imagine there'll be some kind of ghastly bidding war, and Stevie Spielberg'll ring me up, trying to get the film rights and I'll just have to break his little heart.

If in doubt, aim high, I reckon. Of course, it's entirely possible no publisher will want to touch it with a barge pole and nothing will be heard of m'book ever again.

I shall of course keep people informed, pretty much whether they care or not...

JonnyB said...

Hmph.

Just steer clear of talking about very small specific events in over-detail, OK???

irony in motion said...

Hooray! Well done! I look forward to seeing it on bestseller lists nationwide. And don't let Stephen Spielberg direct the film, no no no.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations James, very pleased to hear that CC v1.0 is done and dusted, and in a suitable condition for Agent Sarah to make it the toast of the publishing scene.