A Dribble of Ink

When he eventually decides to post a review or the occasional interview, Aidan always gives his most and his best. As most people know reviewing isn’t an exact science, so every reviewer is unique in one way or another and what Aidan seems to specialize in is length and intellectual nitpicking. Most of the times I am not able to sit through very long reviews, ironic as it would seem that I write them relatively long, but when the proper state of mind is at hand I always leave “A Dribble of Ink” with a sense of satisfaction that I learned a lot about the essence of a book without knowing much about the plot. This is a quality that I value in a review as a reader, since I do wish to know without spoiling the surprises, and respect as a reviewer. As far as the personal treatment that Aidan hands out to his readers, a most important criteria in my list, I can say that he is moderately active at replying at reader comment. You won’t get the individual treatment, but you won’t go unnoticed either given circumstances.

PRESS RELEASE – TWO-BOOK US RIGHTS DEAL FOR NEW BRITISH FANTASY WRITER

Margaret Halton, Rights Director at Pan Macmillan, has sold US rights in two fantasy novels by UK novelist Mark Charan Newton to Chris Schluep for a good five-figure sum in US dollars.

World rights in the novels, which open with Mark’s mainstream debut NIGHTS OF VILLJAMUR (to be published in hardback in the UK in June 2009), were acquired by Peter Lavery at Tor UK from John Jarrold in 2008.

Chris Schluep said: ‘I am so excited to be publishing NIGHTS OF VILLJAMUR, which is an absolutely wonderful book, and I’m very much looking forward to launching the U.S. career of an important and talented new writer in the field. I’m convinced that Mark has a bright future ahead of him; he’s one of those writers that you come across only on occasion . . .’

‘Chris acted quickly and with great enthusiasm. Mark and I are delighted, and looking forward to working with him and his colleagues at Del Rey, who I know well,’ said John Jarrold.

I’ve recently become enamored of Twitter not only as a social watercooler, but as a way to share ideas and meaningful content among like-minded individuals. There’s a growing community of speculative fiction authors, publishers, and bloggers on the micro-blogging site, and I’ve been thinking about ways to collectively engage that community.

To that end, I’m happy to announce the first iteration of the Twitter Speculative Fiction Book Club (#sfbookclub). Our first selection is Joe Haldeman’s seminal classic The Forever War. Here’s how it works.

In the next two weeks, read or re-read Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War. The book should be readily available in brick-and-mortar stores, on Amazon, or in audio format through Audible.

Starting on 15 May, we’ll discuss the book on Twitter for a week, appending the hashtag #sfbookclub to all relevant tweets to make the conversation easy to follow, either through the site TweetChat, Twitter Search, or the search functionality of most Twitter clients.

Feel free to spread the word about #sfbookclub in the next two weeks, but please don’t share any major plot points until the discussion starts.

That’s it! The concept is, I hope, elegant in its simplicity. Since this is the #sfbookclub’s maiden voyage, I’d value any and all input before, during, and after the event to refine the process for future discussions. Post ideas in the comments below, and of course follow me on Twitter.