“The Heir of Night” ARE’s Are Here!
4.45 p.m. with a blue winter’s dusk already closing in, and the desk lamp casting a saffron glow across work screen and piles of jotted notes. A vehicle turning into the drive breaks the quiet; a door slams although the engine stays running. Glancing out the window I see the red and yellow of a DHL courier van, and even before the brisk knocking on the front door, I think: “Aha. I know what this might be.”
And it is: a carton of AREs (Advance Reader Editions) of The Heir of Night, all the way from New York and my editor Kate Nintzel at Eos (HarperCollins USA.) I sign for the courier and then it is back into the study to open the carton—and then finally, after many years of work, I have the very first version of my story in book form. And I have to tell you, this is a really special moment, because the whole thing about a book is that it’s tangible. I can hold it in my hand and feel the texture of the cover and the pages once I open it up; I can smell the newness of the paper. And see that the cover (by Australian artist Greg Bridges) is every bit as wonderful in reality as it looked in remote on the screen. The map, too, looks absolutely fabulous in print.
(It’s epic Fantasy right, there has to be a map. And there is. An extraordinarily amazing map drawn by Peter Fitzpatrick. But I’m going to do a special post all about that “later.”)
So I know this is an ARE and not the final, proofed, everything-the-way-it-ought-to-be-book. But it still feels like a book and looks like a book—and just like the real, final book, I can put it in my bag and pull it out at a moment’s notice and show all my friends (relatives, passing strangers in the street …) 🙂 And it is special, and really nice, to have something tangible to show—and share—for all the hard work.
The next step, of course, is to hope that your story will go into the world and find its readers, because reading is to writing as day is to night—but just for this night, it’s time to pause and drink a dram for the journey thus far, and to The Heir of Night.
Ooh congratulations! How exciting! It must be amazing to get to hold one of those in your hands for real 🙂
Wendy, it is indeed a great moment—and I think the “tangibility” factor is a big part of it all: “making it real.”
Congratulations, Helen – that is, indeed, always a great moment!
Yes, indeed! And I look forward to the same for you with “Men Briefly Explained” in the near future. 🙂
Congratulations, Helen! This is so exciting from our end as well! I snagged one for my very own. 🙂
Beth, a totally well deserved ‘snag’ imho. And it always feels qualitatively different reading the story as a ‘real’ book, rather than in manuscript format.
Yay Helen! Fantastic.
And I bet it even makes this horrible weather worth while – what better excuse for curling up somewhere warm, than a copy of your very own book?
One question – how does it feel, compared to the same stage with Thornspell?
Definitely fantastic! Although my “to be read” table is somewhat overflowing so it may be a while before I get to read the Heir ARE “properly”–I’m more likely to dip in and out for a while. And, of course, I am very aware with an ARE being an unproofed edition, of where all those typos and infelicitous passages are lurking!
As for the comparison with Thornspell in fact I was in the middle of first pass proofing the Thornspell manuscript when the AREs arrived so didn’t really have time to sit down and take it in fully–that happened several days later. So having the time to appreciate is definitely a bonus. But having said that, I will never forget that moment with Thornspell where I opened up the cover and saw the title, and my name, and the Knopf colophon with the words “New York”, all there together on the same page for the very first time–although I am sure that you know exactly what I’m talking about from your own book, the fabulous The Summer King.