UK SF Book News

Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Book, Comics & Graphic Novel news from UK-based authors, creators, publishers, retailers and ‘zines

Site Search




Top 50 Tags

anthology art awards BFS Birmingham book deal book news book signing BSFA Chaz Brenchley comics competition convention Doctor Who fantasy Fantasycon film and tv Forbidden Planet Gollancz Books horror humour Iain [M] Banks indie press interview London Mark Chadbourn Michael Marshall [Smith] Mike Carey Neil Gaiman non-fiction online Orbit Books PS Publishing publishing industry Ramsey Campbell retailers Richard [K] Morgan science fiction short fiction Solaris Books special offer Stephen Baxter Terry Pratchett thriller Tim-Lebbon Titan Books Waterstones writing young-adult zine

View the full UKSFBN Tag Cloud

• Monthly Archive

  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006

• Departments

  • Press Room
  • UKSFBN Talks To
  • What's On
  • Quick Links
  • Books Received
  • Site Announcements

Networks




View UKSFBN's Authority



• Site Admin

  • Log in
  • Wordpress
  • XHTML

A few weeks ago we reported on an eco-friendly Online Book Tour and Virtual Signing experiment by Brit author Chris Dolley, which kicks off today. We thought we'd enter into the spirit of things with a few questions of our own:

UKSFBN: What was the impetus for the virtual book tour to promote the publication of Resonance?

Chris D: "Location, location, location. I live in the middle of nowhere in deepest rural France and my publisher - Baen - are in the US. So virtual touring makes sense. I can promote the book across the blogosphere without the fear of losing my luggage.

"And, of course, there's my remote signing experiment. I'm having a few teething problems with projecting the astral hand - the directional control isn't as good as I'd hoped and I'm having a little trouble grasping the pen. So, if anyone out there today feels the brush of an unexpected hand - I apologise. And don't worry - ectoplasm washes out."

UKSFBN: Are you planning a physical tour of the UK?

Chris D: "I'm coming over for a few days in June and have arranged a couple of mass signings - one at Waterstone's Piccadilly (June 7th, 5:30-7pm) with Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Steph Swainston, Robert Holdstock, myself, David Langford, John Lambshead, Andrew Dennis, Eric Brown, Steve Savile and David Devereux; and one at Waterstone's Birmingham High Street (June 8th, 5-6pm) with Robert Holdstock, Juliet McKenna, myself, Mark Chadbourn, Ian McLeod, Eric Brown, Steve Savile, David Devereux and Graham McNeill.

UKSFBN: How did a British author living in France come to hook up with an American publisher?

Chris D: "Because my agent didn't like science fiction. Back in 2001 I had a UK agent for my expat true crime story and while he was shopping it around the UK publishers I showed him Resonance. He didn't like it. In fact he suggested I turned it into a medical thriller. Which was quite a shock as if I took all the SF out of the book there'd be very little left - just a few vowels really.

"So I was stuck. I had a book which I really believed in and an agent who didn't. So I parked the book in Baen's electronic slush pile - it didn't cost me any postage and at least the book was out there.

"I then forgot about the book. Two years passed. I parted ways with my agent and I tried my hand at crime fiction. And just as I received notification from Time Warner that my crime novel, An Unsafe Pair of Hands, was a finalist in their First Novel competition, I received an email from Jim Baen. He loved Resonance and wanted to buy it.

"It's been somewhat of a roller coaster since then. The hardback was published in November 2005, it was selected by the Science Fiction Book Club as a featured book, and even made a fleeting entry into the US SF&F best seller list."

UKSFBN: And could you give us an overview of Resonance to finish with?

Chris D: "It's been described as a multiverse singularity story, a tale of two people whose lives appear fragmented across alternate realities and how together they hold the key to the future of a billion planets.

"The book is told from the perspective of Graham Smith, an office messenger working in London, who has a unique view of the world. He thinks it's changing. He's seen people disappear, office blocks migrate across town, tube lines change course - all at night when no one's looking. The world's an unstable place, sloughing off reality like dead skin and the only way he can prevent that from happening is by keeping to his ritual. If he takes a different route home or interacts with people things get worse.

"Then one day an American girl comes into his life. She says she's there to save him, that somehow he's the key to an enormous puzzle and, without her, he's a dead man. Both their lives are changed forever."

Plenty more information on Chris Dolley over at his LiveJournal page, and you can read an extract from Resonance at the Baen Books website.

Source: Chris Dolley

Comments

Do you have anything to add to this item?