The funny thing about winning the award was that I received the news on the day I finished rewriting the book... Yes, don't adjust your set, I was rewriting TU for the paperback edition which comes out in the UK and USA in April 2008. My new editor at Virgin wanted some changes, despite the great reviews and the Hollywood interest and the awards nominations. And I agreed with him. There are a few problems with the book in terms of plot and pace. A year down the line, such things become more identifiable to a writer who otherwise might be a little too close to the text. I'm sure that every writer wishes (s)he was able to give their MS one last polish before it was produced. I'm glad I got the chance to do so, and that I have an editor who knows his onions, has a deep love of the genre and, as he warned me early on, is a 'very hands-on type of editor'. Luckily, I'm not a hands-off kind of writer.
So what's changed for the paperback? Well, chapter order has been jiggled, one character has been subsumed by another, two characters die earlier than planned, a couple of chapters have been excised, a couple of chapters have been added... Structurally, I hope, it's tighter, leaner and hangs together more logically.
Of course, after all this, if TU bombs, it's my editor's fault...
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Thanks for the ultra-fast despatch of "London Revenant" and thanks for the pleasure I've been getting from "The Unblemished". I laughed out loud with delight at the sheer outrageousness of the end of the hospital mortuary scene and it's killer last line. Your superb, always thoughtful, writing deepens and dignifies scenes and situations you'd be quite at home viewing in a drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs in the next Caddy. You must be very proud of this book. As for me, I now have copies of "Head Injuries" and "Use Once, Then Destroy" on the way.
Thanks.
John
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