Dear
friends
I'm sorry to say that the spam filters and corporate
firewalls have finally won the day. So many of my
emails were being bounced back because of the images
and graphics I was including in them, that I have
had to go for the boring "text-only" approach.
If you want to see a version in glorious technicolor,
click here!
Only a little over two weeks to go until the publication
of The Gilded Seal and the sleepless nights have started
in earnest. You would have thought that after a few
books, I'd be a bit more chilled about the whole thing,
but if anything, it's got worse each time. Ignorance
really is bliss!
The good news is that the early feedback I've been
getting from a couple of reviewers and journalists
who have been sent advance copies has been fantastic.
My German publishers, Luebbe, have even stepped up
and offered me another two book deal on the back of
it. But ultimately the only opinion that counts is
yours so you'll have to let me know what you think.
For those of you wondering, my Daphne du Maurier
event at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival a few
months ago didn't turn out to be quite the debacle
I had feared (or that many of you kind people, judging
from the emails I received, had hoped it might be!).
Things got a bit lively in the bar afterwards though
- more details on my blog
as I'll definitely get zapped by your firewalls if
I include them here. Talking of the blog, I'm launching
a new section on the website to coincide with the
publication of the new book on the 15th October. As
before, it will include details of the people, places,
art and history that populate the novel, including
the incredible story of how the Mona Lisa was stolen
from the Louvre over 90 years ago. Do check
it out if you can after it goes live.
Apart from that, things have been generally rather
quiet as I have begun to turn my attention to Book
4. The good news is that I have an idea - the bad
news is that now I have to actually write the damned
thing! And so rather than go away this year we decided
to stay at home so I could write and enjoy London
in the sun. To quote Julia Roberts, this turned out
to be a "Big mistake. Huge." I managed to
pick two of the wettest weeks since records began
in eighteen hundred and something. To make up for
it, the girls and I went to Disneyland Paris for a
few days to celebrate Amelia's and Jemima's birthdays.
The only problem is that my house is now filled with
mouse-eared shaped junk - it would have been cheaper
to fly us all to Hawaii!
Must leave you with news of the most amazing coincidence.
Some of you may remember that a few weeks before the
US publication of The Double Eagle in 2005, the US
Government made a sensational announcement
. Ten 1933 Double Eagles, the same incredibly rare
$20 coins that featured at the heart of my debut novel,
had been seized from the family of one of the dealers
implicated in the original 1940s enquiry. Now, I learn
that the Madonna of the Yarnwinder, a $70m da Vinci
masterpiece stolen in a daring heist in 2003, was
recovered by the police on Thursday [click here
for more]. So what, you might say? Well here's
the thing - as you will see, that theft and speculation
about the reasons behind it form an integral part
of the plot of The Gilded Seal! Having struggled,
as most authors do, to elicit any sort of media interest,
this has come, as you might expect, as something of
a PR windfall [click here
for an example]!
Let's hope it helps with the sales!
Happy reading
www.jamestwining.com
PS Have you signed up to my Facebook
fan site yet?
PPS If you're in America, you'll have to buy off
Amazon
UK I'm afraid, or use a specialist dealer, as
I'm not sure when The Gilded Seal is being published
there
If you're having difficulty with reading this
or the links, please go
to: http://www.jamestwining.com/Newsletter/Newsletter_Autumn_2007.htm
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