Sick note
This is a book. It is my next book. It looks very nice and is already advertised on Amazon. It is coming out in May 2007, apparently. However, I haven't finished writing it yet. Indeed, I must finish writing it by November 1 when my publisher expects to read it. Which is why I may not be posting much in the way of blog over the next couple of weeks. I hope you understand. I've also spent two days in bed, ill, and I'm behind schedule. Back to work.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 9:12 AM
22 Comments
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22 Comments:
I'll look out for it!
Hope you're feeling better.
By the way, watched Friday's episode of "Not Going Out" and thought it was really good.
Look after yourself
Px
Yay! I'm looking forward to it.
Stay well.
Yes Andrew, you need to stop blogging every five minutes and find your focus!
:^)
And what, prey tell, is the subject of this book? Is it some sort of salacious celebrity kiss and tell?! Who are you planning on naming and shaming?!
PS How much of your book is complete? It's funny they've designed a cover when the book's not yet written? Do you have a say on the appearance of things like these or is it the decision of your publisher?
If you must know, I'm something like 75,000 words in, with a target word count of between 100,000 and 110,000. It's simply volume three of my memoirs, a direct sequel to WDIAGR? and HKIMN, picking up in 1988 and ending, well, now. Back to work ... (Oh, and yes, publishers often design the cover first, or during the writing process, to get ahead of the production process. It's worth noting that I am very behind on this one, due to the sitcom, and this is my third deadline. Yes, I do have a say what the cover looks like and what's written on it. Oh, the meetings we had about the title and the subtitle!)
I like the cover. Has the designer been looking at the latest Pet Shop Boys album art work, by any chance?
Andrew
I'm looking forward to it too. I notice that the cover refers to you as the 'best-selling author of WDIAGR'. Wasn't 'HKIMN' also a best-seller - or was the title of the first volume somehow more memorable - perhaps because it was a twist on a well known phrase, rather than a less familiar (relatively, that is ... to some!) song title?
I like 'TMITC' myself, and hope that the GBP are REM (rather than Smiths) fans and that it too is a best seller.
Finishing the book and starring in NGO (according to the listings entry in Saturday's The Information magazine in the Independent). Busy busy busy.
Is the subtitle a cynical attempt to arouse the interest of Preston fans?
Don't overdo it, Andrew, I was sorry to hear that you've been ill. I missed your weekend radio shows. Good luck with the book writing.
No pressure there then!
Hope you are feeling better soon and writing like a demon!
It'll be worth it, I'm sure. I can hardly wait! I am currently re-reading Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now anyway and it's even better than I remembered it! Saw my first episode of Not Going Out on Friday (was out previous Friday) and I absolutely loved it. "Give me one"- comic genious!! Aidan
This news has excited me greatly. I really enjoyed your first two books. Yay for more. :D
HKIMN was absolutely brilliant! (The other one was good too, but hey, I'm a Smiths fan, so the second one was better!)
Any chance you're working too hard? You seem to be everywhere I looke at the moment! found a random book about Friends Reunited at the weekend where you'e written the foreword, can't open the Radio Times without seeing your face, there's the books, the sitcom, the radio shows (on two different channels) not to say all the repeats of "best 100.... etc"... Maybe in 25000 words' time you could do with a holiday? :-)
Drink/eat lots of healthy stuff and take care of yourself.
Px
Galway looks nice at this time of year . . . .
Thanks for you concern, Px. In fact, TMITC is about doing a bit of everything. It's 17 jobs in 17 years (one per chapter), from layout boy at the NME to ... whatever I am now, via Empire, Q, writing for Clive James, writing EastEnders, presenting the Movie Club, doing Back Row, being a DJ etc. The narrative "arc" of the book is me recalling each stage of my convoluted media career and wondering what I am, exactly? I still don't know. (Sorry, just given away the ending.)
For the record, HKIMN didn't sell as well as WDIAGR, and only WDIAGR sat in the Sunday Times bestseller Top 10 for all those weeks. Childhood more universally appealing than higher education. Quite how media career will fare, I don't know. Perhaps it will be taken on as a text book for media courses!
I'm enjoying writing it (it's nice to be able to check with the people involved, like Stuart, or my old publisher at Q, or the Movie Club producer, at the click of an email and pick their brains for details and check facts), but it took a long while to get off the ground, and now I'm having to put away at least 2,000 words a day. But I like deadlines.
Holiday? Just not writing a sitcom feels like a holiday. Not writing a book will also feel like one.
Sorry Andrew,
Shouldn't you be writing a book rather than writing about writing a book :^)
When this one's completed will you do a nice big book of soup recipes please? Go on.
Kelis is releasing a cook book in time for Christmas. Just think, you could have bit of rivalry in the style of Blur and Oasis all those years ago. How cool would it be to be in the same chart as Kelis?!
I'm having an epidural tomorrow
Wish me luck
I tell you what, it'd be great if they got your books into my Media Studies lesson!
Speaking of Q, I enjoyed the little piece you did for them in their 20th Anniversary edition recently. Sehr amusant. Aidan
I know the title comes from Losing My Religion, but what's the significance? I can't imagine you were a shy and retiring wallflower Andrew.
Jon, it took us a long time to agree on a title, my publisher and I. After a lot of rejected ones, this came up at a meeting and we leapt on it! It's supposed to suggest a Zelig-like quality: me managing to find myself in the background of a number of different media over the years. It's designed for maximum humility. I'm not Toby Young but I do want readers to like me as their narrator! Also, a line from a song, or a song title, is always nice.
Andrew, were you responsible for the rather brilliant title "Suitable for Miners" as well? Sounds like it might be a classic Collins pun but then Billy isn't above sprinkling them in his songs either. There's an article waiting to be written - all-time top 10 Bragg puns - though "dedicated swallower of fascism" takes some beating. Maybe when you're done with the book.....
I will proudly lay claim to Still Suitable For Miners, as it was a headline we used for a feature I wrote about Billy for Q magazine. It was that very piece that helped convince Billy to let me write his official biography, so it seemed an apt title to use.
Andrew, you're almost rivalling my ridiculous number of jobs - I've celebrated 25 leaving dos, but still have to perfect The Speech.
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