Sozopol / Orange / Number 1
I mentioned meeting Danielle Trussoni last week. That was because I was out and about at literary festivals.
Mostly travels around publication time are to sell copies of your new book - if you can find your audience. In this case it was different.
In fact, the trip in question was to a literary festival in Bulgaria where Sepulchre has not yet been translated. I and my husband Greg were guests of the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation. We spent four days in the Black Sea resort of Sozopol - once the playground of the Communist Party elite - learning about the Bulgarian publishing industry.
It was such a revealing trip - and so different to consider a country of just a few million people with a language unlikely to be spoken beyond its borders. What a challenge for writers and publishers!
Truly, one of the greatest pleasures of the writer's life is meeting other authors. It is fascinating to chat about this and that - how the imagination finds its way, how vague ideas become substantial ones; as Auden said - how 'relevant thoughts occur' and not 'lip-smacking imps of mawk and hooey'.
Also in the last few days the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction - I'm honorary director - was awarded to Rose Tremain for The Road Home
.
So, it's all go, because I have also been delighted to find Sepulchre at number 1 in the UK paperback fiction chart. That's the sort of news that revives, as my grandmother might have said.
A bientôt
Kate
Mostly travels around publication time are to sell copies of your new book - if you can find your audience. In this case it was different.
In fact, the trip in question was to a literary festival in Bulgaria where Sepulchre has not yet been translated. I and my husband Greg were guests of the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation. We spent four days in the Black Sea resort of Sozopol - once the playground of the Communist Party elite - learning about the Bulgarian publishing industry.
It was such a revealing trip - and so different to consider a country of just a few million people with a language unlikely to be spoken beyond its borders. What a challenge for writers and publishers!
Truly, one of the greatest pleasures of the writer's life is meeting other authors. It is fascinating to chat about this and that - how the imagination finds its way, how vague ideas become substantial ones; as Auden said - how 'relevant thoughts occur' and not 'lip-smacking imps of mawk and hooey'.
Also in the last few days the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction - I'm honorary director - was awarded to Rose Tremain for The Road Home
.
So, it's all go, because I have also been delighted to find Sepulchre at number 1 in the UK paperback fiction chart. That's the sort of news that revives, as my grandmother might have said.
A bientôt
Kate
2 Comments:
At June 17, 2008 11:15 PM ,
Tamim said...
Kate who won the 'champagne advice'? I submitted four scribbles, all penned whilst bored at work. Here's my personal favourite:
I reach out, wanting to touch it, but he pulls me back. Not deliberately cause his eyes are shut, his face tense with concentration, to prolong his ecstasy. He whimpers, breaking his rhythm. He kneads my breast roughly, as if to gain purchase. I turn again towards my new necklace. Rubies... I’ve always wanted rubies. They twinkle at me and again I reach out to touch, but my movement is severely restricted here, and I wish this guy would hurry up. “Oh baby,” I say flatly, wriggling mechanically and working the muscles in my pelvic floor – one, twice, thrice and...there we go... He collapses on top of me, before rolling off. “There, there,” I say reassuringly, patting his shoulder before turning to grab my jewels. Rubies and diamonds, a string of alternating stones. This work is easy, and the compensation is...heaven.
At June 24, 2008 12:14 PM ,
Kate Mosse said...
Hi Tamim
It is being judged at the moment and the result will be posted on the Guardian website next week.
Good luck!
Kate
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