The Curry Mile eBook - launched. Finally.

So. Finally did it. With the help of some good people I crossed the Rubicon into the Indie divide and at the same time transformed the paperback novel into an eBook.


The Curry Mile was published by Suitcase Books in 2006. That seems like an eternity ago, way before the Jurassic. I frequently get asked by readers, "When's the next book coming out?" I usually tell them I'm tinkering away on something, and I have been labouring away on lots of things; poems, shorts, screenplays - and of course, a whole bunch of novels.

So what's next now that I've got the eBook out of the way? Am I going to publish the material I've been working on? Well, I'm taking a leaf out of Joanna Penn's book and decidedly aiming for the Brave New World of Indie publishing, but I'm not going to dump everything I've been working onto a world that already has more than enough stuff to deal with. Plus, I want to ensure whatever I publish is as polished as it can be.

One of my key concerns is the lack of diversity in fiction in the UK; not just in children's fiction (hey, recall the kerfuffle when Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman spoke out), but in English fiction as a whole. I think we need to do more collectively and no, it isn't the industry that must act. I wrote about this in a previous blog where I looked at whether UK publishing reflects diversity. I'd like to address that in my writing to a degree, but at the same time like many writers I don't want to be labelled as an "issues" writer, well, that's how one editor put it. An issues writer. I like stories, I don't really care where they are drawn from and I read almost (almost!) anything. That said, it really is unfair that books do not reflect the world we live in...

I just finished reading The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. LOL, as I'm writing this, I've got this weird voice saying "fancy a bit o' Yancey?" Well, actually, The 5th Wave isn't too bad at all, so "Two please, thank you very much." Sure, there are flaws with it - there are flaws in any piece of writing from Maupassant to Murakami - but that's human, isn't it? There are plenty of flaws in The Curry Mile (I never said it was perfect; far from, in fact). So, I'm going to order The Infinite Shore. For those who "canna wait to read it," here is the first chapter courtesy of The Guardian.

Anyway, drawing the circle to a close and turning back to the eBook, I wanted to mention a friend of mine who's a Manchester writer, artist and musician, Steve Garside (or The Garside Story as I call him). Well, he did the cover and I think it conveys the essence of the Mile in a few bursts of colour.

It's great when a little says a lot.

ZHZ.