Black Bottle Galleys Are In

Due to long hours at work, I’ve been mostly absent from my life in general.  This ain’t the summer of love.  It’s the summer of work.  (Summer came early this year in Texas)  Free time has been spent regrouping with my kids, watching a lot of films, and plotting another book.

But back to Black Bottle.

Page 1 of Black Bottle

I did a read-through a few weeks ago and turned in 20 pages worth of final edits that won’t show up in the galleys but I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised.  (BTW, galleys will show up on my doorstep on Friday so anyone I promised one to will get it a week later)  I was really apprehensive to go back and read the book after so many months away from it.  I assumed that there’d be vast tracts of text that would make me gnash my teeth and cry bitterly.  Completely the opposite.  I’m overwhelmingly satisfied and extremely happy with the outcome of this book.  Black Bottle really does exactly what I wanted it to do.  I’m thrilled.  I just wish that the two books came bound together in one massive *red-skinned* tome.

Black Bottle will be available in August.

So what’s next?

Well, due to work life issues there’s been a hiatus of writing.  Nevertheless, I’ve been tinkering again and this next book (which is wholly separate and stand alone from the duology of The Last Page & Black Bottle) is very exciting for me.  It’s set in a kind of non-time retro-future 1920′s California-inspired coastal town.  This because I have strong opinions about embracing what is modern even when I want to evoke something that feels like it’s from the past.  Period writing is nothing new so scrap all that.  I’m going for weird — as usual.  The main characters are a pair of disparate brothers: one vastly wealthy, the other not so much, and while the heart of this book is centered on their relationship, so far it’s really an action adventure from chapter one.  I’ve been hugely inspired by the Cliff House as staging material.  Take a look because it’s some dead sexy, truly haunting imagery.

I’m done talking now.

–Ant