This photograph* showing smug author with a couple of book proofs of ‘A Time For Heroes’ will irritate a number of my readers who were promised copies.
Unfortunately Headline could not provide as many as anticipated so my mailing list had to be pruned rather drastically. For which sincere apologies to those I had to let down.
Without exception anyone who has seen the almost-finished product has admired the cover; to such an extent that they’d probably buy the book whether the contents were any good or not. The designer, Craig Fraser, captures precisely the mood of the novel that explores our need to look up to those we judge heroes (here literally), without always questioning why.
One of the early reviews came from Joan Deitch, my copy editor, who described ‘Heroes’ as ‘an exciting and complex story with an A1 villain-a stunning read with an apocalyptic and inspirational finale.’ She added: ‘ I loved soaring round the skies with all the pilots.’
By now the bulk of the proofs have been distributed to Headline’s mailing list of literary critics so there’s nothing more to do than wait, in the hope that they share Joan Deitch’s opinion.
Publication dates have been confirmed, by the way: 29 March 2012 for the hardback, Ebook and trade paperback, 13 September 2012 for the paperback.
* A Dickens character, I forget which, observed that there were two kinds of portrait: the serious and the smirk…
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