Waterloo Sunset

For me – perhaps the same is true for many authors – a recently completed manuscript takes a giant step towards becoming a book that will take its place in the real world, outside my head, the first time I see the dust jacket artwork.

Waterloo Sunset is the first Harry Devlin novel to be published at around the same time in both the UK and US, and I’ve received proposals for the artwork from both Allison & Busby, here, and Poisoned Pen Press. Here they are. It’s fascinating to me to see the different images conjured up by the same manuscript.

I’m also turning my mind to publicity events. One of the most enjoyable ways of socialising with both readers and fellow writers, and yet being able to pretend to oneself that one is marketing a new book in a business-like way, is to attend crime conventions. In the UK, 2008 offers both Crimefest in June and the excellent Harrogate Festival in July. As for the States, I’m currently wondering whether I can manage both Malice Domestic, in Washington, in the spring, and the Baltimore Bouchercon in October. I gather that Baltimore has a few things in common with Liverpool, setting of Waterloo Sunset, so a trip there is certainly tempting.