Mike Brooks

It’s actually happened.

Yesterday my debut novel Dark Run officially went on sale (I say ‘officially’ because some people had got theirs a day or so early, not counting the ones who received one courtesy of the box of freebies Del Rey UK sent me), and as a result I can now officially declare that I am a published novel. I am in fact an internationally published novelist (thanks Delwyn, thanks Anne). Of course, the continent of North America will have to wait to get anything but imported copies as Saga Press haven’t released it there yet, but I kind of like the idea of people importing it from Amazon’s UK site, like some sort of Japanese-only vinyl release. And the Russians will be getting it in Russian at some point (well, I say the Russians – anyone who wants it in Russian will be able to get it, but I’d suggest that’s statistically likely to be Russian people).

Long story short – my novel’s been published. I spent yesterday, Publication Day, at work, largely dealing with the aftermath of piss, shit and vandalism (housing related work is so glamorous). Then when I got in I scoffed my dinner, got changed and went out to play a gig with my punk band Interplanetary Trash Talk at the Old Angel in Nottingham, on what might have been the hottest stage I’ve ever been on (the other contender: The Vic Inn in Derby). I got back at about midnight, so yesterday wasn’t really a Mike-as-author-focused day other than ‘liking’ people’s posts on Facebook about having received my book in the post.

Today I took a day off work, put on my Mike-as-author hat and went into Nottingham to try and track down copies of Dark Run in the wild. I drew a blank at WH Smiths, but struck gold at Waterstones!

The next plan is to get my hair so big that it blocks out all other books on the shelves except mine.

But this past week in general has been fairly hectic writing-wise… and also work-wise, which is why I haven’t been blogging about it as it happens. I’ve had my first interview go up courtesy of Civilian Reader, and SciFi Bulletin have been kind enough to give me not only an 8/10 review but also publish my first guest blog. I’ve activated an author profile on Goodreads and have generally been trying to put myself about a bit.

Finally, of course, tomorrow I’m heading to Forbidden Planet in Birmingham to do a signing and ‘In Conversation’ with my editor Michael Rowley at 1pm (side note: anyone else hate the new Google Maps as much as I do?). So if you’re in Birmingham tomorrow please feel free to drop in: it’d be great to see people there!