Getting Tail of the Blue Bird for Christmas [US]

I have already sent a newsletter recently to let people know that my novel, Tail of the Blue Bird, although officially released in the US on January 13, 2011, will be delivered by most retailers in time for Christmas. However, for people who need more assurance, I have arranged the option to sell copies directly at a discounted price of $10 (instead of $14) and any copies bought through me - by clicking on the button below - will be delivered to US shoppers by Christmas - as long as they are ordered by December 16, 2010. The payment will be to a PayPal account, The Writers' Fund, and the difference between by author discount and the $10 price will be used in the work I do through The Writers' Fund in Ghana to support writers and writing initiatives.

Thank you for your support and readership and I wish you a great Tail-of-the-Blue-Bird-reading Christmas!

P.S. If you wish to encourage other people to buy the book to support me and my work, please use this short link on twitter, myspace, facebook, linkedin, bebo or by the humble, reliable original - e-mail. (Link -http://bit.ly/wftotb)

P.P.S. You can read an extract from the book here: http://bit.ly/gNrECO

Interview/Reading on VoxAfrica TV

I was recently interviewed by Henry Bonsu on VoxAfrica in relation to my new book of poems, The Makings of You. It's a long programme and I appear in the last half hour so do forward if you have to. Enjoy!

August Advances

I've become a useless doting dad. All the hustle, travel, reading, performances and (gulp!) even the writing, everything has settled to a simmer in my life and the only thing popping is Little-Miss-Daughter who (I kid you not) is amazing! She's 20 months old and already she's having conversations with me in Ga and English and scolding me (no more, Daddy, no more!). I used to think my mother was making things up when she told me the really complicated things I am supposed to have said at the age of three, but I'm beginning to believe. The human mind is truly, truly amazing! What I can't get my head around is the fact that we lose pretty much all our memory of events up to the age of 3/4, but we don't forget the things we learn e.g. language, whether or not to be afraid of dogs etc. etc. It's mind-boggling. Anyway I'll bore you no longer with Daddyhood. The good thing, with hindsight, is, I did so many sleepless nights BEFORE my daughter was born that it seems I will be releasing new work until I finish the next project. In the meantime, here are some updates.

Tail of the Blue Bird was selected by Writers' Centre Norwich as one of their Summer Reads and right through the year it's been promoted in local bookshops and libraries, which has been amazing. The initiative is now coming to an end, but until the end of August, Tail of the Blue Bird is being discussed online as well as at a special Tail of the Blue Bird Book Club Session at Writers’ Centre Norwich, 14 Princes St, Norwich, Tuesday 24th August, 6pm. To join the online discussions, just go the the WCN Facebook Page. You can even check out their reading guide.

Sticking with discussions, Tail of the Blue Bird, stands a one-in-eleven chance of being chosen for discussion at the African Writers's Evening book discussion on Friday September 17 at the Poetry Cafe and YOU GET £4 toward the cost of the book too. To vote for Tail of the Blue Bird and find out more, visit: African Writers' Evening

Now, book news - or new books news :) I mentioned the release of a Dutch version of Tail of the Blue Bird and I can confirm that it is now out and selling well (you can see it on the publisher's website) and so is the German version (also on the publisher's website), which has had a couple of decent reviews this week [Links: Die Spiegel | Watching the Detectives ]. Well, I'm guessing that they're good because I couldn't make real sense of the automatic translation!

I have also now held in my hands a physical copy of my children's book The Parade (pictured on the left) and I can assure you that it feels good. Plus I am assured that I will receive in tomorrows post a few copies of my début full poetry collection The Makings of You. I am giving five copies away, so the best five pleas I receive detailing why you should get a copy in tweet-length (i.e. text or 140 characters) will get them. I'll reveal the winners at the end of the month :) Of course, this doesn't mean don't buy the book - I need you to buy it so I can earn some royalties, but you can flog the one you bought if you win!

And finally, drum roll... the long-awaited US release! It is still long-awaited, the release date has been pushed back to 20 January 2011, but you can now pre-order it on amazon.com or BN.com AND I will be coming to the US in January/February for a whole month to promote it (with the other two books, of course!). My first reading/signing is likely to be in Rochester, NY but I'm still trying to fix dates so if you know of a local bookstore or college/university that would like to have me visit/sign/read/teach and it's on the East Coast, please contact me so we can work something out. Not many people have seen what the entire cover will look like, but... eyes-left - voila! You're the first, my fans, my everything!

what i'm reading/listening to

listening:
Omara Portuondo - la novia del filin

reading:
Arthur Gakwandi - The Novel and Contemporary Experience in Africa

...waiting for the copy edits...

So, I'm learning that publishers run on that other time too. The date for my copy edits for Tail of The Blue Bird, has been pushed back twice, and it's very frustrating because I set time aside to go through the edits and get them back so that work can begin on the advance copies of the book. Now, some of you might be wondering what advance copies are or do exactly in publishing. In short they are the first blast of real excitement a writer gets after the book deal - essentially a finished version of your book, complete with a cover design and the final layout is printed almost a year in advance and sent out to the media, famous writers etc. etc. so that radios, newspapers and magazines can start scheduling you for interviews (if they think you/your work are interesting), writers can give you endorsements, and bookstores can make orders - all the things that trigger those quotes that appear on books that make everyone wonder - 'how come the book's only been out two days and they already have that printed on it?' In my case, the struggle to find a publisher because of the unusual (not my word) nature of the book means that luckily (or unluckily) I already have quotes from authors who endorsed the work so that potential publishers would realise that the book was considered good by my peers - I am proudest of my endorsements from Helon Habila, whose work I've been a long-time admirer of, and Courttia Newland, who was one of my early mentors in prose...

Anyway, back to the delay on my copy edits, very frustrating etc etc, but I have been making good use of the time; last week I recorded an excerpt for a fairly new BBC World Service programme called The Forum, and took part in a panel discussion of some of the ideas in the book, and stuff like whether or not Islamic Law is ethical and whether Plato had the right ideas about erotic love in his 'Symposium'. It was supremely interesting (I'll let you know when THEY let me know when it will be broadcast), but the publicity department at my publishers said - oh, couldn't it have been next year? everyone would have forgotten by the time the book comes out! Ah, YE publishers of little faith; haven't you heard about gossip, the bush fire media, alata wire tap, abusua radio, or, for the wine drinkers, the grapevine...? [BTW I welcome comments from my West African readers for any more phrases that exist to describe gossip - it's funny how the mind goes blank sometimes...]

Bottom line is, I'm not completely bored. I even had occasion to celebrate the fact that one of the books I edited last year - 29 Ways to Drown by Niki Aguirre - made it to the longlist of the Frank O'Connor Short Story Prize and was reviewed in today's SUN newspaper (the UK crew will understand the significance of this - it has a circulation of 3 million and pictures of half naked women on Page 3 i.e. West-European-naked, just breasts, which is fully clothed at some of the markets I went to in Cape Coast - over here people get excited when a woman breast feeds in public - as my Naija crew would say, ah ah!)

On that half-clothed note, I bid you adieu, or rather au revoir...

what i'm reading/listening to

listening:
Smokey Robinson & D'Angelo - I have entire folders of their work on my laptop and I have them on loop - I'm in a chilled summer mood...

reading:
Rose by Li Young Lee (something to relax) and Land of our Birth by Ainsley Burrows (something I'm editing)

with a grammy of salt

of course, like tina, i was ecstatic to find that the panel noted that ike turner is still on the beat and churning out good music, rewarding him with a fine grammy in his silver years - good job! i do however wonder at some of the categories: best album notes? well, obviously my talents as a writer are sooooo targeted towards the wrong audience - this year i will beg musicians to see if they'll give me a shot at immortality through the writing of their album notes.... best traditional world music - now, this one is the real stunner; you stand up and look at the whole-complete-entire-boundless world, and decide, you know what? that there is traditional world music - a sweet mix of turkish, mongolian, inuit, madagascan rhythms with a funk twist! yeah, we'll give an award for whatever sounds the most like that! and people say i live off fabrications!! i'll take that with a grammy of salt, thank you.

anyway, that's my rant, goodnight!


oh, i found a great music blog randomly. if you're into music then have a look-see: http://djdurutti.blogspot.com/

what i'm reading/listening to

listening:
Von Freeman - Doin' It Right Now (He's so dope, and he's been around for a while. Oddly, for a minor jazz head, I just got to hear about him through some Chicago connections of mine 'cos he's a Chicago musician! Check out his info on his tripod site. I really need to start a last.fm page so I can connect with some more jazz!)

reading:

x-24: unclassified edited by Tash Aw and Nii Ayikwei Parkes (It's not out until next month, but I'm one of the editors so reading is one of my perks!)