It’s now six months since Black Light came out, and I’ve had a handful of reviews, mostly good, but things seem to have petered out now. I’m not getting nearly the buzz I got with The City of Love. Perhaps it’s because the launch was not well attended, so I’m doing another event for the book at Oxford, probably on Saturday 2 April.
This silence is a bit mysterious since I thought that Black Light was a more accessible book than City of Love: it’s set (mostly) in the present, with recognisably realistic characters, and the central character’s predicament must be familiar to a lot of people. However I may be wrong in thinking this: authors never really know their own books.
I have a lot riding on this book: it was the first one I wrote, and the foundation for much of what went into City. Individuals who’ve read it and come up to me to talk about it have had very nice and perceptive things to say, but the problem is, not enough people are hearing about it.
It may simply be that the mainstream press is not interested. In which case I appeal to you, dear readers, to help me out. If you’ve read the book, please blog about it, post on Facebook or Twitter and tell your friends. Good, bad, like, don’t like, I don’t care, so long as you have something to say. You can tell me about it, or just send me a link to your post. I’d love to hear from you.
I’m trying to arrange for a launch (or relaunch) in March. More on that as it develops.