Category: Joshua Files

MG and ‘The Joshua Files’

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Joshua Files writing

Google Books – How cool is this…?

Putting together a presentation for the Scholastic sales reps I am meeting tomorrow, I stumbled across the most fabulously useful thing – Google Book Search.

Google, as you may know if you’re an online information nerd like me (hey I did work in the area for five years so I’m allowed…), are planning to digitize all the books in the world. Well, as many as they can get their mitts on. There was a hoo-hah about this for a while. Quelle horreur, authors and publishers all going to lose out; that sort of thing.

Well today I had planned to do the following – for just one of my presentation slides:

1. Go downstairs and find my copy of ‘Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan’ by the original Mayanist, John Lloyd Stephens.
2. Find the page where he mentions the rumours of a ‘living city’ of the Maya
3. Go down to our garden office and scan the page.
4. Manipulate the image file on my computer at my desk, back in the house.
5. Pop it into the Powerpoint slide.

Not so difficult, aye, but remember I actually own this book.

But with Google Books, here’s how that scenario played out:

1. Search on Google, find the book.
2. Search for the string ‘living city’ – find the right page.
3. Use the inbuilt screenshot clipping tool to clip an image of the page, the bit where he mentions the mysterious city
4. Pop it into the Powerpoint slide.

5 mins in total.

to exercise any control over them But the thing that roused us was the assertion by the padre that four days on the road to Mexico on the other side of the great sierra was a living city large and populous occupied by Indians precisely in the same state as before the discovery of America He had heard of it many years before at the village of Chajul and was told by the villagers that from the topmost ridge of the sierra this city was distinctly visible He was then young and with
Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan By John Lloyd Stephens
Now is that not awesome?

(If you read ‘Invisible City’ you’ll find that this section of the ‘Incidents of Travel’ book is referenced. I’m not saying why…that’s all a bit of a mystery, to be unraveled in later books…)

SPOILER ALERT IN THE COMMENTS!

I have one lovely comment from a guy who read the book for the waterstones competition, but you should be warned that there are spoilers for INVISIBLE CITY therein…

SPOILER AHOY!

Categories
cuba ice shock mexico nostalgia salsa videos

Nostalgia for…Beny More

I wasn’t alive in the days of Beny More (pronounced More-ray), the Cuban singer and band leader who went to live in Mexico and became a massive influence on all the Cuban salsa bands.

So why do I get these gorgeous pangs of nostalgia when I listen to Beny More? Why does it make me think of a Cuba and a Mexico I never even knew?

My theory is that as a tiny child I was exposed to this music. I do know that after my mother left my father, I spend a great deal of time with my two grandmothers. One, Abuelita Josefina (known to her old friends as ‘Pepa’) had a wonderful memory for lyrics and knew many of the songs of Beny More. Beny More often appeared in popular Mexican films, which went through a golden age in the 40s and 50s.

So maybe that’s it; maybe I was sat for hours in front of the TV while my grandmother knitted (she was mad for knitting). Maybe that’s where I acquired this overwhelming craving for gorgeous night clubs where Cuban bands play for beautiful people, sipping daiquiris between dancing the son, mambo and cha-cha-cha.

This Cuba does not exist anymore – I’ve been to look for it. It’s all timba and reggaeton now. That’s great, but, ah nostalgia. I once spent a whole afternoon lying next to a pool in Santiago de Cuba, listening to the piped music of Beny More. That’s as close as I got.

Categories
getting published Joshua Files writing

Ah, the things I wish I could tell you…

Well blog readers, I’ve had a fun few days. I wish I could tell you everything but because we want to keep some things as a cool surprise I can’t.

I popped by the Scholastic offices on Friday to meet up before going to a fancy dinner-n-awards evening with the publishers and some of their guests. Spying some mock-ups of “Invisible City” sitting on a pile of new books, I snapped some photos with my BlackBerry. It’s not the final version yet but it was soooooo cool to see it. This book package truly is totally innovative! And splashproof too – perfect for taking the book down to the beach or pool.

But I don’t think I’m allowed to post these photos on my blog, sorry…

I was an hour late to another meeting today, because of what the bus driver from Oxford referred to as an ‘RTA’. What’s wrong with the word ‘accident’? Why must we always be decoding TLAs? (three letter acronyms) But my agent coped without me and successfully pitched our proposal to the publishers, leaving me to walk in on the good atmosphere.

The way “The Joshua Files” will be promoted online should now be pretty innovative too. Something new for the world of books, borrowing from something they use to promote some…

But soft! Ere I say too much…

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getting published Joshua Files writing

Joshua 1 all finished…I hope!

Well, I think I’ve finally done my bit and now it’s all over to the publishers. I sent the corrected proofs back last week. Much relief. Now I’m looking forward to seeing the final product, complete with secretly embedded code of a puzzle wot I wrote, which readers can solve to win a prize (an iPod, I believe…)…and the much-awaited, totally innovative jacket.

About which I’m going to say only this – you will be able to see the book all the way across the store! And, no, I’ll say another thing. You know how they say ‘don’t judge a book by it’s cover’ and such-like? Well, in this case, couldja?

Now Agent Pete and I are working on a cunning plan; an online treat for readers of the book. Top secret!

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getting published Joshua Files switzerland travel writing

Bound proof in Lugano


Bound proof in Lugano
Originally uploaded by mgharris

Well blog readers, all five of you, I’m back. Two weeks of driving across Europe close to the Swiss/Italian border in the canton of Ticino, where it’s all Swiss, but Italian style.

For example – they speak Italian but serve fresh Swiss muesli for breakfast. For example, where you can hire a motorboat without a licence and drive across the lake but the minute you moor it, a taxi-boat driver comes beetling across the lake, brow all furrowed and tells you off for going too near the rocks which might damage the engine. Yeah, we noticed that too…were taking care and everything… For example, where you get Swiss efficiency but instead of cheese fondue and raclette they serve yummy Italian food with pasta al dente and everything. See how it works?

The publishers of ‘The Joshua Files’ kindly sent out a couple of bound proofs of the book for me to peruse. Here I am holding my first copy of ‘Invisible City’. Bit of a thrill, actually. I was so excited at breakfast that I forgot to eat and the waiters were clucking at me, trying to get me to hurry up and finish that croissant and just go, already…