Hello. So, first things first, what’s been going on? Well, lots :) New translations of The Raw Shark Texts have been making their appearances around the world including some with extra content and Negatives* (the Italian translation has the biggest extra scene since the Canadian prologue, with Dr Fidorous showing off his moves with a Shotai-Mu conceptual sword) and there’s still lots more to come. Anyone who really, really wants to know who’ll be narrating my next novel might want to take a look at the Greek translation, but more on that another time.

Something that’s been driving me a bit crazy over the last few months - is it better to only just miss out on something rather than not get close to it at all? In November my UK publishers forwarded this very exciting email:


EMAIL DELETED BY REQUEST OF MY PUBLISHER. Sorry folks

Richard and Judy! Whoooo! From a lots-and-lots-of-people-actually-buying-and-reading perspective Richard and Judy is about the most exciting thing that can happen to a novel in the UK (for readers across the pond, it’s kinda like the UK’s equivalent of Oprah's Book Club). Publishers love the Booker and the Costa-Formally-The-Whitbread prizes, but they love Richard and Judy more because they actually sell books and make careers. And, I’ve got to say, I love Richard and Judy too. I get the feeling a few writers are a bit sniffy about R&J’s book club but I really don’t understand this. They don’t just go for the safe and the obvious, they take interesting and challenging books and present them to a mainstream audience. David Mitchell made the Booker shortlist with Number9dream and Cloud Atlas but you can easily argue that it was Richard and Judy that made Cloud Atlas and David Mitchell himself a household name. And quite right too. In short, getting this email was a very good thing.

We did everything we could to make the final list. We harassed any and all of the famous people we know, especially those that had been involved in Raw Shark before, came up with lots of good ideas for putting the book across and I wrote a few paragraphs to the Richard and Judy people saying how excited I was to have made their long list (my publishers seemed a bit nervous when asking me to do this, but I genuinely was very excited so I didn’t see what the big deal was!). But in the end it wasn’t to be. So is it better to know you’ve come really close to something like this? It’s a thrill and a compliment to be on the long list, but I can’t deny that when I go into Waterstones and see the books that did get through piled up in the sort of quantities that could be used to build a small house, I can’t help but feel a little bit – ‘Oh. So close. Bugger’. Still, you can’t have everything, right?

And then something spookily similar happened with the Costa-Formally-The-Whitbread Prize. I was happily googling myself and my book, the way I do when I really should be doing something more productive, and I came across this article written by one of the Costa judges. After talking about books that made this year’s shortlist, he goes on to say:

“...My one regret was that there was no room for Steven Hall's The Raw Shark Texts, an experimental thriller about a man hunted down by a conceptual shark out to gobble up his mind.”

Again, is it better to know that at least one of the judges for a really important prize wanted you on a shortlist you didn’t make? After a bit of thought and a bit of clarity, I’m thinking ‘yes’. I came close to the list and that’s really rewarding for me personally, even if most people won’t know I almost made it. And more to the point – if I actually find myself whinging about only coming close to a major award (a major award!) after all the good, great and amazing things that have happened to me over the past 18 months, I’d have to take myself into the alley outside and, er, knock some sense into myself. Raw Shark has already gone so far beyond anything I could have hoped for, it’s in 30+ languages now, or will be soon, it has own online community (www.rawsharktexts.com/unspace if you’re reading this on my myspace page), a film is in the works, it’s had some amazing reviews and it’s upset a fair few reviewers too (if you’re not upsetting someone, you’re not trying hard enough).

All good things. So I could more than live with the fact that I didn’t have another award to go on the bookshelf next to my Waterstones one (which is very nice btw – thanks Waterstones!). I was good with what I had. I was at peace. And then, because life apparently works like Disney morality tale sometimes, I won another award.

I’ll blog about the nature of my shiny new award, the new US tour, what I’m working on at the moment, film updates and lots of other stuff very soon. Really. I will. I promise. :)

With regret and also hope

Steven



** Hmmm. Well, I’m sure they meant ‘strictly confidential at the time’. I’m almost sure. About 95%.

Fantastic! This is a great new section of the forum. I just love to hear what you have to say, and to know the author is so close to the reader (yet half-way across the world!) Congratulations on the nomination(?). Oh, and while on your US tour, could you pop into Toronto, or someplace near? I'm trying to get all my friends into the book, plus my family and people at school. I loved the book, and cannot wait for your next one! (how's that coming along?) Well, I'll stop this nonsense rambling now.
-m
(p.s. how's the cat, Patrick?)

stop in the good old STL!

that's pretty cool that at least one judge wanted it. You're tied for my favorite author with Douglas Coupland. Keep it up. I've read the book too many times.

Hey hey,

Reading this blog back it does come over a bit more negative than I wanted it to, I was just trying to get down more of the strange roller coaster that is having a book like Raw Shark published. The next bit is much more upbeat, promise :)

I missed out on the Richard and Judy sadly sophie, and yes there's a chinese translation on the way. And a Japanese too!

More coming soon, thanks for all the kind words and good wishes folks. It's great to have this board so I can chat direct to the book's readers and fans - hmmm - we need a name for Raw Shark fans don't we? Any ideas?

Anyway, more news soon. I'll let you know more about the award (although if you're a regualr here you'll already know exactly what it is!) and the US tour that's happening as a result. There's also going to be a little news on the next two books. :)

Another US tour! That's excellent news.