Hello!

Wow. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Sorry about that. It seems like Raw Shark Texts ate up the last year of my life – although in the best possible way.

I did a paperback tour in the US after the book won the Borders Original Voices Award (Thanks Borders!). It was great to be over in the States again and the events in Cleveland, Long Beach and Atlanta were especially great so cheers to everyone involved in those (you know who you are).

I also spent a little time in Korea for the Korean International Young Writer’s Festival which was, frankly, just out of this world. I think Seoul might be my new favourite city and the Hongdae district (around Hongik University) is probably my favorite place in the world now. You know when you go somewhere and it just fits, like everything makes more sense there? I am still coming to grips with the realisation that I was born on the wrong side of the planet. Which is a bit strange. Anyway – I met some great folks there, both Korean (wait until you get a load of Penguin Kim, so few writers make the transition from Korean to English but I really think he needs to be one of them. I’m doing what I can to support a translation – if you can help, please shout!) and from the rest of the world too. I’m well aware how stupidly lucky I am that a book about a conceptual shark has made all this happen for me.

And speaking of which – Raw Shark film news…. There isn’t any. Not yet at least.
Latest info is that the scriptwriter delivered a very solid first draft that has been sent back for changes and polishes, at which point I get to read it. I’m really excited to see what Simon Beaufoy and the Blue Print Pictures people come up with, when I know more I’ll make sure you do too. Congrats to Blue Print on In Bruges by the way – not bad going for their first film!

What am I up to at the moment? Well, after a year and a half of Raw Shark stuff (which still hasn’t stopped – two more foreign language editions are out soon so I’ve been back in interview land!) I’m finally back at my desk in a structured way and getting Book Two moving with some kind of momentum.

For anyone who’s been following these things – Book Two is going under the working title/codename ‘Hula Hoop’. Hula Hoop has usurped ‘Power Ball’ (working titles are fun right? Everybody likes working titles) , which will now be my third book. I can’t tell you too much about Hula Hoop yet, as much as I’d like to, except that it’s pretty out there, I’m having a great time with it, and it’s making my brain hurt. Watch this space (or even better, watch www.rawsharktexts.com/unspace if you’re not reading this there. That’s where the action is going to be…).


Oh, I’ve also registered on goodreads.com (if you’re not reading this there!) so do come over and be my friend and let me know what I need to read next.

Lastly, thanks to everyone who voted for my agent Simon Trewin as a result of the last blog. I’m very happy to say he made the list!


More soon (I promise!)

Steven

Steven, just a quick question. How much say will you have in the decision-making of the movie?

Good question. I suppose the answer is that I'm not writing the script, so in that respect my say is fairly limited. To be honest, it's a balancing act because this isn't my project - I was offered the opportunity to submit a script last year but I declined because I left it would have taken my attention away from promoting and supporting the novel, and the novel has always been my primary concern. I want to keep some distance from the film because I want to give the people actually making it the creative freedom to come of with something of their own based on Raw Shark, rather than some slavish transcription which I don't think would work anyway. Raw Shark was kinda conceived as cinematic but utterly un-filmable - I never thought anyone would actually be crazy enough to try! I guess the bottom line is that I'm here to help if they need me.

Steven,

I didn't know where else to put this but I wanted to tell you that "The Raw Shark Texts" is probably one of the best books I have read in a very long time. I would like to know one thing: where did you come up with the idea? :)

Thanks!

Kari

I think you should pitch an alternate version of the story for the script, and call it "The Raw Shark Frames". I also think that the audiobook should've been entitled "The Raw Shark Waves"; that one seems almost too fitting.

I realize it's been an even longer time since I've been on this website. Next week marks the anniversary of my grade 12 english presentation, which I did on the Raw Shark Texts. It was a fun presentation, you'd be surprised at what you can do in a dark room with a lamp, old photos, and a novel with a sharky cut-out on the cover.

Hi Karen,

I think the not-very-exciting answer is - we asked him! I think it's a really great reading, although I'm not a huge fan of abridged books, truth be told. It's a shame we couldn't record an unabridged version for download too. Actually, I think there is an unabridged audio - it was made for blind people in Australia. I haven't heard it and I don't have a copy, but it's good to know that there is an unabridged ver out there somewhere (and with an Australian-sounding Eric too!).

As for the film, hmmm... I'm not sure who they're looking at (actually that's not entirely true, but I am frustratingly sworn to secrecy). Maybe Jack is a little old for Eric?

S