How long does it take you to write a book?
In which I ponder the passage of time while slinging words.
This is probably the second most common question I get asked, right behind the perennial favorite “Where do you get your ideas from?”
The answer is, it depends on the project. For instance, The James Bond Lexicon took six years of research and writing spread over a ten-year period. The Star Trek: A Comics History book took just a year because that’s the deadline the publisher asked for.
As a rule of thumb, I usually answer with “around two years,” but I’ve never really sat down and figured out the dates to see if that was true.
Then this week my Facebook memories pointed out that three years ago I finished reading a book about the Bristol Brabazon that I described in my review as highly technical but disappointing as it didn’t really tell the Brabazon’s story.
The evening before I saw that post, I had finished my final pass on polishing the manuscript for my book which will hopefully tell that story.
So now I know - it takes me three years from thinking “Someone should write a book about… ” to do just that.
Of course, there is still a way to go before the book sees the light of day, as I’m busy building lists of index terms, and figuring out which photographs to include before everything is packaged up and sent to the publisher.
But the good news is that we now have publication dates.
Assuming everything goes to schedule Bristol Brabazon: The Ocean Liner of the Skies and its Ongoing Legacy will be published on 30 MAY 2025 in the UK and 30 JULY 2025 in the US.
It’s also available for pre-order on the Amazon UK, and Amazon US sites, as well as at Bookshop.org -
I’m looking forward to holding a copy of the completed book in my hand next year.
Alan
Other Stuff
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Word Slinging
If you are in the Baltimore / Washington DC / Delaware / Southern PA area come check out the Books & Brews event on 16th November at the Union Craft Brewery on W. 41st St in Baltimore. I’ll be there from 11:00am until 2:30pm with some of the historical short-story anthologies that have my words in them.
Pages and Screens
Books Read in 2024 - “The Demon Of Unrest” by Erik Larson.
Erik Larson’s historical non-fiction works best when his story is set against a ticking-clock of inevitably. With this detailed account of what led up to the first shots of the American Civil War he is once again back on form.
He introduces a wide range of compelling characters on both sides and interweaves their stories with a novelist’s skill while utilizing short chapters to both drive the narrative and keep the reader engaged.
Surprisingly it loses some of that engagement the closer it gets to the pivotal attack on Fort Sumter when the focus switches more towards the better known historical figures in Washington and the political maneuvering rather than the more personal stories of those close to the action.
But overall it’s a good engaging solid read that gave me a better understanding of the sequence of events that led to the opening salvo of that catastrophic conflict.
Our online bookstore at Bookshop.org is fully up to date with the books read so far in 2024, so you can pick up copies of any that interest you, while also helping out local independent bookstores.
Weekly Web Round-Up
Batman On The Cover - The journey through Batman’s comics publishing history continues as we move into July 1969 with books published in Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, and Netherlands. Again alll of these featured translated reprints of previously published US covers, so there are no real standouts this week.
Where on the Web is Alan?
You can now find links to all the places you can find me online, websites, newsletters, social media, and more in a single LINKS page on my personal website.
As always, thanks for joining me this week. If you know someone else who might enjoy the contents of this week’s newsletter, or just my weekly ramblings in general - please feel free to share by clicking the button below.
See you next time
Alan J. Porter
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