The Master of Verona

Will & Kit - An Espionage Comedy

A few months back, I posted a chapter of a novel I had started and put in a drawer to focus on the new Roman one. Well, the Roman one is progressing, but there are other projects looming. One of them is the launch of the Shanghai Low Theatricals website. 

As most everyone knows, I'm an actor, director, and fight choreographer. This year has seen me step back from those roles to focus on the novels, though I will be directing Romeo & Juliet for Eastern Michigan University this Fall. But I still truck with the theatre community, and a year ago I joined Steve Pickering and Kevin Theis as a member of the newly-reconstituted Shanghai Low, a playwriting collective which adapts classic works of literature to the stage.

Steve is the brain-trust behind this, and I've had the pleasure of working with him twice onstage. Kevin and I have worked together more frequently, getting together every couple of years for him to direct me in a show. Right now we're all playing well together, and Steve is getting this massive web-launch for the site set up.

Now, one thing about adapting great books to the stage is that often one must pay to secure the rights. So Steve was wondering if there was any work of mine that Shanghai Low couls serialize on their site to earn a little dough. After consulting my agent, I ran through a list of projects that were available. When Steve heard me say, "Shakespeare and Marlowe spy novel," he flipped. So, starting in either August or September, I'll put up the link to the Shanghai Low site so that everyone can jump in and read my first attempt at a serial novel. I have a head start, as there are five or six chapters finished. But the thing will be twenty chapters, give or take, so it'll force me to take a few days each month and hammer out the next bit. Should be fun, and I work well with deadlines.

Meanwhile, the title is up in the air. Then it was PLAYING SPY. Right now it's IN THE QUEEN'S NAME, which is an awful pun. I'm thinking of holding a contest as I'm writing it, so readers can decide the name.

Stay tuned!

FALCONER release date - Mach II

When I reported that Amazon was pre-ordering VOICE OF THE FALCONER for this Fall, I said that the date would change. Well, it has.

The official release date for FALCONER is June 28, 2009.

It's amusing that I learn this not from St. Martin's Press, but from Amazon.com. By the by, you can no longer pre-order the novel (which makes me wonder what happens to all the orders already placed?), only sign up for an e-mail.

Sorry to all the folks who got excited at a November release date, but I did warn you. The book is finished and complete but unedited, and lacking art and internals, to say nothing of ARCs and advance plugs. Those things take about a year, I'm told, so the new date is likely to be the right one. We'll see.

On a side note, I got back from seeing The Dark Knight on Saturday to find a package from SMP containing a mock-up of the paperback cover for THE MASTER OF VERONA. It's just lovely. I especially like the spine, which on the hardcover was nearly illegible. The art department has recified that error, and now the title sings a siren song from the stacks.

More soon, I promise. There's a great deal of wonderful nonsense in my life. The only trouble is that, with a two year-old son and a newborn daughter, any time I have to write is spent, you know - writing. There's very little of my brain left over for blogging. But, like the Cylons, I have a plan... 

Project List

Gabrielle just left a comment remarking on the unliklihood of me getting bored any time soon. How true.

Though I still have to treat the one project with a degree of secrecy, at least for another couple weeks (got good news just a few hours ago, leaving only two more hurdles - but still can't talk about it), I can talk about everything else on my plate.

First off, there's the third Verona novel, FORTUNE'S FOOL, and the fourth, THE PRINCE'S DOOM. Both are half-complete. Don't ask how that happened, it's a long story.

Outside of Verona, there are two novels I'm deep into, and two more in outline phase. One of the fleshed-out novels is the Roman one, currently entitled IN THE SHADOW OF COLOSSUS. It begins with the sack of Jerusalem, and runs the length of the Flavian dynasty.

The other is my William Shakespeare/Kit Marlowe as spies novel, the first chapter of which I posted here some months ago. I'm in discussions with Shanghai Low Theatricals (of which I am a member) to serialize that starting in August or September.

Speaking of ShangHai Low, I'm working on several literary adaptations for the stage with my partners there. Then there's a personal play entitled THE EVE OF IDES, dealing with what are, to me, the holes in Shakespeare's play JULIUS CAESAR.

There are a couple of essays I'm writing/have written for Amazon Shorts, plus a couple of new Verona-related shorts that I'm shopping around.  

Finally, there are two kernel novels, both of which I've written the prologue and first chapters to. But my agent has suggested I back-burner them until the other stuff is done. Perfectly reasonable. One of these is my novel on the Fourth Crusade. The other is about Othello. 

That's the list, with one title significantly omitted for a little while longer, because the title says it all. But I can say this - it's historical fiction, and set in the 1930s. Which is why I'm listening to so much Benny Goodman these days.

Switching hats is rough, but I really like these projects, and can't wait to share them.

More soon.

DB

Working Holiday

This July Fourth has been busy, what with Dash really experiencing fireworks for the first time ("POW-BOOMS" he calls them) and lots of beach time. It's one of the great benefits of living where we do that the beach is half a block away. The night of the Fourth we kept him up past his bedtime to take him down to the beach (my mother watched Evie) to watch the Pow-Booms and listen to the live music. When they started going off overhead he was a little startled, but he was quite a trooper - what a brave kid. He forced himself to laugh through his fear.

Aside: this reminds me of his little adventure last month, when he fell off a ramp at the playground. He cried and my mother took him home. But later that afternoon he literally took me by the hand and walked the four blocks to the park to show me where he fell. Then he started playing again. I love this kid.

Anyway, this has definitely been a working weekend for Jan and me. I STILL can't talk about the project, but at the moment things are looking good. At the request of ** ******/*******, we're taking the third whack at the outline and diving even further into the research. Suffice to say, this will be historical fiction, but entirely, completely, totally unlike THE MASTER OF VERONA.

And, no, this is not the Roman novel. That is still proceeding apace.

We turn the outline in tomorrow. Wish us luck. The moment the deal is made, I'll be back with news.

Spanish Cover for THE MASTER OF VERONA

THE LOVE OF VERONA. Huh. I suppose that fits. But for a moment I thought they'd gone with THE SOUL OF VERONA, which I liked a lot.

However, I've always admired this statue of Dante, which stands in the Piazza de Signoira, so we're all good. And apparently Spain's loving the novel, which is gratifying.

Now if we can only get the Italians on board...

Russian Cover for THE MASTER OF VERONA

I'm sitting with my week-old daughter in my lap, literally, but I wanted to post this. It's the cover for the Russian translation of THE MASTER OF VERONA. Apparently, loosely translated, the Russian title is KINGS OF VERONA. Neat, no?

Tantalizing

I have been quite silent of late. Life is busy, and there are two new writing projects (or three, depending on how you count them) and one theatre project that I am being a trifle circumspect in mentioning. Why? Because until I have a contract in hand, I don't want to tempt the gods.

HOWEVER - there has been movement on ALL of them in the last week. One is the Roman novel, and the movement is internal - I've discovered a format that has been eluding me. Whether it stays or not, it's assisting me in creating the story, so it's lovely.

But the others - ah, the others! The movement is all external, with requests for more material coming from three separate sources. It's pretty cool, I gotta say. Now, there's a good possibility that none of it will come to pass, but at the moment two of the three are looking very promising. Hopefully by this time next week I'll have news to share, and then the posts will grow more frequent.

At least, until my daughter is born. Which could also be next week, or else the week after.

So stay tuned, ladies and gents. The fun is only starting!

ps - the hints are in the Categories

Cool Amazon Oops

I wrote a while back that St. Martin's Press was delaying VOICE OF THE FALCONER, the sequel to THE MASTER OF VERONA, until next year. This is reflected in the SMP Fall catalog, which only lists the trade paperback of MV.

It seems, however, that Amazon didn't get the memo.

Yes, they're preselling VOICE OF THE FALCONER on their site this very moment. A reader excitedly e-mailed me the link on Saturday, and I nearly fainted when I saw the release date. I regret to say that, no, the book will not be coming out in November - it lacks the final edits, a cover, a few changes to the internals (maps and whatnot), etc. So really, there's no way.

But it's gratifying to watch it climb as the word spreads. It made it up to 6,000 on Amazon's sales ratings over the weekend - which, out of the millions Amazon sells, is great. Let me thank everyone for their support, and I'll try to figure out some way to fill the gap between November and whenever the book actually comes out.

Cheers,

DB

New Cover for TP

I just received the new cover-art for THE MASTER OF VERONA. Here 'tis:

Though I will miss the swordsman, I do admire the lack of clutter in this version. I'll be interested to hear what other people think...

Paperback release date!

Happy news. I was just informed of the offical release date for the trade paperback edition of THE MASTER OF VERONA. It will hit the stands on September 16th. You can pre-order it here at Amazon and be sure to get the lowest price.

Personally, I love trade editions of books. Not as bulky or heavy as the hardcover, yet less impermanent than a mass market edition. I can't wait. Hope you feel the same. Remember, books make the best gifts!

Cheers,

DB