The Well-Tempered Clavier

Haven’t heard from Idle Tom the Publisher for quite some time. What ever could have happened? Is he working on some big edit? Is he striking some big new deal? Has he been glued to the Olympics on the box? Or … Could it be … Could it possibly be …
 
"Hello stranger!" I say. "What […]

The Edinburgh Literary Fest is in full swing - and, as usual, I’m in the thick of it.
 
Haven’t yet been invited along, mind, to give a talk, but maybe … maybe next year!
 
Seen a number of shows though, including Danny Wallace last night. A total star. He’s written two fantastic books, "Yes Man" and "Join […]

And so it continues.
 
A phone call yesterday morning - this time at 8.30am. I’d barely even put the toast on.
 
"Well?" he says.
 
"Well what?" I reply. "Tell me Tom, why can’t we start these conversations like you normally do? What’s wrong with your usual, "Hello Mr Coles how’s it going?"?"
 
"Well. You’ve been taking the mickey out […]

Idle Tom the Publisher calls, a bit shirty-like, early yesterday morning. I was barely on my second cup of coffee, had hardly finished doing my (easy) Sudoku in The Times.
 
"Well?" he says. In fact it’s more than a "says". It was almost a "barks".
 
"Well? Well? Is that how you greet me on a Monday morning? […]

Idle Tom the Publisher calls with good news. Great news! Quite superlative news!!
 
Somehow, some way, he’s managed to carve out a deal with an American publisher, Soho Press; even got a very modest advance for it too.
 
However …
 
"It’s weird," said Tom. "They’re changing the title -"
 
"Really?" I said. "What’re they going to call it?"
 
"Not a […]

News from the front-line of Idle Tom’s love-life, that gritty, unrelenting no-man’s land where my publisher finds himself all alone and hunkered down in a muddy, God-forsaken fox-hole.
 
"So Mr Coles, how’s it going?" asks the Idle One. That’s how he likes to start every conversation. I can imagine it - you stagger in off the […]

Off to London for a TOP LEVEL MEETING with Idle Tom the Publisher as well as my Uber agent, who for some reason came over all shy and retiring after hearing about this blog and said that "under no circumstances whatsoever" did he wish to appear in it by name.
 
Fair enough Darin - your wish […]

Never come across The Small Press Review before … but from the little I’ve read, it is a most excellent magazine. First-rate. Forthright. Independent. Dazzlingly perceptive.
 
Oh - and did I happen to mention that they’d just given the thumbs-up to The Well-Tempered Clavier?
 
Diana Harris-Deans is the reviewer - and Diana has done me proud. Diana […]