THE DEMI-MONDE:WINTER (AUTHOR'S CUT)

When Nell and I were in London I had a quick chat with Iain Baird, Quercus' marketing guru. Seems Quercus are in the throes of sorting out the e-book with a view to having it available at the same time the paperback is launched (June 2011, I think) but the really interesting news was that they are thinking of doing an author's cut.

It they do it'll mean that I'll be able to reinstate all the chapters deleted in the edit to make the book flow better. This will expand the book from its current 150,000 words to around 190,000 words. I'm really excited about this because some really neat chapters were consigned to the wastepaper baskets, viz:

• Two chapters which introduced Vanka Maykov and gave the background to his problem with Skobelev;
• The chapter describing Trixie at the social where she met (and slapped) Dabrowski;
• The section when Baron Dashwood attends the politburo meeting (it'll bring Horatio Bottomley back into the book, hurrah!); and
• A whole chunk at the end which amplified the antagonism between Trixie and Ella,

Hopefully we'll be able to find space for the Product Description Manual too.

Okay so the book will be a tad more ponderous and didactic but it'll be great to see those chapters back. Here's crossing my fingers.