Pub Date— Does that mean I’m meeting someone in a bar for a romantic evening? No, it means today’s the day my first book comes out:
I’ve been thinking of this as “Launch Day” or “Release Day” or “Oh Wow When Will It Finally Get Here Day” (that one is now out of date, since it finally has) but when I got a congratulatory e-mail from my editor with the subject line “Happy Pub Date” I realized that was the name all the cool, professional insiders must use. So Pub Date it is.
Pub Date for my book is also a kind of second beginning for this blog. So far, with only a couple of exceptions, the only thing I’ve posted here is my ongoing “Doctor Who from the Start” series, which began as a series of Facebook posts a couple of years ago, moved to this blog when I set it up, and will continue until I’ve gone through every episode of the Classic series. I’ve been holding off on other topics— in particular, writing-related topics— until after the book came out, so that there would be a slight chance someone might actually be looking. While the Dr Who posts will maintain their weekly schedule, I don’t plan to be so regular about other topics. But keep an eye out— they’ll be coming along now and again.
In the meantime, what should I do in this post to properly celebrate Pub Date? How about some value-added content for the worthy few who come looking? Attached below are three image files I had in front of me while writing The Child. Together, they provide a complete floor plan of “The Alley,” the space station where the story takes place. I used them to make sure that if the narrator said “I turned left” then he was consistent about it.
Did I get it right at every point, or is there somewhere I accidentally had my protagonist walk out of an airlock when I meant him to go into an office? Are you obsessive enough to find out?
Probably not— but I hope you have some fun with the pictures (click on the thumbnails for full-size images):
The Alley: complete floor plan
Detail views
Infirmary detail
