The Axe, that is. Weird feeling. I have no idea what's going on with it.

<Added>

Sorry. I've put this in the wrong place. I don't know how to delete it. Or if I can. Maybe David will.

Congratulations! In the wrong place or not. But yes, you do feel much less connected with it. You can keep an eye on the Amazon ranking, and do a bit of googling, but that's about it.

Emma

Well done, Rog!

I'm surprised they let you keep the 'e' don't they spell it without?

You'll be on Oprah in no time, just don't make the mistake of saying it really happened

Yes, I hadn't thought of the 'e' problem - Roger, are they making it be 'Ax'?

Emma

Thanks Emma, sammy, geoff.

Emma, I don't need any encouragement to hit the google/amazon buttons. In fact, I wish I could break the habit as that way lies madness, I think.

As for the axe/ax thing - I saw the note that my editor wrote to his copyeditor. It was something along the lines of 'correct all the Anglicised spellings to American, except for axe'. I think he liked the slightly quaint feel that that spelling must give the book in America. Maybe he feels it adds to the historical atmosphere. It's strange though, how a word can have a perfectly neutral weight in one country, but acquire an extra resonance in another.

With this book, I was never bothered about the whole thing of changing English English to American English, somehow because the language of the story is actually russian and in some sense by book could be read as a translation of a Russian book that doesn't exist (or has been lost??).

However, if an American publisher had insisted on Americanizing Taking Comfort, I would have had a real problem with that because it is an English story, set in a specific place and time - so my representation of the language is very precise and deliberate. As it happens, that issue never arose! Taking Comfort is being published in America, but it is the same edition simply made available through a distributor - not a separate publishing deal.



<Added>

Meant to say 'my book' not 'by book'.

Great though, Roger, even if you do feel cut off. Well done!

Naomi

Thanks Naomi!

Congratulations, Roger. I'm keeping my eye out for it in the shops here.

I know what you mean about feeling detached from it. I once co-wrote a theatre commission I had from an Australian University entirely by email. I never went near a rehearsal and didn't even see it until it had finished in Melbourne and gone on a short tour. At times it was really frustrating, but at others quite liberating.

Hope it all goes well in the U.S.

Harry

Thanks Harry. Where is 'here', if you don't mind me asking?

Not at all. Singapore.

I don't know whether the book's reached Singapore, but I'd be interested to hear if you spot it.