Fifth Day is now well and truly OUT! It continues to be strange to me to see the book in central store displays and, perhaps odder still, in grocery stores and pharmacies. I still haven’t stumbled on someone reading it (or Mask, for that matter), something I think will push the strangeness still further.
I’m told the new book is selling well at Barnes and Noble, but we don’t have numbers for other stores yet and probably won’t for some time. It’s being carried in my local Walmart, though I don’t know if that represents a large scale effort by that chain, or if mine is one of only a few (which I believe is how it was with MASK, though my local didn’t sell that one). Perhaps readers can e-mail me when they see it in stores!
I’ve started doing both official signings and drop-bys, and am heading to new York later this week for Thrillerfest which should be exciting and instructive. I’m used to academic conferences rather than those for writers and I expect the atmosphere will be very different. If anyone who reads this plans to be there, be sure to track me down and say hi. Panel and signing details on the News and Events page.
I recently returned from the Shakespeare trip I led to the UK in which a dozen undergrads spent 3 weeks hopping from theatre to site to museum in London and Stratford. It was an immensely rewarding experience but was also exhausting and I’m really only just over it enough to get back to writing. I had to get the final versions of two articles in shape before I could turn to my new fiction project, but this week I finally got to grips with it and made some real headway.
Obviously it’s all very early so I can’t say much, but the core story will involve a lost Shakespeare play, and much of it will be set in the UK. It centers on Thomas Knight. I’ll say more when I get some more of it written.
