Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Line War First Draft.

There we go, at 5.30 tonight I put ‘ENDS’ below what I’d been labouring over all day, then, despite the fact that I haven’t been particularly abstemious this week, I wandered up the shop and bought a couple of bottles of wine to celebrate. The first draft of Line War is finished and it weighs in at just over 140,000 words. After I’ve finished editing, swapping bits around, extending other bits, cutting bits and generally hacking it into shape the book will almost certainly be larger. It’ll be about the size of either Brass Man or The Skinner. It’s a cause to celebrate because, even though further work lies ahead, the thing itself is done.

I hope you’ll like it.


Andrew Montgomery said...

Sweet, I'm looking forwards to reading Hilldiggers when my copy arrives, nice to know I'll have another book to read soon :)

dave hutchinson said...

Congratulations. As someone whose pathetic attention span mostly limits him to short stories (and the last one took me two years to finish) I do envy you your work-rate.
I just finished Cowl, which means I've just got to find a copy of The Skinner and I've exhausted your paperbacks. More! More!

Bob Lock said...

Congrats Neal,
Now comes the part I hated the most, proof-reading it all and the pruning and shaping. I look forward to reading the finished product as I've enjoyed everything else you've written.

CJ said...


NovaWasp said...

Excellent, I finally gout a couple of pictures of Scar or an SCL (Scar Like Creature) drawn (sketched really). I've got them on the computer, but can't think of a good way to get them to you.

I've finished everything I can get my hands on here in the US including an imported copy of Line of Polity. So, by the time I finish readings some Dan Simmons, Hill Diggers should be out. I need to reread some of the other Cormac stuff a bit more critically. I noticed some Africa Zero (best candidate for a film adaptation IMO by the way) references in Gridlinked second time through.

anyway my email is

jon said...



Gerald said...

Ooh, something for 2010.

I only read paperbacks, and I usually buy from Oxfam (they have a dedicated bookshop in Marlow - yay Oxfam!).

So by my reckoning that makes Line War a 2010 read.

I have just read Sable Keech so I already have slugs of Asher* scheduled in for 2008 and 2009.

* feel free to use 'slugs of Asher' in a future literary endeavour. As with almost everything your fucked up mind has created they will be deadly.

jon said...

I overnight books from UK to US when it comes to Neal's books. Costs a pretty penny but is worth it, not to mention the cover art in the UK editions smokes the US versions :(


Dan said...

Congradulations! I look forward to reading it. I have one question though. Why is it so hard to get your books here in the US?