Aug 2 2005
How many books have you written altogether?
…and how many of those are Canadian, as opposed to American?
That’s one of the questions I am asked most frequently, and it is one that I sometimes despair of answering intelligibly. So let me tackle it in slices:
To this point, in September, 2011, I have published a total of thirteen novels, but I have a fourteenth “in gestation” and a fifteenth under research. The first nine novels were a sequential progression that dealt with the Arthurian legend, providing a feasible, non-magical explanation of how the original elements of the legend could have come into existence. All of them were based in 5th-Century, post-Roman Britain. I followed that series with a trio of novels dealing with the rise and fall of the medieval Order of the Knights Templar and spanning the 200-year period between the end of the 11th Century and the turn of the 14th Century. And 2010 saw the release of The Forest Laird”, the first book of an entirely new trilogy, entitled “The Guardians” and set in 14th-Century Scotland during the Scottish Wars of Independence. The second book in the series, Renegade of these books, is scheduled for publication in August/September, 2012, and the third, currently nameless, will probably be released the following year, in 2013.
A few of the books have different titles in the USA and Canada. Those are listed below:
Canada: The Sorcerer, Volume 1; The Fort at River’s Bend;
USA: The Fort At River’s Bend;
USA: The Fort At River’s Bend;
Canada: The Sorcerer, Volume II; Metamorphosis;
USA: The Sorcerer, Metamorphosis;
USA: The Sorcerer, Metamorphosis;
Canada: Clothar the Frank;
USA The Lance Thrower.
USA The Lance Thrower.
January 1, 2012 @ 8:42 pm
I also want to wish you and your lovely wife a Happy Hogmanay and may the first foot at your door be tall with dark hair.
Lifting a fine glass of Glenmorangie in your direction!
Vicki
January 2, 2012 @ 10:50 pm
I can’t begin to tell you why Publishers do what they do with titles . . . I gave up trying to figure that out years ago, though I formed the distinct impression that most of it has to do with the insatiable, anonymously egotistical demands (and I know that’s both an oxymoron and a paradox) of Marketing Departments… Places where generally underpaid people are paid money as part of their Learning Process to come up with (supposedly) brilliant and “insightful” (their word, not mine!) prognostications of how a given book will perform within a specific marketplace… They usually have little effect, but they have great, if formless, power.
January 3, 2012 @ 1:08 am
I loved the “oxymoronic” description of marketing departments, these are the same folks that put your books in the “Fantasy” department, are they not?
January 3, 2012 @ 4:11 pm
Anyone familiar with what the first cover for THE SKYSTONE looked like will know that it’s a drawing of what looks to be a section of an ancient Roman frieze. Exactly what is ‘Fantasy looking’ about that is beyond my comprehension. Pathetic excuse Chapters.
I suspect the real reason is that no-one could be bothered to read the book, saw that it had something to do with Arthurian legend, figured it would be filled with the same kind of hocus pocus prestidigitation of pretty much all the other Arthurian novels out there, and just stuck it there in Fantasy to be done with it.
January 3, 2012 @ 4:58 pm
Do you want to visit all the Chapters in your area and switch them to their rightful placement in Historical Fiction? I do place favourite books with cover out instead of just spine showing, when I’m browsing in book stores. Anything to promote my favourite authors.
January 3, 2012 @ 5:41 pm
It would be a monumental task to move the novels over to the General Fiction section (there is no Historical Fiction section). The Chapters here in Langley usually carries quite a large selection of Jack’s novels, so finding enough space for them in another section would require hours of work. And I’m not inclined to travel to the other Chapters stores in the area – they’re a fair distance away.
But I do neaten up the books while I’m there – putting them in the right order, and putting them all together on the shelf. I often find them higgledy piggledy and mixed in with other authors’ work on the shelves.
January 4, 2012 @ 5:37 pm
I too am a compulsive tidier of books. I like the spines aligned, the books in reading order, and at least one of the books with the cover out to draw the eye to the different series.
Cheers
Vicki
March 4, 2012 @ 4:32 am
Good on you for keeping Jack up front and centre. I never thought of doing so, but will from now on.
June 23, 2013 @ 8:49 am
June 23, 2013 @ 5:56 pm
It’s too bad that people wouldn’t do a little research, and come places like, for instance, here, before they make book purchases. Even though this board isn’t very busy these days, I’m sure that if someone came here asking questions, someone would be by to answer in a reasonable amount of time.