Zeno Literary Agency Ltd.

… by Ben Aaronovitch have arrived at Zeno towers, hot-foot from the Gollancz offices, books so fresh that the ink is almost wet!

There’s a very nice Diana Gabaldon quote on the front and a very nice Charliane Harris quote on the back and check out the cover copy below. RIVERS OF LONDON will be published next January by Gollancz.

“My name is Peter Grant and until recently I was just a probationary constable  in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (and as the Filth to everybody else). Now I’m a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddesses of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden.

But there’s something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair. It’s falling to me to bring order out of the chaos – or die trying.“

… why we are still closed for submissions, or why we’re taking so long to get through stuff sent in before we closed, take a good, hard look at this article by Shawn Speakman entitled The Busy Agent that appeared on Suvudu today!

There’s a wonderful short film on The Guardian web site in which Ian Sinclair takes us on a fascinating short walk around Hackney.

The piece – which you’ll find by following this link – offers a real flavour of Sinclair’s new book, Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire which is now at number #13 in the hardcover charts, is ranked in the top 250 Amazon sellers and has already been reprinted twice since its Feb 26th release!

Ian McDonald reflects on the digital doppelgangers that our growing use of the net is bringing about…

‘I’m in bits. Pieces of me are all over the place.

And I’m a part-time mage in World of Warcraft. Well, I’m not. But it might be fun. More fun than Second Life, where I could be some tedious avatar and hang with boring people.’

• Click this link for the rest  of this article.

#2 – 05.07.08 – Holly Street

#1 – 03.05.08 – Tony Lambrianou

www.hackneyrose.com

• Reviews are starting to come in for Iain Sinclair’s new book Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire and we’ll be posting news of them here as they come in. For starters, here’s a four star write-up from today’s London Metro paper.

• Check our previous post for details of specific Hackney related events that are coming up and don’t forget to listen to BBC Radio 4 next week, when Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire will be being featured as Book of the Week.

• The Observer carried a wonderful interview with author Iain Sinclair on February 8th , 2009. ‘The brilliant chronicler of uncharted, often unloved, parts of Britain has stayed close to home for his latest epic – a bittersweet love letter to the London borough of Hackney. He takes Rachel Cooke for a stroll round his patch – no ordinary walk, as the visionary author beautifully evokes the area’s rich history while reflecting on his own memories of the urban landscape.‘ The piece is available here online.

• And if all this coverage is wetting your appetite for the book (and how can it not?) the publisher Hamish Hamilton has made an except of the book’s opening chapter available online. Click this link for the pdf.

… at the Madison Contemporary Art Gallery in London. Fascinating to see where so many top drawer writers scratch out their living. Other than Dahl and Ballard, there’s a noticeable lack of genre writers involved with this project – or perhaps the Spock ears and Star Wars™ Lego™ toys are just out of shot?

The BBC has a wonderful flash movie of the exhibition here.