I came back from a few most enjoyable days in Dunedin, visiting my lovely friends there – and making some new ones – to find an advance copy of my short story collection Transported waiting for me on my return. It looks great! The cover colours, which appear slightly washed out in the image to the left, are beautifully sharp on the book itself, and so far as I can tell, all the words inside are in the right place and in the right order.
No matter how excellent the publisher – and the team at Random House NZ (who have published the book under their Vintage imprint) are indeed excellent – opening one’s new book for the first time is still a nervous moment. The book doesn’t go on general release until 6 June, but it’s already available to pre-order at some bookshops, and publicity for it should appear shortly before it is released.
Released … tracklisting … yes, I think of it as something like a record (that cherishably old-fashioned artifact) with 27 tracks, some of which have already been released, in earlier versions, as singles. Here’s the “tracklisting” for Transported, with links to a few previously-published stories which are available online. I hope this will whet your appetite.
Rat Up a Drainpipe
Said Sheree
When She Came Walking
A Short History of the 20th Century, With Fries
Win a Day with Mikhail Gorbachev!
The New Neighbours
Sisters
Not Wanted on Voyage
Jim Clark
Alarm
The Wadestown Shore
Filling the Isles
Homestay
The Visit of M. Foucault to His Brother Wayne
Borges and I
Measureless to Man
The Seeing
After the War
Best Practice
Robinson in Love
Going Under
Morning on Volkov
The Royal Tour
Queen of the Snows
Going to the People
Cold Storage
Books in the Trees
