06-26-2003, 12:00 AM
I always wanted to have my books published, but now that I have, I do want them to be good ones. I know the joy (no other word for it) I've had from reading some authors and when I hear someone else has enjoyed something I've written, it's really satisfying. I've just started reading Patrick O'Brien and to find an author like that with twenty books of his to read is wonderful. It's a shame he died in 2000, I would have liked to write to him to tell him how much I've enjoyed the first five. Definitely better than Hornblower. Interestingly (perhaps only to me and Simon Scarrow) those books are a superb example of the historical novel well-researched. Every ship and battle is accurate. An ancestor of mine commanded the bomb ketch Aetna in the Napoleonic wars and Aetna is mentioned, as well as a number of other ships he was in - right places, right times, even to the Royal George, which blew up in Spithead when a fire reached the magazine. Absolutely staggering in authentic detail and a good story on top, or underneath as it were. Not a pink flamingo in sight, even on the quarterdeck with a telescope.<br>
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I like the flamingo image by the way, though as I've said before, if I have to choose between a dramatically satisfying scene and a more accurate but less satisfying scene, I'll go for the former and try to mention the change in an afterword. However, you really can't please everyone and people have odd tastes.<br>
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I read a book last year that I absolutely hated. I won't name it, but I have never read anything that irritated me as much as that book. For months after its release I waited for the storm of abuse to begin on Amazon. Did I see some? Did I hell. Not a single nasty comment for one of the most offensive things I've read. I'm still hoping the reason for this is that no one read it.<br>
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It is a pleasure to be in print, no doubt about it. In many ways, it's a private communication between the writer and someone far away in a different room. With luck, they are sitting with a cup of coffee enjoying something I wrote. I like to think of it like that, and not so much of the moment when they put pen to paper to begin,<br>
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"Dear Mr Iggulden,<br>
I was appalled to notice..."<br>
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To be brutally honest, I haven't actually had any nasty letters. Either the publishers keep them from me, or those that have read the first of the Emperor series prefer to use the internet.<br>
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This website has become a regular with me. Those that have criticised have done so with the sort of care and attention to detail that is almost a pleasure to read.<br>
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Best wishes,<br>
<br>
Conn Iggulden<br>
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<br>
I like the flamingo image by the way, though as I've said before, if I have to choose between a dramatically satisfying scene and a more accurate but less satisfying scene, I'll go for the former and try to mention the change in an afterword. However, you really can't please everyone and people have odd tastes.<br>
<br>
I read a book last year that I absolutely hated. I won't name it, but I have never read anything that irritated me as much as that book. For months after its release I waited for the storm of abuse to begin on Amazon. Did I see some? Did I hell. Not a single nasty comment for one of the most offensive things I've read. I'm still hoping the reason for this is that no one read it.<br>
<br>
It is a pleasure to be in print, no doubt about it. In many ways, it's a private communication between the writer and someone far away in a different room. With luck, they are sitting with a cup of coffee enjoying something I wrote. I like to think of it like that, and not so much of the moment when they put pen to paper to begin,<br>
<br>
"Dear Mr Iggulden,<br>
I was appalled to notice..."<br>
<br>
To be brutally honest, I haven't actually had any nasty letters. Either the publishers keep them from me, or those that have read the first of the Emperor series prefer to use the internet.<br>
<br>
This website has become a regular with me. Those that have criticised have done so with the sort of care and attention to detail that is almost a pleasure to read.<br>
<br>
Best wishes,<br>
<br>
Conn Iggulden<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<p></p><i></i>
