The MG Harris Blog

Archive for the ‘joshua 4’ Category


Posted on September 1, 2009 - by MG

Delivery Cupcakes for Joshua Files 4

Delivery Cupcakes for Joshua Files 4
You can tinker with a manuscript forever, but eventually you have to let go, let that first person read it. In my case it’s my husband and then my editor. And so far, for a good 9 months after I’ve delivered the ms, no-one else.

It’s kind of nice, actually. As an author, you totally own the story until people start reading it. It exists only in your mind. And eventually, to be read (hopefully, if you’re lucky!) Most of us write to be read, so that’s a really exciting point too. It will certainly improve with editing, will become more readable and more people will be able to enjoy it. But there’s also something special about the time during which the story is belongs only to the author.

To celebrate sending off the manuscript for Joshua 4, I made Red Velvet cupcakes from a recipe in my new Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook (from the famous Hummingbird American bakery on Portbobello Road in London). Amazing! So little butter and eggs! Such a lot of icing sugar! And I can haz incredible cupcakes freshly baked in my own home!

Now for the quick-witted among you I am going to give some Joshua 4 spoilers.

And tomorrow I will remove them right after my shower!

Google’s cache will still have it for a while but by the time anyone looks for Joshua 4 spoilers near to 2011, it will be long gone…

BIG SPOILERS WERE HERE UNTIL 10AM ON 1ST SEP BUT NOW ARE GONE!

Now - forget everything you just read!!!

MG Harris

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Posted on August 21, 2009 - by MG

My bloggy friends

Oh the pressure of finding a photo for a blog post.

This is a photo of the volcano Popocatepetl, taken from the balcony of my uncle Xavier’s late lamented Tocame bar in Atlixco. It was a fine thing, that bar. Great views of the volcano, too. Known to locals as Don Goyo, the mountain smoulders away, threatening to get pyroclastic on everyone, never actually doing it.

Why a smoking volcano. Well, because while finishing Joshua 4, smoking volcanos were on my mind a fair bit…

Anyway. My blog-buddy and German translator of Joshua, Frank Boehmert recently mentioned on his blog that I don’t update as much as I used to. He rightly guessed that business and Twitter are why I’m not so active here any longer.

It’s also because I’ve started spending free moments (when I’m not busy with Twitter and Facebook) reading other blogs. Here’s some recent faves:

Meanwhile I’m off to Switzerland for the birthday week, from Sunday. Mountains and walks, and birthday cake almost every day! A great environment in which to complete the polish on Joshua 4 in time to hand it over to Editor Polly by September.

ZERO MOMENT is coming along very nicely. I’ve seen a colour mockup of the cover and Polly and I have been working on the jacket copy. Will post both on themgharris.com as soon as blurb is finalised…


Posted on August 2, 2009 - by MG

Joshua 4 finished…! (well, a draft)

Where in the world is Josh Garcia?

Yeahhh! I finished the last page of Joshua 4 on Friday. Just in time to take August off for holidays and researching Quite Secret New Project.

I’d hoped to post a photo of the proof pages for ZERO MOMENT with the laptop with Joshua 4 in the background…

But I’ve finished Joshua 4 a little early, to give myself time to work on Quite Secret Project. It’s not top secret or anything, if you’ve been following me on Twitter or if you’re my FaceBook friend (and if you don’t and aren’t, hey, c’mon & join in!) then you might have an inkling of what I’ve got planned,

I even asked 20 young readers who are FaceBook friends to help me come up with a name for my new hero…I might post a poll here, when I’m ready to let you know more.

Anyway, because Joshua 4 isn’t out until 2011, I don’t want to tease too much about the plot. Sheesh, you don’t even know what ZERO MOMENT is about yet…more on that when the proofs are ready and checked. I’ll see about getting an excerpt online.

Let’s just say that in Joshua 4 the Bracelet of Itzamna is finally going to be put to the use for which it was originally intended…

Title - I have one. But I’m NOT TELLING! Ha! Only people who turn up at my events and wheedle at me. Then I’ll probably ‘fess up good ‘n fast. I tried to resist telling a bunch of young readers at a Quest Seekers event in Stoke Newington library last week. In the end, I totally caved.

The only hint I’m giving to what happens in Joshua 4 is the photo above. Who can tell me where it is?

Meanwhile I’m hatching a plan to make some Joshua Files-themed giveaways to specially keen fans on themgharris.com Drawstring bags, pencil cases and a groovy pen-torch, probably.

What kind of things should I award them for?


Posted on July 9, 2009 - by MG

Dreaming of Lake Bacalar

Dreaming of Lake Bacalar

Originally uploaded by mgharris (Photo taken by David Harris)

There’s a freshwater lagoon in the south of Quintana Roo state in Mexico, that is twenty-seven kilometres long and boasts water of seven shades of blue, from aqua to midnight blue. The lagoon of Bacalar, or Lake Bacalar as it is also known, is mostly a wildlife reserve on one side, with limited development on the other.

I visited the lake with my family in Oct 2007 whilst travelling in the QR and Campeche region, collecting photos and sampling locations for ‘The Joshua Files’. At that time I’d written the first two books but not yet visited Becan or Chetumal, both of which feature in ‘Invisible City’.

Our day at the lake was particularly delicious. The water is like a giant freshwater pool, crystal clear water and a sandy base. We ate ceviche and fish tacos at the lakeside restaurant. The next day we came back with my cousin Oscar Raul, who I hadn’t seen for years. In the meantime he’d turned from a cheerful wannabe rock drummer college freshman into a chic geek with eyes on a European doctoral position. As the first serious geek in the family I had long ago recognised Oscar Raul as One Of Us. My sister Pili (BA geology MA theology, angling to do a doctorate too) and I frankly had been waiting many years for him to join us.

So, a happy reunion.

We drank Dos Equis lager and watched the sun go down. I stayed in the lake until dark with my two daughters. All day long I wished fervently that there was some way that I could write Lake Bacalar into ‘Joshua Files’. Lakeside houses, speedboats, jet skis…what’s not to love?

Well, in Joshua Files 3, ZERO MOMENT (out spring 2010in the UK) I found a way to set something pretty important to the plot in Bacalar. The story takes a turn in that direction in Joshua Files 4 too.

I have around 17,000 left to write of Joshua 4 and then *sob* there’ll only be one left.

Joshua 4 also features another incredible location that we visited on that amazing 2007 Mexico trip. More anon…
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