River Song, the Time Traveler’s Wife, Borges and The Joshua Files.

Yeah that’s right. I can use all those things in a sentence. Because all four have used one very lovely device of the time-traveling story genre:

Two time-traveling characters who meet up with each other across different time-streams.

The earliest story that does this than Richard Matheson’s Bid Time Return, which was the basis for the adorable time-travel romance starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour; Somewhere In Time. (You haven’t seen it? Rent it now! For more about Richard Matheson and time-travel romances, see the comments below.)

The Time-Traveler’s Wife takes the concept further, criss-crossing ages and stages of the characters as they share a sort of life together across decades. I watched the amazing Doctor Who episode Silence In the Library for the first time last week – and finally saw the story which introduces Professor River Song. Is she our own time-traveler’s wife?

Yeah…maybe! But was she always his friend? Maybe not. Maybe when she first meets the Doctor, they are enemies.

Because he has an inkling of who she’ll become, it’s more interesting.

Anyway, we’ll see. I’m just guessing.

Jorge Luis Borges wrote a short story where a young Borges finds himself next to an old Borges, asking the older one about life. They don’t understand each other too well.

And in The Joshua Files?

Well, by the end of Joshua Files #3, Zero Moment, lovers and time-travelers have already crossed paths. There’s more to come in Joshua #4, Dark Parallel. Beady-eyed readers might have guessed it was happening.

Everyone else will have to wait until 2012 and Joshua #5 to know for sure…

As River Song would say…Spoilers!

Z is for Zany Orange Puffles and social networking sites for children here at mgharris.net

E is for Elektra Assassin – the baddest comic book grrl ever at bookzone4boys.blogspot.com

R is for Richmal Crompton and the genius of Just William at bartsbookshelf.co.uk

O is for Om nom nom – the nommity meme at chicklish.co.uk

M is for Mayan myths in popular culture (2012 and all that) at scribblecitycentral.blogspot.com

O is for One Hundred Years Of Solitude – a bluffers guide at viewfromheremagazine.co

M is for Motivating your characters – the secret to success? here at mgharris.net

E is for Everything I Know About Plotting I Learned From Aristotle at myfavouritebooks.blogspot.co

N is for Numbers in the Dark by Italo Calvino – a short story collection review at nextread.co.u

T is for Ten Things That Helped me Get Published at howpublishingreallyworks.com

Once again, it’s cake time. Thanks to some lovely friends in Oxford and the wonderful staff of Blackwell’s bookshop, we were able to enjoy another round of cupcakes, Joshua cake and a glass of fizzy pink wine.

Scholastic Children’s Books were on hand with shiny new Joshua Files enamel badges and glow-in-the-dark wristbands for all, as you can see if you look closely on the photos in the slideshow below.

You can listen to a special podcast from Radio Litopia which features the panel discussion and Q&A session from the launch party, featuring me with Peter Cox of Redhammer Management and BBC Oxford’s Bill Heine. (Press ‘Play’ below)

So, to everyone who attended, which was your favourite cupcake? (I was very torn between chocolate hazelnut and lime cheesecake.)

Fellow author Mark Robson has also mentioned the ZERO MOMENT launch party on the Trapped By Monsters Blog, where he’s giving away a free signed copy of the neon paperback edition of ZERO MOMENT.

And Susie Day, lolarious YA author of Big Woo and Girl Meets Cake, also my partner-in-crime in bacon-sarnie-and-coffee consumption, has blogged about the ZERO MOMENT launch party at susieday.com with another lovely photo.

Early reviews by two of the top UK book bloggers are here:
Zero Moment reviewed by Mr Ripley’s Enchanted Books
Zero Moment reviewed by The Bookzone for Boys

To celebrate, I’m holding My Big Fat Zero Moment Contest for Joshua fans over at themgharris.com.

How well do you know The Joshua Files? One reader will win the exclusive prize of Joshua Files books and goodies like enamel badges, neon wristbands, a drawstring gym bag and a Joshua T-shirt.

Closing date for entries is March 1st 2010. Go here for contest details.

For the first time so far, the neon-sleeved edition is only available for a short time, a limited run. It’s probably because of this that those retailers that managed to get hold of the limited run have gone out early with ZERO MOMENT. At the time of writing you can still buy this version at Waterstones, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Amazon.co.uk

But fear not if you don’t get hold of one, because the new neon paperback editions are also very snazzy.

And as shown in the video above, in between sessions of signing all 4700 copies of the limited run, I actually got to watch the first printing of the neon green paperback of ZERO MOMENT!

Up In The Air (I’ve Been There)

Originally uploaded by mgharris

There’s a lovely Clooney movie out just now, "Up In The Air" which features a key scene in Detroit Airport (also the airport destination of the latest Al Qaeda nutso, the Underpants Bomber.) Now who’da thought that an airport that I had never visited in years of travelling, at least 5 times to the USA, would suddenly become so ubiquitous, months after I happen to spend several happy hours there?

The simple answer is probably that it’s the major hub for American Airlines, who feature prominently in the Clooney film.

Is "Up In The Air" good? For a movie that purports to be a romcom it’s being taken quite seriously. But that is only because it isn’t actually a romcom. There is one important convention to romcoms, you might even say it’s the defining characteristic and it isn’t followed in this movie. Then again, "Annie Hall" ends with the lovers apart too.

It’s a good comedy drama though. With a rather nice, poignant twist at the end.

I took this photo in Detroit Airport, next to the jumping fountain. In the movie Clooney and his young co-star stand in almost exactly the same place, also with a sunset.

Meanwhile, "Zero Moment" is effectively published early, with online promotions starting this week at Waterstone’s and swapitshop.com

I spent today writing my 2010 author talk. First school event on Wednesday. Krispy Kreme party for the Joshua Facebook group on Friday. Big launch party next Tuesday. Much excitement and cake, then down to editing Dark Parallel.

Wednesday 27th also sees Joshua’s first outing in Polish!
Emailed from my BlackBerry®

Except that, as several readers have already pointed out to me, ZERO MOMENT is now being sold on Amazon.co.uk, Tesco, and Waterstones (in the stores too). Some readers have already bought it, read it and sent me lovely comments – thank you!

(Would be nice if you would put nice comments on Amazon too, that would be RIGHT lovely.)

Meanwhile what does an author do in the run-up period?

1. Plan a ZERO MOMENT launch party. It’s back to Blackwell’s in Oxford, but with more guests and more cakes. I am planning a marathon cupcakes making session, and am choosing four different types to make. Might do a poll, heh heh.

2. Gloatathon! Tracking the progress of Joshua as it starts getting published around the world. The Vietnamese edition of INVISIBLE CITY made their top ten paperback list, according to one blog. Nice reviews are appearing on blogs about the Indonesian and Spanish editions. Lovely, kind bloggers!

ICE SHOCK, which isn’t yet published in the USA, made a Top 12 Young Adult Books of 2009 on a US book blog, Semicolon. (And was also nominated for a Cybil – Middle Grade Fiction Award.)

I have exactly the same attitude to gloating about nice reviews as I once had to good results with my lab experiments. Celebrate them while you can! One day the reviews (or results) will not be so good…

3. Plan the Krispy Kreme FaceBook party. You need to be on the Joshua Files FaceBook Group to come to this, but it would be lovely to see some of the Oxford-based Joshua readers.

4. Meet Lovely Editor to discuss her notes for the manuscript of Joshua #4, DARK PARALLEL. Yes! It’s written and I am now poised, poised I tell you, to move to a second draft.

5. Pitch Quite Secret New Thing (hereafter QSNT) and Top Secret New Thing That I Only Just Thought Of In December But Which Is A Sort Of Major Rewrite Of Jaguar’s Realm (hereafter Top Secret New Thing or TSNT for short). Where am I on this? I have the opening chapters of QSNT which I am rewriting with suggestions from Mr Agent and today I wrote chapter 3 of TSNT.

I don’t know what I will write next! The new MD of Scholastic Children’s Book’s will soon hear both ideas…and decide: which one is best? Or at least, which one is best, next.

So as you see I have been busy. Don’t forget to join the Joshua Files FaceBook Group!

Did you enter the contests to win an advance copy of ZERO MOMENT at themgharris.com or the Joshua Files FaceBook group? Watch the video above to see if you won…

Winners will receive an email/FaceBook message from me soon to ask for a posting address.

For everyone else, Feb 1st isn’t too far away! Meanwhile, I hope this first ever review of ZERO MOMENT whets your appetite…over at the excellent book blog, BookZone4Boys.

Meanwhile, wow, another year. Another decade! I lay in bed last night thinking about things that happened 10, 20 years ago. Once you have kids life does neatly bisect into your pre-kids and post-kids life and I find I rarely think about the pre-kids life, apart from childhood memories. (Like all childrens’ authors I spend a fair amount of time reliving those, it’s kind of necessary.)

So last night I was remembering a visit to Madeira in the early 1990s. A neighbour had come over and talked about spending a couple of months somewhere warm in spring and we started telling him about how Madeira would be ideal. It had been a long time since I thought about that holiday, or the year in which we took it. I could remember a couple of things from work around that time, but mainly the year blurred into the scientific research I was doing at the time and that holiday to Madeira. It was a wonderful time, I could remember the colour of the sea when we swam off the side of a boat, my 3-year old and I, I remembered the moon-like vista of the top of the island, a steak barbeque we enjoyed in the middle of a wood, amidst wild lavender and bees….all that and a great deal more.

For one whole year of my life I remember probably parts of 20 days, no more. Wow. There are ways to dredge up more, I know, but WOW. Once, I could remember everything that happened to me beyond the age of consciousness. Now, well, if I didn’t blog it, I’m not sure I’d remember it!

Then again, it helps to forget bad things. So our leaky minds help us out there.

The moral? Record your thoughts via blog or vlog. But only nice things. Let the hoover of amnesia suck up your sadness – it may be for the best.

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:

• Frank’s happy day of receiving a finished copy of ICE SHOCK in German.
• My dear friend Martin Bonfil’s popular science blog La Ciencia por Gusto  (in English it’s Science for Pleasure)
• Tracey Anne Baines kidlit blog Tall Tales and Short Stories fetauring interviews with literary agents (including my own agent Peter Cox) and children’s and YA authors (including me!)
• Liz de Jager’s awesome YA book review blog My Favourite Books
• Looking forward to The Spectator’s new Cappuccino Culture – The Arts Blog on Monday

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…

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?