Thank you for reading my books. And buying them. Current: Shades of Grey 2: ‘Red Side Story'. Next: Thursday Next 8: ‘Dark Reading Matter’ US and UK, 2025…
Submitted 1st Draft of Shades of Grey 2: 'Red Side Story' this morning. Eddie and Jane: They're back. The Colourtocracy, Prefects, Jollity Fair, Tin Men, Angels, Heralds, Fallen Men, Loganberry Jam, Riffraff, Ball lightning, Mildew, Ford Model Ts and the lovely Violet deMauve..
Shades of Grey Sequel Update 01: Rereading the book and ... Holy Cow, that’s a steep expositional start to a book. For those who stuck with it, my admiration and thanks. I’d forgotten Jane’s opening line: ‘Touch me again and I’ll break your f***ing jaw’. Who said romance is dead?
Somewhere, a young lady named Thursday will be celebrating her 19th birthday today, 14th April. She was the first Thursday named after Ms Next, but not the last. Happy Birthday, Thursday - I hope the name has worked well for you…
Oooooh, I've just figured out how Red Side Story (SofG2) ends. I'm 95% in, but this is not unusual. I've always said that if you're reading one of my books and can't figure out where it's going, then you're in good company - neither did I. Books aren't written; they evolve..
Fforde Update: Just finishing editing Dragonslayer IV: 'The Great Troll War' which will be published UK September 2021. In March I start work on Shades of Grey II, which should be published 2022. Now, those pesky swans.. (More about DSIV soon)
#shadesofgreytwo
#thegreattrollwar
The next book will not be a Next book. The one after the next book is DS4, and the next after that will be SoG2. Then there will be the next Next. The next book is a standalone about rabbits. I hope that’s clear.
Just to confirm, as many people have asked: There will be a third Shades of Grey and it will NOT take so long to come out. I'm hoping 2027 as I have a few projects to get out before it. (TN8, for one)
This is more how I see dodo unextinction. Most of what you need in a can. Just add a denucleated dove's egg, a bowl, an egg whisk, a pair of tweezers, a microscope, a steady hand and a warm laundry cupboard.. (from 2001's 'The Eyre Affair')
#dodo
@federallamm
++Fforde News Flash++ Just finished the edit of Dragonslayer 4, AKA 'The Great Troll War'. Publishing Sept 2021, UK. A week off, then start reading 'Shades of Grey' to figure out what happens next..
#thegreattrollwar
#shadesofgreytwo
Happy New Year and thank you for the birthday wishes! Let’s hope 2022 heralds a return to normalcy. I’ve got my head down at present on Shades of Grey 2, ‘Red Side Story’, hopefully still good for a ‘22 publication. I can report that Eddie and Jane are very well…
More than 300 years after the dodo bird became extinct, UC Santa Cruz scientist
@bonesandbugs
and her team have sequenced its full genome, raising the possibility that it could be brought back to life. via
@thetimes
When I was a teenager I went to the school careers officer and said: ‘when I grow up I want to write absurdist novels’ She told me: ‘You can’t do both.’
I have a US publisher for 'Red Side Story', so there will be a North American distribution. Details are under wraps at present, but just wanted to share. Pub date will be as close to the UK date as possible.. (Feb 24) It's great news..
Two bits of news: 1: there will definitely be a Shades of Grey III, title TBA. Likely 2027. 2: North America Audio will publish same time as US edition, May ‘24….
Thank you Cheryl and the team at Waterstones Reading - and to everyone who dropped in for a chat. Note to self: Nursery Crime series needs one final book for the trilogy. Reading demands it.
@BroadStBooks
Achilles was held by the heel and dipped in the river Styx when a child, and this conferred upon him invulnerability. Today, politicians seem to have been dipped in Teflon. And for the males at least, I'm not convinced they were held by the heel.
FACT: Unlike most animals that were colourised to take full advantage of colour TV technology, Badgers, Skunks, Zebras and Pandas remain in B&W to this day due to the 'Who colours what?' funding dispute between ITV and BBC in the sixties.
I'm often struck about how few poems feature the rhinosaurus. Here's one I wrote the other day:
The Rhinoceros is ponderous and thunderous,
And often quite disastrous when boisterous.
But even though bulky and hulky and sulky,
with rhino friends he is humorous and virtuous.
Despite the recent lifting of COVID measures, can I add my voice to those imploring we all remain super cautious? Speaking personally, you do not want this sodding virus. Even mild Long Covid can totally piss with your life. Please, please, take care out there.
I know ffans constantly ask when the sequel will be published but I’m just glad we at least have this post-apocalyptic masterpiece to read over and over. Happy 10th anniversary to SOG!
@jasperfforde
It seems a good time to release some old and new scribblings from here at Fforde Towers. I've packaged them under the clearly ironic title of 'Adventures in Jasperland', and I hope they offer some diversion and distraction as we stare down the weeks.
Published 2nd July in the UK: ‘The Constant Rabbit’. Into a small and utterly peaceful village in middle England, there descends a family of rabbits: large anthropomorphised ones, who walk and talk and drive cars.…
Meanwhile, in 'The Constant Rabbit' universe, UKARP politicians releases its own utterly independent report on institutionalised Leporiphobia in the UK: There isn't any. In other news, the rehoming to Wales of 1.2M rabbits continues as scheduled..
USA News: Those lovely lovely people at Soho Press will be publishing the next three Fforde books in North America. 'Red Side Story' can be preordered now and on sale on May 7th 2024. Cover reveal is tantalisingly close. Publicity meeting Jan 12th, so we'll have more info then..
'Shades of Grey' is a 99p UK Kindle deal this month. If you haven't delved into this story, it takes place in a future dystopic Britain based rigorously around visual colour. Dark? Yes. Odd? That too. (Sequel due in February) Kindle link:
Publication day today, North America Red Side Story has landed. I’m in the US now as part of a small tour - thank you,
@soho_press
!! Tour details here:
FACT: Mozarella has to be kept in water because once exposed to air, there is a high chance of molecular instability that could lead to detonation. The fissile material in the 1st nuclear test at Los Alamos was surrounded by Mozarella to maximise the yield.
Publication day of ‘The Constant Rabbit’ today, with me carrying some of the many hundreds of yet-to-be sold copies. Huge thanks to Hodder and everyone who contributed to its creation. Next stop, Dragonslayer 4 - and…
Shades of Grey Colour mindflubber: If your front room is empty, it doesn't have any colour in it as there is no-one there to see it. Colour is an abstract concept, a perception of the mind alone. Flowers are only colourful because there is something there to observe them..
Fforde News Fflash: Publication of 'Early Riser' in the USA as yet undecided, but I am told 'early 2019'. As for the 'When-O-when-o-when SoG2?'issue, I'm thinking of having a stab at it in 2019, once 'DS4' and 'Rabbits' are out of the way. Updated Faq:
@jasperfforde
Finished Red Side Story last night; really enjoyed learning more about the Chromatacia, and genuinely surprised by the ending. Please don't make us wait so long for part three.
We are over the moon that RED SIDE STORY has gone straight into the Sunday Times bestseller list at number two!
Huge congratulations
@jasperfforde
and thanks to all the brilliant booksellers.
More on visits to Fiction Island: With over a billion books, navigation can be tricky. Luckily the Council of Genres have put up numerous roadsigns. from Thursday Next Six: 'One of Our Thursdays is Missing'
Clangers are creatures with alien features,
glass-bead eyes and an ant-eater nose;
with quite simple plots in five minute slots,
they converse in a whistle-like prose.
Ode to the Clangers, Jasper Fforde, 1994
Any misuse of apostrophe’s in the Ffordes house we call a ‘catapostrophe’. Mind you, to maintain the balance of the universe it is vital that for every missed apostrophe there has to be an extraneous one. So its okay for writer’s to do it. Occasionally. In comedic context.
It’s not my fault my previous tweet lacks an apostrophe. It’s the fault of the rampant overusage of apostrophes to erroneously construct plurals. We are now experiencing an apostrophe shortage.
@jasperfforde
warned of such consequences!!
Second, one of my fave authors,
@jasperfforde
who to my mind writes love letters to the joys of reading, libraries, and is filled with men who happily love from the shadows of their wives.
#LandenParkeLaine
Paperback publication of 2021's 'The Great Troll War' today, the fourth and final book in the 'Last Dragonslayer' series. Aimed at children but kind of for adults too. Trolls, Spells, Dragons and the Chrysler Building. It's all here. More:
Fforde Ffestival Effent: Wrexham Festival, April 19th at 5:00 PM 2021. I'll be 'there' talking about rabbits and the upcoming Series Finale of Dragonslayer. Holy Cow, I actually finished a series. Whatever Next? SofG-2, that's what.
Writing Dragonslayer IV, and I need a backronym for a 'spellsucking' anti-magic incantation that literally hoovers up wizidrical energy. It's called a HENRY. Any ideas?
Morning off in Edinburgh before I head off to sign stock and go to my event at Toppings tonight. Picture shows me in the arms of my mother. I remained badly drawn until I was nine when an itinerant novelty dancer with a penchant for pastels coloured me in..
Moles are also related to birds. They fly penguin-like through the soil, often attempting to burst into the air to soar proud and free - but are stopped dead by the impenetrable mesh of grass, scattering soil and their broken dreams upon the lawn.
I just got my author allocation of TCR paperbacks. With an opening chapter set during a speed librarying event complete with Dewey Decimal in-jokes, ten of these books need to find a home in a UK library. First ten addresses to DM get a free copy.
#ilovelibraries
#library
It's not the next Next of even a shade of Shades 2, but it is the last Last Dragonslayer Book: Episode 4, 'The Great Troll War' As you can see, I modelled for the cover (that's me on the right) Out today, available now! (Thank you
@hodder
)
I finally met the Tweeter behind the awesome
@swanseastones
feed and they and the bookseller team are every bit as fabulous in real life. I hope to do an event there for the launch of
#shadesofgrey2
in 2023...
Twitter Guy makes no apology for the fact that every other tweet today is about
@jasperfforde
.
There he is, see?
Also, we now, quite possibly but probably not completely coincidentally, have SIGNED Jasper Fforde books!
My weight in Tunnock's Teacakes would be £428 if you bought them in the Co-Op. My weight in gold would be £3.5M but you can't eat gold. My weight in gold would buy 3.1 million boxes of Teacakes. Eating two a day they'd last 25,000 years
#tunnocks
One month until my next book, 'Early Riser' is published in the USA on the 12th Feb 2019. I'll be on tour at the venues described on the card, so why not drop by? Preorder links, if you so wish, are here:
At last some good news in politics. We overturned the Tory majority and returned a Lib Dem to parliament. Our congratulations to our new MP:
@doddsjane
@libdems
My thanks to Toppings for a great event! Next stop today, Tuesday 13th: Newcastle for lunchtime signing and event tonight in York, both Waterstones. See you there..
#redsidestory
Apparently, the Home Secretary is drawing up plans to outlaw tunnelling in her attempts to curtail the ability to protest. You couldn't make it up. Actually, you could: From
#theconstantrabbit