Rod's blog

Group member Rod Rees writes on his blog about his book signing session at London's Forbidden Planet. He was signing his debut novel, Demi-Monde: Winter.

The Demi-Monde

Congratulations to group member Rod Rees. His debut novel Demi-Monde: Winter is published this week by Quercus.

"Funnily enough I began ‘world building’ without realising that this is what I was doing but then being a novice writer I suppose I started the whole of the writing process without realising what I was doing.

No matter.

World building is the term applied to the exercise undertaken by all Science Fiction and Fantasy writers involving the creation of a believable and coherent backdrop – be it an alien world, a dystopian future or an alternative reality – to dress the stage upon which the writer’s fictional thespians can perform. And its purpose is just the same as scenery; to allow the audience to more easily suspend disbelief and willingly to enter the counterfeit world of the writer’s imagination, a world (hopefully) made so speciously plausible, so consistent, so logical, and so precise that the reader is persuaded to think…well, why not."

Read more by Rod here.

US rights deal for Rod Rees

Emma Thawley, Rights Director at Quercus, has sold US rights in two novels by UK novelist Rod Rees, The Demi-Monde: Winter and The Demi-Monde: Spring, to Gabe Robinson of HarperCollins. The books will be published in hardback on the Morrow imprint. World rights in Rod’s series, The Demi-Monde, were acquired pre-emptively by Quercus (who publish the first volume in January 2011) from agent John Jarrold for a major advance in 2009.

The Demi-Monde now has its own website -- worth a visit.

The Demi-Monde by Rod Rees

Look out for The Demi-Monde by Rod Rees (member of Renegade Writers' Group): "The Demi-Monde is the most advance computer simulation ever devised. Thirty million people ruled by history's cruelest tryants, locked in eternal civil war. The intention: to create the closest thing to hell, preparing soldiers for the nightmarish reality of war. But something has gone badly wrong inside the Demi-Monde...

Heydrich. Beria. Torquemada. Robespierre. History's most notorious mass-murderers -- or at least simulacrums of these monsters -- plot to escape their virtual world; their sights are set on the real world."

The Demi-Monde is due in January 2011 from Quercus in trade paperback (£14.99) and hardcover (£16.99) editions.

Renegade Writers: a member's views

From the Demi-Monde blog:

"Nell and I attended the Renegade Writers Group in Stoke yesterday evening (every Wednesday night, 19.30 at the Jolly Potter pub – the house white ain’t bad either) and had a GREAT time. I think the success of any Rees outing is directly proportional to the amount of conversation in the car afterwards and believe me the 40 minute trip back to Derby seemed to fly by. "

To read all of Rod's comments about last night's meeting, visit his blog.