The Commuter's Tale by Oliver Gozzard

The New Year will bring an event I have long looked forward to - the launch of my first book, The Commuter's Tale by Oliver Gozzard.

The book - published by Desert Hearts - has resulted from almost three years of hard effort: writing, editing, planning - conducted on my regular train between Lewes and London Victoria.

In fact, even more perspiration than that has gone into this project.

I have wanted to publish a book for more than a decade and spent a great deal of time in the late 1990s and early 2000s writing a novel, The Phophet's Chamber, which has still to see the light of day! However without that effort, The Commuter's Tale would never have been written.

Of course the build-up to the launch - on Lord Byron's 223rd birthday on 22 January 2011 - is a frantic one.

First I am hoping to build up web presence before I try to hit the conventional media with it.

So far, so good. Steerforth has written about it on his excellent blog, Age of Uncertainty in which he also talks about my poetry club, Lewes Poetry.

In a bit of a first, he interviewed me for his blog at the Lewes Arms and recorded me reading a passage from The Commuter's Tale.

And The Poet Laura-eate has also generously written about it on her excellent blog.

In terms of book shops, it is already avaiable for pre-order on Desert Hearts, Amazon and Waterstone's, which I am hoping will also take it in its shops.

Even a Swedish supplier, Bokus has started offering it.

I have been a reluctant blogger this year but with the book coming out this is going to change! I will charting my ups and downs in this tricky but exciting process.

If you would like to write about The Commuter's Tale for your blog, just drop me a line and I will email you a taster or the full text, and other information. Spread the word!

P.S. I have set up a Commuter's Tale Twitter site at:
http://twitter.com/commuterstale