I WROTE A BOOK!

This excuses my long absence from this and other blogs, right?

And I’m so excited that the cover and the publisher’s page have been finalized so that I can tell you about it at long last!

I was approached last year by a commissioning editor from Icon Books, who publish the illustrated Graphic Guides series. My editor (and may I tell you how cool it is to use those words?) was looking for someone to write the text of a new Introducing Epigenetics entry in the series, and found me via my articles for The Guardian (so, many thanks are due to Jenny, Richard, and Stephen for setting that whole thing up!). I wrote the text last summer, did a major round of edits over Christmas and New Year, and am now waiting to see the illustrations that my very talented co-author Oliver Pugh is currently working on! The book’s coming out on February 2nd in the UK, and on March 14th in Canada, Australia, and the US. Details for other countries TBC.

The process was tough – it took up 100% of my evenings and weekends for several months, and I had to pass on lots of really fun invitations – but really fun. Due partly to needing a break after the two writing/editing sprints and partly to a ridiculous 6 month cluster of grant deadlines at work, I’ve taken a break from writing anything of substance since the edits were finished in early January (which you may have noticed). However, I’m looking forward to getting back into writing Guardian and other blog posts when I get back from my August and September travels (a holiday followed by being on the organizing committee of two conferences in, what else, epigenetics). I have a list of ideas, from my experiences volunteering at the last federal election to book reviews and more. I just need to get back into the groove!

I wrote a book, you guys! Properly, this time! Yay!