An announcement...

Hello Queen fans!

I realize it's been quite some time since I've been on this board. I've been purposely avoiding posting here, as life has been quite busy recently, but I do have exciting news.

Several years ago, I purchased a book called "The Complete David Bowie" by Nicholas Pegg. I was only a casual fan then, but I really liked what he did with it: the book was divided into several sections, with the first section detailing all of the songs - unreleased and officially released - Bowie did in alphabetical order; the second section was a chronological breakdown of all of his studio albums; the third section detailed his live performances; and so forth.

I was floored with what I read, and it turned me into an even bigger Bowie fan. I started to look around for a Queen version, but was disheartened to learn that their recorded works hadn't been given a very thorough look-in; certainly, I had wanted to find out the histories of many of Queen's lesser-known songs, and was disappointed that nobody had done so. Ideas started to formulate, and I adopted the attitude that if something's gotta be done, you might as well do it yourself.

I started to write and research, and came up with about 50 pages until, in September 2004, I had a massive hard drive crash and lost everything (including pictures and all of the music I had burned from CDs). I decided to abandon the project out of frustration, but about a month later I was so inspired again to write that I worked even harder to recreate what I had lost. Wanting to make sure that I was not doing this all for naught, I emailed Brian in November 2004 and told him what I was up to; he responded, saying it was a good idea and that I should go ahead with it. He gave me Greg Brooks's email address as a contact, which proved to be useless. Initially, Greg had asked me to contribute to a similar project that he was working on, but nothing ever came of that - not that I would have done so anyway.

Nevertheless, I continued to write and research - initially, the book was only going to focus on Queen's works, but sometime in the summer of 2005 I decided to expand it to include solo works as well. This was an added burden, as most of the solo recordings - especially those of The Cross - were unavailable. Thankfully, through some very helpful people here - Rip Van Winkle, Dan Corson, and Thijs, if I remember correctly - they sent me The Cross's material, though they didn't have any idea that it was for a project. For that, I am very grateful.

The live section will prove to be a hairy situation, as we already have Greg's "Queen Live" as a basis, and several other people already working on more complete projects and analyses. I've forseen the probability of in-depth projects, especially by Sir GH, being published in the near future; I've decided to keep the live section somewhat skeletal, so as not to upset the research of those who are more interested in the live recordings and are willing to devote their time and energy to such means. However, it wouldn't be completely Queen without the live portion, so a reference will be made for Mr. Scully's site as well as Bob's site, and that those will be the definitive works on Queen's live career.

Anyway, I continued to work on the project for most of 2005, not really sure what I would do with it if I ever finished it. In January 2006, I sent an email to the publisher of the David Bowie book - Reynolds & Hearn, based in England - with an informal email about what I was doing. They responded back, asking me to send some PDF files of what I had; I duly complied, and they responded once again saying they were very impressed and were going to send it around the company for others' reactions. After a few weeks, in February 2006, I got another email from them saying they were very impressed and want to go ahead with it. I didn't hear from them again until this morning.

I was offered a simple contract with them, and I

Nice and interesting reading Lester! I am looking forward to your writings.

Good luck and thank you for sharing this bit of information.

wow lester you have been busy, well done and i for sure will buy the book! im also guessing you may be doing a section on the Queen + Paul Rodgers collaberaation?

if so i will gladly help you in anyway i can with it, as i have many recordings, some people have more but i also know some stuff about it. either way well done and keep it up!

Good luck with that, count me in as one who will buy a copy!

Good luck Lester! Show 'em all that QZers are the best!

Wow, that's great! Congrats! :-)

Wonderful news, Lester; I'll just curse you behind your back.

I'm sure there are many of us willing to help if you ever run into a problem.

Good luck!

That's great news, Lester. You make us proud:)
I'll definitely buy a copy.

Thats really cool.

That's really great! I'll certainly be buying a copy!

Well done Lester! Keep a copy for me! Good Luck!

Lester, that's fantastic news! If it's anything like your contributions to this board it'll be a great read and I'm sure a great success.

Good Luck, Lester. I wish you all the best.

I'm also busy with a Queen project myself.

Woo,go you!!!Ill be buying a copy anyway!Thats real cool and I hope it all goes great for you!