But I have one last question for U2 fans.

I’ve written a short, three-paragraph Introduction that covers only the new material – 2008 through 2010. The Introduction is sort of a big picture, high-level assessment of the material in the diary. I reviewed these past three years and found the major themes/events to include

• relatively poor album sales compared to past U2 albums
• poor sales/response to U2′s singles
• shut out at all the major awards, even the Meteor Irish Music Awards in their own country
• Bono’s back injury
• the long-running Spider-Man problems
• huge success for the U2 360 tour

The Introduction as I’ve written it basically says that this was a difficult three years for U2 and that there were more negatives than positives.

The question to you: Is that accurate/fair? Or, were the past three years better for U2 than I’ve painted them? Your feedback is appreciated! Please leave a comment below and I’ll process them for posting as quickly as possible.

First and foremost:

Thank you deeply and sincerely for all your help with this book. As I said a few posts back, U2 fans are amazing. If you’ve ever commented on this blog, or sent me a helpful e-mail, you’ve made the book better. I’ve been doing my best to keep a master list of everyone who has directly affected the text in some way, and your names will be included in the acknowledgments. (I’ll do my best to limit the number of names I forget to include.)

Secondly:

As soon as I have details from the photo editor, I’ll be posting here on the blog about how to submit photos, what types of photos we’re looking for, and so forth. Please stay tuned for that, because no matter how good my manuscript may (or may not) be, you’ll like the book a lot better if it has great pictures.

Third:

Over on the right here are my final stats from the MS Word file. Almost 204,000 words. Heheheheee. I was supposed to write 150,000, so … ummm … I went 33% over my target. Whoops! I’ll be curious to see how much gets edited. I can see the discussion now:

Me: “Seriously, that time when Bono stubbed his toe just has to be in the book! You can’t edit that out!”

Chris (editor): “Sorry, Matt. It’s gone.”

Just kidding. There are no mentions of stubbed toes in the book.

Lastly: I can’t say this enough…

Santa Claus brought me a stack of new CDs, which has made today’s writing a very enjoyable musical journey (when not interrupted by the occasional break to help a child put together a train set, for example … or the occasional break to watch the snow fall).

I began with Reason, a 2003 EP from The Fray which was recently released now that they’ve become popular. After that it was Huey Lewis & The News – Greatest Hits and then The Best of Barry White, which makes for excellent background music since I don’t know any words. And now Collective Soul’s new album, afterwords, is finishing up; that’s one is really good. Such an underrated band.

Still to come from my Christmas bounty: Bob Marley’s Legend, Def Leppard’s Vault, and Al Green’s The Definitive Greatest Hits.

The writing is almost done and I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel. Hope everyone’s having a wonderful Christmas and/or Happy Holidays!

“Edge, right now, is on fire. He’s really rockin’. He’s playing guitar like I’ve never seen him playing guitar.”

I won’t tell you the exact date/diary entry the quote is associated with (there are several possibilities!), so you can have fun looking for it if you buy the book. :)

Just an FYI … I mean, what U2 book would be complete without that quote? Right?

Next up: adding/confirming all the various dates of releases of albums, singles, and so forth. Another mammoth project, I’m assuming.

182,000+ words in the manuscript at the moment, in case you’re keeping track. :)

Raul asked: “Do you already have the cover done? How is it going to be? A photo of the band? A Bono photo? No photo?”

The cover is out of my hands. Omnibus (the publisher) has an art department, a photo editor, etc., and coming up with the cover is their job, not mine. I have a specific photo in mind that I’d love to see as the cover image, and I’m going to suggest it at the appropriate time. But the photographer may not want to license it, or may want too much money, etc. Photos, layout, the cover — all the stuff related to the “look” will be dealt with after I turn in the manuscript (which is due January 2nd).

OptimaX asked:

“1. What is the size of the book going to be? I travel a lot and i think i like to have it with me so i can read it in public transport.
2. Will there be a hardback and/or paperback version?
3. As time will continue after the book is ready, is there some sort of clever way to ‘update’ the book with new additions? Or aren’t you planning on contineuing the diary after the book!”

1. I believe the plan is to have the book be about the same size as U2 LIVE, although that may change.
2. I believe there will only be a paperback.
3. I am planning to keep tracking U2′s activities day-to-day. Omnibus will be the ones who decide if the book will be updated. It’s written in the contract that I get first dibbs if they decide to do an update. Considering they’ve done two updates of U2 LIVE, my guess is they’ll want to update U2 DIARY, also — assuming A) I do a good job, and B) the book sells well.

blueshades asked: “Will you be mentioning the founding of @U2?”

Heheheheee. Well, at this moment, the founding of @U2 is not included in the manuscript. I’m flattered you think it should be there, and I gave it some thought since it’s the oldest running fan site around, but I couldn’t justify it. I do include the “U2 Fan Celebration” that we co-hosted with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, because we had the official connection and appearance by Steve Averill and Shaughn McGrath from Four5One. So, @U2 will be mentioned at that point.

Coca asked: “there will be a pre-sale or something like? and. If I buy the book, will you be able to sign it?”

I have no idea how the sales part works. :-) My guess is that Omnibus will announce a release date and the book will appear sometime around then. I’m sure you’ll be able to pre-order it on Amazon or your favorite bookstore site. Publishing seems a bit flaky to me, at least that’s my impression from reporting on all the U2 books that have come out in recent years. They announce a date, and then you never know if the book will show up before or after that date.

I remember when the latest U2 LIVE update came out, I was able to buy a copy in my local store before Caroline received her copy from Omnibus. Crazy!

And if you buy the book, I will scratch my head wondering why anyone would want my signature, but since you’ve been a help here on the blog, Coca, I’ll do it for you. :)

Bjorn asked: “if there would be an audible version of the book, whom would you want to have it read by?”

Ha! What a fun question! Okay … do you know the actor Dennis Haysbert? He’s on a show called The Unit here in the U.S., and he’s also the spokesman for Allstate — he’s the guy in their TV commercials. I love his voice, so he’d be the choice.

Grantham said: “I think you are doing a hell of a job….I look forward to the book. You’ll have to toss a Santa Hat reference in somewhere.”

Thanks, old friend. I don’t know if the Santa Hat episode will make the cut. I’m leaving the really detailed concert stories to U2 LIVE, but we’ll see. What a great night that was…..

Thanks again for all the great questions, everyone! Please post any more in the comments below.

What am I doing, you ask? Adding every tour date U2 has played into the manuscript. It’s terribly boring work, although I must admit it’s neat to see the text “filling out” so nicely with all the extra dates included.

So, since I’m not in blogging mode, how about I open the floor and invite you to ask any question you want about the book. Just ask your question in the comments to this post, and I’ll either answer with my own comment, or maybe I’ll do a new post with the answers (if there are a lot).

And if no one has any questions, that’s okay, too. :) But if you do, leave a comment!

So, with that in mind, I’m kinda curious about your answers to this question:

What do you think will be the first date listed in U2 DIARY?

Leave guesses/answers in the comments, please. And feel free to explain why you chose the date you give.

When I think about it as 2-and-a-half-months, it seems like nowhere near enough time. When I think about it as 10+ weeks, it seems a little better. But I prefer 75 days — that sounds a lot more manageable.

I’m now back from almost a week away at a business trip in New York City. I have a trip to Seattle coming up in a few weeks, but after that I really hope I’ll be home for the rest of the year. Researching and writing is a lot easier here at home where I have access to all my books, magazines, emails you’ve sent, and so forth.

Here’s a Status Report…

The two main things on my TO DO list are:

1. Add all the known concert dates from U2tours.com, U2tour.de, U2-Vertigo-Tour.com, and U2 LIVE.

2. Add dates and info. related to all of U2′s official releases. Aaron has given me the okay to use U2Wanderer.org for this, and I plan to take him up on that offer. :)

Once those are done, I need to start fixing up the manuscript. Right now I have every entry written out with full month, date, and year, like this:

June 3, 2005

blah–blah–blah….

June 4, 2005

blah–blah–blah….

June 7, 2005

blah–blah–blah….

But the final formatting of the book needs to be like this:

2005
June
3 – blah–blah–blah….
4 – blah–blah–blah….
7 – blah–blah–blah….

So, as you can imagine, that’s going to be a lot of editing on my part.

While all this is happening, I’m still reading old magazines in my collection and highlighting facts/dates/events that need to be added to the book. I’m finished going through my book collection, but if time allows before the deadline, I’ll go through the books I’ve skipped. U2 Show is probably the most noteworthy of that group.

There are also several people I’d like to track down for interviews to get some more details about a few important events.

And, it goes without saying that I need to proofread and edit and make sure the book tells a somewhat cohesive story. I also plan to write an Introduction.

At this moment, I’m at 167,000+ words.

Here’s What’s Next…

Now that I’m done a lot of my own reading/research, I hope to start getting more active here on the blog. Of course, the more I post here, the less I’m actually working on the manuscript. So I have to figure out the right balance there.

I’m going to post an update about the book on @U2 one of these days, and hope that brings in a lot of new visitors to get involved in the mad rush at the end when I’ll be looking for last-minute dates, confirmations, etc., and also putting out calls for photo submissions.

Lots to do! I hope 75 days is enough time. Thanks for all your help to date, and for your future help, as well.

Somehow I got stuck tonight on early December, 2002 — the Heart of America Tour that Bono did with DATA, and with the likes of Ashley Judd, Chris Tucker, and many others. When I began, there were two entries for that in the book — the day it started and the day it ended. Now, thanks to all kinds of research and a lot of article reading, I have full and complete entries for every day from November 30 (when Bono arrived in Nebraska) to November 9 (when he left for the Gangs of New York film premiere in NYC). At one point, I even busted out our Travel Atlas so I could figure out the exact order of all the stops they made at local diners, truck stops, high schools, etc. I’m more familiar with Iowa geography than ever!

All told, I went from two brief entries to almost four full pages of material. Sweet! I’m just waiting for some clarification on the last day or two from a friend who lives in Nashville, and I’ll be all done with the Heart of America Tour.

It’s been a great night of writing, and Answer Guy is sleeping like a baby in the other room.

Oh! Does anyone have any photos from the Heart of America Tour? If so, please contact me…..