Where’s the Time Gone?

Seriously. This week has just slipped by. And I’ve not managed to get half as much done as I’d have hoped.
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I was however thrilled to receive my signed copy of the fabulous Uncle Alonzo’s Beard by the equally fabulous Emma King-Farlowe. It’s the sort of book that makes you smile whenever you look at it. And that is definitely a good thing.
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And if anyone wants to see a particularly hairy photo of me with the beautiful (it really is!) cover of Faye L. Booth’s debut, you can do so here. Which reminds me – I still need to order a copy. Something else for the To Do list. Oh, and you might need to scroll down a bit.
Tatton

I wanted to say a huge thank you to the folks over at Tatton Park (especially to C.S who was brilliant) who have been tremendously helpful in aiding the research I’ve been doing for my current WIP (a novel, the second draft of which I finished about half an hour ago). Thank you very much!

I’ve a couple of things I need to photograph before mentioning them on here which I hope to do tomorrow. So until then…

Here’s a link to the site of the first movie from the His Dark Materials trilogy. What’s your daemon? Mine’s a tiger called Anexa.

I Met a Roman Last Night

Well after announcing so many successes others are having at the moment I thought it was about time I dedicated a little blog space to my book which is, of course, available from all good book retailers, including this one.
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Enough self promotion. Back to even more exciting news:
A top bloke and top writer, JwBennett has had a rather good week. He’s had a number of his works nominated for the British Fantasy Awards and an interview has just gone up on his publisher’s website ahead of the release of his novel, Unrequited.
I’d also like to draw your attention to the website of another top person and writer of teen fiction, Luisa Plaja whose website, I think, is ace. She also has more than a little to do with the teen fiction review site Chicklish, which is also well worth a look.
I’d also like to say congrats to YET ANOTHER top writer and person Sarah Ann Watts whose story, ‘You’ll Know’ will appear in issue 11 of Neon.
So, ya know, well done everyone.

Interview

If anyone’s on Myspace they can see the interview I did for Authors of Myspace here.

Big thanks to Authors of Myspace for their efficiency and patience; with writing and workshops it took me far longer to complete the interview than it should have done. Thanks guys.

[Added: thanks to Charlotte for pointing out that you don’t have to be a member of Myspace to read the interview. It’s there for one and all to read, if they should so choose.]

Cats and Things

Where to start?

Well, how about here? Above is a picture of possibly the world’s friendliest cat; and possibly the only one who thinks it’s a parrot. A gorgeous black one with white boots and chest who befriended (adopted?) me while I walked home the other night. It jumped onto the wall outside my house (after a ten minute journey during which it would not listen when I warned it to go back in case it got lost) for a stroke and, while I administered said stroking, jumped up onto my shoulder, where it sat, quite happily for a short while and only decided it’d had enough when I tried to capture the event on my phone’s camera.

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And I’ve had a lovely weekend. Yesterday my girlie and I went up to Speedwell Cavern with friends Ruth and Gary. Much fun was had (probably too much at times) but I was disappointed that I was not able to ask the guide, how many undiscovered caves there were in the Peak District [thanks Ben] because he beat me to it by using it in his guide-patter.

And after a shower and quick feed the four of us headed up to a pub not too far away and watched a really great blues band – a proper one who did John Lee Hooker songs and suchlike. Sadly I’ve forgotten what they’re called.

And today we went (minus friends) to Tatton House. I’d wanted to go mainly for research purposes (for the WIP) and it helped as I’d hoped it would – but it was also a really fun and interesting day out. I like research like that. I like it very much.

Next is to draft a letter to the person who’ll hopefully let me have a look at the old books there (again for WIP research reasons). I hope she’s as helpful and friendly as the staff we chatted to today.

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And the exciting news doesn’t seem to stop coming! If you hop across to Faye L Booth’s blog you can see the beautiful cover of her novel, Cover The Mirrors, which is to be released in November. (You might have to scroll down a bit though cos I meant to blog about this a little while ago, but as I’ve not been blogging, I haven’t. Sorry Faye.)

Ha!

Done it. First draft of current WIP has been completed which means that hopefully I’ll be able to spend a bit more time keeping this up to date.

A beer tonight, I think.