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Friday, May 30, 2008
I'm being interviewed at the Fictionistas!
Today Gwen Hayes is interviewing me at the Fictionistas blog. Come and visit to find out many nice and interesting things about me! Um, plus a whole list of what makes me cross...
If you comment over there you can win a copy of Falling, or an ARC of Fire and Shadow (releasing 1st June).
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| Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Links and vague promotional thoughts
Well, I'm still hanging on - by what feels like the skin of my teeth - in The Romance Studio Diva Competition. Who knew it was so hard to write a response to a fan letter - or how many different ways people (more creative than me, obviously) would find to do it?
In case this is my last appearance over there, I'll say thank you now to everyone who kindly voted for my website in the last round! And if you vote for me again you'll have the fun (of course it's fun, what do you mean?) of trying to find my excerpt in amongst many other anonymous excerpts in the next round.
It's our half-term holiday this week. The girls and I have spent a domestic day doing bits of homework (them) and housework (me). Tomorrow we're going to have a trip to a farm zoo. And on Thursday we're baking a chocolate cake and a cherry pie.
After much struggle and re-writing, I've sold Red Riding Hood, now entitled The Path, to Drollerie Press. I'm excited about seeing the other stories that are going to be in the RRH anthology - and the cover art, by the artist Anna Repp. Look at her website - it's creepy and beautiful at the same time.
The Fire and Shadow cover art is up on the Drollerie Press blog, and the whole of the first chapter is excerpted, too. Go and read it!
I'm going to be chatting in the Drollerie Press chat room on June 1st, to celebrate the release of Fire and Shadow, so check the blog out for the link nearer that date. There'll be the usual ebook giveaways, plus other fun stuff. Um, fire-and-shadow-themed fun stuff that's legal to send in the post? Any ideas?
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| Monday, May 19, 2008
The Romance Studio Diva Competition
I've entered this competition, and just found out that I got through the first round, yay!
It's actually a really fun concept. The last round was based on anonymous excerpts, all written to specific instructions. This round is based on how good the entrants' websites are. So you know how you love mine and think it shines with beauty, functionality, ease-of-use, fabulously wonderful amounts of exactly the information you're looking for...?
Or, of course, you might prefer another entrant's website. Particularly MG Braden's...?
Either way, if you'd like to vote for any of the websites, the above link will take you to the page where you can view and vote.
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| Saturday, May 17, 2008
A book cover (Fire and Shadow)
 This went through significantly more revisions than previous covers, but the central image stayed the same throughout, and I love it. Particularly the light effects - and the fact that the couple look as if they may be arguing (entirely appropriate for this book!).
A quick blurb:
Fern has lived half her life in fear of the Shadows, predatory creatures who move within the darkness and whose touch means death. When she discovers she has the legendary gift of fire-starting, she knows she may hold the key to their destruction. But the unpredictable gift is curse as well as blessing. Fern must learn—and learn fast—how to use it. To do so she needs the help of Nik, the enigmatic magician who seems to understand her gift better than she does herself. But can Nik be trusted? Or is he hiding secrets of his own?
ARCs are going out now, and the book releases from Drollerie Press on 1st June. Put it in your diaries now!
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A busy social diary
Today is a nice day. The last couple of weeks have been full of busy-ness all over, so it's heavenly to have a plain old domestic day of nothing in particular.
Abstract is away camping without a tent in the Lake District for the weekend, Sparkler has gone on a birthday shopping trip with some friends, and Gloworm and I went into town to buy a new school dress, a million pairs of white socks, and another Polly Pocket set.
Then we had a vanilla latte and a hot chocolate at Costa Coffee, came home, played a game of Pass the Pigs which I found in Woolworth's, and now she's busy with the Polly Pockets and I'm blogging, dealing with some emails, and then intend to do some more revising of Within the Darkness and some more work on Red Riding Hood (still no name, and no nearer to one than I was months ago).
Later the three of us will order a takeaway (doner kebab, cheeseburger, jalapeno-and-pepperoni pizza, going by previous preferences!) and watch Dr Who.
Quick updates:
- Sparkler's Pink Pamper Party went really, really well. The two beauticians - one for hair and one for nails - were charming and approachable and the sitting room was soon full of happy shrieking girls gossiping about school and boys and asking the beauticians if they would come and do their hair before school each day. The house was, I have to tell you, a sea of pink. Abstract got the photos up on the computer later, and the screen looked like a pink collage.
- My parents and sister (the Drunk Auntie) came for the weekend. I made plates and plates of tapas and jugs of sangria, and pretended we were back in Menorca.
- Abstract bought a barbecue - we've been meaning to get one for years - and we had friends over and ate garlic field mushrooms, halloumi cheese, fresh mackerel, and kebabs of lamb and mixed vegetables. And drank white wine mixed with Schloer, which makes a yummy kind of cocktail. Then we all decamped inside to watch Dr Who.
- My Granny - in fact, my last surviving grandparent - died. She was ninety-seven, and died peacefully in her sleep in what was, apparently, a very nice nursing home. So it wasn't shocking or anything, but still... I traipsed over to Norfolk with my parents and the Drunk Auntie, and met various other relations (including my other sister, the Model Auntie, plus my two cousins whom I haven't seen since I was about sixteen) for the funeral.
- The two hot topics of Immi's mind are, at the moment, the ethics of secondhand book sales, and issues around how 'appropriate' young adult fiction should be for its intended audience. I'm pretty laissez-faire about both, by which I mean I do not want to see secondhand book sales restricted, nor do I want to see young adult fiction full of nothing but role-model characters. Both topics may require a better blog post in the future.
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| Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Conversations with Gloworm
The other day, being silly with Gloworm, I used the word 'goned' (as in 'the insect has goned away now'). Thus ensued the following conversation:
Gloworm: How do you spell 'goned'?
Immi: G-O-N-E-D
(Gloworm writes it down)
Gloworm: That's a very boring way to spell it.
Immi: I can't help that. If it was a real word that's how it would be spelled.
(Gloworm writes again)
Gloworm: This is how I spell it.
Immi: G-O-K-N-E-D?
Gloworm: The K is silent.
She then asked how to spell my nickname, looked at it critically, and said:
Gloworm: That's boring too.
Immi: It's not boring. It's neat. Look, if you spell it without a capital letter it's even symmetrical.
(Gloworm writes it - immi - then draws a line round the whole word)
Gloworm: It's a frog.
And, to be honest, it kind of was.
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