One Year Blogiversary Book Give Away!

This giveaway is now closed.
Winners will be announced 1/12/11


As you have probably gathered by now from the incessant amount of crazy I’ve insisted on pouring out today – today is my blog’s one year anniversary.

A year ago today, I decided to start writing reviews of the books I was reading. I never expected anything major to come of it, I just enjoyed writing my thoughts on what I was reading and sending them out into the ether. I never could have anticipated the incredible year I’ve had as a result of it.

I’ve met some very awesome people – most notable mentions must go to Elle from The Book Memoirs who is straight up fabulous, and the amazing Angie from Angieville who never fails in persuading me to read something. I’ve had opportunities to read some amazing books I wouldn’t have otherwise seen, and as a result been introduced to some awesome authors, and been in contact with some of my favourite authors, who haven’t seemed to mind my crazy fan girl squeeing at how awesome they are. Particular mentions go to – Gail Carriger, Ali McNamara, Deanna Raybourn, Cassandra Clare and the wonderful Sarah Rees Brennan.

So, after that little heartfelt splurge, I think a giveaway is in order.

I have for three lucky people, three fabulous ARCS.

One copy of ‘Fracture’ by Megan Miranda to give away, and two copies of ‘The Weight of Water’ by Sarah Crossan (full details of the books will be given below.)

If you would like to be in with a chance to win, all you need to do is tell me what your favourite book from this year is and why. Leave a comment in the comments section below, and if you have a preference over which book  you’d like to receive let me know that as well. If you’re a follower of my blog that is always a bonus, but not a necessity.

Winners will be drawn at random out of a hat and then notified.

The give away will be open from when this post goes live on 28^th November until Midnight UK time on 1^st December 2011. 
The giveaway is open internationally.


You have two days, so get to it!

Fracture by Megan Miranda
Release date: 5^th January 2012

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine -despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?
Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan
Release Date: 5^th January 2012

Armed with a suitcase and an old laundry bag filled with clothes, Kasienka and her mother leave Poland and head for the UK to find her father. Life is lonely for Kasienka. At home her mother's heart is breaking and at school Kasienka finds it impossible to make new friends. While the search continues, Kasienka is kept afloat by William, a boy she meets at the local pool who understands what it means to lose someone and who swims with Kasienka towards her new life.

Clockwork Prince Book Trailer

As if to join in the celebration today, EW have finally released the Clockwork Prince book trailer. Not too fussed on the guy playing Jem, but the trailer is otherwise brilliant! (And narrated by the lovely Ed Westwick)

Seeing the trailer has gotten me all kinds of excited for the release and to be able to talk properly to others about the book.


Check it out for yourselves at the link below!


@EWshelflife and @dirtyrobber present The Clockwork Prince Book Trailer


Enjoy!

Author Q &A with Deanna Raybourn

My blog is, as of today, officially one year old. Can you believe it? They grow so fast! As a result I have planned all sorts of goodies to help the celebrations along and they will be appearing throughout the day.

First of all, one of my all-time favourite authors was incredibly lovely and agreed to do a Q&A as part of the festivities. Anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis will know I will wax lyrical about her to anyone who will listen – please welcome, Deanna Raybourn, author of the fabulous Lady Julia Grey series, and the standalone novel ‘The Dead Travel Fast’.

“You are perhaps most well-known for your Lady Julia Grey series, the latest of which we were treated to in July of this year. Will there be more books in the series for us addicts? Or are you working on something new and exciting to tempt us with? (and can you tell us a little bit about what you’re currently working on?)”

Whether or not I write more Lady Julia books is up to my publisher! I have a synopsis ready to go for the book immediately following The Dark Enquiry in the series, so I'm good to go when they are. Right now I'm taking a break to write something VERY different! It's 1920s Africa with a flapper heroine. It is such a departure from my comfort zone, but it's so exciting to write. It's called A Spear of Summer Grass and will be out May 2013.

“Can you tell us a bit about your developing process – how the ideas come to you, how you process and develop them?”

It's alchemy and this is probably the question I find most difficult to answer because all I can say is it comes down to how writers process the stimuli that everybody encounters every day. A writer friend and I were tweeting back and forth last month because she was walking across the park and found a wallet and no one had claimed it after several days despite her efforts to return it. We theorized that the owner was dead--killed so the organs could be harvested on the black market, abducted by a jilted lover, had thrown away the wallet in an effort to walk away from the old life and start anew. Normal people might have stopped at, "Gee, I wonder why the wallet's still here." We could have carried on for DAYS with our brainstorming. It's just a weird way of looking at odd little bits and bobs of information and piecing them together in a new way. 

“And indeed about your writing process – do you have specific times of day or habits and routines?”

My process is changing as I evolve as a writer, but one thing that never varies is that I work best in the morning when my energy is fresh. I have experimented this time with adding in a second work session some days. I do have to restrict how much I do at any given time. I don't like to write more than an hour and a half or two hours at a time. When I start a book I have a page minimum each day to ensure I'm making progress; about halfway through that changes to a page maximum so I don't rush the ending. My page counts make certain I'm not wrecking my pacing.

“Does anything in particular stimulate your writing, for example listening to a specific type of music?”

I make a playlist for each book--usually classical and soundtracks. If there are any ethnic or regional factors in the book, I try to get some of that into the music as well to help me set the scene. Of course, I've blown that entirely out of the water with the current book! I have a playlist of African music and 1920s speakeasy tunes, but I've ended up listening to contemporary club music instead. I'm sure I'll use that playlist when it comes to rewriting the book. I think I was so far out of what was comfortable for me, I needed something really driving and fast and in your face to get me through the first draft!

“The level of research involved for your novels must be staggering, do you have any particular sources that have helped you develop Lady Julia’s world?”

The internet. When I wrote the first book, the internet was just beginning to be a good source of information, but since then it's just exploded, and there's almost nothing I can't find out in about four seconds. I hyperventilate with gratitude on a daily basis that I get to write in an era when so much is right at my fingertips. I've also built a modest little library of Victorian research books that I add to with each new book I write. I go through probably 60 research books for each title depending on how much new material I need to learn. 

“Have you always wanted to be a writer – was there something in particular that drew you to it?”

I was always a writer, always making up stories in my head. I toyed with the notion of getting a law degree and I did teach for a few years, but I always knew this was where I would end up. I wrote my first novel when I was 23 and I've been writing full novels ever since, so I've put in a fair bit of time!

“Which was the hardest book for you to write in the series?”

The first book was difficult because it was the first novel I wrote that really worked. And I was writing in a vacuum--no feedback from an editor because it wasn't under contract when I wrote it. The second was difficult because I learned to rewrite on that book--I had an editor by then and she was beginning my education as a writer. And the third was hard because I tore that one apart before I showed it to my editor and put the lessons I had learned from book two into action on my own. Book four was a challenge because it was the first one back after writing a stand-alone. Book five was probably the easiest!

“And which book are you must proud of?”

The one I'm working on now. It's turning me inside out and that's a good thing. I think it's important to be scared and to do it anyway, at least it is for me. That's the only way I grow as a writer.

“What are your favourite authors or books to read?”

Daphne du Maurier, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, Bill Bryson, Lisa St. Aubin de Teran, Marlena de Blasi, Alice Hoffman, Dodie Smith, Mary Stewart. And a thousand others!

“And finally, will you be doing a UK tour at some point in the near future?”

I would LOVE to do a UK tour! I do hear from readers there, and I'm a devoted Anglophile so that would be a straight-up pleasure. 

Once again, I would like to say a huge thank you to Deanna, who not only was lovely enough to agree to this, but also continues to share with us her fabulous books and imaginings.

You can visit Deanna’s blog here for more regular news and updates

You can purchase the Lady Julia Series from Amazon or your local bookseller:
Silent in the Grave
Silent in the Sanctuary
Silent on the Moor
The Dark Road to Darjeeling
The Dark Enquiry
The Dead Travel Fast

You can also read my reviews for her latest two books here:
The Dark Road to Darjeeling
The Dark Enquiry