Big hair & cold war politics! My guest
blog "Yesterday:
Introducing the 80s" is up at Kindlepost UK.
Yesterday, My Beating Teenage Heart and
I Know It's Over are now available as ebook downloads
from Amazon.co.uk with The Lighter Side of Life and
Death and One Lonely Degree soon to follow.
I had great fun designing the ebook covers and am happy
to share them with you (click on the image to see a larger
version):
I've also been preparing for Christmas and last week I headed over to my friend's house with a gingerbread kit and one of my favourite Christmas movies of recent years, The Holiday. Neither of us had ever put a gingerbread house together, but how hard could it be?
We started out by laying the materials as directed by the package, and the foundation piece (the one that sits at the bottom of the house) promptly broke in two in my hands. Ooph!
We managed to glue the severed pieces together with icing and successfully erect the basic house (even the chimney!). Yippee!
Ultimately, our gingerbread house didn't closely resemble the one on the cover of the package. In fact, ours looks as though it's been hit by a fierce blizzard (a candy blizzard perhaps?). But hey, that's in keeping with the season too, right? I find it awfully cute anyway, even the mutant gingerbread men.
On Monday Paddy and I finally put up our Christmas decorations around the apartment and an interesting thing happened. Remember the childhood Smurf collection I brought back from my mom's place not long ago? Well, the Smurfs took a shine to our Christmas village and have invaded. The original village inhabitants don't know quite what to make of them and some of the Smurfs have been revelling a little too hard (the pub has been a problem area) but generally the Smurfs are following Papa Smurf's genial example. So I have every faith peace (and comfort and joy) will prevail.
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I've also been preparing for Christmas and last week I headed over to my friend's house with a gingerbread kit and one of my favourite Christmas movies of recent years, The Holiday. Neither of us had ever put a gingerbread house together, but how hard could it be?
We started out by laying the materials as directed by the package, and the foundation piece (the one that sits at the bottom of the house) promptly broke in two in my hands. Ooph!
We managed to glue the severed pieces together with icing and successfully erect the basic house (even the chimney!). Yippee!
Ultimately, our gingerbread house didn't closely resemble the one on the cover of the package. In fact, ours looks as though it's been hit by a fierce blizzard (a candy blizzard perhaps?). But hey, that's in keeping with the season too, right? I find it awfully cute anyway, even the mutant gingerbread men.
On Monday Paddy and I finally put up our Christmas decorations around the apartment and an interesting thing happened. Remember the childhood Smurf collection I brought back from my mom's place not long ago? Well, the Smurfs took a shine to our Christmas village and have invaded. The original village inhabitants don't know quite what to make of them and some of the Smurfs have been revelling a little too hard (the pub has been a problem area) but generally the Smurfs are following Papa Smurf's genial example. So I have every faith peace (and comfort and joy) will prevail.
Home late last night after a sublime
Leonard Cohen show (that I wish I was still at!),
I'm mucho groggy today but am interrupting my Internet
break to point folks in the direction of my guest blog
entry on "Reconnecting with Your Lost Love of Writing"
over at Adventures
in YA & Children's Publishing. If you've lost
that loving feeling lately, this post might be for you.
Signed copies of Yesterday and My Beating Teenage
Heart are up for grabs too!
Some very cool reviews of Yesterday
have been appearing on the Internet and out in the world
recently. I wish I could link to the wonderful Quill &
Quire write-up, but it's not online yet. Here's an outtake
to whet your appetite: "A satisfying, original blend
of time-travel thriller, science fiction and romance,
this white-knuckle read is more Jason Bourne than Katniss
Everdeen."
I'm very happy to say that Yesterday
review appears on the same page with a lovely one for
Monica Kulling's new book Lumpito
and the Painter from Spain. Aimed at readers five
and up, Lumpito is based on true events—Pablo
Picasso's love for the one of a kind daschund that comes
into his life. Quill and Quire say, "Young readers
will delight," but this older reader is very much
looking forward to reading it too! Sounds like a great
Christmas gift, n'est-ce pas?
I'm also extremely excited to report that
School Library Journal has given Yesterday a starred review.
Yaaaaaay! You can read
the entire review on the School Library Journal website.
The National Post has also been very kind to Yesterday
and said, "Yesterday is a compelling novel that will
take up permanent residence in your mind and haunt you,
continually leaving you suspended in its spell until the
very last page. Martin’s ability to manipulate the
laws of time and space to create a fantastical fictional
world is exceptional." Check out the
full review here.
Finally, if you're in the U.K. and looking
to pick up a copy of Yesterday as an e-book you
can now
download it from Amazon.co.uk. My guest blog entry
about Yesterday will be going up at Kindle
Post (uk) on December 11th and my other YA books will
soon be available in-ebook format on Amazon.co.uk too.
They're being released via Curtis Brown's digital self-publishing
programme, which you can read
the details of on the Curtis Brown website. One of
the things I loved about this is that it gave me a chance
to design alternate covers for my books. Here's the U.K.
e-book cover. I'll try to post the others soon too.
