The Black Hat, Jacaranda Books, Social clay and Books, Books, Books

I have a bad habit of not writing on this blog for a while (though I still post on Facebook), reviving it, apologising for my absence, going great for a while, and then it happens again. It is an unhealthy cycle that leaves me feeling deeply guilty and unhappy, so I am going to stop the cycle.  I have to accept I am not the kind of blogger who updates daily, post a few book reviews a week, get the news before the news. I admire bloggers like that, and I love this blog and will continue writing it, but the way I write posts means this isn't the kind of blog that will get updated once a day or even once a week necessarily; for regular short snippets I use the Facebook page.

I AM sorry if I made anyone think I could be that sort of super blogger, I wanted to, but the nature of my journey in publishing as self-employed has been one of constant change and discovery and excitement, so  that when a new experience, opportunity, project comes up I often get so into it that all else stops. That is what has happened a few times since my last post...

So what happened? Well in addition to short term freelance projects and my work on the Women in Publishing UK committee (if you're in the book trade and you don't know about us, why the heck not? Check us out), I partnered up with superbly talented author-illustrator Maia Walczak to publish an awesome children's picture ebook called The Black Hat (get a free sample here); I started working with a social media guru Geoff Hughes in his Facebook Marketing firm Social clay; and most recently I have been working with Valerie Brandes planning the launch of her new independent publishing house Jacaranda Books Art Music and their first title coming this Autumn!

Phew! It has been one heck of a roller-coaster and now is a good time to put these great things down in words, because I feel like Spring is launching a whole new exciting period and if I don't write this down my head will explode!

Books are still the love of my life and crime fiction is still my favourite genre. So far my book of the year is without a doubt William Ryan's The Twelfth Department out in May (sadly it doesn't seem to be available for pre-order on the Pan Mac website, but it is on Amazon). I am possibly the number one fan of this historical crime fiction series, set in Soviet Russia under Stalin, and have a total book-character crush on Captain Korolev. It may be a bit early for a proper review so I will just say Read. This. Book. I envy those of you who haven't read it yet, as I am already beside myself waiting for the next one in the series to be written; I want it NOW! And if by some bizarre state of affairs you're a historical crime fiction aficionado/a who has not read any of the Korolev novels, the first is The Holy Thief (Kindle users click here to get it for 99p! I know, it's criminally cheap) and the second is The Bloody Meadow.



For the YA lovers, I have kind of been a bit lame on the latest in this genre but I could not resist the superb Will Hill, with the third book, Department 19: Battle Lines just published and available at all good bookshops (mine is waiting for me at the lovely independent bookshop West End Lane Books). It is YA Vampire heaven for me, the kind I can really get my teeth into; Will Hill is pure genius. If for some crazy reason you have yet to read this series, Book One is Department 19 (Kindle users, it is just £1.99 here) and Book Two is Department 19: The Rising.

I am looking forward to the latest from Tom Cox of Under the Paw fame, The Good, The Bad and The Furry, out later this year from Little Brown, which features Roscoe, the newest addition to Cox family and who was born in my house before being adopted and becoming a feline superstar, and I am really looking forward to reading Sophie Hannah's The Carrier published by Hodder & Stoughton, not only because she is epic, but because (total book-geek moment) some of the characters share my surname!!! And before you say it was just a coincidence, it is not a surname you hear very often and I asked the amazing lady herself, OK? Finding that out has to be by far my top moment of 2013!


So, there you have it, this is why I have been away from the blog and I cannot apologise for any of this amazing stuff, it has been epic and I am grateful for every moment. But I appreciate my readers and it was only fair to set fair expectations. Hope to see more of you over on the Facebook page, otherwise see you back here for the next post!