A very Happy New Year to everyone at the Nut Press from me! My name’s Jane Lovering (yes, honestly, that’s my real name, so I couldn’t write any thing but romantic comedy, could I?) and the resident squirrels have very kindly agreed to host me here today so that I can tell you all about my new book Please Don’t Stop the Music.
From the original quirky purple and pink cover (which has since changed for the ebook at least) and the title and blurb of Talli Roland’s debut novel, The Hating Game, I knew that this was no cosy, formulaic boy-meets-girl chick-lit romance and I was looking forward to reading it all the more because of that. I wanted a feisty heroine who wouldn’t melt into a puddle within metres of her dream man. I wanted a strong voice and some of the sharp wit I’d come to know from Talli’s tweets and blog posts and I wanted a great story in an unusual situation or setting with its own set of highs and lows, featuring characters that seemed more like real people than characters in a book. Talli delivers on all counts.
This time last year when I was still flailing around trying to figure out how Twitter worked, one of the first authors I started following was Miranda Dickinson. Her debut novel, Fairytale of New York, had just been published. For an aspiring author, it was fantastic to follow someone whose dream of publication had so recently come true and who was excited enough about that, let alone people’s positive reaction to her book and how incredibly well it was doing. (It was a Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller and shortlisted for the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2010.)
One of my lovely and talented writer pals, Talli Roland, launches the ebook of her brilliant, witty and fast-paced debut novel, The Hating Game, today and you can make it a bestseller. Here’s what you do: Help Talli Roland’s debut novel THE HATING GAME hit the Kindle bestseller list at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk by spreading the word today. Even a few sales in a short period of time on Amazon helps push the book up the rankings, making it more visible to other readers.
I’m over at the FutureBook blog today, reviewing the enhanced ebook of The Last Dragonslayer, which is Jasper Fforde’s latest book and also his first YA novel.
Cleopatra is insisting that I stay. She tells me that no one has ever left her before. Apparently, it’s just not done. I was hoping that she’d understand but when I told her she almost choked on the grape she was eating. We were having dinner at Caesar’s and it caused quite a scene. Men rushed over to her and…
I first heard Simone Mansell Broome read her poems at a poetry magazine launch in 2009. Hers were the poems that stood out for me that night because they spoke of real life events that I could identify with but they were also delivered with a healthy dose of humour, real warmth, empathy and a highly-perceptive understanding of human nature…
Every time the wind changes, which is often here, Niko watches me from his spot on the rooftop wall. He lies there like a cat, flexing his feet and letting the sun warm his stomach, a cigarette resting between the index and middle fingers of his right hand. He watches me, waiting to see if, this time, the meltemi will pull me down to the harbour and out to sea again.
In honour of it being Hallowe’en, I’m posting a poem. However, it’s not one I wrote this year, last year or even remotely recently. This is a poem written by my eleven-year-old self, so please bear that in mind when reading it! There are a couple of things I’d like to go back and ask her, if I could, like…
Henry and I have our routines, although I will admit he is far more diligent than I am about keeping to them. He often lollops upstairs to the studio, where he sits and watches me paint for a while. When the pacing starts, I know that it’s time to go for one of our walks and, if it’s left up to Henry, he always heads for the beach.