Category Archives: Uncategorized

What a wonderful book event!  If I were King, I’d order one of these for every town and city centre!  The Firestation Book Swap takes all of our favourite things (books, readers & cake) and turns them into the loveliest book chat ever – with people pitching books they love to swap and take home.  (And did I mention there was cake?) Big, big thanks to organiser Scott Pack and his glamourous assistant for the night, Sarah Franklin.  There were lots of friendly faces in the house and the lovely Morgan McCarthy beside me, on the “author sofa”.  We were very dainty with the plate of macaroons offered to us – no undignified scrum over the cake plate with us two!  The next Firestation Book Swap in Windsor is in January, and you can also “like” them on Facebook or find them on Twitter.  Rumour has it, next year will feature Book Swaps in London.  Just try to keep me away!  (Will there be cake?)

Below, here is a portrait from the evening of Morgan and me, answering readers’ questions from the metal bucket of joy.  It was sketched by Cynthia Barlow Marrs and it was a lovely souvenir of a most wonderful evening.  Thank you very much!

Here is a bit of footage about Amity & Sorrow, filmed by the lovely crew at Tinder Press – and the marvellous Vicky Palmer.  I can’t embed it here, as I’m not nearly that clever, but hopefully you won’t mind linking to Youtube.

I have long been aware of the difference of covers in different countries, based on their own tastes and sensibilities.  So, it was no surprise to have two different covers designed for my first novel, Amity & Sorrow, but I wasn’t prepared for just how different – and how beautiful – they both would be.  First up is the gorgeous Tinder Press cover, designed here in the UK:

Below is a screen shot from the US catalogue for Little, Brown.  Amity & Sorrow is there in all its glory, and I am wild with joy at the both of them.

The proofed proofs that were sent back to the States were then compared alongside the proof marked by the proofreader.  The copy editor then had a couple sets of questions and notes, which we’ve been going through together.  Today, all issues have been resolved and the typeset pages are done and dusted; the writing and proofing of Amity & Sorrow is well and truly finished.  I am so grateful for the care and attention by everyone at Little, Brown and, particularly, to copy editor Jayne Yaffe Kemp.

In the midst of proofing notes, my trusty printer gasped its last.  Now, a newer, larger beast has taken its place. A mono laser printer, it spits out pages with wild abandon.  Its first job was to print out the new draft of my second book. Here it is, all 500 pages of it.  Looking forward to settling down for a big read, armed with red pens and scissors, and the beginning of the next rewriting and editing process.  Every ending is a beginning and this is one heady day for a happy writer.

The proofs have been proofed and are taped up in a pouch, so I can’t get inside and try to move any more words around.  I have looked so hard at each word I’m not sure what they mean anymore.  Yet this morning, I found I’d dropped a bit of plot.  It must have fallen out of a draft and I’d not noticed – not because I wasn’t paying attention, but because it gets really hard to see a book after this many drafts, let alone to read one.  Still, I must have been reading it for I was able to catch a few things, here and there.  Off it wings now to Boston, and off I wing for a little break.

Yesterday, Amity & Sorrow made it through all its copy edit queries and got moved into production by the good people at Little, Brown. This means that it moves from our much-marked Microsoft Word copy into mocked up pages that will be the proposed layout for the book. Then, these pages come to me for more looking at and worrying over, while a proofreader does stellar work in correcting all those things I’ve not managed to see or fix in all this editing.  Books aren’t printed on presses like this anymore. This machine looks more a torture device, as if I mean to imply that edits are torturous. They aren’t, really. No, the press reminds me that we are making a book together, that paper will be printed that becomes the book I have written on this laptop in ephemeral drafts. The book, the bound thing, will last for as long as the paper does, for as long as we all value paper. Having a bound book will make me come over all Gutenberg. I can’t wait.

Hurrah! The National Archives has made their collection of war art copyright free and available to everyone, thanks to a digitisation grant with Wikimedia Commons.  Wars are won through propaganda.  Who could resist such exhortations?