A Friday Quickie...

More Literary Tattoos!! Hurrah! (What?! Did I ever claim this blog would be high-brow? Did I? I did not.)

I've posted something similar here, because the idea just delights me, and in some cases astounds me, and in a few instants completely confounds me, as in "What the chuff were you thinking?!?!" Roughly that.

And now I have found more. Oh the joy! Not librarians this time, but simply book inspired people. 

Surely this has to be one of the highest accolades an author can aspire to?

Hypothetically, what quote or image would you have?

It's hotting up!

So it is less than a week to go now before the Sunlounger anthology comes out.

 I can now say that it is going to be on Amazon for £3.99 a pop, which some maths spark has worked out at being less than 10p a story. BARGAIN!

  I'll be spending the afternoon of launch day  with about ten of the other authors descending on potential ChickLit readers in Covent Garden, handing them publicity postcards.  With a bit of luck I'll remember to get some photos to post here.

 Then we're are heading on for Tapas and Sangria, so with a bit of more luck I won't forget my camera on the tube home.

Short notice, but still...

Just seen this for Flash Fiction day and I know that it is every short notice before the deadline, but come on, 500 words and a day to polish  -that should be possible, right? Any subject you like, any genre you like...

Birthday SurPrize!!!!

It is my Blogging birthday! Believe it or not, but I have been wasting your time here for a year. A whole year!  And not only that but it is my 100^th post. So I felt that a competition was called for to celebrate.

The prize is a copy of your choice of one of the following;
Code Name Verity – My first book crush on the site
Graffiti Moon – Star of the Autumn ’12 pile and another book crush
The Curiosities – Joint star of the Winter ‘12 Pile
Skin Deep – The other joint star of the Winter ‘12 Pile
The Sky Is Everywhere – Star of the Spring ‘13 Pile
Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares. – I didn’t have a Star of the Pile award last summer, but if I had, then this would have been it.

How to win;
 Firstly, join the site as a member. Yup, just press the button over there to the right (unless you already are and then you can skip this bit.).  Then be the first person who can correctly guess which of the 100 posts had been viewed most according to my blogger view count stats at 8am (GMT) this morning. Just write your guess in the comments box below. (No email answers, Maggie.)

(Ruley stuff; If no one guesses the post correctly, I'll go with the guess that has the post with higher view count. If no one enters at all I will cry and buy a book for myself. The judge’s decision will be final. No appeals. No cash alternatives. All entries must be received by 12 o’clock (High Noon GMT) on Friday 21^st June 2013.)


 Anyone up for that? If not, then it’s OK just to raise a flute of champagne in my direction. I’m fine with that too – but no prize. Sorry.

Top Secret

I have something up my sleeve.

Nope.
Not telling.

Two days....

A bag o' books to be won.

So recently I directed you to a trove of lesser known facts about me on my brand new author's page on the va-va-vacation website, which actually has me so excited that I almost can't speak about it. (-or perhaps that is just that English thing about finding it excruciatingly hard to celebrate one's self.)

The Sunlounger ebook will launch on Amazon in just three weeks time on July 1st. Do I keep looking at the calendar? Why yes, yes I do.

In the meantime, there is the serious business of a prize to be won. If you head on over to the site, you'll see you could be the proud owner of a pink diamante studded travel case. What's more, it is stuffed full of books. Hurrah!!! All you need to do is enter a photo. Easy peasy, right? 

Get snapping and Good Luck!  

What it was...

Someone asked me what the image in my old avatar was .

 It is M. Barre’s Carousel, (1955) taken by Robert Doisneau, more famously known for taking this picture:

Kiss by the Hotel de Ville (1950)

 I chanced into an exhibition of his while I was at Uni, and the carousel picture was tucked away in a corner, and I just adored it. Many years on I am still trying to formulate the words to express why it struck me so much, (at least without using the word juxtaposition, because, well, you know…).

  He was a bit good at taking snaps, wasn't he?

*Belated fanfare* My summer '13 TBR pile.

Apologies for the tardiness on unveiling this season’s pile. The Sunlounger broohaha put threw things into disarray - not that I am complaining. You can't knock a bit of Woo-hooing to cheer the soul after a cold winter..

 On the basis of better late than never, voila;

Prep – Curtis Sittenfeld

Swim the Fly - Don Calame

Beat the Band - Don Calame  

The Anti-prom - Abby McDonald

Heart-shaped Bruise - Tanya Byrne

Dreaming of Amelia - Jaclyn  Moriarty

Becoming Bindie Mackenzie - Jaclyn Moriarty

What Boys Really Want - Pete Hautman  

What's Up with Jody Barton? - Hayley Long

All We Know of Love - Nora Raleigh Baskin

I see you, Baby - Kevin Brooks and Catherine Forde

Naomi & Ely’s No Kiss List – David Leviathan & Rachel Cohn

21 Proms – Various including John Green (well really, did you really think there would be a list without…?), David Levithan, Holly Black and many others who I think are excellent writers.

Yet to come, but due, are;

Penelope – Rebecca Harrington
Clockwork Princess – Cassandra Clare

I've got Aussie writing in there, which continues a small trend through the last few piles (Jaclyn Moriarty to join Cath Crowley and Simmone Howell - I'm sure you had all noticed), there is a fairly even balance of male writing, and even a tiny prom theme - because it is The Season.)

I know I have been recommended Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park, and I fully intend to get to it as the reviews are fab, I just didn’t manage to get it in for this time around. Please don’t hold it against me, and please don’t let it stop you from recommending again in the future. I do listen. Honest!

What's on your summer list?

BOO!

Yes, that is me up there in the new picture. Sorry to scare you. It seemed odd that my picture should be on the Sunlounger site and not on my own, so after nearly a year of hiding, here I am. Ta-daaah!!!!

No cheeky comments required, thank you!

Woo-hooing and the art of upsetting ramblers...

So yesterday. It was the 1^st of June and I was supposed to unveil the summer TBR pile. I know. And I will. But my wee brain was filled with something else.

The announcement of the Sunlounger anthology winners was due. I mentioned it here. Three of the shortlisted ten would be included into the book along with 30plus published ChickLit writers.

At 1pm I was sitting on the monument at the top of Coombe Hill, surrounded by seven marauding children and a fabulous view, ignoring both and concentrating on the Belinda Jones Travel Club facebook page on my mobile. (Yes, I know I don’t do facebook, but my inner Lara Croft has ways and means of still being on the button when needs must.) 

Naturally, I was getting very disparaging looks from the die-hard ramblers. Shame on me.

But I got in!!!!!!! My short story “Fia McQueen’s Great Escape” will be published in ebook format, on July 1^st. Trust me I might just mention it again nearer the time. A lot. Because I am ridiculously excited.

My author's page is now up here on the Sunlounger / Va-va-vacation website. In fact, I think it might be the first picture of me on t’internet. Ever. 

Brace yourselves.