Unthology 11 - book launch

We'd been planning in a vague way of going to Norfolk for a few days, but couldn't settle when or where, then fate took a hand, in the form of a Facebook event notification for the launch of Unthank Books' latest short story collection - Unthology 11 - to be held in Norwich. It wouldn't be quite fair to say the whole break was planned round it, but it did give some focus to our plans. We picked a BnB midway between Cromer and Norwich, spent the day at the coast, and headed into town for the evening.







Most of the book launches I've been to, possibly all, have been held in book shops. Unthank had chosen somewhere rather different; The Bicycle Shop, a quirky delightful restaurant, which no longer sells bikes :) 














The event was held downstairs, in a room lit by twinkling fairy lights and candles. I loved it!






Proceedings were opened by co-editor Ashley Stokes who read a few words from his introduction to Unthology 11,

"What would it take to push you to the edge? And beyond? The moth that flutters round a bulb. The echo of long-drinking that hums inside your head. Your softness against all that hardness. The reflections of the glass megalith. The darkening street beneath a line of magnolia trees. The leaves of the apple tree freckled with rot. A black and ragged looking bird. One of those planes that pulls paper letters behind it. Thick, sibilant words that make your mouth water just hearing them. The scuzzy streets of Archway, where no one cares who you are. Welcome to the hinterland. Welcome to Unthology 11."

I've read my review copy of Unthology 11, and the stories definitely take the reader to strange places hidden almost in plain sight, lurking just behind the facade that people present to the world.

Rachael Smart

Being the launch of a book of short stories there was more than one author on hand to read their work - in fact, there were four, which gave a real feel for the varied writing styles and subject matter.
First up was Jude Cook reading from his short story The Night Nurse, followed by Georgina Parfitt with her Christmassy tale Wise Man.

Paul Davenport Randell

 A short break gave me time to browse the collection of Unthank books on sale, and buy a copy of Sarah Dobbs' second novel, The Sea Within Me (it's a stunner; something Philip K Dick could have written, and she also has a story in this Unthology). Something about the lighting changed during this break, so I could take photographs of the two writers still due to 'perform' - Rachael Smart - Various Cuts of a Holstein -  and Paul Davenport Randall, who rounded off the evening with some of his story of modern slavery, Bloodstock.

Review of Unthology 11 here 

The Boy Who Made God Smile - book launch

by Maryom

I have a vague sort of idea that the general public think that book launches are only for 'insiders' from the publishing world (like Bridget Jones and her colleagues) and close friends of the author, but, apart from a select high profile events, they're generally open to anyone interested. So, finding myself with a spare hour or so in Nottingham on Friday, I dropped into Waterstones for the launch for GJ (Garry) Martin's latest novel - The Boy Who Made God Smile.

Garry was in conversation with Henderson Mullin, chief executive of Writing East Midlands, discussing his route to publication. Although he always wanted to be a writer, for many years Garry felt he should pursue a more regular, reliable career, and for much of his life has been a teacher. this fortunately allowed him time for writing, including an extended 'working holiday' to India researching the 'god business' of superstar style gurus, which resulted in the original idea that grew into The Boy Who Made God Smile.

Moving between Birmingham and Bangalore, this is the story of three generations of an Indian/British family in crisis. Ari is taken to India to visit his terminally ill grandfather, and, while his father finds returning to his home baffling and strange, Ari finds it to be a fascinating place. I definitely got the impression that Ari was a youngster intent on poking his nose where the adults didn't want him to, and asking the kind of questions adults don't want to answer!

Garry also talked about being chosen to take part in the Writing East Midlands mentoring scheme. Under this, three aspiring writers are chosen and work alongside an established author, in his case crime writer Anne Zouroudi, who through feedback and advice helps them make good writing better. In Garry's case, this involved turning a single narrative into three threads which wove about each other, and cutting certain 'surplus' characters - he tried to reintroduce one of these at the proof stage but she, somewhat spookily, still ended up on a publishing version of the cutting room floor and never made it into print.


The Boy Who Made God Smile is published through Colley Books

Death and The Seaside - book launch

by Maryom


Although Alison Moore's latest novel Death and the Seaside was published on the first of this month, the launch party didn't take place till last Friday(12th), so that evening we drove over to Nottingham Waterstones for an evening of book-ish chat, nibbles and drinks. There we ran into quite a number of friends from Nottingham's writing community, several of whom we've met through Nottingham's bid for City of literature status, as well as, obviously, the star of the evening Alison Moore.

After a while for chatting and grazing the refreshments, the formal part of the event got underway with a reading from the second chapter of Death and the Seaside which introduces the main character, Bonnie Falls (if you've read the book, you'll know why that chapter, not the first). It's always interesting to hear an author read their own work, as they often place emphasis on a different word or phrase to my internal reading, and can throw a different light on the story. Hearing an early section of the book again, I was struck by how many seemingly unimportant things foreshadow events later in the story.

This was followed by a really interesting Q+A session. People are always interested to know about writers' habits, where and when they work, do they have a routine, a special notebook, but I was more engrossed in the questions revolving around the ideas that went into the novel itself.

Death and The Seaside is Moore's third novel; "a psychological thriller about life, art, and inescapable fate" being how I described it in my review.  It started life while she was in the coastal town of Seaton and working on The Harvestman; a short story, again set by the seaside, about fear, and how fear can actually attract danger. So some of the themes that went on to be developed in Death and the Seaside were already present then, and even Seaton itself figures in the novel.

Responding to prompts from the audienece, Moore went on to talk about the wider role of 'the seaside' in European novels - how it's a place that characters arrive at when in crisis, or at a pivotal point in their lives; the story being resolved either by death in the sea, or, having come to a life-changing decision, the character then returns to their 'inland' life. It's all rather contrary to our every-day view of the seaside as a jolly place for summer holidays.
All of this gave me a lot of food for thought. Firstly as in my review of Death and the Seaside, I'd concentrated on psychological manipulation and living up (or down) to people's expectations, rather than seaside-related symbolism, and also because I'd recently read Elly Griffiths' crime novel The Crossing Places which references an Iron Age belief that the places where water and land met and merged - tidal flats, marshlands, bogs - were special zones at which the barrier between life and death was thin.
They may not all be relevant in this case but I'm really hoping I can make time to re-read Death and the Seaside soon, with these thoughts in mind.

These Seven - book launch

These Seven - and Sheelagh Gallagher

On Saturday evening, Nottingham Waterstones was the scene for a rather unusual book launch - with SIX authors coming together to help promote the short-story collection These Seven.

The stories were commissioned by Nottingham City of Literature, as part of its bid to become a UNESCO city of literature. It's very much a 'home-grown' product; the six new stories are from authors living and writing in the city today, all members of Nottingham Writers Studio, the seventh from the late Alan Sillitoe, probably Nottingham's most famous writer, and the collection is published by Nottingham publisher Five Leaves

David Belbin

After complimentary drinks and nibbles, and a chance to chat to authors we knew and some of the other guests, the evening quickly got down to the serious stuff - readings from the stories.

John Harvey

Brick

Megan Taylor

Paula Rawsthorne

First up was David Belbin reading from Alan Sillitoe's story A Time to Keep, followed by Megan Taylor with Here We Are Again set in Nottingham's Old Market Square, John Harvey with Ask Me Now, a crime story, and Paula Rawsthorne with A Foreign Land, a topical tale about refugees - all read just enough to tempt me to read more. The next author up, Brick, faced a problem - his contribution, Simone the Stylite, is a graphic novel, so not the easiest of forms to read aloud, but he managed well. Alison Moore's Hardanger took us on a dysfunctional family holiday and in Shreya Sen Handley's Nimmi's Wall, a family find something odd at the bottom of their garden.
Afterwards, Sheelagh Gallagher from Bromley House Library in Nottingham talked about how the bid for City of Literature had come about, and of projects for extending reading and writing into all areas of the community from schools and libraries to women's groups, public spaces and prisons.

Shreya Sen Handley

Coming from Nottinghamshire, but having lived in Derby for over 30 years, we're always a little torn between the two cities. This time though, they aren't competing against each other so we're happy to back Nottingham.

Alison Moore

There was time afterwards to buy a copy of the book  - and, of course, get it signed by all six authors while further nibbles and drinks were available. 

Click on the links to read more about the bid for Nottingham to become a UNESCO city of literature, more about the authors themselves, Bromley House Library

Waterstones are very active in promoting authors and their books throughout the country and you can very easily search for what's happening near you through their website.

Blood Tracks - book launch

It's not often that we can get to book launches  - too many are held in far off London - so we were very excited to be invited along to the party celebrating the publication of Paula Rawsthorne's second  teen thriller Blood Tracks at Waterstones in Nottingham.

The event was pretty well packed with all sorts of people who we presumed were extended family, but when Paula took the podium she went through a long list of people who had assisted in the research or writing of the book. There were family members who had given her a bed so she could get away from the daily routine to concentrate on writing. There was a gentleman who gave advice on how a body can be dumped at sea. The local coroner was thanked for advice on inquest procedure. There were supporters of her first book "The Truth About Celia Frost", local librarians, a gentleman from "Left Lion" (a Nottingham arts magazine). The list was a long one and many were among the throng gathered to support the launch of her latest book.

We were given an introduction to Paula's editor from Usborne, the publishers, as well as her new agent - her old one having received a lucrative offer to move away from agency work and into publishing.


And there was cake! As well as drinks and lots of nibbles. The evening was scheduled to finish at 8:30 and the books had sold out long before then and the book signing had only just got under way. Amy, from Waterstones, found a secret cache of books which again sold out long before the event was over.





 This photo was taken of the signing desk long before the signing but the books were already well depleted with people all over clutching them in anticipation of getting them signed.

An extremely enjoyable evening and we wish Paula and Usborne every success with this, once again, extremely enjoyable book.

Author Events - Nottingham

 by The Mole

 Last week was a busy week for us with two separate and very different author events being held in Nottingham.

The first event was Alison Moore, author of The Lighthouse which was, of course, Booker Prize short listed. The event was to cover the launch of her latest book The Pre-War House and other stories, published by Salt and nominated for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award 2013. The event was held on the ground floor of Waterstones which offers a cosy environment amongst the book shelves laden with their cargo of stories. When we arrived we were greeted by a glass of bubbly as this was, after all, a book launch. The audience was the usual mix of couples and after a brief introduction to her route into publishing - which started as many authors do, through short stories -she read a couple of complete stories from the collection, Jetsam and The Smell of the Slaughterhouse. She then followed this with a reading from the beginning of The Pre-War House. The Q&A seemed to focus, unsurprisingly, more on The Lighthouse and how she got published (a topic that so many of these events tend to raise). The book signing and one-on-one that goes with it ensued.    

Rachel Caine's event was the second event she had held at the store and so the larger, more formal location of the Sillitoe room was chosen. The event was to promote Fall of Night, the penultimate book in the The Morganville Vampire series. With most seats taken, it brought a smile to my face when I looked around the room and found less than 10 men in the room and most of them were accompanying their partners, although there were one or two that had come on their own. Rachel started by explaining her name. Yes, it's a pen-name but she explained she has also written as Roxanne Longstreet and Roxanne Conrad. She has written under a couple of other names as well but these she didn't mention. Rather surprisingly there was no reading but instead she recounted events along the way to getting Fall of Night published and how the first book came about. Although the emphasis was on The Morganville Vampire series she has written a few other series of books namely Outcast Season, The Revivalist and The Weather Warden. Neither Maryom nor The Mole has read any of her books (though our daughter has) but despite that the evening was very entertaining and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The last Morganville book comes out before the end of the year and she has another book out later this year in The Revivalist series. Clearly she is not only a great speaker and entertainer (everything was tinged with humour) but she is also a prolific author. After a Q&A which focusssed on The Morganville Vampires the book signing snaked slowly around the room and people left gleefully excited that THEY had spoken to Rachel Caine. Another great event from Waterstones.

The Truth About Celia Frost - Book Launch

Our first book launch!
Maryom and The Mole

We have been invited to book launches before - in various parts of the UK (although a lot in London) during weekday evenings and being the parents of a second only child, and because we do these things together, we had not been able to get. Maryom had read and reviewed The Truth About Celia Frost and so we were invited to its launch which was to be in Nottingham, just 20 miles away, and although it meant missing the day's stage of the Tour de France we all went along enthusiastically.

We were greeted on arrival by Paula Rawsworth and after a brief chat we were offered nibbles and drinks and we chatted and met other supporters of Paula. Her children did the rounds dutifully with plates of nibbles and big smiles, clearly pleased for their mother's success with getting her book published.

Anna, from Usborne, was introduced to the room and she then told us a little of Usborne's road to getting Paula's book to press before she introduced Paula's agent. We were then told how gripping her agent had found the book and causing her children to go hungry as she found she could not put it down. Paula took the microphone and after offering her thanks to everyone that had assisted her get this far she read a short passage from the start of the book.

Then there was CAKE! Usborne had prepared a cake big enough for the room that was special in two ways... (1) the book cover was on the cake (and the child's eyes on the cover are just a little freaky!)... (2) it was gorgeous, or so the room seemed to agree and, despite being low fat, The Mole did try just 1 small piece and agreed.


The book signing saw the book stands cleared of books and people started to drift away.

All in all an enjoyable experience and we hope that when The Truth About Celia Frost is published on 1st August 2011 it will enjoy the success it so richly deserves.