BECOMING BELLE - COVER REVEAL GIVEAWAY

UPDATE - The winner of the proof copy of Becoming Belle is Mary T. Bradford. Congrats, Mary!

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Writing  - and life - busy-ness has kept me from here but I'm back with a cover reveal and a giveaway. These beauties arrived today  - proof copies of Becoming Belle, out August with GP Putnam in NY and Penguin Canada. Aren't they gorgeous?!?

Becoming Belle is described as 'a witty and inherently feminist novel about passion and marriage, based on a true story of an unstoppable woman ahead of her time in Victorian London.'

So, dear readers, if you like the sound of that, I want you to read it asap. Leave a comment to be in the draw - saying that you want to be in the hat - and I will pick one name this day next week, Friday the 12th. Please DO NOT leave comment as 'unknown' - I can't contact an unknown!

Worldwide giveaway. Good luck!

*PLEASE CHECK BACK NEXT FRIDAY FOR WINNER! I WILL DRAW A NEW WINNER IF PRIZE IS NOT CLAIMED BY FRIDAY 19th JAN.*

FIRST PROOFS GIDDINESS

Emily portrait at Rao's Coffee in Amherst

I have received first pass pages of Miss Emily - basically the first set of proofs. Oh my God, they are so beautiful, I am having to take VERY DEEP BREATHS. Swirly script for the chapter titles. My friend Bob's fabulous endorsement. General loveliness in all aspects after the fabulous copy editor had done with me and my mistakes. My MS looks like a book, a very pretty book - wheeee!!

I was also up to other exciting Emily business last week and this, but I am not allowed to talk about any of it. Yet. It's probably better that way anyway, in case of mishaps, but it has all been good fun. It was lovely to spend time with my agent while she's been here 'on hols' - like most pub biz people, she never, ever stops working.

Otherwise, I am tiptoeing into the beginning of Novel #4 and enjoying the research/possibilty feelings. Long may those positive vibes last :)

OF PROOFS AND JOSH RITTER

Parade, Hoboken, New Jersey - Robert Franks

Doing proofs is exhausting but ultimately satisfying. I've just delivered the first set of proofs for Mother America and other stories to my lovely editor, D. You get to knock all the sentences into shape before the MS goes off and is magicked into a book; that's daunting and enjoyable work, I find. I also got to zone in on what particular words were obsessing me over the three years or so that the book was written. In this case 'drear', 'moon', 'swoon' and 'filthy'. Some of them were ditched, naturally.

I always get cold feet about the book at this point. I grump around the place, sure that the whole thing is an absolute dud. Then one story will give me confidence and maybe one more will do the same. That brings a flicker of excitement.

This book is about parents and children. About the awful things they do and say to each other, and about their fierce love. There are lots of mothers and sons trying to figure it all out. The stories are set in Ireland, Paris, New York, Rome, Mexico and beyond.

The designer has been sent the brief for the cover (I can't wait to see what she comes up with) and the blurb is being edited and re-edited. I'm gathering review quotes from previous books too and I'm slowly starting to believe that it's all happening. The same thing with every book - disbelief and tension and, eventually, the finished book.

Mother America and other stories will be published by New Island in May. And I have a new stablemate - the wonderful Josh Ritter. But, of course, he and I are old pals as you'll see from this blog post here :).

Josh's début novel Bright's Passage will appear from New Island in April. Coup!

PROOFS, READING PETINA, RE-ISSUES

"I think of my writing as a compulsive form of theft. Every story I have written is based on at least one true thing." Petina Gappah

I have proofs coming out my ears. Nude proofs. The re-issue of The Wind Across the Grass (my first collection) proofs. All done for now. It is amazingly daunting/rewarding work, reading proofs. Your stories look like a proper book all of a sudden and you start to get a bit excited at the prospect of the actual book.

I'm delighted that Arlen House are re-issuing The Wind Across the Grass (with four bonus stories!). It's been out-of-print for ages, so it will be great to have it available again.

Back to reading now and preparing for Cúirt. I'm reading Petina Gappah's début An Elegy for Easterly. Petina is a Swiss-resident, Zimbabwean native and her stories are set in Zimbabwe. The title story is masterful: dark and moving. I've only read four stories from the book to date and, so far, so impressive. Petina blogs here. She'll be reading at Cúirt next week, on Thursday the 23rd at 1pm, with Helen Simpson. Sadly I'll miss the reading as I'll be doing my visit at Castlerea Prison.

As for my preps for Cúirt, today I'll be selecting masterclass participants and preparing my Arts Centre and Prison classes. In between an ante-natal visit at the hospital and starting a collage based on a poem about Paul Durcan...but more of that anon!