A New Year's Resolution ...

... Buy more shelves and Get Organised*!

Happy New Year for 2011!

An aborted attempt ...

Yep, they're clinging on three deep here ...

My favourite shelf *g*

*And I don't just mean my books ... *is determined* :-)

What New Year's Resolutions are you making?

Clan Newsletter News!

I hope Santa was very good to you, and that you're all having a wonderful holiday wherever you are and however you celebrate!


So, the first Clan Newsletter has been sent* out!



And it's got a special preview present: an extract of The Bitter Seed of Magic which comes out in the UK in February 2011. If you want to read the preview early, then come and Join the Spellcrackers Clan here and I'll send you your very own copy of the newsletter!


Wishing you health, happiness and the the best year ever for 2011!






*here's hoping my newsletter skillz are up to scratch *chews knuckles*

A Christmas Card!

Click here for a Jacquie Lawson Christmas card from me to all of you!

I'll be in the Writing Cave making words and munching on the mince pies so won't be around much. Hope you and yours all have a truly wonderful time!

Wonderful animations taken from here with thanks!

Website problems ...

20th December 2010 - ETA - *whispers so as not to jinx anything* think it might  working OK now ...

18th December 2010 - ETA: Sadly I have now discovered that the problems haven't been fixed and are intermittent and ongoing. I'll update the situation as soon as I can.

If you try to load my website and get an error message, please 'try again' sometimes that works :-(

I've been notified that there have been some problems with my website (see statement below for details). These have now been fixed, but if you're trying to load the website from either a bookmark or history, it may still not load. Unfortunately you will need to type the website address in fresh. I'm sorry for any inconvenience that this might cause; my website host is usually pretty good ... still these things happen :-(

"We experienced a service interruption which affected your website services. The interruption occurred between 8:15 p.m. PDT Wednesday and 12:15 a.m. PDT on Thursday. During that time you and your customers may have been unable to access your website and a small number of users continued to experience intermittent issues through the morning. All services are now restored."

Book Cover images added for test puposes

Secret Santa Fangs!

Today was our writers' crit group's Christmas lunch. We're just a small group, only six of us, but we've (nearly all)  been together since we first met at a local 'Writing for Beginners' class six years ago. And let me tell you they are a fab, fab group and these ladies, and gent, totally ROCK as writers, critiquers and friends! I couldn't have written my books without all their support, and insightful, generous and pull-no-punches (in the nicest possible way) help. A massive thank you to all of them!

So back to our lovely, long writerly lunch, and the Secret Santa* Fangs ...

This is what was in my Secret Santa stocking! Yay!! So cool! And soooo tasty ... I can't wait to sink my fangs (O_o!) in *g*

Hope you're all looking forward to/having/had a great Christmas lunch/dinner/party! And wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and prosperous 2011!

*If you're unfamiliar with the Secret Santa, all the names go in the metaphorical hat, and everyone draws one name and buys a small pressie for that particular person.

Estonian Rights Sold

I am delighted to announce that The Sweet Scent of Blood is to be published in Estonia by Varrak. Varrak will publish in spring 2011, which is incredibly exciting as Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is to be the European Capital of Culture in 2011. A big, big thank you to Varrak, to John Jarrold, my agent, and the wonderful rights team at Orion/Gollancz for making this happen.

Polls and Poems . . .

Who's your fav Spellcracking male character? Take my poll* here

And over  here is a holiday classic - The Twelve Days of an Urban Fantasy Heroine -  from crit partner extraodinairre - the fabulous Jaye Wells 

*Why, yes, I have been playing with the plug ins on my website, now that you ask - not that I haven't been working hard in the Writing Cave too! *Looks innocent* :-D

Sunday Snippet

I give you a small Sunday Snippet from The Bitter Seed of Magic.

Enjoy!

Careful not to let my trainers scuff the salt and sand circle I studied the dead girl staring sightlessly up at me from its centre. She was in her late teens, and Mediterranean ‘girl next door’ pretty: dark brown eyes, blue-black hair still wavy even while wet, and a dusting of freckles over her nose. More freckles dotted the dark skin of her shoulders, but where the spaghetti strap of her flowered sundress had slipped, the line of paler flesh it exposed suggested her colour was a result of sun or a sunbed, and not her natural skin tone.

More than fifty people a year lose their lives in the River Thames.

And none of them fae.

The dead girl didn’t look like any sort of fae. The suntan was the obvious giveaway; only human DNA produces melanin. But Hugh – Detective Sergeant Hugh Munro of the Metropolitan Police’s Magic and Murder squad – wouldn’t have called me in to look at the body if this was just an ordinary human death.

And the witches wouldn’t have put her in a consecrated circle.

Winner: Wolfsbane and Mistletoe

And the Winner of Wolfsbane and Mistletoe is

Kulsuma

Who said:

'I would like to find Matched by Ally Condie (finished copy) and Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld!'

Congratulations, Kulsuma! Kulsuma has already been notified by email.


***

Thanks everyone for entering the giveaway and letting me know what books you're looking forward to finding in your Christmas stockings. I hope Santa is watching and that you get what you're wishing for! Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy 2011 to all of you!

Happy Book Birthday! R F Long - Songs of the Wolf (giveaway)

There's still nearly two days left to enter my giveaway for a copy of  the wonderful Wolfsbane and Mistletoe edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L P Kelner with wolfy Christmas stories by lots of fantastic authors!

Even if you've already got a copy of this fabulous book, I'm happy to wrap it up in pretty xmas paper and send to one of your friends if you win, with love from you!  What could be better?

Open internationally. Closes 9th Dec 2010. Full details and enter here





And talking about wolves today's the BOOK BIRTHDAY of my writerly pal R F Long and her book Songs of the Wolf!


Which is a super bonus: two books in one! The Wolf’s Sister and The Wolf’s Mate.

Woot!! Congratulations!!! 


Details and a competition to win a copy here.
(Competition is open to all).