Fantastically Cool Things for which I'm grateful . . .

Some very cool things happened in the last week . . .

Genre for Japan was one, or more accurately two, of the coolest. As you know (if you've been reading the blog the last week :-)), I donated two lots:

I'm utterly STUNNED to tell you that a lovely, wonderful lady bid a STAGGERING £305 for a critique of her writing! A huge, HUGE Thank You to L.L. Wynn; my Red Pen is sharpened to perfection, and at the ready!

And an obviously very brave gentleman* bid an amazing £100 to have his name as a character in my next book! Another equally HUGE Thank You to Steven Dean*.

Yay! I'm so, so grateful to both L.L. Wynn and Steven, along with everyone else that bid for my lots (sorry you couldn't all win . . .) in the auction. Thanks to the efforts of the Genre for Japan team, everyone who donated a lot, and everyone who bid on a lot, the auction raised £11,203.36 (US$18,075.77 according to the current exchange rate).

That is a fantastic sum, and all of it is to be donated to the Japan Tsunami Appeal, being run by the British Red Cross. With tax taken into account, that’s going to easily exceed the twenty thousand dollar mark.

You can see a list of everything that was donated, here.

So, kudos and thanks again to the organisers: Amanda Rutter, Ro Smith, Louise Morgan, Jenni Hill and Alasdair Stuart. This wouldn’t have happened without them. I proud and humbled to be able to be a part of such a brilliant idea. *Does the mega happy dance*

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Now for the other cool thing . . . I have some lovely news about The Cold Kiss of Death over at SF Site, they've published their Top Ten Best SF and Fantasy Books of 2010. And in their Editors' choice . . .

*Cue Excited Drumroll*

The Cold Kiss of Death is No. 5*!

 WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!

Another HUGE THANK YOU to the awesome SF Site Editors!!!

Covers: US (left) and UK (right)

Yay!! Cup Cakes for all!!!

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And a quick reminder about this week's celebratory  'Gargoyle Loving Giveaway', which is for Magic on the Hunt (Allie Beckstrom #6) by the awesome Devon Monk, one of my all time fav authors! It's officially out in the US tomorrow 5th April, and UK peeps can buy from The Book Depository :-) You can enter the Gargoyle Loving Giveaway here by leaving your suggestions for names for my own two, sadly, nameless gargoyles!!

And if you visit Devon over at the Deadline Dames blog on the 5th, there's a chance to win your very own Stone, seen here reading Magic on the Hunt!

*He's picked the baddie character, and will have an amazing super power, which may or may not, make up for his horrific, excruciatingly painful, and no doubt extremely bloody demise! (Evil author has dastardly plans!!!) *g*

*Okay, so this is a spoiler, there's no way round it: the character called 'Steven Dean' in my next book will DIE! He'll DIE, I tell you! *takes a calming breath as everyone steps away from the scary author* But what isn't a spoiler, is . . . you won't know HOW, or WHEN he's going to die! *cackles*

*I'm so stoked about this *squeeeeeeeeee*, and yes, since you asked, I do keep clicking to check my book is still actually still there at No. 5! *pinches herself*