What I've been up to . . .

What I've been up to lately . . . well, obviously not blogging . . . *hangs head in shame*)

But one thing was yesterday's trip to London to Covent Garden Waterstones where awesome urban fantasy author pal Ben Aaronovitch was signing stacks of his fab new book - Whispers Under Ground - the third in his brilliant Rivers of London series. (And there was taste-tastic 'Book Cake' to munch on too! (made by the lovely Jackie of Fabulous Cakes! :-))

Here's Ben with Cake!

Ben and fellow author James Swallow with JK Rowling sneakily getting in on the action behind!

Me and the man himself!

 Oh, and of course, since I was in a bookshop I had to buy books! *g*

The Impossible Dead - Ian Rankin, The Golden Lily - Richelle Mead, Hexed and Hammered - Kevin Hearne.

Then I popped into Gollancz Towers to meet up with my fabulous editor, Gillian (and say hello to the rest of the Gollancz team *waves* :-)) and, since you can never have enough books, liberated a few more from Gillian's well-stocked editorial bookshelves*. *g*

The Armageddon Rag - GRRM, Tangle of Need - Nalini Singh, The Masque of the Red Death - Bethany Griffin, Fenrir & Lord of Slaughter - M.D. Lachlan

And while I was there I bumped into lovely YA author Bethany Griffin (at Gollancz Towers to do a video Q and A which will probably be on the Gollancz/Indigo FB page soon'ish). Bethany was lovingly holding two proof copies of her new book - The Masque of the Red Death - a book I've had my beady reader's eye on for a while - so I fixed her with my 'manic must have that book' stare and she thrust a copy at me while backing away fast I asked her if I could have a copy and she was kind enough to give me one. Even got her to sign it too! :-)

Doesn't she have gorgeous penmanship! My own is more like chicken scratchings *sigh*

And as you can see by its slightly battered appearance I started The Masque of the Red Death on the train home - and I'm LOVING it!


As for what I've been doing when not visiting London, authors, publishers and liberating books . . . I've been busy checking the page proofs* for The Shifting Price of Prey. *inserts obligatory self-promo* Out in paperback and ebook at the end of August (UK)!

So what have you all been up to?


*page proofs are physical copies of how the book will be printed and have to be checked for errors, like typos and weird authorial blips, that have somehow survived the previous million times the book has been read up to this point, in the hope that they can be eliminated from the final copy.

If you only do one thing today . . .

Originally posted* by Kari Sperring. Originally posted by seph_hazard at If you only do one thing today...Originally posted by ozisim at If you only do one thing today......make sure that ALL Geeks can get married if they want to!

*copied and pasted from Kari's LJ as she says it way better than me.

Dear UK Folk,

I know I'm preaching to the choir with you guys when it comes to LGBT equality, but believing something is fair and actually getting off your bum and doing something about it doesn't always follow like it should. So here's a little (and slightly preachy) reminder!!

Three things I'd like you all to do before you go to bed tonight (if you haven't already)

1/ Go here and sign the C4EM's petition for marriage equality. This is the simplest and probably most visible way to show your support. It currently has 60,000 signatures -- the petition against (by C4M) has over 500,000!!!

2/ Go here and fill out the government's consultation. It might take a little bit longer, but you can bet that for every pro-person who doesn't find the time, there will be dozens of 'anti' people who will.

3/ Email your MP. There's a handy template there for you to use so you don't even have to think of what to say. Also, you can go here to see where your MP stands on the issue. A hugely important thing to do because the majority of MPs will be voting with their conscience rather than following the party line, so make sure you let yours know your feelings.

4/ Okay, so I lied. There's actually a fourth thing. And that is simply spread the word. The consultation ends in two day - it's our last chance to get as many people mobilised as possible. So tweet it, Facebook, blog it, beat your friends and family around the head with it until they give in!!! And if you want to repost to your own blog/journal feel free to copy and paste. (And please feel free to edit).