I have reached a decision and decided to make the first 15 pages or so of my first novel I Am a Muse available for free on this very website.
Go to the I AM A MUSE PAGE and you will be able to download the PDF! 28/5/2013 small ad...Matt ArtPix has designed a lovely little ad for Arcane Publishing!
If everything goes to plan, it should appear in the pocket edition that the magazine Level 4 is planning to do for the arts and music festival, Village Green. I am not very good with slogans, and "Stories from the city, stories from the sea" was already taken... 17/5/2013 Event tomorrow!Arcane Publishing will be at Dotty Sparkle's Vintage and Modern fair tomorrow in Thorpe Bay, Essex.
Free entry! I will be sharing a stall with the talented designer Matt ArtPix who does all the design for Arcane Publishing! I will be promoting I Am a Muse and selling copies at £6 (that's a discount of £1.99!). Arcane Publishing also sells great second-hand books: cinema, entertainment, fantasy, children's books, music... We are also building up a collection of great vintage novels with fab illustrated covers! We might put them up for sale one day... More events to come, and they are all on the Arcane Publishing events page! Today, I had my picture taken for a local newspaper, and I genuinely felt very stupid! I do hope I will not look too silly... The photographer liked the display in our corridor, and therefore the background to the picture is a big poster of cult post-punk band Killing Joke... We are officially a rock'n'roll household - we've always been, really... 15/5/2013 Another book about Dorset!So yesterday I had my first interview as an interviewee... I was waiting for the journalist inside Waterstones in Southend - unfortunately, we do not have any independent bookshop in town and the nearest one is The Book Inn in Leigh-on-Sea - and having a look at their "NEW BOOKS" section, when my eyes fell on a great cover illustration; then I saw the name Robert McFarlane on it, and so I picked it up. It was a book about South Dorset! The evocative lane on the cover reminded me of the "haunted" lane we followed last September, Common Lane near Corscombe (as described in Louise Hodgson's Secret Places of West Dorset.) I will purchase Holloway in the forthcoming weeks, it sounds fantastic - although it is quite pricey! In July 2005, Robert Macfarlane and Roger Deakin travelled to explore the holloways of South Dorset's sandstone. They found their way into a landscape of shadows, spectres and great strangeness. The interview itself went ok, although I can still hear the sound of my own voice buzzing in my head. Did I say too much? Not enough? Unfortunately, the journalist hadn't had time to read the book and we didn't delve too deep into it, which I guess would have been quite a challenge for me... I am not sure how the journalist is going to get something together out of my waffle, but I guess doing that is a specific skill, isn't it? Not everyone can be a journalist, despite what the majority of people thinks. So I talked about art, inspiration, I Am a Muse, self-publishing, the English language, education - not in any particular order. What I like about writing is that you have time to organise your thoughts. When I speak, everything gushes out and I kind of panic. I guess I will learn with time... The article should be published on Friday 24th May, and I will post a scan on this website. Not too sure whether I am looking forward to it or dreading it... 15/4/2013 I Am a Muse is published today!I Am a Muse is officially published today! And a little news flash is in issue 14 of Level 4 magazine, the magazine for local culture vultures!
To celebrate, I will be taking two weeks off and head to Dorset away from the computer. But this will not be a completely lazy holidays: my third novel, The Right Place, will be set in Dorset - so I'll be taking some notes! - and I will also be working longhand on my second novel, The Book of Thoth, which has been feeling slightly neglected of late... I Am a Muse has had a first review in and a bit of press (there's more to come soon!). Go to the Review and press page . If you wish to purchase I Am a Muse, please go to the PURCHASING OUR BOOKS page on the Arcane Publishing website where you will find all the details you need. You can buy the book in person at The Book Inn in Leigh-on-Sea, our local independent bookshop. In person too, you can come to one of the events we will be attending in the forthcoming months (all the dates are on the purchasing our books page). You can also buy the book online via paypal. 5/4/2013 Press!My lovely friend at La Magicbox, a French music website for which I have been writing a lot since 2000, has done a little news flash about the publication of my book. It is in French, though... MAGICBOX NEWS They might even put a review on there next month...
I have actually started writing about music again, although it will not be as full on as it used to be... I have done a profile of the Alt-Fest festival, a fantastic new festival that will take place in Kettering in August 2014, and I have just sent in my first CD review in four years! I am rather rusty, but it's good to be back! ALT-FEST PROFILE ARTICLE ON LA MAGICBOX (in French and English). So Arcane Publishing was at The Secret Vintage Fair at Colchester Castle last Saturday. It was the first time I Am a Muse was made available to the public at the special price of £6 (instead of £7.99) and this was pre-publication! I Am a Muse was on display on Matt ArtPix's super stall!
Granted, people don't go to a vintage fair to buy books. But these events are well attended - this particular fair was a massive success and the venerable castle was absolutely packed! - and are an ideal place to do a bit of advertising - and we think the book fits well with the vintage and handmade ethic. Constance Blackwell's The Pleasure Gardens is a club night that pays tribute to vintage! (And Matt ArtPix has designed the I Am a Muse cover, plus all the promotional material for the book!) The Book of Thoth will be even better for these types of events - set in the 20s, with time travelling, Victorian jewellery, a manor house full of history, alchemy labs and strange antiques... So... The fair... Quite a few people read the poster, some others picked up a flyer, a few took a flyer away with them, some others put the one they were looking at back on the table when I told them they were free and they could keep them... Thank you to the people who were brave enough to buy the book! Please do send your feedback to contact@arcanepublishing.net! I will add a review/feedback page on the Miss Gish website as soon as I get anything to put on there... From 15th April, I Am a Muse will be available to buy from The Book Inn in Leigh-on-Sea. Arcane Publishing will be attending a few more events in the forthcoming months, sharing a stand with Matt ArtPix. I will post more details about these on this blog and on the PURCHASING OUR BOOKS PAGE on the Arcane Publishing website. |
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March 2024
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