Coming to a stall near you! Check out the events I will be appearing at HERE. 

Thank you Matt ArtPix for the design! 

Thursday 25th September, I will be giving a short reading of my forthcoming second novel, The Book of Thoth, at Chalkwell Hall, HQ of Metal Southend, as part of the first Southend Writers and Artist Network (SWAN) evening. 
It was really hard to choose an extract out of the 384 pages, especially a 3mn one! 

After two wonderful weeks in Dorset during which I have spent most of my time outside walking and discovering yet more gorgeous hidden gems of this most beautiful of counties, I am back at my desk sorting out my "to do" lists (yes, there are several ones...). 
I will post a few Dorset pictures on here soon. 

Before I left, I did a bit of research for my third book, The Right Place, which will be set in Dorset. One of the background topics of the novel will be smuggling in the county, and I read that the best book about this subject is Roger Guttridge's Dorset Smugglers.
I hastened to find out more about this volume and discovered that it was out of print. What a disappointment. Then imagine my joy when on my last day in Dorset, I got my hand on a first edition at the Dorchester Curiosity Centre! What incredible luck indeed! I was feeling very depressed about leaving but this find definitively help me through the drive home... 
It has absolutely everything you need to know about smuggling activity in the county! 

I will soon know everything there is to know about smugglers in Dorset! 

I am particularly interested in the area around Abbotsbury where I will set my book. 

Isaac Gulliver, "King of Smugglers", is the inspiration behind one of my characters' ancestor! There is quite a bit about him in the book! 


I cannot wait to get started properly on the book... First, there's novel number 2 to publish. I am on 3rd proofs now, nearly there! 

Corrections of the second proofs of The Book of Thoth have been done! Now it's back to the typesetter, Matt ArtPix! Almost there!
We are taking two weeks off from the end of this week, then we will tackle the back cover design and get everything ready for the printers... Exciting times! 

One of the ghosts haunting Whitemoor Hall in The Book of Thoth is a young soldier who is looking for his horse. 
He wanders disconsolately around the stables, trying to find his lost companion. This is not a huge part of the book, just one of the numerous small vignettes scattered here and there in the narrative. 
Lovely article about the horses of WW1 HERE. 

Designer and typesetter Matt ArtPix has drawn a map of Whitemoor Hall, where the action of my second novel The Book of Thoth is set. He has used my own very badly done map of the estate (I used it to write the book as the characters move around the place quite a lot!). 
Also, Dimitri, the 11-year-old boy who is one of the main characters of the book, is obsessively drawing a map of the house, so we thought it would be a nice touch to insert a map in the prelims. 
I think it is rather cute and clearly shows the main elements featured in the story. 

Isaac Gulliver (1745-1822), King of Smugglers, the inspiration behind the Sinclair family in my third novel, The Right Place. 

More information about him HERE and HERE. 

Here's the official  poster for the next event Arcane Publishing will be attending: The Southend Book and Arts fair at the wonderful Forum, which is Southend award-winning shiny new library and art gallery. 
Arcane Publishing will have a stall next to their designer Matt ArtPix, and will be concentrating on entertainment, young readers, fantasy and sci-fi (more details about our stock will be revealed before the event!) 
I will be there, selling copies of my first novel I Am a Muse at the special event price of £6 (instead of RRP of £7.99) and I will be promoting my next novel, The Book of Thoth, to be published later this autumn (unfortunately, it will be not printed on time for the fair!). I am really looking forward to it! 

A very short update on here. I am not posting a lot these days, but this doesn't mean that nothing is happening! 
Arcane Publishing is booking events where you will be able to buy copies of I Am a Muse (and hopefully from November, copies of my second novel, The Book of Thoth). 
I will also be selling some fab second-hand books; my stock is growing and is now really varied to cater for different tastes and ages! 
Please check the Arcane Publishing Blog and Events Page for regular updates! 
I have just finished the corrections on the first proofs of The Book of Thoth. These will be passed on to our typesetter Matt ArtPix over the next few days. 
TBOT should be going to print no later than mid-October and make a appearance at our November and December fairs! 
I am so very excited about it. 

In early September, I will be spending two weeks in Dorset to recharge my batteries and research my third novel, The Right Place. 
I hope to start work on it in earnest this autumn. 

I haven't posted any music/museum related blogs for a while, this is because I have been concentrating on getting The Book of Thoth edited. The culture vulture in me always does the opposite of animals and goes into hibernation during the summer to emerge from its lair, all wide-eyed and raring to go, in September. 
(You almost had a series of outrageous music posts, but as I have mentioned before, the Alt-Fest  festival has been cancelled and therefore, our planned music binge is not happening...)

But as usual in the autumn, my list of gigs and exhibitions to go to is growing by the minute, and I will be attending quite a few events between September and December, so expect regular blogs full of culture over the autumn/winter season! 

I also hope to add to my Book Talk series of author/publisher interviews... 
Watch this space!