interesting!

Well, that was interesting! Some nice comments came out of the YTB Bookclub discussion of Witherstone, and a few of these are:

§         loved this, and particularly liked that the family were an ordinary working family. I liked the character of Grandad Creswell, a sort of curmudgeonly socialist!

(which prompted this on Twitter -  RedScareBot Robot J. McCarthy
@Commies R here! RT @siancummins #yettobebooks 'a sort of curmudgeonly socialist' - http://tinyurl.com/6eyp7e9   - lol !!)

But back to the discussion...

§         there was a strong political string to the book, with Grandad Creswell and Grandma tugging not-neccesarily-opposite ends of it

§         It’s an enormously tense story, but with very careful detail that is very interesting and balances the powerful surge of the main plot

-      I mean detail in the sense of elemental happenings I think, rather than overdescription…there’s none of that. You can reach out and touch things in the story, so the characters’ ordinary lives are of as much interest as the unordinary things that happen to them.

o        I read the book as an adult without feeling it was written for a younger person and not for me, but could also see that it would be compelling and readable to someone of 9 – late teens.



So how does it work as part of a series?

-   ... it works very well as a stand-alone, but at the same time – knowing there are more – I’m gagging to see what happens next!

Favourite characters...?

- Grandad Creswell and Eppie – angry socialist grandad who makes a lot of sense, and tenacious, layered, likeable main character

And more from Twitter...

#yettobebooks 'I think the book is really exciting'- http://tinyurl.com/6eyp7e9

#yettobebooks the “truth” is always more complex than a simple one-side or the other'- http://tinyurl.com/6eyp7e9

Fabbo.  

rather excited!

Discussion of Witherstone at the YTBP Bookclub tonight at 8pm...!


Nervous, bemused, and rather excited - and really looking forward to it.

bemused...?

Bemused perhaps?


three days and counting...

four days and counting...

Nervous? moi?






Four days to go....

success floating in the ether

Fab to see Jenn Ashworth taking her well-deserved seat amongst the top 12 new novelists of 2010 - really looking forward to her new novel Cold Light as A Kind of Intimacy is a really great read, the kind that creeps into your mind and stays there long after you've finished the book.

Christine's daughter Rachel Cotterill has published her debut novel Rebellion.

While I... well, I'm nearly half-way through building a new beehive.

I'm also nearly half-way through the first draft of the second book in the Witherstone series, The Hunt Begins, and it's coming along really well, and I was hoping to have something even more interesting to report by now, but Time is a slow beast when you're waiting for Someone interested in Something to get back to you...

Still. Enjoying watching the crows in the woods every morning as they collect twigs for their fabulous nests. Spring is coming, Master Nalgah tells me so.