10 Days! 9 Days! 8 Days! 7 Days!
- At December 27, 2012
- By Niel
- In Highlights, Writing
0
Christmas has conspired with our germ-filled house and stolen the last few days from me! Each day I’ve told myself I have to blog, and each day I just couldn’t quite get it together to sit down and do it. The truth is I’ve been really exhausted lately, and this cold has been the last straw. But I’m feeding it copious amounts of chocolate so I expect to make a full recovery in the next few days.
Time is getting short – just a few short days till the official launch of Sorrowline. But Amazon have already jumped the gun and started dispatching copies at the end of last week. If you’ve already pre-ordered there is a good chance you’ve got your copy. And the Kindle version is now available to pre-order here. I’ve not heard of any sightings of copies in the wild yet, but if you spot it in a bookstore please let me know, or better yet, send me a picture.
I went to London recently for the Andersen Press Christmas Party. It’s the second time I’ve been invited and it’s a great chance to meet up with the great team behind Sorrowline. My editors, Ruth Knowles, Eloise Wilson and Charlie Shepard were there, and I finally met Klaus Flugge, the eccentric genius behind Andersen Press. My agent, Juliet Mushens was also there, making sure I wasn’t being too silly. She failed.
On a less silly note Love Reading 4 Kids has been collecting some reviews from target-audience readers of Sorrowline, and I’m thrilled to say its very positive:
- James Newbery (Age 10) Sorrowline is a fast, action-packed book, filled with time travel and adventure.
- Seth Age 13 I would recommend this book to anyone 10 years and over and I give it 9/10.
- Shea Devlin Age 13 This book was very hard to put down, it is a brilliant story and I would recommend it to all teenagers.
- Pearse Kelly Age:12 I recommend this book to any lovers of Percy Jackson or Doctor Who.
You can read them in full here: http://www.lovereading.co.uk/uploads/pdfs/misc/sorrowline%20reader%20reviews.pdf
30 Days!
You know, when I started doing these blog countdowns at 100 days it felt like I’d never get there. Now its 30 days to go, which is nothing! All I have to do is get the big messy hump of Christmas and New Year out of the way and there it is: January the 3rd, publication day!
This is my copy! Go buy your own!!
In the last week Sorrowline has been to WAR! War, I tell you! Or at least the cover has. Sorrowline has been competing with three other covers in Mr Ripley’s Book Cover Wars. Its proved to be a fierce battle, with Sorrowline and Alexander Gordon Smith‘s book, Execution: Escape from Furnace, swapping places more than once! And Barry Hutchison‘s book, Afterworlds: The Book of Doom lovely cover has been climbing steadily as well. This race is far from over! More than 200 people have voted for Sorrowline’s cover art, designed by James Fraser! I’m thrilled by so much support for an yet-to-be published book. If you haven’t already you can cast your vote here. There are four great covers to choose from, and a signed copy of Unrest by Michelle Harrison up for grabs!
But the big news for me (bigger than a WAR!) was the arrival of my very own copy, hot off the press. Finally Sorrowline is a real book, with a cover and pages and words! It’s not just a bunch of ideas, or a document on a computer, or even a pile of printed pages with notes scribbled on them. Its a book, just like those ones you see in the shops! But its got my name on the front, and my ideas inside, which makes it the most surreal experience of my life so far! In just a few short weeks there will be more copies out there, sitting on other people’s shelves. Those ideas will be resting in other minds, giving them headaches! Something that was personal and private is about to go public! And its already happening – I’m having strange conversations with friends who have just found out about Sorrowline. “Really? You wrote a book? You?”, “Are you publishing it yourself?”, “Has it got pictures?”, “Can I have a free copy?”, “Are you loaded now?” “What’s the book about?”, “Will I like it?”.
The easiest way to answer that last question is to let you have a peek and you can make up your own mind – the online equivalent of browsing in the book store. So, with just a few short weeks left here is a little taster to get you in the mood – the prologue and first chapter of Sorrowline – http://www.nielbushnell.com/writing/Sorrowline_extract.pdf
Let me know what you think. And if you like it you can order it from any bookshop, or online:
Buy Sorrowline in the UK
