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As you may know, yesterday author Adrienne Lecter had to cancel her appearance due to ill health. I hope that she'll get well soon and that our paths will cross again in the future. Luckily, author Kal Uddin is available to replace her. Here's the schedule: Lela Markham 3 pm-4 pm BST or 6 am -7 am Alaska Daylight Time Tim Lewis 4 pm-5 pm BST or 11am-12pm EDT Jessica Veter 5pm-6pm BST or 12pm-1pm EDT Helena Trooperman 6pm-7pm BST or 1pm-2pm EDT Angela Guidolin 7pm -8pm British Summer Time or 2-pm-3pm EDT Terence Mitford 8pm-9pm BST or 3pm-4pm EDT Kal Uddin 9pm-10pm BST or 4pm-5pm EDT Melissa Macfie 10pm-11pm BST or 5pm-6pm EDT To find out the correspondent time in your time zone, just follow the link:http://www.thetimezoneconverter.com/ And here are the Giveaway Prizes: By Lela Marham: The Willow Branch-Book 1 of The Daerman Cycle (Fantasy); and Life As We Knew It-Book 1 of the Transformation Project Series (Science Fiction) By Tim Lewis: Timeshock: I Want My Life Back-Book 1 in the series (Science Fiction); and Magpies and Magic-Book 1 (Fantasy) By Jessica S. Veter: The Eyes Have it (Science Fiction) By Helena Trooperman: Good Fortune: A Futuristic Techno Thriller (Thriller) By Angela Guidolin: 2 copies of Across Spacetime (authorgraphed) By Terence Mitford: The Scarlet Club, (Thriller) By Kal Uddin: Rise of the Red Harbinger-Book 1 of The Drowned Realm (Fantasy) By Melissa Macfie: Fate's Hand- Book 1 of The Celtic Prophecy (Fantasy) See you there! 
The wait is almost over!
I meant to write an update last week, but just after I came home from London I fell ill. I was even forced to cancel my appearance on The Worm Hole Show last Wedneday as I couldn't speak. I was dejected to miss it, but luckily the hosts agreed to reschedule my appearance. The other reason I didn't do it is because two authors I had met at the ALLI party (see my blog post The London Book Fair: Day 2) Terence Mitford and Adrienne Lecter had fallen ill too and haven't yet confirmed whether they can make it or not. Fingers crossed! Shedule: Lela Markham 3 pm-4 pm British Summer Time or 6 am -7 am Alaska Daylight Time Tim Lewis 4 pm-5 pm BST or 11am-12pm EDT Jessica S. Veter 5pm-6pm BST or 12pm-1pm EDT Helena Trooperman 6pm-7pm BST or 1pm-2pm EDT Angela Guidolin 7pm -8pm BST Terence Mitford 8pm-9pm BST Adrienne Lecter 9pm-10pm BST Melissa Macfie 10pm-11pm BST or 5pm-6pm EDT To find out the correspondent time in your timezone, just follow the link:http://www.thetimezoneconverter.com/ PRIZES (digital editions): By Lela Marham: The Willow Branch-Book 1 of The Daerman Cycle (Fantasy); Life As We Knew It-Book 1 of the Transformation Project Series (Science Fiction) By Tim Lewis: Timeshock: I Want My Life Back-Book 1 in the series (Science Fiction); Magpies and Magic 1 (Fantasy) By Jessica S. Veter: The Eyes Have it (Science Fiction) By Helena Trooperman: Good Fortune (Futuristic Techno Thriller) By Angela Guidolin: 2 copies of Across Spacetime-authorgraphed (Science Fiction Romance) By Melissa Macfie: Fate's Hand- Book 1 of The Celtic Prophecy (Fantasy)
On Wednesday 15th March I attended Ian Howe's seminar on editing. He explained the difference between the roles of editor, copy-editor and proofreader (Figure 2), although with self-publishing now the differences are more and more blurred. With tests like Spot the Typo, To change or not to change? Is that what you really mean? and Contest is key, Howe touched on the intricacies of grammar, punctuation (Figure 3) and spelling (Figure 4). 
I truly enjoyed this seminar, Get Over Yourself: There's no such a thing as 'the reader'. James Spackman (Publisher and Consultant) and Katie Roden (Publishing, marketing and content strategist) showed us the results of a research on the general public's relationship with books. There are three clichés that we must forget about:
The solution for editors and publishers is to get out of the office and observe people in bookshops and supermarkets and approach them. Playing videogames will help as well because that's what books are up against!
In the evening I went to The Albion Pub in Hammersmith Rd. As a member of the Self Publishing Formula Community founded by author Mark Dawson I had been invited to join a party thrown there by The Alliance for Independent Authors. Although I am traditionally published, this community is helping me a lot on the marketing front.
Before joining the party (I had forgotten we were ALLI's guests), I looked for Mark everywhere. I asked a barmaid but all she could tell me was about the ALLI's private party. However, a gentleman, Terence Mitford, heard my question and told me he was there for the same reason. We started to talk about our projects and the editor of What's Hot London, Eddie Saint-Jean, joined in. He offered to write a review of my book (which he will receive in paperback after publication). Imagine my surprise and excitment when last Tuesday I read this post:
After Eddie left, we decided to check out that ALLI party and of course Mark Dawson was there! It was a real pleasure to meet him and exchange a few words.
I also had the chance to meet writer Adrienne Lecter and podcaster Tim Lewis, who, along with Terence Mitford, are going to be my co-hosts at my Facebook Book Release Party. See you there!  On 14th March I went to the London Book Fair for the first time. It has been a very interesting, although tiring, experience. Here are the highlights.  The first seminar I attended was "Jumping the Pond", which explored ways to sell more books on the US. It was led by John E. SInclair, a New York and International sales manager at Thompson-Shore, Inc. Here are a few of the interesting things he said:
This seminar was very informative, about writing across the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction. From Professor Becker I learnt of the existence of ethnographic novels, in which anthropologist material is used. From academic, activist and autor Robtel Neajai Pailey I've learnt the importance of not to make assumptions about the audience's intellectual capacity, especially if they are children. She wrote a children's book, Gbagba, on corruption, that has become part of the school curriculum in Liberia and has been read on the radio too (to honour the oral tradition of her country). Finally, from author Lara Pawson I've learnt the importance of writing in the form one feels is appropriate for the content, even if it means crossing the boundaries between genres like she did in her books: "In The Name Of The People", which is a collection of memories on the Angolan massacre occured on 27th May 1977, from eyewitnesses, victims and perpetrators (not a history book or a novel); and "This Is The Place To Be", which is series of snapshots of her life that doesn't fall into the category "memoir". According to Lara Pawson, books in bookshops shouldn't be divided into genres, because in this way many readers are excluded from books they may like, and I agree with her. They should be dispayed only in alphabetical order!
I can't believe that the book launch is so near now!
Sometimes things don't go the way we plan. Like my appearance on the George Wilder Jr Show on 6th March.
Although I phoned the show minimum 20 times in half an hour, every time getting through and being held in the host queue, I was bidden, “Goodbye" after a few seconds. To communicate with George I tried the Live Chat. It didn't work. I tried leaving comments. It didn't work. I could hear the show intermittently hence I didn't know what was going on. Maybe I got the wrong date? The wrong time? I switched on my laptop to check his confirmation email because of course I couldn’t find it in the dedicated folder. Damn it, I was sure I had printed it. In the Inbox folder I found a new email from George, asking me where I was. I didn’t think of sending him an email! Actually, I did but thought he wouldn’t have the time to read it during the show, plus I was busy phoning in. I wrote back and explained what I had experienced and asked him whether it would be possible to reschedule. A few hours later I was up to drive my daughter to school. I went through the day like a zombie. After dinner I decided to have an early night and checked my emails for the last time. There is was, George’s invitation to his show… for the same evening, 7th March at around 7 pm CST, which meant 1 am GMT. As I couldn’t refuse, I rested for a few hours. That was enough for my synapsis to function again, thank goodness. The interview was fun. We discussed how to encourage new writers to get started, he asked me about Across Spacetime and after I read an excerpt, he told me, “That sounds great. Thank you for reading that on the George Wilder Jr Show. It’s been a pleasure, it’s been fun, I had a great time. Angela thank you for being on the George Wilder Jr Show once again. I hope you’ll come back some day.” Happy, I thanked him, hung up and went to bed. Yesterday I listened to the podcast and was stunned when I heard what he said afterwards, “She’s fun, she’s always sweet, and that’s why I have her and she’s a great writer, folks. Check out her writings. Especially her future writings. She’s going to be a famous writer one day and I’m going to say, ‘Wow, she got her start on the George Wilder Jr Show,' and I wish her all the luck in the world." Call me anytime, George!
My interview starts at 56:45 and finishes at 1:16:47
When just over a month ago I appeared on The George Wilder Jr Show for the first time, I was nervous at the beginning of my interview. Host George’s relaxed style made me feel more and more at ease, so the rest of the interview went fine. Actually, better than fine. After I read an excerpt from Across Spacetime, George said he was mesmerised and wanted more! He must have meant it because a few days afterwards he invited me back to the show.
As you can imagine, I am flattered and thrilled! I look forward to talking to George and his audience and hope you can join us tonight at 6.30 pm CST (0.30 am GMT). Save the time! |
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