My Eighth Publication Day!

Well, it was actually yesterday (the 12th), but today a box of books arrived on my doorstep, so it feels like today!

You can now purchase the third story in the Chronicles of Issraya series from any good physical or digital bookshop, or contact me if you'd like a signed copy. 

Oh...and of course every newly published author coordinates their clothes to their book cover, don't they...? 

No? 

Just me, then? 

OK... *winky face*

You are invited to...Tilda #2's book launch!

It's official - I'm going to launch Tilda and the Mines of Pergatt in a digital Zoom session on Friday, 17th July 2020 at 6pm 

(London time, or GMT+1, for any international folk)

If you'd like to attend and celebrate with me, contact me via microscribbler@gmail.com or Messenger, and I'll send you the relevant links next week. If you know someone who would be interested in joining in, please ask them to contact me directly for the link rather than forwarding it so I can keep track of numbers. 
 
Please note the event will be recorded! However, by sticking to speaker view (ie me!) muting participants, and handling questions through the chat function, no one else's faces will be in the final video. 

6pm       Event goes live

6.15pm  Reading of first chapter, followed by Q&A in the chat

6.45pm  Announce the winners of the Imaginary Gemstone Competition

7pm       More Q&A 

7.30pm  Event finishes

Looking forward to seeing you - virtually at least - and making Tilda #2 official!

Katherine 

Ebook sale!

News just in!

Bedazzled Ink and Dragonfeather Books are offering a range of their ebook titles - including mine - at reduced prices or FREE over at their Book Peddlar site.

Why not head over to THE BOOK PEDDLAR now and take a gander? We're going to need large TBR piles to get us through the coming weeks...

 And thank you, in advance, for supporting an indie publishing house and the authors it publishes xxx

A boxful of books

On an extremely wet Tuesday, I received a delivery...

Tilda has arrived!!!

The books are a larger size than StarMark or Kingstone - they feel quite substantial. But it's not just the size or fabulous cover I am excited about. Look at this spine:

There's a number on it...indicating that this one isn't a standalone title - there are more to come! (Excuse the highly patterned knees in the pic; I had just got home from my dancing class when the parcel arrived. I'd not had time to get changed...)

And on the back, there's the beautiful dragonfeather itself, with what I've been told is now the 'series symbol' for The Chronicles of Issraya.

Squeeee!

Did I mention that Tilda's now available in paperback from Amazon, via Waterstones, and from Wordery? Kindle and mobi versions are available direct from Bedazzled Book Peddler.

Or that there is an official book launch on the 17th October at The Old Curiosity Bookshop and Tea Room? (Tilda will also be available to purchase there after the launch.)

Well, it is and there is! So you can get your hands on a copy via several different means - even avoiding the big A if you so choose. 

Please, if you read the book, do consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads, as it's often word of mouth that gets them noticed. And I would love to know what you think of the first instalment in Tilda's story.

I'm off now to sniff new book smell...!

News!!

Well, unfortunately Kingstone didn't make the shortlist for the Leicester Book Prize; I always knew it would be a tough call when I saw the other books longlisted with it!

Congratulations to Rod Duncan, whose novel Queen of All Crows, was crowned Leicester Book of the Year 2018.

However, I do have a little bit of good news to share...

Yup. 

I'm going to be publishing a third novel with Bink under their Dragonfeather imprint. 

The Mage of Merjan is the first in a series of - hopefully - five novels about Tilda and her adventures on the island of Issraya. (I'm already half way through drafting the second...) 

So I can't be too sad about the Book Prize, can I?

Looking forward very much to introducing you to Tilda sometime in the future. 

Longlisted!

Delighted to say that Kingstone has been longlisted for the Leicester Book Prize. 

It therefore stands a chance (a slim one, maybe, as the other books on the list are awesome; I've read half of them!) of making the shortlist and, ultimately, coming away with the title of 

Leicester Book of the Year 2018. 

Squeeee!

Kingstone gets a cover!

Delighted that my second children's novel now has a cover!

Kingstone tells of Katia's fight to become a priest in the Temple of the Triple Gods; the cover shows the symbol used for the gods of sun, moon and mountain. The book is due for publication June 2017 and you can find out a bit more about the story by following this link to Dragonfeather Books...

Giveaway time!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

StarMark

by Katherine Hetzel

Giveaway ends July 31, 2016.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway


If you haven't already purchased a copy of StarMark, then how about trying to win one? There's a Giveaway on Goodreads if you're interested...starts today, ends at the end of the month. 

A teensy weensy announcement

This is going to be short (like me) and VERY sweet!

I am delighted to announce that my second children's novel - Kingstone - has been signed by Dragonfeather Books, an imprint of US Indie publisher Bedazzled Ink, who've recently published StarMark.

The ink's not wet on the contract yet so I don't have much else to tell you at the moment, other than I'm pleased as punch that Bink are willing to take on my second novel before StarMark's proved its worth.

I'm looking forward very much to introducing you to Katia and her story at some point in the future...

Paperback Writer...

"Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book?

It took me years to write, will you take a look?"

The opening lines of the Beatles' song (click on the lyrics to hear the song!) could be applied to many authors, but it struck me afresh this morning because - after seven or eight years - I AM a paperback writer!

There'd been some delays with the printing side of things for StarMark here in the UK, and I confess to feeling more than a little disappointment as the original May 1st publication date went by and messages came in from Amazon saying 'can't get hold of it yet'...'delivery somewhere between the 1st and 11th July'...'Delivery definitely 15th or 16th July'...and then, last Thursday, out of the blue-

'We've dispatched your copies!'

Hooray!! I kept my fingers crossed that they'd arrive on the Friday, as I was going away for the weekend with friends from uni.

(It's almost 30 years to the day since we met at Wolverhampton Polytechnic in kitchen 2B; we spent the weekend reminiscing, talking over what's happened to us since and generally having a great time in a love1y cottage. Here we all are, eating chocolate cake in the garden with me looking very serious for some reason. Probably trying to work out if I'm in the selfie or not...)

Unfortunately they (the books) didn't arrive 'til after I'd gone, but in the meantime, I kept getting messages and photos over the weekend from people telling me that THEIR copies had arrived and they were really excited to get reading. My mum's text was the best; 'Guess what I'm holding? YOUR BOOK!' But the one that made me feel all warm and tingly inside was the late-night-on-Thursday messenger conversation I had with someone who'd just started to read StarMark. I kept getting updates about how good she thought it was and how many chapters in she was...She had to stop reading then until Sunday, but finished the rest in one sitting and loved it - high praise indeed from a self-confessed 'I don't usually read' person.

And when I got home from my weekend away - on my birthday, no less - what did I find waiting for me? Apart from cards, pressies and fishfinger sarnies for tea? A shiny, new, never-been-opened paperback copy OF MY BOOK!

So if you hear me humming a line or two of a certain Beatles' song over the next few days, you'll know I'm still pretty excited about being a 'Paperback Writer'...

An ending - and a beginning.

Two weeks since my last blog - apologies! Things have been rather busy Chez Squidge, and I've not had an awful lot to write about.

Today, I have.

Remember my rainbow quilt? Well...part of my busyness has been tied up with that.

Still hand quilting the last few squares - and
the cat's already laid claim to it!

Stitching the layers together right at the edge before I add the binding...

Binding all pinned in place to hand stitch...

And then, late on Thursday evening, the last stitch went in, the thread was cut, and IT WAS FINISHED! Straight onto the bed it went...

Ta-dah!

I think it'll look just as good even with the
back side up...

So that's the ending. Always a bitter sweet moment, when you come to the end of a creative project, I think - there's the satisfaction of a job well done, pride in learning a new skill, and the joy of having a new possession! Mind you, I don't think I'll be idle for long, as I've already started to make hexie flowers for a quilt to go on the spare bed. I've made 22 of the 40 flowers I need, from scraps including leftovers from the rainbow quilt and other fabrics I had in my stash, so that one might be ready later this year. J has also begun to make her patchwork duvet during study leave, so it's a good job I'm stitching by hand while she needs the sewing machine.

But this blog talked about and ending and a beginning. The beginning? Well.

I am delighted to say that on the 27th May, StarMark became available on Kindle. Look!

A second ta-dah! moment...

Here it is, on my own Kindle, because seeing my book cover among the other authors I enjoy reading is, if I'm honest, rather thrilling! I'm not sure yet when the paperbacks will be available for those who pre-ordered, but StarMark is OUT THERE! (I do know that BInk and IPG are working hard to resolve the issues which have caused the delays, so physical copies should be arriving soon...)

But this is it - a beginning. A different kind of publication experience to Granny Rainbow because anyone, anywhere in the English speaking world can order a copy of my book and tell the world what they think of it. I don't think I'm going to be checking for reviews or sales figures every two minutes - I probably won't dare look! - but of course I'll be interested in whether people enjoy my story or not. If you read it, please let me know what you thought by emailing me, posting on facebook or writing a review on Amazon or Goodreads if you feel so inclined.

So there you have it. An ending of one project, and a beginning - a new phase - for another. Here's hoping that StarMark's journey is far from over.

Polishing for publication

Very, VERY excited to be able to say that Bedazzled Ink have waved their magic wand over StarMark and I am - at this precise moment - printing out the manuscript to have a look at the edited version. Having edited the work of others myself, I know how many hours it must have taken Casey to work her magic on my words...

Already, I have had to look up 'participle phrases'. Apparently I use them a lot - incorrectly - which means I have, if I've understood how participle phrases work correctly, a serious case of dangling modifiers. Sounds like a rare disease! But I'm learning, and a good writer continues to learn and improve their craft, so I don't mind.

As soon as the printer's finished, the serious side begins. Accept, Amend, Reject will be applied to BInk's fabulous editing to make StarMark the best book it can be.

Looks like it'll be a busy, StarMark dominated weekend...but worth it.

StarMark has a cover!

It's already up on Dragonfeather Books, so I reckon I can share... Ta-daaa!

Got something to tell you...

I think you might have picked up that I was thinking of self-publishing StarMark? (For those who don't know, it's a children's novel I wrote some years ago. It landed me an agent for a while and was sent to a few UK publishers but was not deemed either commercial or strong enough to be picked up.)

Well, I need to tell you that I will NOT be self-publishing StarMark.

Because... Dragonfeather Books, an imprint of Bedazzled Ink (a US publisher), have offered me a publishing contract for it!

It's official! My first full length novel for children - StarMark - will be published later this year! 

*pause for squeals of delight, general merriment and champagne*

*happy dancing*

To say that I am excited is an understatement.

I don't think I actually believed that anyone 'official' would ever want to publish me, based on my past record. I thought my only way of being an author was to self-publish, because my novels are apparently 'too nice' and 'not competitive enough for the current market'. Numerous rejections had made me scared to go down the traditional route any more - I hated how that process made me feel.

It was Granny Rainbow who changed everything.

She must've slipped a potion or two into my tea, because not only has she given me the confidence to self-pub a collection of short stories about her, she's also boosted my confidence in the material I write because kids loved her! (And their parents. And grandparents. And teachers.) I didn't need to worry what the 'big boys' thought any more - Granny Rainbow sold - is still selling. (So much so, I'm planning to publish the second collection in the first half of this year.) She made me realise that I could succeed, in a small way, at this writing lark.

If I'm honest, I think I only took the plunge and sent StarMark to Bedazzled Ink because I'd already begun to lay the groundwork to self-publish the novel. I had nothing to lose if it wasn't picked up - and at least I could say I'd tried. However, much to my delight and surprise, BInk said 'yes, please!'

And you know what's amazing about all of it? I came scarily close to leaving StarMark in the drawer I'd put it into after it was turned down.

Something about it kept niggling at me though. I believed in this story - and not just because I'd written it, or because I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread, or because I can't tell when to let something go. I'm not that blinkered about what I write. StarMark is a good story, and I believe young readers will enjoy it. That's why I took it out of the drawer, dusted it down, polished it up and sent it off.

So I'd love it if you, dear Scribbles Reader, would join me in a virtual toast to Bedazzled Ink, Dragonfeather Books, and to the start of what I hope will be wonderful future for StarMark.

Cheers!