small steps...

A few bits and pieces to report - York library, and some Essex libraries are going to get copies of If It Falls. If you'd like your local library to stock it, just contact them, they seem pretty amenable to getting a copy if someone requests it.
The publisher still seems to be having some difficulties in getting books out, but hopefully it is just teething troubles. Fingers crossed that they will arrive for the launch on Friday!
Anyway, I will be feeling very smug and literary when I'm signing books on Friday with the Mont Blanc fountain pen my sisters bought me to celebrate my success - might as well enjoy my five minutes of fame to the max!

Waterstones Launch

It's all official - If It Falls will launch at Waterstones in Cambridge at 6.30pm on Friday 1 August 2008.
There will be reading, Q&A, and signing.
You can get tickets from Cambridge Waterstones either before the event or on the night.
Hopefully see some of you there.

Diva!

Yes folks, I'm on the Books page of DIVA magazine talking about what is on my bedside and what I'm reading. It's the August issue, but out already.

Launch

Well, my novel is officially launched today. Doesn't feel that much different to any other day really! But the press releases will go out today, so I'm expecting requests for interviews and reviews to come flooding in!!

Oh wow!

I was just checking Amazon for something else, so I casually typed in If It Falls and it is already there and can be pre-ordered. So go order it people!!

The title

Someone has asked me what the title means, and why I chose it. I originally thought of the title in Spanish - Si se cae. This is a bit difficult to explain - in Spanish, if someone drops something, you don't say 'I dropped it' you say 'it fell'. In other words, it is not your fault, stuff just happens. This is kind of the feeling I wanted for Raphael - it's not his fault, things just happen to him, and that could be said of Guatemala in general, though of course the roots of the civil war can be traced to a particular fault.

So that was how I ended up with the English version, If It Falls. I'm not especially good at thinking up titles, and I wasn't sure this title was right, but most of the people who read drafts of the novel said they liked it, so it stuck!

More exposure!

You can now catch me on the website of my alma mater Manchester Metropolitan University, English Department in the 'published students' section (see my links).

My publisher says everything is on track for the launch on 23 June, but with less than a week to go I must confess I'm a bit nervous about it all.

More breaking news as it arrives!