SHIPS, SINGING AND NEW BOOKS
17th September, 2008
I’m slowly coming back to something like normal—perhaps I should say back to life—after recent events, and starting to feel more like myself again. Thank you to all who sent me such kind messages after my Mum’s death. I appreciate your warm wishes very much indeed.
In the wake of all that’s happened, Cas and I felt in need of a break, and our chance came at the Tall Ships Festival, which this year took place in Falmouth, not far from where we live. The festival marked the start of the Funchal 500 race, and the sight of the magnificent sailing ships, some recently built and others genuinely old, setting out for the open sea was something to be remembered. We’ve recently got our own boat (haven’t told you that before, have I?). She’s just—and I mean just!—big enough to sleep on, so we took her to Falmouth and stayed there for the festival week. Falmouth Shout, the shanty group we belong to, were taking part in the fun. We sang our socks off for five days! Any more and I think we’d have been reduced to miming along to our CD!
Here are some photos, which I hope will give you an idea of the lovely atmosphere, beginning with our lottle boat… and me!
Falmouth Shout at an evening gig (I took the photo, so I’m not in it!)
A magnificent Tall Ship passes the lighthouse on St Anthony’s Head
Now, writing news! I’m delighted to say that The Golden Circlet, the fourth and final book of my “Mermaid Curse” children’s quartet, will be in the shops on October 2nd. This completes the story of Lizzy and Kes, and their efforts to thwart the evil mermaid Queen, Taran, in her bid for ultimate power. As always, Puffin have come up with an absolutely superb cover! (Ah! I tried to upload it but for some reason it won’t… Sorry about that!) If you’d like to get yourself a copy, the ISBN number (which makes ordering easier at bookshops) is 978-0-141-32228-5.
And this week sees the publication of L’Usurpatrice – the French language edition of the second Chaos Gate volume, from Bragelonne. Again, another superb cover! People keep asking me for Ygorla’s ‘phone number… but I’ve warned them that they might get more than they bargain for if they ask her for a date!
I hope to have more news about further publications before long. In the meantime, I’m working on some new ideas; and one in particular that I think might be just a little bit different. Not wanting to tempt Fate, I won’t say more yet. But I’m planning a very active winter, writing-wise. Oh, and so is Simba. Well, when I say “writing”, in his case it means dictating the next episode of his Blat to me, as he hasn’t mastered the computer keyboard yet. In fact he’s beside my chair now, giving me That Look…so I’d better obey orders and get my notebook out!
