Congratulations to Andrea, who aced the Blessed Isle blog tour quiz and has won either the two books of the Under the Hill series, or another two books of her choice. I’m just waiting to see what she’ll have 🙂
Thank you again to everyone who hosted me. It was an odd way to start the new year – with no time for reflection, but straight into things. On the other hand, what could be better than starting the new year with a new release? I only wish I could be sure I’ll continue the way I started.
I was at the Samhain Cafe “Thank God it’s not the Holidays any more” party last night, and we were talking about the depression that comes when you put away your Christmas lights – specifically how to combat this. I said I had decided to put up “Not Christmas but still darkest depths of winter” lights of some sort, and then went away wondering what to do about it.
A long time ago, when we were a little more flush, and were living in an entirely different house, DH and I bought one of these http://www.dphotoexpert.com/2008/02/20/using-a-low-cost-ikea-spotlight-for-studio-effect/
and never got around to putting it up or even taking it out of the box. Well, I can gladly report that it was a matter of a couple of hours to remember it, find it and drill supports for it into one of the bookshelves. So now we have a golden fern-like pattern projected onto the wall just over the fireplace, making the entire room feel as if it’s the cool hollow under a tree canopy, where summer sunlight is filtering through the leaves.
I tried to take photos, but my camera is automatic and insisted on using the flash, which washed it completely out. But it does, it really does, do the same job of reminding me that there is light and colour in the world, don’t despair, that the Christmas tree lights do, but without being bad luck after 12th night 🙂 Obviously I knew it would come in handy one day.
Today I’m on the Pen and Muse blog http://thepenmuse.net/?p=6113 talking about why I like the 18th Century so much. This is the last day and the last question for the giveaway quiz (is it a giveaway if it’s a quiz?) Maybe it’s just a quiz. At any rate, last but not least 🙂
I’ve always felt I was eminently qualified for the position of absent minded professor, and now I can’t remember whether it’s day 3 or 4 of the Blessed Isle tour. I do remember that I’m over here on the Scarf Princess’s blog, talking about why there’s nothing wrong with a man being a bit effeminate if that’s the way he rolls, though it probably takes more bravery and strength of character than it does to be ‘masculine’.
http://wowfromthescarfprincess.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/book-tour-for-blessed-isle-by-alex.html
The blog tour continues, as I talk about why I wrote Blessed Isle, as an example of the kind of love story that history made it impossible to tell.
http://pantsoffreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/guest-post-giveaway-story-out-of.html
Today I’m at Elisa Rolle’s http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1862471.html although in the event of Livejournal being down, which it seems to be very often at the moment, I’m also on her mirror account at Dreamwidth http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3415887.html
And I have another beautiful review to mention today. This one from On Top Down Under makes me feel that special authorial glow you get when someone really seems to have got what you were trying to say 🙂
There were so many things that I loved about Blessed Isle….I was transfixed to my Kindle throughout the whole book.
Gosh, this is unlike me, I’m blogging twice in one day! Here I am also at the Cup o Porn blog, asking “what’s in a name?”
http://cupoporn.net/2013/01/01/tuesday-tangent-with-alex-beecroft
Today I’m at The Jeep Diva talking about the experience of being shipwrecked somewhere nice with your best beloved. Is it always a good thing?
In addition to giving me a guest spot, they’ve also been kind enough to review Blessed Isle here, giving it 5 stars and saying “A novel set in a time when homosexuality had no name and sodomy was a death sentence. Ms. Beecroft took the delicate subject and delivered a true romance, a poetic story that is conveyed in the style of a timeless classic.”
Hee! I think they liked it 🙂
I’m slightly confused, since people on Twitter seem to be saying that Blessed Isle is out already. I thought it came out on the 31st. However, what I’m not confused about is that I’m doing a blog tour to launch the book, and that starts tomorrow:
Do come along if you’re interested. I’ve written posts that run from ‘alone together on a deserted island – is it such a good thing?’ to ‘why the heck did you call him Garnet?’ and answer many other questions you never wanted to ask in between 😉 I’m also running a tour giveaway, the winner of which can have any book they please from my backlist. Fun times! I’ve never done a blog tour before, but I think it should be great.
I have three things to recommend today. Unlike Hugh Fernley Whittingstall’s latest programme, they are not three good things which taste great together – they’re probably better savoured apart.
1.
Rather than a pantomime, we went to see Loserville yesterday in London, on the advice of our drama-student eldest.
http://www.loservillethemusical.com/
Which was a great choice – great sets, great songs and brought a tear to the eye on occasions. It’s a geek versus jocks story, but perhaps not on the cutting edge of the geek social issues which are exercising the internet at the moment – being your typical male geek earns the respect of his peers (via the sacrifice and cunning of his girlfriend) story. Still better than a panto, though!
2.
A fantastic historical murder mystery http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mistress-Art-Death/dp/0857500368 which makes me feel ashamed of my own historicals. Beautifully written, fast paced, humane and set in my part of the world. I didn’t realise it was part of a series! I will have to get the others now.
3.
And finally I can thoroughly recommend Get Your Words Out as a guilt free alternative to the daily word count. Sometimes you just can’t write for a week or so, but this gives you the chance to have good weeks and bad weeks as long as you make your yearly word count – and provides you with a nifty spreadsheet and monthly check ins to help.
GetYourWordsOut: One Last Time (Probably)!
Pledges & Requirements | GYWO.net
Oh, I am a bad blogger. I spent yesterday blitzing the house – which now looks pretty damn fine, I must say – and utterly missed the fact that it was my day to post in the Stuff Your Stockings Blogfest
http://www.longandshortreviews.com/promo.htm
Fortunately, I’d handed the text of the post in months ago, so I didn’t let them down with no post at all, but I haven’t commented or promoted it until today. Better late than never, there, I hope! Every post comes with a giveaway, to which you are entered if you comment, so it seems like a great opportunity to get hold of some new books for free, if nothing else.
And I’d like to think I’d been a little interesting, albeit unashamedly Christian, on the subject of Christmas and why this year it’s been a source of hope to me, rather than one simply of anxiety. (The anxiety is always there too.) Can anything new be said on this subject after 2000 years in which it’s been talked about every year? I doubt it.
http://wcguest.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/stuff-your-stocking-blogfest-alex.html
