Nearly a month without social media, who'd have thought it possible?
Actually I cheat a bit, because I look at Facebook sometimes, and I'm still posting Instagrams. I mostly post Dartmoor landscapes on Instagram, which tend to pick up six or seven likes if I'm lucky, but my most popular Instagram ever, with a hipstertastic 13 likes, was this view of part of my bookcase... (?)
Anyway, I've been glad of the extra time that's been freed up by abandoning Twitter, because I seem to be working on five different books at the moment; I'm writing the third Reeve & McIntyre adventure and another thing, checking through proofreader's comments on the third Goblins book,
Goblin Quest (to be published this spring), illustrating Kjartan Poskitt's new book for Faber and Faber (more on that soon), and looking through the layouts for Reeve & McIntyre 2,
Cakes in Space - it's always great to see Sarah's illustrations start to come together, and you can see a
sneak peek of some of them on her blog.
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| Photo: That Sarah McIntyre |
What I should be doing, of course, is practising the Sea Monkeys song on my ukelele, because Sarah McIntyre and I will be back on the road again very soon. We're appearing on 4th February at the 'Joy of Reading' day at the University of Hertfordshire, where we'll be talking to children from local schools. Then on
16th February we'll be playing the Royal Festival Hall in London, as part of the Imagine Festival - we'll be in the Clore Ballroom at 3pm, and available for signing etc afterwards. There will be lots of other authors and illustrators appearing throughout the week, too, so if you're in London do check out the
Imagine section on the Royal Festival Hall website.
Also, I've been asked to do some guest posts for Girls Heart Books, and you can see the first of them
here...
I think everyone loves pictures of other people's bookshelves as it's a very real window into their "soul" (for want of a better term) - and especially when the person you're snooping on is a writer, it gives the viewer some idea of your inspiration fuel. And, hey, a sword! Can never go wrong with a sword - especially a nice shiny one like that one ;-)
ReplyDeleteI read your piece about being an Internet Hermit and have to say I agree completely. I annoy myself by wasting so much time checking Facebook (I avoid Twitter for days at a time though), especially last thing at night so I'm too tired to read more than a few pages before nodding off to sleep.
I wish I had your willpower to stay off the dread Book Of Face, but then again I do use it to promote my blog and sometimes get story ideas, so it isn't all a waste of time.
Thanks Tim! It's not really a window into my soul, more of a book dump - there are some much-read favourites up there, but also some things I picked up second hand and never got around to reading, and at least one fat fantasy novel someone recommended but which I couldn't past chapter one of...
ReplyDeleteI find Facebook reasonably easy to avoid - partly because it keeps showing me the same posts over and over, so there's no point checking it more than about once a day. It's a good way to keep track of what friends are up to, though. But Twitter was impossible, because I'd post something, and then someone else would comment, and I'd reply, and then check for their reply, and a whole morning would vanish. So the only thing for it was to have a complete break, and I don't know if I'll be going back.
I'm still reading HeroPress, of course!
Glad to hear you're still reading HeroPress - it keeps me off the streets!
ReplyDeleteThought of you when I heard of the latest Hollywood plans for a six-movie King Arthur saga from Warner Bros to fill the Harry Potter-shaped void in their schedules (and bank balance): http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/movienewsandreviews/news/?a=93554
Have to confess I would not be opposed to a fantastical retelling of the Arthurian myths on this grand scale - with the attendant books, merchandising and (hopefully) theme park.
If someone would ACTUALLY do a six-movie version of the Arthurian legend - taking in all the obscure stories, sidetracking off into Gawain and the Green Knight and Perceval - that would be amazing. But I fear it would end up like the BBC Merlin - which I know you grew to like, Tim, but I thought was hellish. Gary Oldman would make a good Merlin, though!
ReplyDeleteWell, it's not a done deal yet, so I'll remain optimistic for the moment.
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ReplyDelete