First Review

Ely Plot has had its first review, in the Glasgow Herald on 14 March:

"The first in The Wickit Chronicles series, set in a medieval abbey in which Pip links up with a talking gargoyle called Perfect and the two are soon caught up in an engrossing adventure. Harry Potter meets Redwall?"

As a review it's small yet perfectly formed, and a fine start to it all. Now all we have to do is keep a look out on 5 April for that green and gold cover in a bookshop near you ...

Let me know what you find! Joan.

Marching on

They're fast, those Meet the Author people! The video clip on The Wickit Chronicles is up and running already - just click here to have a look.

I've got most of the dates for the Ely Plot tour, which starts 25th April down in the Ely/Cambridge area. You can tell England is more populous than Scotland - the smallest group I'm talking to is billed as 50+ (that's numbers of kids, not age group) and the largest is 100-200 ... So if I was looking for something to scare me this week, that would be it. (No point putting these things off. Anxiety is never wasted, is my approach.) I sent off to a German company that makes reproduction medieval clothes and got some very neat stuff, so that's part of the sessions sorted. And I'm pretty sure what most of the rest of the talk will cover. Time to let it fester for now, and fine tune in April.

The Walking Mountain - progress has ensued! Feels good. Time to get back to it now ... Joan.

And They Called Her Two-Take Lennon

Back from Canada, and straight into facing another monster from under the bed - this time, the scary thing was doing a video clip for the website Meet the Author. I was supposed to talk to camera for 60 - 90 seconds on The Wickit Chronicles generally and Ely Plot specifically, without fainting, exploding into tiny pieces or running (gibbering gently) away. The camera man could not have been more charming, or reassuring - or generous with praise when I managed to get through my minute and a half pretty well on the first take, and even better on the second. Why all the terror, you might ask? I have no idea. Perhaps I was frightened by a video camera in an earlier life. Will I be so scared the next time? I hope not. What scary thing looming up from under the bed does next week have in store? I'll just have to wait and see ...

Cheers, Joan.