From Russia with love.

There has been a spate of emails and Press Releases relating to our deal with a Russian Publisher, most of them had a Bond or Beatles theme, yes , you guessed it, From Russia With Love, Back to the USSR and others. All good news of course.
We are now four months away from the launch of the next Bluemoose title, GABRIEL'S ANGEL by Mark A Radcliffe. The jacket has been finalised, the Advanced Information sheet prepared and now its time to get out and sell what is a great story to the libraries and booksellers. It now has an official ISBN, so you can type it into your tinternet 9780955336782 and there it will be. A jacket image will be arriving within the next week or two, but I would prefer it f you bought it from a terrestrial bookseller or our own website. More money to publish more new books.
I am applying for the position of Professor of Happiness. Its a proper job and you don't have to tell any jokes. Smiles all round.

Moose and Bears

A Russian Publisher has bought the rights to FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS by Anna Chilvers. they will publish within the next 18 months. This is great news for Anna and for Bluemoose. I hope this is the first of many foreign rights sales, but this puts Bluemoose on the international publishing map, and for Anna an opportunity to sell her great story to as many people as possible. As Buzz Lightyear said, 'To the world and beyond.'

To London and don't spare the Sherpas

Off to Londinium to see the Queen. Whoever is running the trains on the East Coast these days is having a laugh. It would be cheaper, though less fruitful in the afterlife, to hire a Nepalese Sherpa to carry me down to the Metropolis on a Palanquin. And I have to get up before the earliest bird even considers donning a napkin to breakfast on worms. That said, I will try and pop into some bookshops and see what they're pretending to read darn sarf. Toodlepip.

Books Etc

The new Books Etc website has been polished and tweaked and is now up and running. www.Booksetc.co.uk FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS by Anna Chilvers is one of the promotional books of the month. We have just had the second improved image for GABRIEL'S ANGEL from our designers in Canada, the font needs adjusting and a few amendments here and there but it looks good, very good. I emailed Christopher Brookmyre a few weeks back to see if, in his busy schedule, he would read Mark's novel and hopefully give us a quote. Well, the good man that he is, despite being in the middle of writing his next novel, has said he will do that over the Easter break. I'm sure he'll like it as it's a fantastic story, beautifully written. Mark has such great insight into the minds of his characters, you feel as if you're part of the action. Brilliant. He could give a few Prize winning novelsists a run for their prose, in fact he'd beat them hands down. Off to sunny Manchester to see what the booksellers are up to. Then tomorrow its off to the metropolis to see what the linen suits are up to.

Great Stories

Apologies for being away over the past two weeks. I have been travelling the four corners of this green and pleasant land and although I know there is the technology to blog from wherever, I don't. I have to be in front of my PC at home. A luddite I know. The Moose goes from strength to strength. Since I last ranted, together with Anna Chilvers and Stephen Clayton we spoke at The Huddersfield Literature Festival, Sheffield Central Library, which was well attended and the audience threw some great questions at our authors. I also attended a prison to read from my book and answer questions, and it was very interesting if a little unnerving.
Our next publication GABRIEL'S ANGEL by Mark A Radcliffe will be out on July 24th 2010. The first draft has returned form the typesetters and looks like a proper book. We have received the jacket image from our designers in Canada, and it looks fantastic, very excited to have an image that really does grab the readers eye and reflect what the book is about. Thinking of a strapline for this book and have come up with, WHY HAS GOD REBRANDED SIN? Before you die you have to undergo psychotherapy just beneath heaven led by two angels. It is one of the funniest books I have written in ages. Made me laugh and cry in all the right places and Mark is such a gifted writer.
He teaches nursing at Brighton University and writes for The Nursing Times.

In the bookselling world it was great to read that Foyles are selling books at full price, haven't rid the shopfloor of knowledgeable booksellers and have increased their stock range and guess what? This has increased sales substantially . Rocket science I know. The chair of The Orange Prize had a dig at publishers about what they seem to be presenting to the reader. Books that start bleakley and then get progressively darker. She wanted 'stories.' Well, get yourself a Bluemoose Book. Stories that engage and inspire the reader.

Homecoming

Anna Chilvers gave a reading last night at Hebden Bridge library. It is always daunting to read in your home town, you never know whether the assembled throng are there to applaud or assault. It was the former and they asked some great questions. I ranted on a bit about the high street bookshop monopoly and how the 'Lit Eds' from the broadsheets never seem to want to review new writers from independent publishers. To the internet and beyond.
Anna will be reading at Sheffield central library on Wednesday evening at 6pm, at The Huddersfield Literature Festival with Stephen Clayton on Thrusday at 4pm, they are the warm up act for Alexie Sayle, but I think it's a printing error and should be the other way round. We are now proofing GABRIEL'S ANGEL by Mark Radcliffe and it gladdens the heart to realise you're publishing a really great story. It is making me laugh out loud, always a good sign and for all the right reasons.

Moose on tour

Back from Scotland and Glasgow is just not the same without the great Borders bookstore that was there. Anna Chilvers, author of Falling through clouds will be speaking at Hebden Bridge library on Friday 5th March at 7.30pm....What do they say about 'prophets not being welcome in their own towns,' well I'm sure it won't happen to Anna. Book sales continue to be very strong and now we will have to do a reprint. Anna and Stephen Clayton, author of The art of being dead, will boith be at the Peacock lounge on Thursday 11th March at 4pm as part of The Huddersfield Literature Festival. All are welcome. On Wednesday 10th March at Sheffield Central Library, Anna will be talking about her book between 6-7.30pm. Thursday 13th May at 12-1pm Anna will be at The Lincoln Literary Festival and then a week later she will be one of four authors, including Gervaise Phinn as part of the Stockport readers day at Stockport College. The day starts at 9am and goes right through to 1pm.
I am at Wakefield Prison on Monday 15th March reading and talking to their reading and writing groups.
The first typsetted proof of GABRIEL'S ANGEL has returned from Carnegie, so we're all busy going through it with a fine toothcomb. We should have jacket images of the book by Monday 15th march from the designers in Canada, and we've also got a very famous writer who has said he will read Mark's book GA and hopefully review it. Fingers crossed, but as it is such a great read, I'm sure he'll find it a great read.

BOOK OF THE MONTH

FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS is the 'Must read book of the month,' on the New Books etc website which is launched on Monday.You can go to www.Booksetc.co.uk.

One of the problems of having a book on the internet, is driving your potential readers through the zillions of titles that are on there. However, as Anna's book is in one of the major promotions, MUST READ BOOK OF THE MONTH, the discerning browser will come across her book, the great jacket and superb recommendation from award winning author Lesley Glaister, and then, purchase said title. Hopefully. Yesterday afternoon I met the 23 Reader Development Officers from the North West of England at The Hornby library, in Liverpool Central Library. It was an opportunity to tell them what we're trying to do here at Bluemoose, publish great writing that engages and inspires the reader.
As you may have read here in the not too distant, I have a problem with Martin Amis and the acres of print the supposed literati in the Metropolis give him. Well, in the letters pages of The Grauniad today is a riposte from Anna Ford. Music to my ears. She has a right go at his persistent whingeing at the press and tasks him to take at look at himself. Apparently he lacks 'empathy,' 'is a narcissist,' and is altogether a numpty of mammoth proportions. Ha ha, ha. And these days he can't write either. Marty, me old chuffer, get thee to Uruguay, spend your wifes millions and don't write another thing. Please.

GABRIEL'S ANGEL

The final edit has been donme to the next Bluemoose title, GABRIEL'S ANGEL by Mark A Radcliffe....We haven't gone all American on you by adding an intial between his first and second name, but there's a certain Radio 2 DJ with the same name. The book will now go off to be typesetted and then returned looking like a real book. We will then get it back and have a further chance to re-read it, check it for typos , send it off again and then have one last chance to proof it before it goes to the printers. Our designers in Canada, now have the brief and we look forward to getting some images back in the next two weeks. It will be published on July 24th 2010 and is an absolutely stunning book. Great story, beautifully written by an writer who has the capacity to make you laugh and cry in equal measure and for all the right reasons.
Gabriel's Angel is a comic love story set just beneath heaven.

Gabriel Bell was a web journalist with a low sperm count. He was 44, grumpy, sarcastic and irritated by the accumulating disappointments in life. Described by his girlfriend Ellie as ' a man who used to clap like a bloody seal when he saw a beautiful sunrise,' Now the only thing that would make him clap more is more sperm. He keeps checking but to no avail, so IVF it is. So it was bad enough when he lost his job but getting run over and waking up to find himself in a therapy group run by Angels just below heaven, really pisses him off.

It's unique and I know that every reader with a soul will be touched by this book. Grand statement, but a one of the best books I've read in the past ten years. I liked it so much I sold my life insurance!

Falling through clouds

Moose Mania abounds....Well, a bit. Anna Chilvers, author of Falling through clouds did a reading at Blackburn Central library on Wednesday evening. It was well attended and we managed to get the Moose message across. Great books that engage and inspire the reader. We have a few weeks off before we start on the road again. Sales are great, reprinting soon. Anna's book has been chosen as The Must Read Book of the month for the new BOOKS ETC Website which will be up and running next week......You can go to www.Booksetc.co.uk and there you'll see the book in all its glory....Week three of all the newspapers going overboard about our man with new teeth, Mr Amis......Madness......I'm now in therapy.....
I am doing two visits to Wakefield Prison in March to talk about my book ANTHILLS AND STARS and then I'm to be interviewed for the prison magazine...Then it is back on the world tour for Falling through clouds....And I haven't even told you about the new addition to Moose Towrs...Eric, the labrador puppy.....