Christmas special starts today. Final sale ever of Come See About Me (Dec 19 - 26). Just .99 at Amazon.com and equivalent prices at .ca, .co.uk etc.

Christmas Special: Download Come See About Me eBook 99 cents December 19 - 26 only Amazon.com
Big hair & cold war politics! My guest blog "Yesterday: Introducing the 80s" is up at Kindlepost UK. Yesterday, My Beating Teenage Heart and I Know It's Over are now available as ebook downloads from Amazon.co.uk with The Lighter Side of Life and Death and One Lonely Degree soon to follow. I had great fun designing the ebook covers and am happy to share them with you (click on the image to see a larger version):

I Know It's Over
One Lonely Degree
The Lighter Side of Life and Death
My Beating Teenage Heart
Yesterday

I've also been preparing for Christmas and last week I headed over to my friend's house with a gingerbread kit and one of my favourite Christmas movies of recent years, The Holiday. Neither of us had ever put a gingerbread house together, but how hard could it be?

We started out by laying the materials as directed by the package, and the foundation piece (the one that sits at the bottom of the house) promptly broke in two in my hands. Ooph!

gingerbread house makings

We managed to glue the severed pieces together with icing and successfully erect the basic house (even the chimney!). Yippee!

gingerbread house, bare

Ultimately, our gingerbread house didn't closely resemble the one on the cover of the package. In fact, ours looks as though it's been hit by a fierce blizzard (a candy blizzard perhaps?). But hey, that's in keeping with the season too, right? I find it awfully cute anyway, even the mutant gingerbread men.

finished gingerbread house

finished gingerbread house

On Monday Paddy and I finally put up our Christmas decorations around the apartment and an interesting thing happened. Remember the childhood Smurf collection I brought back from my mom's place not long ago? Well, the Smurfs took a shine to our Christmas village and have invaded. The original village inhabitants don't know quite what to make of them and some of the Smurfs have been revelling a little too hard (the pub has been a problem area) but generally the Smurfs are following Papa Smurf's genial example. So I have every faith peace (and comfort and joy) will prevail.



Smurfs invade my Christmas village

Smurfs invade my Christmas village

Smurfs invade my Christmas village

Smurfs invade my Christmas village
Home late last night after a sublime Leonard Cohen show (that I wish I was still at!), I'm mucho groggy today but am interrupting my Internet break to point folks in the direction of my guest blog entry on "Reconnecting with Your Lost Love of Writing" over at Adventures in YA & Children's Publishing. If you've lost that loving feeling lately, this post might be for you. Signed copies of Yesterday and My Beating Teenage Heart are up for grabs too!
 
Some very cool reviews of Yesterday have been appearing on the Internet and out in the world recently. I wish I could link to the wonderful Quill & Quire write-up, but it's not online yet. Here's an outtake to whet your appetite: "A satisfying, original blend of time-travel thriller, science fiction and romance, this white-knuckle read is more Jason Bourne than Katniss Everdeen."
 
I'm very happy to say that Yesterday review appears on the same page with a lovely one for Monica Kulling's new book Lumpito and the Painter from Spain. Aimed at readers five and up, Lumpito is based on true events—Pablo Picasso's love for the one of a kind daschund that comes into his life. Quill and Quire say, "Young readers will delight," but this older reader is very much looking forward to reading it too! Sounds like a great Christmas gift, n'est-ce pas?
 
I'm also extremely excited to report that School Library Journal has given Yesterday a starred review. Yaaaaaay! You can read the entire review on the School Library Journal website. The National Post has also been very kind to Yesterday and said, "Yesterday is a compelling novel that will take up permanent residence in your mind and haunt you, continually leaving you suspended in its spell until the very last page. Martin’s ability to manipulate the laws of time and space to create a fantastical fictional world is exceptional." Check out the full review here.
 
Finally, if you're in the U.K. and looking to pick up a copy of Yesterday as an e-book you can now download it from Amazon.co.uk. My guest blog entry about Yesterday will be going up at Kindle Post (uk) on December 11th and my other YA books will soon be available in-ebook format on Amazon.co.uk too. They're being released via Curtis Brown's digital self-publishing programme, which you can read the details of on the Curtis Brown website. One of the things I loved about this is that it gave me a chance to design alternate covers for my books. Here's the U.K. e-book cover. I'll try to post the others soon too.
 
Yesterday U.K. e-book cover
Next Post Newer Posts Previous Post Older Posts Home