Gina Collia-Suzuki's Blog

I'm feeling rather chipper tonight, sitting here in my Lille hotel room and praising the dear fellow who invented air conditioning. You see, one of my blog posts that I posted at Red Room was chosen as a featured post... and I won a book! Click here for more about the Red Room competition. I haven't actually won anything like this since I was seven years old and entered a Mister Men competition. Back then, I won a poster and a copy of 'Mr Small' and 'Mr Bump'. Oh, how I loved Mr Bump, with his b

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At the tender age of nine, I arrived at morning assembly at school to find that a priest had taken over the stage. I'll call him Father Burk. Anyway, I decided on that day that I wanted to be a priest. Not because I was religious... I simply liked his frock. A gangly man with an unruly moustache and a penchant for mint imperials, Father Burk told us to reconsider our evil ways (having scanned the room and spotted the drinkers and womanisers amongst us). He spoke at length about the horrors await

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I was forty last week and, quite surprisingly, nothing fell off, exploded, or drooped without warning... despite warnings that all of those things could happen, and the insistence from certain parties that reaching this great landmark would be enough to strike fear into the heart of the most well-balanced and confident of ladies. Still, I'm much as I was before I hit the big four-o. Just why is it supposed to be big? It was uneventful, in the same way that the New Year always is... but without t

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I buy books... always have. I buy them because I love them, but also because they're necessary for my research. Basically, I can't do my job without buying them. So, it's no great surprise that my buying hasn't reduced; in some respects it's actually increased. Despite the current state of the economy, when I've been asked, generally at book signings, 'are people still buying books?', I've been inclined to answer in the affirmative, based on my own continued spending and that of fellow authors w

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I've just received the Superior Scribbler Award! A very nice-looking one it is too... cute little scribbler chap. I received this prestigious award from my blogging pal, Jaimey Grant, whose lovely blog, Into the Mind of Jaimey Grant, would have been on my list of recipients had she not already received it and passed it on to me. Thank you, Jaimey!

For details of this award and its beginnings, visit The Scholastic Scribe.

As with all Bloggy Awards, there are rules that go with the award:

Each Superi

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I returned home from a book signing for The Wonderful Demise of Benjamin Arnold Guppy at Borders in Bristol about three hours ago, after a very productive five hours of exposing the good people of the city to all things Guppy. The store has a really laid back and friendly atmosphere and the staff are lovely (big thanks to Ed for organising the event). It's located in a lovely part of Bristol, not far from the city museum, and there's a very cosmopolitan air about the place. I had a great time, m

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I had my doubts about Facebook fan pages for quite a while. I started one ages ago for my favourite artist, Utamaro, and then realised that I couldn't do anything with it and closed it down... started a group instead, called Ukiyo-e Images of the Floating World, but I've not bothered much with that either. I was reluctant to set up a fan page to promote my books, as they were so sterile back then, and I'm not at all keen on the word 'fan'... writers have 'readers', not groupies flinging their kn

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Having to restrain myself from screaming and jumping up and down like a mad teenager on speed, it is with enormously huge amounts of pleasure that I declare 'I have tickets to see Ryuichi Sakamoto play piano in Birmingham in November!' Ok, I'm screaming a little bit here, but as he's not been back to the UK for fifteen years I think I can be forgiven for spinning around the room and making wild eeping noises. He's going to be in Birmingham, Manchester, Brighton, London and Edinburgh... in Novemb

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Meet Tallulah... the latest addidtion to our ratty family. Ryoma went to buy some provisions for our other girls yesterday evening and saw this little one in the section of the store reserved for unwanted critters. She had a serious eye infection when she first arrived at the store, so she missed being adopted with the other babies. She's spent the last four months of her life waiting for someone to take her home, and for some unknown reason that just didn't happen... until today. She has so muc

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I received an email this morning that really brought back memories for me... very happy memories... from a first year mature student on an art foundation course. Having passed a poster advertising my book, 'Utamaro Revealed', on a daily basis as it is on her way to class, when she was asked to produce a piece of art inspired by another artist she chose that image. She wanted information about the print for her presentation and sounded incredibly enthusiastic.

I took an art foundation course myse

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