Talli Roland's Blog, page 2

The RNA Conference and More!

Hello! Happy Thursday! It is sweltering here in London, but at least we can say it is definitely summer. I spent last weekend somewhere in rural Shropshire at the RNA conference, and I think I'm still in recovery.
Nevertheless, I did manage to revive myself enough to head to Amazon's Christmas Wishlist Event to represent KDP. Here is the lovely shiny stand.


And above, an amazing book bench on Bloomsbury Square, just across from where the event was held.


Here are some lovely writers at last week's conference, all set for the Gala.


Me and Mandy Baggot.

Lorraine getting into the spirit.

Sarah, Rhoda and Liz.

The wonderful Jan Jones and Roger Sanderson.
And I am now going to go collapse into a sweaty heap on the floor. Have a great week, everyone!

Happy Canada Day - And Other Bits and Bobs

Hello!

First of all, happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians. I hope everyone had a lovely day!

Here in London, it's been hot and sunny, and I've been out and about enjoying the wonderful weather while it lasts. I'm still slogging away on my novel - Draft 4 now! - and it's getting there. Sigh.

But I won't bore you with that. Here are some photos of my latest exploits.

This summer's Serpentine Pavilion, which I visited today.


A publication-day gift from my Amazon team!
Baby TR in his finery at a recent wedding we attended at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire.
The beautiful venue. And there you have it! Happy Fourth of July to my American friends. I hope everyone is enjoying the summer!

Vanishing June

Oh my goodness, I cannot believe June is half over already! It's been a very busy month, starting with my book launch.




Just look at those lovely banners gracing the homepage of Amazon.co.uk, along with the Kindle Books page. So exciting.

There was a also a lovely book launch to celebrate Liz Fenwick's latest, A Cornish Stranger.

Liz Harris, Christina Courtney, Lizzie Lamb. Julie Cohen, Adrienne Vaughan, Me, and Rowan Coleman.
And then there was a yummy dinner with my co-founders of Notting Hill Press...

Michele Gorman, Belinda Jones, and Me.There were some of these along the way...

Limoncello martini.

And there was also Father's Day to add to the mix!

Baby TR and Mr TR with his Super-Dad Socks. 
What a great month it's been so far! Hope everyone is enjoying June just as much. 

The No-Kids Club is Out Now!

Hello hello! Happy Thursday, everyone.

It's been a very exciting week chez TR because my new novel, The No-Kids Club, is out now as an ebook, audiobook, and paperback.



At almost forty, Clare Donoghue is living child-free and loving it.

Then her boyfriend says he wants kids, breaking off their promising relationship. And it’s not just boyfriends: one by one, her formerly carefree friends are swallowed up in a nonstop cycle of play dates and baby groups. So Clare decides it’s time for people who don’t have children to band together. And so the No-Kids Club is born.

As the group comes together—Anna, who’s seeking something to jumpstart a stale marriage, and Poppy, desperate for a family but unable to conceive—Clare’s hoping to make the most of the childless life with her new friends.

Will the No-Kids Club be Clare’s route to happiness, or will the single life lose its sparkle?

You can buy it on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.

Have a great week, everyone!

Is it just me, or...

Hello! Yes, I missed posting last Thursday. I didn't forget, but I was busy rushing off to the RNA Summer Party and couldn't find the time during the day to pen a post.

And, to be honest, lately I'm just not feeling the blog love. Back in the day (say, 2009?), I used to live for blogging, spending hours each night reading and returning comments. There was a tight community of writers and blogs were updated regularly. Fast-forward to 2014, and things have changed. Facebook and Twitter seem to be where it's at, and I've noticed some bloggers - me included - just aren't posting as frequently. Some have stopped altogether.

It's fair to say that after five years, the blogging well has run a little dry. Sure, I can post photos and relay my London exploits (and I will!), but there's only so much you can talk about your daily life before things get a little, well . . . routine. I've never been one to advise on writing, or publishing, or anything of the nature, simply because I don't feel I have the expertise and others do it so much better.

With the lack of time we're all facing these days, Facebook and Twitter seem so much easier to catch up with all my blogging buds. I don't need to visit individual pages and leaving a comment is simple and quick (no word verification, the bane of my existence!).

I'll never stop blogging and I'll continue to fill you in ad nauseam on my life here, but it seems the times have moved on from the blog.

Or is it just me? 

Writing and Parenting -- The Challenges!

A minor victory today, as I actually remembered to post! It's a wonderfully sunny spring-like day here in London -- fingers crossed the good weather lasts.

Recently, blogger Allison Wells had a great post on the challenges facing parent-writers. Her thoughts struck a chord with me, so I thought I'd write about my own challenges.

Until I had Baby TR, I have to admit I was one of those people who wondered: What on earth do parents DO all day? Snort. I'd no clue how time-consuming, along with how mentally and physically exhausting, a child could be. Joyous, fun, exciting . . . but also bloody hard. Throw a job into the mix, and it becomes a little difficult.So, in no particular order, here are my challenges:

1. Fatigue. Baby TR is now seventeen months old. He's a very good sleeper at night -- and has been, since about four or five months. But the 5:30 a.m. wake-up calls? That I'm not so keen on. Some mornings he'll sleep in until six or six-thirty, which is absolute bliss. As he gets older, he's napping less, and he's also very active. After a morning of chasing, tickling, running, sliding, etc etc. my forty-year-old body is exhausted! When I put him down for his lunchtime nap, I usually collapse, too. I could write at night -- and at a push, I will -- but I've always been a thousand times more productive in the morning.

2. Carving out space of my own, both mentally and physically. This is easier now that Baby TR is in nursery three mornings a week. But even so, it's hard to clear my mind sometimes and focus on the task at hand. I twitch at every noise, thinking he's in his bedroom waking up -- then I realise he's not even in the flat! I've given up my office, too, so I need to make do with working at the world's most uncomfortable kitchen table, surrounded by Lego, smushed Pla-Doh, and other detritus of the early-morning start.

3. Guilt. I'm constantly wondering if I should be with my child instead of writing. Everyone says these years go so quickly -- and that seems to be true -- but I also need to write to be me. The constant tension between doing everything you can for your child while retaining a sense of self is the theme of my next novel.

4. Ducking in and out of work. I've always liked to work every day to keep the writing flowing. But when plans go awry (Baby TR is ill, doesn't nap, or any multitude of other scenarios), my plans to write often go out the window.

There you have it! My challenges as a writer and parent. I'm incredibly lucky that I have a very supportive husband who helps out when he can. I'd love to hear how others balance both demanding jobs, because wrestling a novel into shape is no easy task, either!

Have a great week, everyone. 

No Kidding

Well, hello, blog! I can't believe I actually forgot to post last week. Eek! I've no idea where the time is going (that seems to be a recurring theme here). May is flying by and although I'm on Draft 3 of my current novel THE EVERYTHING DREAM with the goal to finish by the end of June, there's still plenty of work to be done.

And there's less than a month until the release of THE NO-KIDS CLUB!


The cover, in all its summery glory. The book comes out on June 3, and it will be available as an ebook, a paperback, and an audio book. It's been a while since I've had a new novel out there, and I'm feeling excited and jittery.


I wrote this book in the first few months after Baby TR was born, and it was great fun to throw in some of my own angsty experiences (damn, motherhood is hard!), along with some of the more uplifting moments (damn, motherhood is wonderful!).

The first advance reviews are rolling in, and so far, so good! Phew. Of course, I've realised by now that you can't please everyone, but hopefully most readers will be able to relate to one of my characters in the novel.

And that's my news for now. Receiving a great pile of books in the post is always a wonderful moment -- and even more so when you've written that book!

Have a lovely week, everyone. 

Tracy Bloom and Antenatal Inspiration

Hello, all. It's Thursday! Yay! Hope everyone had a lovely Easter. I am continuing to slog my way through Draft 2 - two-thirds finished now, and only about 15,000 words cut and another 15,000 words written. Eeep!

 Today, I'm thrilled to host Tracy Bloom again. Last year she visited my blog to talk about her novel No-One Ever Has Sex on Tuesdays . Tracy had self-published the book, it went on to become a huge bestseller, and she was quickly snapped up by Arrow in a four-book deal! Don't you just love those stories?

So... here's Tracy one more time, talking about the inspiration behind the novel.

The Inspiration behind NO-ONE EVER HAS SEX ON A TUESDAY


To be honest I didn’t really want to go to antenatal classes. A pregnant lady to my left kicked off the proceedings by introducing herself and her female companion. “This is Claire. We’re not lesbians. She’s here as my partner because my husband left me five weeks ago.”
The jaws around the room dropped. For me the evening had taken a positive turn. This was going to be way better than being stuck at home watching Corrie.
As the weeks progressed there was laughter (my husband embraced the role of class clown) there was tears (when I fell off the birthing ball) there was much awkwardness (as we discussed intimate details in front of people we barely knew) and there was shock news (when a couple failed to turn up because they’d actually given birth – like we should have been expecting that!)

Somehow sharing the experience of arranging graphic photos of childbirth in chronological order bought us all close together and we became friends. But I often wondered how it would be if you were in the class with someone you knew. Would you be quite so comfortable discussing pelvic floor exercises in front of an ex-boyfriend for example? Worse than that ….what if through some gross error of judgment on a one-night stand you ended up in an antenatal class with two possible fathers to your child… what would you do? How would you handle it?
Thanks, Tracy. and wow! That's quite the start to an antenatal class!
Hope everyone has a great week - see you next Thursday. 

London Book Fair: Report from the Pub

Yay for Thursday! And an even bigger yay for Thursdays before long weekend! We have tomorrow and Monday off here in the UK, and I can't wait to sleep in and relax . . . oh, wait, I just remembered I have a toddler. Ah well!

I had a fantastic time last week at the London Book Fair. Every year, the weather seems to perform wonderfully for the event, and this year was no different. The sun was out and spring was in the air! I kicked off events by meeting Jessica Bell, Glynis Smy, and assorted other lovely individuals for dinner at a pub in Earl's Court.

Glynis, Jess, Alison, and me.
The next night, I had yet another pub dinner (yum!) with the lovely Mel Sherratt. Mel has been my partner in crime for years, and I'm thrilled that we now have the same agent and publisher, too.

Author selfie!
Tuesday night, I toddled off to the Amazon Publishing party at yet another pub (do you see a theme here?), where yet more drinks and yummy canapes were consumed. No photos, unfortunately, because I was too busy eating, chatting, and drinking.

I admit I was flagging a little by the end of the week, but the prospect of meeting Len Lambert buoyed me up again.

Len and me!So, all in all, it was a wonderful week!

I hope everyone has very happy Easter. See you next Thursday.

Beautiful Words

Hello, all!

I'm in the midst of a very busy and fun week with the London Book Fair in town, so I'm super pleased to be hosting the wonderful Nik Perring today.

 Nik's new book is called Beautiful Words, and if you love words, you'll adore this book. It's chock full of quirky little illustrations and definitions, a celebration of the English language that's not only fun to read but also fun to look at. I thoroughly enjoyed it.


Over to you, Nik.




Jump In a Puddle

I don't think we do enough puddle jumping as grown-ups. That and climbing trees or getting muddy, or enjoying being rain-soaked, or playing on swings. Of doing things, without thinking too much about why, other than the fact that they look like fun. At some point, and to varying degrees, we grow up and leave the simplicities, and simple pleasures, of childhood behind. I think sometimes it just happens - we've got more important things to concentrate on - you know, children, jobs, paying bills, but other times I think it's our choice, that little voice in our head saying - I couldn't possibly do that - I'm far too old. Or, what would people think!


And why am I babbling about this? Well, in part, because it has a little to with my new book. It's called Beautiful Words and it was released on Monday. And it's a few things all at once. It's the story Alexander, Lucy, and Lily, told through an A-Z of beautiful words. Some of them are beautiful because of how they look or sound, some are beautiful because of what they mean or represent, others are in there because of how it feels to say them, of the shapes they push our mouths into.


But, perhaps equally as importantly, it's a picture book for adults. That's right - a picture book for adults. And picture books are things we should only read if we have small children, right? I'm not so sure. I re-read The Giving Tree the other day and I think there's probably as much wisdom in there, and emotion, as a lot of novels (which I love too, of course). But back Beautiful Words, my adult picture book. Sure, there's a story in there, and there are definitions of words you might not have known (I certainly didn't before I started writing it!), but, mostly, it's about having fun with words. That's why I wrote it really - as a sort of innocent celebration of the words that make me happy, or that I think (and hope others will too!) are interesting.


So, here's to fun. Here's to being silly and forgetting about bills and mortgages and jobs, if only for a little while. And here's to celebrating the simple, beautiful things, like words. And next time you see a puddle, you know what to do.
Nik Perring is a short story writer and author from the UK. His stories have been published in many fine places both in the UK and abroad, in print and online. They’ve been used on High School distance learning courses in the US, printed on fliers, and recorded for radio. Nik is the author of the children’s book, I Met a Roman Last Night, What Did You Do? (EPS, 2006); the short story collection, Not So Perfect (Roastbooks 2010); and he’s the co-author of Freaks! (The Friday Project/HarperCollins, 2012). His online home is www.nikperring.com and he’s on Twitter as @nikperring
Thanks, Nik! See everyone next week.