Amy Laurens's Blog, page 107

Also, on Tuesday…

Look at this poster and be excited! Chrystalla Thoma, author of the popular Rex series, has a new story coming out :o) Tune in on Tuesday for details and an awesome guest post by Chrys about loving the stories you write. The full book tour schedule is below if you’d like to follow along :)

30th September – Guest Post – Page Turner Book Tours

30th September – Spotlight – Love Books? Blog Books! -http://www.lovebooksblogbooks.blogspot.co.uk/

1st October – Guest Post – Inkfever -http://www.amylaure...

Look! Lookit Wot I Haz!

I need to email the link to this post to my sister. The grammar in the title will engender a miracle: namely said sister having real, live kittens :P :D Ahem.

But! Excited grammar is warranted, because LOOK WHAT I HAVE ON MY KITCHEN TABLE!!!

Yes, the cover of the book is on the back of them. No, you can’t see it. Yes, the QR code takes you Somewhere Special. Yes, they are live. Yes, I was practicing my signature on the box the bookmarks came in. Because usually my signature looks like an illegi...

Announcing A New Anthology, To Dust!

You guys, I am so excited! Those of you who follow me on Twitter will have noted the insane amount of website tweaking and behind-the-scenes plotting that went on this last weekend, and now I am finally set to tell you WHY!! :D On October 30, I will be releasing an anthology of some of my short stories. It’s called To Dust, and Other Stories, and if you’ve read any of my stories before and liked them, you’re going to love it :) The anthology consists of seven young adult stories, all but one...

FREE Short Stories – Disappearing Soon

So, if you click through to the site, you’ll notice that a complete redesign is in progress. Hurrah!! As part of this, I’m posting today to let you know that I currently have EIGHT short stories available as ebooks. Previously, at least three of those were 99c. As of right now, they are ALL FREE.

However. (You knew that was coming.) Because of Things that are In The Works, three of those eight short stories will be pulled down at the end of October. You WILL NOT be able to get Shoe, Certified...

On the floor, being still

First of all, go and watch Maggie’s characteristically awesome list of the top ten things that inspire her.

I want to talk about number 5: lying on the floor. Because, you see, last night I had a perfect moment. No, better make that a Perfect Moment, because it was. It was late at night. SmallBoy was asleep in his cot in his room. Husband was watching TV. Most of the lights in the house were off. I’d just had a shower – blastingly hot, because my shoulder had been hurting me off and on all aft...

On Being Reminded

“Their revelations are so true I feel not so much like I’m being taught, as reminded.”

~ Student, on Good Novels, in presentation just now.

What a powerful reminder of the purpose of a good story. Reminds me of another quote that I’ve forgotten the source of:

Your job as a writer is simply to remind readers of what they’ve forgotten. Of bringing back to remembrance what was long ago.

Review: The Dream Thieves

Sept 2013, Scholastic, 448 pages, digital ARC.

Blurb:

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life. Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after . . .

Review:

Those of you that have read The Raven Boys will probably be able t...

Story: You Have To Follow The Rules

Ada Hoffmann is both a friend and one of my favourite writers (and, let it be said, I loved her stories before I knew her as a friend) and she has one up at the moment in Strange Horizons, which is squeeful in and of itself.

BUT, I think you should go and read it if you like SFF conventions, or child narrators, or excellent Voice, or Star Wars, or narrators who are not neuro-typical (the MC has Aspergers), or doorways to parallel worlds, or stories where children have their needs and perceptio...

All That’s Worthwhile Is Difficult

This seems to be the universe’s message to me at the moment, a reminder that writing, this thing I love, will never be fall-off-a-chair easy, but that that doesn’t mean it isn’t the right path for me. As Maggie Stiefvater pointed out the other week in her Tumblr response to my question, it’s easy sometimes to romanticise a writing career – or, in fact, any career, any goal we are seeking. If we can just get this thing, this lifestyle, this next step on the ladder, life will be so much more pe...

Timing and Cows

Went for a drive today with the hubsical one and Small Boy. We were dropping SB off to his grandmother’s for the day, but were too early, so drove up through a suburb that we’re interested in living in one day. Ultimate heartbreak – saw our dream home (and I mean ULTIMATE dream home – covered veggie gardens, vineyard, GOATS, pool, you name it) and of course, it’s a year too early. Or at least, maybe four months to early. Depends on how some personal stuff shakes out next year. But either way,...