Carys Bray's Blog, page 12

Windmill Party

On Monday I went to London to do some book things. I was slightly nervous and somehow got to Liverpool Lime Street an hour early (perhaps the fact that I've yet to move my car clock back may have had something to do with it). While I was on the train, Windmill Books published a blog introducing me and A Song for Issy Bradley.




When I got to London I made my way to the Penguin office for some

Sweet Home and sweet treats

A copy of Sweet Home and some sweet treats will be on the way to one of the 'likers' of my new author Facebook page on Wednesday.

If you fancy the book and the treats, just 'like' the page. The draw will take place on Tuesday evening. I'm happy to post the parcel anywhere in the world.

Photographs and Proofs

Last week I went to Southport beach/marsh with Cornerstone Director of Publicity Charlotte Bush and photographer Colin McPherson for new author photos. It was a sunny day but it's always a very windy spot - I spent a lot of time trying to stop my hair making Medusa shapes in the wind!

Colin was great, at one point he lay down in a big puddle on the Sand-winning Track to get a better shot, and

Sweet Home giveaway

It's been a year since Sweet Home was published and to celebrate, I'm giving away a copy of the book and some sweet goodies to one of the people who has liked my new Facebook author page. 

If you'd like to be in with a chance of nabbing the book and the goodies, just follow the link above and 'like' the Facebook page. 

You can read some excerpts from reviews if you click on the Sweet Home tab

New Novel Title

My novel has a new title, something that was always likely to happen as early readers invariably got mixed up and ended up calling it a variety of the following titles: We Are Together Here, Together We Are Here, Here We Are Together, We Are Here Together...

It's now called A SONG FOR ISSY BRADLEY. 

There's a lot of singing in the novel, some of the songs are hopeful, others are sad. Mormons

Editing and Short Stories Aloud

I've spent this week editing the British version of my novel. Fortunately there weren't too many things to change, although we did decide to shorten the prologue, particularly the opening paragraph which has morphed from a dream sequence into a dream sentence! Yesterday I had a chance to talk to my editor about my book cover and I am HUGELY excited about her ideas for both the hardback and

Tea for three

I had a lovely time at the Hutchinson Proof Party. The Spiegeltent was incredible, it felt like we were inside a carousel or a small circus tent - an appropriate venue for Dea's novel which contains a travelling circus. 

It was really exciting to share a stage with Dea and Helen. I've read their novels and can't quite believe that I was allowed to sit next to them and talk about my book in

The Hutchinson Proof Party at the Cheltenham Literature Festival

The Times










On Saturday I'll be joining Helen Dunmore and Dea Brovig at the Cheltenham Literature Festival for the Hutchinson Proof Party. The event will preview Helen's novel The Lie and Dea's novel The Last Boat Home (I was lucky enough to receive proof copies of both books and wrote about them here). I'll be reading a short excerpt from Here We Are Together.

The event will take place

Fantabulous Stuff

I have been BURSTING to say something for almost a month...

On Weds 28th August my novel went out on submission. I expected to hear whether there had been any interest in it by mid October, but forty eight hours later I received a call from my agent: 'You'd better sit down, Carys,' she said. And then she told me that a publisher had made a pre-emptive bid for my book.

A second phone call

LiveFriday Event

Tomorrow evening (27th September) Short Stories Aloud will be at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology as part of the LiveFriday event. Short stories by Helen Simpson and me will be read by actress Melissa Berry. I *really* wish I could be there.