G.R. Mannering's Blog, page 6

Cover Reveal: Boo’s Beard!

Here it is! The cover for my picture book, BOO’S BEARD! I love it and it’s all the handiwork of illustrator, Bethany Straker.  I’ve created a page for it here on the website so you can have a look, if you’re interested, and it will be released autumn 2015 – so not long! However, you can also pre-order it if you want to receive it asap! It’s available for pre-order at most online book retailers.

FREE First Chapter Of A Contemporary YA Novel

Over on the Creative Authors blog today, I’m sharing a free snippet of a YA contemporary novel I wrote called, That’s So Darling. Below I’ve popped the first paragraph for you to have a look at:

 

‘Murderers!’ I scream with the crowd, pummelling my fists and jumping up and down. ‘Monsters!’

 

Read the rest on the Creative Authors blog!

A few recent hauls…

 

UKYA Extravaganza

The UKYA Extravaganza in Birmingham was pretty darn incredible. Of course, I was completely racked with nerves and hyperventilating before I had to take hold of that microphone, but I’m so pleased I did it. Along with 35 other authors, I gave YA lovers a little flavour of ROSES and sat on a panel, answering questions. It was wonderful to have so many YA enthusiasts all in one room and it was especially lovely to speak to readers of ROSES. Not to mention meeting some gorgeous author-friends and making new ones too! It’s a day that I will not be forgetting in a hurry and if you’d like to see for yourself how it all went down, I vlogged the weekend (video at the end of this post).

There were an array of fantastic book bloggers there and some booktubers too. The Guardian wrote a piece about the event with a quote from moi! Which was exciting. And if the UKYA Extravaganza sounds like something you might want to attend in the future then have a look at their website. There is to be a UKYA Extravaganza 2! All the details will be released on the website and the Facebook page.

 

The Wanderers by Kate Ormand

So look at this magnificent creature! This is the cover of The Wanderers by Kate Ormand, released 1st September this year! I am so incredibly excited for this book and THAT COVER. It’s utterly gorgeous! Last year I read Kate’s debut, Dark Days and loved it so I fully expect to be head-over-heels for this one too. Shape shifters and circuses – what’s not to like?! To give you a little flavour (and get you as excited about this book as I am) here’s a taster:

Flo lives an eccentric life—she travels with a popular circus in which the main acts star orphaned children with secret shapeshifting abilities. Once Flo turns sixteen, she must perform, but she’s not ready. While practicing jumping a flaming hurdle in a clearing beside the circus, she spots a dark figure in the trees and fears he saw her shift. The news sends the circus into panic.

In Flo’s world, shifters are unknown to humans with the exception of a secret organization—the EOS, referred to as “hunters.” Hunters capture and kill. Shifters have heard stories of their kin taken to labs for testing—a place they will never leave—while hunters deem the others useless, a danger to society, and eliminate them. To avoid discovery, shifters travel in packs, constantly moving, and keep themselves hidden. Up until now, the circus was the perfect disguise.

When the elders notice four specific hunters have been attending the show each night, the tension in the camp rises. Believing she brought the attention to the group, Flo feels the dread and anxiety the most, causing her to make a mistake during her performance—a mistake that triggers a violent attack from the hunters.

Flo manages to flee the torched circus grounds with Jett, a bear shifter who loves her, the annoying elephant triplets, and a bratty tiger named Pru. Together they begin a new journey, alone in a world they don’t understand. They unravel secrets and lies that surround the circus and their lives and discover an unthinkable betrayal by the people they trusted the most.

Well there you have it – something new to add to your tbr! You’re welcome ;).

Starting To Write Again

I’m shaking the dust off after Christmas and getting on down to some writing!

Uni Book Haul

I get back into BookTubeing with a good old haul. They are the best, after all ;).

UKYA Extravaganza Blog Tour

As many of you know, on the 28th of this month (eek!) I will be attending the UKYA Extravaganza in Birmingham Waterstones. There will be 35 other authors attending and plenty of readers and YA enthusiasts. To build up to the event, there is a blog tour organised with interviews, reviews, readings and more. Below are the tour dates if you’d like to follow along.

A Reading: Spotty Dotty Daffodil At Frankie’s Farmshop

Before Christmas (in that hectic whirlwind) I went to Frankie’s Farmshop for a reading of my picture book, The Spotty Dotty Daffodil. This was the first public reading I’d ever done, so I was pretty nervous to say the least, but it was all in aid of Dandelion Time, a charity for damaged children in Kent. I remember walking into the building with my heart in my mouth, trying to remember that the tiny tots I was reading to weren’t about to start booing and catcalling me off the stage (at least, I assumed not).

Luckily I was blessed with a small group of wonderful children who were perfectly well behaved! I read the story to them four times in total because they kept asking me to start again as soon as I’d finished and I decided that that could only be a good thing. Then I chatted to the mums, while my new little friends drew their own pictures of daffodils (this was the cutest part).

All in all, I think it was the nicest first reading that anyone could have asked for! Plus there was cake and any event with cake is a winner for me.

Writing the blurb for FEATHERS!

Yes, this did happen and yes it did make me nervous/excited/stressed/happy. All of the emotions!

My editor at Sky Pony contacted me last week asking if I would like to try writing the advertising copy for FEATHERS and I was instantly filled with equal measures of pleasure and dread because I haven’t finished the book yet and therefore, writing as if I had… made me feel like I was walking into an exam without doing any revision. It was wonderful to sit back and pretend that I had finished. Yes, that bit was heavenly. But I had to firmly remind myself that I definitely haven’t finished. My poor main character is still waundering in the wilderness somewhere saying, ‘can you finally get me out of here please?’ To which my answer is, ‘all in good time.’

But writing the copy was, I’ll admit, enormous fun. Pretending that I had finished my second fantasy novel was a fantastic fantasy in itself and I loved every second of it. I can’t wait until I can share a little more of FEATHERS with you. There will be a new writing video update coming soon because I have missed making those, but right now there’s nothing left to do but dive head first into that working draft and get stuck in.