SHADOWS ON THE MOON - IN THE WILD!

Hi everyone! I'm afraid there's not much sense to be gotten out of me today, because since late on Monday I've been receiving reports that there are copies of Shadows on the Moon - actual, real life, paper, bookish versions of it - on the shelves of certain shops.

At first, when the fabulous Kaz Mahoney (interviewed by me here) sent me this picture from the shop in Aylesbury, I thought it might be a mistake, or a one-off.


But then a lovely blog reader let me know that she had also bought a copy in Hereford. And finally another wonderful friend from London said that she too had just found and bought the book. So it looks like it is out nationwide. NEARLY A MONTH EARLY.

Thus far it seems that it is only WH Smiths which has gotten impatient and started making the book available (despite the fact that it still shows as a pre-order on their website). So if you do want to get your hands on a finished copy right now, that's the place to do it. Especially as, apparently, it's part of their three-for-two deal on children's and YA novels. And then you will be able to see for yourself the shiny glossy cover and the beautiful internal cherry blossom decoration and, you know. All those words I wrote.

You could even buy THREE copies (only paying for TWO!) and then give a copy to your best friend and another to your sister or mother or some other person you know who loves to read! And if you wanted it make it extra special you could write to me via my publisher (like it says here!) with a stamped addressed envelope, and get me to do personalised bookplates for you and your friends/relatives to stick into the front pages of the books you'd bought! How amazing would that be?

Right, that's enough of that. I was NOT mentally prepared for this, guys. Every time someone tells me they've seen it, I have to stop and do the deep breathing exercises and fan myself vigorously. I don't know whether to laugh hysterically or sit in the corner and rock gently while whimpering. I've mentioned it to my publisher and they don't seem at all concerned, so it looks like all systems are go, basically.

This steps a little bit on the grand giveaway I was planning on doing at the end of this week to celebrate the blog's one year anniversary. However, I think I'll still do it, since ARCs of Shadows on the Moon are something different, and free, signed books are nearly always popular, right? I mean, even if you COULD, theoretically, just walk right into a shop and buy it yourself...

Ha ha.

*Deep breaths*

OK, in other news, I'm working on FF edits now, so if you've sent me an email and I haven't responded yet, don't worry - it's just that I'm putting most things on hold in order to work on these.

And finally:

I definitely haz it today, guys. Eeep. Unexpected puppy is unexpected!