MONDAY UPDATES

Hi everyone - Happy Monday. I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was a mixture of ups and downs. I had to do my tax return, and despite having undergone this process once a year since 2005, I still don't really understand it. Self Assessment feels like a fiendishly difficult exam, and every year they wrong-foot you by changing the questions and layout. You always finish with a strong feeling that you've messed up. This is an element of the glamorous writer's life that no one ever warns you about. It's my heartfelt ambition to be able to afford an accountant one day.

However, this weekend also brought me this:



With thanks to the lovely Emma of Book Angel's Booktopia for risking people thinking she was mad by frantically shooing them out of the way to take a picture in her local WHS.

I've never seen a book of mine that close to the word 'Bestselling' before, or put on a display with Big Books like Twilight and Starcrossed. To clarify, just out of shot on the left is the word NEW - which is what Shadows on the Moon is - and that's why it's on the shelf, not (unfortunately) because it's bestselling, as far as I'm aware. But it's still thrilling.

Which leads me onto telling you that my publisher is planning all kinds of interesting things for the week of Shadows on the Moon 's official release, including guest posts on their Undercover Blog, a blog tour and the release of a book trailer. I am so excited about all of this, especially the book trailer. Last week they sent me headshots of the actors who've been cast as the main characters and...well, let's just say I nearly passed out.

What all this means (apart from the fact that I should probably practise taking deep, slow breaths, or maybe buy some paper bags) is that for a week or maybe a little more around the book's publication date, you'll be getting a lot more posts from me than normal - but I'll be re-directing you to other blogs to read them. I hope that's going to be OK with you guys?

In tangenitally related news, the response to the One Year Blogiversary Extravangaza so far has been wonderful, both in the number of entries and the number of new followers. If it keeps on this way I may be dying pink streaks in my hair before the end of summer. Have you entered yet? What are you waitiing for? Get to it! You've only got until the 3rd of July to enter - but remember, the giveaway is open internationally.

Finally, I'm planning a Reader Questions post on Wednesday, so if anyone would like to ask a question about writing or publishing and get a reply this week, send me an email through my website or drop me a line in the comments.

And now - back to work on FrostFire edits! Hurrah!