Christmas card – Sorted!

Home sweet home after one night’s snow. Aaah!

Ana Thema _ a book of short stories and poems – Alan Howard

Short stories and poems, loosely linked to the ‘Danse Macabre’ trilogy. 100p £6.99. 6 illustrations. ISBN 9780955548635 paperback print-on-demand available. Held in UK by Gardners wholesalers so can be ordered from bookshops or direct from publisher at same porice for signed, dedicated copy).
e-book version on PRC for Kindle and ePub for other devices ISBN 9780955548659.

I love Lovereading and Lovereading4kids websites!

Here’s what they have made of my new book, ‘The Flight of Birds’:

Lovereading website has made Flight of Birds top of their 'Horror, Fantasy & Sci Fi' section, plus 5th on their 'Mystery and Crime'.
This is their review:

"This is the tale of the haunting, in modern times, of a girl by a ghost exactly resembling her own dead mother. Encountering this ghost imprisoned in the East wing of the Great House Kate is gradually drawn in and compelled to unravel the terrible story of this place.  The reader too will feel utterly drawn in to follow Kate's story through the author's masterful storytelling powers and the two worlds, modern and historical are woven together in to a web in which the reader has no desire to leave but instead continue turning the pages to the surprising denouement.   Through the Tales of Shabby Tattler, a one-eyed vagabond whose power of description seems to bring to life those he depicts, Kate is drawn into a past in which she finds herself a living victim, trapped by circumstance and helpless to alter the terrifying unfolding of events.  This is the first in a trilogy of Gothic tales through which, in a 'Danse Macabre' moves the dark enigmatic figure of the 'Shabby Tattler', the cunning man. Tale-teller and myth-maker is he, or puppet-master of these strange plays, conjuring appearances and disappearances, scenes of tragedy and comedy: manipulator of souls with strings invisible?"

Nice, eh?

Especially after the Waterstone's (Gemma Sealey of St. Albans) one:

   "What an amazing tale! The reader is thrust straight into an atmospheric drama, weaving history and fantasy together in this Gothic Danse Macabre, in parts reminiscent of some original brothers' Grimm tales, and the writing is so addictive there's never a good place to put the book down. As for the ending, nothing prepares you for that!

   I really was not expecting when I started this book for it to have a treasure trove of such depth and diversity, horror and enchantment. It combines the magical twists of Neil Gaiman with atmosphere of Poe or Machen. The author has, like an Elizabethan alchemist, blended to perfection all the vital serendipitous ingredients to make a most original haunting tale."

Book: The Flight of Birds, Alan Howard. ISBN 9780955548628. 400pp. pb. with flaps. £9.99.

Available from all websites and Waterstones also as ebook: ISBN 978095554866 

From Lovereading at:

http://www.lovereading.co.uk/book/5159/The-Flight-of-Birds-by-Alan-Howard.html

AND
My previous effort, ‘The Amazing Adventures of Curd the Lion (and us!) in the Land at the Back of Beyond’ by Alan Gilliland author/illustrator  ISBN 9780955548611 hb. 176pp 80+ illus.,£14.99, has now sold about 6,000
Love reading4kids website made it a Book of Year, Debut of Year and Personal choice of founder last year and widest age-range ever given a book, and are promting it again this year
See quite few kids reviews plus others plus theirs on

http://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/book/3991

The Lovereading comment:
“Reminiscent of the writing of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, this brilliant debut children's novel is completely unputdownable as well as being almost uncategorisable.  The author has succeeded in delivering on a book that incorporates a terrifically funny yet mysterious story, full of larger-than-life highly improbable characters that I couldn't begin to do justice to by describing them here, other than to say they are wild and wacky and completely original.  He's also delivered a story that is full of tongue-in-cheek humour and skilful word-play. It's staggering to think that it was not picked up by one of the mainstream publishers and has instead been published quite brilliantly by a small independent start-up company.   It's 174 pages of pure unadulterated pleasure and was one of our top books of 2009. This is a book that will be loved by anyone from 7 to 107.  It may not be as widely available nationwide as some books but that's through no fault of the book.”

FISHHOOKS! The snow has cancelled two of my signings.

Petersfield today and Woking on Saturday. Both Waterstone’s.
From next Thursday I’ve solid signings (incl. Sundays) till 22nd driving home from Bury St. Edmunds that night for one day off before Christmas. Great!
It’s up to the top of my long wellies this morning but Rufus (my Vizsla) loves it. Disappeared into a snowdrift charging full tilt around the fields.

NEW BOOK – THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS – ALAN HOWARD (OUT NOW)

‘The Flight of Birds’ by Alan Howard (Gilliland) ISBN 978055548628

is out now as a B-format paperback with flaps at £9.99. Also out any day now as an e-book all formats at same price (ISBN 9780955548666 – the devil knows why?)

It is a gothic ghost tale based upon a Greek myth set between Elizabethan England (I) and today. First of a ‘Danse Macabre’ trilogy featuring a mysterious vagabond and story-teller, the Shabby Tattler, whose tales seem to come alive in the telling.
Gemma Sealey, from Waterstone’s St. Albans, wrote this incredibly nice review of it: "What an amazing tale! The reader is thrust straight into an atmospheric drama, weaving history and fantasy together in this Gothic Danse Macabre, in parts reminiscent of some original brothers' Grimm tales, and the writing is so addictive there's never a good place to put the book down. As for the ending, nothing prepares you for that! I really was not expecting when I started this book for it to have a treasure trove of such depth and diversity, horror and enchantment. It combines the magical twists of Neil Gaiman with the atmosphere of Poe or Machen.
The author has, like an Elizabethan alchemist, blended to perfection all the vital serendipitous ingredients to make a most original haunting tale."

Go to this URL to download the covers of this book and an accompanying book of short stories and poems, ‘AnaThema’ and a pamphlet for the trilogy. 

‘Anathema’ available as POD (this one in Gardners wholesalers soon, therefore can be ordered through Waterstone’s, etc..) Book ISBN 9780955548635 (e-book ISBN 9780955548659). Both £6.99.
URL.
http://www.mediafire.com/?21icq12chjgxg (covers/pamphlet)

Unwelcome guest

Check this out. A sparrowhawk greeted me yesterday as I went to my study. Refused to move till I got to within eight feet  and then only when I shooed him.

NEWS ROUND UP OF OUR (RAVEN’s Quill LTD) FIRST 20 MONTHS

We are exhibiting at Frankfurt on the IPG (UK) stand A934 9/10.

PROGRESS IN 20 MONTHS

With no funding or publicity we have achieved the following in the 20 months since launching Raven's Quill Ltd.

Nearly 6,000 copies of first book (Curd the Lion) sold in hardback at £14.99 undiscounted. Keeping in hardback until Christmas at least, as seen as perfect 'gift' book.

Translation rights sold to:

1.     S. Korea (Darun Publishers - most of their foreign list award-winners) - came out in June, 2010.

2.     Israel. Deal just concluded to publish in Hebrew.

Agents:

1.     Big Apple Tuttle-Mori (largest in Far East) Have two Indonesian publishers interested.

2.     Ilustrata (Spain, Portugal, S. America)

3.     Amo Agency (S. Korea) (sold to Darun)

Scouts: Anne Louise Fisher Associates' children's scout loves it and is touting to their international clients (when she returns from maternity leave).

FILM interest:

1.     Fox Films asked for book last year (scuppered by Disney announcing Toy Story 3 just after they received it "no one in Hollywood is going to put the money for another Toy Story, however different, while that is going on")

2.     HiT Entertainment (UK kids TV co.) wrote, "We really enjoyed the inventive, witty narrative and surreal humour in the book. We can see that Curd the Lion might work very well as a family feature film."

3.     Tfou (France's TF1 kids TV) wrote: "I think your book should become a film but we don't produce film at tfou."

4.  A 3D film modeller and animator working in Pinewood Studios so loves the book's characters he is creating some of them in animated form to help us sell the idea to film companies at no charge. We await his progress with bated breath. (We now have another from the same studio working on them)

Trade Assocs. (member of):

1.     IPG (Independent Publishers Guild)

2.     PA (Publishers Association

UKTI grants to exhibit at international bookfairs (Frankfurt and Bologna so far)

Recognition: Lovereading4kids (British bookselling website) made it Book of Year, Debut of Year, Personal Choice of Founder - it topped their chart before Christmas. www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/book/3991 (to see book on their site)

Website, new: designed/built by an advertising designer for film companies in spare time for no fee because loved book so much.

Signings: as unknown author/illustrator Alan does signings regularly in Waterstone's branches around England (averaging 25 per day and 29 on Saturdays - highest 45).

Mike Shatzkin (eBook blogger.guru) recently wrote: "Alan, what a great story! I'm glad you didn't ask me before you undertook to do this because I would have told you it was nigh on impossible! But, having achieved this much, I think your Korea sale is just the first of many you'll make around the world. You should find a literary agent to sell rights for you in the US, Canada, and Australia right away." [a few weeks before the Israeli offer]

eBook: Through Mike Shatzkin, we found Joshua Tallent (eBook Architects) who solved formatting problem with this heavily illustrated (80+ B&W tone) book and is now creating the eBook (ready late July). Negotiating with Faber to act as our e-book distribution agent worldwide across devices eliminating necessity for multiple contract deals. Distributing through new Faber & Faber aggregating arrangement.

e-book distribution: probably through Faber, but talking to a US company also.

pdf, Curd the Lion, revised text version: more suited to non-English prime-language speakers, has replaced 'phonetic Irish' with more regular English. Useful for international agents.

The book: 'The Amazing Adventures of Curd the Lion (and us!) in the Land at the Back of Beyond.' ISBN 9780955548611. See attached for children's view of Curd.

U-Tube:
We may have a U-Tube video for Curd the Lion prepared in time for Frankfurt Book Fair, "talking you into the story", which works so well at Alan's  signings.
(We are sounding out those 3D modellers as to whether they can help to produce this U-Tube video, otherwise it's going to be Alan and his son (a chemistry teacher who composes and records music) putting it together on his Mac.

Next title: is coming out on October 31st: a ghost story for adults and young adults, called 'The Flight of Birds'. It is the first of the 'Danse Macabre' trilogy featuring a mysterious story-teller, the Shabby Tattler, whose stories come alive in the telling to overwhelm those to whom he tells the tales.

The website: http://www.ravensquill.com/www.ravensquill.com

The blog: http://alangilliland.blogspot.com/http://alangilliland.blogspot.com ('Pencilnotes')