Well I really couldn't have predicted what happened next...

 Well I really couldn't have predicted what happened next...

In the middle of my promotion for A Face Full of Snow... sheep started selling...!

That's right, so I ended up doing some emergency sheep knitting, to ship off to Devon. Then another order came in, but don't panic, this one was for a knitting pattern for someone to knit their own sheep... phew...

Anyway the upshot is, I'm getting a little flock of sheep knitted up to avert more sheep emergencies, whilst really hoping that a few more people will buy patterns...

So what is it about sheep that people can't resist...?

...and should I really be doing another book about sheep...?

Or maybe I should just keep knitting... 

 

Book excerpt from Lost in a Book's A face Full of Snow

Excerpt: A Face Full of Snow

Chapter 1

Whoosh! Splat! 

Eric’s first attempt at skiing ended up with him flat on his back in the snow, like a stranded bug. He tried to get up, but his skis had other ideas, they felt like a pair of over sized planks strapped to his feet. 

“I’m glad Iver wasn’t here to see that,” muttered Eric, sitting up.

“Who’s Iver?” 

Eric looked up into a pair of green eyes, waggling about on stalks. They were growing out of a green hat, which was pulled over an explosion of orange hair. 

“Hi, I’m Aline,” said the owner of the orange hair.

“Alien?” Eric sat up with a start, his skis clattering together in protest.

“No... Aline. Who’s Iver?” 

“Oh just a friend of mine,” said Eric. He couldn’t tell a complete stranger the truth, even one who had an alien on her head. 

“And is Iver a good skier?” persisted Aline.

“Well he likes to think he is,” said Eric. “If he was here he’d be telling me what to do all the time.”

“That might not be such a bad idea,” said Aline.

A Face Full of Snow by Anne M Stephenson - from Lost in a Book

Lost in a Book does best at fairs and book signings, but in January wouldn't you rather browse my onlinebookshop rather than battle through the storms to go shopping...?

 Let me bring my books to you...

This week I'm featuring A Face Full of Snow

 

Third in the Doodle series:

As Eric crashes his way down the ski slope, totally out of control, his only consolation is that Iver No-Idea isn't there to see.

Iver No-Idea and his dog HB are doodles. But they are no ordinary doodles - they're alive, and words and pictures come alive around them. Iver No-Idea has been learning to ski in a ski brochure. He's been practising for weeks and now he thinks he's an expert, and can't wait to tell Eric how it's done.

But when Iver No-Idea and HB are left behind, they find a way to gatecrash Eric's holiday. They arrive at just the wrong time, causing their own unique brand of trouble.

50 page paperback

Black and white line drawings

New bestseller...

A Face Full of Snow was my bestseller at the fair on Saturday - outselling But I'm Not Sleepy for the first time, then they were equal bestsellers on Sunday.

As Eric crashes his way down the ski slope, totally out of control, his only consolation is that Iver No-Idea isn't there to see.

Iver No-Idea and his dog HB are doodles. But they are no ordinary doodles – they're alive, and words and pictures come alive around them. Iver No-Idea has been learning to ski in a ski brochure. He's been practising for weeks and now he thinks he's an expert, and can't wait to tell Eric how it's done.

But when Iver No-Idea and HB are left behind, they find a way to gatecrash Eric's holiday. They arrive at just the wrong time, causing their own unique brand of trouble.

50 page paperback

Black and white line drawings.

When fiction comes true... on the ski slope

I'm pleased to see that sales of A Face Full of Snow have picked up again, I don't know whether it's the winter Olympics that's spurred on the interest in skiing, or just the time of year - it is after all still the ski season out there, even  if it doesn't seem much like it in York as the sun burns its way through the last of the morning mist... I just hope Iver No-Idea and his dog HB don't escape and pop out of a mobile phone on a ski slope and disrupt someone's holiday, like they did Eric's. 

Of course the chances of them popping up on a phone on a ski slope are now quite high - when I first wrote the story, it was aimed at a printed book, but now that it's an ebook too it could very easily pop up on a mobile phone on a ski slope - strange how fiction can sometimes come true...

 So if you get A Face Full of Snow on your mobile - watch out that they stay in there, and don't jump out and course havoc...

Struggling with my promotions hat... which seems to have shrunk...!

Struggling with my promotions hat... which seems to have shrunk...!

It's been two weeks now since I zapped my files off to the printers, and since then I've been trying to be creative in a different direction, namely I've been blogging and putting posts on facebook and generally trying to squeeze my head back into my promotional hat... but it doesn't quite fit, much like a pair of jeans freshly washed - and shrunk!

This is the time when a mainstream author would have a backup team (who presumably all wear their promotions hats every day, and are comfortable in them...). But as a self publisher I feel a bit on my own - even my cats seem to have deserted me in favour of cat baskets and beds about the house.

My mind is now getting distracted by thoughts of designing a new promotions hat... one that will not shrink while I'm busy wearing my author hat or editing hat. It needs to be a design that will inspire out-of-the-box thinking, possibly something flamboyant, but without being big and flappy, it's quite gusty outside today...

Maybe I should take inspiration from Aline's hat in A Face Full of Snow - the one that Eric thought was a alien on her head... It has eyes on stalks, and looks as if it could see round corners to search out new ideas...

Hot off the press

I often wonder which is the most exciting part of writing and producing a book. The initial spark of inspiration, the moment when the characters start to take shape in written text, and then get a face through the illustrations, they're all landmarks along the way, or is it seeing the books in all their glory for the very first time?

Yesterday was lucky enough to arrive to collect my books while they were still being finished off - there was a heap of them on a pallet, more on a table, and yet more going through the guillotine to be trimmed and finished, for me this was a very exciting moment, to watch the final stages of the making of my books. Then they were packed, hot off the press and loaded into my car, ready to be launched at the weekend at St. Nicholas Fair:

Book launch: A Face Full of Snow - there's even some snow around to mark the occasion!

Merchant Adventurers Hall, York - Saturday 10am - 4.30pm
Pure Genius - 3-5 Grape Lane (Swine Gate quarter) York - 10am...