First proper rain in over a month - the cats were thrilled!!

 

First proper rain in over a month - the cats were thrilled!!

 

OK now you can panic - it's nearly Christmas...

Ok now you can panic...! It's nearly Christmas, it sneaks up on us the same time every year, but every year it seems to do it a bit quicker.

But the solution is easy - buy books, buy books from me, and I'll pack them up straight away and get them in the post.

#LostinaBook

#Christmasgifts 

Cat book - true story - 1st edition 1st print run, each one numbered and signed

Outnumbered by Cats: Yes that's me, cats are great stress relief - when they're not causing the stress that is..

This book gives the unique opportunity to disappear into a world full of cats and kittens, without actually filling your own house, or depriving yourself of sleep...

 

So throw away the rule book and see how one new mum coped with her kittens in a mixture of instinct and learning on the job, and how she shared this unique experience with the humans around her, in a way that was unexpected and wonderful. Not everyone has been 'asked' by their cat to join a search party in the middle of the night for 2 missing kittens...

Share the heartache of one little kitten who was different from the rest, and destined to challenge and inspire us in ways we couldn't have imagined...

Special:

A chance to buy one of just 100 books printed in the 1st edition, 1st print run, all of which are numbered and signed.

...and did I mention lots of colour kitten photos?

So I have the books, I have the website, I just need to get the word out.

 

Outnumbered by Cats

#LostinaBook

Gift pack - new from Lost in a Book

Basil and the Flappy Thing GIFT PACK

£10

(+ postage of £3)

GIFT PACK contains: 1 book and 1 handknitted Basil cat

The door had always worked perfectly well, until the day that Mr Feed-Me cut a hole in it and fitted a flappy thing. Then the door stopped working and everyone started acting a bit crazy… Mr Feed-Me was on the floor using it as a window. 

Mrs Feed-Me kept calling to Basil through it instead of opening the door, and Small Feed-Me tried to post Basil through it like a letter through a letter box.

Then one stormy night Basil found that he had a use for the flappy thing after all, but it wasn't really what Mr Feed-Me had in mind…

32 page full colour paperback

ISBN 978-0-9560232-5-4

Lost in a Book

For personalised signing give name of recipient in 'note to seller' box at checkout.

#LostinaBook

A birds nest of Basils...

A birds nest of Basils is what happens when I try to save time by knitting a batch of Basils all strung together...  

              

But with a little untangling and stitching together they transform into the lovable little ginger cats, ready to go out in Basil gift packs.

    

Outnumbered by Cats - breaking out of the box...

Breaking out of the box - my first book for adults or more competent young readers with a love of cats...

Outnumbered by Cats - breaking out of the box...

 

No, not that sort of box... I mean the idea that an author should stick to one genre - up until now I've written children's books, and though this one will appeal to older children, it is aimed at adults.

One for the adults - A true story bursting with colour photos of cats and kittens.

I'd like to get a female kitten and let her have one litter," I said to my stunned family when they raised the kitten topic. Not surprisingly a suitable kitten was quickly found...  and Mitzi arrived in time for Christmas, bringing her own brand of fun and chaos, and demanding friendship from our 5 year old cat Cleo.

By summer Mitzi was quite confused, she came into season and started calling shamelessly. But when a hapless tomcat answered her call, she was far from impressed; causing more than one cat flap drama, and a hole in the door where a flap used to be. 

Eventually nature took it its course and Mitzi had kittens. The first few weeks were blissfully peaceful, watching as Mitzi took care of their every need. We had a week of heartache when one of the kittens was poorly, and then not developing properly, and was destined to challenge and inspire us in ways we could not yet imagine. 

Then they grew big enough to escape their box, and the bedlam began... 

The story that emerged from the kitten diaries, written as kittens climbed on me and chewed the edges of my note books... 

All my books at a glance - oh and some sheep to...

All my books at a glance - oh and a sheep too... can you guess from the covers where the sheep come into it...?

 

 

My intention is to grab unsuspecting surfers off the net - kicking and screaming, dripping wet if necessary - oh no wait... they're not that sort of surfers...

...and persuade them that they need a book:

.............................................................................

I have picture books to share with the little ones in your life: 

   

 

.......................................................... 

I have the Doodle series  - chapter books, with black and white drawings, ideal for early readers, or just to read aloud. 

   

.........................................................

And my latest book, one for the adults, or more competent readers; a must for all the cat lovers out there - I think the title speaks for itself. It's a true story, illustrated with colour photos of cats and kittens. 

 

............................................................. 

New, and each one unique - cloth busy books for babies. A riot of colour, texture and things to pull and grab.

  

Book Stockists:

website online shop

Basil takes on knitted form... new from Lost in a Book

After getting distracted by pretty bags that I'd like to buy for my Christmas fair - I got down to some picture editing, so for those of you who've been wonder what a Basil is...

Basil met Bumble, but Bumble was less than impressed...

Basil from Basil and the Flappy Thing takes on knitted form

Reading, writing and birthdays...

Well as it turns out my memory isn't quite as good as I thought, and I don't remember what happens in my current read - though that  may change as I get further into the book. But for now I am enjoying rereading a book off my bookshelf, which is nice to know as what other excuse do I have for keeping all these books - apart from maybe that it's quite nice to be surrounded by books...

And talking of being surrounded by books - I do have some stock to sell in my cyber bookshop... can I interest anyone in a beautiful cat book...? It's a true story and full of colour photos - and what's more the characters from the book are 3 years old today!! So what do you buy for 3 year olds on their birthday...? Cat treats, gourmet food and a new biscuit ball, as one isn't really enough for 6 cats to gather round without a bit of friction setting in...

Book quote of the day

'So in a world so obsessed with warnings, disclaimers and risk assessment I feel I may have been let down... on the face of it, it seemed that a cat flap was going to make everyone's lives easier...' 

from Outnumbered by Cats.

The cat flap may not have made my life easier, but it has inspired one book Basil and the Flappy Thing, and featured heavily in the next... Outnumbered by Cats

Basil and the Flappy Thing

Book signings - book giveaways and online ramblings...

So my challenge for the week is to empty the first box of Outnumbered by Cats... that's the books not the cats.

There's only 2 books left in the first box... how hard can it be? It's a small print run of just 100 books, all will be hand numbered and signed.

I've got my marketing team on the case, but they all seem to be napping at the moment... well it is raining.

And they're not the sort of marketing team that I can take out and about to book signings, they really don't like going in the car...

So we're trying a joint effort online, me doing random ramblings and them looking adorable in photos... and so far, views are on the up for my various ramblings, and people are retweeting their cute photos, so we just have to convert those views and retweets to purchases...

OK so someone is getting impatient,
 so what about doing  a book giveaway...

That too seems to be a minefield of Ts & Cs anyone got any ideas they want to share...?

Monday ramblings and book marketing

Monday ramblings:

Well that was a busy, if a little maddening morning, sorting out the mess I made of my blog header on Friday night, when I would have been better employed leaving the computer well alone and reading a book instead...

My marketing team are busy taking a siesta in various sunny and shady places about the house depending on their current preference - the darker their coats, the sooner they seek shade.

So that leaves me tackling the hardest part of writing a book - namely: shouting about it and getting it out to a greater audience.

    So why should you buy my new book?

• Colour photos - if a picture is worth a thousand words, then the word count in this book is immense - with 82 colour photos of cats and kittens, from all the time when they were getting into mischief and I reached for the camera instead of lifting them down...
• Small first print run - this is a print run of just 100 books, and all the books will be hand numbered and signed
• True story - it's all there, maybe a little too much at times...
• Launch price of £7.99 till the end of May.

The Blurb:

I'd like to get a female kitten and let her have one litter," I said to my stunned family when they raised the kitten topic. Not surprisingly a suitable kitten was quickly found...  and Mitzi arrived in time for Christmas, bringing her own brand of fun and chaos, and demanding friendship from our 5 year old cat Cleo.

By summer Mitzi was quite confused, she came into season and started calling shamelessly. But when a hapless tomcat answered her call, she was far from impressed; causing more than one cat flap drama, and a hole in the door where a flap used to be. 

Eventually nature took it its course and Mitzi had kittens. The first few weeks were blissfully peaceful, watching as Mitzi took care of their every need. We had a week of heartache when one of the kittens was poorly, and then not developing properly, and was destined to challenge and inspire us in ways we could not yet imagine. 

Then they grew big enough to escape their box, and the bedlam began... 

The story that emerged from the kitten diaries, written as kittens climbed on me and chewed the edges of my note books... 

Cats and boxes... it's a cat thing

After all the hard work I'm very proud of my new book - but all Kryten wants is the box...

Help him get his wish - 4 more books and the first box is empty Outnumbered by Cats launch price £7.99 till the end of May

...because cats love to be the centre of attention

Meet Bumble - from Outnumbered by Cats, giving his own input to proceedings...

Not much happens around here without a bit of furry input - in fact there seems to be fur everywhere...

Here is Bumble taking an early interest in the book.

New book now on sale - exclusively from my website

This will have to be a quick post as I've been busy adding my new book to my website bookshop - but the stars of the book are gathering now and reminding me that it's their suppertime.

Oh wait, I can cheat and copy paste my facebook post - then I'll call the magic words that mean it's suppertime, in this house at least, and what are those magic words? it's all in the book:

Finally it's done - The story that emerged from the kitten diaries, written as kittens climbed on me and chewed the edges of my note books...

It's bursting with 82 colour photos - yes I managed to edit them down to 82!

They're currently only available from me - because I've got them all! It's a small print run of 100 books, which will all be hand numbered - how exclusive is that...?

Writer fights technology - and wins!!

OK, not to blow my own trumpet or anything... but, I have just overcome another hurdle, conquered the learning curve and other such buzz phrases. The point is I've managed to add an except from Basil and the Flappy Thing despite the best efforts of technology to thwart my attempt...

So here you are - the first 5 pages to whet your appetite:

 A book for anyone who's held the cat flap open as their cat gave them that look, you know the one... the one where your cat appears to be humoring you from their intellectual high ground.

My life - one long learning curve...

Exciting times... my new book Outnumbered by Cats is now listed on amazon, if only as 'unavailable' and not 'pre-order' which a mainstream publisher would have enjoyed - but hay I'm not put off, I know my book will soon be available in my own online bookshop and at book signings. And in case you're wondering, it'll be available on amazon too - if the unavailable or 2 - 4 week label doesn't put you off...

Meanwhile I'm rummaging around and trying to remember how to customise my new blog and fill it with pictures and links... if I did this sort of thing more often I'm sure it would be easy, but I do tend to spend much of my time either lost in a book or getting distracted by my cats...

Captain supervising the proof reading - and making me pause to take a photo...  and then of course I had to figure out how to get the photo from the phone to the laptop - my life, one long learning curve...

Proof reading what was all the fuss about?

So, after all the procrastination, I finally got down to my proof reading - and what was all the fuss about?

Proof reading, sat on the sofa with my feet up and the sun coming in through the window, looking for all the world like I was taking an afternoon off... The down side was that I did find some errors, but I'm trying not to beat myself up about it too much... after all it is only the proof copy, and though it would be nice to find nothing wrong at all - it's not the end of the world.

Overcoming everything to write a book...

It seems that everything possible has got in my way, to stop me ever finishing this book, even, or perhaps especially the characters themselves. But in truth, when the technical side of editing, formatting and publishing gets on top of me, it's the characters - namely my cats who keep me sane - who could resist a cat meowing at the door to go out and play... 

And so I'm finally done - although at the last hurdle I've had my email hacked and am now locked out of my account - but did I let it sabotage my day...? No, I've pushed on and done the finishing touches, and if email still lets me down tomorrow I'll deliver the files on a disk to the printers...

Nobody ever said that writing a book was easy...

What's new in books for 2014

New for Spring 2014 - the book about the cats who constantly distract and inspire me.

They say you should never work with children or animals, well what if your animal has children...?

Well the result was large chunks of time when I didn't manage to get to a computer, let alone do the ongoing blog that I intended, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow, enjoy the moment and write about it later...

What I did have time for was to write kitten diaries - it's easier to write with pen and paper when kittens are climbing all over you, than it is to try to type. And from these kitten diaries - which have paw prints and chewed edges, a book is emerging...

                                                                ...and what's more... it's nearly finished!!