Darn – Happy Family‘s book launch can’t happen on April 25th. But it’s not cancelled, just deferred. We’re moving it to when we can all gather and mingle in safety. Details to follow.
In the meantime, keep buying books (especially mine), support your indie bookseller and most importantly #staysafe and #stayathome.
Happy Family has completed its blog tour and the results are in. Huge thanks to all of the book bloggers, and to Anne Cater who arranged the tour.
Blog tour reviews:
You can read other reviews of Happy Family on Goodreads and Amazon – and if you have read the book, please leave a review too. They all help.
Happy reading.
I am very excited. The London launch of Happy Family will be on Saturday, 25 April at the brilliant independent bookshop, Nomad Books. It will start at 18.45.
The reason I’m so excited is because as part of the launch I am going to be interviewed by Germaine Kiecke – art academic, TV journalist and lead character in Happy Family. As you can imagine, getting someone with Germaine’s credentials to appear in person is a real coup, and I am indebted to Hannah Robins-Frank for helping Germaine make the unusual journey from fiction to reality. I absolutely cannot wait.
After the interview there will be some Q&A and a short reading. Alcohol and refreshments will be available – and I have no doubt we shall repair to a local pub later on for more launching.
Please come along and if you have a copy of the book, bring it along too and I can sign it. If not, there will be plenty on sale. Let me know if you can make it.
As part of its pre-launch marketing process, Unbound have arranged for Happy Family to be serialised on The Pigeonhole. This is a great way to get reviews and build a buzz before its publication early next year. You can check it out and get early sight of the text here: https://thepigeonhole.com/books/happy-family. If you do, please a leave a review.
This is both exciting and daunting because even though it’s pre-publication, it’s now ‘out there’.
So, where are we in the overall publication process? Well, all of the editing and final proofreading is complete which is why The Pigeonhole can use the text. In the next two or three weeks I will see the roughs of the cover design – I can’t wait for that – and shortly before Christmas, pre-publication digital versions will be sent to formal reviewers to get cover quotes – perhaps some of The Pigeonhole reviews will be used too.
After that, around February, it’s the full launch of the actual book and distribution to bookshops. Hooray!
I love this title because it works at so many different levels. The book is scheduled for release in early 2020 and it has now been through two rounds of developmental editing, a full line (copy) edit, and a full proofread. And some very nice things have been said about the book along the way – here are a few examples:
‘The novel feels extremely fresh and contemporary … One of the clever things about the novel is that it shows how rather than bringing families together in the same way that board games such as Monopoly, Battleship, Cluedo etc used to, AR games can be used to drive families apart and further isolate the individual from society.’
‘As a comment on the way modern day game development could affect the whole idea of the happy family, and its invasive potential repercussions for vulnerable players, it is a sobering piece of work.’
‘Its imagined snapshot of the huge part AR may have to play in the future, and the hefty price tag consumer expectation versus reality may come with … is both fascinating and terrifying in equal measures. A particularly effective scene showing the disconnect between reality and the imagined world is both perfectly imagined and genuinely frightening.’
‘Could you please tell the author that I really enjoyed this book … I could even picture the characters… and who should play them in the film!’
I can’t wait to see the cover design.
