Posted on Mar 10, 2009 under Juliet Archer's Diary |
Occasionally, I realise how much I’m in awe of the internet.
One day I’m doing a book signing in the UK: Waterstone’s - The Galleria - Hatfield, to be precise. The next, I’m ‘meeting’ people in the US via a blog. And I don’t actually have to move a muscle to get from one country to the other!
Both are great fun. Both are opportunities to talk to potential readers. Both rely on a lot of support from others. For The Galleria, it was the great staff at Waterstone’s as well as my publisher, Lyn, and her mum, Liz. For the Novel Thoughts blog, it was Fatin. In both cases, I emailed material in advance over the internet, knowing it would arrive within seconds.
May the force of modern technology be with you!
Posted on Mar 02, 2009 under Juliet Archer's Diary |
Just back from my first two Borders book signings in the North East. Both times The Importance of Being Emma was the top selling book, beating The Reader on Saturday and Oliver Twist on Sunday. And on both days my book sales were beaten by sales of Cadbury’s Creme Eggs!
It was a fun weekend, with the two Jeans (my mother-in-law and sister-in-law) keeping me company at the signings, friends and family turning up and excellent support from Borders staff. Some people bought my book as a Mother’s Day present, some for a friend or relative called Emma and some bought it just for themselves.
We had two metallic pink heart-shaped balloons floating above our table, so you couldn’t miss us. I’d brought them all the way from Hertfordshire on the train, which meant lots of funny looks and a telling-off from rail staff when the balloons nearly touched a 25,000-volt cable. Almost an electrifying experience!
Posted on Feb 26, 2009 under Juliet Archer's Diary |
Well, there might not have been a red carpet but there was a lot of fun last night at DeAngelis, Harpenden!
It was a baptism of fire for me. I deliberately went for a Q&A as well as a book signing and it was good practice for my radio interview on 13th March. Fortified by one glass of champagne and dainty morsels (as it was the first day of Lent) of ‘pure, dark and Italian’ chocolate, I answered questions about Jane Austen, writing and sex.
Sex? Nothing explicit, more ’how easy was it to write about sex, when it didn’t feature in Jane Austen?’ The answer is, of course, that writing about it is easy - the hard bit’s knowing that people are reading what I’ve written!
It was great to see so many new and familiar faces and Rocco (our irresistible Italian hero) made a lot of women very happy with his delicious chocolate tasting.
Bella notte!
Posted on Feb 25, 2009 under Juliet Archer's Diary |
Each author takes a different road to publication, but few manage the Victoria Connelly route - becoming a publishing success in another country, in a foreign language, before being published in their homeland.
Victoria’s story is fascinating and is best told on her website www.victoriaconnelly.com. Her first novel, Flights of Angels, was bought by a German publisher, translated into German (natürlich), given a different title (Unter deinem Stern) and even turned into a TV film. Strangely, it has yet to be published in the UK - it seems we don’t buy stories about angels whereas the Germans do!
Luckily, Victoria has just had a novel published in the UK - Molly’s Millions, a romantic story featuring a girl who wins the lottery and gives all her money away. Apparently this was far too fanciful for the angel-loving Germans!
I met Victoria last Saturday, when she told her story to the London branch of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. She gave us some sound advice:
- Don’t underestimate the ’spark’ of inspiration you get in the bath.
- Never ever give up, no matter how many rejections and setbacks you have.
- Do your research to get the right agent/publisher for you.
- Use the Romantic Novelists’ Association - Victoria can highly recommend the New Writers’ Scheme (snap!) and also got quotes from some of their published authors for her book jacket.
Posted on Feb 12, 2009 under Juliet Archer's Diary |
Seems to me that my book is better travelled than I am and should have its own passport. So far, it’s been to Australia, Canada, Crete, Hong Kong, Malta, Mauritius, Switzerland and the US.
But the strangest sighting was by my friend Sarah at a petrol station in the UK. She just happened to glance over at the car next to hers and saw that the lady in the passenger seat was reading The Importance of Being Emma!
Maybe it’s a small world after all …
Posted on Feb 03, 2009 under Juliet Archer's Diary |
Perhaps I’d better explain!
A friend alerted me to a mention on jillysheep’s blog, so off I went in some trepidation and found the following entries:
Monday 12th January 2009: I’m enjoying The Importance of Being Emma as I did Jane Austen’s Emma for A Level English Literature and I find I can still remember all the characters and the gist of the plot. I think it’s clever the way the story has been translated into the modern world with Philip Elton something in accountancy rather than a clergyman and Miss Bates a company secretary with an elderly mother to look after. Harriet Smith is a flaky temp and Emma’s father is a hypochondriac with access to much more medical knowledge than the prototype. I’m looking forward to the next one in this series which will be based on Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
Thursday 15th January 2009: I’ve nearly finished reading The Importance of Being Emma by Juliet Archer - the modern day interpretation of Emma. This is an excellent sparkling story. I was put off when I first started because it is narrated alternately by Emma and Mr Knightley - in very short sections some less than a page. I seem to have read a lot of books with multiple narrators recently and my first reaction was oh no not another one, but I got used to it very quickly. It is very true to the spirit of the original showing how universal Jane Austen’s characters are.
Friday 16th January 2009: I finished The Importance of Being Emma by Juliet Archer and was quite sad to finish it. I loved comparing the characters with the Jane Austen version and seeing how the modern incidents lined up with the original. It can be enjoyed in its own right without having read Emma but there is an added dimension if you have read it. I shall look forward to the next in the series which is based on Persuasion.
Now you can see why my favourite sheep is called Jilly!
Posted on Jan 29, 2009 under Uncategorized |
Apologies to Louise Rennison for nicking her book title, but it seemed to sum up my New Year’s resolutions.
First, I’m sticking with Jane Austen modernisations for my next book. One day I might write something really original, but not yet. I had a ball with Emma and so far Persuasion’s going well with Sir Walter proving particular fun. And anyway, I believe Jane Austen’s novels have inspired much of today’s romantic fiction.
Second, 2009 will not be the Year of the Thong - at least, not for me. Whoever invented this instrument of torture should be dangled from a great height, preferably by their thong ’strings’. Ouch!
Finally, I’m going to keep this blog going, even if I only post once a month. Let’s hope I’m better at keeping this resolution than I am at keeping all the diet-related ones …
