Just wanted to let you know that TOMORROW (i.e. Monday) is a special day for Angela Young for two reasons:
a) H—y B—-d-y!
b) The paperback release date for Speaking of Love has been brought forward, and can be bought tomorrow – this, you may recall, is the book which has a quotation from yours truly on the back cover. Very
exciting, and I do encourage you to buy a copy, or twelve. Amazon still think that it’s not released until March, when I checked, but I’m sure you local independent bookshop would be happy to sell it to you, or order it for you.
The second thing today is a meme for which Margaret at Booksplease tagged me. Ten signs that would indicate a book had been written by me… well, I do harbour desires to be a novelist, and have ever since I gave up dreams of being a tea-lady. But how would you know it was my novel, just from an anonymous read?
1) not a drop of blood
2) no swear words
3) definitely no blasphemy
4) some quiet irony
5) female protagonist, with a middle-class English name. Think Laura or Rachel or Clarissa or… well, moving onto no.6, quite clearly:
6) influenced by Virginia Woolf in some (probably unfortunate) way
7) hidden quotations or references to favourite books/authors
8) about people and humanity, not Issues
9) none of the sentences will end with prepositions, and nobody will ever misuse the word “less”
10) probably quite short…
Congratulations again Simon and I look forward to reading your book.
That’s great Simon. I’m looking forward to reading it.
I shall queue for a signed copy when it comes out, Simon.
Thank you, Simon, for your birthday wishes, and for your continuing championing of Speaking of Love. Amazon do seem to think you can only pre-order it still … but Beautiful Books will sort them out soon. But it is in various Waterstone’s in dump bins (such a pretty name!) with other contenders for the World Book Day prize.
And there’s a wonderful book by Anne Lamott called Bird by Bird which helped me more than I can say when I was struggling with Speaking of Love before it became Speaking of Love – if you see what I mean. I recommend it from the bottom of my heart for all writers of fiction. Bon chance!