The Latest News from Joanne
~ September 2008 ~
Readers of Runemarks might be interested to learn a little more about the runes from my beginners' guide: Click Here.
~ May, June and July 2008 ~
See what happens when you’re hard at work – three months go by and you don’t even realise. Perhaps its just encroaching old age……
Anyway, I’ve spent most of the spring and the summer struggling with what’s turning out to be a rather complicated novel. Fortunately I have understanding publishers who tend not to lay deadlines on me.
Next week I’m going off for my one holiday of the year, by boat into the high arctic, where I am hoping that a combination of sea and perpetual light will blow some of the cobwebs out of my tangled plot.
Meanwhile, last month I was in Mauritius as one of the judges of the Prince Maurice prize. Thank you to everybody involved, especially the judges, Tim Lott, Sarah Waters, Simon Armitage, David Nobbs, Irvine Welsh, Marina Lewycka and congratulations to James Meek (the winner) and Sally Vickers and Ewan Morrison the runners-up, all terrific writers and it was an honour to work with you.
Thanks also more recently to the organisers of the Buxton Festival, for which I did a reading last week and congratulations to everyone involved in the immensely innovative Handel’s Samson, which I was lucky to see at the Buxton Opera House.
11th September sees the republication of my first published novel, The Evil Seed . Once more I see myself doing something that I said that I would never do; in this case dredging up the wreckage of this old pirate ship of the novel, written when I was in my early twenties and re-released thanks to the persistence of many of my more curious readers who wanted to know how I began writing. All I can say to you is “Be warned!” this is a very early book and has barely been edited as, if I had really tried to do that, I would have found myself rewriting it from scratch. However, I’m still very fond of it for reasons of nostalgia and I’m happy to see it brought back to life.
4th September sees the paperback publication of Runemarks at which time I will be very busy promoting in schools and bookshops around the country – see forthcoming events. I’m hoping to see a lot of you there!