Blog Tour! Day Five!

Today The Life Cycle of The Rain tour reaches Oxfordshire (where I grew up!) and is hosted by the lovely Liz Barnsley on her blogsite: LIZ LOVES BOOKS . . . she must do, because she seems to have read read and reviewed ALL OF THEM!

Up on the stage: Cathryn Gregory, Rights Manager Extraordinaire at Macmillan Children’s Books, telling the incredible story of  how The Rain got bought by GERMANY (Fischer)! FRANCE (Bayard Presse)! AMERICA (Sourcebooks)! TURKEY (Artemis)!

Read all about it at: LIZ LOVES BOOKS.

In fact, this story is so incredible, I still can’t quite believe it . . .

Blog Tour! Day Four!

Today’s blog is hosted by the bee-ootiful Scottish book blogger and general investigator of all things cultural, Holly June Smith!

Erm . . . and it’s ME blogging again . . . trying VERY HARD not to sound too gushy and emotional about a very gushy and emotional subject: what happened when Macmillan bought The Rain . . . (which was terror, mainly).

So click right here to say, HEY, HOLLY JUNE!

(Personal PS: big shout out to the Glasgow massive! You know who you are!)

Because Ruby makes her own epic journey in The Rain, Macmillan asked me to write about my Top 5 Epic Journeys . . . so I did: RETRO STYLE!

You can read it here, at My Kinda Book . . .

GROAN. I am so ANCIENT. Sincerely hoping some My Kinda Book members do some updating . . .

So, I stayed up ’til midnight . . . you know,  just in case there’d be fireworks for the UK launch day.

There were fireworks . . .

Bookinity!!!!!!

Charli, Zoe, Gemma and Benjamin . . . they sparkle.

Blog Tour! Day Three! Ireland!

Oh . . . Natalie Cleary! I am in awe of anyone who can raise kids – and read – and blog! How?! How do you you do that?! (Serious question . . .)

I feel like I’m coming home; two grandparents were Dubliners: a Murphy and a  Bergin – left for Liverpool, in the days when migrants could just do that . . . their brothers and sisters went to the U.S.A.

Before I get all emotional  – oh no! I’m going to get even more emotional . . . because next up on the Blog Tour stage, it’s: Rachel Petty, my editor at Macmillan.

Picture the scene: I have no idea about what’s going on, or how to behave (I am completely overwhelmed); first thing that happens . . . I get handed a gift. OK, so I unwrap it . . .

Arg! Imagine your worst birthday ever . . . everyone is watching as you unwrap . . . WHAT IS THIS?!

I didn’t get it.

And then I did. It was the whole story – in a glass bubble of water. Perfect.

It’s the Blog Tour – Day Two!

We’re in Northern Ireland, courtesy of the marvellous Megan McDade – who doesn’t just read away the days, she actually manages to write about what she reads too . . . A LOT. She’s been blogging reviews and quizzing authors since 2011!

This time, Megan’s hosting a blog from my agent . . . yup, next up on the Blog Tour stage at Reading Away The Days it’s: Louise Lamont of LBA Books!

(Who keeps saying that person in the film clip is not supposed to be me . . . hmmm . . .)

“THE END OF THE WORLD IS COMING . . . AND IT STARTS IN TOTNES”

– on Saturday 19th July, 1-2 pm, apparently. That’s what the poster says!

(Though I can’t understand why anyone would think the Devon town of ‘Dartbridge’ in The Rain is really Totnes . . . it is just a coincidence that it is EXACTLY LIKE TOTNES IN EVERY SINGLE WAY. MWAH-HA-HA-HA!)

Anyway, the lovely people at The Totnes Bookshop have bravely decided to throw an apocalyptic launch signing . . . so, unless you’re too scared to leave the house by then, come on down to Dartbridge – oooh! Sorry! – Totnes on Sat 19th July (1-2pm).

I will be there, probably wearing yellow rubber gloves – and signing books.

Erm . . . virtually!

All this week The Rain is on tour, guest posting with some of the best book bloggers  in the UK . . .

And you know how tours always have titles and themes, right? Well, this one is THE LIFE CYCLE OF THE RAIN . . . but this is no geography lesson; it’s the blog-by-blog true story of how The Rain came to be, starting with a tiny molecule of an idea . . .

So, first up on the blog tour stage: it’s ME – in a blog kindly hosted by the fabulous Casey Ann at DARK READERS. Click link and visit now!

I went to YALC – the UK’s first ever Young Adult Literature Conference – and I could write a whole essay about how brilliant it was: tons and tons of authors, readers, bloggers, vloggers, books, books, books and . . . some other people who looked quite scary but turned out to be VERY NICE INDEED.

YALC was held at Earl’s Court at the same time as the amazing London Film and Comic Con 2014, so the dress code was zombie or demon or Star Wars character or . . . well, anything you liked, really. It was FANTASTIC!

I’d love to write more about the event, but I’ve got to get some more posts out asap because – did I mention?! – THE RAIN IS COMING . . . so all I will say for now is that all the incredible people I met at YALC and LFCC were so kind and friendly. All of them. Even these guys. Total kittens . . .