A whole week since my last post! What have I been doing all this time? Apart from braving the ice and blizzards to get to work, (not too arduous really as it’s only three miles away and mostly on gritted roads), and enjoying snowy walks in Sutton Park and roaming freely around the golf-course down the road, I’ve been partying with a wonderfully eclectic bunch of bloggers to celebrate the first anniversary of Nicola Morgan’s (aka The Crabbit Old Bat’s) brilliant blog: Help I Need a Publisher.

No, I’m not being offensive – this is her own boast: ‘I am proud to be the first google result for “crabbit old bat”. My aim to help good writers means I’m glad to annoy hopeless ones with my acerbity. I’m with Thomas Mann: “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” ‘

I love that quote – it’s a great comfort when the going gets tough! Before I tell you more about Nicola’s party – I’m posting a picture that reminds me that the sky hasn’t been a continuous murky grey over the last couple of weeks, and because it reminds me of spring blossom.
Also, I want to show you the back cover of Paper Lanterns before you get so enthralled by reading all the interesting comments (186 at last count) and then get absorbed into the maze of amazing links. I was swallowed up for the whole of Sunday and any spare time I’ve had since then.

So take a look at this picture before you scroll down to the link that’ll deflect you from my site (I’m not trying to get rid of you! It’s just that if you’re anything like me, you’ll forget to drop back here again to post a comment too.)

If you haven’t been following my previous posts about the design of my book cover, and how readers have helped me select my final choice, you might need to take a quick look at the recent posts below. It’ll help you to see why I’m so delighted to have this particular scene on the back cover.

And now for the Crabbit Old Bat – I’m going to let her speak for herself, which she’s always ready to do: (a shrinking violet she’s not) –
But before you gatecrash the party, start with the pathetic fallacy: “IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT” (13th January) then soak up the HUGE NUMBER of helpful hints in WHERE DOES A STORY BEGIN, (12th Jan)
and THEN you’ll have earned your right to pick your way through the clusters of streamers and deflating balloons as you open new links to the blogs of the guests at Nicola’s Party

Have fun!!

1. Peacocks, Pink magnolia & Radio Wildfire | ChristineColeman.net Says:
   April 19th, 2010 at 10:48 pm

   [...] this link I’ve already mentioned Nicola Morgan (aka ‘crabbit old bat’) in a previous post, and the new link is to her new novel, with lord knows how many exciting competitions etc. What a [...]