August update

August 9, 2014

A wonderful mystery display at Waterstones Ipwich - photo by Gemma Cooper

Greetings! I hope you’re all having exceedingly enjoyable Augusts. I’m having a wonderful, if busy time, I wanted to stop by to give you a brief update on what’s coming up for me and Wells & Wong.

A wonderful mystery display at Waterstones Ipwich - photo by Gemma Cooper
A wonderful mystery display at Waterstones Ipswich – photo by Gemma Cooper

I’m working away on the books, and the good news is that Arsenic for Tea is very close to Being Entirely Done. It’ll be a book before you even know it.

On the topic of books that already exist, I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has been reviewing Murder Most Unladylike on Amazon, Goodreads and your blogs lately – I genuinely love every single one, and am so grateful that you’ve taken the time to do it. I want to especially mention the brilliant review on The Book Zone, because it says something that I firmly believe:

Although the book is set in a girls’ boarding school, with nary a young male character in sight, I still think this book has great appeal to boys who like traditional, British-set mystery stories.

Hooray! Yes, the book is about girls, but I wrote it for people, and there’s no reason why a boy shouldn’t enjoy it exactly as much as a girl. That’s the joy of reading – you can use a book to step into anyone’s shoes.

That said, I do happen to be a girl, and I do heart books, and so I’m very pleased to announce that I’m about to begin a guest blogger spot on Girls Heart Books. I’m very excited, and I can’t wait to get started! Keep an eye out for my first effort, coming in September.

IThe-Glass-Bird-Girln other nice September news, the wonderful Nosy Crow Book Group has picked Murder Most Unladylike as one of its titles for September. It’s going to be paired with The Glass Bird Girl by Esme Kerr, which is a fantastic choice – I’ve just finished reading it, and it’s a completely wonderful, imaginative and elegantly-written contemporary boarding school mystery. It’s a great twist on the boarding school story genre, and I’m delighted to be sitting alongside it. I hope as many of you as possible will join in the book group discussion – as a nosy author, I can’t wait to hear what you think of both books!

And finally, if anyone is in the Ely area next Sunday, 17th August, I will be stopping by Toppings Books Ely to sign some stock. It won’t be a formal signing in any way, but I will be there at about 2:30pm, and if you do happen to be around I’d love to say hello!

More posts to explore

There’s a new exhibition coming to Oxford’s Story Museum this summer, and it’s all about young detectives! Created by young curators using a storyline by Sharna Jackson, it’ll feature plenty of your favourite detectives – including Daisy and Hazel!
I am doing two festival events this spring: one in Dublin and one in London. They are: International Literature Festival Dublin, 16th May, 12pm – a talk followed by a signing London Children’s Book Festival, 28th June, 3:30pm – a talk followed by a signing
I’m partnering up with the National Archives for their first ever school event, a free online event on Wednesday March 25th at 1:30pm.
I’m delighted to announce that I have something for schools who’d like a visit from me – I’ll be appearing in a virtual schools event on the 20th March at 1:30pm in partnership with my publisher Puffin.
I’m delighted to say that I’ll be visiting Lincoln in February to talk about my books! I’ll be at the Engine Shed on Saturday 14th February at 3pm – tickets are on sale NOW and include a book with the price of the ticket.
If you missed out on my pre-order campaign with Daunt Books … it’s back for a limited time only! From today until the 3rd of December, you can order a signed and personalised copy of A Stocking Full of Spies from the Daunt Books website.