Book review for Whittlewood

I came across this book review on http://www.goodreads.com/ for my novel Whittlewood. Although the book was first published in 1997 'Ancestral Celt's' review of 4th September 2011 gave me a tremendous buzz to know that the book can still cause a shiver!

[EXTRACT] "This book is a real page-turner. I started reading it and had to finish it in one sitting; I just could not put it down. Whittlewood is a tale of murder and magical mystery, with some romance and a few touches of history, all of which combine to entice the reader to keep reading and reading - ever hungry for more ... Suzanne Ruthven has woven a story of magic, mystery and reality into a marvellous book. I hope she continues to write such engrossing tales. What's more her descriptive style is such that I could smell the incense and greenery in the Church; I was transported. There is only one slight quibble with the book and that is the occasional editing or printing error, but even so, I could not be wrenched from my reverie in Ashmarsh. This is one of the most original fictional works I have read in recent years. Read it!!!"

I'd been thinking that the next step might be to add it to the Kindle list and this clinched it.
Thank you Ancestral Celt!

Publishing up-date

The typescript for Life-Writes has gone off to the publishers and there's a lull in the proceedings before going on to something new. Time to update blogs and things, and make decisions about whether to keep/discard websites, and other activities that take up so much time. Also having a gigantic stock clearance of ignotus press titles and finally winding down the business. It was good fun while it lasted but publishing is moving ahead in leaps and bounds and we can't compete. Will think about putting one or two of the more popular titles on Kindle but it all takes time. The new O-Books website should be launched soon and Compass Books (for which I'm commissioning editor) will be looking for more titles.

Lots of things going on

Firstly, the contract has been signed for Life-Writes: where do writers get their ideas from ... it's called Life! with O-Books. Hopefully this will be published in early 2012 as part of the growing list of titles in the new writers' resource imprint, Compass Books.

As commissioning editor for Compass Books, I have great pleasure in seeing titles coming in from well-known names from The New Writer, and hopefully the number will continue to grow.

Catch Up Time

It's been a long time since anything has been posted but I haven't been idle. I have had a new book - Life-Writes - accepted by O-Books for publication later thing year and am now commissioning editor for O-Books' new imprint Compass Books, which will be developed into a writers' resource site.

Signposts For Country Living came out and 200 advance copies have been sold to the US, so busy trying to find freelance outlets over there. With all the cut-backs we've also had to reduce the number of issues of The New Writer to four a year, although we've double the number of pages for each issue. Frantically busy but not too busy to enjoy the glorious summer we've had. Plenty of ideas in the pipeline for the autumn ... not to mention new puppies in for training.

Here is the news ...

Just completed a series of fiction workshops for a local writers' group and it was good to get back into the swing of things again. If I miss anything about being in the UK, it's my regular trip to Caerleon for the Writers' Summer School but who knows, with four books under contract in the past twelve months, I may get another invitation!

Delay on the publication of Signposts For Country Living, which was due out in May. The problem with not being in control of the production is that it becoms awfully freustrating when things go wrong. However, been promised they'll be ready in a couple of weeks ... so will have to keep the champagne on ice until then.

Signposts For Country Living

We've been working on this book through the winter months and it will shortly be available from the Good Life Press from May. It was an idea we'd been kicking around for a couple of years - combining our joint experiences of integrating into rural communities in England, Wales and Ireland. It had been 'sitting in a draw' for quite a while and was scheduled for the recycle bin when we came across the submission guidelines for a rural publisher. They liked the practical advice tempered with humour and snapped it up. The moral behind this story is: Never junk anything because you never know when it will become a saleable item!