R. F. Long

Just a quick headsup to let people know that I’ll be doing a twitter live chat with YALitChat tomorrow at 3pm EST (which is handily 8pm GMT over here). I’ll be talking about The Treachery of Beautiful Things and we’ll also be having a give away. There may even be a surprise (fingers crossed). So look out of the #yalitchat hastag on twitter tomorrow afternoon/evening.

And YALitChat will continue on into the evening/middle of the night when at 9pm EST (which… no, I don’t want to think about what time that is over here — I will be snoring, sorry!) many many more 2012 debut authors will be having another chat.

• Brigid Kemmerer author of  Elemental
• Nina Berry author of  Otherkin
• Kate Walton author of  Cracked
• Suzanne Lazear author of  Innoent Darkness
• Jessica Shirvington author of Embrace
• Elisa Ludwig author of Pretty Crooked
• Jolene Perry author of Night Sky and Knee Deep
• Lori Ann Duffy author of Spectral
• Rachael Harris author of My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century
• Tiffany Schmidt author of Send me A Sign

But at 3pm/8pm it’s all me and Treachery (which is occassionally called #TTOBT).

More on the hopedfor surprise as soon as I can!

It’s that time of year when suddenly everything jumps on me at once! Or maybe I need to learn to say “no” once in a while… Nah!!!

So up and coming events are as follows:

YALitChat Live Chat with ME!!!!  3pm EST (which is 8pm GMT) – 29th Feb, I’ll be talking about The Treachery of Beautiful Things, why I wrote it, the path to publication, answering questions, doing a giveaway and hopefully a super secret sneak preview! Now I just have to talk very sweetly to my publishers… *flutters eyelashes*… and that giveaway? You could win a signed ARC! this for a book that doesn’t come out until August!

Pcon - 3-4th March, Irish Writers Centre.

Irish Pen annual debate Thursday 8th March, United Arts Club, Catherine Ryan Howard and Mick Rooney argue for Self-Publishing;  Hazel Gaynor and Patricia O Reilly argue for Traditional Publishing in a debate chaired by author Ruth Long from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM – chaired by me. God help them.

Plans are also afoot for other events such as…

Writers long weekend in Wexford. Batton down your hatches Wexford and possibly even lock up your sons. Depends on who is going to be there.

Something in Wicklow? Oooo mysterious….

July ROADTRIP to the RNA Conference in Penrith with Jane Travers, she of TweetTreats. I hope she’s bringing the snacks.

A Libraryland week in Prague. Maybe. Its a bit daunting.

And HOLIDAYS…. right after my book comes out. Maybe could have planned that better. Or could I? Maybe collapsing after the launch is the best idea I’ve had so far.

Not forgetting Octocon in October!

~~oOo~~

And this just in, a 4 Nymph review for The Wolf’s Destiny from Literary Nymphs Reviews

“plenty of twists and turns in this entertaining and complicated story.”

Thought I would share two pretty images I came across today – just small examples of the wonderful detials you can find in old books. The initials are illustrated with different animals (S=snake, P=Pig, C=Crane) but for the letter I the illustator added imaginary creatures – in these cases a multi-headed dragon and a griffin.

The imaginary has as much a place in our daily lives as anything else.  And since this book is from the 1630s, it has done for a very long time.

To my mind it always has and always will.

Since I’m working on my magical library book, I’m half expecting them to jump off the page and fly away. I’m very lucky to have such inspiration close at hand.

Storyland on RTE

Hope you’ve all headed over to watch the first webisode of Victory and of course VOTE! (Apparently you need to do this in Internet Explorer).

From Tumblr:

“Romance novels are feminist documents. They’re written almost exclusively by women, for women, and are concerned with women: their relations in family, love and marriage, their place in society and the world, and their dreams for the future. Romances of the Golden Age are rife with the sociopolitical limitations of their period, it must be said. They’re exclusively hetero, and exclusively white, for example. Even so, they can be strangely sublime.”

From this awesome awl article Romance Novels, The Last Great Bastion Of Underground Writing which I recommend you read. (via champagnecandy & iandsharman)

And finally, my website got hacked again. It’s (obviously) all sorted now. I can’t understand how anyone gains from this sort of thing. It’s just malicious, another form of bullying, and so very frustrating.

Still in the writing cave. Peering out from time to time with at confused, “there’s a world out there” blinking gaze.

I’m a bit over half way through draft zero having got lots done this Sunday thanks to a rugby game which entertained everyone in the house, except for the last five minutes when they hid behind furniture, shouted & threw things*

But this is a small update to let you know that The Treachery of Beautiful Things is now available on Netgalley. There are criteria with regards to getting a review copy however, and not that many available. But still its a very big YAY from me. I hope everyone enjoys it.

There is also a review on goodreads from someone who had one of the print ARCs. This also gets a very big YAY from me.

Oh, and on Friday I will be at the Pen Dinner which is very exciting. Because Joseph O’Connor is getting the award from the President. Of Ireland. SO for most of the rest of the week I will be tackling girlie things like hair and dresses and high heels.

*Retreats. Blinking.*

–

*not really… or at least not much

In lieu of an actual post…

With regards to the tea segment –> MOST IMPORTANT PART!