A Hollow in the Hills releases officially on Monday (although it has clearly escaped #inthewild and is #galavanting all over Dublin and beyond) and we never had a book trailer for A Crack in Everything last year. So…
Ta-DAH!
#IntheWild
I think we can all blame thank the fabulous Celine Kiernan for #InTheWild. I asked for pitures of A 
Hollow in the Hills if anyone saw it in the wild. So she put it in a bush and sent me a photo.
As you do in Cavan….
(thank you Celine! You are fab!)
Poor Jinx, however does not appreciate nature in any form. He’s a city fae.
And then others got in on the act. đ
Eventually, even I gave in.
Luckily the booksellers of Dublin and Drogheda came to our Jinx’s rescue
Here it is on the shelves. Not quite in its natural habitat though. That would be the hands of readers.
If you see A Hollow in the Hills out in the wild, send me a photo – @rflong #IntheWild #Galavanting (because that’s clearly what it’s doing) #HollowInTheHills.
In other news, check out Dublin2019 Irish Fiction Friday today – featuring me!
Literary Listings…
A nice little mention of the upcoming book launch for A Hollow in the Hills appeared in the Irish Times while I was away (12th August).
“In crime fiction, Louise Phillipsâs new novel The Game Changer launches on Tuesday, September 8th, while the launch for A Hollow in the Hills by Ruth Frances Long takes place the following evening, September 9th. Lastly, the short story writer ER Murray launches her anticipated debut childrenâs novel The Book of Learning on Tuesday, September 15th. All events take place in the shopâs Temple Bar outlet in Dublin 2 from 6.30 – 8pm.”
I’m hoping to get to both Louise’s and ER Murray’s launches too. Both lovely ladies and terrific writers.
Read the full article here.
Back home and box of joy
I’m back from holidays. Had a wonderful time and got a ton of writing done on book 3. Plus tons of research for the fabled Brittany book which I will get around to writing one day. And some reading to boot.
And best of all a box full of copies of A Hollow in the Hills arrived today.
Roll on the release day on the 7th September and the booklaunch in the Gutter Bookshop at 6.30pm on the 9th September. All welcome. Come and celebrate.
Giveaway for #IrishFictionFortnight & More Booklaunch news
I’m very excited to be part of Irish Fiction Fortnight on the BleachHouseLibrary website. This year I wrote about a book that had a huge influence on what I write today. It’s called The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O’Shea and you can read all about it here.Â
There’s also a giveaway for a signed copy of A Crack in Everything.
Another exciting bit of news is that Kate Johnson has very kindly agreed to launch A Hollow in the Hills in the Gutter Bookshop, Dublin on the 9th September at 6.30pm. Come one, come all. Kate is a fantastic writer and I’m particularly addicted to her books The Untied Kingdom and Impossible Things. Or maybe its her heroes… đ Especially the next one, from the Ghost Book which doesn’t have a name yet but is AWESOME! And is partly set in Dublin.
So another reason, as if you needed one, to come to the book launch.
Lastly, I’m going to be going dark in the next couple of days as I’m working on book 3 and doing some travelling, and hopefully some research as well!
All the busy & Book Launch news
Sorry for the lack of blogging. I have been busy busy busy. (Warning: this post brought to you today by the words “wonderful” and “fantastic”!)
The trip to London for the RNA Conference was absolutely wonderful.
I missed the Tube strike and all my transport went very smoothly (I didnât actually need the vast amount of alternate routes I planned at all). The Conference itself was, as always, wonderful. In fact you can get a flavour of it at the Romaniacs website where they have a lovely videos and will be posting interviews with various authors (including yours truly which I’ll link to when it goes up).
My talk âFinding the Fantastic in Your Fictionâ seemed to go down very well although I was desperately nervous beforehand. But people came (at least 35 of them because all my handouts went), and asked questions (Yay!) and even came up to me afterwards to say how much they enjoyed it. Even people I didnât know!
My highlight was probably Julie Cohenâs excellent (as ever) Re-writing workshop. With All the Post It notes in the universe. Including giant ones and a stack for everyone in the audience. And the panel discussion on Saturday – “The Vision for Writers of Passion and Drama” â Katie Fforde, Eileen Ramsay, Jane Johnstone and Daniel Hahn talked about the challenges facing authors today. It was wildly entertaining and very interesting.
Was that a future Game of Thrones spoiler from Jane? Weâll never know…
Chilling by the canal was also wonderful, a way to escape the heat and Kate Johnson and I discussed Buffy for rather a long time…
And the Gala dinner was just fab! All very glam. It was held in the beautiful Octogon Library which was a bit of a highlight for librarian-me who came over all fangirl. For a building. Yes…
I always end up having a little bit of a downer when I have to leave. I meet so many good friends at the conferences and its a place for writers to be writers. I miss that. But roll on next year in Lancaster (8-10th July). Canât wait.
Back in the real world, final edits went back in for A Hollow in the Hills, the sequel to A Crack in Everything, which comes out on the 7th September.
SO BOOK LAUNCH NEWS!!!!
We will be having a book launch in the Gutter Bookshop at 6.30pm on Wednesday the 9th September. All welcome. Bring your friends. Bring ALL OF THEM! I will be sourcing cake.
Yesterday was mostly spent working on Book 3 The Darkness at the End, because I had a massive surge of post-conference creativity which saw me write 16 pages in longhand and type up 6000 words. Still more to catch up on. I love it when writing does that.
Last night I went to the Pavilion Theatre to see Judy Blume in conversation with Sinead Gleeson. It was a wonderful evening and the warmth and love of the audience was only matched by the warmth and love which radiated from the woman herself. Many of my YA writing friends were there as a gang, our bookclub being just a little hyper beforehand. And during the Q & A. And after… But she has been such an inspiration to so many people and it really showed. It was fantastic to find out she is as lovely as we always wanted her to be.
Getting ready for #RNAConf15
It’s that time of year again when I get ready to go to the Romantic Novelists Association Conference. It’s on this coming weekend, in London and I really can’t wait.
I will be giving a talk on Saturday at 1.45pm –
Finding the Fantastic in your Fiction
Using folklore fairytale and supernatural elements in your fiction, from fantasy to contemporary â exploring different ways of using myths and folktales to flesh out your writing and inject some magic.
All being well it will be more than handwaving and me rambling on but you never know. Â Although the talk is written I am continually editing it which led me to print it out today, mainly in the hopes that I will stop changing it again. As if!
And I’ve also been obsessing over my travel, as I always do. I’ve an early flight, so an earlier coach to the airport. And hopefully (hopefully!) the Tube strike will be finished when I get there. If not I have two bus routes and a DLR route worked out too.
But once there, the fun actually does really begin. Good friends, great conversations, sparkly shoes, fancy frocks and wine. And writerly talk, all day and all evening. It’s a really special time.
I can’t wait.
Writing is a largely solitary job. The conference is a time to meet other writers, celebrate what we do,  share our thoughts and experiences and above all, learn so much from each other.
I should have wifi so I’ll try to post little updates and pictures via Instagram, which crosssposts to my Facebook and Twitter. The hashtag for the conference itself is #RNAConf15. Finally if you’re at the conference, come and say hello!
#amwritingchallenge and other madness (with photos)
So, as I’ve started putting down words (ie writing!) relating to the final book in the Dubh Linn series which began with A Crack in Everything, known as The Darkness at the End, and this all coincided with the Twitter/Instagram fun of the #amwritingchallenge, there will be intermittent photos. Mostly they’re going on my Instagram (and from there to Tumblr, and Twitter).
So this is it:-
And here are some pictures
1. Where I write
2. A Page from Your Manuscript
3. What you drink when you write
I’ll try to keep posting here as well but it’ll probably be intermittent, so you may want to follow me on Instagram, Tumblr or Twitter if you’re interested. đ
Die Chroniken der Fae and Preorders
So, first up, something I have been dying to share for AGES! A Crack in Everything has been translated in to German and will be on sale in October this year. It’s called Der Chroniken der Fae – Auf Papier und Asche. More details here on the RandomHouse.de website. And have I mentioned the AWESOME cover?
So so beautiful and lovely to see Izzy at last. Blessed by the cover fairies again!
But that’s not all! (as they say on T.V.)
A Hollow in the Hills, the sequel to A Crack in Everything, is up on Amazon for pre-order and on Waterstones as well (and presumably in other places too!)
Something is stirring beneath Dubh Linn.
When an ancient and forbidden power is unleashed, Izzy, who is still coming to terms with her newfound powers, must prevent a war from engulfing Dublin and the fae realm of Dubh Linn. Â But by refusing to sacrifice Jinx â fae warrior and her ânot-really-exâ â Izzy sets in motion a chain of events which will see them hunted across the city and into the hills where she’ll face the greatest challenge of all.
In the deepest and darkest Hollow, an angel of death is waiting ⌠and the price he asks for his help might be too high âŚ
Well that was unexpected!
Today I found out that I’ve been awarded the The Spirit of Dedication Award For Best Author of Children’s Science Fiction and Fantasy by the European Science Fiction Society at their annual Eurocon convention in St. Petersburg. I never win things. This is just so amazing! I can’t quite believe it yet. I get an award jointly with the Russian illustrator Anton Lomaev, whose art is simply breathtaking!
The lovely Gar Kavanagh is bringing it back for me and in the meantime sent me photos!
The full list of awards is available on the ESFS website here. So it really is real and my goodness what a list to be on! Congrats to everyone on it, especially Song of the Sea (can’t wait to see it) and Liz Bourke!Â
I’m over the moon! (no pun intended!), especially after a very bleak week. Thank you so much!