Category Archives: competition

A Darkness at the End – Cover Reveal and Giveaway

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Psst! Head over to Bleach House Library where the fabulous Margaret Madden is doing a cover reveal and giveaway for my forthcoming book A Darkness at the End. It’s the third and final part of the Dubh Linn series. The winner will get a copy hot off the presses in August and it doesn’t come out until 12th September.

I mean, the winner could get a copy before ME!!! 😉

I am SO in love with this cover. If you thought the first two were amazing (and I did), this one will blow you away. Go and check it out! And of course you can always pre-order on Amazon too! Just in case. (More options will be up soon).

The Treachery of Beautiful Things Paperback day

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It’s paperback release day. *throws confetti & lets off fireworks*

Cover for Paperback edition

Pretty cover is still ridiculously pretty! And now has ominous words!

To celebrate I’m giving away a signed copy of the hardback or the paperback (your choice) of The Treachery of Beautiful Things, and a beautiful oak pendent from the Irish Archaeology shop.

In Celtic folklore the oak is the king of the trees. One of the many legends I touched on in The Treachery of Beautiful Things is that of the oak king and the holly king, and their eternal battle for control of the forest. As the seasons turn, one or the other takes control, defeating the other. But the seasons always turn, and the king is always reborn so the battle continues. Until one king finds a way to enslave the other.

The oak is a majestic tree. There’s one just over my backgarden wall.

So in order to win, leave me a comment telling me your favorite tree or tree legend. The more the merrier so tell your friends and spread the word about the giveaway. It’s open worldwide and I’ll close it this time next week (8th August).

Come one come all. Help me celebrate being a paperback writer. *wanders off singing the Beatles*

Cover Competition

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The cover of The Treachery of Beautiful Things by the very talented Danielle Delaney, is a contender in the Cover Contest 2012 at Cover Cafe. It’s in the Alternate Reality section and up against some stiff competition, so I’d really appreciate your votes!

“Designer Danielle Delaney used a compilation of stock images, including the central photograph of the girl by Mayer George, to create this cover of THE TREACHERY OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS by Ruth Frances Long.”


Isn’t it lovely. Still takes my breath away. 😀

And don’t forget that you can still enter to win a copy of THE TREACHERY OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS here on my website until the 8th.

Happy May Day – Giveaway

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May 1st is the feast of Bealtaine, or May Day, an ancient seasonal festival signally the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere, a time of fires and fertility rites. It is the day of the May Queen, the mythical figure who presages the arrival of summer and an important element in my novel The Treachery of Beautiful Things.

Folklore suggests that after the most beautiful girl in the village had been picked to be Queen of the May, she was dressed in white, a garland of white flowers placed her head, she was paraded through the village, taken to the forest and sacrificed to the trees.

Jenny, in the Treachery of Beautiful Things is forced to take on the mantel of May Queen, but makes herself stronger than a tradition, so matter how old it might be.

I’m now the type of person who can’t look at pictures of a May Pole without a little shudder, even if it is made by Sylvanian Families (true story – I was toy shopping and had to leave before I made a little scene with hysterical giggles.)

Research into the folklore which underpins our traditions is a great way of adding richness to stories, to developing a depth of meaning. That meaning might not be apparent to many, it might upset some, but the sense of the old lurking behind new words, in between the leaves and blossoms of the May Tree, makes stories resonate for the reader.

~~~May Day Competition Time~~~

For a chance to win a copy of The Treachery of Beautiful Things in hardback, please leave a comment below telling me about your favorite bit of folklore or fairytale. The competition will run for a week, until the 8th of May when I’ll pick the winner.

The paperback edition of The Treachery of Beautiful Things is now available for pre-order and will be out on the 1st August (Lughnasadh, another Celtic fire festival, this time for Harvest. Let’s hope that’s a sign.) Check your local bookshop or  Indiebound, Powells, Book Depository, Amazon.co.uk, or Amazon.com

Inspirations for The Treachery of Beautiful Things – Author Video 3

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Oh my goodness – only one more day to go. How fabulous! It’s so exciting. Tomorrow is the Book Birthday!

This week we’ve had: an interview with me at Xpresso Reads, a wonderful Dream Cast at Book Me! and a guestpost from me about some of the things that went into writing The Treachery of Beautiful Things at Nick’s Book Blog.

It’s the last day of the The Itching For Books Blog Tour but there are still a few coming up over the next few days, so keep your eyes pealed!

Thanks to the joy of Irish weather (which went from unpredictable to biblical today) the last video was filmed entirely indoors but as its about the Ridgeway, the Uffington White Horse and Wayland’s Smithy, that didn’t really matter. Last year while researching The Treachery of Beautiful Things I took a trip to the Ridgeway, so there’s lots of pictures taken there. And it was lovely and sunny!

I hope you’ve enjoyed the videos, the glimpses of some of the inspiration of this book and I hope you’ll enjoy The Treachery of Beautiful Things. It can be bought everywhere from tomorrow (and in a couple of places already) or it can be ordered from (among other places) …

Indiebound |  Book Depository | Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk | Barnes & Noble | Powells

Inspirations for The Treachery of Beautiful Things – Author Video 2

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It’s the 10th. And oh my goodness have we been having fun this week. Mars, Katie Taylor, and my friend Maria Duffy’s booklaunch for The Terrace!

The booklaunch was a hoot, and something like a wedding in that people kept saying “It’ll be you next!”

The Itching For Books Blog Tour is ongoing, with some great posts about Treachery, including an interview with me AND an Interview with Jack himself (*swoon* — am I allowed to swoon over my own characters or is that weird?) and today apparently a Dream Cast. Really looking forward to that.

I also got a lovely review today from our Last ARC winner Jeanmarie. And please remember to enter the Story Siren giveaway, and watch the lovely Booktrailer.

And as promised, here is the second of my author videos, this time talking about the Greenman. I’ve always loved the Greenman figure and here’s why. Also this is filmed inside the house because the Irish weather decided it was through cooperating with us (such as it was). So we prepared everything, got ready to film and the sun came out. It looks nice, but it wasn’t a few minutes later. Ah Irish weather, we’re not even going to try…

Inspirations for The Treachery of Beautiful Things – Author Video 1

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so in the run up to the launch of The Treachery of Beautiful Things on the 16th August, there’s a lot going on all over the webs, or so it seems. Not least here where I’ve been making author videos explaining some of the inspirations behind the story. The first one is here today – The Enchanted Forest. I shall just hide now as I am on there talking and being Irish I find such recordings of my ramblings mortifying! And yet I still do it.

There will be two more (unless I’m asked to make more – if you’ve any questions let me know) – one on The Greenman (Friday 10th) and one on The Ridgeway and Wayland’s Smithy (Wednesday 15th). They still have to be finished as the Irish weather has not been cooperating. In fact they will probably be filmed indoors at this rate. But this one was made on the last day of summer (or so it seems) although it got a bit windy in places so bear with me.

Oh look, the sun has just come out here. Careful, it may be a trap…

 

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Just to remind everyone that the booktrailer went live on The Story Siren‘s website yesterday along with a giveaway. It’s now up here as well on my Treachery page. It’ll pop up soon on the Treachery of Beautiful Things facebook page and my Tumblr soon (sheesh, I’ll have to go through this post and link everything!)

It’s day 2 of the Itching for Books blog tour with an interview at The Library Mouse and a review at Claire Reads. There are giveaways at all those sites, and at the ones from yesterday as well so go check them out.

 

Booktrailers, blog tour & competitions – 10 days to go!

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So much going on today in all areas of life. We woke up to watch the Mars Curiosity landing, we’re watching Katie Taylor in the Olympics as I type (so I may be distracted) and its 9 days until The Treachery of Beautiful Things comes out.

Everything kicks off today, it seems. And it’s so exciting. So here we go…

The Booktrailer is up on The Story Siren so go and have a look at the awesomeness that @Ickle_tayto made, staring Laura Jane Cassidy as Jenny. We has such fun filming it before we went off for our writers’ weekend and it turned out wonderful. Most of the photos are mine, with a few from Dreamstime.com. The music is from Kevin MacLeod at Incompetech.com. The full credits are visible on the Youtube page. I’ll be putting it up on the site tomorrow. Also on The Story Siren, you can enter to win one of two copies of the finished version of the book. So check it out, comment and enter.

Also kicking off today is the Blog Tour with Itching for Books. I’m so excited about this one as I’ve never done anything on this scale before. First up is a review from Nothing Better Than Books and another chance to win a copy. And another from Auntie Spinelli Reads. So many ways to win!

And finally… we’ve been putting together a short series of author videos to introduce the world of The Treachery of Beautiful Things.  The first of is coming up tomorrow. So stay tuned…

Meet Jack & competition

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Who doesn’t dream of meeting a hero?

Jack is over on the Dark Faerie Tales site today as part of Fifty Shades of YA Boys – their last guest. (Saving the best until last, naturally!) We caught him in a less surly mood. So pop over and see what Mr Grumpy has to say for himself.

There will be a number of blog posts and interviews coming up as we ramp up to the launch of Treachery on the 16th and I’m also doing some author videos so you can laugh at my discomfort…  see me. Talking and stuff. About Forests, and Greenmen and the Ridgeway. Or something. Um…

So stay tuned.

Especially for the blogtour with Shane at Itching for Books –