3 Days 3 quotes challenge rolled into a single day

My dear blogging friend, Kimberly at silentlyheardonce, has very kindly nominated me for the 3 Days 3 Quotes challenge.

Kimberly dreams of a world full of compassion and tolerance, leading to ultimate peace between all nations. Her feelings run deep, as evidenced by her poems and reflections. Last year she published Whispers I Silently Heard: A Lifetime of Poetry, which I’ve bought and am very much looking forward to reading soon.

I’m going to break the rules of this challenge by posting all three quotes in one day, as I’m mindful of the fact that three consecutive days of posting might not happen in my present state of busy-ness.

The rules (for those more organised than me)

  1. Thank the person who nominated you.
  2. Post one fresh quotation on three consecutive days.
  3. On each of the three days, nominate three folk who have not yet taken part to continue the challenge.

My nominees (3 x 3 = 9, and without obligation)

Hugh’s Views & News
Leigh’s Wordsmithery
A Delectable Life

Blondewritemore
The Most Sublime Things
There is no cavalry

Dave Farmer
A View From My Summerhouse
Inese MJ Photography

The quotes (a writerly sandwich, indeed!) 

“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”
― Neil Gaiman

“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. ”
― George Orwell

“I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and light was laughter, and that this was the secret of the universe.”
― The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt 

Contemplating a #New Year #Book Blog Tour

Desiccation ebook_image(300 pixels)Publication Day for my Urban fantasy novel Desiccation in mid-December came and went without much panoply on my part. This was mainly because I was suffering from post-flu exhaustion and felt in no mood to uncork the champagne, let alone shout from the rooftops. Despite this, a modest number of wonderful people — some of them my fellow bloggers — purchased my book and, to my absolute surprise, I’ve sold paperback and kindle editions in equal quantities.

So a big thank you to all you early birds. And an especially huge thank you to Dave Farmer, who read my book over a course of a few evenings and found the time to review it on Amazon and on Goodreads before Christmas, giving it 5 stars.

Indeed, most of the world seemed distracted by the pre-Christmas rush, followed by post-Christmas malaise, plus the stagger on into New Year with no time for reading and little money left for buying books. And would you believe it, about a week before Christmas I caught a cold on top of the flu? — albeit not a bad one, but enough to drain me of any energy to market my book and enough to make me lose my singing voice just when I needed it most.

Anyway, enough of that. I’m feeling like my old self today and raring to jump into the driving seat of my virtual convertible to vroom around the blogosphere on a tour.

All invitations most welcome!

As a little post script, I’d like to add that Jamie Noble Frier, the super-talented artist who produced my book cover, now has his blog interview questions to hand and should be guesting here soon.

And yet another post script — I’ve just revised my Publication Updates page to include links to all the places around the world that my book is available to buy!