Earthquake Report for Day 8, Plus the UK Release of “The Heir of Night”
Monday was my day off from digging and I used part of that time to finally tidy my study, which was the only room still requiring clean-up after the quake. I had left it because what got thrown around was mainly books and paper, which I figured could wait—especially as I had retrieved the precious manuscript with my editor’s notes and stowed it in my potential evacuation bag on the first day.
Emotionally, setting the study to rights was a strange experience, because although not an urgent ask, books and paper are at the heart of a writer’s business and trying to bring order out of chaos made me feel more dislocated than picking up broken glass and china and 6 days worth of digging up liquefacted sludge. Re-establishing all my writing bits and pieces also reminded me of something that I had forgotten up until then—that Thursday 3, tomorrow in fact, is the day The Heir of Night is officially released in the UK. Given the earthquake, I don’t consider that a big blog party is appropriate, but I will be marking the event here and posting on the Orbit blog—so I do hope you’ll support both events by visiting the sites and perhaps making a comment.
I will be marking the occasion by giving away three each of the UK first edition of The Heir of Night (signed by me, of course), together with a copy of my first novel, Thornspell (Knopf 2008.) Although the cover treatment of the UK edition is very similar to the red Australian cover, the book itself is a large format trade paperback, which is a definite point of difference. The winners of the three sets will be drawn from those who comment on my launch post, here on “… Anything, Really”, on Thursday 3.
[Note: There may be delays to postage of the book sets due to the earthquake, but I’ll get them off as quickly as I can.]
Given the earthquake, which I don’t think any of us could easily forget, the other thing I plan to do on Thursday 3 is donate a dollar for every person who comments on that day to the NZ Red Cross 2011 Earthquake Appeal, up to a maximum of $500. I really can’t think of a better way to celebrate the UK release of The Heir of Night right now–so please do get in behind my launch-a-thon and show your support with a comment.
And to those who have emailed me to ask about my personal experience of the earthquake itself, which I apparently haven’t yet really touched on in my posts, I have done just that in my monthly post on the Supernatural Underground, which has just gone up in the last couple of hours. If interested, you can head on over and check it out.:)
What a surreal experience it must be to have two such opposing experiences happening simultaneously.
I’ll be entering for sure, but wanted to stop in and say hi here anyway. You’ve been on my mind. I hear you guys got shaken up again last night. I hope it hasn’t undone any of your hard work!
Thank you, Aimee for your support–the official launch day post won’t be going up until 8 pm tomorrow, to synchronize with UK time (I’ll be posting that info early tomorrow) but it’ll be great to have your comment for the ‘launch-a-thon.’
And yes, it is surreal, to be honest, but I’m trying to stay ‘grounded’ (ha!) despite the shakes and quakes and make it into something positive.
Congratulations on the UK release.
& Wellington was shaken last night too. I hope it didn’t traumatize the refugees there too much.
Eyeing our volcanoes warily now.
(don’t put me in the draw)
Hey Jan, given Christchurch’s experience I am sure Wellington folk did find their quake a little scary, but I think you get a little more warning with volcanoes–I hope so anyway!
Comments won’t count towards the draw until the official launch post goes up (at 8 pm tomorrow, Thursday 3, NZ time.) I hope you’ll comment for the launch-a-thon, but I won’t include you in the book draw.:)
What a wonderful idea re the Red Cross donation for comments. I blogged about it as soon as I checked in here this evening, and will blog and post again on FB about it tomorrow. 🙂
Congrats on the UK launch… so proud of you. Keep smiling, keep working, keep your spirits soaring.
Thank you, Mary–I knew you’d been right there for the launch-a-thon. Just note my reply to Aimee, i.e. the official launch day post won’t be going up until 8 pm tomorrow, to synchronize with UK time (I’ll be posting that info early tomorrow) but it’ll be great to have your comment for the ‘launch-a-thon.’ And do encourage everyone you know to do the same! (I know you will.)
OK, it’s a date for 8pm! I’ll post a reminder for folks on my journal and FB. 🙂
For the moment, my website is mysteriously down. What’s going on, we wonders, aye we wonders…