{"id":26629,"date":"2014-08-25T06:30:49","date_gmt":"2014-08-24T18:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=26629"},"modified":"2014-08-23T18:19:15","modified_gmt":"2014-08-23T06:19:15","slug":"wordchristchurch-excitement-builds-i-welcome-fellow-hachette-authors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2014\/08\/25\/wordchristchurch-excitement-builds-i-welcome-fellow-hachette-authors\/","title":{"rendered":"WORDChristchurch Excitement Builds: I Welcome Fellow Hachette Authors!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"wordCHCH-HomeImage\"<\/a>Only two sleeps now until the WORDChristchurch Writers and Readers Festival<\/a> kicks off on Wednesday—and I for one am starting to feel the excitement! If you haven’t already checked out the programme then you definitely should, right here:<\/p>\n

WORD Christchurch Programme: 27-31 August<\/a><\/p>\n

Besides chairing the Supernaturally event<\/a> on Sunday 31 withElizabeth Knox<\/a> and Laini Taylor<\/a>, I am also delighted to welcome three fellow Hachette<\/a> authors to NZ and the festival.<\/p>\n

One of these authors is, of course, Laini Taylor<\/strong> herself—the other two are UK author, Diane Setterfield<\/a>, and\u00a0Yrsa Sigur\u00f0ard\u00f3ttir<\/a> from Iceland. By way of a warm blog welcome to them all, I will feature each Hachette author, her books, and also WORD events this week—starting today with Diane Setterfield.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Welcoming Diane Setterfield to WORDChristchurch<\/h3>\n

\"Diane_Setterfield\"<\/a>Diane Setterfield’s bestselling novel, The Thirteenth Tale<\/em><\/strong> (2006) was published in 38 countries worldwide and has sold more than three million copies. It was number one in the New York Times<\/em> hardback fiction list for three weeks and is enjoyed as much for being \u2018a love letter to reading\u2019 as for its mystery and style.<\/p>\n

The Thirteenth Tale<\/em> was adapted for television by the award-winning playwright and scriptwriter, Christopher Hampton. Starring Vanessa Redgrave and Olivia Colman, it was filmed in 2013 in North Yorkshire for BBC2.<\/p>\n

To give you a “feel” for The Thirteenth Tale<\/em>, here’s what Booklist<\/strong> had to say:<\/p>\n

\u201cReaders will be mesmerized by this story-within-a-story tinged with the eeriness of\u00a0Rebecca\u00a0and the willfulness of\u00a0Jane Eyre.\u00a0The author skillfully keeps the plot moving by unfurling a new twist in each chapter and leaves no strand untucked at the surprising and satisfying conclusion. A wholly original work told in the vein of all the best gothic classics. Lovers of books about book lovers will be enthralled.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\"Bellman&Black\"<\/a>Sounds pretty good, huh?<\/p>\n

Diane’s second novel Bellman & Black<\/em><\/strong> (2013) has been described as layering “themes of time, memory and loss. ” Other adjectives I’ve seen include “eerie”, “seductive” and “unusual”; this extract from the backcover expands:<\/p>\n

“Desperate to save the one precious thing he has left, [William Bellman] enters into a bargain. A rather strange bargain, with an even stranger partner, to found a decidedly macabre business. And Bellman & Black is born.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

All very intriguing—and a thrill, too, to have an author of Diane Setterfield’s calibre joining us for the festival!<\/p>\n

Here are the three events where you can hear from her in person:<\/p>\n

The Stars Are Out Tonight<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/a> Friday 29 August, 7.30pm<\/strong> — the festival’s grand opening event compered by TV3’s John Campbell. <\/span>(The other ‘luminaries’ appearing include Eleanor Catton, Damon Young, Noviolet Bulawayo, Anis Mojgani, Meg Wolitzer, and Kristin Hersh.)<\/p>\n

\"Thirteenth<\/a>The Storyteller<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong> \u00a0Saturday 30 August, 3.30pm<\/strong> — Diane discusses The Thirteenth Tale<\/em>, and her new ghostly and gothic novel, Bellman & Black<\/em>, with\u00a0 Nicky Pellegrino<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

A fabulous opportunity to catch a major international author in person.<\/p>\n

Beyond the Veil: Historical Ghost Stories<\/strong><\/span><\/a> Sunday 31 August, 4pm<\/strong> —\u00a0Diane Setterfield, Rosetta Allan, and Coral Atkinson discuss what makes the\u00a0combination of the historical and the spooky so deliciously thrilling.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Stars Are Out Tonight<\/strong> will obviously be a gala event—but both The Storyteller<\/strong> and Beyond The Veil<\/strong> sound like “the go” for anyone who loves historical writing, or gothic and ghostly storytelling.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only two sleeps now until the WORDChristchurch Writers and Readers Festival kicks off on Wednesday—and I for one am starting to feel the excitement! If you haven’t already checked out the programme then you definitely should, right here: WORD Christchurch Programme: 27-31 August Besides chairing the Supernaturally event on Sunday 31 withElizabeth Knox and Laini […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,19,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-funstuff","category-other-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26629"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26643,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26629\/revisions\/26643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}