miscellany

june is audiobook month

I don’t listen to as many audiobooks as I’d like to but I still flipped when I found out that Jim Dale was going to narrate the audio version of The Night Circus. For a few reasons, including the fact that he narrated the short-lived but beloved-by-me Pushing Daisies and also he was Barnum in Barnum and I was a clown (seriously) in a production of Barnum when I was in high school. (Seriously, it involved pink and yellow polkadots and I had pigtails, and is likely one of many reasons there are no clowns in my circus.)

He has the most fantastic storyteller voice. If you haven’t heard it, have a listen:

 

I love the audio of The Night Circus so much I sometimes want to rig my iPod at readings so Jim Dale can read instead of me. He does all the accents, while I avoid reading the sections with lots of dialogue.

(Jim also narrates all the Harry Potter audiobooks. You know, if you haven’t read Harry Potter or want to have someone re-read them to you. That’d be a fun June is Audiobook Month activity, I’m just sayin’.)

So, in summary: I can’t believe it’s June already and listening to books is like childhood bedtime stories all over again and if you haven’t listened to an audiobook in a while, it is a perfect summery month to do so.

 

By erin, ago

post-holiday

So the post-holiday post has been delayed until now because, as I mentioned on Twitter, my grandmother passed away last week.

She was 95 years old and until recently was still going up & down her stairs in South Boston. It was not terribly unexpected but that does not make it any less sad and I will think of her when I have cups of tea, which is frequently.

I looked through my computer for photographs and while I don’t have any recent ones, I did find this, which I love (I never knew my grandfather but apparently he had fabulous hats):

Thank you to everyone who sent kind words and condolences via Twitter, they are much appreciated.

 

So, probably obvious but I lost most of my post-holiday, pre-Book Expo week to catch up on things. I will likely not catch up on emails or Twitter replies or things like that any time soon, my apologies. I have to do things like pack. And unpack, I’m not even properly unpacked yet.

Regarding Book Expo America next week: yes, I will be there. Last I checked I wasn’t on the list of authors on the website but I really do have a signing on Wednesday at 11:30am in the Random House booth. Haven’t signed things in a while, maybe more letters will be legible in my signature. Probably not, though.

 

If you hadn’t figured it out from the periodic palm trees popping up on Twitter, I spent the last few weeks in Florida. Mostly around Fort Lauderdale with a few excursions to Miami for art deco architecture research. I will try to post more photos at some point soon(ish).

I read and I wrote and I flounced around on beaches and I actually got to relax for a change which was splendid. Proper book-centric post forthcoming but the book I enjoyed the most was Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer. It’s fascinating and also has a very pretty cover.

Speaking of books, while I was away the circus was chosen for the Huffington Post Book Club. I am delighted, of course, though I feel slightly bad as it was the only one of the nominated books not yet out in paperback but I hope all the book club readers enjoy it. Also in UK book club news, the circus was chosen for the Richard & Judy Summer Book Club which is also delightful and flattering and I hope everyone reading it in the summer finds it an autumnal sort of escape.

I will likely not manage a proper Florida recap, but I did have one of the loveliest meals I’ve ever at Market 17 (the dessert involved this, it was magic!) and I would totally go back to dine in the dark. Also I saw more butterflies than I’ve ever seen before in my life and I narrowly escaped an attack by a small pink lizard and I watched ducklings learn to swim. Not all at the same time.

And I watched the sunrise from the seashore while wearing a matching dress. I miss the sound of the waves already.

By erin, ago

gone fishing

 

I am going on holiday, which always sounds more festive than “on vacation” for some reason.

It is mostly a writing holiday. I shall be hiding myself away and working on the new novel. Hopefully getting it something closer to novel-shaped or at least adding more words to my Scrivener file and doing some novel-related research as well.

I will not be checking non-personal email pretty much for the rest of the month. I am going to try to catch up a bit before I leave but I doubt I’ll get to everything. If you’ve written (or plan to write) about something important or time-sensitive please contact Jen Marshall at Random House or Inkwell Management, contact links are in the blog sidebar.

I am mostly going to be avoiding the internet but I will be posting occasional, likely pre-written blogs and flax-golden tales. I will also be limiting the tweeting but I will probably Instagram pretty things because I like Instagram and pretty things.

I haven’t taken a proper leaving home, just-for-myself holiday since… I don’t even know. At least before the book sold.

There are going to be palm trees involved. They will likely be captured via Instagram for posterity.

So, be good while I’m gone. Though keep in mind my definition of “good” is fairly flexible.

 

(Photo at top of this post was as appropriate a journey-bound pic as I could take still in the confines of my apartment, of a corner of the bulletin board in my office.)

By erin, ago

psa part two (with bonus elephant)

Okay, my web guru did some magic things and it appears everything is back in working order complete with classic theme, hurrah! At some point I’ll likely end up redoing the whole site anyway, but for now it works.

Email is also working (though I’m still way behind on replies) and I may have lost some comments in all the construction, my apologies for that.

I appreciate your patience and in thanks I share a picture of my new elephant:

By erin, ago

psa

 

So in the process of moving the site to a new server something got… grumpy with my wordpress theme and it seems the theme support has vanished from the internet and I have managed to make it functional if less pretty for the moment.

I’ll be spending the evening trying to either make it less grumpy or find a new theme (suggestions welcome – something minimal & customizable) and also eating ice cream.

 

Also! This means my site-based email is down, rah.

By erin, ago