Tana French

Her new book is coming next year and will be entitled Faithful Place - the protagonist is Frank Mackey who ran Cassie in The Likeness - which is cool because we figured it would be Frank or O'Neil taking the lead on the next story and my money was on Frank.

Mo Hayder

Finished and blurbed Skin but as often happens with me I've come in the middle of series. I thought Ritual was the first of the Caffrey books but the first is Birdman, so now I have to put an order in for that. The blurbs for Hayder's books show me I'm going to like these as I'm a fan of PD Cornwell's early work and Lynda La Plante, the woman behind Widows and the formidable Jane Tennyson in the Prime Suspect series. Skin - Hayder's latest - is out in January.

Officially done

For some reason it won't let me put the logo on here so I've put a link to the page. Finished the Hayder, got the Crais arc ready to start - never read any of his stuff so we'll see.

Unofficially Done

I'm at just over 50K tomorrow I can scramble and plug in my numbers and officially be past the finishing line. Nano is such a great exercise, it shakes loose ideas and makes you write things you wouldn't normally dream of, I don't know if I'll use all of the stuff I wrote, but I did get some great ideas and a new character who is going to shake things up a bit.

Still reading the Hayder arc, requested a copy of the new Alex Berenson, I have at least three more arcs waiting in my box at work and we're picking up speed into December.

cracked 45K

yay! 5K left. Celebrated by picking up the arc of the new Mo Hayder. Nothing cozy about this!

Transported to Buckshaw

Tuesday -see previous post - I needed to be somewhere else so I dived into the new Alan Bradley arc. The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag (pub 2010) shows Bradley is growing Flavia and her talents even though he intends that she remains eleven years old.

Cracked the 20K and v sad news

A day of highs and deep dark lows. I cracked the 20K on nanowrimo which made me giddy 'cos when I started this time I didn't think I'd see it through.

The low, my beloved favourite Aunt - my Mum's older sister passed away yesterday afternoon. I cried buckets yesterday but as they say 'life goes on' and while I will mourn her in my own way she wouldn't want me to come unglued so I won't.

Pioneer Woman Rocks

I worked the Ree Drummond event last night. It was amazing - and the thing that will stick with me about the event was the people, they patiently queued, some ordered food from the Paris and had impromptu parties on the floor away from the queue until their end the alphabet was called. We had people chatting, networking, exchanging e-mail addresses. The staff (us) dealt with customer queries and in few cases complaints without losing our cool, we shared the love with all the local restaurants. It was a welcome shot in the arm for most of the businesses in that area. Ree was lovely, her sister took pictures, her Mum came and chatted with us up at the counter. Every book got signed including the pre-purchased ones. Props to Ree for touring indie bookstores ie small and with limited space to hold an event.

Vows of Silence, Susan HIll

This is the fourth of the Serrallier mysteries and as the series progresses Hill is starting to give PD James a run for her money.

Once again the Cathedral town of Lafferton is under threat this time from a gunman – not a crazed one – this one has a plan. His intended targets young woman under thirty. DCS Serrallier is stumped, no clues, no leads, no sightings of the gunman no idea of where he will strike next. Paula Devenish is worried, the press are busy hyping the killer and castigating the police. Another wedding looms this one with royalty attending. The whole force is on edge and with Simon dealing with a personal tragedy he could be losing focus. Simon takes a risk that if it fails could cost him his beloved career. Hill’s tale of family, deep religious themes, a killer addicted to killing and a lone wolf Superintendent determined to catch him is a page turner that will keep you on the edge of your seat and even make you cry a little.

Nano November

Just finished The Earth Hums in B Flat - already out, great bookclub book. Gwenni is 12 and a half and she can fly - in her dreams. Gwenni's trying to find Ifan Evans who has gone missing. Set in a close knit Welsh village in the 60's Gwenni's search unearths secrets among the villagers and in her own family. Also just finished Girl With Skirt of Stars by Jennifer Kitchell not out yet but very Hillermanesque.

I'm posting one review for the new Susan Hill and apart from that I'll be doing nanowrimo for the rest of the month so posts will be few and far between until I'm done.