September is here! It has been a very busy time over at my end over the summer, finishing a draft of my PhD novel, working on my PhD essay and finalising the front cover of Wolf Hour. I am now very pleased to say that the book launch for Wolf Hour will be taking place in Norwich on the 23rd October at the Mitre House café, 131 Earlham Road, NR2 3RF.
I will be in conversation with my publisher, Stairwell Books, talking about all things wolves, woods, hunting, gang culture and life in the Swedish countryside. Supporting author Rebecca Stonehill will read from her fantastic novel The River Day of Rosie Crow, also published with Stairwell Books. There will be a Q/A and book signing after the event, where both our books will be available to buy. Expect plenty of time for mingling with everyone, enjoying drinks and snacks, and just having a general good time. The Mitre House is a cosy, wonderful venue, almost like a large living room where it is very easy to feel at home.
It feels surreal to finally have a book launch in celebration of publishing my books. My first novel, Embers, published during the second lockdown in the UK when social gatherings weren’t allowed. I did not have the same support from my publisher at the time nor the same community of friends and professional network that I have now to make a launch work. The idea of having a launch feels nerve-wracking, mostly because I worry I won’t be able to answer people’s questions in an intelligent and composed way. Although I have many ideas and thoughts about my own writing process and the themes and inspiration behind the book, I do often blurt things out when put on the spot. But, then again, it is perhaps in the nature of Q&A’s to be part improvised from the author’s POV. More than anything else, I feel that the launch will be a sense of coming full circle, acknowledging not just the publication of my second book but my overall success so far as an author, making it to publication in the first place, with both EMBERS and WOLF HOUR.
Buckle in for the next chapter of this writing life, it is going to be a busy one!
If you live in Norwich / Norfolk, you can find the link to register, for free, to the event page for the launch below.