Chestnuts and rusty leaves are not the only things dropping this September – Books! Books! And, yay! more books! It’s going to be one of the busiest book months on record with many spring and summer releases pushed out to a traditionally busy period. Newspapers, radio shows, podcasts and bloggers are already in a tangle with lists of what’s on offer from all the top dogs. Booksellers, bless them, have their work cut out – a mountain of books screaming Pick me! Pick me! for every space on their virtual or wooden shelves. The list of children’s books alone reads like a sweet shop stock-take and, in the middle of it all (on September 17th to be precise!), is my debut middle-grade novel, Elsetime. HOORAY!
Despite the crowds, Elsetime has already been showered with the most incredible kindness from book reviewers, booksellers, readers and authors. It’s been on a beach with a bookseller, sobbed on (in a good way!) by a fellow writer, hugged by a blogger, and reviewed by a newspaper reviewer who had so much to say, they continued their jolly review by email. A sneaky early batch of Elsetime books found its way into the hands of a few readers (I am convinced a box of the divils time-travelled) and their feedback was the wind beneath my wings! I feel so very blessed!
But, I am fully aware that there will be so much clatter in the coming weeks that we may not be able to see the wood for the trees. I guarantee that, amongst it all, debut writers like me will be rising up on their tiptoes, waving their books and shouting Pick me! Pick me! as loud as their newbie nerves will allow.
I’ll be clearing a space on my shelves especially for debut authors this autumn: Catherine Randall’s The White Phoenix – another debut based on a real-life tragedy – and Loris Owen’s The Ten Riddles of Eartha Quicksmith, a story bound to keep my brain firing on all cylinders. I’ve already fallen in love with the cover of October, October by Katya Balen, and I’ll be setting the Halloween mood with Phil Hickes’s debut, The Haunting of Aveline Jones. For younger readers, Have You Seen The Dublin Vampire by Una Woods is sure to hit the sweet spot.
Fantastic books being released this autumn by my Everything With Words family include a haunting debut YA, The Wolf Road, by Richard Lambert; adult fiction, Inside the Beautiful Inside by Emily Bullock; and book two from brilliant middle-grade author, Robin Scott Elliot: The Acrobats of Agra. All cover design and internal illustrations by the wonderful Holly Ovenden. Don’t they look GORGEOUS? 🙂
So let’s RISE UP on our toes, debut sisters and brothers, and have a fun-filled September to remember! And readers, should you give in to all that temptation, don’t spend it all in one shop (unless, of course, it’s your local independent bookshop 😊)
Eve x
P.S. Find out more about Elsetime and where you can pre-order it here, or if you would like to arrange an event, see more details here! x
Eve McDonnell 