tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31158454332782519232024-03-13T04:15:59.113+00:00grumblogGraeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comBlogger177125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-59660157595998965572016-12-13T14:58:00.000+00:002016-12-13T14:58:06.839+00:00Hopeless, Maine
It is a rare pleasure to encounter a creation
that is as fresh, invigorating, and quite so enticing as Hopeless, Maine. Which
is why I want to share it with you here, point you in its direction. Watch out,
though. Step foot there and you may never want to leave (even if you have that
choice).
Hopeless is a strange, gothic island off the
coast of Maine, cut off from the rest of reality for theGraeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-12355137313767200792015-07-31T10:15:00.001+01:002015-07-31T10:15:32.512+01:00InterviewI have been interviewed on the lovely A.F.E. Smith's Barren Island Books. Take a look at this and all the other wonderful interviews.Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-32663093794160262062015-07-30T14:55:00.003+01:002015-07-30T14:55:51.914+01:00Youthful Influences
This could be one of those gushing thank-you speeches
accompanied by floods of tears… nah. Influences are rarely deliberate and not
always for the best.
But it does no harm to look back and think a bit about the
road you have travelled and where it started, what equipment you were given to
help you along the way. Not only is it a thank you to those who bestowed the
gifts, but it helps you to Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-19542395869745136032015-07-30T14:54:00.001+01:002015-07-30T14:54:19.092+01:00It's here!Publication day!
Today sees the publication of the ebook of Stealing into Winter with HarperVoyager.
It's a real bargain at £1.99.
Please give it a look.
Please give it a try.Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-1454541713858665482015-02-03T12:37:00.000+00:002015-02-23T19:59:32.994+00:00Voyager Valentine
When events knock the door off its hinges and kick you out
of bed, when you are being hunted but you don’t know why, when others look to
you for help even though you told them you weren’t interested, there’s little
time to form a lasting relationship.
All this and more confronted Jeniche of Antar and left her
old life in ruins. What chance of happiness?
As part of a multi-author Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-58222544455195952072014-09-03T14:30:00.000+01:002014-09-03T14:30:45.842+01:00Running a little late......but I have been busy. What with all my news and getting manuscripts (why do we still use that and the equally redundant 'typescript'? who knows) ready and all the other stuff I'm doing in a massive deck clearing operation, I feel like I'm busier than ever.
And happy as a larrikin (although why a hooligan would be any happier than anyone else is as much a mystery as most of the rest of life Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-87637950907251155282014-08-26T11:56:00.000+01:002014-08-26T11:56:03.292+01:00NEWS!I can finally announce my big news (on which I've been sitting since I first heard in February).
Not only do I now have a literary agent - the wonderful Leslie Gardner at Artellus, but HarperVoyager have finally announced my signing. I have a three book deal on a series (with first refusal on the rest).
More details will follow when I have them.Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-17064822117029917152014-08-02T10:36:00.002+01:002014-08-02T10:38:41.233+01:00Another month......another... er.
Well. What do you expect. I'm a writer. I write. And I read. I rarely leave the house. Nothing much happens.
Which is not strictly true. Things are happening and I am hoping that if you come back next month, you'll be able to read all about it.
In the meantime...
Books read in July
The Word For World Is Forest – Ursula K Le Guin
Nest Of Vipers – Gladys Mitchell
Fault In Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-16095568838425854912014-06-30T11:37:00.001+01:002014-06-30T11:39:12.857+01:00Time flies......buzzing around as time decays. The whole thing made worse by the fact that we are moving in
a different time stream to everyone else. This has always been the case, but it
seems worse when you are packed up and ready to go and the others are,
metaphorically, still scratching their arses as they climb out of bed.
Still. At least I can write and read as I wait for my home
to be torn apart andGraeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-42869761801888352832014-05-31T10:48:00.002+01:002014-05-31T10:48:35.251+01:00Little boxes...
Packing continues with minor interruptions along with bad
news and good. Pretty much everyday life, in other words. It is an aspect of
the paradox that is the writer’s life. Many people consider it a desirable
life, yet I suspect that for many they have an unrealistic view of what goes
on. Champagne for breakfast, chauffeur driven limos, long lunches with one’s
agent and/or editor, literary Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-35478833268950203592014-05-03T10:11:00.002+01:002014-05-03T10:11:45.143+01:00Moving along......slowly.
Trying to work when you are packing everything away is difficult. Quite apart from living surrounded by boxes, it's the psychological disruption, knowing that any time you are going to want a particular book and having no idea which box it is in. And it's not even as if we were moving to a new place with more room and no neighbours walking overhead at six every morning. Still, Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-8261342908123364402014-04-01T10:28:00.001+01:002014-04-01T10:28:41.218+01:00
Stuff goes on. I write (although not as much this month as I'd hoped). I read (although not as much this month as I'd hoped). Whole days get lost hanging around waiting for other people or putting right what they should have done correctly in the first place. Being lost in a sea of stuff that needs sorting out doesn't improve tempers. The refurb to the flat later this year will entail Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-71741445453385846202014-03-03T10:06:00.001+00:002014-03-03T10:06:59.255+00:00Slightly derailed
I meant to blog a bit earlier, but things happened.
They were good things. However, they resulted in a slight derailment of
ordered life [ordered? are you sure?]. The worst of it is, from the point of
view of blogging is that I cannot, as yet, mention what the good things are.
But I will. Oh yes. When the time is right, I will blog about it.
What with that and the monster biography of Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-5851334084621204682014-02-19T11:55:00.000+00:002014-02-19T11:55:34.901+00:00Money matters!Please read this.Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-3490020518092784162014-02-10T14:42:00.001+00:002014-02-10T14:43:27.501+00:00Shock of the new(ish)
One of my all time favourite books (which I re-read on a
fairly regular basis) is Alain-Fournier’s Le Grand Meaulnes. I first
read it as an impressionable adolescent and it has haunted me ever since. Anyone
who has read my novel, Wealden Hill, will know that.
I grew up with the Frank Davison translation. I have
struggled through a French edition, but my command of the language is nowhere
Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-60776988403246341362014-01-31T16:02:00.001+00:002014-01-31T16:07:42.731+00:002014This blog has been neglected to a disgraceful degree - as were those who commented on the last entry seven months ago. Seven months!
I have no doubt it will get neglected in the future. I tend to moan a lot, and that doesn't make for edifying communication.
So. 2014. I'll be using this blog to post a list of books I have read each month (taking over from my other blog - Grumbooks - which has Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-53801396826193450642013-05-10T06:00:00.000+01:002013-05-10T06:00:05.610+01:00What I Live For
Today I'm taking part in 'What I Live For', an online event organised by
author Satya Robyn. People like me all over the world will be sharing
what gives their lives meaning. In Satya Robyn's novel 'Thaw', Ruth
gives herself three months to decide whether she can find a reason to
carry on living. There's 75% off the kindle version today (99p / $1.49) -
read more here.
So.
What do I live Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-54718674509285193172013-05-06T14:45:00.002+01:002013-05-06T14:45:22.806+01:00Penguin and Author Solutions - an unholy alliance.Read this, it's important. It says it all far better than I could manage.Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-86127131759570002342013-04-16T14:04:00.000+01:002013-04-16T14:04:07.598+01:00The Drowning of Arthur Braxton by Caroline Smailes - A Review
I don’t take to much in the way of contemporary writing. It
is often bland (even if full of pretty sentences), pre-occupied with
middle-class, first world concerns, and largely a waste of even the tiny amount
of intellect required to read it. This book had none of that. It was
captivating from the first and clearly had things to say and ideas to explore.
What is more, it was evident that it Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-4853849890333069652012-12-14T14:08:00.000+00:002012-12-14T14:20:31.271+00:00The next big thing...
Last week Susan Murray tagged me for The Next Big Thing.
This is a tag chain which, if it remains unbroken, will swiftly fill the
web-o-verse with everything you wanted to know about the latest projects of
writers (which is preferable to a lot else that can be found swilling around
out there).
The idea is simple. There are ten questions about the latest
project you are working on. You answerGraeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-24349856451401831982012-11-09T11:03:00.001+00:002012-11-09T11:03:17.968+00:00Amazon Fail - Again!
Amazon appears to be doing another stupid. As if bigotry
dressed up as faulty software/caving into consumer pressure* was not enough,
they have continued along the path of pissing off the people they should be
making efforts to keep onside. Yes. Writers. Those people who produce the
things you sell.
Writing is not well paid. There are a few exceptions, but
the majority of us can only Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-55200642380456539662012-10-29T11:53:00.001+00:002012-10-29T11:53:11.409+00:00'Stealing into Winter' - ReviewI have had some wonderful reviews for 'Stealing into Winter' but this is one of those an author dreams of. Sometimes dreams come true. My thanks to Nimue Brown. Clearly a discerning reader.Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-21842215984869803352012-09-09T10:25:00.000+01:002012-09-09T10:25:01.795+01:00Pot. Kettle. Black. #274
Dear Mr Jacobson
Genre – a category of literary composition characterized by
a particular style, form, or content.
For example: contemporary ‘literary’ fiction in which the central
character is a writer.
Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-55076048902050921292012-09-04T13:43:00.000+01:002012-09-04T13:43:34.726+01:00Stop gazing out of the window!
I saw it again today and it made me cross enough to dust off
this blog and make one of my rare forays into the ether.
Will you please stop referring to yourself as an aspiring
writer or a wannabe writer.
You may aspire to being a published writer (by whatever definition
of ‘published’ you care to choose); it is possible that
you are a wannabe published writer. However, you write or Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3115845433278251923.post-76051941483001374262012-08-13T13:45:00.000+01:002012-08-13T13:45:20.393+01:00Stealing into Winter
No apologies for a bit of self promotion.
Please check out the publisher’s page for Stealing into
Winter. Look at that endorsement! Thanks, Mike. And look at those reviews!
Those guys have been lucky enough to see pre-publication versions of the book.
If that whets your appetite, then Amazon UK,
Amazon Canada
and The Book Depository currently have fabulous pre-order offers.
You can,Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com2