SCHEDULE OF AUTHOR APPEARANCES

SCHEDULE OF AUTHOR APPEARANCES
check for new dates - come along if you can

30th April featured on the Bookroast
MAY
28th May Workshop at Harrow Writers Circle
JUNE
20th June Book Signing at WH Smiths Harrow
21st June Book Signing at Borders London Colney
24th June London Book Launch
JULY
3rd July Talk at Pinner Library
4th July Book Signing at Borders Watford
5th July Book Signing at Waterstones Hatfield Galleria
9th July Harrow Book Launch
11th July Book Signing at Borders Cambridge
14th July Talk at Finding the Plot Uxbridge
15th July Talk at Finding the Plot Harrow
18th July Book Signing at Waterstones Bath
21st July Bodies in the Bookshop at Heffers Cambridge
22nd July Talk for NWR
23rd July Talk at Harrow Writers Circle
27th July Talk at North Harrow Library
30th July Talk at Big Green Bookshop Wood Green
AUGUST
1st August Book Signing at WH Smiths Henley
8th August Book Signing Borders Bournemouth
10th August Talk at Kenton Library
10th August Talk at Watford Writers’ Circle
18th August Talk at Ealing Library
20th August Talk at Borders Brighton
22nd August Book Signing at Borders York
28th August Book Signing at WH Smiths Heathrow T5
SEPTEMBER
2nd September Signing and Talk at Ruislip Manor Library
5th September Book Signing at WH Smiths Oxford
12th September Talk at Gayton Library Harrow
Throckmorton Literary Festival tbc
21st September Talk at Hatch End Library
23rd September Talk at Pitshanger Bookshop Ealing
Throckmorton Festival date tbc
Havant Literary Festival date tbc
Haberdashers' School Talk date tbc
OCTOBER
17th October Signing at Waterstones Gower Street Central London
20th October Talk at Oak Farm Library Hillingdon


Please contact me on leighrussell@live.co.uk for details of these events.


Some direct links for preordering Cut Short:

W H SMITHS
http://www.whsmith.co.uk/CatalogAndSearch/ProductDetails-Cut+Short+-9781842432716.html
BORDERS
http://www.borders.co.uk/book/cut-short/778086/
WATERSTONES
http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/simpleSearch.do?simpleSearchString=CUT+SHORT+LEIGH+RUSSELL+&searchType=0&Image1.x=18&Image1.y=12 AMAZON.COM
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=cut+short+leigh+russell&x=13&y=14
THE BOOK DESPOSITORY
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/browse/book/isbn/9781842432716
Publisher’s website
http://www.noexit.co.uk/titles.php/itemcode/488

totally overwhelmed - chaos as usual

I spent hours trying to include links on my posts. I've just done exactly that and it took a second to achieve... The timing is quite amazing. Talk about doors opening when the time's right! http://www.noexit.co.uk/titles.php/itemcode/488
Taking a moment from manic activity... After a long wait (my faithful followers know how long) my publishers have brought the publication of CUT SHORT forward to June. I've been studying proofs - which merits a post in itself - what an experience - and running around setting up promotional events - more later.
http://www.crimetime.co.uk/mag/index.php/showarticle/1215
The annoying thing is, now that I actually have some interesting news to blog about, I've no time to blog.
http://www.crimetime.co.uk/publishing/ct54.pdf
Will be back in a day or two, I promise, and you can READ ALL ABOUT IT, as they say.

Relief

I'm glad the blog people show the uploaded image before it's posted. I had a horrible feeling I'd clicked on a photo of myself, instead of my book cover. I don't want my post to look that scary!

I feel terribly guilty. Through the dark months when I was struggling with edits, and (far worse) panicking that my book was never going to be published (after I'd told everyone I know that I'd written a book) my blog buddies were always there with kind words of encouragement. There were times when I appreciated the support more than I can possibly say without sounding cheesy.

And now that it's definitely happening I've abandoned my blog in a flurry of final edits, blurbs, media articles, bookshop meetings, launch invitations - my world has gone completely mad. (I've made it all sound very glamorous. Believe me, it ain't.)

My publisher has decided to bring the publication date forward to June. June! I have so many things to do! One of which is to set up a virtual launch for all my supporters on the blog. Come on, guys, you helped me through my moaning - you have to join in the celebration!

I'll post my Grand Plan here next month (silly? who cares? I can be as eccentric as I like now, because I'm an author - moody? not a whit - it's my artistic temperament!) Everyone's invited! It doesn't matter if we're on opposite sides of the planet, I have a master plan for a virtual launch to include all of you, my faithful followers. Producing a book is a team effort - writer, publisher, editor, bookseller, reader - and blog buddies have been an important part of my team, keeping me going, encouraging and advising throughout the process. OK, I'm going on a bit, now. "Thank you" sums it up.

Midnight Oil

Having waited for several months - my MS came back from the editor on Friday, with a charming request from my publisher to let her have my changes asap "Yesterday would be good" ( I quote.) Of course yours truly burnt the midnight oil and complied.* My publisher remains (apart from my family, naturally) my favourite person on the entire planet. What am I talking about? the solar system, the universe and beyond. (Although, I must point out, this accolade is subject to a severe review if, for any reason, my book isn't published.) More soon - too tired to type any more!!!

*That is, I completed the changes over a weekend, not by "yesterday"! If I could time travel, I'd be a lot younger than I am right now, and busy telling everyone how to live their lives. In fact, I probably wouldn't survive. Someone would bump me off for being a bossy know it all.

I've been very remiss, haven't posted for quite a while. When I returned, I couldn't log on! Major panic, but I finally worked out (techological genius at work) that I was using the wrong email address, having changed my log on details on a random whim. It made me think about how often our lives can be affected by the whims of others. We talk about the cross roads in our lives, "the road not taken" the regrets and triumphs that make up our lives as a result of our casual choices. "If only I'd caught that train" or "if only I'd thought before sending that email" - even "if only I hadn't overslept" - I could go on endlessly. Poems, films, novels, plays, real lives played out along a certain track because of one chance choice.

But what about the random whims of others that so often dictate the direction of our lives? Someone likes the look of you and you're offered a job - or the converse.

Some complete stranger at the other end of a letter likes what you've written and offers to publish . . .

If you take into account other people's whims and chance choices about you, as well as your own, the chances of being who you are, where you are in life become almost impossibly random.

Does anything make any sense? (I'm not just referring to my ramblings here - this is a wider philosophical question!)

My achievement (edited version!)

If anyone's wondering why the 'google news' link and 'edit me' links have appeared apparently randomly at the top of my blog screen, rest assured, this isn't the result of some random blog activity. No, it's my technological incompetence rearing its shaggy pretechnosapiens head once more. Yes, I tried to 'edit' the link to a link to my publisher's website and no, it didn't work. What is it with me and edits?

If you click on one (don't ask me which one, I can't be expected to remember everything - or even anything) it takes you via some miraculous virtual highway to the details of CUT SHORT - a short cut to Cut Short. The other one takes you to Crime Time magazine (article on page 14-15 I think - another memory lapse) I'd intended the links to be identifiably named and also to appear in the links section of the blog, not appear hovering weirdly in space. There's also a link on the profile page which calls itself a link to my webpage. It's not my webpage, but it is the webpage about Cut Short on my publisher's website.

So I've achieved something. I don't understand how I did it, and it's not what I intended, but it's something. Which is quite an accurate summary of my life as a writer. Sound familiar?

ROLLERCOASTER

This evening I missed a lecture on forensics that I was particularly keen to attend. I couldn't find the venue and nor could about five different police officers I asked to help me. (By this time I'd become peripherally embroiled in a huge demonstration outside the Houses of Parliament - hence the significant police presence). Not a good evening.

Unusually, I read my horoscope in the paper on my train journey home. "Do you really need to go?" the horoscope asked. "Why do you put yourself through these things?" Why am I doing all this? I asked myself. What am I doing?

When I arrived home, I realised I hadn't found the venue because I'd looked up the wrong address. That didn't help my mood... Just as I was feeling really miserable, I found an email inviting me to talk about Cut Short at a literary festival.

So I can stop feeling sorry for myself - for this evening, at least.

Is writing a roller coaster for everyone, or am I just unhinged?