De-blog

I'm releasing each episode of In The Stars separately, via Smashwords and Amazon , and it's turning out to be quite labour-intensive, but hopefully well worth the effort. I've just made episode 3 (Pisces) available, as I will be on my way back from the London Author Fair on March 1st, which would be its 'official' launch date. This follows the release of episode 1 (Capricorn) on January 1st, and episode 2 (Aquarius) on February 1st. The episodes are available from free-1.49 USD (reader sets price on Smashwords), and the full novels are 6.00 USD in ebook format - paperback also available.* To set in context, In The Stars is part of my series, Hiding Behind The Couch . In its full form, In The Stars consists of two hefty, full-length novels (books 4 and 5 of the series), spanning the period of one year in the life of The Circle - the nine friends central to the series. What I wanted to do with this particular instalment is give new readers an opportu...

So, you've heard the black dog metaphor? For the past couple of months or so, he's been the spectre of a Cairn terrier - tiny snatched glimpses of a fairly benign little feller , just visible out of the corner of my eye. Yesterday he was a Staffordshire bull terrier, sitting in the hallway, panting, impatient: "Come and take me for a walk," he goaded. Pant, pant, pant, pant... "No, you're OK. I'll just sit here and write, and maybe you'll go away, or someone else will take you for a walk." Which they did - thank you, Jose. Today, he's back. He's grown some overnight, too. By now he's looking something like an underfed Newfoundland: a bit scrawny, all fur coat and no...meat on his bones. (See, even I can manage a little attempt at humour in these dark moments.) I'll pick up on that ole black dog visual contact again in a minute, but I want to mention something else (yup, mental health's a bit haywire, so don't expect log...

"You should watch Dexter ," my sister advised me a couple of years ago. "I think you'd really like it." And she was probably right, but I haven't followed her recommendation, even though, in spite of her being the biggest fan of Dexter that I know and therefore perhaps a tiny bit biased, I do trust her opinion. But, alas, I missed the beginning of the series. I find it very difficult to motivate myself to start from the beginning of an established series and go through the motions of catching up, which means Dexter is just one of the many casualties of my impoverished TV viewing diet (although in part it's because I prefer reading/writing to watching TV). I'm guessing I'm not alone in this, and that the same might also be true of any series - TV, films, books - and it's left me in a bit of a quandary that I'm hoping this blog post will address. For the last 7 years I've been writing the Hiding Behind The Couch series. So f...

I've been a bit busy over the past few weeks. I re-designed my website, although I kind of cheated, as I used a template - it's now in HTML5, which is rather groovy. Check it out here: debbiemcgowan.co.uk While you're there, also check out my 'read' page for excerpts and free ebooks . I've decided to give away book one of the Hiding Behind The Couch series (also called Hiding Behind The Couch) for free indefinitely. For the next few weeks you can also get book two (No Time Like The Present) for free, and I'll be giving away others for free from time to time. I've also written the rather funky little novel called Double Six . It's a sci - fi fantasy, a bit 'timey-wimey' and all that, written for young adults, but adults will enjoy it equally, I think. And here's Chapter One for you to read, and hopefully think, "Oh, I'll give that a go!" - it's only about £1.49 / $1.99 for ebook , and £5.99 for the paperback, av...

As a prelude to the launch of In The Stars in 2014, I've made a video trailer for In The Stars Part I , which incorporates some quotations from the book - tricky to choose without spoilers whilst also trying to be intriguing. Music is "Stars Might Shine" by Albin Loán , a Swedish singer songwriter who lives in Sydney, Australia, which is apt, as one of the series' characters is Swedish and this is of relevance to the In The Stars storyline. Zodiac illustrations have been adapted from those created by the wonderful Emma Pickering for the sections of the book(s). In the Stars follows 'The Circle' through a year of their life, and the timeline is separated by the zodiac, with an ongoing theme that questions the notions of religion, fate, horoscopes, clairvoyance and science, as well as some references to Shakespeare, who oft pondered these matters. I'm a sceptic and a social scientist, but I have endeavoured to provide a balanced story, for as much a...

Hey, Larry! Could you polish this freshly minted shiny new penny just a little bit more for me? I can't quite see the world reflecting back at me perfectly enough yet. This is how I felt sending editing notes to author Larry Benjamin, after he sent me the manuscript for his latest novel, Unbroken , published by Beaten Track on 20th September 2013. It began back in March, when Larry emailed me: question--do you want to read Unbroken? Do I want to read it? Do I want to read it? Are you serious? After the question with the most obvious answer in the world, Larry wrote: You don't need to feel pressured to publish it Don't feel pressured? Aggggghhhhhhh! Larry Benjamin, you know, whose first novel was published by Carina Press (which is part of Harlequin Group, who are HUGE) says I don't need to feel pressure to publish it? Say what? (it may suck for all I know) Ha! Fat chance of that! So, this email exchange began on Wednesday 13th March. On Thu...

It's the start of the summer holidays - a moment of celebration for pupils and teachers, not so great for parents of younger children or those we leave behind in school, working their civvie socks off (unhindered by mithering colleagues) to prepare for the coming academic year. Alas, the sense of celebration was lost this year, for several reasons, a significant one being that the local bus company were only able to provide our usual school bus service and thus there was no customary early finish, which resulted in hours of shaving foam fun for some, terror for others and exhausting military-style vigils for the rest. The good-byes for those leaving our number were vague and begrudged and we left the pub early to return to our normal Friday night activities. So all in all, it just doesn't feel like the summer holidays. More importantly, we have reached the end of an era: you might note the absence of fireworks, damped as they were by professional obligations that served onl...

Well, here I am, sitting at my computer and for the first time in months I have absolutely nothing to do; at least, there are no work-related tasks requiring my immediate attention. It really is that most wonderful time of the year. So Jesus then, or the general gist of the story I have learned over the years: Casting aside all supernatural aspects for one moment (which is not to say that these things did not happen), we have the story of a young woman who found that she was pregnant outside of 'wedlock'. Her public acknowledgement of this (with or without visits from angels) is impressive and suggests a possible explanation for why Jesus was born a revolutionary / Messiah, depending on your belief system. However, in retrospect it is no giant leap of the imagination to recall all the indications of childhood that led to the assassination of a man who spoke out against the dominant, toxic culture. Had Karl Marx (has anyone else noticed he looked like Santa Claus?) been as su...

According to a message in my Facebook inbox, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month . I'm not quite sure what this means, other than that I am expected to contribute to this raising of awareness by updating my status to reflect the location of my handbag thusly: "I like it [insert location of handbag here]". Last year's event saw women posting just the colour of their bra as a status update, the general idea being to arouse curiosity amongst one's Facebook friends, who then ask what it's all about. I may be wrong, but I think the instruction was to tell female friends to follow suit, but keep the whole thing secret from the men-folk. Evidently men have no need to be aware of breast cancer: according to Cancer Research UK, they make up less than 1% of new cases in the UK [1] , perhaps a sufficiently small minority to be largely ignored in terms of risk of developing breast cancer. Yet the same data set reveals that in 2007 there were more than 45,000 new ca...

Created 8th November 2009 If the title of this posting reads as a list that lacks a certain creative edge, it's deliberately so. The three issues are hardly related, but have developed their own connections in my mind over the past few days, taking on the usual narrative life of their own that pre-empts a far too occasional blog rant. An alternative entitled "Don't Watch This At Home" battled its way to the fore once or twice, but the constructive emotional impetus was insufficient. By this I attempt to draw the reader's attention to my acceptance that the postings one can read here are often driven by negative emotional states - depression, anger, frustration, confusion, disappointment and so on - but with the intention of honing in on the positive energies that such emotions can affect. Thus, the subject matter of puppy mills and Cesar Milan's recently screened episode of The Dog Whisperer highlighting the despicable conditions that dogs endure in the...