Writer Spotlight: Jamie Guiney

As a new feature on Coffee and Roses I am going to bring you news of exciting authors who are either waiting to be published or published and worth checking out.

One of the first successes I had in writing was when Steve, a friend from writer's forum MyWritersCircle.com published one of my short stories on his blog. As a startlingly unsuccessful aspiring writer until that point, it gave me a massive confidence boost - so I would like to do the same for other writers. After all, you never know who might be reading!

So this week, the Coffee and Roses Spotlight falls upon the immensely talented JAMIE GUINEY.

photo ©Jamie Guiney 2010

I met Jamie when I first joined Authonomy.com in 2008 - and his novel A Man in Grey Shoes was one of the first books I read on the site. I loved it immediately and it's remained on my Authonomy bookshelf ever since.

This week, Jamie announced the brilliant news that two of his short stories, Christmas and Changes, have just been published worldwide for iPad and iPhone by Ether Books. You can read them with a free app which you download from the iTunes store here. You won't be disappointed, trust me. Both of the stories are fantastically written - Jamie brings a real sense of place and time to his writing, with vivid characters moving through evocative landscapes. You can feel the bitter winter wind in Christmas and the brooding summer dust bowl of Changes... A real treat for the eyes and imagination!

Check out Jamie's website here.

If you would like to feature in a future Coffee and Roses Spotlight, drop me a line at coffeeandroses@gmail.com and I'll see what I can do!

A bit of a treat for you...

I thought you might like to have a sneak preview of one of the tracks from my forthcoming album About Time...

Let The Sun Shine is a song that I worked on with the extremely talented Reuben Halsey, chill-out producer, composer and all-round superstar (that's his picture on the video). I was chuffed to bits when he said I could include it on my album because it's just such a fab, summery song.

If you like it, you can already buy this on Amazon as part of Reuben's amazing EP, Somewhere Along The Way, or search for 'Reuben Halsey' on iTunes. On his EP is the first song I wrote with him, which will be appearing on the album too - Running Home. Let me know what you think! x

Enjoy!

BIG NEWS! I've signed my SECOND three-book deal!

I'm delighted to be able to confirm that I have just signed a second three-book deal with AVON (HarperCollins) - a year earlier than I was expecting!

Following the amazing success of Fairytale of New York (to date, nearly 104,000 copies sold and the Turkish language version New York Masali entering the top 20 bestsellers chart in Turkey), my publishers offered me another three-book deal - meaning that I will be publishing one book a year to 2014!

I'm absolutely delighted to be staying with AVON and, in particular, to keep working with my fantastic editor Sammia Rafique, who first found my book Coffee At Kowalski's on Authonomy.com

I have lots of stories I want to tell and I hope I can continue to write books that people want to read. It's an immense honour for me to hear from people who have loved my book and I just don't want to let them down! My books are always going to have something different about them - I'm planning lots of surprises!

My second novel, Welcome to My World, will be published on 11th November 2010 and I'm currently writing my third book, Started With A Kiss, which will hit the shelves at the end of 2011. It still feels incredibly unreal to be a published author and it's every inch the dream come true. I'm looking forward to many more happy years with AVON, doing what I love!

Must stop grinning like a Cheshire Cat now! :o)

Forget the Budget and the World Cup...

What with Mr Osborne's doom-laden budget and England's - um - mixed fortunes at the World Cup, it would be easy to feel depressed this week...

But all is not lost. Ever the optimist, I would like to present a truly positive story to bring a much-needed smile back to your face.

Click here to watch Smudge - the biker dog!

(I dare you to watch it and not smile!)

Feeling better? All part of the service, ladies and gents!

Fairytale auf Deutsch!

Just thought you might like to see this...





It's the cover for the German edition of Fairytale of New York! Der Wunderbare Welt der Rosie Duncan will be released by Heyne (part of Random House) in December this year and I'm so excited about it! I was interviewed by the lovely people at Heyne for their site - you can read it here.

I love the design and I'm hoping that the German readers love it too. Let me know what you think!

Lots of exciting stuff coming soon - including my very exclusive sparkly newsletter! Keep visiting Coffee and Roses for updates...

Big cuts and scary times...

Editing. It's a scary thing.

I'm working on my second novel, Welcome to My World, which will be hitting the shops in November this year. It's all written (the fun bit), has undergone its first edit (a structural one - the not as much fun bit) and now, while I'm getting ready to do the line edit (the tedious but necessary, couldn't-be-less-fun-if-it-tried bit), I'm doing a major rework on one of the main characters of the book. Which is downright terrifying...

It needs to happen. This character just wasn't working and it's taken me a couple of months to work out why. Now the penny has dropped, it's time for some serious remodelling!

This bit always terrifies me - not least because I've technically 'finished' the book twice so far with the character complete in his current state. Deleting large sections of text and following all the corresponding threads takes time and nerves of steel, but it will be worth it in the end (repeat after me, Dickinson, 'It will be worth it in the end'...)

I have to admit that I thought writing my second novel would be a lot easier than my first. For most of last year I was like the proverbial rabbit-in-headlights as I went through the various editing, proofing and promoting stages for Fairytale of New York, on quite possibly the steepest learning curve of my life. So I assumed that book 2 would be simpler, less scary and altogether a more relaxed affair.

And then Fairytale went stratospheric...

While I'm confident in the story and characters for Welcome to My World, I'm terrified about my second novel not being good enough for the wonderful people who so kindly bought my first book. I don't want to write the 'disappointing second novel' and, most of all, I don't want to let people down. I was scared witless about my first book, but at least last year there were no expectations as everything was unknown. This year, people are counting on me. And that is both ultimately thrilling and downright scary!

I also know that I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my writing (although, sadly, not when it comes to housework...) so this pressure I'm feeling is completely self-imposed. It's actually a good thing for me to be a little scared - I trained in drama at university and what they say about stage-fright is absolutely true: the time to worry is when you don't feel nervous before you step into the spotlight.

So Mr Previously Unworkable is swiftly being transformed into Mr Believable Three-Dimensional. And I'll try not to think about the impending P-Day in November!

Quit while you're... um... behind?

Some people just don't know when to stop...

Yesterday I shared with you the, quite frankly, bonkers reply I received from UKIP. Well, it gets better. Much...

Quite a few people on Twitter asked if I was going to reply to the guy at UKIP headquarters who I shall henceforth refer to as 'Mr Ranty'. So I did. Here's what I wrote:

'Dear David

Blimey, um, thanks...

Problem is, if you've sent that complete rant out to everyone who contacted you about the campaign to save 6Music and BBC Asian Network, then it might just have persuaded an awful lot of people not to vote for you.

Bearing in mind that you are presumably canvassing hard for votes in the upcoming General Election, I would gently suggest that alienating anyone who is interested in the environment, anyone who reads The Guardian or anyone who considers themselves to be, as you term it, 'yoof' is perhaps not the best policy.

Nevertheless, in an age where the public rarely gets a straight answer from politicians, I thank you for your enlightening answer. I haven't laughed so much in ages!

Kind regards

Miranda'

And, would you believe it, Mr Ranty replied! Blatantly missing the point of my gentle suggestion that his original email might possibly not endear him to potential voters, he seemed to think I actually agreed with his 'reasonable' views. Oh, Mr Ranty, how wrong you are... This is what he said:

'Dear Miranda

Glad you enjoyed it.  Unlike the Lib/Lab/Con we always try to give it straight... and given UKIP's scepticism on anthropogenic climate change, few eco-Guardianistas are likely to vote UKIP anyway.

I'd ask you to visit [website address] and click on 'policies'.  You'll find the environment policy there, and I believe that it is eminently sensible.

All the best

David'

Oh, that's OK then. Seeing as I read the Guardian and care about the environment (not to mention enjoying more than four channels on my television, liking both 'yoof' music on Radio 1 and the brilliant 6Music, and have no particular preference when it comes to metric or imperial), Mr Ranty won't be surprised to discover that I won't be voting for his party at the General Election!

So that's enough politics for me for now. It's been fun but it would be cruel to continue to mock someone who makes it so easy!