Warning! Links can be addictive....

In my quest to find interesting materiel for my blog...I follow links on others blogs...I’m thinking of you that’s why I do it. (yeah right) and tripping over to Tania Hutleys blog, I was caught by a link and followed it to the Book Publicity Blog.

When to schedule a bookstore event and when not to...and this blog was written with the help of tweeps ...people on twitter who post one line comments back. to the blogger. There were some good points to consider but lovers of Neil Gaiman will appreciate the comment on this post about an event he has just appeared at in Dublin’s Chapters Bookstore.

One of the first things that struck me after I read the good post on book store events was the huge list of book related blogs that Yodiwan has linked to on their own site. Bookgasm, bookninja, books and booze, books and you name it the list goes on and on and on.

Johanna Knox is about to start another blog as if the three she has got going isn’t enough. This one,tho, will be about books. She is already lining up guest bloggers....good marketing Johanna....(thanks for asking me....shameless self promotion.)

So book blogging is the topic toujour....

There have been various attempts to use the internet and writing in real time in creative ways.

Some writers are posting chapters on line and building up an audience for their work...One author I have heard of (not children’s) in NZ is having fans pay her to write the next thrilling instalment....

Publishers are starting to ask for extra content especially in the YA market. This sort of thing is becoming more prevalent in contracts overseas. The publisher writes a clause into the contract about adding content on their websites in character voices....or supporting full blogs in character voices....

Imagine the take up if you had to write a blog for Edward Cullen from the tween community....I note that P J Hoover has got lots of comments after she posted on the ages reading the Twilight books and they are young (about 9 and 10 yrs old) which is quite scary...because they often still believe that the fantasy world is real...

I have a book blog for Bones (clic on the pic)which has chapters that were cut out on the final edit and extras such as how I came to write the book etc. I always write the blog address for kids when I’m signing...so they can see the extra content.

That book is finished but what about book blogs from writers who are still writing...

The lovely Tania Roxborough is getting quite a lot of interest in her book blog and the book isn’t even published yet.

Banquo’s Son is a sequel to Macbeth....and who better to write it than Tania or TK Roxborough. How she fits it in with full time teaching secondary English as well as a full on family life is amazing!

Check out her blog and the cool template for it and read some of the juicy excerpts in what I know will be a great book.

and lastly tho not quite on the book blogs topic....Tim Jones has the press release up for

The Cuba Street Garret writers colony.....

If you are in Wellington looking for writing space....this could be for you. Doug Wilkins (on the NZSA Wgtn committee) has previously set one up in San Francisco and there could be a chance for a writers exchange.

Go have a look!

Warning! Following links can be addictive. Where have you been taken to lately...?

Chain link pic is from http://www.author-promotion.com/ (Spot the new links in my sidebar)

Win a free weekend

The tag line says it all. In a new twist, author gives away a first-class weekend in London to promote his book.

So you think a free weekend huh....who is this guy....This idea is the brain child of an author PR firm. I guess it helps that the author in question has written a Wall St crime thriller book and is supposed to be one of the hottest bachelors in London. No expense spared in the prize either....Take a look

I found this on a free PR site. Just a simple google search can bring up all sorts of things...and spark all sorts of ideas. So remember when I said 'write your own book reviews and post them... ' here is something else you can do while you are waiting for the book deal. Write your own press release and post it here. www.prlog.org

Or better yet sponsor someone to the Spinning Gold conference...(shameless plug for the conference in September. )

Thanks to Barbara who emailed me a message to say my Kiwi bites Book ‘Bones’ is Number 2 in the popularity stakes with Wheelers Books... My small moment of fame sandwiched between Margaret Mahy and David Hill (great for the ego sitting next to these two stellar writers) however fame is fleeting and I see today I’m number 14.

The pic is The Labyrinth. (big news in our house...most weekends spent on it...)

The largest outdoor mosaic-ed one in the Southern Hemisphere. I worked on the building of it ten years ago when it was situated in the grounds of a retreat house. It has been shifted...a mammoth job... to the grounds of Lower Hutt Hospital and I am on the team rebuilding it. It reopens March 1.

I could say a lot about it... but this blog is supposed to be about children's writing and marketing ideas...

maureen