It took them long enough to get it in, but look what I saw on the New Titles shelves of my favourite shop in London:


(Click the photo to enlarge)

It's kind of surreal to have my writing on the shelves of a store I've frequented since I was a child. And how cool is it that The Eternal Kiss is shelved right in between the latest releases from some of the other Deadline Dames?


(Click for bigger version)
From left to right, Keri Arthur's New York Times bestselling Bound to Shadows, Lili St. Crow's Betrayals, and on the other side of TEK we have the Immortal anthology, which includes a new story by the lovely Rachel Vincent.

Oh, and here's the book I actually bought (only one, because I am broke). I've been waiting for this ever since I first heard about it months ago:



Indigo Springs by A.M. Dellamonica. Here's the blurb:

Indigo Springs is a sleepy town where things seem pretty normal... until Astrid’s father dies and she moves into his house. She discovers that for many years her father had been accessing the magic that flowed, literally, in a blue stream beneath the earth, leaking into his house. When she starts to use the liquid "vitagua" to enchant everyday items, the results seem innocent enough: a “'chanted” watch becomes a charm that means you're always in the right place at the right time; a “’chanted” pendant enables the wearer to convince anyone of anything.

But as events in Indigo Springs unfold and the true potential of vitagua is revealed, Astrid and her friends unwittingly embark on a journey fraught with power, change, and a future too devastating to contemplate. Friends become enemies and enemies become friends as Astrid discovers secrets from her shrouded childhood that will lead her to a destiny stranger than she could have imagined...

Sounds wonderful and filled with magic!

It's unusual for me to let a couple of days go by without posting, so here's what I've been up to.

Yesterday I spent the entire day hanging out in London with YA author Tiffany Trent (tltrent). I am telling you, Tiffany is an absolute STAR. We got on so well, I feel like I have a friend for life in her. We've known each other online for a couple of years - maybe a bit more - and we've been emailing for a while now. I pretty much knew we'd 'click' in person. She's so fun to spend time with, and as well as all the sensible Writing Talk there were also lots of laughs.

I don't have photos to share as they are all on Tiffany's camera - I don't think she'll be able to download them until she gets back to the US next week, but there are some good ones... Heh.

Oh, I can share this - Tiffany brought over a gorgeous Wonder Woman t-shirt for me, as well as this little fella (both from Dragon*Con which she'd just been to, lucky girl):



Oh my god, how cute?? ♥ It's a Dracula VooDoo Baby. According to the blurb, this little sucker (hehe) has the following qualities:

Siphon, suck and transfer the abilities of your enemies to make them your own. Dracula works best after hours, under the cover of night.

So you should all watch out now - with VooDoo Baby Dracula as my constant companion, I will be stealing all your special powers and keeping them for myself. Or maybe just your bestselling story ideas. ;)

There's a whole series of these, including this ultra-cute Ninja in two different outfits. (That one's for Ana and Thea from The Book Smugglers).

Yesterday was brilliant. We had tea in Covent Garden, Dim Sum in China Town and coffee & cake in my favourite coffee shop. Yes, we ate our way around London. I did manage to get Tiffany to the Natural History Museum in one piece - she's actually here to research a new book - and then we met up again later for the Mike Carey signing at Forbidden Planet. Here we joined Liz (lilifae) and hubby Mark, along with other book bloggers, a lovely publicist from Orbit Books, a journalist or two, and a few comic book writers and artists. We all went to a pub in Holborn afterwards, and there is something pretty surreal about sitting in a pub with Mike freakin' Carey - author of the Felix Castor novels, as well as numerous amazing comics projects including Lucifer and Hellblazer.

Fun times. *g*

So having spent 12 hours in Tiffany's company, we walked her back to her digs and headed home. Hopefully, I'll get to see her again before she leaves next week.

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Woke up this morning to an email from my parents:

Hi Karen

Seen in Borders, Watford, yesterday.



The Eternal Kiss only started appearing in London on 1st September, so now it looks like it's finding its way onto bookshelves further afield. Yay! :)