Zed and the Cormorants Blog Tour

Schedule showing the dates for the Zed and the Cormorants blog tour

With less than a week to go until publication, we are really excited to launch the blog and instagram tour for Zed and the Cormorants, with the first post going live tomorrow on @a_never_ending_story.

Zed and the Cormorants is a page-turning gothic mystery and contemporary coming-of-age story rolled into one. Perfect for readers aged 12-15, it is the debut novel by Clare Owen.

Zed’s family have moved from London to a village in Cornwall. Dad says they need a fresh start but nobody has asked Zed what she thinks. Maybe their new home will help with Mum’s depression and keep Amy, Zed’s sister, away from her drop-out boyfriend, but why does it have to be so remote?

Why has the boathouse at the bottom of the garden been locked up for seventy years? Why do the birds living by the estuary fill Zed with such dread? And WHAT do they want?

Follow the blog tour on the schedule above to read reviews of Zed and the Cormorants, guest posts from Clare Owen and even some Zed-inspired recipes. Plus, we will be sharing some exclusive content from the book!

Follow all the content from the blog tour here too:

  1. @a_never_ending_story gives Zed and the Cormorants 8/10
  2. Check out @bookslovereader’s beautiful Instagram review of Zed and the Cormorants
  3. Read Clare Owen’s guest post “Why I chose to write YA” on Whispering Stories blog and listen to an exclusive extract of the Zed and the Cormorants audiobook
  4. In just over 180 pages, Claire Owen has crafted a deep and haunting story which covers a range of important topics” says @magnifying_reader
  5. The gothic genre being entwined with the young adult genre made this book really interesting and enjoyable… I think it is a book every school library should stock!” Read Emma Suffield’s full review
  6. “Have you ever read a book and instantly wanted to recreate a tasty treat that was briefly mentioned?” @acupofwonderland created a Zed and the Cormorants themed #bookishbake
  7. “Let me just say that the Rebecca comparison? Spot on!” Dark Heart Books calls Zed and the Cormorants atmospheric, fun and a joy to read
  8. Zed and the Cormorants was a magical, mystical read that had me longing for more.” Read the review on Amy’s Bookish Life
  9. For our final blog tour review, Lucy Jakes give Zed and the Cormorants 4/5, loving the “simultaneously claustrophobic and magical setting” and “creepy cormorants”
Promotional image showing Zed and the Cormorants book cover and blog tour dates (24 April - 2 May)

ARACHNEVERSARY – Alex Smith – Devilskein and Dearlove

Editor Cherry Potts talks about Devilskein and Dearlove a young adult novel by Alex Smith, which was nominated for the Carnegie Medal on 2015. Includes Q&A with the author, animated trailer by Nick Page and a couple of readings by actors Greg Page and Peter Noble.

You can buy Devilskein and Dearlove from our Webshop. Use the discount code ARACHNEVERSARY at the checkout throughout August.

Wolftalker lopes into view

Here is the traditional ‘the books have arrived!’ shot for Wolftalker, by Ghillian Potts.

Another gorgeous cover from Gordy Wright, and another great printing job from TJ International.

This is the third and final installment of The Naming of Brook Storyteller, and Brook (Brat-Spellbinder-Dragonfriend-Wolftalker) has taken on an apprentice, Cricket; but deadly plots are all around and it takes all her cleverness and resilience to get to the bottom of it all, with a lot of help from Cricket, and her ‘cousin’, the wolf, Drinks-the-Wind.

In the shops from 7th June (the day after Ghillian’s 85th Birthday).

Launch party still in negotiation but I will be able to reveal soon, I hope!

The Tale of Lady Carnelian and the Luckstone

A story from Ghillian Potts‘ YA fantasy world, The Naming of Brook Storyteller. With illustrations from the book covers by Gordy Wright, and of the actual story by Flora Fisher.

This tale is told by Brook Storyteller in Brat, but we had to cut the actual story to keep the book at a length that would make it affordable. So here it is, as a warm up for the next in the series, Spellbinder

This is the tale of the Luckstone, and of  the luck it brought to a certain lady.

The lady who was afterwards called Carnelian was the Lady of Forlorn Hold. This had once been Fairlawn Hold, when it was prosperous, but for many years the Hold and the lands around had grown poorer and poorer until both the Hold and the village which lay in its shadow were called Forlorn.

Brook telling the tale of Lady Carnelian

Then, quite suddenly, things got better. A spring that had dried up began to flow again and the water-mill could once more be used.

The orchards bore more fruit, the fields seemed more fertile and the Lady Forlorn smiled once more. She could even afford to rebuild several of the more tumbledown houses in the village. She also bought a carnelian necklace and earrings, which she wore daily.

It was this that persuaded a certain scholar called Wordhoarder to visit her. He had for a long time been certain that the Luckstone really existed and he had found a description of it in an ancient record. It was said to be ‘about the size of a man’s little finger nail and in colour most like a carnelian but somewhat redder’. How better to hide such a stone than amongst a string of carnelians?

For the Luckstone can only be used when it is worn by its owner. It will not bring you luck if you lock it away in a strongbox or bury it in the cellar. It can be hidden in one’s pocket or worn under a tunic but for a Lady who must often wear jewellery, the safest place was clearly around her neck.

Wordhoarder determined to go to the Lady’s Hold, now once more called Fairlawn, to try to steal the Luckstone. From long brooding upon it, he had almost persuaded himself that it ought to belong to him.

He knew that the Luckstone may not be bought (though who would be so foolish as to sell it?) or it loses its power. Yet it may be stolen or given or inherited or simply found by chance and still bring its new owner good luck. So he set out.

But Lady Carnelian was cleverer than he had expected. She had caused the Luckstone to be set exactly as all the carnelians in her necklace were set and likewise those in her earrings. Every setting could be unhooked from the next so as to re-arrange the necklace or exchange the stones of the earrings for some of those of the necklace. You could never be sure where in the necklace or the earrings the Luckstone might be.

The only certain way to get the Luckstone would be to steal the necklace and the earrings together. But since the Lady wore both every day and kept them in her room at night, it seemed impossible to steal them without being caught.

So Wordhoarder presented himself to Lady Carnelian as one who was anxious to study the records of her Hold and got permission to work in the Records Room. He hoped that he would be able to tell the Luckstone from the carnelians if he saw the necklace closely and often and he knew that the lady was interested in the history of her family. She might well spend time with him in the Records Room.

And so indeed it befell. Lady Carnelian spent more and more time in the Records Room, telling Wordhoarder the stories of her family and hearing of his discoveries, for he was indeed a scholar and one who, despite himself, became immersed in the study of the Fairlawn records.

Yet, strange to say, he no longer stared at her necklace and tried to guess which stone might be the Luckstone. Instead, he gazed at the face of Carnelian herself and listened to her voice. Instead of making plans to rob her of the Luckstone, he found himself dreaming of her smile and her kindness.

In the end he forgot all his plots and only wished for her love. And as she loved him in return, they were wed and lived long together in joy until she died.

Then at last Wordhoarder inherited the Luckstone. But the only luck he now wished for was that of following his lady. He took the Luckstone and flung it into the mill-stream for the next finder, should it ever be washed ashore.

And then died.

copyright: Ghillian Potts, Gordy Wright and Flora Fisher

You can buy both Brat and Spellbinder from our online shop – perfect Christmas presents for anyone age 9 to 16, and not bad for us adults either!

Find out more about Gordy and Flora on our Cover Artists Page.

Devilskein at The Gate Library

Devilskein Dearlove event poster copyLive or study in E7? Get yourself to the Gate Library at 11am on Thursday 22nd January to meet Mr Devilskein impersonator, Greg Page, watch the trailer and catch author Alex Smith answering questions on video, and buy a book! Got a Question about writing the book? You have until the end of today to ask via twitter @Devilskein or @Africa_Alex or by our page here. School Parties actively encouraged, ideal for 10-14 year olds, enjoyed by 9-900 year olds.

Reading Devilskein & Dearlove, Rochester and Oxford

Alix Adams, long-term supporter of Arachne Press, put her reading glasses on and stepped in to the breach for two readings of Devilskein & Dearlove, our magnificent Young Adult novel by Alex Smith, first at Rochester Literature Festival and then at Albion Beatnik in Oxford.

Alix is a past mistress of ‘reading in voices’, although a Cape Town accent is beyond her, and spent many hours when I first met her, reading to me while I washed up – it’s the only way she could get me to do it! It’s good to be able to share her talents with the rest of the world. (We have a dishwasher now.)

Take tea with a demon – Tooting & Balham

erin dearloveTwo opportunities on the same day for tea with Mr Devilskein, the supergenarian companyman (aka Demon) with a need for a new heart…

Malini Stevenson is reading from Devilskein & Dearlove Alex Smith‘s amazing reboot of The Secret Garden, set in Cape Town and featuring Demons, hidden gardens, a cricket who used to be a Chinese ambassador, and Erin Dearlove, possibly the grumpiest heroine in literature… but not without cause…

Catch the readings of the wildest young adult novel of the season at the following times and places:

Thursday 7th August

Balham Library 16 Ramsden Road SW12 8QY at 2:30

Tooting Library 75 Mitcham Road SW17 9PD at 4:30

Opportunity to buy (signed) copies of the book, and depending on the library’s policy (not checked yet – a job for Monday) we might be offering fresh baked scones…