Weekly Blog - Monday 8th September
Sightings and Signings
Last week saw the release of the long awaited (by me, at least) October edition of Arena magazine, in which I was featured as one of the six best new thriller writers in the UK today. Each writer got a full page spread in the magazine, comprised of a professional photograph alongside a Q&A. The brief for the Q&A was to be punchy, pithy, and funny, so the pressure was on to come up with some comedy gold.
Prior to the magazine’s release I’d been warning my friends and family that I might be unrecognisable, as Arena had dressed me up in a load of designer clobber and rearranged my trademark quiff for the photo shoot. The warning proved to be more on the money than I could have imagined, as when I first saw my page in the magazine, even I couldn’t recognise myself!
A technical glitch at Arena Towers had resulted in my photo being swapped with that of another one of the featured authors – Alex Chance – so whilst my name and accompanying Q&A were all present and correct, my photo was on another page entirely. While it’s fair to say I was somewhat disappointed, I recognise that these things happen, and remain thankful to Arena for granting me the interview in the first place. It’s not everyday that a debut author gets featured in a national magazine such as theirs, and the resultant publicity should do wonders for Justice For All. And as for the quality of my answers in the Q&A – well that’s for you to decide!
To continue with the press theme, I entertained one of the photographers for the Eastern Daily Press (EDP) at my home last week. The EDP are the most important local newspaper in the Eastern region of England, reaching over 200,000 homes in the course of a week. The photographer had come to get some shots of yours truly to go alongside an upcoming feature that they’re running on me, and on catching sight of my chocolate Labrador, Murphy, he decided to add him to the mix! So if you’re from around these parts, keep an eye out in the EDP over the next week or so (I’m not sure which day as yet – I’ll post it on the ‘Latest News’ section of the site’s home page once I am) and you might just catch sight of Murphy making his press debut!
In a further exciting development, I can now reveal that I have been asked to do a book signing at the Norwich branch of the ASDA supermarket. Justice For All has been selling well there, and on hearing that I was a local lad, the store manager, Ian Greeves, contacted my publisher to invite me in for a signing. The signing will occur on Saturday 27th September from 11 a.m. until 12.30 p.m. and I can’t thank Ian enough for this wonderful show of support. He’s informed me that he’s already placed an order for lots more copies of JFA, and that he’s going to publicise the signing both in store and in the local press! And it’s definitely a case of things coming full circle, as the first proper job I ever had was at – you guessed it – the Norwich branch of ASDA, where I used to work part time on the fruit and veg section back when I was a student. Allied to the upcoming article in the EDP, the signing should really help raise my profile in my hometown and beyond, which will hopefully get Justice For All where it belongs – into the hands of more readers!
Getting away from publicity for a moment, I’ve just had a really great week working on the third novel in the Zac Hunter series, The Beholder. The writing flowed like a dream and I added over 7,000 words to the total, enabling me to finish the week in upbeat mood. It’s fair to say that the start of this book has been more problematic than the previous two, largely because I haven’t been able to focus my attention on it due to the publicity demands generated by JFA, and the all important editing work needed on the follow up, Blood Law, but now that I’m about a third of the way in things are going well, and I’m excited with how the book is shaping up.
And now for one last comment on publicity. The eagle eyed amongst you might have noticed that Justice For All has been picking up some very strong reviews on Amazon. Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone who’s taken the time and trouble to post their comments, and I’m very pleased to hear that they enjoyed the book, but one reviewer in particular deserves special mention – the cryptically named ‘washing machine’ – whose review included the following comments:
“If you are looking to be entertained, intrigued and gripped then buy this today. If Hague doesn't win a Newcomer's Award for this then there is no justice at all.”
Do you see what he/she did there? Very clever – a career in reviewing awaits, me thinks!
In closing this week, I’d like to add a new regular section, entitled: ‘What’s Steve been listening to?’
As many of you will be aware, I’m a big rock music fan, so I’ve decided to share with you the albums that have been getting my foot tapping of late, for no other reason than I can (an idea I nicked off the great Irish author John Connolly – who incidentally invited me to be his friend on My Space last week – how chuffed was I!). My inaugural CD play list is as follows;
Deja Entendu – by Brand New
The Battle Of Los Angeles – by Rage Against the Machine
The Age Of The Understatement – by Last Shadow Puppets
Cheers,
Steve
Last week saw the release of the long awaited (by me, at least) October edition of Arena magazine, in which I was featured as one of the six best new thriller writers in the UK today. Each writer got a full page spread in the magazine, comprised of a professional photograph alongside a Q&A. The brief for the Q&A was to be punchy, pithy, and funny, so the pressure was on to come up with some comedy gold.
Prior to the magazine’s release I’d been warning my friends and family that I might be unrecognisable, as Arena had dressed me up in a load of designer clobber and rearranged my trademark quiff for the photo shoot. The warning proved to be more on the money than I could have imagined, as when I first saw my page in the magazine, even I couldn’t recognise myself!
A technical glitch at Arena Towers had resulted in my photo being swapped with that of another one of the featured authors – Alex Chance – so whilst my name and accompanying Q&A were all present and correct, my photo was on another page entirely. While it’s fair to say I was somewhat disappointed, I recognise that these things happen, and remain thankful to Arena for granting me the interview in the first place. It’s not everyday that a debut author gets featured in a national magazine such as theirs, and the resultant publicity should do wonders for Justice For All. And as for the quality of my answers in the Q&A – well that’s for you to decide!
To continue with the press theme, I entertained one of the photographers for the Eastern Daily Press (EDP) at my home last week. The EDP are the most important local newspaper in the Eastern region of England, reaching over 200,000 homes in the course of a week. The photographer had come to get some shots of yours truly to go alongside an upcoming feature that they’re running on me, and on catching sight of my chocolate Labrador, Murphy, he decided to add him to the mix! So if you’re from around these parts, keep an eye out in the EDP over the next week or so (I’m not sure which day as yet – I’ll post it on the ‘Latest News’ section of the site’s home page once I am) and you might just catch sight of Murphy making his press debut!
In a further exciting development, I can now reveal that I have been asked to do a book signing at the Norwich branch of the ASDA supermarket. Justice For All has been selling well there, and on hearing that I was a local lad, the store manager, Ian Greeves, contacted my publisher to invite me in for a signing. The signing will occur on Saturday 27th September from 11 a.m. until 12.30 p.m. and I can’t thank Ian enough for this wonderful show of support. He’s informed me that he’s already placed an order for lots more copies of JFA, and that he’s going to publicise the signing both in store and in the local press! And it’s definitely a case of things coming full circle, as the first proper job I ever had was at – you guessed it – the Norwich branch of ASDA, where I used to work part time on the fruit and veg section back when I was a student. Allied to the upcoming article in the EDP, the signing should really help raise my profile in my hometown and beyond, which will hopefully get Justice For All where it belongs – into the hands of more readers!
Getting away from publicity for a moment, I’ve just had a really great week working on the third novel in the Zac Hunter series, The Beholder. The writing flowed like a dream and I added over 7,000 words to the total, enabling me to finish the week in upbeat mood. It’s fair to say that the start of this book has been more problematic than the previous two, largely because I haven’t been able to focus my attention on it due to the publicity demands generated by JFA, and the all important editing work needed on the follow up, Blood Law, but now that I’m about a third of the way in things are going well, and I’m excited with how the book is shaping up.
And now for one last comment on publicity. The eagle eyed amongst you might have noticed that Justice For All has been picking up some very strong reviews on Amazon. Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone who’s taken the time and trouble to post their comments, and I’m very pleased to hear that they enjoyed the book, but one reviewer in particular deserves special mention – the cryptically named ‘washing machine’ – whose review included the following comments:
“If you are looking to be entertained, intrigued and gripped then buy this today. If Hague doesn't win a Newcomer's Award for this then there is no justice at all.”
Do you see what he/she did there? Very clever – a career in reviewing awaits, me thinks!
In closing this week, I’d like to add a new regular section, entitled: ‘What’s Steve been listening to?’
As many of you will be aware, I’m a big rock music fan, so I’ve decided to share with you the albums that have been getting my foot tapping of late, for no other reason than I can (an idea I nicked off the great Irish author John Connolly – who incidentally invited me to be his friend on My Space last week – how chuffed was I!). My inaugural CD play list is as follows;
Deja Entendu – by Brand New
The Battle Of Los Angeles – by Rage Against the Machine
The Age Of The Understatement – by Last Shadow Puppets
Cheers,
Steve
Views: 8
Comment
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Comment by Steven Hague on September 9, 2008 at 7:33pm
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Thanks Grant! Good to hear from you. I was pretty surprised to be there myself - fashion shoots aren't something that comes naturally to me! But hopefully the feature will boost sales of my debut novel, Justice For All.
Cheers,
Steve
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Comment by Grant McKenzie on September 9, 2008 at 6:52am
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I saw a few photos from that Arena shoot - very cool. It's not often a mag picks authors to do a fashion shoot with. Good for you.
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