Imogen Howson's Blog
August 21, 2013
August 6, 2013
LINKED is out in the UK!
Available from Amazon.co.uk and bookshops across the country (no, really 鈥 friends have been finding it, like, all over the place!).
June 12, 2013
LINKED is out in America!
And it鈥檚 out!
Champagne may have been drunk.
January 3, 2013
Happy New This-year-my-book-releases Year!
LINKED is coming out this year, in June, and I鈥檓 planning a book launch/birthday party.
I鈥檓 also hoping to go the London Book Fair again, and 鈥 if further subsidiary rights sales permit 鈥 go to America for a conference or convention.
Aside from that fun stuff, I鈥檓 working on edits for the sequel to LINKED, SHATTERED, and on my next book. And all the usual stuff for Samhain. Plus running three times a week, and doing church youth group.
This year being LINKED鈥檚 release year, I鈥檓 likely to get more busy, not less, so the blog is likely to be kept only very sporadically. I鈥檓 going to try to do a monthly post, but it鈥檚 not going to happen more often than that.
However, as an alternative activity to all this writing and editing, I鈥檓 doing a Year of Photos project, so every day there will be a new photo over on my account. So feel free to keep up with what I鈥檓 doing over there!
Happy New 2013!
Immi x
November 8, 2012
November 6, 2012
No no NaNo. But yes to running.
So, I started NaNoWriMo, felt instantly overwhelmed and exhausted, and realized that, okay, two weeks in between reaching one deadline and imposing another on myself is not really enough of a break to recover my creative energy.
So instead, I鈥檓 spending November planning my next book (Snowflake Method, here I come. The Hero鈥檚 Journey is so very much not working for me.), decorating the bathroom, making cheese, Christmas cake and spiced cider, getting up to date with Samhain work, and, you know, maybe relaxing a bit.
Something I have started that I鈥檓 really happy to be continuing, is running.聽 Back in school, cross-country running was pretty much the only sport I a) liked and b) was good at.聽 But I haven鈥檛 run for a million years, and I didn鈥檛 think I鈥檇 ever get back into it.聽 However, I鈥檓 super bored with my exercise DVD, and with builders continually surrounding the house, I don鈥檛 much feel like doing star jumps and lunges in my sitting room.
So, in September, I bought the Couch to 5k app for my phone and tried it out.聽 And I love it. It does intervals of walking and running, gradually increasing the minutes spent running until you鈥檙e doing a warm-up and cool-down ten minutes of walking and a full thirty minutes of running.聽 I鈥檓 still a long way from that (ha), but I am doing a lot better than I was at the start of the programme. And I鈥檓 loving being able to put on my trainers and run round the lake for a half-hour of exercise a few times a week.
I鈥檓 glad I started it while the weather was still nice, because as it gets colder I鈥檓 finding it harder!聽 My muscles only started to warm up in the last five minutes of my latest run, which made the rest of the time fairly unpleasant.聽 And my trainers are both cheap and old, so I really need to invest in some better ones.聽 And probably, as the weather gets still colder, some earmuffs.
November 1, 2012
Happy Birthday, Samhain Publishing!
Samhain Publishing is seven years old today, and, because publishing companies come of age a lot quicker than, say, people, celebrating with a half-naked model is in no way inappropriate.
October 31, 2012
鈥淗appy Halloween!鈥 say the pumpkins
Eight organic squashes would like to wish you a happy Halloween.
(Yes, we are going to eat them.)
October 29, 2012
Deadlines, meeting deadlines鈥nd NaNoWriMo?
The last few months have been taken up travelling to America (twice), going to my sister鈥檚 wedding (also kind of twice, because she and Dr. T-shirt had a separate wedding and reception), and getting through my fourteen-page editorial letter for SHATTERED.聽 Let鈥檚 just聽 have a moment there.聽 Fourteen-page editorial letter.
Of course, it was fourteen pages only because my genius editor picked up on All The Things that were wrong with the book and wanted me to fix them.聽 All you future readers of it, be thankful for Navah Wolfe of Simon & Schuster, because if it weren鈥檛 for her you鈥檇 end up reading something that made a lot less sense.
Anyway, I sent the edited manuscript back to her a week ago today, and since then I鈥檝e been footloose and deadline free.聽 Which has been really nice, you have no idea!聽 Since LINKED sold in June 2011, I鈥檝e been deadline free for about two weeks, in between handing in the first draft of SHATTERED and getting the (fourteen-page, did you forget already?) editorial letter for it.聽 It鈥檚 awfully nice to have a weekend and think just 鈥測ay weekend鈥 instead of 鈥測ay weekend, when can I get time to catch up on the three thousand words I didn鈥檛 manage during the week?鈥.
So it really doesn鈥檛 make much sense for me to now be contemplating .
贰虫肠别辫迟鈥
鈥 do need to make a start on the next book
鈥nd I do have a really fun idea for it
鈥nd LINKED was my NaNo 2009 book, so it seems good-omen-y to start the next one I鈥檇 like Simon & Schuster to buy during NaNo 2012.
On the negative side, LINKED took a hell of a lot of editing before it was submission-ready 鈥 and that鈥檚 before I rewrote most of it according to my agent鈥檚 suggestions.聽 It鈥檚 a lot of fun doing NaNo, but for someone whose natural writing pace is about 1,000 words a day, forcing myself to write at NaNo speed doesn鈥檛 result in my best work at all.
Also, it鈥檚 not like I don鈥檛 have any other work on.聽 I have three manuscripts I鈥檓 currently editing for Samhain, plus my regular Samhain work, and a bathroom to decorate, and six million boxes standing in the kitchen waiting for me to sort out.聽 And cats, and daughters, and a husband who might like to occasionally see me without a laptop attached.
Also, at some point I鈥檓 going to get my next editorial letter for SHATTERED.聽 And although I hope and pray it won鈥檛 be fourteen pages, I鈥檓 pretty sure there鈥檚 still a significant amount of work to do on the book.
I am considering doing a kind of half NaNo, aiming for a respectable (for me) 25,000 words during November.聽 Quarter of the way through my next book, with words I can actually keep, is a lot more use to me than halfway through with a whole lot of rubbish.
Anyway, I鈥檝e signed up at the NaNo site and I鈥檒l be spending the next couple of days plotting out my book.聽 You can find me as 鈥渟quimi鈥, so come and friend me if you like!
September 13, 2012
The Model Auntie gets married
Today The Model Auntie married Dr T-shirt, and so became Mrs Dr T-shirt.聽 (Although for the purposes of my blog she will remain The Model Auntie.)
It was the tiniest wedding ever, with two witnesses (one of them me), and it was lovely.聽 The four of us went out for brunch in the morning, then went back to their house and changed into wedding clothes (in The Model Auntie鈥檚 case, a wedding dress and Hollywood movie star tiny furry jacket, in Dr T-shirt鈥檚 case, another T-shirt).聽 Then we went to the registry office, took some photos in the sunny garden, and then they got married, with music from The Princess Bride.
This is me with the new Mrs Dr T-shirt.