Fun things happening this week

I've been talking about myself for a few days now, so I thought I'd give a couple of blogs a shout out. Both of the bloghops below are on Friday - I'm signed up for both, are you?

Click here for linky list

Kyra and Clare want us to tell them what makes us happy, those small things that happen in the course of the day and week that make us smile.

Click here for the linky list

M Pax, Suze of Subliminal Coffee and Nicki Elson are teaming up for the Back from the Future Blogfest. What would you send back to yourself from the future?

And Misha Gericke is asking for votes for her Paying Forward Awards. You have until 28th February to vote for some really great bloggers, so please follow the link and check it out.

Publication Day

That Sadie Thing and other stories is now available on Kindle.

I know I said tomorrow, but it's there now and I can't wait another 15 hours to share it.

Buy it: Kindle, Kindle UK,
Like it: Goodreads

I'm now going to have a glass of wine to celebrate!

CassaStorm Cover Reveal

Look at this gorgeous cover - isn't it amazing?

Huge congratulations to Alex!


CassaStorm by Alex J. Cavanaugh
http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/

A storm gathers across the galaxy…

Byron thought he’d put the days of battle behind him. Commanding the Cassan base on Tgren, his only struggles are occasional rogue pirate raids and endless government bureaucracies. As a galaxy-wide war encroaches upon the desert planet, Byron’s ideal life is threatened and he’s caught between the Tgrens and the Cassans.

After enemy ships attack the desert planet, Byron discovers another battle within his own family. The declaration of war between all ten races triggers nightmares in his son, shaking Bassan to the core and threatening to destroy the boy’s mind.

Meanwhile the ancient alien ship is transmitting a code that might signal the end of all life in the galaxy. And the mysterious probe that almost destroyed Tgren twenty years ago could be on its way back. As his world begins to crumble, Byron suspects a connection. The storm is about to break, and Byron is caught in the middle…

Release date: September 17, 2013
Science Fiction - Space Opera/Adventure
Print ISBN 9781939844002
E-book ISBN 9781939844019

That Sadie Thing cover reveal

Yay! I've finally got something new to talk about! This is my new collection of short stories. I'm super excited and just a bit nervous. These stories have been hidden away for a very long time, so they're a bit shy.

I'm over on Misha Gericke's My First Book today sharing a few facts about the collection, so please pop over and say hello.

But before you go, I just want to give a huge shout out to Kyra Lennon. You all know Kyra, and if you don't you should! Last week she went from being the awesome Kyra to the indispensible Kyra by designing this wonderful cover for me. I love it. I keep looking at it and getting a huge thrill - it's just so perfect. Thank you, Kyra.





A couple break up on a rainy night; a runaway longs to go home; a woman finds comfort from eating lunch as her best friend lies in hospital; a teenager feels oppressed by her father. All of the characters in these stories are trying to find their place in the world, attempting to find connections that matter with the people around them.

This collection brings together prize-winning and published stories from the past twenty years: the ‘greatest hits’.

That Sadie Thing and other stories will be available on

Kindle from Monday 25th February 2013.

The post without a title

This was a very warm day - despite the clouds.
Downderry, Cornwall.

I am feeling summery today. The sun is shining, it's the school half-term holiday, and I'm lovely and warm because the heating is on.

Yes, you've spotted the problem - it isn't summer. It's still the middle of winter. The roofs are frosty, and if I actually opened the back door I'd be greeted with an icy blast.

Plymouth Hoe

So, to make myself feel better, I delved into my archives and found some previous summery pictures!

Almost certainly Dawlish

What are your plans for the week? Are you desperate for a change in the season? Are your summer dresses/t-shirts mocking you from your wardrobe? Are you planing to cover yourself in fake tan to kid yourself it's summer really?*

*ahem! Not that I'm doing that, of course!

My next project

Hello again. I bet you thought you wouldn't hear from me for a while, didn't you? Sorry, but I've got all excited about my new project and couldn't wait to share it.

But now... well  I'm a little bit nervous now. This project has been at the back of my mind for a while - and to be honest, I've mentioned it on some of my comments on other blogs - but there's a different between thinking and mentioning and actually announcing.

So...

... my next project is a collection of short stories called That Sadie Thing and other stories. 

This is my greatest hits collection - each of the stories has been published and/or placed in competitions.

Some of the magazines I've been published in (just very slightly before the rise of the internet - no sarcastic comments about my age please!) had a circulation of about 15 people - and I have the unfortunate distinction that my first four stories heralded the end of the magazines they were published in.

After spending so much time writing these stories, I think they deserve to be a little more widely read. I'm very proud of them all.

If anyone would like to help with my cover launch on the 21st and 22nd February, please email me: annalisacrawford.writer [at] gmail.com  (People who took part in my blog tour are let off the hook!)

Thank you, lovely bloggers! 

The last day of the tour

I've done it. This is my last post of 11. Yes, it's quite a random number, but I really don't think I could have found anything else to write about.

Thank you to everyone who has followed the tour, or just popped in and out. And a huge thank you to everyone who has bought a copy because of this tour.

I am going to be with Livia at Leave it to Livia today. I'm talking about film, not a film that I've seen, but one I'm definitely going to be in the queue to see as soon as it's out.

Any ideas which film I'm talking about?

Off for tea and scones with Elizabeth!

Today I am with the wonderful Elizabeth at Use Your Words...

I'm not quite sure how to introduce this post. Out of all the fun topics that I've posted about, this one is probably closest to my heart - you'll see why when you read it. (It's a sporty one, but hopefully that won't put you off!)

I'm out today (having a hot chocolate and gossip with a friend - yay!) so I'll catch up with you later.

Have you got any plans for today?

Time to visit Kyra again

I hope you all had a good weekend! We're entering the final days of the blog tour. I'm going to miss it when it's over

A couple of days ago I talked about the Olympics, and today I'm sharing my Jubilee weekend with you over on the wonderful Kyra Lennon's Write Here, Write Now blog.

In honour of Kyra, I'm going to ask you what she asked me recently: Do you like Olly Murs?

I tweet, you tweet, Jade tweets

Last year I joined the likes of Stephen Fry and Margaret Atwood on Twitter. They probably haven't noticed, but you might have done.

Today I'm visiting Jade Varden to tell her all about it.

Have a great Sunday. By the time this (scheduled) post goes out, I'll have been at work for two hours and up for three and a half.

Are you up stupidly early, or did you have a lovely lazy lie-in?

Saturday at Rebecca's

Today I am at Rebecca Bradley's talking about one of my favourite topics of 2012, the Olympics.

That's all.

Have a lovely Saturday. I'm off to lunch with my in-laws, so I might not get round to commenting until this evening.

Have you got something nice to do today?

Half way through the tour

Yay, I've made it half-way through the tour, and it's been fantastic so far. Thank you to everyone who's reading and commenting - stayed tune for the second half, which will feature the Olympics, the Queens's Diamond Jubilee and Manchester City Football Club among other topics.

Today's post is a more personal look back at the things I've been doing during the past year. I'm over at J A Bennett's A Writer's Journey blog for that.

(As I learnt yesterday, due to time differences, the post might not be up straight away!)

I'm going to Rachel's, are you coming?

Today I'm visiting the lovely Rachel at Writing on the Wall and talking about the end of the world.

(And now I've got that REM song in my head, and it'll probably be there all day... cue random dancing around the house!)

Blog tour stop and ISWG

I'm having a great time so far on my tour - I hope you're enjoying my random musings on the past  year.

Today I'm stopping my tour bus off at Suzanne Furness's The Word Is... blog, talking about TV! This presented a bit of a challenge when I realised my TV watching boiled down to Homes Under the Hammer and endless repeats of How I Met Your Mother.




It's also time for the February Insecure Writer's Support Group, which I completely forgot about when I planned the tour. If you click on the badge in the sidebar it'll take you straight to the sign up list. Although I'm sure everyone knows about this group and the wonderful Alex J Cavanaugh.

A lot of the time I use this group to announce the weird and foolish stuff I'm planning to do - like my first ever attempt at NaNoWriMo - and today is no different. I've been thinking about gathering my published and prize-winning short stories into a greatest hits style collection.

This now means I have to get my head around all the stuff a lot of you have known for a long time. I hate not knowing stuff - the way I've always learned new things is to disappear into a corner for a while and come out knowing how to do algebra or Microsoft Access.

However, the last thing I tried to learn was Wordpress - and I gave up on that very quickly! I found it completely impossible. So, apparently, as I get older the less I'm able to learn! If that's not something to feel insecure about, I don't know what is!

What do you find hard to learn, no matter how much you try?

Please remember to visit Suzanne's blog - link at the top!

Blog tour - off to see Rena

Today I am visiting Rena, the Doctor Fairie Godmother. As Rena loves Science Fiction and science, I'm talking about Felix Baumgartner - and I've even done some research!

So, how's your week been so far?
I got strangely excited by the conformation that the 
body found in a Leicester car park is Richard III.

Cat and The Dreamer - Stopping at Kyra's

I am delighted to announce the winners of the Imaginary Friends bloghop.

Nick Wilford has won my £10 Amazon or Waterstone's voucher. Nick wrote about his daughter's imaginary friend's brother, and it was a really sweet and touching story. I'll be emailing (or already have emailed, depending when you read this) Nick to let him know.

Now pop over to Write Here, Write Now to find out who Kyra chose.



Today's tour stop take's me to Kyra's other blog  Kyra Lennon's Word on the Street blog - a great entertainment blog where she reviews and discusses music, films and TV shows. I'm sharing my music memories from the past year.

The start of the Cat and The Dreamer Tour

Thank you to everyone who took part in the Imaginary Friends bloghop on Friday - I had a great time reading everyone's posts. There were some really inventive twists on the theme - and I really can't believe how many of you didn't have imaginary friends. Because I had them, I was convinced it was really common, but apparently it's not. Now I have to decide whether I'm the normal or abnormal one!!

Kyra and I will be announcing our winners tomorrow, so don't forget to check us out!




Today though is the start of the Cat and The Dreamer blog tour. My novella has reached its first birthday, so I thought it was a great time to have a tour and look back over the past year. Each post on the tour will have a different theme.

Today I'm at Linda King's blog talking about books - you might be able to guess which books feature!

I'm also being interviewed by Ailsa Abraham and Cameron Lawton. If you haven't met them yet, you really don't know what your missing, and I urge to you pop over and check them out!

The Imaginary Friend Bloghop

Welcome to my very first bloghop - I'm really excited to be hosting this today, alongside the fabulous Kyra Lennon.

We will be reading all of the posts, and giving a prize each to our favourite entries.

Kyra is offering a three chapter critique, and I'm giving a £10/$10 Amazon voucher (or £10 Waterstone's voucher, if you're in the UK and you prefer).



I never do anything by halves - I had twin imaginary friends called Iccance and Occance. I have no idea where they came from, or how long they stayed or how they came to be so called. They were neither boys nor girls but something entirely different.

And - boy! - they were very naughty.

They used to make my toys messy after I'd tidied them up, they used to smear my face with ice-cream when I was eating; and it was definitely them who pushed over our telly, right onto its screen and breaking it!

I'm certain that on more than one occasion they had to stand in the corner with their hands on their heads - separate corners, obviously, or they'd have got into even more trouble.

Beside that though, I can't remember much about them - so I went off to ask Mum. "There were two of them," she said incitefully.

"Yes, they were twins," I said.

"Oh, were they?" she replied, proving that poor memory runs in the family.

I thought I remembered teaching them how to read, with the help of my blackboard and pure academic skill, until Mum recalled that it was my baby sister I taught, so she doesn't really count.

So that's the poorly remembered (and now immortalised)

story of Iccance and Occance.

Now I'm off to read yours!