Win an ARC of The Marathon Conspiracy, at Quirky Bookworm

Jessica Howard, also known as Quirky Bookworm, is giving away an ARC of The Marathon Conspiracy.

Just head on over to Quirky Bookworm and enter a comment to be in the running.  Competition ends 4th June 2014.

ARC is publisher speak for advance reader copy.  It's a version of the book printed before we've got all the bugs out.  Publishers do a small print run of these so that some lucky readers can see early copies.  After the book's released, the ARCs become something of a curiousity item.

Gary interviewed by Sheri Cobb South

I recently did an interview with reader (and writer) Sheri Cobb South, and, here it is.

I particularly liked Sheri's question about where to visit in Greece, Turkey or the Aegean, if you want to see the locations from the books.  I hadn't quite thought of it before as a tour map.

Gary's "best of" blog posts, appearing at Soho Press

A lot's been happening in the last few weeks.  The Marathon Conspiracy released, it's received a pile of very happy reviews, and I've returned from a trip to the US.

While in the US I was treated to the wonderful hospitality of my publisher, Soho Press.  In return I gave them some Vegemite.  This may seem a cruel exchange.

Here is me in the background, with Abby Koski, who is Publicist Extraordinaire at Soho, and Paul Oliver, Director of Marketing.

Abby snaffled the Vegemite afterwards, and she's still talking to me, so either she hasn't eaten it yet, or she actually likes the stuff.

As it happens, Soho runs their own, very active blog, which is rather unusual for a publisher.  It's not just book promotion; they run a series on how to write a publishable book (from Tim Hallinan) and all sorts of interesting stuff about publishing and language, such as Rachel Kowel's piece on translation.

So we agreed to put a "best of" collection from my blog on Soho's site.  I have 500+ blog posts written, I was amazed to discover when I checked.  Some of them have proven popular, often the ones I least expected.

Soho decided to kick it off with my article on the P.I.E family of languages.

Sacred Games at Abbey's Bookshop

This is the sign outside Abbey's Bookshop today.  

Abbey's is the über-wonderful bookstore, opposite the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney.  Exit the QVB on the non-George Street side, cross the road, and there you are.

Gary on Facebook

I now have an author page on Facebook.

 The web site / blog you're reading now remains my loved home on the net.  The new venture is so people who love facebook can see the same articles and news as appears on this web site. It seems there are lots of people who prefer to see stuff on FB.

 If you're a facebook person and so inclined, do please hop over there to like it. The location is https://www.facebook.com/GaryCorby

Signed first editions of The Marathon Conspiracy at The Mysterious Bookshop

The lovely people at The Mysterious Bookshop are offering signed, first editions of The Marathon Conspiracy.  Which I'll mention in passing is getting some awesome reviews.

I was in their store last week signing the books.  I confess I don't know how many I signed, but it was a tidy pile.

If you'd like a signed first edition, click on through to visit The Mysterious Bookshop!

Book bag FAIL: that was a close call.

I am returned from a fan convention in Washington, a trip to my dear publisher Soho in New York, and a stock signing at the ever-friendly Mysterious Bookshop.  Many wonderful and exciting things happened in the last two weeks, but here I'll mention something that happened at the very end.  

I acquired a few books while I traveled, as you might imagine.  Here is the state of my book bag when I picked it off the carousel at Sydney airport.

If that last little piece of fabric had failed, all the books would have been scattered across three airports and two continents.