The Orenda Books 5 Book Mega launch.

Did you know that there are many, many things that can be launched?

Take rockets, for example:

Astronaut 1: Dammit, I knew I should’ve had a wee before I got in. That G-force has taken its toll. Astronaut 2: Houston, we have a problem…

 

Or missiles:

Pilot: Ok, this is a new plane, so, umm, which button do I press to speak to base? Let’s try….this one…..ah, shit!

 

You can launch bottles:

Bottle: Hahaha, so long suckers! No one is gonna recycle me into a packet of condoms!

 

Even invertebrates can be launched:

HQ: Snail 1, we’ve had reports of a new cabbage patch in Sector 2. Please investigate and report on status of slug pellets and hedgehogs! Snail 1: I’m on my way….

 

BUT, did you know, did you know, that books could be launched too? No, I bet, like me, that you didn’t. So when I heard of the Orenda Books Mega Launch being held in London, I got very excited indeed.

Of course, being the busy blogger that I am, I had no time to go along, but I knew someone who would be free to go in my place.

Someone I could trust to report back on the night’s shenanigans.

Someone I could trust to take lots of photos of the insane bookish talent that would be there.

Someone I could trust who could fully do the night justice and be relied upon to capture all the juicy details and bookish facts that were bound to abound within.

Sadly, it turned out that that person wasn’t free after all. So, with a heavy sense of dread and a quick bribe with a packet of chocolate Hobnobs, and after exhausting all of my other contacts, I approached Plan Z…b:

That’s right, once again I sent along myself, The Beardy Book Blogger, to investigate, ingratiate, and generally annoy, the wonderful people of Orenda Books.

Godlefe’s Cuckoo – Bill Todd @williamjtodd @dannylancaster3 @damppebbles #damppebblesblogtours

Everyone tried to warn you, but did you listen? Did you heck. Looking back, the young lady at the bird re-homing centre did seem a tad keen to offload your bird of choice, but you just brushed it off. Now you have the bird at home you understand why she was so keen: cuckoos are a bloody nightmare. You thought it would be great to own a cuckoo, and when you saw the advert in the local bird re-homing group on Facebook, you couldn’t wait to reply and offer to rehouse her. They got back to you immediately, saying that you can collect Godlefe the very next day. Even the lack of any home checks, etc, didn’t ring any alarm bells. At first when you got Godlefe home and released her into your little flat all appeared well. She settled into her little bird box that put up on the wall – you don’t approve of cages – and she seemed to sleep. But then, at 1pm, she pokes her head out of her little box and goes ‘cuckoo’. Awh, that was cute, you think. Then, an hour later, she goes ‘cuckoo cuckoo’. At 3pm, ‘cuckoo cuckoo cuckoo’. 4pm ‘cuckoo cuckoo cuckoo cuckoo’…. by 10pm that novelty had well and truly worn off. You tried putting a blanket over her box at night, but she just pokes her head out and continues as if nothing was amiss. And then there are the eggs; she lays them everywhere. You’ve found one in your bowl of plums (only realising it after you bit into it), in the little bowl of potpourri your mum keeps putting in the bathroom, and even in the hood of your jacket that hangs behind the kitchen door, which you only discovered when it cracked over your head as you put the hood up. After a week of sleepless nights and growing complaints from the neighbours, plus the continuing egg problem, you decide that Godlefe has to go back to the centre.

You search Facebook for the bird re-homing group page, but it appears to have been closed down. Instead of the page you had found before, in its place you find…. a blurb:

Danny Lancaster has been missing since the fishing boat exploded. Police are closing their inquiry but Wanda Lovejoy continues her campaign to find the truth. An evil man kept alive by machines nurses a corrosive hate. As drugs and disease pull his dying mind apart he throws his crime empire into a scorched earth quest to find one man. If Danny Lancaster isn’t dead he soon will be.

Cover Reveal – Kay Hunter #7 Rachel Amphlett @RachelAmphlett

Welcome one and welcome all to the Beardy Book Blogger Cover Reveal for Rachel Amphlett’s 7th Kay Hunter novel “Title To Be Revealed Later“.

I know what you’re thinking here: That’s a darned strange title for a book, isn’t it? *scratches chin and ponders*

Well, you silliest of silly billies, of course that isn’t the title of Kay Hunter 7.  What I am alluding to up there is the fact that not only is this a cover reveal for “Title To Be Revealed Later“, BUT, the most buttiest of buttnesses, this is also the title reveal, which shall, as I’m guessing you may have figured out by now, be revealed later.

So, get your comfy pants on, make a brew, sit back, ready your excitement glands and read on……..

The Lingering – Susi J Holliday @SJIHolliday @orendabooks

Another Mark Swan (aka Kid Ethic) masterpiece. Orenda Books consistently show everyone else how covers should be done. 👌

 

It’s not the first time that you’ve heard it; the sound of running water that appears to come from the bathroom opposite. For the last couple of nights you’ve heard it and at first you thought that it might have been coming from the room upstairs. In this old house the walls are thin and you figure that the woman upstairs just likes to take her bath late at night. But then she left and the sound kept coming; the sound of running water filling a bath tub. Then comes the frantic splashing. Then comes the silence. This particular night you’ve had enough. If someone is playing a practical joke on you it had better end now, tonight. You cross the corridor and sneak up to the bathroom door, listening as the water splashes about and then you throw open the door hoping to catch them in the act (or in the nude, but that’s a chance you’re willing to take). There is nothing there. The bath is bone dry. No water anywhere to be seen. Then a drip hits the top of your head. So it is from upstairs. But there is no one living up there. Thinking it must be a burst pipe you begin to worry that the water will cascade through into your room, so you leap up the stairs two at a time and enter the bathroom, grateful that no one here locks their doors. The sight that greets you takes you by surprise. The bath is full of water, but it isn’t still; it sloshes about, spilling over and onto the floor as if someone is in there thrashing, desperate to get out. What the hell…? You stand and watch horrified when suddenly it calms and stills. It is then that you notice the freezing temperature in the room, but despite this it is full of steam. It fills the room and covers the mirror above the sink. Then as you shiver and wonder what the hell is going on you hear a wet slapping sound. Looking down you see footprints appearing in the water on the bare wooden floorboards, they’re coming towards you. With your mouth going dry, despite the humidity in the room, you see that they turn away from you and move towards the mirror. With mounting terror you hear a wet squeaking noise as a clear path is drawn into the condensed steam with an unseen finger. As the steam starts to clear, and before your unbelieving, terrified eyes, you see the words that are slowly forming as someone, or something, is writing a….blurb:

Married couple Jack and Ali Gardiner move to a self-sufficient commune in the English Fens, desperate for fresh start. The local village is known for the witches who once resided there and Rosalind House, where the commune has been established, is a former psychiatric home, with a disturbing history

When Jack and Ali arrive, a chain of unexpected and unexplained events is set off, and it becomes clear that they are not all that they seem. As the residents become twitchy, and the villagers suspicious, events from the past come back to haunt them, and someone is seeking retribution…

At once an unnerving locked-room mystery, a chilling thriller and a dark and superbly wrought ghost story, The Lingering is an exceptionally plotted, terrifying and tantalisingly twisted novel by one of the most exciting authors in the genre.