The O’Brien Press has launched a Uk and Ireland blog tour for Conor Kostick’s latest young adult novel, Edda.
This is the first time Conor Kostick has taken part in a blog tour for one of his books and he is thrilled at the chance to share EDDA, in this online celebration of its publication, with readers on both sides of the Irish Sea. He commented: ‘What fun and how appropriate to showcase EDDA in this fashion, as one of the areas explored by the book is that of the possibilities for communication provided by electronic spaces.’
The tour, which runs from Monday 4 July to Saturday 9 July, will begin at Ireland’s foremost children’s book magazine, Inis. It kicked off with an extract from the magazine’s recent interview with Conor Kostick and a competition to win a copy of Edda.
From there, Edda visited YAPS, a colourful Irish book blog which celebrates young adult fiction, its writers and its readers. On Tuesday 5th July, YAPS featured a guest post, written by Conor Kostick, entitled Death and the Avatar, which explores the different rules that apply when writing about characters in virtual reality as opposed to real life. There will be another chance here for readers to win a copy of the book.
In the UK the tour stops at Write for your Life, an extremely popular blog about writing, where Conor will answer questions about his life as a creative writing tutor and how this has influenced his writing, on 6 July.
Also on the tour is Wondrous Reads, a fabulous young adult and children’s fiction blog in the UK, which will be taking part in the blog tour with an exclusive extract from Edda, on 7th July. In this extract, Ghost – an electronic intelligence – and her human friends in avatar form have crossed through a portal that has mysteriously opened in Ghost’s world of Saga and are soon attacked by a curious army of both modern and medieval soldiers. On the 8 July, the last UK stop on the tour will take place, as the fantastic My Favourite Books blog reviews Edda.
Finally on 9 July, the final stop on the tour brings EDDA back across to Ireland. Well-known children’s author Oisín McGann will feature a video conversation with Conor Kostick on his blog, with the two chatting about books, writing and the virtual world of EDDA.
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The Irish At The London Book Fair 2011
Irish Publishing News travelled to Earl’s Court in London for the first day of the London Book Fair on Monday. The trip was enjoyable and the fair itself pretty packed, a relief I imagine for the Fair after last year’s poor Ash Cloud impacted attendances.
EoinPurcell@LBF2011
The Irish at the fair seemed busy with representatives from a large number of Publishing Ireland’s members in attendance, notably Maverick House, Mercier Press, O’Brien Press, Blackhall Publishing, Little Island, Liberties Press, The Stinging Fly and Adam’s Cloud.