After some discussion with booksellers, The Night Rainbow UK paperback, which is out this August, is getting a new cover.
Here it is:
just a reminder, here is the hardback: 
So here is my collection of covers, including USA / Netherlands / Germany in case you’ve not seen them!
What do you think?
I’m very excited that this week The Night Rainbow is being published in the USA and Canada.
Here she is, complete with beautiful new cover, about to whizz off to bookshops everywhere Stateside.
I feel a little wistful that I can’t whizz over the Atlantic to celebrate, but I have been raising a glass here in France, and lurking on twitter doing US & Canada pub-day high fives!
And look what the lovely Rachael Dunlop just sent me:
On the shelves at Barnes & Noble, New York City
I’ve also been busy meeting book bloggers:
Thank you…
Thanks already to some of the lovely reviewers and book bloggers who have reviewed early copies:
Ilana Teitelbaum, who says, in her review in Shelf Awareness “King’s story of a young child’s quest for a light in the profound darkness of her life reaches deep into the complexities of human consciousness. As it explores adult grief through a child’s eyes, The Night Rainbow also underscores the need for stability and love ever-present in children’s lives, yet at times nearly impossible to attain.”
Catherine at Gilmore Guide to books who says “The Night Rainbow is soft, sweet, scary and immense.” *****
Nicola at My Good Bookshelf gave it 9/10 and said “I would happily recommend this book to readers interested in contemporary fiction or family dramas; this was a beautifully written tale with a shocker of a twist that I definitely did not anticipate- just brilliantly done.”
Ionia at Readful Things said “Claire King has done such a supreme job of making you want to hug these children and tell them everything is going to be okay, that it is sometimes hard to believe they are not real…I would recommend this elegantly written novel to anyone. Really a beautiful book.”
Shannon at River City Reading - Richmond, VA said “Writing from the perspective of a child, particularly one so young, without relying on cliche phrases or coming off childish is not an easy task. Claire King does it masterfully.”
Patrice Hoffman says “Claire King writes spectacularly from a child’s point of view using vivid imagery with fantastical qualities only imagination can provide.”
and Cayacosta72 calls The Night Rainbow “A story of love, loss and grace.”
The Pin Map!
In celebration and anticipation of meeting lots of new people in the USA and Canada through the launch, even only virtually, I have put together a pin map.
To get it started I’ve added places I have visited in person (the red pins).
I’m going to add new pins on the map for everyone who tells me they’ve read The Night Rainbow, so do please leave a comment or say hi on twitter, telling me where you are, and you’ll get your own purple pin.
Also, if you have a book group that would like me to call in by Skype for a few questions, don’t hesitate to contact me!
The travels of Claire, Margot & Pea
A week on from the publication of The Night Rainbow and lot of people have been asking me the same question – how do you feel?
I suspect the expected response is something along the lines of “Amazing!” But in practice for me the answer is much more complicated than that. I’ve heard some authors say that upon publication they’ve felt numb, or scared, or nothing at all. That’s certainly not the case for me. I have felt elated, thrilled and joyous. I’ve also felt anxious, a bit stressed and possibly a little obsessive. And I’ve felt grateful, a lot of grateful, for those who’ve supported me, knowing that what is to many just one more book out there in the world is to me the realisation of years of ambition and work and hope.
Hope?
A lot has been said about hope:
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” (Martin Luther King Jr.)
“Hope is a good breakfast but it is a bad supper.” (Francis Bacon)
and my favourite,
“I am prepared for the worst but hope for the best.” (Benjamin Disraeli)
Yes, that’s the one. That’s how I feel now – hopeful, but in a realistic sort of way. I hope that things will go well with The Night Rainbow. That it will sell well and people will love it. That it might even get nominated for some kind of a prize. I probably should be being bashful and saying “Oh no, not my little debut, I’m just grateful it’s been published at all.” But let’s be honest, that’s not true. I do hope for still more good things. And I’ve felt this way at every step along my writer’s journey:
It’s not greedy to hope, it doesn’t mean you’re not very happy with what you already have. It’s simply picturing the road ahead in a positive light. Despite the inevitable rejections and disappointments along the way, we dare to hope in all aspects of our lives because if we didn’t, what would the future look like? We have hopes for our loved ones and for others around us, for ourselves and for our societies and beyond. And the fact we perpetually experience things not working out as we’d hoped doesn’t – or shouldn’t – teach us we were wrong to hope.
We can’t give up hope because it keeps us moving forwards, keeps us living.
I titled this post Great Expectations because some people have said things like ‘You must have great expectations for your book!’ But I don’t. Expectations are another matter. If your hopes are not met then there’s a twang of disappointment and you move on. But if have expectations, and they are unfulfilled the disappointment is much more profound. You probably don’t have a fall-back. Expectations don’t allow for being prepared for the worst.
So here I am, hoping for the best, but prepared for the worst, since there’s not much else I can do for this book. However, there’s a lot I can do for the next one, and hope won’t fix my edits… I’m putting my attention to those now so I can hand the new novel into my agent and start all over again…
I’m having (whoopee!) an actual launch party in London on 13th February, on the eve of The Night Rainbow’s official publication date, but not everyone can be there, so I’ll be doing some virtual mingling over the next couple of weeks with some very smashing people indeed.
I’m hoping it will be like being at a party on the web, where you wander around chatting, you meet some new people, ask some questions, have a bit of a laugh. And all this without having to wear heels. So come on in, help yourself to a drink, and I hope you have a good time!
Take a glass and mingle
Who I’ve met so far:
Kate at For Books’ Sake, where we talk about the portraying pressures of motherhood and how long a story should be.
Jen at The View From Here literary magazine, who asks me what are the important things, and where did the idea of a night rainbow come from?
Roz Morris, about the Undercover Soundtrack to The Night Rainbow - the songs that were part of its making.
Joe at the Bristol Short Story Prize, the home of my first published short story, who asks “What has it been like?”
Dan at Dog Ear Discs - who asks about the environment of the novel and the surrounding countryside. ”It becomes as important as the characters. Was it based on an actual place?”
Simon Savidge, who pokes around my bookshelves and asks “Are there any guilty pleasures?…”
Jen Campbell - Bookshoppist and author, who I may have made happy-sad.
Caroline Smailes, who wants to know about being a debut author and asks “How has your following your dream influenced your daughters?”
Isabel Costello on her Literary Sofa, where we talk about the pleasures and challenges of writing in a child’s voice.
Waterstones blog, where I talk about the inspiration behind The Night Rainbow
Alison Bacon, who asks about my experience of the publishing process with a top publisher, as well as life on twitter!
Vanessa Gebbie, who asks “How much did you want the novel to explore notions of non-belonging?”
Alison Wells - Who has been running a series of posts exploring ways of keeping our head above water in physical, mental, emotional and creative areas. I talk to her about keeping the joy in writing
Rumjhum Biswas at Flash Fiction Chronicles where I chat about how writing short fiction has influenced my novel, and what I looked for as an editor of a literary magazine
Spotted across a crowded room! I’m heading towards…
Chris Mosler over at Thinly Spread, who has things to say, and a giveaway!
Nik Perring, about getting started and keeping going on a novel and…
… Jonathan Pinnock, who wants to know how I managed to wait out the two years from signing a book contract to publication…
and other people too…I hope there’s enough champagne.
Paparazzi!
Marie-Claire selected The Night Rainbow as one of their top reads for the month.
“An original and beguiling debut.”
Stylist magazine tipped me as one of their 4 soon to be bestsellers (alongside Maya Angelou and Dan Brown!)
You’ll be on tenterhooks throughout
Good To Know magazine have listed The Night Rainbow as one of their 2013 book club picks (alongside Jodi Picoult, Yann Martel and Jojo Moyes!). If you post a review here you could win an e-reader.
Overheard…”Have you read it yet?”
Dan at Dog Ear Discs - “The picturesque setting of Southern France in the midst of a heat wave is almost hypnotic.”
Nettie Thompson - “Pea and Margot are characters who stay with you, long after the last page is turned “
Teresa Majury - ”…a narrator who will grab your heartstrings and never let go”
Tracey Upchurch - “Favourite character? Margot — little sister, voice of reason, bearer of night rainbows.”
Laura Vickers at For Books’ Sake - “Recommended for… Dreamers, mothers, lovers of the rich landscape of the south of France, and those in need of warming up.”
See more reviews on this page.
I’ll update the page with links as they happen.
For mingling in person, please see my events page here.
Champagne photo (c) Chris Chapman
It’s the 6th January 2013 and it’s a glorious warm sunny day here in the south of France. We took the dogs out to a nearby field we’ve named The Big Meadow, for a run. After the Christmas holidays we all needed a good run.
From the meadow you can cross a fallow field and go down to a stream that comes down off Canigou. In summer it is teeming with water boatmen, tadpoles, dragonflies and pond skaters, but at this time of year the water is low and you have to look harder for waterlife. There are also lots of games to be played with pebbles, fallen branches, shadows and reflections and the nearby cows in the adjacent pasture.
My smallest daughter is just 5, and as she crosses the rocks I stand back, because I know she wants to do it, and she wants to do it by herself.
My instinct is to go with her, hold her hand, tell her ‘Be careful!’ But I don’t. I stand back and wait.
“Please don’t slip, please don’t slip, please don’t slip and hit your head.” (What I think).
“You’re doing brilliantly! You’ve got great balance.” (What I actually say.)
She does fine. She gains a little more confidence in the process and I gain a little more confidence in her abilities.
I’ve been following the early reader reviews of The Night Rainbow recently, and one of the discussion topics is about Pea, who is 5 1/2, and the fact her adventures in the meadows and down by the stream are unsupervised.
‘Is that realistic?’ readers ask.
The truth is I don’t know, because I don’t let my own children go wandering off down in the meadows and by the water on their own. When they get to a certain age then of course I will; I just don’t know what that age is yet. I’m hoping I know it when I see it.
But once upon a time young children, some as young as my daughter, were allowed to go tadpoling, or hunting for sticklebacks without adult supervision. It used to seem normal. It doesn’t any more, does it?
**UPDATE**: I’ve been directed to a couple of interesting websites that talk about this topic.
Here is an article called ‘Please don’t help my kids‘ : “I don’t want my daughters to learn that they can’t overcome obstacles without help. I don’t want them to learn that they can reach great heights without effort.”
Here’s Free Range Kids : “Fighting the belief that our children are in constant danger from creeps, kidnapping, germs, grades, flashers, frustration, baby snatchers, bugs, bullies, men, sleepovers, Ivy League rejection letters and/or the perils of a non-organic grape.”
I wrote a blog post a while ago about the intention in what we write – how we choose the palette for our story, the setting and the small details to send messages for the reader to pick up on.
But intention is a funny thing, because things are sometimes not interpreted the way we intended. This is the source of a lot of arguments. Any of these phrases seem familiar?
“That’s not what I meant!“
“You are inferring that from what I said.”
“You were implying that when you said…”
“I could see by your expression that…”
“It’s not what you said, it’s the way that you said it!”
Well, anyway, in November Waterstones ran a draw for people to receive review copies of The Night Rainbow, and December the books went out. So although there’s still a month until it starts shipping ‘for real’, reviews are now coming in, and I get to see if what I intended to say came across to *actual* readers in the way I hoped. Or not.
This, in a way, is the end of one writing journey that started back in 2009 and which I’ve been blogging about for almost 3 years. So I thought I’d share my first thoughts on being read, and reviewed.
I’d thought about book reviews before in terms of the rating, the number of stars. What does a one star review mean? How would I feel the first time I got one? It’s easy to say that rationally there is going to be some kind of bell curve. You can’t please all the people all the time. And a five star review is the flip side of the coin. You really hit a nerve with a reader, but it doesn’t mean you’re a literary genius.
Actually, now I’ve started to read the reviews, what matters much more is the words. Readers have taken the time to write at some length about how they experienced the story, how it made them feel as they read it, and their conclusions at the end. It’s such a privilege to read these insights, and to see if what I hoped I wrote matched up with what people actually read. It seems so far, so good!
I’m going to try not to get obsessed with reading reviews (seriously, I am!), mostly because I have written a new book that I am revising now and I have to turn the internet off most of the time to do that. But the appearance of these reviews is a timely reminder that I am writing for readers, and that I have to get it right. That ‘good enough’ isn’t really good enough, unless I want to face ‘good enough’ reviews on my next novel in 2 years time. And that’s not my intention.
So to the book reviewers out there who are taking the time to write these considered, detailed reviews – A Big Thank You!
And I wish all readers of this blog a very happy new year. Good health, peace and happiness to you and yours in 2013.
I’m planning a book launch. A proper, raise a glass, face to face, huggy, happy book launch. And here’s why.
Symbols and ceremonies see us through life. Through births and deaths, through graduations and marriages, through summer and winter solstices, through war and peacetime. We mark the anniversaries of events that have only the most personal significance as though they matter. Because we know that they do.
They mark a point in time when we recognise some step of our human endeavour, with the people who want to share that with us.
My first novel is about to be launched into a sea of books, an endless tide of literature from the beginning of history to far into the future. One book in millions. I know my book and I are small fish in a great ocean. But for me this book marks a moment of triumph, of striving and hoping and of sheer good luck.
I really, really, want to celebrate that, and if you do too, you’re welcome to join me.
My launch will be held on Feb 13th 2013 in a beautiful bookshop in London. I’ll be signing books and there will be wine. If you’re a reader of this blog or a Twitter follower and would like an invitation, please do contact me.
I will also be doing an event in Yorkshire a couple of weeks later, with the lovely people at this independent bookshop in Ripon. Please get in touch if you’d like to see me there and when I’ve more details I will let you know.
If you’d like to be part of my book launch in some other way, then please do also get in touch.
I don’t know this man but I like his style.
*UPDATE*
This offer is now closed, and I was going to take down this post. But then I noticed that readers’ reviews are now coming in (you can read them here) and I wanted to say a big thank you to the reviewers, who are writing such considered and detailed reviews for The Night Rainbow. I really appreciate it. Thank you!
_______________________________________________________________
I’m over the moon to be featured as one of Waterstones current six Read & Review titles.
You can enter a free draw to win one of 24 early review copies of The Night Rainbow (you need to be a Waterstones card holder, but if you don’t already have one you can easily apply for one online – there are lots of advantages).
Closing date is 6th December, follow this link: Review The Night Rainbow for Waterstones
Yet another beautiful cover!
This time for the AW Bruna/Orlando Dutch edition of The Night Rainbow, which will be published in May 2013.
Hurray!
Als u vragen hebt over de Nederlandse editie kunt u contact opnemen met jacqueline.smit@
Just to remind you, here are my UK and US book covers. We had a discussion with booksellers and Bloomsbury *here* about why they are so different.
I’m delighted and proud to say that The Night Rainbow large print rights have sold today to F.A. Thorpe, meaning that my book will be published in a format accessible to visually handicapped readers (1st September 2013).
F.A. Thorpe are an historic publishers having pioneered large print in the 1960′s. Frederick Thorpe also founded the Ulverscroft foundation, which receives all the profits and uses them for research into visual impairment as well as supporting libraries.
Did you know that only seven per cent of books are accessible to the almost 2 million blind and partially sighted people in the UK (in large print, braille, talking books etc)? Can you imagine (if you are fully sighted like me), as a reader how frustrating that must be?
And imagine the challenge for blind and partially sighted children – how to overcome the difficulties and inspire a love of literature that will last a lifetime?
For the next three days (October 18-20 2012), The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) is holding Literary Wonderland on London’s South Bank, for children and families. Events and workshops will be run by children’s authors to raise awareness of reading services for blind and partially sighted people. Please have a look at the link and share it with anyone you think might be interested.
For more information, there’s a good article on Bookbrunch today.
Photo above thanks to Quinnums via Flickr Creative Commons.
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