The Spider's Bride

[smokingboot]

Naughty larians let the cat out of the bag. My first novel, The Spider's Bride, is out in October. It can be pre-ordered here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_/026-1205551-9747629?initialSearch=1&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=The+Spider%27s+Bride
Or here:
http://www.amazon.com/Spiders-Bride-Debbie-Gallagher/dp/0809572117/ref=sr_1_20/103-5787982-3547817?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185789186&sr=1-20
Or here:
http://www.tesco.com/books/product.aspx?R=9780809572113

Or some other places I can't be bothered to check.

I can't pimp this up properly. Suppose you buy it and hate it? I guess I would just have to clutch my cheque and get over it, but a part of me would be gutted. So rather than sell, which I simply cannot do, especially to my friends, I want to talk about the book a bit. If you are interested in the things below, you may well like The Spider's Bride, because these are the main sources and inspirations for it:

Novacaine
Winter, frost and spiders' webs
The video for 'There There' from Radiohead's album 'Hail to the Thief'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs1DX32t38c
Richard Dadd's life and paintings, in particular 'The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke'
http://www.pemcom.demon.co.uk/queen/queen2/ffms.jpg but I was also inspired by his Bacchanalian scene, Come Unto These Yellow Sands, Crazy Jane and Levant paintings.
The Tempest of course, now and always.
The work of Walter Potter and victorian anthropomorphic taxidermy in general http://www.walterpotterfoundation.org/
The Secret Commonwealth by Robert Kirk
Rackham, Fitzgerald et al, natch.

And somewhere at the back of all this, the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon traditions of fairies, Tam Lin and the long lost folk before him, who could be beautiful and generous, and very cruel if you crossed them; they hated cold iron, changed their shape as they pleased, drove mortals mad, kidnapped the special ones, and understood perfectly that time is just a dolls house.

So there you have it. It's not Ankh-Morpok, it's not Harry. But in total honesty, and this is the nearest I can come to pimping it, if it was not mine, I would still relish it. No reason for you to, though. I have more to say about this book but for now, that is quite enough of that.

The magnificent mamapusscat wants to create a publishing party for it. I don't know, a part of me wants to get on with the next and not look back at all. And anyway, I am confused as to what I want; an elegant little promo with copies for sale and the whole Bridget Jones little black dress and wine thing...or just a party for friends to celebrate my baby. If anything comes of it, you know you're invited!