My literary thriller, The Peace Garden, has finally been released on Smashwords! This means that you can now read it on a range of devices including iPads, iPhones and any other iThingies you may possess. You can also read it in pdf on your computer, plus a host of other devices including Nook, Android and of course, Kindle. In addition, you can download the first few chapters for free! So whadya waiting for?
Peace Garden sales going up!
As a lover of real paper books I still find it hard to believe that people are eager to download my novel The Peace Garden. But they are! Sales this month in the US are already double what they were last month (UK and rest of world about the same). May the trend continue! Thanks to everyone who has downloaded it – hope you enjoy it. And if you have read it (and enjoyed it), please consider leaving a review. Thanks 🙂
Paper allergies and hoolahooping
I’m privileged to have recently featured on the prolific Morgen Bailey’s blog. Morgen interviews the good and the great (and in my case the not-so-great) of the literary world. It’s a privilege to be with such illustrious company. I talk about my writing life, what makes a literary thriller like my latest book The Peace Garden, the horrors of having an allergy to book paper and the joys of hoolahooping. Drop by and join in the chat.
Guest blogging about Crafty Publishing
This week I’ve been the guest blogger on the UK Christian Bookshop Blog. It’s the second time I’ve been let loose on this forum by the risk-taking editor, Phil Groom. Thanks to Phil and the last guest blog I did, my little publishing company, Crafty Publishing made some inroads into UK Christian bookshops with our Young David books. I’m also musing about the growing e-book market and how my first e-novel The Peace Garden is faring. You can read all about it over at UKCBB website.
How can you give an e-book for Christmas?
I’m wondering how many people are going to get Kindles for Christmas this year? Word on the web is that Amazon will be selling Kindles for under $100 by the end of the year. So are people waiting for the price drop before they buy? If so, does that mean Kindle sales will also plateau for a while? I’m hoping that the big post-Christmas buying rush will result in huge sales of my e-book The Peace Garden – can’t blame a girl for optimism, can you?
I was also wondering what will happen to the book in the stocking now that e-books have taken over print in the novel stakes? I have recently discovered you can buy a Kindle gift card for your e-book loving family member. Still haven’t found out yet if you can actually buy a book, like say, oh I don’t know, The Peace Garden? 🙂 And put it on the card. Otherwise how do you actually buy a book of your choice for someone these days?
Ideas anyone?
Bestselling RS Downie reviews Peace Garden
I’ve been reading my own reviews again. Sorry, bad habit. But this one’s a good’n:
“There’s much to enjoy in Fiona Veitch Smith’s debut adult novel, The Peace Garden, where the hopes and fears of modern South Africa disrupt the
neatly-ordered flowerbeds of suburban Newcastle. Natalie Porter, twelve years old and insatiably curious, starts to uncover the stories that have shaped the adults around her, and progresses from catching a plant thief to beginning to understand some of the complexities of life and love in a post-Apartheid society. The novel ratchets up to thriller pace and with a nice twist on the traditional ‘follow-that-car’scene as Natalie, older but not much wiser, realises she may be the only person who can thwart a potential murderer.The Peace Garden is a cleverly-plotted novel with nice comic touches, and the author’s personal background produces both a convincing setting for the Newcastle characters, and some telling insights into South African life.”
RS Downie is the New York Times bestselling author of the Ruso series of Roman mysteries.
