Bragging rights

[bookzombie]

John Meaney's new novel Dark Blood has just come out. 

Tucked away in the acknowledgements at the back we find 'Ta lots to Chris Hill for early feedback on the book. Cheers, mate!'

That's me that is!

Yes, I know that some of you have had more acknowledgements than I've had hot dinners but this is a first for me so I'm going to allow myself some minor 'squee'!

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

Yay! That's fun, & definitely squeeworthy. :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Squee indeed! Of course, if you want to review it for Vector...

[bookzombie.livejournal.com]

I think I'd better recuse myself from that under the circumstances - neutrality might be an issue!

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Most wise. The first in the sequence didn't get reviewed, so this one may be particled. I'll have a think.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Why would the first not have been reviewed?

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

You know, I have no idea -- I've only just taken over as reviews' editor. It may be that there wasn't anyone available to review it, or that there was a huge backlog or some such. I will have to ask my distinguished predecessor abrinsky.
Of course, we would be honoured if you would consider reviewing vol 2 (I don't have vol 1, alas)... :-)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Um, are you serious? 'Cos I might quite like to get back into reviewing, and Meaney's so good...

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I am absolutely serious: if you'd like to review it, that would be wonderful. I'll bring it to Eastercon for you (and I owe you at least one drink).

[lcohen]

squeeing with you!

[owlfish]

Thank you for helping to improve the world's books, one at a time! (Since it may be your first, but it surely won't be your last.)

[fjm.livejournal.com]

No one ever stops feeling, "squee!"

[kicking-k.livejournal.com]

Well, I'd be squeeing, loud and proud.

I'd love to be in the position to be useful enough to get acknowledged, but most of the writers I know are unpublished.

There's my mum... but I was the opposite of useful to her writing career. My birth pretty well stopped it in its tracks. Oops.

[fuzzygabby.livejournal.com]

Nosiness from a complete stranger... Who was your mother? Mine was Lucy Bate who published 2 kids books and wrote plays and poetry. One was inspired by me at age 7 and is dedicated to me, my dad, and my sister. Not quite an acknowledgment, but nice nonetheless.

Congrats, Chris! See you at Wiscon!

[kicking-k.livejournal.com]

My mother's name is Pamela Donaldson, and back in 1979 she published Marywell Summer (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marywell-Summer-P-M-Donaldson/dp/0216906415/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205956501&sr=8-1), which was also a children's book. I was born about five months after it came out.

She wrote a couple of other children's stories, but never had time to bring them up to publication standard because she was too busy working and looking after three small children. In an otherwise happy marriage, my dad never said to her of an evening "I'll watch the kids for a few hours and you go off and write"... I think it's a perennial problem for women.

She's quite a shy and unforceful person. Her second book was returned to her by her publisher because it was "too episodic" and she never had time to make the widespread changes he wanted. I read it as a small child... and thought it was perfectly good, and no more episodic than many kids' books are. (It can even be an advantage, with a book that's going to be read at the rate of a chapter per night.)

She still writes, but I don't know if she really wants to be published. She's always been a bit self-deprecating about her writing, and I think would rather shy away from the marketing that you have to do as a writer these days.

I think a dedication is at least as good as an acknowledgement - and you get to claim you're a muse!

Acknowledgements

[themis1.livejournal.com]

How nice :-)

Hm, let's see, John Meaney - he's the chap in whose books I keep finding Rog Peyton, which always causes me to laugh a lot.

Might be an idea to read closely and see if you're in there anywhere - !

[ben-jeapes.livejournal.com]

I've been acknowledged, yes, but no one ever called me mate ...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yay! (Go on, have a major squee!)

Me, I have known X writers for X amount of time (actually closer to XXX in both instances), and might even have been feeling a bit grumpy that one or two of them hadn't publicly acknowledged my early contributions to their oeuvres - and then I got a copy of Angel by Cliff McNish through the post, all unexpected, and he'd actually dedicated it to me. And I know kids who read Cliff...