Oh my! My debut!

No, I haven’t written a graphic novel!

That is the cover of the current Wheeler Centre programme. For those of you who don’t live in Melbourne, I’m sorry. The Wheeler is our home of all things wordy and wonderful. Its director, Michael Williams, described it the other night as Melbourne’s secular church. I’ll go with that. It’s a temple to ideas. And the news is that I am going to occupy one small corner of it for one evening.

Each month, the Wheeler hosts an hour of talk and reading by three or four “debut” writers. These gatherings are called Debut Mondays. I went last Monday and heard an anthology of writers read with generosity and tenderness from their new books. I loved it. And in April, I’m making my Debut!

Wipe that grin off your face! I’m going out to buy a white dress and a tussie-mussie and you can’t stop me!

If you are in town on April 16th, I’d love you to drop by between 6.15pm and 7.15pm. I’ll be at The Moat, the Wheeler’s exquisite cafe/bar in Little Lonsdale Street, under the State Library. It’s an inviting space, with delicious treats and books abounding. Afterwards they stay open for nosh, wines and coffees, so if you can come along, it would be great to have company and friendly faces. Also reading will be Romy Ash and Bruce Scates.

If you want to see more details you can visit the Wheeler website at:

http://wheelercentre.com/calendar/program/debut-mondays/

Or if you are drooling over their hard-copy brochure, Debut Mondays are on page 30. I’m the one with the goony grin in the bottom right corner.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a debutante writer in possession of an invitation from the Wheeler Centre, must be in want of nothing.

With apologies to Ms Austen.

Yippeeeee!!!

 

A new road opens…

Here I am again, taking the first steps…

Except this time I’m entering terrain that feels extremely tricky to navigate.

Cyberspace.

The day is approaching when SINNING ACROSS SPAIN will be on the shelves. Last week I got a cover! That’s it up there on the right in the title bar. If you want to see a bigger image, click on CONTACT in the black menu bar above this.

I love the cover. I hope folk will long to walk into that landscape, just as I did. I hope they will want to turn the pages. I hope they will want to buy.

To help keep my clan up to date with what is happening, I’m beginning this blog. It will be the first place I go to spread any news I may have about the book and its author. (That would be me!)

If you’d like to be a subscriber so you’re advised when there’s a new post, please go over to the right hand side of this page, and click where it says ENTRIES RSS. I won’t be posting frantically, so your Inbox will not clog! If you’d like to make a comment on a particular post, you can do that by clicking on the little bubble beside the title – up there on the right.

Now. Gird your loins.

You can also LIKE me on Facebook – possibly easier than liking me at the end of a 30km slog over Spanish hills!

I know. I know. I said I would never go there. I said it was dangerous terrain for me. But needs must, and sometimes the least longed-for road yields the most rapturous vista. I’m hoping that will be the case with Facebook. Be gentle with me. I may take a wrong turn or two in the early stages!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ailsa-Piper/144581425660345

And here’s another turn-up for the books. You can follow me on Twitter!

No, I won’t sound anything like the pajaros carpinteros (carpenter birds – woodpeckers!) that tracked me along the paths in Extremadura, but hopefully my tweets will be useful if you want to hear about the pilgrim’s continued progress. I promise they will not be intrusive or repetitive, which is something that can’t be said for the rat-a-tat of those carpenter birds.

https://twitter.com/#!/AilsaPiper

It’s an exciting time. The book will be in shops from April Fool’s Day. Could anything be more appropriate?

It was on the 30th March 2010 that I boarded the plane to begin this wild ride. Two years from first steps to publication. Who could have predicted that? I feel so lucky and happy and amazed.

And very, very nervous about the path through the cyber-wilds.

So walk with me. Please.

Day one – Camino Mozárabe.