WE HAVE MOVED!

We should have let you know before...but we have moved! You can now follow the Allison & Busby blog here!

Envelopes Everywhere!

You know how sometimes getting a short text message from a friend you haven't seen for ages can just make your day? Or when the person next to you on the tube says something to make it seem less of a miserable journey? Well, picture that warm glow inside and multiple it to the power of global loveliness, as we're seeing 'Envelopes' popping up everywhere!

A big thank you to Miss Cosby at St Meryl's School in Watford who sent in a few pictures of the illustrated Envelopes her pupils had been inspired to create. How wonderful - I can almost hear that cracker popping right off the page!

And secondly, proof that Envelopes manages to charm in every corner of the world, we received today an utterly beautiful envelope which has journyed all the way from New Zealand! Check it out.
And if all this Envelopes business is meaning nothing to you - what? You mean you haven't seen a copy? What's wrong with you - go here to read more about it.

In 3rd Place...

Third on the podium is C Fowler from Ashford whose unique 3D envelope featuring an origami boat on a paper sea also gets a 'high commended' spotlight!

Judge Harriet Russell said 'It was lovely to see an envelope with more of a sculptural approach. I liked how the sea was bursting out of the envelope and the creative use of different papers in this entry.'

In 2nd Place...

A very close contender for the winners prize was Frances Culshaw from High Peak who gets 2nd place in our Envelopes competition. (She may have missed out on the prize but we simply must bestow her with special recognition!)

Judge Harriet Russell said of this entry: 'The drawing of the pin ball machine was well executed, colourful and eye-catching, and cleverly incorporated the words of the address into the game. I liked the idea of the 'Postie's challenge' which was very much in keeping with my original idea!'

And The Winner Is....

Congrats to Lucy Groom from Chelmsford! - the winner of our Envelopes competition!

Harriet Russell, author of Envelopes: A Puzzling Journey Through the Royal Mail and the judge of the competition said of Lucy's envelope idea: 'This entry stood out as I felt it was the most original and engaging. I enjoyed the way she had incorporated the address into her little story of a couple called Allison and Busby and their 13 daughters, one called Charlotte and the rest called Mews...which I thought both clever and charming. It was also visually appealing as each part of the story was written on a separate patterned handmade envelope, and bound together to make a story book.'

Lucy will receive a £100 Gift Card to spend at Borders (any store or online)... It's a timely prize in the run up to Xmas, but hope it doesn't all go on pressies and you treat yourself to something nice, Lucy!

We love all your Envelope entries!

A quick note to give a heartfelt thank you to everyone who entered our Envelopes Competition (now closed). Opening our daily post simply won't be as fun anymore! We'll now be getting the lovely Harriet Russell, author of the wonderful book Envelopes, to pick the winner and runners up and these will be announced on the 1st December. Check this blog or our website then to see who topped the creativity chart!

Win a £100 voucher!

Ok, I realise we have grossly neglected this blog... but I can assure you it's all for good reason. Oh yes - we are getting ready for something BIG...something that will transform your online vision of A&B, and indeed this blog. That's all I'm saying at the moment, but bear with us. Think of it as the calm before the storm, or rather in this case, the silence before the fanfare!

But just breaking the silence for a moment to flag up our Envelopes competition.

Inspired by the Harriet Russell's unique book Envelopes - a collection of puzzling, artistic and oddly addressed envelopes - we thought it would be great to see what other quirky envelope ideas people could come up with. So! If you fancy flaunting your creative talent and winning a £100 to spend in any Borders bookshop or online (bet that 'll save on your Christmas shopping!) click here for full details about the competition.

It ends on 17th November so get cracking!

Books or chocolate...books or chocolate...

There’s doom and gloom every time I turn on the news these days – credit crunch this and inflation that – which isn't much fun for anyone. And while browsing the bbc website this afternoon I came across details of a survey about the ‘essentials’ for different groups of society. From Kit-Kats to croissants via cars, it gives you an interesting viewpoint on what we can’t seem to live without today and will scrimp and save to keep. All I can say is thank goodness for my fantastic library, which is doing a great deal to keep my bank balance looking healthy. And it's open seven days a week no less (ha – bet you’re all really jealous now!) and up to 13 books out at one time! You can check out the survey here:

And you might like to take advantage of your local library with some great author events - check out the A&B events calendar here for upcoming dates.

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit

Do you often poke your friends? In a facebook sense, that is? Well, if the idea of a facebook for, err, books, sounds like your idea of heaven, you must head over to www.bookrabbit.com. This new site allows you to upload pictures of your shelves at home (or in my case some very untidy heaps from before I moved) and browse through the bookshelves of others, all with the idea of kicking off discussion. It’s compulsive stuff – come on, you know you check through (OK – snoop is a more accurate word) people’s bookcases!

They’re even working on some very impressive technology, called ‘Automatic Bookshelf’ that will be able to ‘read’ and recognise the spines of your photographed books: finally computer wizardry does something worthwhile. Keep your eyes peeled too as sometimes we nice publishing folk get a bit giddy and give away books – such as the fantastic steampunk novel The Affinity Bridge our Snowbooks friends are bringing out soon – if you want a proof click here but get in there quick! And, if all this talk about peering at other people's bookshelves is giving you book envy, have a look at the A&B crime page up right now – head to here to check it out.

The month that time forgot...

...err, what happened to May at the A&B office? You might very well be asking that question, and the answer would be - holidays, bank holidays, weddings (not ours), sales trips, meeting new authors, yet more glow-in-the-dark fun, the appearance and disappearance of summer and moving house - finally!

Yes, I'm now an official Essex girl and enjoying the commute with plenty of time to read - sigh of contentment!

Anyhoo - more anon.

Good ol' fashioned glow-in-the-dark fun

So, here are the photos of our stand at the book fair taken Monday morning before I managed to generally clutter and mess the space up! The lovely thing about the stand was having a space where anyone and everyone could (and believe me did) roll up. We saw A&B authors past and present (including Christopher West, whose Death of a Blue Lantern is reissued next month, a mystery set in Communist China that with the current headlines is very topical). And, particularly pleasantly, work experience guys and gals past and present. Hello in particular to Sophie, our high-flying friend now over at SPCK, who's a regular visitor to the blog (waves). Apologies to Jas who appeared at our stand looking so professional that it took more than a minute or two to place her. The idea of photographing our work experience people to aid future recollections has been voiced again in the office. Roll up for your mugshots here?

And in reference to the title of my post - earlier this week we got finished copies of Rachel Caine's Glass Houses which prompted the entire office to stash copies in cupboards and under desks and excitedly peek at them. No, we haven't taken complete leave of our senses, we wanted to fully appreciate the very cool glow in the dark finish that we've added to the cover design. Spooky.

Catching up

So, three days out of the office and my inbox nearly exploded with spam - a great thing to welcome you back to your desk eh? Getting back and following up lots of things from meetings and random bumpings-into has stopped us talking about the fair much - but I do have photos of the A&B home from home at Earl's Court, so I do intend to blog about it soon.

In the meantime, an email offer from Borders prompts me to post - save 40% on any full priced book this weekend, not to be sniffed at I reckon. Click here to print off the voucher.

Good weekend to all!

My mates the printers have done me proud

It’s April, the sun is shining as I sit under the skylight at A&B central and various items have poured in from the printers leaving me feeling happy with the world. The latest catalogue covering July – September (as well as a few other titles which crept into our Spring schedule) is in and no glaring omissions have made my blood run cold yet. You can have a virtual flick through by clicking the link on the lefthand side of the A&B homepage. A rather nifty leaflet featuring our summer reading picks has arrived and the pièce de résistance, our glorious A&B bags have made an appearance too, and very handy they’ve already proven themselves to be. Glorious as they are, we had to share some with the world. In steps dovegreyreader who has done a prize-draw giveaway of some to lucky readers of her blog.

Ah, I'm a happy chappie.

And we have a winner!

I'm absolutely delighted to announce that our author Colleen Gleason has won the DA BWAHA Tournament for best book in the romance genre with the first book in her vampire romance series The Rest Falls Away. The tournament (where readers vote for their favourites online) was sponsored by Smart Bitches and Dear Author blogs and saw Gleason up against Nora Roberts and her book High Noon in the final round. But Gleason bagged the trophy, and deservedly so! For all you UK readers who are dying to know what the fuss is about, you won't have to wait long. The Rest Falls Away will be out in the UK at the end of this month!

In fact, it's really all I've been thinking about this week... and I'm not exaggerating. I've been working on the UK cover and I have three words to say on that subject: Purples, Pantones, and Palpitations. Hey, that's actually not a bad title for a "How To" book or humorous memoir - with subtitle: "A Day in the Life of a Graphic Designer" (I might copyright that). But I digress. I have renewed respect for any designer out there who battles with picking the right colour when your computer screen shows you one thing, your printer prints out another, neither matches your colour bridge and you have to trust the CMYK/RGB figures instead of your eyes. I've actually been dreaming in purple pantones (my boyfriend was a nice violet hue, the shopkeeper a sickly off-mauve) but I digress again...

Anyway, all will be revealed tomorrow. Stay tuned.

April Fools Day...

…was yesterday and was it just me or was the world a little more dour than I think it had cause to be? The only ‘joke’ I came across in the media was on the BBC Breakfast show; a segment on penguins that have advanced on the evolutionary scale by learning to fly. No offence Aunty Beeb, it was cute, but surely you can do better? Anyone else have any good'uns?

Speaking of witty, clever and original things (you're probably getting used to the fact that I rarely fail to!), I am waiting with baited breath for the finished copies of the Boomsday paperback that are due in from the printer today…drum roll please.

And here's the penguin segment, if you are interested in some OK-ish CGI!

Let's talk about the weather....

As we return from our Easter break, I'll have you know, that this Sunday 23rd March was also World Meteorological Day! Perhaps this explains the chaotic weather conditions over the weekend which included a 30-second hailstorm, two bouts of snow, bright sun, blustering winds, sleet and rain. Could the elements have been celebrating?? It certainly gives me reason to highlight our upcoming fantasy series about Weather Wardens, by Rachel Caine. It's a modern fantasy series, set in today's world as we know it, but including a parallel universe of powerful wardens who can control the elements. Ill Wind (Book one) will be out in a months time. Intrigue, corruption, murder, thrilling battles between extreme weather and a sexy and feisty female weather Warden as heroine, who is being chased by a storm... Considering the bizarre weather this weekend, I might think twice before labelling the series as fantasy... Oh! And today we're celebrating Christina's birthday who designed the brilliant cover for Ill Wind (fans on Rachel's Caine's blog have already given it a big thumbs up!). So Happy Birthday Christina, Happy World Meteorological Day (members of the World Meteorological Organisation are actually celebrating it today) and just keep a close eye on the weather people...

Easter - eggscellent (in a Mr Burns voice)

All hail the long weekend! I don't know about you, but I'm probably going to spend most of the easter holidays curled up reading with my smarties easter egg. It might even turn into something of a hibernation.

Chiara as some top seasonal recommendations below which have inspired the following puns. Apologies, I am fully aware of how ripe and past their sell-by date they are. But my excuse is that after working on the new catalogue for the last few days (covering July - September, as well as a few other titles that crept in - watch this space) I need to let off steam; my brain is scrambled, fried and only capable of handling things over-easy. heh heh :)

Rabbits and eggs!

Am off now for the long Easter weekend break, but considering we're in for a chiller (see BBC 5 day weather report) here are two quality reads to keep you entertained as you rug up indoors whilst...um, still keeping in with the Easter spirit: The Rabbit Factory, by Marshall Karp and The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy, by James Anderson. Guaranteed you'll finish them both over the four days. I mean, frankly, what else have you got to do besides eat chocolate??

HAPPY EASTER to all!

The Colour of Magic - to see or not to see?

Last night I saw the preview for Sky One's TV adaptation of Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic, to be broadcasted Easter Sunday. I'm probably one of the few people in the world who hasn't read a Harry Potter book, let alone seen any of the films, and I probably put this down to the fact that Terry Pratchett got to me first. I became a fan of the Pratchett's Discworld novels years ago. From the moment I read the line "A thought crossed his mind - very fast, and looking both ways in case it got knocked over" I was hooked. (I take no responsibility for misquotation) . I still delight in the layers of humour and the surreal that Pratchett so brilliantly delivers. So I have to admit, whilst I was at first delighted to see the preview for The Colour of Magic pop up on my TV screen - a bit like suddenly spotting someone you know on the telly - I'm now slightly unsure as to whether or not I really want to see the film. Whilst the technology these days means that productions such as these are remarkable, part of me wants to keep my own unique image of the Discworld, safe from a TV producer's interpretation. But I'm curious. Of course I'm curious. I never did see the first adaptation, The Hogfather, so if anyone saw that one and would advise For or Against seeing The Colour of Magic, I'm all ears! Reviews welcome. Because after all, it could prove to be a disappointment - like the colour of magic itself, a mere "greenish-purple" (according to wizard Rincewind).

And Elmer Fudd thought Bugs Bunny was a challenge...

Today we all enjoyed a jolly lunch with author Zoë Sharp and her hubby Andy. They had just come from filming a Meet the Author video where Zoë talks about her thriller Second Shot (Look out for the clip - will be online soon!) before heading off to a photoshoot in Oxstead. (Zoë doubles as a photo-journalist for the motorpress ie. if you ever believe the stereotype that authors hide in their studies wearing twead - think again. You're much more likely to see Zoë hanging out of a fast-moving Ford GT to get a cool low-angle shot.)

Anyway, amongst banter about dodgy flights, property development and book covers, the conversation somehow veered onto German Giant Rabbits...which of course I then HAD to google and I now share with you the evidence of what can only be described as: nature gone slightly mad. (Please refer to above image - I think it's eaten Peter Rabbit.) Will you look at the thing? Bit of a large target for rabbit hunters, but I bet this hefty fella wouldn't go down with one shot... or even a Second Shot. Or even a Third Strike ! (See? See what I just did there?)

I won't begrudge any rolling of the eyes...