Today, I’m hosting Katy O’Dowd, author of the The Lady Astronomer for a TOP TEN THANKFUL LIST. Please pull up a chair and enjoy the view and grab a beverage from the bar.
There is a great giveaway going on at the BLOG TOUR PAGE so stop by and enter to win!!!
Thanks Heather for having me over to your blog!
Top 10 List Of Things To Be Thankful For – As A Writer
I’m thankful for books. Without them I really doubt I would be writing now.
I’m thankful for movies, music and TV shows. For the same reason.
I’m thankful for the fact that my brain comes up with some crazy stuff that enables me to sit down and create things. Not so thankful that it also provides rather a lot of procrastination. And can sometimes feel like a truculent child, ‘I don’t want to do it mom!’
I’m thankful for all of the writers I have met – mostly online, some in person. It is really brilliant to communicate with people you can be yourself with, and who won’t look at you funny when you tell them what you are working on.
I’m thankful for the school year. Which means that I get to snatch some writing time in peace without the kids around.
I’m thankful for tea and chocolate. They keep me going.
I’m thankful for the times when it rains. I find it very soothing while I’m writing.
I’m thankful for the fact that I’m so organised. Some would call it anal. But it means that all of my research, plotting and planning is done in advance.
I’m thankful for my cats. They keep me company while I write.
I’m thankful for many more things, like my wonderful publishers, Untold Press, who are a complete joy to work with. The opportunities and chances I have been given. The hard work that is so worth it in the end. I’m also thankful for Heather for coming up with such a great topic. It really made me think about writing and how much I love it.
The blurb:
Lucretia's life as an astronomer is quickly turned on its head by her eldest brother when he is commanded by the king to build the grandest telescope in the land. Her nights spent on rooftops gazing at the stars are replaced by adventure as the family move to be nearer the king. In a race to build the Forty-foot telescope on time, misfortunes take their toll. The lady astronomer finds court life to be more dangerous than she could have ever imagined. Can she find the strength inside to overcome the obstacles threatening her destiny? Only the stars will tell.
You can purchase The Lady Astronomer on
Amazon USA and Amazon UK.
A few facts:
I wrote The Lady Astronomer for my eldest son – he was jealous that I had used my younger son’s name in something else I was writing.
I work with an Astronomer on books that require his expert knowledge – the idea for The Lady Astronomer came to me while reading another book that he recommended I read.
The Lady Astronomer is inspired by the life of Caroline Herschel (1750-1848). She suffered from both Smallpox and Typhus, was a milliner, soprano, her brother William’s Assistant – he discovered Uranus, then known as George’s Star for the King who funded the build of the ‘Great Forty-Foot’ telescope – and most importantly, perhaps, became the first woman in recorded history to discover a comet. Not to mention the first woman in the UK to receive a working wage, from the King if you don’t mind.
Publisher:
The Lady Astronomer was published by Untold Press www.untoldpress.com on 26th September 2012. It is currently available as an eBook, and will be out as a paperback later on in the year.
AUTHOR BIO
Katy is an arts and entertainment journalist and has worked for Time Out, Associated Newspapers and Comic Relief and her articles have appeared in The Times (London), Metro (London) and many other arts and entertainment publications, paper and online.
She reviews for the Historical Novels Review and the British Fantasy Society, is a commissioning editor at Pendragon Press and is co-editor of the Nasty Snips II Project for that press.
Alongside writing with her Dad under the pen-name Derry O’Dowd, whose first book ‘The Scarlet Ribbon’ was chosen to launch the History Press Ireland’s fiction line, she writes under her own name.
‘The Lady Astronomer’, a YA Steampunk novel, is out with Untold Press now. She is currently writing a Steampunk adult series because writing for tweens and teens is damnably hard work.
FIND KATY ON THE WEB
EMAIL CONTACT:
Thank you Heather :)
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