Arlo Knott is finally out in the world, having been launched at a sell-out event at Storysmith Books, Bristol.
With fabulous hosting from Hugo award-winning sci-fi critic and publisher Cheryl Morgan, we talked about having an undo button for life, plus the power of hindsight, quantum physics and snakes and ladders.
The room was packed and the shop ran out of books. Huge thanks to everyone who came and made it such a wonderful launch.
Finally The Undoing of Arlo Knott is hitting bookshops, and where better to launch it than the fabulous Storysmith books in Bristol? I’ll be talking to Cheryl Morgan of Wizard’s Tower press on the themes of the book, and on ‘Five things you won’t regret’ (according to Arlo Knott!)
Thursday 1st August, 6:30pm, £5 (includes a glass of wine and 10% off featured books)
Arlo Knott develops the mysterious ability to reverse his last action. It makes him able to experience anything, to charm any woman and impress any friend. His is a life free of mistakes, a life without regret.
Come along and enjoy some literary chit chat with a glass of wine… you won’t regret it!
Cheryl Morgan is a Hugo Award-winning publisher and science fiction & fantasy critic. She owns and runs Wizard’s Tower Press. Cheryl is also a co-host of the Women’s Outlook show on Ujima Radio. You can read more about her at Cheryl’s Mewsings and follow her on Twitter as @CherylMorgan.
At last, the beautiful cover of my new book is out in the world!
The designer, Ellen Rockwell of Orbit UK, has done an amazing job capturing the surreal, heightened reality of Arlo’s life. The snake is reminiscent of what he grapples with, his powerful, fabulous ego, and the scales seem to disintegrate almost as though some of his peculiar power to ‘undo’ things has leached into the image.
I really like the pizzazz and glamour of this cover, and think it perfectly captures the spirit of the book.
This will be my second appearance at MCM Comic Con at London’s excel centre. This is where I’ll be if you want to say hello:
Saturday
14:00pm – 14:45pm – Creator Stage: Literary Young Guns – Writing a novel is tough work. Getting one published is even tougher. Join Moderator and debut author Tade Thompson (Rosewater) Tasha Suri (Empire of Sand) Leo Carew (The Wolf) Heather Child (Everything About You) Nick Setchfield (The War in the Dark) and Jeanette NG (Under the Pendulum Sun) as they discuss their journey from finished novel to publication
14:30pm – 15:00pm – Forbidden Planet SIGNING – Steven Erickson (Rejoice) Marieke Nijkamp (Before I Let Go) Tim Pratt (The Wrong Stars) Nicholas Eames (Bloody Rose) Heather Child (Everything About You)
18:00pm – 18:45pm – Creator Stage: Sci-Fi Scribblings – The field of science-fiction is filled to the brim with variety, from space operas to hard science. Science-fiction authors Claire North (84K) Jamie Sawyer (The Lazarus War Series) Tim Pratt (The Wrong Stars) Heather Child (Everything About You) Tom Toner (The Tropic of Eternity) as they discuss what makes great science-fiction.
Sunday
12:00pm – 12:45pm – Creator Stage: Orbit Presents – Orbit Authors Nicholas Eames (Bloody Rose) Tasha Suri (Empire of Sand) Mike Carey (The Girl with All the Gifts) Tade Thompson (Rosewater) Heather Child (Everything About You) RJ Baker (King of Assassins) Stephen Aryan (Mage Born) talk all things Orbit
13:00pm – 13:30pm – Forbidden Planet SIGNING – Mike Carey (The Girl with All the Gifts) Nicholas Eames (Bloody Rose) Tade Thompson (Rosewater) Tasha Suri (Empire of Sand) RJ Baker (King of Assassins) Heather Child (Everything About You)
A lovely surprise to find Everything About You mentioned on BBC Radio 4’s Open Book as one of Peter F. Hamilton’s top six science fiction books. Peter F. Hamilton is the bestselling author of numerous sci-fi novels including the Greg Mandel series and the Night’s Dawn trilogy.
Everything About You was one of the more contemporary books among his six choices, a look forward to the data age when the internet knows everything about everyone.
You can listen to the show here (with the book mentioned at 23:04) https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/b0bgw8c6
Local authors for local people: Forbidden Planet Bristol set up this excellent table display…
You can see Everything About You reviewed in the Daily Mail, Sunday Sport and Guardian. One of my favourites is this intelligent and insightful review from Blue Book Balloon.
“We can, if we want, keep the option of living our own lives, rather than just following the choices the algorithms make for us…”
Launch day!
Everything About You finally hit the shelves today, and signings took place at Goldboro books in London and Forbidden Planet London and Bristol.
Everything About You by Heather Child exclusive cover reveal!
The new title for Smartface is Everything About You
We are becoming more familiar with the idea that we are products online, our identity bundled up to allow advertisers to target us with ever-increasing precision.
The smartface takes this a step further: knowing everything about you as the prerequisite to giving you exactly what you want, in every aspect of your life, now and in the future. You can sit back, relax, and leave the decision-making to a system that knows you better than you know yourself.
PRESS RELEASE | 18 May 2017
Little, Brown Book Group imprint Orbit is delighted to announce the acquisition of Smartface, an exceptional debut by Bristol-based author Heather Child.
Senior commissioning editor Jenni Hill acquired world rights in two crossover novels from Julie Crisp of the Julie Crisp Literary Agency, and Smartface will be published by Orbit in summer 2018.
It tells the story of a woman whose virtual assistant takes on the personality of her missing sister – shedding new light on a missing persons case from years before.
Exploring the blurred lines between reality and fantasy, this high-concept thriller examines what happens when smart becomes too smart, when people accumulate so much data online that they can be recreated as data ghosts and lives can be changed by the information they’ve left behind.
Heather Child says: ‘With intelligent assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa becoming commonplace, I wanted to look at what might happen if we willingly handed over control of our lives to algorithms that know us better than we do ourselves. It’s hugely exciting to be working with Orbit on this data-ghost story.’
Julie Crisp says: ‘Heather’s visionary tale of futuristic technology set against the emotional tale of a girl’s search for her lost sister is a brilliant fusing of high-concept ideas with a commercial storyline. With Orbit’s success with authors such as Claire North and M. R. Carey, they are the perfect home for this exciting new author.’
Jenni Hill says: ‘Smartface is a startlingly brilliant and probably (worryingly) quite accurate vision of the future, with completely engaging characters who simply carried me through the novel from beginning to end in record time. The book is so accomplished it is difficult to believe it is a debut, and I know that readers, reviewers and booksellers will be likewise blown away by the talent on show here.’
About Heather Child
Based in Bristol, Heather Child received AHRC funding for an MA in Writing at the University of Warwick in 2008, working with writers including Maureen Freely, Rebecca Abrams and China Miéville. Her work has appeared in a range of literary magazines including Mslexia, the Storgy 2014 Short Story Anthology and Under the Radar online. She is a communications professional and former chartered marketer. Her work on digital marketing has brought her into close contact with the cutting-edge automation and personalisation technologies that herald the ‘big data’ age. Smartface is a debut novel.
About Little, Brown Book Group
Four-time winner of the Publisher of the Year Award, most recently in 2014, Little, Brown is one of the UK’s most successful and diverse publishers. Our thirteen imprints consist of: Abacus; Atom; Blackfriars; Constable; Corsair; Fleet; Hachette Digital; Little, Brown; Orbit; Piatkus; Robinson; Sphere and Virago. Little, Brown Book Group has been part of the Hachette UK group since 2006. Further information can be found at www.littlebrown.co.uk.
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