Wednesday, September 23, 2015

MORE books added to the #wherebooksgo giveaway

First of all, a HUGE thanks to everyone who has been sending in photographs of #HotelArcadia from all over the world for #wherebooksgo. Currently, we have 151 photographs from 28 countries. We have also had FOUR winners from three different countries who have won copies of bookss by novelists from Korea, Australia, and Scotland! This has truly become a global reading, travelling and book-loving enterprise.

We also have a NEW winner: the 150th photograph for #wherebooksgo won a copy of Paul Hardisty's debut Yemen thriller, The Abrupt Physics of Dying. And funnily enough, the book is flying its way to fellow writer, Chris Chalmers!

Many of you will know that #wherebooks go started as a both sentimental as it was what I wished to do while reading Paul Sussman’s  novel, The Labyrinth of Osiris, after he had passed way, and romantic as I have always wanted to know where books went with their readers.  So when Hotel Arcadia came out, I requested readers to send in their photographs; I love getting a glimpse into their lives, and minds, which is both a joy and a privilege and one that would be impossible without technology and social media.

From the very beginning #wherebooksgo has been a fun crowdsourcing project to trace my new novel, Hotel Arcadia's travels around the world with its readers. It is really simple: readers take a picture of the book wherever they read the book – at home, travelling, somewhere familiar or exotic – and post it on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag. Or they send it to me on Facebook, or email it.  I share the pics further on my website and social media. 

Readers have been sending pics from across the globe and the hashtag looks a lot like my dream list of places where I – not just my book – long to go. And I am getting to know readers from across the world who are so disparate and diverse and yet connected by their love of reading. Somewhere along the way, I realised that #wherebooksgo could also help share books that I have enjoyed reading with readers. So I have been reaching out to writers and publishers to ask them for copies of books for a #giveaway. 

Over the summer, we added the lovely Princess Bari by Hwang Sok-yong to the #giveaway thanks to Periscope Publishing. And the lovely Orenda Books contributed copies of David Ross's hilarious Last Days of Disco. We still have ONE FINAL COPY for the #giveaway.  And while, a copy of Paul Hardisty's CWA-listed, debut thriller set in Yemen, The Abrupt Physics of Dying has been won by the 150th photograph, there is a SIGNED copy (exclusive first edition hard back) of Ragnar Jonasson's Snowblind waiting for a lucky winner!

But we have some exciting news: Today we add TWO MORE books.  First up, we have two copies of Kati Hiekkapelto's FIRST Anna Fekete novel, The Hummingbird (Arcadia Books, 2014).  Defenceless, has just been released to FAB reviews. When caught up with Kati on her promotions tour, I just HAD to get her to join. As you can see, I really had to work to convince her (it involved tea and cakes...and books!)
As I had not yet read Kati's new novel, I cheekily asked her to contribute the book I had read earlier in the year and enjoyed very much: The Hummingbird.

It has been one of my favourite thrillers this year and am really pleased that we've been able to include the book that started it all!

And SECOND, by a complete coincidence, turns out that Chris Chalmers has ALSO just released a new book. It is HOT OFF THE PRESS which makes its addition to #wherebooksgo even more exciting.

Light From Other Windows explores the unravelling of a family when the youngest son goes travelling around the world and gets caught in a tsunami. The lovely book blogger Jackie Law has a review of it here.  Am SO pleased Chris agreed to contribute two copies to the #wherebooksgo #giveaway.

Chris's book is poignant, moving, and despite a grim topic, very life affirming.

SO keep those pics coming. And watch this space. We'll be working updating the pics, adding more books and finding more ways to share books we can all love! 

Friday, July 10, 2015

Hotel Arcadia and the AMAZING #wherebooksgo Give Away

UPDATE (#2), September 10, 2015: Doh! Nick Nakorn also sent this lovely pic of his copy of The Last Days of Disco, complete with the appropriate soundtrack. I LOVE all the places books go!



UPDATE, September 10, 2015: I have been terribly remiss in updating this blog entry and I can only blame writing assignments and deadlines. We have a NEW winner for #wherebooksgo for this lovely photograph from Devon by Nick Nakorn.  Nick wins a copy of David Ross's wonderful debut novel, The Last Days of Disco.
The #giveaway isn't over yet. There are MORE books to be won, and we are adding books all the time so keep those pics coming. There is still one FINAL copy of David Ross's hilarious Last Days of Disco. We also have a copy of Paul Hardisty's debut thriller set in Yemen, The Abrupt Physics of Dying as well as a SIGNED copy (exclusive first edition hard back) of Ragnar Jonasson's Snowblind. And keep an eye out as we're adding one of my favourite Finnish noir writers to the #giveaway next week!

Winning is easy: just take a pic with your copy of Hotel Arcadia wherever you are and tweet or instagram it with the #wherebooksgo hashtag. Or email it to connect@sunnysingh.net or send it in via Facebook here.

UPDATE, August 17th, 2015: Winner of Princess Bari by Hwang Sok-Yong is Monika Thakur who sent in this amazing photograph from the Himalayas, India (along with some gorgeous ones from Turkey that you can see here):


UPDATE, July 29th, 2015: NEW BOOK added to the #giveaway: 

We have added the Princess Bari by Hwang Sok-yong to the #giveaway thanks to Periscope Publishing. I am particularly pleased because Periscope is a fabulous new indy publisher and I absolutely LOVE this book.

It is my favourite read of 2015 so far. Not only does Sok-Yong create a wonderful resilient heroine but also weaves in magic, fable and politics with lyrical ease. The novel is both timeless and topical as it follows the migrant heroine from Korea to London, and is both poetic and hardhitting. If you haven't read it yet, you SHOULD!

UPDATE, July 24th 2015: We have just hit 125 pics and have our very FIRST winner for the #wherebooksgo giveaway. Allen Anderson wins a copy of David Ross's hilarious Last Days of Disco for this glorious photograph from Shorre Acres National Park, Oregon, USA.

And thank you Allen Anderson for all the wonderful pics that you sent through. So many beautiful places that Hotel Arcadia visited out in western United States.

UPDATE. July 13th 2015. We have hit 120 pics though the protagonist of the photograph should not be reading any of the books on our giveaway list. Instead she gets a copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, probably far more appropriate for her.

#wherebooksgo is a fun crowdsourcing project that traces my new novel, Hotel Arcadia's travels around the world with the readers. It is really simple: readers take a picture of the book wherever they read the book – at home, travelling, somewhere familiar or exotic – and post it on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag. Or they send it to me on Facebook, or email it.

The idea behind #wherebooksgo is both sentimental as it was what I wished to do while reading Paul Sussman’s  novel, The Labyrinth of Osiris, after he had passed way, and romantic as I have always wanted to know where books went with their readers.  So when Hotel Arcadia came out, I requested readers to send in their photographs; I love getting a glimpse into their lives, and minds, which is both a joy and a privilege and one that would be impossible without technology and social media.

Over the last few weeks, readers have been sending pics from across the globe and the hashtag looks a lot like my dream list of places where I – not just my book – long to go. And I am getting to know readers from across the world who are so disparate and diverse and yet connected by their love of reading. The project remains is simple: send in photo of Hotel Arcadia for the #wherebooksgo collection, but now there are PRIZES!


For the most fun, wonderful, gorgeous photographs to come in, there are fabulous books to be won, including THREE copies of David F Ross’s AMAZING The Last Days of Disco 

The 150th photo wins a copy of the CWA-shortlisted thriller The AbruptPhysics of Dying by Paul Hardisty, set in Yemen as is some of Hotel Arcadia.

And the 175th photograph wins a signed copy (exclusive first edition hard back) of Ragnar Jonasson’s bestselling Snowblind.

There are more wonderful books for readers by LOTS of amazing writers coming up as #wherebooksgo takes Hotel Arcadia to more places (see on-going updates above). 

Saturday, March 14, 2015

A Chat With The Artist Taxidriver: Politics, Structured Bigotry and Life In General

So last month I was approached by the Artist Taxidriver - the performance artist Mark McGowan - to have a chat about structural prejudice, future of Britain, and life in general. I was quite surprised when he reached out to me on Twitter but found myself very intrigued. The interview was the most unusual one I have done. We sat in the car chatting while the iphone mounted on the dashboard recorded us. Here are the videos of our chat:


For the record, I was totally impressed by how well prepared Mark was for our chat. He had pages of notes and had probably researched everything but my tax records! As a former journalist who was trained to research thoroughly, I felt an instant kinship with his preparation. Also having been on the other side, I have to say that Mark was more prepared than pretty much any journalist that has ever interviewed me.



It was also a unique interview because Mark pretty much uploads the videos without editing which gives the conversation both an honesty and added pressure because there is really no going back from one's statements. On the other hand, the format also means the discussion can be more in-depth than the 'sound bite' formats available on mass media.  


As we discussed all sorts of issues, from sexism and racism, to general elections, the strengths of Mark's preferred format became clear. Discussion could be both far ranging and in depth: we were not limited by the issues that plague the infotainment that has over-taken our screens. I can see why and how this format could provide a viable and interesting alternative to discussions in mainstream media. Once again socmed FTW!



Apparently we enjoyed chatting so much that we kept going for nearly an hour. Mark said it was the longest interview he had done. But I take the blame for that....I am chatty even at the worst of times.

Mark also warned me that I should not look at the comments below the video as youtube can be a 'cess pit.'  For once and probably given my own experience of misogynist online abuse, I have followed the advice extended to me. I recommend you do the same! 


All in all, it was the most unusual but interesting interview I have done and thank you Mark for inviting me.  You should also check out Mark's other work