Busy month has been extremely busy! I've been awfully quiet this December - but hard at work over here in Oxford. Our assignments have been ticked off one by one. Farewell editorial report and presentation, farewell design and production sample chapters and BLAD, farewell marketing plan. You were a hoot.

(I'm now nocturnal.)

We've officially proposed our Online Dating Guide for the Young Professional (Click Online Dating in the City), and although we didn't win the Pan Macmillan editorial prize (which went to the extremely deserving team who created Happy Hedgehogs a Gluten-free cookbook for kids with 'prickly tummies') we probably won with the world's most co-operative and peaceful team building experience. It was great working with you team 11!

Karly and I spent many an afternoon with wicked witches and dastardly devils trying to get to grips with the ins and outs of InDesign to redesign Monsters in the Movies into a new paperback format, with revised text and layout. Vampires and Werewolves, ghosts, fairytales and modern monsters were all scanned, edited and reformatted. And eventually we even figured out how to do the preflight checks (tip: do this as you go along and spot mistakes on the way!) My most successful accomplishment was learning how to do clipping paths on photoshop. I'll be reading my InDesign guide back to front this Christmas break to try and figure it all out at home.

And Beth and I have literally just this minute submitted our Marketing Plan for a series of four 'Living With...' titles under the Jessica Kingsley Publishers brand list. 

FREEDOM!

In other news I've managed to stumble my happy way into three upcoming internships in 2013. The first you already know about, David Fickling Books, which starts in January. I've been reading lots of wonderful DFB titles in preparation, and am particularly fond of Richard Coleridge's beautiful winter picturebook When it Snows. 

The second is a week in May with the sales and marketing department of an up and coming Childrens and Young Adult trade fiction imprint called Hot Key Books, who have signed Sally Gardner's fabulously trippy tale Maggot Moon, and one of my favourite American teen writers, Maureen Johnson. I'm hoping to build my dissertation/major project around the idea of social media and community building with marketing and PR in Young Adult markets, so am particularly excited at this amazing opportunity.

And finally I am incredibly happy to have been offered a month internship at Headline books immediately following my week at Hot Key. I can't wait to follow up the book signing event with Eowyn Ivey and Sam Eades with the chance to peek behind the scenes at the build up to such a campaign.

So I hope you all enjoy your winter holidays.

I shall be reading:

Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey (I'm half way through and it is beautiful, a definite must read!)
Divergent - Veronica Roth
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairytale Land In A Ship Of Her Own Making - Catherynne M. Valente
The Feathered Man - Jeremy de Quidt
A Discovery of Witches - Deborah Harkness 
Heart-Shaped Bruise - Tanya Byrne

This Monday I was lucky enough to staff a book signing event and meet Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child, and as of last night newly crowned winner of the International Book of the Year at the Specsavers National Book Awards. 

On a tour organised by Headline publishers, Eowyn traveled all the way from Alaska to do a whirlwind tour of book shops on Snow Day. The Book House were thrilled to participate as the novel has been the top of our staff choices, already selling over a hundred copies - incredible for a debut novel in an Independent Book Shop. Many delighted readers came to have their treasured hardback editions signed by the author (including my Mum in the middle of that picture!) and even more purchased the book as that perfect seasonal Christmas gift.

 
Based on a Russian fairy tale, The Snow Child is about a couple in 1920s who years on are still deeply mourning the loss of their baby. Set against the stark background of Alaska, Jack and Mabel are astonished by the appearance of a young girl who appears mysteriously on their land. Her arrival causes joy and foreboding. The novel is enchanting and tragic, superbly written and deeply affecting.

Eowyn had a particularly interesting outlook towards her book shop tour, as she herself runs an Indie book shop called Fireside Books back home in Alaska. She was very interested in the running of the shop and the local customers, comparing them to her own experience. Her Headline publicist, Sam Eades, documented the tour with a variety of photos taken from the road - treating followers of the tour on twitter to an abundance of imaginative snow themed windows and displays.  

Working author events such as this one has been my favourite part of being a book seller for the past seven years. Seeing authors connect with their readers and hearing the stories of those who have loved and been touched by a book we have sold is incredibly heartwarming. Eowyn's friendly and approachable nature meant this event was a complete joy. You can follow her snowy Alaskan adventures on her twitter.

I hope you all get the chance to read The Snow Child this winter!