author | Bookseeker Literary Agency

August 28, 2014
by bookseekeragency

Updates on Marie Marshall’s ‘From My Cold, Undead Hand’

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The passage is from the story-within-a-story, a translation of a rediscovered, nineteenth-century manuscript said to be the writings of a female vampire-hunter. You will find it embedded in Marie Marshall’s futuristic teen-vampire novel From My Cold, Undead Hand, which now has its own feature page at P’kaboo publishers. Just click the book cover to be taken there. There are extras – text and an audio file from the diary of one of the characters – for a limited number of purchasers. For those of you who would like a paperback version in advance of any domestic print launch, you can get it at Amazon – same goes for a Kindle version.

The author, along with cover illustrator Millie Ho, are offering a couple of wallpapers using the cover artwork. They are available here.

We at the agency are getting very excited about the publication of this teen-vampire novel! As with all titles from P’kaboo Publishers in South Africa, the publisher is keen to find ‘partner’ publishing houses in the UK, the USA, and worldwide who would like to make this novel available to a wider readership. Please contact this agency for further details.

August 21, 2014
by bookseekeragency

Publication date for ‘From My Cold, Undead Hand’ announced!

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Yes, P’kaboo Publishers have announced the date on which Marie Marshall’s long-awaited teen-vampire novel From My Cold, Undead Hand will be available from them in e-book form. Other forms will become available later, but for those readers with the facility to read the ePub format, buying direct is the way to go. You can pre-order, and as a bonus the first twenty-five purchasers will receive extras, including audio material!

The story itself is fast paced and gripping. The protagonist is Chevonne Kusnetsov, a teenager from New York City a generation or so into the future. The ecology is in crisis, electricity is scarcer and mainly generated by wind turbines mounted on top of buildings. Meanwhile, vampires stalk the dimly-lit streets after dark. But their very existence is denied by the government and the media. Expose!, a shadowy organisation formed to blow the vampires’ cover wherever it can, is routinely denounced for conspiracy-theory, anti-semitism, and downright insanity. The Resistance, a secret guerrilla army of vampire-hunters, organised in a cell-structure, is denounced as a ‘terrorist’ organisation. Chevonne has been recruited to the Resistance by her history teacher, and she’s tough – straight from the school kick-boxing club, she can use her fists and feet, but also a sword, a stake, and a laser-gun. What is the vampires’ ultimate plan? How does it involve the government? How does it affect Chevonne and her friends Di and E.J.?

The title, From My Cold, Undead Hand, is adapted from a famous slogan popularised by the National Rifle Association in the USA in defence of the right of American citizens to own and carry firearms. One of the features of the novel is that vampires, who in traditional fiction arm themselves with nothing but their teeth, exercise this constitutional right. Well, so do the vampire-hunters! By the end of the book there is a twist to this ‘right’. I asked Marie if her novel was deliberately politicised or partisan on this issue.

No, indeed not, but it did occur to me to introduce gun-carrying vampires and to have elements of the plot which developed the consequences of guns in this kind of conflict or adventure. Of course I have my own views about the issue, but there are two points I’d like to make. Firstly, I’m not American, and it’s America’s call. And secondly, no author worthy of the name lets her own views affect the way a plot is developing. The story goes how the story goes and that’s that. Anyhow it’s not ‘about’ guns. If it has a theme it’s about how young people tend to be marginalised.

That theme turns the dramatic crisis of the novel into a cliffhanger, leaving readers wanting more. Thankfully a sequel is half-written already, and there is even the possibility of a threequel. So who should read it?

It’s pitched at ‘young adult’ level, but it’s not ‘written down’. I think it will be snapped up not only by teenage readers but by adults who are into vampire fiction – and there are many, many of them ‘out there’. I just hope people out there will enjoy the ride as much as my ‘beta readers’ did.

From the point of view of this agency, it is encouraging that P’kaboo have shown faith in Marie once more, and are publishing her third novel on the 15th of September. Keep a watch for updates here, and by following @ColdUndeadHand on Twitter. Don’t forget that you can pre-order your copy!

July 4, 2014
by bookseekeragency

Watch out for ‘From My Cold, Undead Hand’!

Our client Marie Marshall was asked by her publisher if she could write a teen-vampire novel, and her answer was simply to write one – From My Cold, Undead Hand. She told us:

It’s both an easy and a difficult genre to write in. It’s full of ready-made tropes and pre-existing vampire ‘lore’, and of course it has a cult-genre following of highly critical fans. Basically a writer has two choices: Buffy or Twilight. By that I mean one has to chose between writing about vampire hunters, or teenage romances with vampires. Then one has either to avoid cliché… ahem… like the plague, or embrace the clichés and go nuts with them.

So, which story-line has Marie decided to go down?

Well, I chose the vampire-hunter angle, as it gave me the opportunity to create a strong, young, female protagonist.

FMCUH bookseeker image Marie is adept at those strong, female protagonists – Jelena and Eunice in Lupa, Angela in The Everywhen Angels, and now Chevonne Kusnetsov, a girl from New York a few decades in our future, in From My Cold, Undead Hand. The novels launches straight into action, with Chevonne in a darkened library, defending her dying mentor from the attack of a powerful vampire ‘sire’. Spiced here and there with hints of ITpunk and steampunk, and complete with a nineteenth-century sub-plot revealed in an old book, the pace of the novel never flags. It shuts with a bang – readers will blink and say “Huh?” – leaving a perfect springboard for the sequel, KWIREBOY vs VAMPIRE, which is already being written! Ostensibly dealing with the constitutional right of vampires to carry guns, the novel in fact foregrounds how young people are routinely marginalised. So, has she succeeded in avoiding cliché?

I hope so. I’ve tried to be innovative whilst leaving enough there that is familiar.

In fact when we read through the manuscript we noticed some cheeky inter-textual referencing. Readers will be surprised to find out who’s included in Chevonne Kusnetsov’s remote family tree, for example. Readers familiar with, say, Bram Stoker or Stephenie Meyer may spot some ‘Easter-eggs’, though Marie cites as her main influence Joe Aherne’s TV series Ultraviolet.

Adding to the impact of Marie’s prose will be cover art again by Millie Ho, the talented Canadian artist and writer, who provided the cover for The Everywhen Angels. This is a book to watch out for, one not to miss. As soon as there’s a launch date we’ll let you know. Follow the action on Twitter @ColdUndeadHand.

June 9, 2014
by bookseekeragency

Available for publishers: ‘Split Decision’ by Carmen Capuano

My name is Natalie and I am almost sixteen years old. I didn’t know what to do when two boys asked me out on the same day and I didn’t realise how little I knew about life at the time… but I made my decision and now I have to live with the consequences…

That, in a nutshell, is how Natalie, the protagonist of Carmen Capuano’s YA/crossover novel Split Decision, would introduce herself.

Natalie knows she has some decisions to make. Should she date the boy next door or the other one, the one who looks as if he plans to set the world on fire? What she doesn’t know is that the wrong decision will send her life spiraling into the stuff of nightmares where she might not come out alive.

Life takes a cruel twist of fate when Natalie, a completely average [almost] 16 year old is forced to make a split-second decision…a decision that will change her future and forever alter her perception of trust, love and the realities of life.

Split Decision could be thought of as ‘a modern take on Sliding Doors with a teenage edge’. It’s a novel of contrasts, of humour and dark despair, where difficult themes such as rape and drug abuse are written of in a style that is gritty but never gratuitous, coming via numerous plot twists to a surprise conclusion. It is written from the heart and tells a tale of what may be, in a world that is increasingly dangerous for all, but especially teenagers and fledgling adults.

Author Carmen Capuano is a live wire, and the agency is very pleased to be presenting Split Decision to UK publishers. Just get in touch and ask to see sample chapters, a synopsis, etc.

Heeyy! Carmen meets The Fonz! Author Carmen Capuano pictured with actor Henry Winkler.

June 8, 2014
by bookseekeragency

P’kaboo Publishers – looking for publishing ‘partners’ in the UK, the USA, and worldwide.

Part of the ‘mission’ of South African indie publishing house P’kaboo is to be a springboard from which to launch authors to bigger things, to be the first step for an author in getting himself or herself noticed by mainstream publishers in the wider world, particularly in the UK and USA. With that in mind, this agency, as the UK representative of P’kaboo, would like to bring three books to your attention.

Each one is available on request, for consideration by any commercial publisher in the UK, the USA, or worldwide. Just email this agency!

Although the three books here may all be classified generally in the ‘fantasy’ genre, this is only one of the strings to P’kaboo’s bow. Their list includes a range from children’s books to music manuals.

Solar Wind I: The Mystery of the Solar Wind
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This is the first of a series – the author has completed No.IV – and the most obvious place to start. Although this novel and its sequels may fit the ‘fantasy’ genre, this one may be thought of rather as a mystery novel in a futuristic setting.

The year is 2116. Captain Radomir Lascek sails his pirate ship, the Solar Wind, around the oceans, collecting outlaws and fugitives and dodging the authorities. But then he hires three young musicians in Dublin – the Donegal Troubles. Radomir Lascek, with all his wily schemes, is about to learn the real meaning of ‘trouble’.

Here is what some readers and reviewers have had to say. Firstly in the Father’s Day issue of South Africa’s Your Family magazine:

Mystery of the Solar Wind… is a heart-warming and sometimes breath-stopping tale of murder, flight, and friendship. The Solar Wind’s crew is more than a motley one. They are a bickering, eccentric clan, full of shenanigans and loyal to the death… which might just be around the corner.

Fran Lewis, book reviewer and author of the Bertha series, says:

Secrets, mysteries, lies, deceptions, intrigue and murder are just some of what you will encounter when you board the Solar Wind for your journey into the 22nd century. This will not be just any ordinary journey, it will keep you spellbound, alert, terrified, inquisitive and more, about the new world powers of the year 2116 and just what changes are in store for you. With a cast of characters so diversified, yet so alike, you will want to not only learn the reasons why each crewmember signed on to the Solar Wind, but go along with them on their dangerous journey to find freedom and safety in a world filled with fear.

A letter from the National Library of Scotland

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May 1, 2014
by bookseekeragency

Luke Bitmead Bursary

The Luke Bitmead Bursary is an annual award set up to support and encourage the work of fledgling novel writers. The award, now in it’s 7th year, is the UK’s biggest prize for unpublished authors. Read all about it at the Legend Press blog. Submissions are now open for the 2014 award.

Luke Bitmead 300dpi The bursary was set up by Luke’s family shortly after Luke’s sudden and tragic death in 2006, aged just 34. Luke was the first novelist to be published by Legend Press, who are delighted to work with Luke’s family each year on the award to honour his memory and help reduce the stigma attached to mental health issues. The top prize is a publishing contract with Legend Press, as well as a £2500 cash bursary.

Luke is the author of the brilliant White Summer, and also two novels published posthumously: The Body is a Temple and Heading South (co-authored by Catherine Richards). Information about Luke can be found at his web site.

If any of you do enter into correspondence with Legend, please don’t forget to mention where you heard of this. Thanks.

January 20, 2014
by bookseekeragency

‘The Everywhen Angels’ by Marie Marshall – now available worldwide!

Marie Marshall‘s stunning second novel, The Everywhen Angels, is now available worldwide in print and in Kindle format from Amazon, and direct from the publisher in eBook form. P’kaboo Publishers, for whom this agency is the UK ‘face’ is an indie publisher from South Africa. Though they might not have the clout, nor the advertising budget, of larger companies, they are in no way a ‘vanity publisher’. They offered Marie a commercial contract for her first two novels, Lupa, and The Everywhen Angels, and commissioned her to write a teen-vampire novel (From My Cold, Undead Hand – possibly to be published later in 2014). However, as a small publisher, P’kaboo acknowledges that it is in many ways a ‘first step’ for authors, and that if they can have their books taken up by one of the larger publishing houses then they should do so. P’kaboo’s blessing to them and recommendation to the other publisher can be taken for granted.

So, this agency’s next task is not only to promote the novel to readers, but also to UK publishers – starting here and now. If you’re reading this and are from a publishing house in the UK, the USA, or anywhere in the English-reading world, you have your next YA best seller right here!

The novel was written in response to a lively discussion Marie Marshall had with friends about the merits of a series of books by a fellow Scot, set in a school for wizards. Responding to a challenge, she wrote an intriguing story, full of twists and turns, setting it in a Comprehensive school somewhere on the outskirts of London, in which groups of teenagers appear to find themselves coming together to skirmish on what might turn out to be the battlefield of Armageddon. But does this really have anything to do with the ‘End Times’? They struggle with teenage problems – relationships, bullying, parents, and each other – whilst trying to make sense of a world in which sense becomes harder to grasp. The plot twists, turns, runs backwards, contradicts itself, asks very deep philosophical questions, but still turns out to be enthralling and enjoyable. The author takes risks with it, but she says: “I believe children can handle difficult philosophical questions. They can handle stories told in a strange way. Young readers are much more intelligent than adults give them credit for.”

Publishers – get in touch, don’t let this opportunity slip by. Here are some comments about the novel.

Nikki Mason at BestChickLit.com says:
“… Three extraordinary kids. Three astounding stories. What will you believe? Angela is just an ordinary teenager until the day she falls through a fence at school into the alternative reality of the Guardian Angels, a group of twelve teens who are tasked with protecting people in the build up of the final war between good and evil. But no one will answer Angela’s question: why? Charlie knows he is special. Of course he’s a Guardian Angel. But he is also a Yellow – the GA’s rivals who try to prevent all their good work. But why is everyone suddenly ignoring him? Ashe is diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome and yet he can open doors between worlds and time. He understands what it really means to be a Guardian Angel but can he cope with the knowledge alone?

Marie Marshall tackles big subjects in The Everywhen Angels from religion and science to war and politics. All this rages on in the foreground of the lives of three teenagers who are trying to find their place in their world and be comfortable in their own skin. Action packed, full of crazy tangents, incredible ideas and stunning description, the novel is completely different to anything I have read before. It can at times be confusing, but bear with the story – the mind-boggling themes and plot diversions will be explained and will feed the curious minds of young adults…”

‘The Swan Prince’ by Mart Sander – Looking for a theatre company!

Swan Prince 2 31 October 1893, St Petersburg. Eight prominent men, one-time school classmates of the composer Tchaikovsky, have gathered to pass sentence on the man, summoned before their ‘court of honour’. For many of his contemporaries, the composer has been walking on thin ice for some time; his association with the shadier side of St Petersburg and his numerous affairs with teenage boys are no longer a secret in society. They threaten the composer with public exposure, disgrace to his family, and the certainty that his music will be banned. Alternatively, an escape route is offered: should Tchaikovsky agree to ‘the honourable way out’, taking arsenic in careful doses over the next three days, the brotherhood will secure his position as the greatest Russian composer for all times. So runs the theory…

The playwright who conceived the drama of The Swan Prince, Mart Sander, is a well-known musician, artist, author, TV host, and impresario from Estonia. Sander fell in love with Tchaikovsky’s music in his early childhood and has often performed it on the stage. According to him, there is no great conflict in the life of the composer: “Sin and virtue are concepts which are not only conventional but also variable. If sin – or more particularly, the public agreement on that particular sin – fuels the element of creativity, ignites the flame where noble and valuable things are forged, then perhaps it is we who have to renew our standpoint.”

url In his play, Mart Sander goes a step further from the current theories about the composer’s death. He suggests that that the eight people involved were not acting merely to protect their alma mater, but rather themselves. In The Swan Prince everyone who passes sentence on Tchaikovsky has a purely selfish motive. He also suggests that real cruelty is not so much to attack your victim’s jugular and rip him apart, but to kill your friend with a smile on your lips, in an emotionless, methodical, matter-of-fact manner.

The Swan Prince, written in English, is available for performance in theatres worldwide. Please contact this agency if your theatre company would be interested in performing it.

September 27, 2013
by bookseekeragency

Interview with the late Hector P Cortes

We recently received the sad new that our client Hector P Cortes died in hospital on 23^rd September. Hector’s family and friends have our sincere sympathy. On a practical note, we will continue to offer Hector’s novel ‘Miura’ to publishers on behalf of his estate. Almost the last thing Hector did before his final illness incapacitated him, was to answer some interview questions for us. We’re very grateful to Hector’s daughter Daniella Robles for her help and for permission to publish the interview, which we do now as a tribute to Hector.

Hector, How did you start writing? What gave you the first impetus to put pen to paper? When did you first start to take yourself seriously as a writer?

Early 2000 – I felt like having a bit of a laugh at the expense of musicians and a lifetime of anecdotes and personal experiences (mine and those of other muzos!) turned into a book called ‘Blow Job; Memoirs of a Trombone Player’. I was hooked on writing from then.

What genres do you write in, and what attracts you to them?

I’m not really attracted to any particular genre, the stories just happen. I’ve written historical novels, thrillers, comedies…I just go with the flow.

When you read a piece of writing by another author, what stands out for you? What do you admire in another writer, what thrills and delights you? Equally, what features of literature today do you dislike?

I like a sense of excitement, a maintained pace and historical fact-based plot-lines; Bernard Cromwell’s ‘Sharpe’ series are ones that stand out for these reasons, and I like his style. The only thing that puts me off an author is if he bores me within the first half of a book – it’s hard for me to get bored reading any book as I love so many different styles so to bore me into putting it down is quite an achievement!

Whose writing do you particularly admire, and why?

For the reasons stated earlier, I truly admire Bernard Cromwell, Carlos Ruiz Zafón who wrote ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ because of his story-telling and peculiar but readably style, and Charles Klein who wrote ‘The Music Master’; perhaps this last one is not well known as it was first published in 1909, but he draws on emotion very strongly and that appeals to me.

Do you read hardbacks, paperbacks, or ebooks?

Always paper! I prefer the feel of a real book in my hands.

Is there still a place today for the printed book?

Of course – they will never be replaced. Nothing beats the smell of a new book or the feel of it in your hands.

You’re a Gibraltarian who has written a story about Spain. How close would a Gibraltarian be to Spain culturally? What would give a Gibraltarian – you in particular – an insight into Spanish history and culture?

I’ve been told before by readers of my other books that I identify very personally with Spain – and I do because I write from what I know. Both culturally and emotionally, as a Gibraltarian the Spanish culture is very much in my blood, all politics aside!

Your novel ‘Miura’ covers a very dynamic and difficult period of Spanish history, the full details of which are still emerging. What drew you to this period and inspired you to write this novel? Did you need to do much research?

The novel was inspired by historical events and conditions that, as a Gibraltarian, my parents and I actually lived through. The knowledge of the bullfights also comes from my experiences as a boy and young man going to see them. What started off as a work of fiction for me, became a historically accurate novel once the death of Franco was woven into it – I uncovered incredible research from various online sources which brought out facts about Franco’s death, rather than the ‘propaganda’ version the Spanish Government put out there at the time.

Do you identify with any of the characters, and if so, why do you think that is?

I don’t personally identify with any one character – never been a bullfighter or a doctor – but I do identify with the combined ethos of the characters.

How do you unwind when you’re not writing?

I spend a lot of my time on Facebook talking to my friends, both old and new. It’s a wonderful way to keep in touch with people.

Imagine your house is on fire and you just have time to grab three books from your bookshelf. Given that most books can be replaced at the local bookshop, what three books are irreplaceable for you, and why?

This is an easy question for me – it would be: My original copies of ‘Music Master’ (Charles Klein) and ‘A Christmas Carol’ (Charles Dickens) because they have been my favourite books since my youth and take me right back there whenever I pick them up. And finally my original copy of King Arthur and his Knights (as retold by Blanche Wilder) as I have always been fascinated by those stories – in fact they play a great part in some of my other published books; and I have instilled that love of Arthurian legend in my daughter Daniella who in turn is already teaching my two little grandchildren all about it.

If you could meet one literary person, past or present, real or a fictional character, who would it be?

Charles Dickens – the man clearly had a good sense of humour and seemed to be quite a character, and he wrote about the social injustices of his day which I spend a lot of time doing online! We’d certainly have a lot to talk about…