A Larby Lodge Blog

A Larby Lodge Blog by Gail and Paul Gallacher.

Part 2 - Rise Of The Youth League - due Summer 2013!


Saturday 21 July 2012

Sunday 8 July 2012

NEW COVER SPOILER

Okay so ahead of it being uploaded to Amazon, here is our new cover:



We love our original cover (see below), but this is just that bit more appropriate for our story!!




Which do you prefer?

Friday 6 July 2012


E-publishing and Blogging Workshops...

So far we have done four workshops in local schools, working mostly with students from years 8 & 9. They have all been great fun, and all very different. Our first workshop at Open Academy saw students coming up with some brilliant 'blurbs' for the back cover of what would be their own book. Whereas the students at City Academy were very inspired by the idea of writing blog reviews and re-writing blurbs for existing books. Below is a selection of the student's work;

A True Life Story

Small Operations. Small Mistakes.
That's what they thought would happen.
1 Mission. 507 Soldiers. 6 Helicopters.
Hit the building. Get the hostages and get out.
Easy!
The worst thing to hear was said "black hawk down".




Life On The Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers: A review by Charlotte.

A disturbing process, mixed with many other emotions. Trawling with heart-broken notes, being challenged to keep the tears held back. With a heartful little character named clare-bear, referred to in her mum's mind as clare-bear, goes with a disturbance of life and taking the role of two lives, one being hers and the other being her mum's horrifying illness.

The actual fact of her mum and herself meeting in the kitchen every day without fail, being locked as an important role in both hers and her mum's heart.

However one heartful day when Clare-Bear arrives at the kitchen fridge with a total change of writing on the letter, and much more streams of tears from Clare-Bear with the note being said that her mum was taken into hospital but not surviving and had been told her fight against cancer suddenly gave up.


Back Cover Blurb by Harry...

The year is unknown.
The world is not normal.
Trees are red-fire burning in the twilight spectacular.
The sky is green fur, purring at the moon. 
The stars glaze with bright honour.
The birds walk and mammals fly.
This world is not as it seems.

Only one boy can save the universe.
He must go on a perilous journey of unknown horror and truth.
And the path he takes will affect his friends and family.

You decide. You choose. His destiny.
The Universe is in your and his hands.
Live or Die?


THANKS FOR THESE BRILLIANT BITS OF WRITING!

MORE WORK TO FOLLOW!!!

Tea and Text: Stacking the Shelves (3)

Tea and Text: Stacking the Shelves (3): Okay, so I'm having a terrible time resisting buying books... But at least I've spread it out over a few weeks in this attempt!    ...

Check out our quick mention on the wonderful Tea and Text Blog. Ann, we hope you enjoy. Keep your eye on this blog for a Larby Lodge review in the near future!

Wednesday 4 July 2012

Lost in a Sea of Words: Review of Larby Lodge

Lost in a Sea of Words: Review of Larby Lodge: Hey everyone!!! It's review time! I met this awesome husband/wife writing duo on www.worldliteracycafe.com and recently read their novel. T...
                                            Amanda Hocking, Gail Gallacher, Eric Goldman

Amanda Hocking and the Kindle Million Club!

Here I am with the uber successful Amanda Hocking - one of the first members of the Kindle Million club. She self published her popular Trylle series and sold so many copies that she had agents and publishers chasing her. She's now a New York Times Bestselling Author, and she buys cool things with her earnings like a life-size replica of Hans Solo frozen in carbonite...I think Paul would probably love one of those too! This is Amanda doing an event on behalf of Waterstones at Aylsham High. She was jetting off to Spain just after to continue her worldwide tour...that's the life!

Amanda was adamant that her success was due to the enthusiasm and support she got from the blogging world. So bloggers everywhere we salute you, but do give self-published authors a chance - a lot of the time they are fantastic writers. It's tough to get a break at the moment, so why not publicise your own work if you have the creative means?

We'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this;

Are you struggling to get a deal?
Have you decided to bypass submissions completely and do it for yourself?

Tuesday 3 July 2012



Another mock-up of characters. I guess this is almost like a mood-board for what is now book 3: Mitford Falls. Note the prominence of Pandora (Marilyn Monroe-inspired), she was to be just as big a character as Eve in the original book 1, but we quickly realised that we were narrating from too many different perspectives, so we honed in on Eve's story. Pandora is a really strong character though, so she will most definately bob up to cause some conflict later in Eve's journey.


Characters: Part 2

When we write, it's like we have a movie playing in our head. These were the actors in our imagined movie of Mitford Falls, which was originally going to be book 1, but has now become book 3 in The Sword And The Flame series. Note that unfortunately two of these actors are dead. Heath Ledger was going to be Marcus, you'll have to wait for his character! Marilyn Monroe (or as close as we could get) is our Pandora, again, you won't discover her for a while yet...but boy is she an amazing character. Josh Hartnett is our vision of Jude Cawood (Pandora's love interest). Liv Tyler (or Jennifer Connolly as she was in Labyrinth) has always been our vision of Eve. Heather Graham is an older and more together version of Iris, if you want a version of her as she is in Larby Lodge, check out the actress from Wild Child and St Trinians: Juno Temple.

Note: Someone missing? You're right! James was only a minor character in Mitford Falls, but drew our attention so much, that we had to give him a bigger role, so as Eve's love interest, we have always imagined James to be played by Alex Pettyfer.

Let us know if you think different and if so, who do you picture as Eve, James and Iris?