In My Mailbox (22)

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren.

I have had shocker of a weekend. My friends are looking after me and I'm reading one of my favourite comfort books, Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield. I'll be myself again soon, I think. I'll explain another time, but it hasn't got anything to do with my writing.

This really brightened my Saturday morning, a present from the lovely Lenore:


I have been so anxious to get a copy of The Line and Lenore was lovely enough to send me her spare copy all the way from Germany. In return I sent her my copy of The Monstrumologist, one of my favourite books from last year. If you haven't read it and love Victorian Gothic, you simply must. It will give your vocab a good workout too.

Thank you, Lenore! You continue to be the most generous, warm-spirited blogger I know.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Line by Teri Hall

The Line by Teri Hall is another one of my most anticipated books of 2010, and chapter one has just been put up on the author's website! Available March 4. It's also been optioned for television. How cool is that?

From extract:

The Line itself was invisible. There was a barren ribbon of soil running along the meadow as far as the eye could see, where the grass couldn’t grow. And Rachel thought she could see a funny sort of haze, but even that was only apparent in certain lights—right before dusk, or early in the morning.

Though the Line was almost imperceptible, it had
affected many lives. It affected Rachel’s too. In a sense, the Line was the reason Rachel ended up working in the greenhouse, instead of just playing.

Her mom would have said that wasn’t true. Rachel could hear the lecture in her head: It is always a person’s own actions that bring about any real change, good or bad. Vivian would have said a lot more than that if she knew what really happened.

What really happened was that Rachel tried to Cross.

I wondered about the significance of the greenhouse on the cover. This one sounds like it's going to be an exciting read!