Wednesday 21 September 2022

'Small Miracles' by Anne Booth

 Last month my first book for adults, 'Small Miracles' was published, and we had an event at Waterstones in Canterbury. 


'Small Miracles' has, as part of its plot, some nuns winning a prize on the lottery, so one of my children, who has this year graduated with a degree in Industrial Design, had the brilliant idea of making scratch cards for people attending. She designed them, sent me and my husband off to the printers who get them made, and showed us how to stick the gold foil you scratch off, over the message declaring the prize (or, 'sorry, you haven't won a prize' message) Each message had a relevant quote from the book on it - so if you won Kimberley biscuits or Tayto crisps or meringues (all relevant to the book!)  you got the page number where they were mentioned, and if you didn't win you got a consoling message in the form of a quote about how Sister Cecilia had to cope with disappointment. It was such a lovely idea, and we also had cakes from a local cafĂ© and Prosecco and Italian soft drinks as a link to the part of the book which is set in Italy. 


I was asked by the Waterstones Manager at the 'Small Miracles' launch  about whether I wanted to carry on writing Children's books, and I nearly forgot I was at a launch for my adult book because I got so passionate about how important and wonderful Children's books were and are to me!  I got very excited about all the amazing books for children out there, and urged everyone to go and read them.  I said that although this adult novel has been published after I have had 23 Children's books published, I actually started writing for adults, on an MA in 2003, long before I started writing for children, and this was not because I preferred to write for adults, but because, having a previous MA in the history and development of Children's Literature, I was more intimidated by the thought of writing for children than for adults! I have at this moment, five picture book texts which will be published in coming years, and although there will be a VERY long wait for at least three of them,  I  am very very proud that they are going to come out, and very much like the fact that this will prolong my life as a published writer for children! I also have other Children's books I want to write, and a whole MG novel I have already written but need to drastically edit, and which I would love to be accepted, but which I do not ever take for granted will be published.

However, I do hope to carry on writing for adults, and am working on the sequel to 'Small Miracles', called 'Sweet Mercies' at the moment. One thing that I am really enjoying about writing for adults is that I can unselfconsciously  include positive and lovable religious main characters in my stories , as I have found this to be much more difficult in mainstream Children's publishing. I wrote about 'Characters who pray' in a blog post here: https://missclevelandsreading.com/2018/06/06/characters-who-pray-by-anne-booth/ 


ANYWAY,  

If you would like to have fun reading about Sister Bridget, Sister Cecilia and Sister Margaret, who are EXTREMELY normal nuns who pray,  and who I had great fun writing,  here is the link! 


https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/444671/small-miracles-by-booth-anne/9781787302976






I have also donated a signed copy to the Children in Read auction for Children in Need, and I can dedicate it and send it to the winning bidder. I'd be very grateful if you could share this online.



https://www.jumblebee.co.uk/auction/detail/auction_id/6590?search=Anne+Booth




3 comments:

Joan Lennon said...

Your launch sounds fabulous - a bit of much-needed joy!

Anne Booth said...

Thank you, Joan!

Hilary Hawkes said...

Congratulations on the new book! And wonderful that you have a sequel to it and more children's books in the pipeline too :) It's not easy to keep on being published and a great achievement.