Hopefully my 3 giveaway winners now have their books in hand and are busy reading to their heart’s delight.
Questions on the book / the writing life are invited from everyone. No need to be a blogger. No need to have read the book. No need to be UK-based. Please enter your questions in comments and I shall provide a book-related prize for the best question. Mari will be the judge of that – and, of course, my own questions will be excluded from the competition!
The Q&A session proper will take place on the evening of Wednesday 6.5.2009 – exact time and method to be confirmed but Mari will be here, live, so you can talk to her in realtime too …..
Are you as excited as I am?
The time for the live Q&A has been confirmed. Wednesday 6.05.09 7-9 pm BST. You can post those fiendishly difficult questions in advance if you wish …
EDIT: This post is for questions only – the live Q&A is happening here.
Lizzy's Literary Life (Volume One) 
I did get mine am putting it on hold until monday as need something wonderful for evil communtes early in the London masses! Can’t wait for the live questions!
My copy has arrived and, like Simon, I have been saving it up to read but my willpower’s not strong enough to last out until Monday (although I do sympathize about his commute). A cup of tea in hand, my sofa is calling me to settle down and immerse myself in the The Earth Hums so if you’ll excuse me…
I’ve been distracted by library books that can’t be renewed but I’ve started reading and I’ll definitely be back soon.
With only 3 days to go, it’s time to start posting questions. Let’s start with the tough ones ….
1) Mari, do you still have a toby jug on your mantelpiece?
Hello everybody – looking forward to your questions, and meeting you all on the night! So here goes with the first answer:
1) Mari, do you still have a toby jug on your mantelpiece?
I don’t have a Toby jug on my mantelpiece – and I’m sorry to disappoint anybody – but I’ve never had a Toby jug on my mantelpiece! I do remember that my grandfather had two Toby jugs which I always found rather scary when I was small – but my memory of them is rather vague.
Oh, look at that – an early answer!
Mari, I intended that questions be posted early to give you advance warning for the night. No worries – at least, now we know the technology works!
However, here’s a question that does need an advance answer, particularly if it involves home baking. Which refreshments am I serving, Mari?
Duh!
Anyway – refreshments…
As this is an evening meeting – may I have a glass of fruity, full bodied red wine (organic if possible to avoid headaches!) and some black olives and crusty bread, please?
Thank you.
I love this book. It’s both enchanting and thought-provoking. The 1950’s period details transported me back to childhood memories – how could I forget how much I loved pineapple chunks? It also reminded me of an era when taboos and often feelings were really things best left unspoken. Gwenni completely won me over with her brave search to unravel her family’s secrets. So much so I worry about her future and my questions are –
Will genetics play as large a part in Gwenni’s life as in her sister Bethan’s? Will she inherit the mental illness that blighted her mother and grandmother’s lives or can we take comfort that people with the illness can be creative and this is an explanation for Gwenni’s vivid imagination? Alternatively was her imagination and flying her way of surviving her invisibility to her mother – or is her flying and hearing the earth hum in b flat more magical and something she may have inherited from her father?
Oh excellent question, Lesley! Something I hadn’t thought of.
I’m not posting my questions just yet – am giving all you lovely blog readers first options. I’ll post mine tomorrow evening about 5:00 p.m just before I uncork the wine and put the bread in to bake ……
OK – here’s 6 questions for the price of 2 ….
1) I’m interested in the choices you made in the writing of the Earth Hums In B-Flat, particularly in regard to a) choice of place and time; b) lead character; c) tense and d) language. (In this regard do you think you’ve caught the musicality of Welsh in your English rendition?)
2) Your novel has a gorgeous cover. Tell us something about the designer and did you have an input into it?
Lizzy, thanks for setting this up. An early question, as I’m not sure I can be here for the live chat:
Mari – did you have a favourite and least favourite character as you wrote the book? (I don’t know if Gwennie would automatically be your favourite. I had a soft spot for Sergeant Jones…)
A quick reply to The Lost Book who may not make the live chat…
Q: Did you have a favourite and least favourite character as you wrote the book? (I don’t know if Gwenni would automatically be your favourite. I had a soft spot for Sergeant Jones…)
A: My least favourite is easy – the villain of the piece (though he was a good shepherd!) – Ifan Evans.
I had a soft spot for most of the characters – but the one that tickled me most was Aunty Lol who never appeared in person because she was off doing something really important like playing for the women’s football team or practising to put out fires with the fire brigade or playing her trumpet in the town’s Silver Band.
What about everyone else – any favourites?
Thanks for the reply Mari. Aunty Lol did seem a fun person; I wished Gwennie could spend more time with her.
And, as I suspected, I’ve got to log out now – I’ll come back tomorrow to catch up on the Q&A.
One last question, linked to Lyzzy’s – is Gwennie a character who has been with you for a long while, who you’ve always known you wanted to write about? Or, did you think of the plot and the setting (The Earth Hums… has a very strong sense of place and period) and then realise that the perfect person to tell the story would be a young girl?
(Oh, and you might be interested to know that we’ve been BookCrossing copies of The Earth Hums… – you’ll find links to copies that have been “caught” on our BookCrossing profile page http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/TheLostBook and you can follow them on their travels!)
How is life as a successful debut author and is it as you imagined it would be?
Q: How is life as a successful debut author and is it as you imagined it would be?
A: I had no idea what to expect! I sort of thought there would be readings and festival appearances, and I’ve really enjoyed those – it’s great to talk to readers and would-be readers of my book, and it’s interesting to find how differently people read the book, and how they respond to it. I’ve been asked to write short articles and Q&A pieces for various on-line publications and blogs, which I hadn’t anticipated. I’ve also broadcast on Welsh, Scottish and Australian radio, and appeared on a Welsh TV programme – again something I hadn’t anticipated! One thing that really amazed me was the sale of the book to so many different countries a year before it was published here. The book is now published in Australia and the Netherlands, will be out in the US in June, and in Sweden, Norway, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Turkey sometime this year, and in France next year – I never imagined any of this! It was wonderful! And the covers are different in each country – it’s fascinating to see what covers appeal to readers in different parts of the world.
Gwennie is reading of Marjory Allingham’s “The Tiger in The Smoke”? Is there any particular significance in this?
I haven’t managed to read the book yet (sorry – I will do at some point!) so apologies if this is covered in the book, but is there a significance to the B flat in the title? Does this note have a particular meaning for you?
How does the success of your debut novel make you feel about your second? (There will be a second won’t there?)