Huge thanks to Kaite Welsh, Books Editor at Diva Magazine for this superb review of The Night Brother!
Here’s the full text of the review…

Diva review October 2017

"A must for anyone missing Sarah Waters’ foray into the Victorian era, siblings Edie and Gnome explore the delights of 19th century Manchester in Rosie Garland’s third novel - he during the night, her during the day. The prose is lush and vivid as gender fluidity mingles with magical realism. Edie grows increasingly jealous of her brother’s freedom and exhausted by her double life and the restrictions society places upon her. In The Night Brother, Garland crafts a study in dualism that would make Henry Jekyll jealous, and establishes herself as one of Britain’s best new historical novelists."

Kaite Welsh

http://www.divamag.co.uk/

The first reviews have come in for ‘The Night Brother’ – and they’re both 5/5. Wow!

Thank you to Happy Meerkat and Little Bookness Lane for loving my words. It means so much.

“Once again I find myself lost in the reverie of Rosie Garland’s exquisite writing. Extraordinarily enchanting, The Night Brother’s emotional bounty caresses each page… Embracing the intimacies and complexities of the heart and soul, The Night Brother doesn’t feel like a story, but a delectable gift. All that remains is for me to offer a thunderous round of applause for what is simply an expressive, breath-taking wonder.”
Little Bookness Lane – read the full text here
https://littlebooknesslane.wordpress.com/2017/05/25/book-review-the-night-brother-by-rosie-garland/

“The Night Brother is a wonderful historical fiction novel with an amazing and intriguing twist… From the moment I read the first page I was hooked… A real exciting and also thought-provoking page-turner that I can really recommend.”
Happy Meerkat – read the full text here
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1888724819

‘For Books’ Sake’ most hotly anticipated books of 2017

Wow – how fantastic. The lovely people at For Books’ Sake have named ‘The Night Brother’ as one of their most hotly anticipated books of 2017!

Listen to the full podcast here – I’m mentioned around the 7min 30seconds mark.

http://forbookssake.podbean.com/e/101-most-anticipated-books-of-2017/

“The For Books' Sake podcast returns! Hosted by Jane Bradley and Paul Forster with correspondent Rebecca Smith, this fortnight you can hear Jane and Paul discuss their most anticipated books of 2017, including...

Defender by G. X. Todd (January, Headline); Not Just Jane by Shelley DeWees (January, HarperCollins); A Beginner's Guide to Losing Your Mind by Emily Reynolds (February, Hodder Stoughton); Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls (March, Timbuktu Labs); Come Let Us Sing Anyway by Leone Ross (March, Peepal Tree Press); The Night Brother by Rosie Garland (June, Borough Press).

Until next time: get in touch via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or email to tell us which books you're most excited about in 2017!
Editing by Rebecca Smith // Music by She Makes War”

Many thanks to Deborah Edgeley at Ink Pantry for kindly interviewing me about writing and researching my novels, singing in The March Violets, my passion for great book covers… And how I’d change the world! No pressure, eh?

You can read the text of the interview here –
http://www.inkpantry.com/inky-interview-special-rosie-garland/

Bridgeman Studio Award 2016: And the winner is....
http://www.bridgemanimages.com/en-GB/blog/bridgeman/post/9211/preview
Standing in The News Building at London Bridge last Thursday the view of London was extraordinary, but for once it paled in comparison to the wealth of talent on display inside the room. The judging for the Bridgeman Studio Award 2016 was an incredible mix of styles, media and the highest levels of creativity.
From almost 1,000 entries from every corner of the globe our Bridgeman Studio team of Lucy Innes Williams and Charlotte Proctor Smith had their work cut out to create a shortlist. The eventual shortlist ended up at 80 entries from over 20 different countries... and the standard was exceptional.
Judging this was not a quick process....
Rosie Garland (Author), Claire Ward (Creative Director Fiction and Non Fiction - HarperCollins), Susie Doore (Publishing Director – The Borough Press), Patrick Burgoyne (Editor – Creative Review), Victoria Bridgeman (CEO Bridgeman images) and Lucy Baxter (Commercial Director – CultureLabel.com) spent nearly three hours selecting and discussing the different entries trying to find a winner.
At stake was an incredible prize of a £1,000 commission for best-selling author Rosie Garland's next title. Rosie was an absolute joy to be around and was so honoured by all the incredible entries. Every single artist who entered this year's competition should be very proud as they made the decision very challenging.
But there has to be a winner.
And what a winner she is! Aitch, An illustrator from Bucharest, Romania is the winner for the Bridgeman Studio Award 2016. Her style of work was captivating and jumped off the wall during judging with its playful, colourful illustrations which were full of depth and charm. Congratulations Aitch!
They came so close!
Three runners up that really came close to winning the BSA2016 this year were Robert Hunter, Isabel Grosse Holtworth and Mary Kuper who each will receive a £50 gift voucher from CultureLabel.com and a selection of books from HarperCollins.
Due to the overwhelming response to the 2016 Bridgeman Studio Award we will be making further announcements for some of the artists who were chosen by each of the sponsor brands and judges. Which brand would you have liked to been chosen by?
Author: Alan Firmin
Website: http://bridgemanimages.com
Digital Marketing Director for Bridgeman Images. Strategic, Creative and Digital professional with 30 international awards, over 20 years of experience with Grey, DraftFCB, Young and Rubicam, Landor and VML. Responsibilities included managing the worlds leading companies Brand, Advertising, Marketing and Digital ecosystems.

I am immensely honoured that the cover design commission for my next novel has been chosen for the Bridgeman Studio Award 2016!
The theme is 'Night'.

It's free to enter, with a closing date at the end of June. There's also a £1K commission prize for the winning artwork.
It's also worth pointing out that it's worldwide, too.

Click for info and entry to the BSA2016

There's even a link for US folk...

Click for info & entry to the BSA2016 if in the USA

The Vixen paperback launch continues!

Thanks and gratitude for the wonderful welcomes and enthusiastic audiences so far.

That's Bar Wotever (London), Manchester Waterstones, The Book Case (Hebden Bridge), Booka Books (Oswestry), the WI Manchester & The Arvon Foundation at Lumb Bank!

Coming up - Word at the Y (Leicester), Waterstones Bradford, Polari at Huddersfield Literature Festival, INCITE (London), Watford Central Library for Herts Litfest 2015 & Literary Death Match in Shoreditch, London. Check the gig list page for details...

Oh yes - I've never had an entire window painted in my honour before - thanks to the amazing artistic skills of Louisa Jones at Booka Books in Oswestry!

'Vixen' is out in paperback!

Launched in London on 10th February at Bar Wotever, and in Manchester on Friday 13th February (lucky for some!). There are many more launch events and readings coming up in February / March 2015... check out the Gig List page for details of one close to you.

Thank you to all the wonderful folk who have already turned up to the readings. Your support is incredible!

Vixen is longlisted for The Green Carnation prize 2014!

The thirteen strong longlist of titles celebrating LGBT writing have been announced after several days of debates between the judges over an exceptional list of submissions, the most the prize has seen in its history to date. This list takes us from fairytale lands to the call centres of Scotland, from Calcutta to Russia and includes fiction, memoir, essays, short stories, non-fiction and the graphic novel.

Chair of the judges for 2014, journalist Kaite Welsh said of the longlist "The judging panel for this year's prize were in luck – some of the most dynamic and exciting books from the past twelve months have been from LGBT authors. Out of those, we've compiled an amazing longlist that should be on everyone's to-read list. The 2014 Green Carnation Prize has coincided with a bumper year for LGBT writing from established authors to new voices. Whittling the list down to 13 was difficult and enjoyable, and we're confident that picking the shortlist from such a great collection will be just as challenging."

Click to go to Green Carnation Prize site

Thank you to Write-Track for featuring me on their blog!
Here is the text in full, with the link at the end.

On the Write Track - Adventures with writing habits

Keeping going – novelist Rosie Garland on persistence and creative rituals

Three years ago Rosie Garland had pretty much given up all hope of getting her novels published. Her agent wasn't taking her calls, rejections were coming thick and fast, and she'd been diagnosed with cancer. She had spent 12 years writing four and a half novels – perhaps it was time to call it a day? As her second novel is published to great acclaim she shares her experience of keeping going through the tough times.

Overcoming creative self-harm

Rosie had an early taste of fame as a singer in post-punk band the March Violets. Grown up responsibilities soon got in the way and full time work as a teacher pushed her creative projects to the side. She wrote short stories and poetry, and performed her cabaret act Rosie Lugosi, then at the turn of the millennium she got an idea "that was too big to be a poem or short story." Rosie made the decision to work part time to shift the balance of her work and creative life, she landed an agent, and dedicated more of her time to writing novels.

However, after 12 years Rosie had pretty much given up all hope of being published. She said:
"My agent wasn't getting back to me and I felt I had to stop continually putting myself through the self-cruelty of writing and having it rejected. It felt like a bizarre form of creative self-harm."

She needed to protect herself and go to "the places that weren't harming me. That was the poetry and singing and performance. So I made a decision to do that and that was when I entered the Mslexia competition as a last ditch attempt."

Mslexia ran its inaugural competition for unpublished novelists in 2011. Rosie not only bagged the top spot with The Palace of Curiosities, but got a place on the shortlist with another (as yet unpublished) novel. From this came a bidding war between publishers and a six-figure two-book deal with Harper Collins. Her second novel Vixen has just been published to rave reviews.

The apprentice novelist

Rosie believes if success had come earlier she might not be where she is now. "I might have sunk without a trace – become one of those people who has one book." She refers to the years of writing as her apprenticeship, and doesn't resent the time spent refining her writing skills. "The amount of time I have had to work to become a novelist has paid off. I have learnt my craft, I have done my apprenticeship."
She learned from her mistakes, referring to the second novel she wrote as "awful". She said, "it's going to stay under the bed forever. I will keep it as a reminder to never get above myself. The second novel was a process of writing something really badly – I can point to it, as an example of how not to write."

Keeping going: habits and rituals to support creativity

Over the years Rosie developed tactics to support her writing. The first is being open to feedback. She told me:
"I try to give myself as much input as possible. That might be going on a writing course, or Arvon retreat, getting full, frank feedback from tutors, my agent or editors. I don't want to write in a vacuum – 'bring it on' is my mantra! Part of being a writer is always wanting to grow, always wanting to learn, never taking for granted that I am a writer. Because I think the day that happens is a really bad day for me."

Her other support mechanism has been creative rituals. This is vital to someone who admits to being terrified of the blank page and needs a routine each day to get words on the page and the creative juices flowing. Rosie starts the day with three pages of journaling – she says this isn't creative writing but "rubbing the crust out of my eyes" and getting out of the way all the 'what I did yesterday' stuff.

She continues:

"The next thing I do is write six images. What a snail looks like climbing up a leaf, what it felt like to stub your toe. I do it every morning without fail, if miss one I do a catch up session later. Coming out of the six images I write a haiku. Then I do the classic three pages of morning pages – free writing coming out of the six images or using a writing prompt."

These rituals sound like a lot of work, but taken individually they are small tasks and quick to perform, and that's the secret for Rosie. "For me it's all about small commitments. Don't set yourself up to fail. If had to write a full chapter I wouldn't be able to do it."

Dealing with an inner critic – silencing Mavis

Morning can be a special time for writers and artists, and for Rosie it's when she's open to more playful non-linear writing, but also because her internal critic hasn't got out of bed yet.

Throughout her writing life Rosie has battled with a vicious internal critic. A few years ago she gave this critic a name: Mavis. She found that naming her was a release; separating the cruelty from herself made it easier to deal with the criticism.

Rosie says "My rituals are there to nurture and support me. They enable my writing; provide nourishment, support and food for my writing. Yet Mavis will say to me, 'call yourself an artist when you enjoy rituals so much.' That's Mavis telling me an artist flounces around in clothes pulled together from a bunch of headscarves."

A weekly reflection inspired by Julia Cameron

The rituals are the foundations of Rosie's writing, a way of keeping in touch with her creativity. She's a big fan of Julia Cameron, though admits it took nearly a year to complete one 12-week programme and felt it "nearly killed me!"

Her final ritual was inspired by Julia Cameron from her creativity bibles The Artist's Way and Walking in the World. Rosie takes time each week to reflect on four things:

How have my morning pages been going this week?
Have given myself an artist date?
Have I gone on an artist's walk?
Other issues – what else has been going on?

Keep going

For most of her life Rosie has worked while writing. "I haven't had the luxury of being a writer as my full time job. I have had to hack out time for my writing in around all the things that put bread on the table and keep the rent man from chucking you out the time at the end of week."

Getting cancer made Rosie realise that life is too short. She told herself, "I'm not doing this any longer. I don't care what's in the future, I'll just trust." Rosie's advice to others struggling to find their creative balance is to just "keep going". It might take a long time, but it will happen.

I'm going to give the last line to one of Rosie's characters, Anne from Vixen who says "I shall live that life like the gift it is, and waste neither it nor myself. I am my own woman. I like her. She has stories to tell and all of them are interesting."

Vixen was published in July in hardback, and The Palace of Curiosities is available in paperback. You can find out what Rosie has been up to by following her on Twitter @rosieauthor and Facebook Click to go to Rosie's Facebook page

Click here to go to Write-Track blog page