Invited to write a guest post on the writing, editing or the publication process, I thought I’d talk about that bump in the road all writers know: the rejection.

Like most published books, my one and only (and, sigh, very close to my heart) young adult thriller, EleMental, was rejected quite a number of times before it was finally published last year.

But what writer can boast of actually possessing a favourite rejection? For I do. My favourite, without a doubt, has to be: ‘Your book is satanic’.

This assessment wasn’t directly served to me; a very nice gentleman who runs a local independent publishing house passed it on. Up until then he’d been considering publishing my book but needed financial backing. It was this hoped-for backing that had determined it ‘satanic’.

We’d even had preliminary discussions about the cover artwork (a very exciting ...

So as everyone knows I LOVE LIANE MORIARTY and tonight I was pretty BESIDE MYSELF to be seeing her. In Person. Up Close And Personal. In The Flesh. (And a variety of other fun cliches!)

After a somewhat rocky start (few wrong turns here, banked up traffic there) I finally made it and sat in my car outside the venue half an hour early (*cough nerd cough*) before going in.

AHHH. She was wearing a long-ish skirt, a cool looking top with an asymmetrical neck line and these awesome boots.

It's a funny thing, meeting someone you've idolised for so long. Will they be as awesome in person as in your mind?

WELL LIANE WAS JUST AS AWESOME.

So, I got to the venue (so cute! The same place as Cath Crowley's Graffiti Moon launch) and there she was! It took all my might not ...

I've been sitting on this for a few weeks now and can you imagine how hard it has been to NOT tell you?

Very hard, is the answer!

I am very excited to be able to tell everyone to go check out October's Bookseller + Publisher magazine as there's a feature in there by the lovely Andrew Wrathall interviewed myself and Steph of Read In A Single Sitting as well as a couple of publishers.

It covers blogging as new media and a little of the relationship between publishers and bloggers.

Look! Look! I got the pull quote! HOW VERY EXCITING AND AWESOME!

As a side note, I don't know how many of you noticed but the top bar has been changed from "Ramblings of a Book Nerd" to "Literary Life: Ramblings of a Book Nerd" as it was this article that made me ...

I'm in a visual mood today kids!

Enjoy this collection of literary photographic treats (and be sure to check out Bookfessions! What a great site!).

Hey Lit Life-rs! I have a treat for you today!

To celebrate the launch of the Rattler and other stories, A. S. Patric has very kindly given us one of his stories to read!

So sit back, grab a cuppa and enjoy...

PARADISE RIVER

Lincoln Wallow didn’t believe in being as busy as a beaver. He was well known to be as lazy as hell, truth be told. That didn’t stop him dreaming of living in the best dam house on the River.