The big One, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh!

I've been doing this for a while now with posts to celebrate my first book, Prince of Thorns, turning 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 ... and now 100, as in 100,000 ratings on Goodreads.

This time the milestone has fallen just after the release of The Girl And The Stars in paperback and just before the release of The Girl And The Mountain in hardback.

I never really expected Prince of Thorns to get 1,000 ratings on Goodreads - though to be fair, the site was far less popular in 2011 and getting 1,000 ratings was considerably more difficult than it is now. I was surprised to reach 10,000. To reach 100,000 is amazing. I remember reading my contract back in 2010 (well, skimming it) and seeing that after 100,000 sales in paperback slightly more generous royalty rates kicked in. I recall snorting at that and thinking "as if". But here we are!

I really don't think 1,000,000 ratings is on the cards, but I'm very pleased and amazed to have reached this milestone.

We're closing in on Prince of Thorns' 10th anniversary (in August), and plan are afoot for Grim Oak Press to produce a 10th anniversary limited edition - one of their super high quality volumes, signed, numbered, with internal art by the original cover artist Jason Chan. Jason is also doing a new cover in the style of the original but different. The plan is to have a special edition for each book of the trilogy on its 10th anniversary.

This is a sketch Jason produced while considering the cover, and taking reader feedback onboard he's going to work it up into a full cover.

I'm writing this blog post from the Children's Hospital where I'm staying with my daughter Celyn who has sepsis for the 3rd time during the pandemic. It seem appropriate for a Prince of Thorns milestone given that a significant portion of it was written while I was in various hospitals with Celyn.

All of which is to say that you can never tell what's going to happen next. Milestones come and go. They're fun opportunities to look back and see what a strange and meandering path we've plotted. I think though that I've done enough of this sequence. Perhaps if the book ever reaches 200,000 ratings we can check in again.

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Prince of Thorns signed hardback giveaway!

Contest Closed

(We had 47 donations across my various platforms and the random winner is Kenneth Bragg)

Simon MacHale had this "going spare" - he describes this as "reading copy" and "not perfect", but to my non-collector's eye it looks pretty much unblemished. Simon very generously sent it to me to find a new home for it.

It's the UK edition and signed in 2011 at a time when my signature was a lot further from a flat line than it is now.

Since it has a certain ££/$$ value and rarity I had a bit of a think about how to find a new owner.

I've collected a fair bit of money for Charlton Farm Hospice over the years but not recently. So I want to remedy that. Charlton Farm provide respite care and end of life care for severely disable children, and I've spent months there with my daughter Celyn having a great time. When Celyn was in hospital this January with septicemia and I stayed with her for the 9 day stay, Charlton Farm sent carers to give me a break.

So - to enter the random draw for this book all you have to do is comment here or on my social media and let me know that you've made a donation to Charlton Farm Hospice. It can be any amount, £1 is fine. And all you get for making a bigger donation is a bigger warm glow from knowing you've done a good thing. Everyone has the same chance of winning. And I'm going to trust everyone - because honestly, would any of my readers lie about doing it? Who wants that karma?

If you're commenting on this page remember comments need to be approved - so don't panic if it doesn't show for a day.

Open internationally.

I'll make the draw for the winner on Friday night (19th of March). 

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