On sale: January 5, 2010--> READ THIS

Ok, ok, I know I don't usually use my blog as a cyber venue for promoting the books my company is publishing...BUT, let this be an exception. We are so excited to be publishing this book. THE GIRL WITH GLASS FEET, by Ali Shaw, is one of the most imaginative, literary, and visually magical novels I've read in a while.

I am extra excited because Ali sent over a few sketches he just "came up with over the weekend" (talented people...humph!). These images are ones that arise in his head when he thinks of Saint Houda's Land (where the book takes place).

Here's a bit about the book. And check out a few of the sketches, too!

A Young Couple’s Quest to Cure a Magical Ailment

On sale: January 5, 2010

The Girl with Glass Feet
A Novel

by Ali Shaw

Long-listed for The Guardian First Book Award
Short-listed for The Costa First Book Award

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ADVANCE PRAISE

“The cold northern islands of St. Hauda’s Land are home to strange creatures and intertwining human secrets in Shaw’s earnest, magic-tinged debut . . . Both love story and dirge, Shaw’s novel flows gracefully and is wonderfully dreamlike, with the danger of the islands matched by the characters’ dark pasts.” —Publishers Weekly
“Emotional entanglements on a faraway frozen island are shaped by romance and tragedy in a melancholic yet whimsical British debut . . . [A] strikingly visual novel . . . captivatingly ethereal.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Combining magic realism, the conventions of a romance novel, and a British sense of practicality, this charming first novel creates a new fable.” —Booklist
“Shaw has worked the great tradition of European fairy tales and come up with an ingenious story so deft it defies the obvious label ‘quirky’ . . . A magical fable of fate and resignation.” —The Guardian
“This lovely fable is a chain of linked mysteries with accelerating suspense that propels the reader deep into Shaw’s world of marvels. That world is crafted with elegance and swept by passionate magic and the yearning for connection. A rare pleasure.”
—Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love
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Strange things are happening on the remote and snowbound archipelago of St. Hauda’s Land. Unusual winged creatures flit around the icy bogland, albino animals hide themselves in the snow-glazed woods, and Ida Maclaird is slowly turning into glass. Ida is an outsider in these parts, a mainlander who has visited the islands only once before. Yet during that one fateful visit the glass transformation began to take hold, and now she has returned in search of a cure.

Midas Crook is a young loner who has lived on the islands his entire life. When he meets Ida, something about her sad, defiant spirit pierces his emotional defenses. Midas helps Ida come to terms with her affliction, and she gradually unpicks the knots of his heart. Love must be paid in precious hours, and as the glass encroaches, time is slipping away fast. Will they find a way to stave off the spread of the glass?

THE GIRL WITH GLASS FEET is a dazzlingly imaginative and gripping first novel, a love story to treasure.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ali Shaw graduated from Lancaster University with a degree in English literature and has since worked as a bookseller and at Oxford’s Bodleian Library. The Girl with Glass Feet, which was long-listed for The Guardian First Book Award, is his debut novel. Please visit his Web site at www.alishaw.co.uk.



Order on Amazon or trek to your local bookstore on January 5th!

http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Glass-Feet-Novel/dp/0805091149/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260482449&sr=8-1