Another Amazing Cover (8th March 2021)

 

I wanted to share these two covers with you. I am in awe of them both. The first is the design for 'The Many Lives of Heloise Starchild,' by the utterly brilliant Tomasz Almeida. The second isfor the Dutch Translation, 'De Vele Levens van Heloise Starchild,' - and this design is by the genius that is Edward Bettison. They are both truly gorgeous. We are not worthy. 

Please check out my website to learn more about my books:  https://www.johnironmonger.com

My Map Pins (14): Poprad, Slovakia (Posted March 2021)

 Sue and I took the night train to Poprad from Prague. That wasn’t a great idea. This was 1995. It wasn’t all that long after the collapse of communism. We shared a sleeper carriage with four Russian soldiers with smelly feet and loud snores. We didn’t sleep much. We disembarked at dawn in Poprad ... a sleepy, godforsaken, city in the foothills of the Tatras. Much of Poprad was pretty grim. Yet we were somehow charmed by the place. (Many years later I would set the first few chapters of my novel, ‘The Many Lives of Heloise Starchild,’ here. That’s a plug by the way.) No one spoke any English. Or French. We ordered meals in cafés by gesturing for food and eating whatever came. Sue found this unspoiled neighbourhood (the one in the photographs) in a guide book. We walked around, took two snapshots (these) and got a local bus back to the station.

what3words /// The simplest way to talk about location  

What3Words: loaders.equality.pizza

Please check out my website to learn more about my books:  https://www.johnironmonger.com

It's the Virtual Paperback Launch Day for 'The Many Lives of Heloise Starchild' (4th March 2021)

 Launch days are exciting times for a writer. Today is a little different though. Bookshops are still closed. Airport and station book-stands are unnaturally quiet. We are all in a curious kind of limbo. Waiting for the summer. Meeting up on zoom calls. Catching up on boxsets. What a time to launch a book.  

So, Ladies and Gentlemen, with your permission, let me launch The Many Lives of Heloise Starchild virtually. Ta da! Here it is: (don't you agree it looks gorgeous?)

 Let me tell you about Heloise. I wanted to write a long story. Not a long book, but a tale that would span several centuries. A narrative that would push great historical events into perspective and might help us to make sense of the turmoil of the past few hundred years. Perhaps even of the past few years. But how do you do that without changing the lead character every few chapters? One day I had an idea. What if Heloise’s daughter was to inherit her memories? And what if her daughter, in turn, inherited those memories too? There could be a continuous story that would cross the generations. And so Heloise was born. Her story starts on a night when Halley’s comet lights up the sky in 1759. Her many lives will become a great adventure, where the backdrop is a whole swathe of recent history. It will be a search for family treasure. It will be a nail-biting escape from tyranny. Above all, it will become the warm, inspiring story of a strong woman with a good heart.

I am proud of The Many Lives of Heloise Starchild. It feels like the book I always wanted to write.  I should love for you to read it. And, in the absence of any book signings, or even of a launch party, I would be happy, instead, to join you and your book-club (if you have one) on a zoom call if you choose to read the novel. I will try to join any group that invites me. So please let me know.

And huge thanks to lots of people. To my brilliant editor Fede, to my amazing agent Stan, to my incredible wife Sue, and to all the extraordinary people at W&N Books and Orion. Thank you.

John Ironmonger. March 4^th 2021. Parkgate, Cheshire

Please check out my website to learn more about my books:  https://www.johnironmonger.com