Tuesday 16 February 2016

When Featherbones took flight

"That's what it means to be mad. To be stripped of meaning, stripped so bare you feel like the skin's been torn from your back and you're just bones. Bare bones and nerves, stuck out in the cold, where it stings, it burns like nothing you've felt before." 

FEATHERBONES


Well, we were definitely mad with joy on a horrifically drenched Saturday in February when the delightful Thomas Brown from Madley Park, Witney, and former Woodgreen School student, joined us to present us his latest baby, novel number 2, Featherbones

The initial reading was a fine sample, but to truly appreciate the prose, the rhythm of the tale and the blurring of reality and Felix's delusions, you really need to read the whole thing! (hint hint) 


After, Thomas revealed to us about his inspirations for the novel, which include the amazing artist Kate MccGwire and her creepy yet beautiful feathery sculptures, author Poppy Z. BriteClive Barker and Marilynne Robinson's watery imagery from Housekeeping.





The shop was absolutely packed, both with
people and a happy buzz. 
Many thanks to all who came and made this day as wonderful as it was. And thank you to our own bookseller Matt! for climping lofty heights to get some good photos. 
We totally sold out, but fear not, more are to come.

- Love, Patty 

Saturday 6 February 2016

Book Launch of Thomas Brown's Featherbones

One of the greater pleasures of running a bookshop is to receive the honour of hosting a book launch. It doesn't happen very often, which makes the times when it does happen all the sweeter. 
    Launching a book is a little bit like the baptism of a baby. I wouldn't call it a birth - it would take away from the labour of love, pain, frustration, elation, white heat frenzy followed by staring helplessly at a blank screen, unable to form a single sentence, until suddenly that sentence is ready to be born and bursts out of you, and this happens about a million times where you take all these images and moments and scenes and weave them into a tapestry of narration, in which the aim is to never let the reader see your technique but to create the illusion of an alternate reality so seamlessly that characters become alive and sceneries burst with a life of their own. 

Most writers can quite possibly relate to that type of birth - it can take months, even years. But all the pains will be forgotten as soon as you hold your baby in your arms. Letting go of a book is often like letting your kid go out into the world, perhaps never completely happy or comfortable with it, but there it goes. 

Hosting a book launch is like having a party: to welcome the kid, to celebrate the efforts of its parent, to appreciate the beauty of the finished work and marvel at the complexity of its creation. 

So we at Waterstones Witney are delighted to invite everyone to the baptism of Featherbones, the wonderful brain child of Witney author Thomas Brown.


Please join us on Saturday, 13th February, from 1-3 pm, for a reading, a Q&A session, signing and general merriment with snacks, cake and drinks.


If you ever wanted to chat to an author about writing, his inspiration and his way to getting published, now is the opportunity. 
Plus, a party at a bookshop? Come on! It doesn't get better than this! 

Some of you may remember the launch of Mr Brown's first book Lynnwood, back in June 2013, which was a wonderful experience for everyone involved. Mr Brown's dark tale of the primal appetites of a small New Forest village was since shortlisted for the People's Book Prize.

His second novel again deals with the darker side of the human soul. It is an intricately woven tale of a young man's slow mental unravelling as he tries to come to terms with not just a traumatic incident in his childhood, but the very nature of his being. At times, the story is hard to take, as the bleakness and loneliness of the protagonist infiltrates your heart like a cold fog - unlike in other tales, his struggle is not romanticised or sentimentalised, despite the stunning beauty of the prose. 
Leaving the reader defenseless in Felix's increasingly unhinged mind, it begins to blur the lines between nightmare and waking, between reality and delusion, employing all the senses... all the while Felix's ordinary life continues.
Featherbones, with it's mythological elements and intense symbolism mixed into a bleak reality, reminded me much of Patrick Ness' A Monster Calls or Stephen King's Rose Madder - but just as if Susan Hill or Angela Carter had written it. 

We do hope you'll be able to join us. 

Lots of love, 

Patty 



Tuesday 2 February 2016

Harry Potter Book Night - A Night of Spells



Calling all witches and wizards - and any muggle wannabes, too!

Join us at Hogwarterstones (see what we did there?) on Thursday the 4th of February for Harry Potter Book Night, our annual celebration of all things mysterious and magical!

If you're feeling creative, why not contribute your most effective and enchanting spell to our highly sought-after Hogwarterstones Book of Spells, a tome so powerful that in the wrong hands could bring down civilisation as we know it? Or, cook up your most intoxicating potion recipes, and commit them to our anthology forevermore.

As if that wasn't enough, we will also have with us a certain nasally-challenged special guest - yes, the Dark Lord himself (no, not Peter Mandelson). He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named will be joining us for a game of Pin The Nose On Voldemort, so start getting some practice in! 

Plus, of course, we'll still be open for business, selling all your prescribed wizarding textbooks, as well as the brand new Harry Potter Magical Creatures Colouring Book and the beautiful Illustrated version of The Philosopher's Stone - don't forget your galleons!

The official event starts at 4:00, but we'll have Harry Potter colouring out all day.

Don your robes, grab your wards, jump on your brooms, and join us for a magical evening!



Love, Owen