Debut book, debut book launch!

Well, The Blackhope Enigma has set sail, launched last Thursday by a wonderful crowd of well-wishers who enjoyed a glass of bubbly and a slice of “Corvo cake” (dark chocolate-raspberry amazingness) named after the Renaissance painter in my book, Fausto Corvo, aka the Raven. It’s astonishing what you can achieve with a simple cardboard cut-out and some confectioner’s sugar.

Photo by J Jamieson

The venue, a working studio lent to me by a very generous friend, had three rooms. This one served beautifully as a book-selling area and tiny gallery. The excellent Blast-off Books came all the way from Linlithgow to sell books, and to my delight, returned home with very little stock left. I framed a few of the illustrated maps from the book and put them on the mantel. The chilled-out skeleton oversaw book sales (skeletons figure prominently in the story, but you’ll have to read it to learn why).

Photo by J Jamieson

This is a corner of the largest room, before it got crowded, showing one of a collection of ravens I cut out of large black paper as wall art. When I was at art school I enjoyed making work from cut coloured paper, and got pretty good with a scalpel, or x-acto knife, as we called them in the USA. Fairy lights completed the decorations.


While we were celebrating the book, we also celebrated the virtual launch of The Blackhope Enigma website. Not only is it a handsome looking thing, but it has cool features on it, like downloadable wallpaper, a bookmark and some book plates that I drew, and which can only be found on the site. I also contributed an audio clip, produced by Cheer Productions, and a video clip made by Oak’s Bark, with the additional assistance of Pablo the sound man. Thanks to all those gentlemen, as well as Lighthouse Photographics, who took my publicity photo!

Last but not least, you can register to win a visit from me to your school (or your child’s school). So please do check it out!

I would like to thank everyone who came to the launch, especially those who traveled from far afield. They all made it a wonderful success and reminded me what great friends and colleagues I have. And I can’t thank Templar Publishing enough for all their support and hard work in bringing my book to the world!