{"id":149,"date":"2019-01-28T09:55:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T09:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jamesflint.net\/?p=149"},"modified":"2019-01-28T09:55:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-28T09:55:00","slug":"2019-1-28-midland-launched-on-the-thames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jamesflint.net\/?p=149","title":{"rendered":"Midland launched on the Thames"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hi everyone,<\/p>\n

well, the long journey that began back in January 2006 is finally over. The  Midland paperback<\/a>  was launched on Friday night from Pier House, the beautiful little community centre belonging to Hermitage Moorings, constructed on a pontoon just east of Tower Bridge.<\/p>\n

Friends and family gathered to eat sushi and raise a glass or three, and the incredible Harry Harris came all the way from Edinburgh to perform his songs Whale and Stag, which was really very special (see the videos above).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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My wonderful editor Rachael Kerr (who’d blown out her own Burns Night dinner to be there!) gave a little speech and read out the glowing review we received on Friday morning from the Daily Mail<\/a>, and I gave a couple of short readings from the Whale and Stag sections to dovetail with Harry’s songs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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Oh, and my children gave me a version of the book that they’d made themselves, and got everybody to sign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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(The little stuffed bottlenose was made by my eldest daughter – it was my Christmas present!).<\/p>\n

All in all the party was small but perfectly formed, rather like the book itself, if the somewhat amazing reviews that started coming in last week are to be believed. The publicity team at Unbound has organised something called a Book Blog Tour, which is a new one on me – this didn’t exist as a thing when I last published a book back in 2004. Reviews with various well-regarded book bloggers are placed during the weeks around launch, to help spread the word about the publication online. And these have been exceptional. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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Tales before Bedtime<\/a>  said Midland<\/em> was \u201cabsolutely stunning\u201d.  Emma\u2019s Book Blog<\/a>  called it “a masterclass in storytelling\u201d.  The Literary Shed<\/a>  described it as \u201ca masterpiece of control\u201d. According to the  Northern Reader<\/a>  it’s “A superbly written book, reflecting an impressive understanding of people and their motives.” And the aforementioned  Daily Mail<\/a>  noted that \u201cFlint writes beautifully and in defiant contradiction of character \u2018journeys\u2019 and neat resolutions.\u201d Which I personally thought was very perceptive of them.<\/p>\n

That was five out of five thumbs up from the first five reviews, three of which were also posted on  Amazon<\/a>, an incredible start to the novel’s life out there in the wide world.<\/p>\n

It’s even had its first read in the southern hemisphere: my next door neighbour, the musician Michael Hodgson, aka Sixteen Sunsets (whose album  Misled Convoy is available on Spotify<\/a>  and who I have to thank for the photos of the launch posted above) took it on holiday to New Zealand over Christmas, and read it on the beach:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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So, God speed, Midland. I wish calm seas and strong breezes to you and all who sail in you. Far may you journey, well may you prosper, long may you live.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi everyone, well, the long journey that began back in January 2006 is finally over. The  Midland paperback  was launched on Friday night from Pier House, the beautiful little community centre belonging to Hermitage Moorings, constructed on a pontoon just east of Tower Bridge. Friends and family gathered to eat sushi and raise a glass […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,23],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-music","tag-midland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesflint.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesflint.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesflint.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesflint.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesflint.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jamesflint.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesflint.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesflint.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesflint.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}