The Mike Gayle Newsletter February 2010

Dear all,

It’s taken a while but finally here’s the first Mike Gayle newsletter of the year. There’s some good news, some bad news, and some brilliant news that I hope will go some way to compensating for the not so good stuff!

All the best

Mike Gayle

1. The Importance of Being a Bachelor is out in paperback!

For anyone who missed my last book The Importance of Being a Bachelor in the bigger trade paperback format (I know a lot of you went looking for it at Christmas and couldn’t find it) the good news is that it’s finally out in super cheap paperback and (for those of you with fancy e-Readers) eBook format too.

The Daily Mail described The Importance of Being a Bachelor as:

 “Mike Gayle at his best funny, charming and life-affirming’

and I hope you’ll agree.

Here’s the blurb from the back of the book:

Despite the example of their own parents' enduring marriage, the three Bachelor brothers show no signs of settling down. Adam has a string of glamorous girlfriends, but they aren't suitable wife material. Luke has just proposed to Cassie but his refusal to consider having children looks like an insurmountable barrier.  And baby of the family Russell is in love with the one woman he can't have. Then their father announces he has been thrown out of the family home and this proves a dramatic catalyst for lots of soul-searching. Are all three Bachelor brothers totally hopeless cases or just late starters?

And here’s a couple of places that you can buy it on the web:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Importance-Being-Bachelor-Mike-Gayle/dp/0340918527/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1297838558&sr=1-1

http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/15845251/The-Importance-of-Being-a-Bachelor/Product.html

http://www.tesco.com/books/product.aspx?R=9780340918524

2. Quick Reads — Men At Work

Hopefully you’ll remember from previous newsletters that I mentioned I would be writing a short work for the quickreads organisation (www.quickreads.org.uk). Well the book in question, Men At Work, is out now  as both a paperback and eBook. While it might be only be 87 pages long, it is only a credit crunch busting £1.99! That’s less than the price of a posh coffee and I guarantee it’ll last longer too!

Here’s the blurb:

Men at Work

Ian Greening loves his job at the Department of Work and Pensions. It might not be the best-paid job in the world but it gives him lots of scope for fun.  He loves his girlfriend, Emma, too. But when Emma is made redundant, and gets a temping job in Ian's office, he doesn't like it at all. Emma only knows Home Ian - and Work Ian is a different kettle of fish. Spending twenty-four hours a day together is too much of a good thing.  But how can he tell her that without hurting her? Ian comes up with a plan to get things back the way they were.  But it puts his relationship at risk and forces Ian to decide which really matters most: the job, or Emma. A sweet, funny novel about love and work.

And here’s where you can buy it on the web:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Men-Work-Quick-Read-Reads/dp/1444711776/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1297838841&sr=1-3

http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/18350221/Men-At-Work/Product.html

http://www.tesco.com/books/product.aspx?R=9781444711776

3. Now for the bad news…

By now most of you will know that I spent most of last year working on Turning Forty, a sequel to my biggest selling novel ever, Turning Thirty. I pretty much nearly killed myself getting the book in on time, my publishers gave it the thumbs and that should have been the end of the story. Sadly, the more time that passed the less confident I became in the book I’d written until finally I called my publisher and asked them to put the book on hold for a year or two while I try to fix what went wrong. I don’t do this kind of thing lightly, and I understand that many of you will be disappointed that there won’t be a new Mike Gayle this summer which is why I have some good news for those willing to hang in there a little longer…

4. The Good News

The good news is that after putting Turning Forty on hold rather than crawling into bed and pulling the covers over my head (a whole year’s work down the toilet!!!) I picked myself up, dusted myself off and got back to writing and the first draft of the result, The Hen and Stag Weekend, was finished last night. Even though I say it myself the new book is everything I want it to be and you guys are absolutely going to love it. Fingers crossed, this time next year (Feb 2012) you’ll be able to read it and judge for yourselves!

5. eBook news

As I mentioned earlier The Importance of Being a Bachelor is out in eBook but in case you didn’t know (and I’m guessing some of you didn’t as I get quite a lot of emails about this) most of the Mike Gayle back catalogue is out in eBook now with other titles to be added in the near future. Check out the Amazon’s Kindle Store and Apple’s iBookstore for more information.

6. How to get more Mike Gayle news:

Most of you already know that I’m on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/mikegaylethenovelist) and Twitter (twitter.com/mikegayle) but as of yesterday I’m now also to be found blogging at (http://mikegaylethenovelist.blogspot.com) but this is mainly because I can’t log on to the blog that was attached to my website (curse you MySpace!!).  Don’t expect deep musings on life but more along the lines of: “Mike Gayle will be appearing at Huddersfield central library at 7.00 pm. Please bring own cake*.”

*Please note that I won’t actually be appearing at Huddersfield central library at 7.00 pm.  I do like cakes though.

Mike Gayle is the author of: My Legendary Girlfriend, Mr. Commitment, Turning Thirty, Dinner for Two, His 'n' Hers, Brand New Friend, Wish You Were Here, The Life & Soul of The Party, The To Do List and The Importance of Being a Bachelor.