Posted on February 4, 2010 - by MG
The ZERO MOMENT launch party
Once again, it’s cake time. Thanks to some lovely friends in Oxford and the wonderful staff of Blackwell’s bookshop, we were able to enjoy another round of cupcakes, Joshua cake and a glass of fizzy pink wine.
Scholastic Children’s Books were on hand with shiny new Joshua Files enamel badges and glow-in-the-dark wristbands for all, as you can see if you look closely on the photos in the slideshow below.
You can listen to a special podcast from Radio Litopia which features the panel discussion and Q&A session from the launch party, featuring me with Peter Cox of Redhammer Management and BBC Oxford’s Bill Heine. (Press ‘Play’ below)
So, to everyone who attended, which was your favourite cupcake? (I was very torn between chocolate hazelnut and lime cheesecake.)
Fellow author Mark Robson has also mentioned the ZERO MOMENT launch party on the Trapped By Monsters Blog, where he’s giving away a free signed copy of the neon paperback edition of ZERO MOMENT.
And Susie Day, lolarious YA author of Big Woo and Girl Meets Cake, also my partner-in-crime in bacon-sarnie-and-coffee consumption, has blogged about the ZERO MOMENT launch party at susieday.com with another lovely photo.
Early reviews by two of the top UK book bloggers are here:
Zero Moment reviewed by Mr Ripley’s Enchanted Books
Zero Moment reviewed by The Bookzone for Boys
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The MG Harris Blog
Website of MG Harris, author of the children's book series "The Joshua Files".Author event information, resources for schools or libraries...
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February 5, 2010
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Congrats, MG!
So, follow-up the message on facebook, what should we call the Joshua fans? It has been set?
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February 5, 2010
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Hello gomel and thanks!
There’s an even split between Joshua Insiders and Agents of Ek Naab. (you may have seen only one of the FB threads, I have several Joshua readers lists). So I was thinking of running a poll.
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February 9, 2010
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Congrats on another great launch party (keep them coming) but on a much more serious note, I had more than my fair share of the Nutella-laden cup-cakes, which were seriously addictive but in a nice way! Mark was clearly envious but never got off his stool to get one, I noticed.
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February 9, 2010
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congratulation on another succesful book,
i am just sad because i prordered mine in 2009 on amazon and it STILL hasnt arrived.
i wanna win the map competition!
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February 9, 2010
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February 15, 2010
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I finished Zero Moment the other day, well done MG. You took the books in the right direction. I was unsure when i first heard the mention of time travel being a main part of the plot, as it is a very tricky concept and hard to write into a story, but i’m guessing a few years of watching sci-fi’s like Doctor Who paid off eh? Well done for including the “time is a river” analogy, making it much easier for a general audience to understand yes? So reading that part of Dark Parralel included in the back, (which by the way i was very relieved to see, as i had to read more) it got me thinking about why it’s called Dark Parralel. Theory 1) Josh enters a parralel dimension? Theory 2) The other part of the time is a river analogy, if time is like a river, when you change time, part of the river branches off, and runs parralel to the river and rejoins later, or something along those lines, hence parralel. Theory 3) Josh creates the butterfly effect.
All this time travel got me thinking, if i was born a day later, would i be a different person?
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February 16, 2010
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Wow thanks Lukas, so glad you enjoyed it! As for trying to eke clues out of me re Joshua #4, well I’m going to have to resist being obvious. But you and a few other readers do seem to be on the right track about a few things…
“Doctor Who” isn’t the biggest influence on time-travel paradox stories like ZM, because the Doctor can’t cross his own timeline. What I had in mind when writing is more ‘The Door Into Summer’ by Robert Heinlein, a terrific story I read when I was a teen.
And of course later, “Back to the Future”.
Thoughts on the ‘if you were born later’ differ. The witchcraft of astrology says that it totally matters when you were born, so they can charge you to do a birth chart for you. Some people are full-on determinists and think that were they recreated exactly they would always make all the same choices.
I prefer to believe we have free choice and it wouldn’t always be the same…instead each choice leads us forther up the garden of forking paths…
“He believed in an infinite series of times, in a growing, dizzying net of divergent, convergent and parallel times. This network of times which approached one another, forked, broke off, or were unaware of one another for centuries, embraces all possibilities of time. We do not exist in the majority of these times; in some you exist, and not I; in others I, and not you; in others, both of us.”
Which is of course another big influence on me: “The Garden of Forking Paths” by Borges.
You can read it here:
http://courses.essex.ac.uk/lt/lt204/forking_paths.htm
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February 17, 2010
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hi congratulation on another book launch the Zero Moment book seems very good I wish people to buy this book I am thinking of buying this book one for my self keep it up
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February 19, 2010
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Thank you Henning!
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February 24, 2010
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Hey MG congregation for your book launch “Zero Moment “ :-). Launch party images are very nice. Can you tell me from where can I buy this book I too have a little passion for reading. Keep writing more books.