ONCE UPON A DREAM; Professional Reader

 

It's just after 8pm and it is already quite dark.  Now that summer has reached its end, the nights are starting to draw in again and the dark season is making a welcome return. At least it is in my house.  I live for the darker nights of autumn and winter and I am already in the swing of the cosy, spooky season.  Last night I watched Crimson Peak, the night before that it was The Nightmare Before Christmas - so yes, it is fair to say that I am welcoming the darkness with open arms, as I do every year.

For me, autumn and winter are all about curling up in cosy nooks, with great books and the warm glow of scented candles around me.  I like to make my home a snug retreat from the outside world, a place that I have to be prized out of because it's the most comforting place I know.   I see my entire house as something of a hyggekrog - that is, a comfy place to rest, relax, escape and drift away into a wonderful book, film or piece of music. 

It is time to coorie down, snuggle in and enjoy the great indoors and I have a stack of fabulous dark season books to get through.  Having said that, my book collection has taken over the house - not that I'm complaining, I love them! But I've now got so many books, I'm having to use the pedal platform of my piano as an additional book shelf, and it's already half full.

So I was delighted today when I was accepted as a Professional Reader on NetGalley.  This means that publishers will now send me free books to read and review, prior to their publication.  So I get first dibs on all the new books, and they will be sent straight to me before they are even released!  This is fantastic news for a lifelong bookworm.  Not only will it save me a fortune, it means that I can still do what I love, which is to enjoy and share books, regardless of space issues in my little house.

I am aware that this is a great privilege and it is not an opportunity that everyone would be offered.  My work in the publishing industry as an author and columnist, plus my MA degree, has no doubt helped to open this door for me.  Nonetheless, it is a significant milestone, because it indicates that I have now been recognized by the publishing industry, as a professional book reviewer.  Of course I have reviewed books and music in the past for magazines, but I have never been offered a steady stream of soon-to-be-published books for review purposes.  Until today.

I already have a few on my review list but I am most excited by the fact that Harper Collins sent me this book today, The Lighthouse Witches, which is one I have been wanting to read and I think it will be my first publishing house endorsed review, so I will always be grateful to Harper Collins for that. 

I started reading the novel this afternoon and I can almost smell the sea as I read.  It helps that the book is set in a part of the Scottish Highlands that I have visited a lot and am very familiar with, Cromarty and the Black Isle, so it sucked me straight in!

For the rest of the late summer bank holiday, I am going to curl up with this spooky book and a glass of red wine, enjoying a restful evening, hopefully the first of many, as a Professional Reader.  I'm going to light a few candles and be all coorie beneath my tartan blanket - there is likely to be a cream tea involved as well, as a brief nod to the departing summer.  Look out for many more book reviews, hopefully lots of witchy ones too! 

Blessed Be

Marie x