Welcome to the 2nd edition of our Bookshop Spotlight feature!

This time we put the spotlight on Tome Books in Eastbourne, the hometown of IwishIwasabook.com.

So, what makes Tome unique??

Morals morals morals. This is not a post about whether or not you'll go to hell if you illegally download the latest episode of Game of Thrones. You will. It's as simple as that. And I'll be there waiting for you, sitting on the iron throne.

No, this is instead the morals of illegally downloading that which you have already purchased. A grey area in my mind.

Regular readers of this website will know that I am a Kobo fan. I love their ereaders, their ebooks and the whole underdog success story of the company.

That being said, the Barnes & Noble Nook SimpleTouch has just been reduced to a measly £29.00 in the UK. That has got to be one of the bargains of the year so far!

Welcome to a brand new feature on IwishIwasabook.com!

Bookshop Spotlight aims to put the focus on the very best independent bookshops across the UK, finding out what makes them unique and why you just need to visit them.

Our very first edition puts the spotlight on Slightly Foxed on Gloucester Road, London. Enjoy...

Today, for me, marks something quite significant. Or, at least, it marks something that I someday hope to be significant.

Today is the day I started my novel.

Inspiration is a bitch.

Really, it either alludes me or pesters me. This week it has been the latter. I've been full of ideas and motivation, writing every day and even adding a whole new section to the website (it's this one, about writing...). But, because of all this new found inspiration, I can't sleep.

Earlier this month we told you about the Afterlife Inc. Kickstarter, which we're pleased to say shot passed its target! Afterlife Inc. isn't the only fantastic indie comic that needs your help, though.

7STRING is a frenetic whirlwind of a comic set in a world where music is everything. Book 1 is available now and comes highly recommended, but book 2 is in need of Kickstarting...

On a grey weekend in November at the wonderful Leeds Thought Bubble comic con I got the chance to sit down and talk with one of the rising stars of sci-fi/fantasy/crime/noire/urban fantasy/alternative history/super-hero fiction... ok, you get the point.

Adam Christopher really is a rising star. His books have the immediacy and action of a fast paced thriller, combined with the atmosphere of a noire and the ideas of a sci-fi epic. But don't take my word for it – Empire State, Adam's first novel (Angry Robot, 2012) has just been voted Book of the Year by Sci-Fi Now magazine. That's hefty praise.

Afterlife Inc., a comic book series by Jon Lock, is the ongoing tale of Jack Fortune who, after being brutally murdered, takes control of an afterlife in ruins.

We reviewed the first book in the series a few months back, and, as you can see, we loved it! Now Jon and his team of artists are using Kickstarter to publish volume 3, and you can help make it happen.

If you haven't read any Afterlife Inc. yet, then we suggest you head on over to the website where you can browse many of the stories that feature in the books.

Read on for more info and a great video from Jon...

October is the start of the scary season. As the dark and the cold start to draw in and the fires are lit, it is the perfect time to read stories of ghosts and ghouls and witches and more.

Here are some recommendations for some less-than-obvious reading choices this Halloween and beyond, that I hope will get you shivering as you read them late at night... by candlelight.

Ransom Riggs is an exciting YA novelist with, in his own words, a tortured brain. This may be a hinderance for most people, but it's  a bonus for a writer of dark, creepy and downright fun young adult fantasy.

Ransom's first novel, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, took the world by storm last year when it was released, with its combination of gothic-super-hero-horror story and down right creepy photographs.

We are pleased to present a glimpse into the author's world...

Over on the Fantasy Faction website there is a short story by me, which is in the July 2012 Writing Competition. The story is called In A World Not Your Own (Or, Mister Pie's Unpleasant Way To Die) and I'd really appreciate it if you'd take the time to read it. You never know, you might even like it! If you do like it I'd be eternally grateful if you'd vote for it as well.

There are some other great short stories on the site as well, so well worth checking out.

I'm writing quite a lot at the moment, and I hope to start posting some stuff on IwishIwasabook.com in the near future, so please keep an eye out.

JA

I like to write. I write short stories and opening chapters of perpetually unfinished novels and paragraphs that might one day become stories. I like writing.

In my head there is a story that I really want to write, and although I don't know anything about it – I don't know the plot, I don't know the characters, I don't know the theme – what I do know is the feel of the story. I think the feel of a story is important, and I know the feel of the story that I want to write. Maybe I'll even write it some day.

Anyway, the point of this post is Neil Gaiman. He is my favourite author, I think. Mostly because of American Gods, but also because of The Graveyard Book and Coraline and others. I love the feel of his stories. They have a similar feel to that unwritten story in my head.

He wrote a short-story quite recently, and posted a recording of him telling it on his blog. It's called The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury, and I urge you to have a listen. It is sweet, poignant, funny and just plain lovely.

That is all.

JA

I was at Bristol Comic Expo over the weekend, which took place at the beautiful Brunel's Old Station. Third year I've been. It was brilliant, to put it bluntly. However, it seems to have kicked me repeatedly in the immune system, and I write this half comatose on the sofa with a raw chest and sneezey constitution. Thankfully ThatBeastJen is in the kitchen cooking me some lunch...

Read on for a full report on BCE

I'm pleased to introduce our latest guest blog post. Jonathan Evison is fast becoming recognized as one of America's great young authors. His first book, All About Lulu, won the Washington State Book Award, and his latest novel West of Here has already received heaps of praise in the US.

Jonathan Evison writes: I'm a camper. It's what I do. Between late February and mid-October, I'm usually camping. Sometimes that means hiking twelve miles and three-thousand vertical feet with forty pounds strapped to my back, and sometimes that means my ass falling asleep in a lawn chair, as I scribble mad notes in front of a campfire with a case of cold beer within arms reach. Usually, though, it means parking my '76 Dodge motor home on a bluff at Kalaloch in a nasty squall, and watching the waves pound the shoreline, while the moho rocks like Jericho. These camping trips are my lifeline as a writer, and as a person. Without these trips, the wilderness of my spirit might have been tamed years ago. And probably I wouldn't be much of a writer. Most certainly, I'd be hell to live with.

www.IwishIwasabook.com has been a bit quiet of late, and I would like to apologise for this. Lots going on with work and life and the rest has meant that writing and even reading have had to take a back seat.

Do not fear though! I have written a few reviews over the last month or two, but they have been for another website, the fantastic We Love This Book from The Bookseller magazine:

www.WeLoveThisBook.com/

UPDATE: The Boy & His Bee has now been launched and is available from the author's shop here. Buy it. Really, do. It is fantastic and kids, parents and bee keepers will all adore it.

This weekend, the 19th & 20th November 2011, sees the launch of a fantastic new children's book – The Boy & His Bee by Jen Smith.

Launching at the Thought Bubble festival in Leeds, The Boy & His Bee is the story of a young boy desperate for a pet bee, but he soon learns there is more to friendship than freezers and flowers...

Kobo Books have today announced a brand new eReader – the Kobo Vox!

The Vox is a full colour tablet style ereader running on Android and has been dubbed by Kobo as “The World's First Social eReader”, thanks to its social network integration.

Read on for more details...

Justin Gustainis is without doubt one of the most exciting authors currently writing in the "urban fantasy" genre. His two latest books, Hard Spell and Sympathy For The Devil, have caused quite a stir in the fantasy fiction community and it's easy to see why, Justin's dark sense of humour and darker worlds are engrossing and fantastic fun.

We are happy to present a glimpse into the authors mind, where witchfinders hunt and vampires run riot...

With the launch of the Kindle Fire and Kindle Touch dominating headlines both in the UK and US, another launch seems to have gone unnoticed, but is much more important to us Brits right now -

The Kobo Touch is now available in the UK!