Andrew Q. Gordon

One of the best things about being an author are the friends I’ve made. None are more dear to me than Anyta. During her time in the USA, she and her family spent that most American of holidays – the Fourth of July – visiting Mike and I. (And the second time with ‘lil q too.) So welcoming her to my blog is like welcoming home an old friend.  But more than that, she’s a wonderfully talented author who’s newest book – Liam Davis and the Raven was just release last week. So take a read and learn about what she liked about her time in Pittsburgh.

The top 5 best things about my time in Pittsburgh . . .

1)

Number one, clearly, by far, was having the chance to meet my [then only] online friend and co-author Andrew Q. Gordon. Hey Andy! Thanks for all the great times we had together—I feel so privileged to have met you and your beautiful family.

Pittsburg made that possible—it’s only a four-hour drive to DC. Well, okay, with me driving it was closer to five, but still. 😉 Driving into DC wasn’t one of my most treasured driving experiences, though. Cars were crossing lanes not just from the left but the right as well! Chaos. But at least there I didn’t take a wrong turn and end up in an Amish village somewhere rural Pennsylvania! **Whistles** I blame it on the GPS.

2)  

THIS:

Seriously. I LOVED walking around the edgy and beautiful areas of Pittsburgh without constantly having to keep my eyes glued to the footpath for doogie-doo. (They seem to use it as pavement carpet here).

Fines like this ensured I never had to scratch poop from the soles of my boots with a twig on the way to work. Multiple times a week.

I wish we had some over here instead of the sixteen times “warning” thing we got going.

Also leashes. Nothing scarier than walking with your toddler to the supermarket and having big, rowdy dogs galloping past. So, yeah, this was appreciated.

3) 

Writer’s Workshops.

I really, really loved being able to hop on a plane and an hour or two later be in another state, another fantastic city, and another wonderful writing workshop. Sigh. I wish I could have taken those workshops with me!

I’ll keep curling my finger and beckoning them over the Atlantic. Just maybe I’ll be lucky.

4)

The libraries and bookstores were filled with English books. I spent a very good deal of my time at Squirrel Hill library plotting and scribbling away at my novels. Funnily enough, while I was living in Pittsburgh I was writing books set in NZ, and now that I’m in Germany, I’ve started writing novels based in Pittsburgh.

I think it’s my way of missing the times there!

5)

The student atmosphere.

There are, well, I couldn’t even keep count of how many universities and colleges are in Pittsburg! But I loved the vibe all those students gave to the city. So fresh and alive and creative.

That inspired me.

And thus, Liam Davis & The Raven was born.

I hope I captured some of that vibe in the novel. While the university and its paper “The Scribe” are fictitious details, there are plenty of descriptions in the novel that really exist.

One of them is this:

This is the house I based Liam’s apartment on—and it is also the one I lived in for two years.

Sigh. I miss it.

It did make for a lot of fun writing the story though! Even if my New Zealand twang still came through in the first drafts.

Thank God for my wonderful editors: Teresa Crawford for content editing, Lynda Lamb for picking at the lines to make the story flow, and to Heather at HJSediting for a very thorough and impressive proofread, catching all my NZisms!

And while I’m thanking people, thank you to my beta readers Vicki and Sunne for your thoughts, and Andy for hosting me on your blog.

Blurb

Liam Davis is a serious journalist, and he’s good at it.

Or at least, he was. Until the chief of Scribe, the campus magazine, makes him give up his politics column to write for the party page —the party page that is problematic for two reasons: One, it threatens Liam’s chance of getting the traineeship with his apathetic father at his prestigious newspaper company, and two, he has no idea what it means to party, let alone how to capture this new audience’s attention!

But Liam Davis is no quitter. He’s determined to prove to his father, the chief, and above all himself that he can do it—and do it well.

Life doesn’t make it easy. Not when Freddy Krueger comes stalking out of the shadows to attack him. Luckily the Raven, the campus vigilante—the vigilante getting hate mail sent to Scribe’s opinions page—comes to his rescue.

Now, between finding the perfect angle for his party page columns and making friends (and perhaps something more?), Liam needs to find this mysterious Raven — not only to thank him, but to warn him to watch his back.

Buy Links:

Kindle editions:
amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
amazon.ca

Paperback:
amazon.com

About the Author

A born and raised New Zealander, Anyta Sunday has been exploring the literary world since she start reading Roald Dahl as a kid. Inspired, stories have been piling up in her head ever since. Fast forward to her mid-twenties and jump a few countries (Germany, America, and back again), and she started putting pen to paper. When she’s not writing or chasing her kid around, she’s reading, hiking, watching Joss Whedon series, attempting pilates, or curling up with her two cats. Updates on her projects can be found at anytasunday.com.

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