WELL! It's been a long time for Obernewtyn Chronicles fans as The Stone Key was published in 2008.

Thankfully, The Sending, is out now!

The series, first published in 1987, has been a huge hit with devoted fans all over the world - and critics, with plenty of awards won too.

The Sending:

 The sixth book in The Obernewtyn Chronicles. The time has come at last for Elspeth Gordie to leave the Land on her quest to find and stop the computermachine Sentinel from unleashing the deadly Balance of Terror arsenal. But before she can embark on her quest, she must find a lost key. And although she has long prepared for this day, nothing is as she imagined. Elspeth's search will take her where she never thought to go, and bestow upon her stranger companions than any she thought to have. It will ...

Evangeline the toy elephant lies under the bed all day, waiting and waiting for something to happen.

If only she could be useful somewhere...

Will her wish be granted?

I am pretty sure (pretty pretty sure) that this is the cutest book ever.

I mean, if a dancing elephant in a dress on the front cover isn't enough - or the fact it's a beautiful hardback with special flowers and stars that shine in the right light - or the absolutely charming colour illustrations through-out, then the story will capture your imagination in a huge way.

Alderson writes beautifully about discarded toys who live dusty lives under beds, wishing of being a Constant Companion. They talk about the time they were the Constant Companion, only to be chucked aside in favour of a new toy.

It is, simply put, a charming book, one that will be ...

Sometimes, you sit back and think of something and get all stressed and worried.

Sometimes, you want to do something but you have no idea. (I think this is one of those times where I should leave that. I meant to write 'time' not 'idea' but hey - someone's trying to tell me something!)

Sometimes, it seems that there isn't enough time in the world to do everything you want to do, and when you have an inability to say no and take on too much: it's a problem.

Things I need at the moment:

Time Sleep My cold/hay fever to go away A massage, as my back is very sore at the moment from all the hunching over I do at work and on the computer Money to pay an over-due parking fine from the Marieke Hardy event To go to the gym, they are taking my money ...

OMG! Big news! Angela is leaving Crikey!

(And I say that because she's keeping LiteraryMinded, just moving it.)

Shocking! Scandalous!

(Or maybe everyone knew but me until I found out on Twitter this afternoon.)

Well either way, it's the end of an era that's for sure! I'm going to miss Angela on there, but it's okay, as you can follow her new blog (address)! Hoorah!

Also, the new book blogger for Crikey is pretty awesome, she'll be starting soon but you can follow her on Twitter now.

I also discovered today (today's been a good day for discovering!) that you can BUY ECK. ECK. ECK!!!

As in Eck from Meg Rosoff's There Is No Dog. Which you've all read, right?

I can't believe it. A toy Eck!

I'm so incredibly excited. I think I shall have to send an email enquiring about special delivery :p

In other book news (as ...

I saw Contagion on the weekend. Jude Law's character, a journalist, is chasing Laurence Fishburne's character for information about what's happening.

Fishburne's character spits at him, "Blogging is not writing: it's graffiti with punctuation."

I smirked and, much to the dismay of those sitting around me, pulled out my phone to jot down the quote.

Of course, I started to think of defenses in my head but when I really thought about it, it's true.

But then again, that can be said of any print or online writing. As I mentioned in the interview that was posted over the weekend (you all enjoyed that, right?!) this can been seen as simply my soap box for anything I want to say. 

And, you know, people say that about certain journalists with columns in papers *cough*.

And then you could say that about authors pushing their own agenda's in ...