A limited print edition of GIFTS is now also available here: http://www.bookdepository.com/Gifts-Betimes-Books/9780992967444 Free delivery worldwide!
Kat, Edward, Gatsby, Capote…and Kevin
The Plaza Hotel in NYC by Jackie Mallon
Kat and Edward at Christmas
Jackie Mallon about her story in our Christmas collection GIFTS
When Silk for the Feed Dog was published in September 2013, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. There was the obvious reason: I was setting it free to be read and hopefully enjoyed––or to be ignored or, God forbid, hated––but at least it was getting an opportunity to go off and make something of itself. The other reason for the relief was that I was free too.
Mercy me, I didn’t have to spend any more time with that Kat and Edward pair!
We’d been living in each other’s pockets for four years. We knew each other’s quirks and foibles, bad habits, and could finish each other’s sentences. We badly needed a break from each other.
Se ya, wouldn’t want to be ya! I didn’t even wave.
I rallied the old brain cells and giddily embarked on a new writing project.
Initially the lightness about me was intoxicating. Everything…
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Excerpt from GIFTS: Bittersweet Christmas Stories by Jackie Mallon
From “Blue and Unassuming under a Christmas Star” by Jackie Mallon: “In Sean Kat recognizes not a point of conversation anymore but the repository for all her frustrations. “Give that money back, you little shit. Go on, hand it over.” She holds out her hand and several shoppers gasp. “Come on, it’s Christmas, let it … Continue reading Excerpt from GIFTS: Bittersweet Christmas Stories by Jackie Mallon
E-book edition of GIFTS: Bittersweet Christmas Stories is here!
Our Christmas collection "Gifts: Bittersweet Christmas Stories"from all Betimes Books authors is now available as e-book for only 0,77£/0,99$ here Read it in PDF format here or contact us to receive a free PDF or Mobi copy of GIFTS! For a print collector edition, click here!
“Illustrated Adventures in Fashionland” by Jackie Mallon
To accompany the special week-long Kindle promotion of Silk for the Feed Dogs, I thought I’d post together all my drawings of scenes from the novel. I’ve been asked many times if I’d consider doing a graphic novel version of Silk for the Feed Dogs. A chance would be a fine thing, I say! Although graphic novels tend to have less text than regular novels. That would be the challenge. I like words too.
If only illustrated novels like Alice in Wonderland or all the Charles Dickens classics were the fashionable model nowadays. Illustrated plates, as they were known, are just not part of our reading experience anymore. And they would be too expensive to produce in our print-threatened times. Already we don’t like to pay as much for books when digital versions are cheaper and more portable.
But the Sir John Tenniel in me is itching to get…
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Kindle promotion! SILK FOR THE FEED DOGS
Jackie Mallon's novel SILK FOR THE FEED DOGS is on promotion on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk until the 20th of November. “Silk for the Feed Dogs is a stellar accomplishment – get it, read it, you won’t regret the indulgence of silk against your skin." —DisappearingInPlainSight.com getBook.at/SILK_Mallon
“Why do I write” by Jackie Mallon
This is the question posed by my blogmate, Kate at Maison Bentley Style. It’s part of a blog hop. I could never say no to Kate. She is the big hearted, ever-so-stylish epicenter of my blogging society; our intrepid heroine and our gracious hostess. She is the pre-scandal Lily Bart; the always charismatic Daisy Buchanan; the nobly independent Jo Marsh of my circle.
Why do I write, you ask, Kate? Well, that’s like asking why one would want to disappear through this little gate…
What am I working on now?
Despite weeks lost to my well-documented home search and the attendant broker, mortgage, co-op application misery, I am about two thirds of the way through my second novel. First draft, mind you. And, full disclosure, it doesn’t have a beginning yet, nor have I any idea of the route to take to arrive at the ending. But it’s still an easier…
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“Ekphrasis” by Jackie Mallon
I’ve been up on the roof. no, not to throw myself off. There’s no WiFi up there. The lengths––or heights––I will go to in order to dodge the clutches of procrastination. I have a new writing project deadline which I’ll tell you about later.
You would have loved it up there this week. You hear the city below, the symphony of sirens, a school bell faintly, voices from other rooftops that sound like seagulls’ cries, a door slamming in the belly of the building, a car horn, but the noises are all so gentle and far far away. Even though I had work to do I felt like I was on holiday. On a beach even. I felt like one of those writers with the means to retreat to an exclusive island hideaway every time they have a deadline (I’m sure these blessed individuals still exist–I don’t know any but…
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Literature and Art: Jackie Mallon about “Painted Women”
My current reading: Augustus John by Michael Holroyd published 1974
Immersed in research for my second novel, I stumbled upon the painter, Augustus John. He was an interesting type and no mistake but it is his women who truly fascinate. Upon reading descriptions of them, how they spoke and looked and thought, I sought out their portraits. Style mavens with names like Dorelia, Ida (surname Nettleship, no less), Alick, Euphemia, Estella, Arabella, Guilhermina, Ottoline, Clarissa, Caitlin, Amaryllis, Iris, formed a pageant of poetically monikered muses that fuelled his art. They would fuel my sketches too if I had a collection to design. Instead they will fuel my fiction.
Marchesa Casati by Augustus John
Known for “a compelling stare when he looked at a woman,” Augustus John’s quest for the next enigmatic face was a compulsion he made no apologies for. It was a congenital weakness. A coquettish voice emanating from…
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“Dollmaker” by Jackie Mallon
Jackie Mallon, the author of SILK FOR THE FEED DOGS: “We do not want to be Barbie dolls…”
I can’t hold my tongue any more. It’s abuse of position. Jeremy Scott is using the glittering Moschino name to peddle his own nasty wares. Can we call security? Get this guy outta here! This is one Scot(t) that should have been granted independence this week!
Okay, so he has a sense of humor and thinks fashion should be fun. He doesn’t know the code and is trespassing on our property
Franco Moschino had a clever, questioning, political point of view, using his fashion as a platform to tackle issues of consumerism, drugs, AIDS….and then, as well as all that, he knew how to have a laugh, yes.
Through fashion Franco bantered with women; he engaged in witty repartee. Even when he embroidered For Fashion Victims Only on our back, or Waist of Money around our middle, it was clear he loved women. There was respect behind what he did…
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Students, It’s Showtime!
Jackie Mallon, fashion designer and the author of Silk For The Feed Dogs, proudly presents the accomplishments of her students.
“Silk for the Feed Dogs, set in the international fashion industry, follows a young graduate as she strives for success while evading the snapping jaws of those villainous and ravenous “feed dogs,” gatekeepers to her dreams.”
“I never know what I really want so I flirt with the fabric a little while.”
Nassim Shadmani, born in Persia, might play coy initially but there’s no questioning her commitment to the relationship between design and fabric. She creates sumptuous and seductive dresses, as liquidy as Lanvin, using only one seam. Only one.
Nassim’s sketches
“It is from this kind of discipline I will grow as a designer.”
Ladies, you will melt. There’s vulnerability and confidence in every stitch. Inspired by the idea of contornionism, her “Bend, not break” collection plays with twisting and draping, matt and sheen, dark teal, silver and slate, slippery charmeuse and double-faced silk, to depict an unpredictable sensuality. The nonchalant ease of a slinky dressing gown with the intrigue of a geisha’s ceremonial wrapping.
Nassim was one of thirteen students representing the Art Institute of New York City who showed their graduate collections in…
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“Sharp”, “hilarious”, “observant”, “entertaining”: SILK, of course!
"The writing is sharp and humorous. Mallon is a very observant author and her heroine Kat negotiates her way through a world it's clear her creator knows a lot about. In particular the passages in Italy made me feel as if I were there myself, without having to get on the plane to go there." … Continue reading “Sharp”, “hilarious”, “observant”, “entertaining”: SILK, of course!
Kat’s Italian Dictionary
Kat Connelly has travelled far from her days on the farm in rural Ireland. She now finds herself chasing a career in fashion through the cobblestone roads of Milan. She’s picked up some Italian vocabulary along the way. Here’s a bit of what she’s learned: Ragazzi (men): Enticing creatures who roam the streets of … Continue reading Kat’s Italian Dictionary
Turkish translation rights sold to SILK FOR THE FEED DOGS by Jackie Mallon
Turkish publishing house Nar Kitap, partner of Marie Claire Magazine in Turkey, has just acquired translation rights to Jackie Mallon's wondefully insightful novel about the world of high fashion that the author knows intimately.
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