Do you go for the artsy-fartsy style, or for something people will enjoy reading?

Oh well, it's Boxing Day evening here in Oz (9.48pm AEDST).  Christmas is over for another year.  Still got to think of promotional ideas for my work.  Perhaps a pictorial in some tawdry magazine, with copies of my novel 'Abernethy' placed strategically over those erogenous zones (memo to the art department: please get your airbrushing equipment oiled and ready).  I've entered 'Abernethy' in the Young Adult section of the Western Australian Premiers Book Award, but won't know anything until at least June 2011.  For the curious, the blurb and first chapter can be read at the publisher's (Zeus Publications) website: http://www.zeus-publications.com/abernethy.htm.  It's about a 14 year old boy who happens to meet a beagle who can communicate with him.  The beagle, the titular character, becomes the protagonist's mentor and friend whilst he is awaiting the outcome of his father's appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal for a white collar crime.  I've typed this PR bit so often, I can do it with my eyes closed (well, I always could; I'm a touch typist).  I wonder how it will go in this award.  Sometimes I wonder about work that wins major prizes.  I wonder do the judges look for artsy-fartsy, or something that people will actually enjoy reading. I'm reading something for book club at the moment, and it was the winner of some major award.  I'm enjoying the author's narrative, and it's about events during the reign of Henry VIII, which is a period of history I find interesting, but there's something that's not doing it for me, and that is sometimes it's hard for me to tell which character's point of view the author is using.  I thus vacillate between really enjoying it, and feeling as though I am suffering the mental equivalent of passing a kidney stone.

I got good feedback from someone today re 'Abernethy'.  She told me she lent the book to her ex-mother-in-law, and the ex-MIL told her it was the best thing she'd read in ages.  I was so happy.  I said to my friend, 'Well, tell her to tell all her friends!  Spread the word!'

Well, now I'm officially sleepy.  I've got kids sprawled and crashed out everywhere, it seems.  My two sons are having two friends (brother and sister aged 9 and 7) over for a sleepover.  Lego, Thomas the Tank Engine, jigsaw puzzle, checkers pieces, and general craperoo everywhere.  And of course Mum picked up most of it.

Happy Christmas, fellow members, and may we all have a successful 2011, in whatever terms in which you define 'success'!