Shadow Queen | scribbling damselfly

just your typical glamorous day, really

All week I was promised: 20°C on Saturday. And now Saturday is here, and I'm sitting on the couch wearing my fingerless gloves and wrapped in a throw rug, because it is very clearly NOT 20°C. No doubt when I leave the house this afternoon, the wind will sweep itself and all the clouds away to the south and Melbourne will start to bake and I, I will be overdressed and thus I will suffer. This is the natural way of things.

So far this morning, I have managed to wake up at 6:39 (and this is despite not getting to sleep until about 02:30 and where can I lodge a complaint about my bio-rhythms, anyway?) and pick my way through maybe half of the copyedits on "Shaping Lily". Suffice to say I've had better days as far as focus is concerned. Ah well.

Now I think it's time for breakfast.

Before I dive back into wrangling ~~that effing car-crash of a narrative~~ the faerie novel.

ETA: Since the A-format of Shadow Queen should be hitting bookshelves soon, it occurs to me now would be a good time to remind visitors to the blog that you can read the first chapter online for free.

15 August 2009 @ 12:15 |

look who's had a makeover

An email from Allen & Unwin yesterday informs me that the A format paperback¹ version of Shadow Queen is back from the printers. Official publication date is 1 September 2009, which means copies should start appearing on bookshelves… well, anytime over the next few weeks, actually.

Complete with the new format comes a new cover. Well, new cover design, since it's the same fabulous artwork:

I am otherwise bereft of content today, because I have spent the day doing such exciting things as arranging optometry appointments and discovering the electricity company has been very helpfully sending my bills to an address at which I have never lived.

So in lieu of content, I shall point you towards Simon & Schuster, who are offering a free pdf download of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies! (The sign-up form asks for a zip code, which in the US is 5 numbers — but I put in a 4-number Australian post code and it worked fine for me.)

for those not familiar with publishing-speak, the A format in Australia is (roughly) equivalent to the North American mass market paperback – think your small/normal sized paperback. Shadow Queen has to date only been available in the C format, or trade paperback, which is the larger-sized paperbacks. You know the ones, same size as a hardcover but without the hardcover binding. [↩]

6 August 2009 @ 17:59 |

honest to goodness news

An email from my publisher today tells me that the mass market paperback version of Shadow Queen should be available for purchase before the end of the year. This means those of you who hate and loathe the trade paperback format, or don't hate it so much as think it's simply too expensive, will have the chance to buy the smaller, cheaper format. Much more suitable for shoving in small bags and reading on buses and trains and planes.

This means the current publication date for the second book, which I've been calling Pledged (but the title is already slated for change), should be hitting shelves around March 2010.

The (first round of) publication edits for Pledged are due to land on my desk inside the next month. At which point I'll probably have to put aside the faerie novel and retreat from the world until they're done, because otherwise they'll never get done and the book won't be out in March because I'll still be slaving away over where to put my commas and everyone who's waiting to find out how on earth Matilde manages to dig herself out of the hole the first book put her in will come and bludgeon me to a paste with their trade paperback versions of the book.¹

Except for Tessa, who already knows what happens. But she may join in just in the interests of solidarity, I suppose. [↩]

Who Cares Anyway? (The Jackson Code — The Second Greatest Story Ever Told [Disc 2])

18 June 2009 @ 19:23 | 6 Comments

living in a hotel would be kinda cool

Dear Melbourne:

Just stop it. Seriously. I am moving here, in fact I've now officially arrived, so you can stop all the attempts to tear yourself off the face of the earth in order to avoid me, and just settle down already. I realise that my bad luck field might make you anxious, but we're just going to have to learn to live with each other. Now behave, or you won't get to meet Spawn.

No thanks
Me

–

It occurred to me, somewhere on the Hume Highway, that I should really be taking photos of my drive south, so that you could all live vicariously through me. Then it occurred to me that my photography skills probably weren't up to making a hundred photos of various sun-scorched (and sometimes fire-blackened) hills and plains remarkable enough to be worthwhile. Plus, you know, I was driving.

While I've been busy reshuffling the dayjob aspects of my life, the internet has been busy publicising my book, which is very gracious of you all. A quick round-up:

I'm the featured writer this month at Allen & Unwin's "Writers on Writing", where I talk a little bit about writing, and the writing of Shadow Queen in particular.

Recently, Gary Kemble interviewed me about the writing of second novels. As I understand it, the interview is available free to members of the Queensland Writers Centre. Once the QWC have archived their copy of the interview, I'll look into posting my portion of it online for the rest of you (provided I remember).

Jeff Vandermeer graciously featured Shadow Queen over at Omnivoracious — here's hoping his instinct proves true.

And finally, Trudi Canavan unknowingly advertises my book on her blog — see something familiar in that first picture? Thanks to Dymocks @ Tuggeranong for putting my book right next to hers

Also, in hunting down the links for the above round-up (because I am forgetful and did not write them down properly) I realised that a google search of my name now results in over 5 pages of…me. (It could well be more, but that's when I stopped scrolling and started narrowing the search terms, something I've never had to do before.)

That's … kinda staggering.

8 March 2009 @ 16:03 | 12 Comments

i swear to you, there are no big words in this book

Today I come bearing gifts: an excerpt of Shadow Queen!

Thanks to Allen & Unwin, if you want to try before you buy, without all the inconvenience of trudging into a brick and mortar store, now you can read the first chapter online, or download it for reading later. (Those of you who download will get the extra special glimpse of the book's layout and font-design, since the PDF is a true representation of the finished book.)

As a bonus fun-fact, consider when reading that this first chapter is in fact one-fifth of what in my head I still call the first chapter. Yes, when I say the chapters in the original manuscript were LONG, I'm not exaggerating.

For those of you who've already read the book, I give you instead the feedback from friends and family who have actually finished reading it:

P, on starting the book: "I think she went a little too hard too early on the big words — I don't think she'll be able to keep it up."

P, on finishing the book: "Er, I take that back. She did keep it up."

N: "Oh my God, I'm going to need a dictionary to read this thing!"¹

B:² "Tricksy. Very tricksy."

S: "Is this the sort of stuff you were thinking about while you were at work? Because the majority of what I think about is what to cook for dinner, and there you were all this time, pondering the ways to kill people? I think I'm a little bit scared now."

And, the overwhelming response from pretty much everyone: "What the…? Cliffhanger! I have to wait HOW LONG for the next part? AGH!"

So, people, consider yourselves warned.

Honestly, I thought I took all the really hard and obscure big words out. Honestly! But, er, apparently not. [↩]
Somewhat paraphrased [↩]

17 January 2009 @ 12:42 | 10 Comments

i sometimes think too much but say nothing at all

I am a happy little writer today because look what Tess sent me:

a certain author's book on display

Not only is the book face-out, at eye-level, on an end-piece…but that's some damn awesome company she's¹ in there.

Now, if you'll excuse me, the incomparably boppy "Eye of the Tiger" has just flipped into rotation, and I am to…well, write. But to boppy music. Oh yes! We live on the edge, the cat and bamboo and I.

I use she, because I can't quite bring myself to say 'I'm' — it's my book in awesome company. I, you see, am ensconced in my usual habitat, with a cat and some badly-neglected lucky bamboo, wondering if I can make it to the kitchen to brew another pot of tea, or whether I really am just too ~~lazy~~ comfy here. Not much in the way of awesome company round these parts. Sorry, cat. Sorry, bamboo. [↩]

She Says (Howie Day — Stop All The World Now)

10 January 2009 @ 8:36 | 3 Comments

it really is who you know, in the end

Today, finding myself at my local shopping centre for the first time since Shadow Queen appeared on shelves, I dropped into Borders, only to find no copies. No copies! They'd had copies last week. I stood in the aisle for a bit, torn between disappointment at not actually seeing my own book on shelves after all this time and a quiet glee that people had actually shelled over money for the book. Perhaps fortunately, none of the staff asked me why I looked ~~manic~~ lost, so I couldn't share my thoughts with anyone.

I wandered off to my other errands, which brought me within range of the local Angus & Robertson. They did not have my book for sale last week, so I thought it safe to wander in and do a little browsing. Lo, what did I find, but copies of my book! So at last I have seen my own book in a real bookstore — even if it was on the bottom-most shelf. At least, thanks to that awesome cover, it was face-out.

Now, I'm told by reputable types, that it is normal for an author to offer to sign any books on display in a bookstore. What harm? I thought. I'm moving away in a couple of months anyway, I can always avoid the store if I make a total fool of myself. So I nailed my courage to the wall¹ and offered to sign their stock.

The sales assistant's smile froze in place. "I'll just get the manager," she said, and she fled. That is the only description for what she did: she fled.

The manager came over, looking similarly concerned. "You want to sign the books…?" she asked, and I began to wonder if all those reputable types had been setting me up, in a stunning display of everyone in the world having a joke at one person's expense.

"Well," she hesitated, as if trying to find a polite way to explain that I was not being normal, not at all. "I suppose… If you want to…"

It seemed foolish to walk away at this point, so I started signing — which is when the manager mentioned a gentleman had been in just last week, asking about this book. She shared this information with a wide-eyed I-escaped-from-death sort of look. "He asked a lot of questions, about the publisher, about why we didn't have any copies, about why we weren't supporting local authors…"

Ah. No wonder they ordered in copies. My friends are well-meaning, and determined, and not beyond accusing bookstores of single-handedly destroying the Australian economy at a pinch. Bless 'em.

you have no idea how hard it is, being me. honestly. [↩]

Hold On Hope (Guided By Voices - Scrubs)

9 January 2009 @ 15:30 | 9 Comments

and here i thought slipstreaming was something to do with hoverboards…

There has been a sighting of Shadow Queen in the wild, in fact two separate sightings. One of them, unless I'm confused by the message on my answering machine (always possible), was at an airport newsagent, which was the cause of much amazed muttering of "Airport!" around the house. Much as I would love to provide photographic evidence, I would not love to brave the Christmas crowds surrounding the sighting within reach, so we'll all just have to use our imaginations.

Meanwhile, I am sitting at the desktop, slipstreaming SP3 into my XP installation disk, and backing up all my drivers. Oh yes, people, we're going to attempt to reformat the desktop. I would have preferred to finish the novel revisions first, but the monitor has now started in on a wacky and fun new game of powering down, then trapping itself in a random power-half-up-power-back-down cycle. Kinda hard to revise when you can't actually see what you're revising.

This could get ugly.

If I disappear from the net for the next little while, it's because I couldn't install something correctly, and I'm wailing and gnashing my teeth and generally bothering my IT-superstar brother with panicked phone calls in the middle of the night.

Or because I'm writing the novel.

But let's face it, writing the novel never kept me away from the web before. It's far more likely to be geek failure.

20 December 2008 @ 14:26 | 3 Comments

but wasn't it meant to be a competition?

And the winners are…all of you!

That's right. Because I couldn't face the thought of some of you missing out,¹ I went to A&U and said, "Um… could I possibly have more than 2 books for the giveaway?"

And, because I am signed with the absolute best publishers out there, they agreed to let me send a copy of the book to everyone who commented.

So if you put up your hand, email me your mailing address. Let me know if I should be signing the book to someone else or to yourself (or not at all, if you'd prefer an unsigned copy), and I'll get the books out in the mail as soon as I can.

Congratulations! I hope you all enjoy.²

this does not bode well for maintaining a hard-hearted reputation, does it? [↩]
And, um, don't kill me when you realise it's a year until the sequel is published. [↩]

17 December 2008 @ 12:13 | 6 Comments

and to top it off, it's cicada season

I'm nose-deep in the final stretch of the current round of edits¹ on Pledged, and it's a good thing that my A&U sent me my author's copies of Shdadow Queen because I kid you not, I can't remember the story. Oh, I know the gist, but the details, the details are killing me. I have no idea which of the myriad details of the myriad versions made it into the final published copy. Is this normal? It's probably normal. Let's at least all pretend it's normal.

In other news, my listening history on Last.FM is really taking a beating now that I can't have iTunes running. Plus, it's really quiet-like, and hard to concentrate. Also, and here's a sign of just how much I'd come to rely on iTunes for my music, I'm currently not coping with the fact that my CD player only plays one CD at a time. That's only 50-70 minutes of music, and then I have to physically get up and change the CD. Oh, the humanity!

For those keeping track at home, or attempting to, this would be what I call the gamma draft, or the draft which, when completed, can be shown to my editor [↩]

16 December 2008 @ 20:14 |