but two miles more and then we rest!

News from the powers that be at Allen & Unwin is that the publication date of Pledged, aka Matilde #2, aka the sequel to Shadow Queen, aka That Book I Have Been Studiously Pretending Does Not Exist, will now be May 2010, not March 2010.

There's a few reasons for the change in schedule, not least of which is that my editor would like to edit the book herself rather than delegate. Truthfully, I'm happy about the change.

Yes, I know it means the book is coming out later, and you all have to wait just that bit longer to find out what happens to Matilde. I'm sorry!

But it will be worth the wait. It was Louise's hard and patient work that quashed all my writer's tics in Shadow Queen, and made my incoherent ramblings look like a narrative, and I'd love her deft touch to carry through to the sequel. I'd rather the book be as strong as I and my editors can make it, and giving the edits the time and attention they need is part of that process.

So May 2010 it is!

In the meantime, I promise to entertain you with stories of how the edits are driving me mad ;-)

21 September 2009 @ 20:21 | 2 Comments

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 |

mark your calendars

A quick reminder for those of you in or near Newcastle this Saturday (since I'll be jumping a plane tomorrow morning and may forget to blog tomorrow) that I'm doing a signing at the Angus & Robertson at Westfield Kotara, from 11am.

Come and entertain me!

25 June 2009 @ 21:15 |

i have been team-built

For those of you waiting for its arrival: I haven't seen a copy myself yet, but it looks like Postscripts #18 has been released into the wild.

This is the issue which features my story, "The Wages of Salt", and google alerts tells me it's made at least one good impression so far.

Now, being a writer, and therefore of delicate emotional constitution, this pleases me immensely. But I'm especially glad to see this story available for general purchase, because it's one of my favourites. Part of that is because, of everything I've written, "The Wages of Salt" is the story which best survived the translation from my head to the written word; it's always a tricky process, and every story takes a few wounds in the process of being pinned to the page. Also, partly it's because I simply adore the world I created in that story, and I'm keen to go back and write more in that same world. I have a few snippets of ideas, waiting for time and inspiration and a solid plot.

melbournebotanicgardens02

I took this photo yesterday morning, as I wandered through the Royal Botanic Gardens on my way to work. (In fact, I took quite a lot of photos. I would have taken more, but it was 8 o'clock in the morning and only 6°C: my fingers froze.) I liked the image of a circle of chairs gathered beneath a circle of trees, all empty. I wonder what meetings go on there? (Whatever they are, I bet the ones I'm imagining are far more interesting than the reality.)

28 May 2009 @ 19:19 |

i was a quick wet boy diving too deep for coins

Today's panel turned out rather well, I think. My criteria for judging this was that I didn't keel over dead at any point — always a positive. Additionally, I didn't sit up there unable to talk or think of anything to say, and nor did I sound like a total blithering idiot when I did talk.

I can't say I sounded at all knowledgeable, particularly in comparison to Ian Irvine and Richard Harland, with whom I was sharing the panel and who both know more about the publishing industry in their sleep than I could ever hope to master even if I never slept again. Still, I take my miracles where I can find them, these days, and today's miracle (apart from surviving a public appearance intact) was the arrival of the taxi to get me to the airport. Things looked very dicey for a while there, especially when no less than two cab companies vehemently tried to convince me I was making up the address, that no such place as the NSW Writers' Centre exists, ever existed, or will ever exist. (Clearly, taxi companies have a supply of melange at their disposal, which they are just as clearly not sharing with their drivers, who never seem to know the way anywhere. Or maybe that's just my luck.)

Most of the audience were writers of one sort or another, and it was a very strange experience to be sitting on the panel instead of sitting in their midst — to be answering the question of how to land a publishing contract instead of asking it. It was utterly surreal to be one of the people being asked for advice on the craft of writing. It's not all that long ago I was sitting in Brisbane, attending Clarion, scribbling down every snippet of wisdom that penetrated the fog of my sleep-deprived brain. And yet today complete strangers asked me to sign a copy of my book for them. Do they not know I know nothing?

To anyone who does wander across my website after hearing me talk today about the Friday Pitch, you can find the details at Allen & Unwin — Friday Pitch. Good luck!

Flightless Bird, American Mouth (Iron & Wine — The Shepherd's Dog)

5 April 2009 @ 22:43 | 4 Comments

it never rains but it pours

The signing sheets for Postscripts #18 have come and gone on their merry way and I can say this with certainty: I have no signature. Truly, every single one of those sheets is unique.

I am currently sitting in my car, which is at the moment a very expensive sculpture, on account of the battery going to sleep sometime in the past two weeks and now declining to emerge from its coma. Given that I need the car today in order to find a place to live, my previous plans having exploded in rather spectacular and last-minute fashion, I am, needless to say, a little peeved with life right about now. For values of a little roughly approximate to I think the world can just go ahead and burn, what do I care any more?

So, my apologies, but sporadic and unfocussed (and haphazardly abandoned) is going to be a feature of this site until life JUST SETTLES DOWN, DAMMIT.

In the meantime, have a snippet of awesome to entertain you: Predator X (link courtesy of splinister)

PS: Comments are not turned off, but please be aware that I may be a little distracted and unable to get around to answering any of them for a bit.

21 March 2009 @ 11:42 |

i'm just no good at blurbs

Today, I am full of requests for blurbs and biographies.

Note to self: when you write a story, write a blurb then and there. You'll need it later.

Pledged has been read through (and hopefully all those embarrassing typos caught and corrected) and emailed to my agent and editor, which means it's off my desk for the immediate future. There was a lot of wonky formatting this time around, courtesy of the switch to mac (Word on the mac seems determined to ignore my underlining, bastard program). Of course, I forgot to send along a blurb, so had to spend this morning on that.

Also, news from PS Publishing that Issue #18 is ready for design, which means I need to provide a blurb and bio for them. It looks like they'll be publishing a signed edition as well, which should prove interesting, as the signing sheets are set to arrive…right in the middle of my interstate move. Oh yeah, that'll be fun.

4 February 2009 @ 10:45 | 4 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.

  1. Honestly, I thought I took all the really hard and obscure big words out. Honestly! But, er, apparently not. [↩]
  2. 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

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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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
« Older Entries