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

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

wait, what? i can't keep up with you

My chronic inability to make a swift (or any) decision continues apace, so no MacBook yet. Tune in tomorrow for more procrastination!

Today I posted the first couple of books for the competition winners, and the post office staff were very excited to realise they knew someone who had written a book. They were much LESS excited to realise I had secured a proper publishing deal and the books would be available in regular book stores. Apparently self-publishing, according to my local post office staff, is much, much harder and shows true grit and artistic dedication.

Also, and this is truly momentous news, today marks the start of the last week at the baby mines. Three shifts to go, people!

18 December 2008 @ 18:08 | 6 Comments

a glimpse of banality

As a brief addendum on the when can I buy it? issue, I am reliably informed at least one store is talking about December 19 as the on-shelf date. Make of this information what you will.

I have spent most of the weekend pondering the pc vs mac dilemma, and am no closer to an answer. I suspect I desire a MacBook for three very important reasons: the pretty, the Scrivener, and the avoidance of Vista. But are these enough to make the switch? H'mm… I have researched the word processing options available on the Mac, and am not thrilled with iWork's Pages inability to save in rich text format as a default option. Exporting a file all the time? Bugger that for an idea, if you'll excuse the vernacular.

Anyway. While I'm sure the inner workings of my mind, and my inability to make a snap decision, are of the utmost interest to you all, perhaps I'd best move right along, eh?

Unfortunately for the lot of you, there's very little to move on to, my free time at the moment being entirely consumed by the novel revisions, so I will leave you with an absolute corker of a malapropism I discovered today (but cannot find again now to link to or take a snapshot of) buried in the reviews of apple's time capsule:

It's an ascetically pleasing addition…

15 December 2008 @ 19:03 | 7 Comments

but when can i buy it?

As the official publication date draws nearer, the question is arising more frequently:

When will it actually be on the shelves in my local bookstore?

The short and apparently-contradictory answer is: 1) 1 January 2009 and 2) I don't know.1

The longer answer is that the official publication date is 1 January 2009. This is the date that the publisher promises the book will be available, on shelves, in all the bookstores which happened to purchase copies for retail sale. In order to fulfil this promise, it gets shipped to the bookstores ahead of this date. So when it appears on the shelves depends on whether your local bookstore has ordered any copies, and whether they've unpacked the box they received from the publisher yet.

I'm not expecting copies to be on shelves quite this soon (it's more likely to appear closer to Christmas Day), but if you want to know whether it will appear in your local bookstore, the quickest way to find out is to ask the staff at said local bookstore. They'll be able to tell you whether the store has ordered any copies, and when they expect it to arrive. If they haven't ordered any copies, and you want them to, that's your cue!

If you missed yesterday's post, there's books being given away

  1. This presumes your local bookstore is located in Australia or New Zealand. If it's anywhere else, then you're out of luck, at least in the short term, although you can always buy online through an Australian store. You'll find links on the Shadow Queen bibliography. [↩]

12 December 2008 @ 18:15 | 1 Comment

watch out, clarion's about

The Voyager Online blog is running a feature on Clarion South at the moment. For those who don't know about Clarion, it's known as boot-camp for speculative fiction writers1. There's East2 and West in the United States, and South in Australia.

Ahead of the January 09 class, Voyager Online has interviewed past tutors and students, and, being a 2005 graduate, I'm one of them. They'll be posting the answers over the next week or so. It's quite an active and interesting blog, so I'd recommend keeping an eye on its entire feed — but if you only want to read the Clarion South posts, you can keep an eye on either the Clarion South Workshop category, or the Clarion South tag. If for some reason you only want to know about my answers3, keep an eye on the Deborah Kalin tag. (Bless those hyper-organised Voyager Online people!)

  1. and boy, they're not kidding [↩]
  2. originally at Michigan State University, now moved to University of California at San Diego [↩]
  3. hi, mum! [↩]

I Hope I Never (Lisa Miller — She Will Have Her Way)

26 November 2008 @ 8:21 | 6 Comments

just when you think the day can't get any worse…

…it gets inestimably better.

Today, after a day at the dayjob which could be best described as ugly, I arrived home to a package. Two, actually. One was the new DAAS DVD (which, let's face it, you all knew I was going to shell out for, didn't you?), and the other… well, I'll give you a clue.

It's printed. It's bound. It has my name on it. And lo, it is SHINY.

Let the record show that these sorts of surprises are excellent. I approve.

Since my ever-thoughtful editor also included a cover flat for me, this means I can belatedly deliver on my promise to reveal the cover. (Click to see it larger!)

Oh dear lord, people. It's a book.

14 November 2008 @ 20:00 | 8 Comments

one year on

This time last year, I could not shut up about how a Real Live Editor had contacted me, and liked my book, and might even buy it. My wondrous friends and family bore with me without a single complaint, without even a single snide, "Yes, Deb, WE KNOW."

Frightened of jinxing myself, I didn't actually talk about it on the blog overmuch. The clues were there, just sorta buried. For instance, here I mention the phone call, and here I talk about how bad I am at waiting, and do you notice how in both instances I'm implying it's all to do with the new bed? Oh, I was lying, lying through my electronic teeth. A fortnight later, I fessed up to signing with my agent, but it wasn't until the ink was dry on the A&U contract that I confessed the book deal proper. Because although it was becoming increasingly remote, there was still the possibility that I was making the whole thing up.1

Last night, I wrote my acknowledgments, and tomorrow the book is going to print.

Which means this little beast is now truly out of my hands.

Do you know, I think I might celebrate. Drinks all round!

  1. It is worth noting that, although the cheque for the advance didn't convince me it was all real, the editorial process did. No one is that thorough on a manuscript that isn't going to print. [↩]

Post Jesus (feat Jaqui Hunt) (paulmac — 3000 Feet High)

30 October 2008 @ 16:26 | 7 Comments
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