This page pulls all the blog posts which are categorised as News — so it will contain information regarding book and short fiction sales, publication news, competitions, and other such snippets. Because I have a habit of filing a post under more than one category, it may also contain some non-news patter — if anything confuses (or intrigues) you, the answers can probably be found by surfing through the previous blog posts.
If you're interested in learning more of my daily writing (and sometimes non-writing) life, visit the blog.
If all you want to know about is the News, then this is the page to visit — or you can subscribe to the 
News Feed.
Briefly first (so I cannot be accused of being entirely neglectful (only mildly so)), there is a quick interview with me as part of the Snapshots 2010 on Rachel Holkner's blog.
(One day, I will learn how to segue gracefully even when too tired to do so. This is not that day.)
Yesterday, my car being in need of a drive, I ventured to Werribee Open Range Zoo. Those of you who've followed this blog for a while may well remember last time I went to the zoo (the Melbourne Zoo), it was to be treated to a concerted snubbing by every animal inhabiting said zoo. I have never seen so much animal butt in my life as that day.
Thankfully, yesterday's trip was not all about the animals turning their backs on us. No, yesterday's trip was all about the expressions.
I'll have you know, the lady camels go wild for this
I couldn't get a girlfriend. So they put me in with the kudu. Now I'll never get a girlfriend.
Do you MIND?
Aw! So Sad!
Effing nekkid monkeys.
HMPF!
Did we, or did we not, just tell you lot to SHOVE OFF?
I AM magnificent, aren't I? Ignore the weedy hindquarters, please to be concentrating on my MAGNIFICENT visage, thank you.
21 February 2010 @ 9:57 |
4 Comments
The giveaway is ended, and Goodreads has sent me an email telling me the names of the lucky people who'll be welcoming a stray book onto their shelves:
Congratulations!
Goodreads have sent me your postal addresses, so I'll have the books in the mail as soon as I can.
Tomorrow marks the start of potentially intermittent internet connectivity,, but I'm sure you'll all be far too busy with your own Christmas shenanigans to miss me too much. Hope you all have a great holiday!
20 December 2009 @ 18:59 |
4 Comments
Heads up, Newcastle:
When: Wednesday 30 December 2009 @ 11:00am
Where: Borders @ Westfield Kotara, Newcastle
So, if you want your books devalued scribbled upon, and you can't make the signing on the 22nd, now you have a second chance to stop by and entertain me 
20 December 2009 @ 18:41 |
3 Comments
Today I have most excellent news for people what like free books: I have some to give away!
I found some spare copies of Shadow Queen I didn't know I had, and now they must be sent to good homes.
Since we all know what happened last time I tried to choose random winners, in the interests of sparing myself some pain, I've set up the competition through Goodreads, who will choose the winners for me. If you're not a member over there, it's free to create an account in order to enter the draw.
I've set up two separate giveaways: one is open to residents of Australia & New Zealand, and one is open worldwide. The winners of each giveaway will be chosen by December 20 (Goodreads time), and I aim to have the books in the post by December 22 (Australian time).
There are four books up for grabs, two trade paperbacks and two mass market paperbacks — I'm figuring one winner of each giveaway will receive the trade paperback version and the other will receive the mass market paperback version.
So get to it — and good luck
ETA: It looks like the actual pages for the giveaway aren't visible yet, hopefully only on account of not yet being approved by the powers that be at Goodreads. That should only take another 24 hours at most.
ETA2: Okay, links are now most definitely live. Go!
2 December 2009 @ 17:00 |
Yup, it's a signing opportunity:
When: Tuesday 22 December 2009 @ 10:30am
Where: Angus & Robertson @ Westfield Kotara, Newcastle
I'll be available for at least a good hour, so if you have a copy of Shadow Queen or Postscripts #18 you'd like me to scrawl on, then stop by and entertain me.
There may also be a signing in Brisbane, since I'm going to be up that way over the Christmas period, and another down in Melbourne in the new-ish year — I'll let you all know more just as soon as I know it.
Little Bird (Scott Matthew — Shortbus)
26 November 2009 @ 18:41 |
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
An email from Allen & Unwin yesterday informs me that the A format paperback 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.)
6 August 2009 @ 17:59 |
Today I have exceedingly good news: I have sold a story to ASIM. Tentative publication date is April 2010.
For those playing along at home, I wrote the first draft of this story in January 2005, during my stint at Clarion. (Actually, since it was my week one story, I probably started it, in some brief and jotted form at least, in late December 2004.) I can't remember what I called it at the time (probably something genius like "Untitled"), but it's since acquired the title "Shaping Lily".
The story was inspired by the meeting of two ideas: an epic(ish) quest fantasy story wherein the main character was a little old lady, and Web of Light, by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law. (And in seeking out that link for you, I've only just gone and gotten myself lost in browsing Stephanie's site. Again.)
It's a quaint little story, and one I'm very fond of, so I'm glad it's found a good home.
And in updating my spreadsheet which records these things for me, I've belatedly realised I have exactly one short story currently doing the rounds of submissions, and nothing else to offer. I do have a handful of short stories in serious need of revising (some of my Clarion stories are still languishing, for example — although I think they'll stay languishing, except for one, which may turn into a novel. Like I need yet another novel idea in the queue. Still, too many ideas is a nicer problem to have than not enough ideas, I suppose).
H'm. Perhaps it's time to work on revising or drafting a short story or two.
Swans and the Swimming (Iron & Wine — Around The Well)
11 July 2009 @ 11:36 |
8 Comments
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.
Who Cares Anyway? (The Jackson Code — The Second Greatest Story Ever Told [Disc 2])
18 June 2009 @ 19:23 |
6 Comments
Have a copy of Shadow Queen you want signed?
Live in (or near) Newcastle?
If so, mark down Saturday 27 June 2009 in your calendar, as I'll be at Angus & Robertson Kotara from 11 am.
At this stage, I have no signings organised anywhere else, but if you don't live in Newcastle and you'd be interested in attending one, you should let me know, either through a comment here on the blog or by email.
6 June 2009 @ 20:01 |
5 Comments
