It’s a book it’s a book it’s a book it’s a book wheeeee! I’ve been waiting to share this one with you all for so long now.

The new episode is up here! Go, listen.

In which we fight crime, rail against derailing and read a million books.

News

Our Sisters in Crime, Still Fighting
and
Why the Faux Oppressed Whinge

Ada Lovelace Day

Wonder Woman gets a father (yesthisisnews)

Alisa’s news:
Thief of Lives by Lucy Sussex now available as e-book

Tansy’s news: publishing date for Reign of Beasts
and the Creature Court Fashion Challenge Contest

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: The Fall of Hyperion, Dan Simmons; Yarn, Jon Armstrong; Thief of Lives, Lucy Sussex; Yellow Blue Tibia, Adam Roberts; The Word for World is Forest, Ursula le Guin; Eyes like Stars, Lisa Mantchev

Tansy: The Courier’s New Bicycle, Kim Westwood; Thief of Lives, Lucy Sussex; Catwoman: Crooked Little Town, by Ed Brubaker; Fablecroft blog series On Indie Press wraps up; Sofanauts interviews Paul Cornell; Two Minute Timelord round-table about Season 6 Doctor Who

Alisa: Doctor Who. Shorts: The Book of Phoenix (Excerpted from The Great Book) – Nnedi Okorafor (Clarkesworld March); Younger Women – Karen Fowler (Subterranean Summer), Valley of the Girls – Kelly Link (Subterranean Summer)

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

This one is for those of you who are hanging out for the release of Reign of Beasts, the third and final Creature Court novel. I wanted to do something personal to thank my readers who have been so supportive since the releases of Power and Majesty and The Shattered City, and to hopefully make up (a little bit) for the fact that the publishing date shifted, and you’re not holding the book in your hands RIGHT NOW.

THE CREATURE COURT
FASHION CHALLENGE CONTEST.

All you have to do to enter is comment at the bottom of this post, or email me at creaturecourt (at) gmail.com with your entry. It can be in any medium: a sentence, a paragraph, a sketch, a craft project, whatever fits the challenge, which is:

Design or describe an outfit for one of the characters of the Creature Court novels to wear.

EVERYONE’S A WINNER:

Everyone who enters the contest & provides me with a postal address (to creaturecourt (at) gmail.com – please don’t post addresses in comments) will receive a Creature Court postcard with a juicy snippet from Book 3 hand-written by me.

I printed the postcards specially for this contest – the images vary, and are based on photographs of the Creature Court themed crazy quilt I have been working on this year.

You can take the challenge as seriously or as flippantly as you choose! I look forward to seeing your entries. Unless you request otherwise, I will post your entries on my blog, either at tansyrr.com or creaturecourt.com. If you wish me to remove them from public display at any time, just ask.

UPDATE: Competition is open until 15th December or until I run out of postcards, whichever comes first!

Exciting confirmations this week. Reign of Beasts, the long-awaited third book of the Creature Court trilogy, will be released at the end of January. Many of my ROR peeps and other writerly friends just happen to be in Tasmania at the right time, so we’ll be having a great big book launch!

Rowena Cory Daniells will be officially launching the book into the world, at the Hobart Bookshop. More details to be posted closer to the time, but we’re looking at the 2nd February, so put that in your diaries now!

I know that many of you were hoping the book would be out before the end of this year, and no one is more sorry than me that it’s not – publishing schedules are sadly flexible. The good news is that this date is definitely final, and it’s already in catalogues for booksellers to order in.

I have a contest in mind, to reward those who are hanging out to find what happens next… which I will announce later today, haha!

PS: Still no cover image to show you, sadly, but I have been promised one shortly!

I am taking part in an event at 2pm on Sunday afternoon at the Reading Room, a fabulous exhibit at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

A bunch of local writers will each be reading very short (a couple of minute) excerpts from their books.

I’ve been wanting to attend this exhibit since I first heard about it, and this is pretty much my last chance as it is ending on the 16th October.

Oh, and I’ll be reading the bit from Power & Majesty where the naked men fall out of the sky.

THE READING ROOM is an immersive, interactive environment about the magic world of books and reading. The gallery walls are painted red and are lined with thousands and thousands of books. There are comfy chairs and couches so you can sit back and listen to over 60 people from all walks of life in Tasmania reading a passage from one of their favourite books, or you can pick up a book and start reading yourself! There is also an ancient, Hermetic phrase on the walls of the gallery, hovering above the books. It is spelled out with convex mirrors and says ‘AS IT IS BELOW, SO IT IS ABOVE’.

Some delicious links for your consumption. It’s all about me!

Strange Horizons are offering my complete Creature Court trilogy as a special prize – you must donate to their fundraising drive today (or have done so before today) to be in the special draw. And don’t get too excited about the third book, which is still a few months away – the winner gets the first two now and a second parcel when the third book is printed.

Strange Horizons is a great publication that publishes some wonderful writing every week, and if it wasn’t for winning one of their many many prizes the first year I donated, I might never have discovered the wonderful prose of Sarah Monette. So donating to them is something I associate with that happy blurred feeling of discovering a brilliant new writer. I recommend it!

Also I was delighted to be invited as a guest to Tehani’s second episode of her Book Nut Podcast – of discussions about children’s and YA fiction, and the teachability and librarianisation of said books. I was a little skeptical when she told me the planned length of the episode, and I think we both considered it a win that we managed to keep it under 50 minutes.

Tehani has done exhaustive show notes but we cover my love of classic children’s books (E Nesbit, Edward Eager, Diana Wynne Jones), the inevitable (?) hypocrisy of parenthood when it comes to censoring books, Lewis Carroll and Enid Blyton, plus comics for kids, graphic novels for libraries (I am being invited back to discuss this at more length) with particular reference to Runaways and the Ultimate Spiderman, and a bunch of current YA favourites such as Karen Healey’s the Shattering and Sarah Rees Brennan, and Holly Black, and… and… and…

Can you believe Tehani and I will be living in the same state soon? We will podcast ALL THE TIME. Or, you know, just chat to ourselves and not let anyone else listen. So listen to us while you have the chance!

And, while you’re at it, don’t forget the new episode of Galactic Suburbia, covering such topics as the feminism of Fringe, crimes against superheroines in the DC Universe, the companions of Doctor Who, and why e-books can break an indie publisher’s brain.

It’s been a dizzyingly good day so far, and it’s not even lunch time!

First I woke up to a mad flurry of Twitter action that proved Arsenal had actually (for once) put its money where its mouth was and BOUGHT REAL PLAYERS in the eleventh hour of the transfer period. So yes, being slaughtered by Man U was good for something. We have a defensive line again, and a real grown up midfielder with experience rather than potential!

Dizzy, I tell you.

Then I hit the 70,000 word mark on my Nancy Napoleon novel. It’s not finished yet, but lurching into the final act, and oh boy. Giant monsters, bitchy goddesses and pretty boys covered in blood. I must get this novel finished while I’m still in love with it!

But the big feature of the day has been my first real chance to play with the new household toy. My honey decided what he wanted for Father’s Day was a Kindle, and he’s been happily buying & reading books on it for the last two days (father’s day came early, obviously).

Now, I was what you would call a Kindlecynic. When it comes to the Mighty Empire of Amazon, I’ve been backing away slowly, and doing my best to support the less enormous booksellers in our industry. For the most part, I succeeded in this, except for my recent Audible addiction. But I have to admit, the Kindle is pretty awesome. It’s so much lighter than the iPad, and so comfortable to read! I was finally able to get hold of Lucy March/Lani Diane Rich’s The Fortune Quilt, a book I’ve been wanting since I first started listening to back episodes of the podcast Will Write for Wine. I’ve picked up the e-book of Nick Mamatas’ Starve Better, which I have been eyeing off for weeks. I’ve also stocked up on Octavia Butler, the complete works of Mary Shelley and a bunch of other SF and urban fantasy titles – plus my wish list is growing substantially!

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The trouble with podcasting with Galactic Suburbia once a fortnight is that I tend to wipe my brain clear after every episode, which might explain (somewhat) why I totally failed to congratulate Olof Erla Einarsdottir here on the blog for winning the David Gemmell Ravenheart Award for the cover of Power and Majesty. Hooray! It’s very exciting to have a book only available in Australia and New Zealand take out an international fan-voted award, and lovely that so many people agree with me that it’s a rather gorgeous cover.

I only met David Gemmell once, at PhanCon where it was announced that my first novel Splashdance Silver had won the George Turner Prize. He was a marvellous, funny and warm public speaker, and had the privilege of sitting close enough at dinner to hear he and Terry Pratchett arguing amiably with each other over whether there was any reason to divide a book into chapters, and whether chocolate or fruit based desserts were preferable.

I’ve been really pleased with Olof Erla’s work on all three covers for The Creature Court trilogy – can’t wait to share the third with you all. Anyone want to guess who is featured on the cover of ‘Reign of Beasts’ and what colour frock they might be wearing?

UPDATE: Voyager have posted some pics of Olof Erla at the ceremony! Wheee!

DOUBLE UPDATE: Sean the Blogonaut pointed me to Olof Erla’s website.

I felt like such a jet-setter, getting on a plane yesterday morning for a single night in Sydney for the Aurealis Awards. I arrived in the early afternoon and met up with Tehani, Helen and baby Max at the airport so we could taxi in to the hotel together. It felt so decadent to hang out and chat with friends I normally don’t get to see more than once every few years – twice within a month!

We went down to the hotel restaurant for a (very) early dinner, correctly guessing it would be our last chance to eat for the night. Some familiar faces were already down there, with the same idea, and we added a table on the end of theirs – and as more and more people arrived, kept doing so, until we had at least 20 people there, and the table had turned into a long L-shape!

Then of course we all had to disappear to frock up, as the new arrivals were looking increasingly glamorous.

The Aurealis Awards were held at the Independent Theatre, a lovely venue only a few minute’s stagger (a bit longer in high heels, but I was wearing flats, hehehe) from the hotel. We met and mingled at the cocktail party (sponsored by HarperCollins), many of us marvelling at how utterly weird it was to be together again so soon after Swancon – when we’re used to an 18 month separation! Of course there were people there who hadn’t been at Swancon, too, so it was a general crowd of happy reunions, gossip and hugging. With champagne. I had lots of lovely conversations with lots of adorable people, though the highlight for me was getting to meet IN PERSON the amazing Nicola, who has edited all three of the Creature Court books with me, one way or another. To get to talk to her in person about the choices we made and how much we love each other’s work was very, very cool.

And oh, the fashions! We are a gorgeously dressed bunch. Tehani referred to it as the ‘night of necklaces,’ and there was certainly some spectacular jewellery on display. Kirstyn wins the prize, of course, for her bird skull necklace that made people go ooh, and then, erkhhhh when they looked more closely…

The theatre itself was the perfect size for an event like this – grand but cozy at the same time, if that makes sense? Tehani and I decided to start a trend by sitting in the front row, since we knew I had to go on stage at some point to present (and we knew Helen would be going up too, but more on that later!). Spec Faction deserve a huge amount of kudos for the event – it ran smoothly, with any dramas rendered pretty much invisible to the rest of us. Cat had put together a hilarious and touching montage of Aurealis Awards photographs (the overall theme was people we knew looking overheated, a bit drunk and terribly happy) which broke the ice marvellously, and there was a really good vibe in the theatre, all that community spirit stuff.

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Apologies for the lateness of this report (I was getting to it, Thoraiya!) but suddenly I blinked and half a week had gone by. This happens to me a lot.

On Tuesday night, the ever wonderful and community-minded Hobart Bookshop hosted a launch for me and The Shattered City, Book Two of the Creature Court. As a delicious bonus, Love and Romanpunk was also available for sale. I had been a little uncertain about whether to launch this book – considering each volume of the trilogy are coming out so close together, I had fretted a bit about whether I was over egging the pudding, or expecting too much of my family and friends. But I was talked into it pretty easily, and as I said recently to someone else – you have to celebrate the wins. After several years of no book to launch, I absolutely need to mark the successes while they are happening.

Also, as it turns out, my family & friends have been developing a bit of a taste for book launches. Bonus attendee points to Isabel, who since the last launch has bobbed her hair, acquired a pink flapper dress, and on the day itself scored herself a cloche hat as an early mother’s day present. Now that’s commitment!

The reliable and mighty-voiced Dirk Flinthart drove for three hours to launch my book, and I was startled to realise afterwards that he had never done so before (the launching thing, not the driving thing) – what with Craig Wellington last year, it looks like I have a habit of giving people their launcher debut! Dirk gave a lovely speech, showing how long we have known each other (TEN YEARS) and how familiar he is with the development of my work, as well as his utter faith in where I’m going next. It was exactly what you’d want from such a speech, and considering that the majority of people in the bookshop knew me, it was nice to have something so personal.

There was wine and book chat, and general loveliness. I am terribly grateful for my rent-a-crowd, who can comfortably fill a bookshop, but are also willing to buy books – not only the pile of The Shattered City, but the pile of Love and Romanpunk was beautifully eroded, and I got to sign many, many books. Thanks to Mel A for giving me a head’s up reminder beforehand that I was going to have to think of new clever things to write in the books! Being witty on cue is terribly stressful.

Then of course there was what has become a family tradition – the dressing up of the children! After several experiments, Jem proved to be less than keen on a costume, so I put her in a jungle t-shirt and a tutu. Raeli meanwhile had known for ages what she wanted to be: having dressed up as a mermaid for Seacastle and a black cat for Power and Majesty, she had her heart set on a lion costume. Unfortunately, what with one thing and another. I ended up having to source the costume on the day itself, and was faced with very limited choices. Luckily she is a creative little thing and was happy to think outside the box for her lion-y look.

I was also excited that there were a few (only a few, admittedly!) people there who I didn’t even know personally! Who also bought books! Bless their little cotton socks. There was even a committed future reader from the US who contacted the bookshop to order Power and Majesty and The Shattered City ahead of time, so I could sign them for him! With so much love & support, it’s no wonder that I’ve been feeling terribly inspired to get on with writing the new book this week…