Okay, then. Here we go...

A post every day for a month. How hard can that be, right?

At the risk of kicking things off with blatant self promotion, there's a little event coming up in Perth in a few weeks which it might be worth flagging:



Tuesday the 27th July, at the Fremantle Children's Literature Centre, in (of course) Fremantle. (The FCLC is the same place where both Nightpeople and Skyfall were officially shoved onto an unsuspecting public, (and also, oddly enough, where Imogen and I got married) so I'm thrilled, as you can imagine, to have the chance to finish the trilogy off in the manner to which it's become accustomed.) If you're in Perth (or, you know, want to fly to Perth from wherever you are,) please let me know if you'd like to come along. The more the merrier.

The book will be launched by the Federal Member for Fremantle, Melissa Parke I met Melissa a couple of years ago at a function, soon after her election to parliament, and since then she's proven to be a great supporter of the FCLC, and of literacy generally. She's also an avid spec-fic reader, so I'm really pleased to have her as the launcher.

And, as long as I'm on matters Darkland-y, while doing a trawl for some reviews of my books for the new-look anthonyeaton.com website (which is almost done, and looking really nice) I found this:

Which is, I think, pretty cool in its own way. Just the fact that someone took the time to really think about the book and then talk about it so intelligently is pretty nice, from my point of view. Even if she didn't like the characters or story (and, I'll be honest, she's not the first to make that observation...) I tried to send her a response but to do so I need to sign up for a youtube account and don't really want to. Either way, if you ever read this, Anna, then thanks.

It's probably also worth mentioning that, following on from her comments, setting 'Nightpeople' in an Australian context was a very deliberate response to the fact that a lot (though not all) of spec fic by Australian Writers tends to be set in worlds that are either completely 'other' or based on a European and often medieval framework. There are very good commercial and artistic reasons for this, but with the Darklands books I really wanted to challenge this trope a little, so it's really nice to know that this aspect of the books worked out for some readers. (I'm also not the first to do this, by a long shot. Sean Williams, among others, has written some *awesome* antipodean spec fic. (Actually, his 'Books of the Change' were among the big inspirations for the Darklands Trilogy - they're awesome!)

Anyway, day one of my month of blogging and I've already resorted to banging on about myself. I'll try for something a little more interesting tomorrow. Promise.

Margo Lanagan, plus some more Random Bits of News

Hello Bloggies -

Yet another week with only one post here. And on a friday, none the less. Talk about leaving things until the last minute.

But, in my defence, it's been a busy week. Also a really fun one. If exhausting. On Wednesday, I was lucky enough to spend the day with the wonderful author (and all round nice person) Margo Lanagan, who generously agreed to come down here to Canberra for a day to do a couple of lectures for my classes here at UC.

Margo, for the uninitiated, is the author of numerous novels and short story anthologies, most of which have won bucketloads of awards including (but not only) Hugos, Nebulas, Ditmars, Aurealis, Prinz Honours, CBCA awards, and many many others. Last year, her novel Tender Morsels was the winner of the World Fantasy Award for best novel. (Also probably my favourite book of 2009, and which, as you can see, now has a spanky new cover by all round clever bugger Shaun Tan).

But most of you know that stuff already, so I won't bang on about it now.

Margo delivered two fantastic lectures for us. The first was a general talk about her creative process and the realities of life as a published, award winning author. One of the things I really love about Margo's approach to these things, and which I always find incredibly refreshing, is how completely grounded and down-to-earth she is in her treatment of these issues. As she took us through the writing process for Tender Morsels it became very clear to all present that here was a writer who took writing seriously - very seriously - but who at the same time was able to maintain a positive and sensible perspective on the balance between the writing life and 'real' life.

Her second lecture, which was to the literature studies class in which we're currently looking at Tender Morsels addressed all sorts of issues related to the novel, including its classification as 'YA', the tabloid media beat up in the UK which followed the book's release there, the use of violence and the inclusion of 'taboos' in writing, and about a dozen other equally interesting topics. It's always fun getting an insight into another author's ideas and creative process, not least because it enables me to flagrantly steal ideas and techniques for my own writing. (Which is fine to do, because Margo said so...)

All in all, Margo Lanagan Day was a really enjoyable one for all concerned at this end.

(For those interested, Margo is a prolfic twitterer, and can be found @margolanagan)

In other news, earlier in the week I got a package from Queensland, and inside it were two shiny new copies of the first print run of Daywards. After ten years, I'd expected to be all excited upon recieving these particualar books in the mail, but for the most part I have to say the predominant feeling was a profound sense of relief that it was all - finally - over.

The book looks very nice. Bright and, uhm... rather gold and shiny. (Dat Book gots bling, fo shizzle!) It also looks very, very nice parked beside Nightpeople and Skyfall. It'll hit the shelves on the 29th of March, but before then anyone lucky enough to be at the Somerset Celebration of Literature, between the 17th and 20th of March, can get an early copy from the bookshop there. On the first day of the festival the book will also be officially 'launched' by the very generous James Roy.

Anyway, that's it from me for the moment. Long weekend this week for all us ACT residents, and me and my little brood are off down the coast to Tathra.

Cheers
Tony