Celine Kiernan's Blog, page 38

When Nervous, Draw.

working on the promotional art for UK/US release.

So today is the release date for the UK/US editions of The Poison Throne. I have no idea why this has made me nervous, but it has. I have been a restless, anxious fool - unable to sleep, unable to concentrate on writing; just a jittery bundle of nerves.

But I have been able to draw. Thank God, because without it I may have gone a bit bonkers. I stayed up most of last night working on the promotional art work for the UK/US special editions, and a...

Having the chats over at Babelclash

Guest posting over at Babelclash for the next little while. Myself and Glenda Larkeare chatting about world building.

Building Believable Words.

extract from latest post:

It's all good and it's all fun, but I think it's solid too because I do nothing for effect. Doing things for effect only is what I call 'MTV' thinking. You know what I mean? Like those cool music videos that are nothing but a series of awesome visuals but mean nothing and resonate no deeper than that? I try never to do that...

Strong women, Child soldiers and Geniuses

Kate Constable asked writers to reveal six things that inspired their work.

I posted my list over at the Orbit blog.

Here's an extract:

To live a life of subjugation

3/ Child soldiers, Thomas Pellow and Slavery

The brutal facts of life as a slave hardly need to be repeated here. Anyone who doesn't consider slavery to be an offence, is not going to be convinced otherwise by me. But I challenge anyone to read the life of Thomas Pellow ( a 17thC man who was enslaved for many years.) or the many...

Win The Moorehawke Trilogy: Each Book as it's published.

Those lunatic book-a-holics the Bookgeeks, (you may recall they reviewed The Poison Throne HERE, and interviewed me HERE.) Are holding a Moorehawke Trilogy Competition for UK readers.

Pop over to their blog and enter, you'd be in with a chance to win a copy of each Moorehawke book ( and you'd have Crowded Shadows and The Rebel Prince in your hot and sticky hands before anyone else does.)

I have a funny feeling the question won't be too hard to answer

BookGeektastic

Once you get me started...

For some crazed reason BookGeeks thought it would be a good idea to interview me. It might have something to do with the immanent release of Orbit's US/UK edition of The Poison Throne.

Here's an extract:

The world feels like "our" world slightly shifted sideways, is that connection really there and is the faint sense of displacement that comes with slight changes to the familiar something you played with deliberately?

Yes. I think this happens in most of my work. I...

Irish Writers' Centre Weekend.

Garden of Remembrance across the road from The Irish Writers' Centre

Many thanks to all at the Irish Writers' Centre I greatly enjoyed my weekend in your care! The centre its self is such a lovely place ( a beautiful Georgian building just off the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin) The staff couldn't have been nicer and more helpful. Thanks for inviting me to be one of your lecturers for the weekend.

But the highlight of the weekend for me were the folks who attended my course. I'm not sure what ...

Hello Poland!

In relation to this article I wrote for the Orbit Blog.

My Polish translator (the lovely Katarzyna Maciejczyk) recently contacted me and we had a little chat about the challenges faced when translating English to Polish. Katarznya had some very specific project-related questions, but I thought these general comments on the English/Polish divide might interest you guys as much as they interested me.

Katarzyna : Polish has an entirely different structure, the sentences, even the very words, tend ...

Drooling Over At Orbit

Oh, I am a very happy camper. Would you like to know why? Shall I tell you? Indeed I shall. This is why: my amazing, fantabulous wonderful designers at Orbit have sent me the cover art for The Rebel Prince: Book Three of the Moorehawke Trilogy. So, I now have all three covers to smile over and stroke fondly, and call my very own.

I must say I. LOVE. THESE. COVERS. I love everything about them. I love Steve Stone's wonderful art work – in particular that fact that he didn't just pick a generic ...

African Sci-Fi

Thanks to this interesting article in Publisher's Weekly for linking to this interesting article from 2009, in which Nnedi Okorafor discusses the future of sci-fi in Africa.

Mad Crazy Busy

Me if I don't get my arse in gear.

Mad, crazy busy at the moment - well, read that as mad, crazy busy plus hopelessly disorganised. Anyhoo, I've decided to dedicate today to the new and much neglected novel. So there! All the other stuff will just have to wait until tomorrow.

BUT, just to let you know what's happening:

I got the US/UK cover art for The Rebel Prince. Suffice it to say I'm still drooling, but it would be churlish to waste the reveal on such a slap dash post as this. SO I'm going t...