Rowena Cory Daniells's Blog, page 3

Running Away to Write

Spent the weekend at ‘Clogheen Cottage’ in northern New South Wales. Beautiful place, up an amazingly steep switch-back drive, plus it was pouring at times but this didn’t matter. The setting was magical.

We lit the fire and I curled up with my lap top to write a story for the next Legend Anthology in memory of David Gemmell (See the first one here). Felt very honoured (and slightly nervous) when the editor, Ian Whates, approached me. Luckily the setting was inspiring…

Clouds moving up the valley towards us.

It’s always good to get away from normal life, helps give perspective and Mullimbimby is  a breath of fresh air after the city. Lots of alternative hippie types so we fitted right in, caught up with some friends (waves to Helen and Steve), ate in the local cafes and took time out from normal life.

I didn’t quite get the story finished but it’s there in my head now.

Fall of Fair Isle cover squee

 

Solaris have sent me the Fall of Fair Isle cover, artwork by Clint Langley. (Release date: March 2015) This is an omnibus reprint of my original trilogy, which was published 1999 – 2003.

 

This trilogy is set 600 years after The Outcast Chronicles:

And tells the story of Imoshen, named after Imoshen the First of Fair Isle. When her island is conquered she must find a common ground with the invading Ghebite general, Tulkhan, to save her people from oppression. To add to her troubles, her betrothed who she believed dead, has survived. Like Imoshen, Reothe is a throwback to the original T’En and he is determined to win back his island home and the woman he loves.

The story is both intimate and epic. Unlike many books The Fall of Fair Isle starts after the great battle and follows Imoshen’s struggles as she maneuvers to preserve the peace without compromising her ideals.

For a long time it was hard to get copies of book three of the trilogy, now thanks to Solaris it will be released with a brand new cover that captures the intrinsic conflict, one woman’s battle to preserve her people’s way of life.

 

Of Cats and Kings

The King part:

Solaris are doing a ‘Start a Series’ promotion, selling the first book (e-book) for 99c this weekend. They’ve selected The King’s Bastard from King Rolen’s Kin series. (You can find it here).

The Cat part:

I don’t want to get into the great debate about the difference between cat people and dog people. We’ve always had cats but our daughter has bought a Pug. He’s actually a Jack Russel crossed with a Pug so he’s a Jug, (a rescue dog 13 mths old).

Of course, he thought the cats were put in the house for his entertainment and they weren’t impressed. It was not that he wanted to hurt them, he just wanted to play but the cats didn’t understand. So they are now outside cats (with a very comfortable insulated shed to sleep in) and Manny the Jug is now an inside dog. Here he is at the dog park with our eldest daughter.

Manny the Jug at the Dog Park

No more sleeping in my desk drawer, little black cat.

Ninja Cat

No more getting in the way as I type, Sassy cat.

Colour coordinated cat

 

2013 Aurealis Award Winners Announced

Congratulations to the Aurealis Award winners for 2013:

2013 Aurealis Award winners

The Aurealis Awards were held at University House, ANU on Saturday April 5, 2014. Congratulations to the winners:

BEST CHILDREN’S BOOK

The Four Seasons of Lucy McKenzie

Kirsty Murray

BEST YOUNG ADULT SHORT FICTION

By Bone-light

Juliet Marillier

BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL (Tie)

These Broken Stars

Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

&

Fairytales for Wilde Girls

Allyse Near

BEST ANTHOLOGY (Tie)

The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2012

Liz Grzyb & Talie Helene

&

One Small Step, An Anthology Of Discoveries

Tehani Wessely

BEST COLLECTION

The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories

Joanne Anderton

BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK OR GRAPHIC NOVEL (Tie)

Burger Force

Jackie Ryan

&

The Deep Vol. 2: The Vanishing Island

Tom Taylor & James Brouwer

BEST HORROR SHORT FICTION

The Year of Ancient Ghosts

Kim Wilkins

BEST HORROR NOVEL

Fairytales for Wilde Girls

Allyse Near

BEST FANTASY SHORT FICTION

The Last Stormdancer

Jay Kristoff

BEST FANTASY NOVEL

A Crucible of Souls

Mitchell Hogan

BEST SCIENCE FICTION SHORT FICTION

Air, Water and the Grove

Kaaron Warren

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

Lexicon

Max Barry

THE PETER MCNAMARA CONVENORS’ AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE

Jonathan Strahan

KRIS HEMBURY ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD

Tristan Savage

The full list of finalists are here: Finalists announced.

Questions can be directed to the 2013 Awards convenor: Nicole Murphy

Conflux: Hosts of the Aurealis Awards 2013

 

And a special congratulations to Tehani Wessley, editor and publisher at Fablecroft Publishing.  Her One Small Step Anthology was co-winner of the anthology section. This gives me a buzz because I have a story in it. Well done to Tehani for selecting such a strong collection of stories.

All the best to the winners and the finalists of the 2013 Aurealis Awards.

When did we forget how to have Fun?

If I could just download the story straight out of my head…

Ran into a friend at work yesterday who said he’d dropped by my blog and I hadn’t posted anything for a while. He was quite right. I must admit to juggling too many balls in the air.

I think as adults we have to be responsible, hold down a job, pay the bills, look after elderly relatives, give emotional and financial support to children who are just branching out into adult life and, quite rightly, this is just what grown ups do. In between all this I’ve been trying to squeeze in working on a writing project just for myself, for fun.

Writing is a creative process that requires a lot of hard slog. There’s the actual hours spent at a computer, which is really bad for your health. Then there’s the challenge of pulling a story out of the subconscious while all around you things are clamoring for attention and the challenge of holding all the threads of a narrative in your head while doing the washing, dashing to the shops, writing lectures, marking assignments and sorting out family dramas etc.

I’d been meeting this challenge while writing to deadline for four years now, so I gave myself permission to take a step back and write for the love of it. I felt I needed something fresh, set in a new world with new characters and challenges.

It’s a bit like taking an adventure holiday with a new group of friends.*  Creativity should be fun.

So that’s what I’ve been doing.

What do you do to give yourself a mental break and have some fun?

 

* I promise I will get back to KRK and the OC. I have plans for those characters.

 

Ooops

Thanks to everyone who emailed me about the suspicious post. I was letting my son try out wordpress and I just found out he hit publish instead of preview.

Just for fun. Here’s a photo taken at the Gold Coast Supanova. Death giving our free hugs.

Christmas Deal for Besieged

Solaris are doing an Advent Calendar. I had never heard of this before. They’re offering discounted e-books d one a day until Christmas.

Turns out the e-book Besieged will be available for 98p on Monday the 9th of December, their time. It’s after 6 pm here in Brisbane, Australia now, so I figure it is Monday morning in the UK.

Here’s the link if you’re interested in a bit of Christmas reading. (Just dropped by to the link Solaris gave me they don’t seem to have the special up yet. Will email them!)

(Like the picture? I had to clean the kitchen bench and take the decorations off the Christmas tree to set it up)

 

Fall of Fair Isle

I can now talk about what is happening with my original trilogy, Fall of Fair Isle. (Back when it first came out the trilogy didn’t have a name but readers may remember it as The Last T’En).

Solaris Books, will be releasing the trilogy as an omnibus print edition, due for publication in 2014, and it will also appear in e-book editions. This trilogy was not released in the UK and the third book was very hard to get so it will be lovely to have a new edition with (I hope) a wonderful cover by the talented Clint Langley, who did such a good job on The Outcast Chronicles.

 

The Fall of Fair Isle tells a more intimate tale than The Outcast Chronicles. It begins where most fantasy books finish – after the great battle.

After the Ghebites invade Fair Isle, Imoshen (named for her ancestor, Imoshen the First) is the last surviving member of the royal family. She has to work with General Tulkhan, the Ghebite invader,  to save herself, her people and her way of life. Hers is a matriarchal society, his is a patriarchal society where the men can take three or four wives. The Ghebites fear the T’En, who they regard as closer to animals than True-men.

As for the T’En, when Imoshen the First led her people to this land, she told them to take partners from the locals, so that they would blend in and be accepted. The T’En inter-bred with the original inhabitants of Fair Isle, who were descended from the Ancients (a race of mystical beings) and their blood was diluted until there are very few pure T’En throwbacks. Six hundred years of this has changed the way the T’En gifts are expressed in full-bloods and half-bloods and much knowledge of old T’En lore has been lost. (They call the mystic plane, death’s shadow).

At the core of the trilogy is an exploration of gender politics, as Imoshen and Tulkhan try to find common ground. Despite their differences, they fall in love. To add to the complications, before the invasion Imoshen was betrothed to Reothe, the last of the T’En males. She broke her vows to him, to bond with General Tulkhan. Furious, Reothe leads the rebels in a bid to retake Fair Isle and claim Imoshen. She has to choose between Reothe, who wants to restore the T’En and create a new Golden Age and Tulkhan who is the best of True-men.

 

 

 

 

 

Supanova with Chris & Cheryse

Off to Supanova today and tomorrow.  Cheryse and I had heaps of fun yesterday.

Here we are all set up with our books.

 

Will be in the RICC building, in Artist’s Alley (booth 191). We Artists are underneath the Signing Hall.

And here we are thinking about running away with the Doctor. (They were still setting up at this point, hence the ladder etc).

Today Chris McMahon will be joining us.  I’ve known Chris since way back in 1997 when he joined the Vision Writers group so we’ve been through the upheavals of trying to write, while looking after our families. Today he’ll be bringing along copies of his Jakirian Cycle. A little while ago I was teaching my UNI students and one girl mentioned this really cool book she’d found by a Brisbane author but could never find the rest of the trilogy. Turned out it was Chris’s first book, The Calvanni. Small world.

Hope she sees this and comes to Supanova.

‘Think Kill Bill meets Dune . . . Heroic Fantasy in world of ceramic weapons where all metal is magical . . .’

So if  you’re coming to Supanova, drop by and say Hi!

Off to Supanova!

Today I’m dashing into town with my DH (Dear Long Suffering Husband) who will spend all weekend with me, helping out at Supanova.   (On his birthday. Now that is love!).

There will be amazing costumes, heaps of people and lots of excitement. Supanova is the only place where I have seen grownups jump up and down like little children because they can’t wait for the doors to open. In fact, when they open the doors the announcers says, ‘Walk, don’t run. We don’t want anyone getting trampled’!.

Another fun thing for me is meeting other authors and catching up with my writing friends.

Here I am having a fan girl moment with Joe Abercrombie, while hanging out with the lovely Alison Goodman and Lindy Cameron.

Today I’ll be hanging out with Cheryse Durant, fellow fantasy writer, who has just had her first book come out. Very exciting! She’s writing YA dark urban fantasy. So come by and check out her book, if this is your favourite genre.

 

And here’s the link to Cheryse’s boos trailer.

We’ll be over in the RICC building in Artist’s Alley. So if you’re coming to Supanova, drop by and say Hi!