Lara Morgan's Blog, page 6

Sydney visit and Dark Star on newsletter

It’s been busy, busy around my place. I’ve just returned from a trip to Sydney where I had a lovely afternoon visit with my publishers, Walker Books.  Here’s a picture of me with the managing director, Sarah Foster, and in front of the wall of Dark Star promo in the office. I’m just loving this ‘you don’t know me’ publicity campaign.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I signed a stack of books and book plates and amid the tea, cake and gossip I also answered those questions you have had about Rosie (see previous post) in some special videos which will be available online really soon, so look out for those.  

Also – excitement! Dark Star was included in the YA section of online bookstore, Booktopia’s November newsletter. Along with other great authors  – including fellow Aussie Marianne De Pierres. Our first step in world domination. Head to their website to check it out. (I tried to add a link but something went wrong sorry about that)

 

Do You Have Questions About Rosie Black? Ask Away!

Lara will be in the office at Walker Books Australia – and she’ll be answering fan questions! Post in the comments below!

Dark Star; The Rosie Black Chronicles Book 3…

The third book in The Rosie Black Chronicles is almost here. 
Dark Star will be the final chapter in Rosie’s battle with Helios.
Will she win?
Who will survive?
Not everyone is going to get out of this one alive. 
Find out how it all ends on November 1.
Available from all good bookstores and online.

 

 

Dark Star cover reveal…

The third book in The Rosie Black Chronicles is almost here. Touching down in book stores on November 1, Dark Star will be the final chapter in Rosie’s battle with Helios. Will she win? Who will survive? Not everyone is going to get out of this one alive, sorry to say, but things are tough in Rosie’s world. And now, for your viewing pleasure is the Dark Star cover!

Coming soon, Dark Star the book trailer…

Dark Star trailer!!!

okay it’s not ready for you to see yet, but I just saw the new book trailer for Rosie Black 3: Dark Star and it is awesome.

Can’t wait to share it with you all….

xx

How do I become a writer? Or, why the hell won’t they publish me!!

This is the question I seem to get asked most of all at festivals and schools. I think it’s probably the most popular question to ask authors when they’re stuck up there on the stage blinking in the bright lights. What the person is really asking of course is: how do I get published?

When that question comes up, I, and most other authors, will try to answer as best we can, trotting out the similar answers. Write a lot. Take the rejections and keep going. Write. Enter short story competitions. Write. Research publishers and send out queries. Write. Write. Write. Write. And we know it’s hard to hear these same old lines, but  I don’t know what else to say. There is no magic answer, no quick way of getting there, and truthfully, when I got published it was a confluence of  circumstances and events that made it happen and there are still some days when I look up kind of puzzled that I am published. I still look at the ‘big, important’ author’s books on my shelves and wonder if I’m really part of that crowd. Oh, didn’t I tell you? Being published can at times enhance your self doubt. Staring like a panicked tarsier at the best seller lists hoping to see your book on there is not condusive to a calm mind. Especially when you realise your book isn’t even sold in the country of the list you’re perusing. Yes being published can make you lose your mind at around two in the afternoon when you’re really tired and need chocolate.

But I digress. How it feels to be published is fodder for another blog I think.

The truth is no one can tell you how to get published. There is no real answer to that question, unless you want to do it yourself which is a different question entirely. Getting drawn into the fold of a publisher is part hard work, part luck, part catching the editor on a day they’re interested in what you’ve written, part mystery. And I’m not sure editors really know what they’re looking for until it crosses their desk and something lights up inside them at what they’re reading. Or the marketing department says they think the book will sell.

So what do you do? And all aspiring authors (and I say authors because not being published doesn’t mean you’re not a writer) I’m sending out a hug to you now because I know how bone weary, disheartened and plain desperate you could be feeling if you keep getting rejected. Keep your head up, keep trying and keep writing because that’s what it’s about isn’t it? The joy of creating worlds we can disappear into. The freedom to write our own stories, even if no one but your sister and the cat is reading it. And the cat would rather eat kidneys. Keep going…..

Okay, who am I kidding. You all want to be published. I know. I’ve been there and it’s really crap when you’re not isn’t it? So get out the tequila – or the Tim Tams if you’re under 18 – and indulge and rage at the world and call the ones who rejected you every bad name you can think of and then some. Hell make effigies of them and burn them (outside not in, you still need somewhere to live) and while you’re doing it run around the fire dressed only in a toga made from a sheet chanting death to all who stand in my path.  Just don’t put it on facebook or your blog ‘cos that stuff will come back to bite you on the butt when you do get published.

xx L

Pointless random pic inserted for no reason except the obvious….

Dark Star update!

well it’s been a while since I posted – but I have a good excuse. I had a baby. Yes now I have my very own mini me, but while that has slowed me down I’ve still been working on finishing the third book in my Rosie Black series and I am now excited to tell you that I have just finished my last edit. Yay there is much rejoicing!

It’s still a few months to the release date in November but in the mean time I’ll be revealing the cover very soon, so stay tuned!

Now I’m off to eat cake!

The claim women read more books written by men than women is bollocks…..

Yes I said it. And I will say it again. This claim I keep reading being bandied about the blogsphere, in newspapers and other places that should know better, that women read more books written by men than books written by women is  utter bollocks. I have yet to see any proof of this really being true and yet for some reason people keep saying it.  Seriously, who started this clap trap ? I want to know. Put up your hand so I can smack you with a wet fish. And it's everywhere. I just now read another column – which was otherwise fabulous – that also stated this apparent "fact".

The fact is, it's not a fact, unless some comprehensive study has been done on the entire female reading population and no one's told me about it. Which I grant is possible because I'm sort of hermit like and tend to stick to dark places where eating milk chocolate which has no designer affectations whatsoever is still allowed.

But really, where does this come from? Frankly most women  I know, myself included, read more books by women than they do by men – but that's just women I know. I'm not standing up giving blanket statements that this clearly means all women read more books by women because of that. There probably are some women who read alot of books by men. And they can if they want to. Last time I checked it wasn't illegal. But I do think that people saying all women do that is just asinine. Sure a lot more men get publicly lauded for their fiction and they get the lion share of reviews (and that is a whole different other issue) but there are also a lot of women being published and their books are selling well. And since we keep being told that women read more than men, how could it also be true that women read more books by men than women, when many books written by women are selling so well?  Whose reading these books then, aliens?  Monkeys? 

I say, lets stop pushing this stupid barrow which I shall continue to refer to as bollocks, until someone can show me actual real statistics and prove there's any truth in it. And I mean reputable statistics of a large group of people, not some survey you've done of ten people down the street, or of the readership of the 'we only review fiction by white men over 50′ publications. Yes I am that snarky. And if you can do that, I shall be impressed and think about changing my opinion. (Though I possibly won't because I prefer to live in Egypt)

Meanwhile, I've got some  great books, written by women to read. Really, if you don't believe me drop in for a cup of tea and you can count them!

What do you want to know?

I've been thinking lately that to coincide with the release of the third Rosie Black book, Dark Star, in November that I might include a little something extra – something that you'd like to know that isn't in the books.

Maybe it's a part of Rosie' s story before she found the box or maybe it's something about Riley. Or, maybe it's a scene from Pip's perspective, or something about Pip you'd like to know that the books hint at but don't go into detail about. Or maybe you're a Dalton fan and want to know more about him.

Whatever it is, let me know. I'll be making a decision soon!

 Lara

Perth Writers Festival 2012

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Perth Writers Festival recently – you may have heard me telling you about it earlier, I was super excited to be going – and it turned out to be a fantastic opportunity to meet readers, writers, chefs and even the occassional super star. (okay so I sat next to Dave Graney once – hey, he's famous!)

My festival started on Thursday Feb 23 with the Schools Day – hundreds, or was it thousands, of eager young unwrinkled faces crowded the campus at the university to see their favourite authors talk, or if you're me, talk loudly and make really, really bad jokes which they were kind enough to laugh at.

I was presenting to a packed room of 12 – 14 year olds from many different schools and after a great intro by comedian Bonnie Davis I swung straight into talking about Rosie and the future and asking them to tell me what they thought things might be like in 500 years. What imaginations! We talked about flying cars, underwater houses and eating bugs. One boy proudly claimed to have survived eating a cockroach. We were all grossed out and impressed at the same time. I even got to show my book trailer and some pics – though we had a slight hitch with the technical side, but it was all okay in the end. Big thanks to those kids who came up to me afterward to tell me they loved the books. I love you guys!

After collapsing in the green room ( which isn't green but had some lovely people in there helping and giving us cake and tea. I ate lots of cake.) I went back to the hotel to get ready to hear Germaine Greer give the opening address at 7pm. If you don't know who she is, go and Google her right now…….okay now you know??? brilliant. So she was clever and funny and talked about slime mould and feminism and books and then we all went out and had a cocktail party in front of this amazing flower….

  It's called Breathing Flower. It is and gorgeous artwork by artist, Choi Jeong Hwa. I couldn't get a night shot but it looked really amazing lit up.

 Next day I had a great panel called It's All Speculation with fellow speculative fiction authors Carole Wilkinson and Lauren Beaukes with the lovely Helen Merrick as our moderator. We spent a great hour talking about our work, why we love to write what we do and why fantasy and sci fi is still so popular. Carole has written a beautiful series of fantasy books featuring dragons – Dragonkeeper is one of them – among many others and Lauren writes mind bending fantasy sci fi/future worlds, her latest book Zoo City won the Arthur C Clarke award.

On Saturday I had another panel called Reimagining the Future, this time with authors John Birmingham and Peter Docker and with moderator Jeff Sparrow we talked about future worlds and why so many are dystopian. John writes spec fic action thrillers and has a series about America being wiped out by a mysterious event – the latest book is Angels of Vengence and Peter's latest book is set in WA like mine but is very different, it mixes the past with the future and dreaming with reality and is called The Waterboys. I should note, both these guys write for adults. We were all writing really different things but still had similar ideas about the future.

The last day – Sunday – I ran a 3 hour workshop on creating worlds and how to immerse your readers better in the world by using character and sensory perception. 21 people turned up and we had lots of fun at the beginning rearranging tables so I didn't have to talk to a square block – I hate talking to blocks – then I had them all ask each other little questions I'd made up about writing so they found out some things about one another. It was a great but mixed group from children's writers to fantasy to memoir and those who weren't sure what they wanted to do but needed some inspiration. I hope I helped them out.

We talked about lots of different things and I got to hear some really great ideas. Imagination was running hot  and if they were my ideas I might share them, but they're not and who knows, maybe some of those ideas will make their way into a book some day.

All in all it was a great festival. I met a journalist from the New York Times who was there to talk about the world food shortage crisis, the mother of the Tamil Tigress and the tigress herself Niromi Soyza who has written a book about her time as a teenager with the rebel army in Sri Lanka, I also chatted with Mark Jensen (chef), Phillip Adams, Alan Carter, Hanifa Deen and had a lovely long chat over coffee with James Roy about our favourite books among other things that cannot be named!

A fabulous time and a fabulous festival and thanks to all who were there.

xxx Lara