Lian Tanner's Blog, page 22

A week and a day till the competition closes!

I’m getting a bit worried about the lack of entries. Mind you, I always get worried about the lack of entries at this stage, and they always start coming in just before the close of the competition. (Hint hint!) Don’t forget the closing date is midnight on Sunday 16th June. Which is NOT FAR AWAY!...

First competition entry

How exciting – we’ve had our first entry! But don’t worry, there’s still a little over two weeks to go, so you’ve got plenty of time to get yours in. This first entry came from Chelsea, who is 13, and it’s a quote from the very end of City of Lies. As Chelsea said, the...

A funeral oration for Miss Mouse

What a dreadfully sad and heart-sore day. Miss Mouse, my beloved cat for the last twelve years, died yesterday. She was sick a few weeks ago, then got better, then suddenly got sick again. Stopped eating, stopped drinking, stopped doing all the things she has always loved, and instead got more and more distressed. The...

A new competition!

Because I started writing The Claw last Friday, and because Miss Mouse has recovered from what looked very like a terminal illness (and also because Gabi asked so nicely), we are going to have a new competition. Here’s what you have to do to enter: 1. Choose your favourite phrase or sentence from any of...

I’ve seen the final art for Ice Breaker

What an exciting week! The best part was receiving the final cover art for Ice Breaker, and let me tell you, it is astonishingly wonderful. For the first ten minutes or so after I got the file, I sat at my desk with my mouth hanging open. Every now and again I whispered, ‘Wow!’ Then...

Loving books

I know that most people who visit this website love books as much as I do – well, NEARLY as much. And every now and again someone sends me something to prove it. A couple of days ago I received an email from Isabel C, who said: My name is Isabel and I am 12...

Midnight inspirations

If you climb Mt Wellington (aka Kunanyi) which is the mountain that lies behind the city of Hobart in Southern Tasmania, you will sometimes see tiny spiderlings that spin a long thread then throw themselves onto the wind, with no idea where they will end up. At the moment I feel very like one of...

Illustrations, riddles, cat wars and a very small Lian

It’s been an exciting week here in Lauderdale. Firstly, I saw a rough version of the cover of Ice Breaker the day before yesterday. And let me tell you, this cover is going to be terrific! I can’t show it to you yet, but you will be pleased to know that the artist is Sebastian...

So what now, after Ice Breaker?

I finished the Ice Breaker rewrite yesterday and emailed it to my Aust publisher and also to my agent who has sent it to the US. So we are now waiting to see if the US publisher likes it. This is always a nail biting time, so cross your fingers for me! Those of you...

The ‘Ice Breaker’ rewrite

I finished the first re-write of Ice Breaker last week, and am now letting it sit for a couple of weeks before rereading it. Despite my initial resistance to making any changes, I think it’s probably much better. I’ve knocked about 6000 words off the first half of the book, and the whole thing is...