Tehani Croft Wessely's Blog, page 18

Free FableCroft ebooks for Easter!

It’s a lovely long weekend, so for a very limited time we have two free ebooks on Amazon! Until Monday only, you can grab great stories by Dirk Flinthart and Margo Lanagan, instantly available on your ereader!

“Sanction” by Dirk Flinthart – continuing on from the events of the Aurealis Award-shortlisted Path of Night (though standing alone!), this brand new story follows former detective Jen Morris on a mission that will see her question everything she knows, and she’s dragging a very much changed Michael Devlin along for the ride. Will what she has to do take too much toll?

“Flower and Weed” by Margo Lanagan – a short story glimpse into the vividly imagined world of Margo Lanagan’s powerful, multi-award-winning novel Sea Hearts (also published as The Brides of Rollrock Island). Selkies are in the background, but this is a story of a liaison between a selkie’s earthly husband and one of the witches who does the magic that’s essential to keeping the selkie-wife trade going.

If that’s not enough, you can still pre-order Jo Anderton’s new Veiled Worlds novel right now and receive an exclusive bonus content ebook, containing both original and previously published stories in the Veiled Worlds. Don’t miss out!

Aurealis Awards: call for judges

Applications are now open for the 2014 Aurealis Awards judging panels.

We are seekingexpressionsof interest from people who would like to judge for the 2014 Aurealis Awards. Judges are volunteers and are drawn from the Australian speculative fiction community, from diverse professions and backgrounds, including academics, booksellers, librarians, published authors, publishing industry professionals, reviewers and enthusiasts. The only qualification necessary is a demonstrated knowledge of and...

Come along to my first CBCA Judge’s talk!

Children’s Book Council of Australia (Tasmanian Branch) Inc
The Tasmanian Judge’s Talk

Hear Tehani Wessely’s insights and thoughts about the Short Listed and Notables Books for the 2014 Book of the Year Awards

WHERE: ConneXions Thornton Lewis Building, Scotch Oakburn Junior Campus

WHEN: Wednesday 16th April @ 4.00pm

Parking is available in Claremont Street or Elphin Road.

Tagged: CBCA judging

Brief FableCroft update

My apologies for the radio silence around these parts since the end of March. It’s been a crazy few weeks, and I haven’t even had a chance to properly celebrate the end of the Cranky Ladies of History campaign (which I will do soon!). A couple of very quick updates:

1. Insert Title Here slush reading is over halfway done, but we’ve had a few delays due to other things getting in the way. Hope to have first round reading finished in the next two weeks. I’m very sorry for those still waiting to hear back from us.

2. Cranky Ladies surveys and early rewards will go out very soon — just need a chance to sit down with the Pozible site and get it sorted! (And again, THANK YOU to our supporters and signal-boosters — I don’t think I can say that enough!).

3. Aurealis Awards! They happened last weekend, and we WON! One Small Step and The Bone Chime Song both received awards, alongside a bunch of other fantastic work. A proper update about that (with photos), also pending.

Thanks for your patience everyone — I’ve had a five day judging conference for the Children’s Book Council of Australia and end of term (day job) kicking my butt, alongside preparation for an interstate move, but hope to be back on the publishing train really soon!

Book Review: Peacemaker by Marianne de Pierres

I don’t usually review books here on the FableCroft site, but like to periodically do so when it’s a book by one of the authors we have published in the past.

I first encountered Peacemaker protagonist Virgin Jackson in de Pierres’ story “Gin Jackson: Neophyte Ranger” (first published in the Agog! Smashing Stories anthology in 2004, and I liked it so much I reprinted in FableCroft’s Australis Imaginarium in 2010). I was delighted to read Peacemaker in graphic version in 2011, and was a bit sad when that format was unable to continue, so it was with huge anticipation I started on the novel version! And I have not been disappointed.

Virgin Jackson is a senior ranger in a themed conservation park; odd things have started to happen to her, and not just finding herself saddled with a US Marshall who is himself just a little strange. When she first finds a dead body where it’s almost impossible for anyone to be, she is essentially accused of the murder, and then is attacked in her home. Not one to stand idly by and let things happen, Virgin starts to investigate for herself, with the help of friends in useful places, and the odd Marshall Sixkiller. What she finds is not at all what she expects…

There are several changes that have occurred from the original short story to the novel-length edition. Focus is by necessity shifted for the longer form, and while the book is still (in my eyes) very Australian, I can also see where some elements have been altered to give the story a more international tone, and that both works very well on a plot level as well as being a sensible move in terms of audience.

In another incarnation, de Pierres writes crime fiction, and her experience in both a science fictional setting and a mystery one offer a deftness of touch here. Peacemaker rollicks along at a cracking pace, and I found myself holding my breath in anticipation at times, which is always a good sign! The character of Virgin is vivid and wonderfully acerbic, and I found both she and the supporting cast so well realised they really bounced off the page. With that combination, I got to the end of the book and flipped the last page in disappointment, because while the story ended well (albeit definitely set up for the next volume), I simply didn’t want it to stop. Bring on the next instalment!

Thank you to the publisher for my review copy of the book. It is available in ebook from your favourite e-tailer or ask your bookstore about the paperback.

Cranky Ladies of History: 7 days left!

cross-posted from FableCroft:

This is it! The final week of theCranky Ladies of HistoryPozible campaignis underway! We are at $9900 (updated! $10,075!!) with an amazing 180 supporters on board the Cranky Ladies train, and Tansy and I are just delighted with the result so far. We have smashed our first stretch goal of more art by the brilliant Kathleen Jennings, and we’re aiming high — if we can hit $12,500, we can add another 25,000 words to our book! That’s more stories and more great authors...

It’s not the ending, but the journey that’s important…

…and boy, has the journey been busy lately! I’ve been working full-time since the end of January, coming home each night (sometimes as late as 7pm or so) and hooking straight back in to my “other” jobs, particularly FableCroft things, but also CBCA and other roles as well. And I’m loving it, though I’m rather worried about dropping any of the balls I’ve got in the air right now! And I’m being EXTREMELY cautious about taking on anything that looks too far ahead, because while it’s been fantast...

Cranky Ladies of History

So other than my new job, the project keeping me most busy over the past month has beenCranky Ladies of History. This book began last year, when Liz Barr posted a fantastic piece onTsaritsa Sophia Alekseyevna of Russia, terming her a “cranky lady” – this completely tickled my fancy, and I immediately thought of a bunch of brilliant writers I would love to see write about other cranky ladies of history – and the book was born. With Tansy Rayner Roberts as my co-editor, we have had stories pitc...

And a lovely weekend!

This has been my first proper weekend in Canberra. I’ve been home to the family each one since starting, and faced with two empty days not hanging out with the kids, well, that wasn’t particularly appealing! So naturally, I scheduled some socialising

Friday night I put the call out to any Canberra folk I knew or had connected with through writing circles to meet up at 5ish at a cute little vegetarian cafe/bar I’d found just down the road in Watson. David & Rob from CSFG and Kaaron Warren wit...

Not dead!

It’s been fairly quiet around these parts (though pretty active over on the FableCroft site, for reasons which will become clear!), but I’m still alive, still banging on! There’s no way I can cover all the stuff that’s gone on in the past couple of months, but here’s a little roundup:

decluttered and thoroughly went through the entire house (this was planned for January, but we decided also to put our lovely house on the market *sigh* so was even more important!).
caught the Spirit of Tasmania...