Ellie Marney's Blog, page 25

EVERY WORD blog tour is over - sads, but thank youse all

Hello!   The North American blog tour for Every Word is over – sads.  I hope you had a good time checking out the various posts about the book, especially the silly one where I talked about chopping wood in thongs.  Before we go any further, I’d like to sincerely thank all the bloggers who participated – they did a mighty job, and showed amazing energy and enthusiasm, so I’ve listed them all here for awesomeness:
Sam at Bellsie BooksMandy at Forever Young AdultEri at Airy ReadsHeather at Books & QuiltsNicole and  at Reading LarkMichelle at Michelle & Leslie’s Book PicksJen at The Starry Eyed RevueAmanda at Gun in Act OneAngie at AngievilleGillian at Writer of WrongsShilpa at sukasareadsSabrina at Hiver et CaféAdrienne at Books & BassettsMichelle at FAB Book ReviewsMarie at Ramblings of a DaydreamerLiz at Midnight Bloom ReadsAmy at Tripping Over BooksRachel at The Reader’s DenLauren at Love Is Not a TriangleKristen at My Friends are FictionMorgan at Gone With the WordsLeanne at authorleannedyck
Some people really went all out for their end of the tour – check out these amazing artworks!  I especially love the drawing of Rachel and James (I want that as a poster):











I’d also like to extend a special thank you to my Tundra liaison/publicist/blog tour manager and all round incredible person, Sylvia Chan.  Sylvia worked above and beyond the call on this tour of duty, and she has handled everything with her usual friendliness and calm, and I’m hugely appreciative of all the effort she put in.  Thank you Sylvia!!
Also, thank you to all of you who Liked, RTed, reposted, commented, added and joined in the Every Word tour – with your help, the news about Every Word will spread in the US and Canada, and Rachel and Mycroft will find some new friends.  I’m full of appreciation for everyone who gave the book a little nudge along, and I hope, if you put your name down for a giveaway, you get your heart’s desire!
Blog touring is some exhausting work (and it’s not even real *live* touring! Geddouttahere!) and I’ve gotta say, I’m very glad to be back in the writing groove for now.  I’m working on a New Thing, which is still a bit too new for me to talk about with confidence yet, but it’s coming along.  I’ve also got some good news – along with Gabrielle Tozer, Will Kostakis and Melissa Keil, I’m going to be headlining the CBCA National Conference in May 2016.  If you’re in Sydney then, do come along!
Until then – see you around the traps
xxEllie

#LoveOzYAbookclub: November 2015 Book Discussion Post – Illuminae (Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff)

Hi and welcome to our first book club Discussion Post! 
Now, as book club host, it’s kind of my job to be impartial, but this is the first book off the rank, and (hopefully) the only book I’ll get to choose over the course of book club.  And I’ve got to say, I loved Illuminae – it shook up my head in the best possible way.  I’ve seen a few books that have tried to meld the narrative aspects with graphic-novel style, but this is the first book that I think actually managed to pull it off.  From page one to finish, I absolutely could not put it down (I read it in almost a single sitting) and I was truly blown away by the finale.  Now I’m praying that Brad Pitt and his movie production mates do the novel justice on the big screen.
So – on with the show!  Illuminae is reviewed by Danielle Binks, of Alphareader fame, and she had some great things to say about it, including this:
“Y’know how Battlestar Galactica is actually exploring religion and civil liberty … Or, okay – how Joss Whedon’s Firefly isn’t really just an intergalactic-Western? But rather it’s inspired by the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg and the everyday people who are stepped on in the great moments of history, and that it’s even a story of the immigrant experience and outsiders pushed to the fringe by the victors in a war they never wanted any part of? Yep, okay – well, in the same way there is a lot happening beneath the surface of Illuminae.”
You can read Danielle’s full review of Illuminae right here.
What did you think about Illuminae?  Add comments below, or feel free to join in the Facebook group for discussion about this book, as well as general book talk and a bit of silliness on the side.
xxEllie

#LoveOzYAbookclub: Author Q&A – Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (Illuminae)

To value-add to our book club experience, I’ve asked authors whose books we’re reading to either a) answer a short Q&A, or b) participate in an FB author chat, if they’re able.  As authors can get very busy, I’ve tried to keep it light-hearted, with the emphasis on something fun and easy.
The authors of our November book, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, have been very busy indeed of late, so I’m hugely appreciative that they’ve agreed to join in at #LoveOzYAbookclub with the answers to a few silly questions.  The Discussion Thread for Illuminae will go up early next week – until then, enjoy!


* One curious or unusual thing about you that most people don’t know: is that Jay is a Karaoke King (you should hear him do metal songs) and Amie used to work as a professional sailing coach—she walked on a boat before she took her first steps on land.
* Your work space – tell us about it: Right now Amie’s is wherever she can perch amidst towering stacks of boxes, because she’s moving house, but usually it’s a study lined with bookshelves, where she writes at her treaddesk, or in an armchair. Jay has a study too, with a great big fancy desk and a fireplace… but he always ends up writing on the couch in his uggs.
* Writing Must-Haves – snacks, drinks, music…whatever: For Amie, the music is mostly by Muse or Two Steps From Hell, and for Jay, it’s mostly silence, or the classical music of Ludovico Einaudi (which is hilarious, because usually Jay listens to metal.) When we’re brainstorming, Jay drinks Jack Daniels and Amie eats chips. When we’re at home writing, it’s Red Bull for Jay and Pepsi Max for Amie all the way.
* If your book was a ride at SeaWorld, it would be…: banned for its incredibly high death toll.
* The zombie apocalypse strikes, but it’s okay, cos you have your choice of weapons, and you choose…: copies of Illuminae. Seriously, have you seen that thing? It’s the size of a brick. As our secondary weapon, we choose a friend who runs far more slowly than us. That should slow them up.
Thanks Amie and Jay! And see you all ‘round the Discussion Thread next week :)

xxEllie

Spring is for hayfever, and the Every Word NA blog tour

Hello again!  I feel like it’s been ages since I wrote an update post – but that’s okay.  I’ve been keeping busy with speaking engagements and workshops in schools and events, and also with the #LoveOzYAbookclub which has been the topic of my last few posts.  We have our first book for the book club  – Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff – which is pretty exciting.  And I’ve been dealing with hayfever and Spring and the last term of school rolling to a close…all in all, that’s been enough to keep me on the hop.
The other thing that’s on the hop is the North American tour for Every Word.
The book was released in the US and Canada a few months ago, and I’m very excited that readers overseas are finally getting their hot little hands on it.  I’ve been receiving some (sometimes irate) emails about WHEN IS YOUR SECOND BOOK COMING OUT HERE OMG WHY THIS WAIT ARGH, so I’m pleased to finally be able to plug Every Word and enjoy the way folks are getting into it.
The blog tour starts next week, and it’s a very full schedule of tour stops.  Some bloggers are doing reviews, and some bloggers have livened up their tour stops with a bit of silliness/seriousness from me.  I’ve answered interview questions (everything from ‘James Mycroft is a jerk: discuss’ to explaining how I got that weird scar on my right foot), and given location pic-tours of London, and hopefully shown everyone a pretty good time.  If you’d like to catch up with what people are saying (or you just want to know how I got the weird scar), please do check out the tour stops below:
Monday Nov 16Bellsie BooksForever Young AdultAiry ReadsBooks and QuiltsReading Lark
Tuesday Nov 17Books and WritingMichelle and Leslie’s Book PicksThe Starry Eyed RevueGun in Act One
Wednesday Nov 18Writer of WrongsSukasareadsHiver et CaféBooks and Bassets
Thursday Nov 19FAB BOOK REVIEWSRamblings of a DaydreamerMidnight Bloom ReadsTripping Over BooksThe Reader’s Den
Friday Nov 20Love Is Not A TriangleMy Friends are FictionGone With the WordsAuthorleannedyck
I’ve also been doing a sneaky little promo for the tour on social media, where I’ve been posting pics of the journey that Rachel and James took from Melbourne to different places all over London:
I hope I haven’t confused anybody, because I’m not actually in London right now…


But the snaps have been very fun!  If you’d like to check out the pics, or signal boost the blog tour by cross-posting, go for your life – they’re gathered under the hashtags #EveryWord  #Wattscroft on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.
 I’ll update again in a little while, but until then, hope you’re travelling well, and have fun reading the tour posts!

xxEllie

#LoveOzYAbookclub : November 2015 book selection

Welcome to the #LoveOzYAbookclub debut book selection!
This month’s book is our very first, and the only book I get to choose – after November, the title selections will be made by the authors of the books under discussion.  I spent a long time thinking about which title to choose…and finally made a decision by asking myself Which book would I want to read more than any other?
So…*drumroll*… our book for the month of November will be Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.
Illuminae is the first book in The Illuminae Files series, and has been described as “a fantastically entertaining space opera with explosions and romance” combined with “a thoughtful and expansive tale of political intrigue and subterfuge”.  It’s one of the biggest things to come out of Australian YA in a long time – it’s already hit the New York Times Bestseller List.  It’s also (if you have a quick glance at the insides) a mashup of graphic design and story – in fact, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
AmieKaufman is the co-author of the Starbound Trilogy with Meagan Spooner, and Jay Kristoffis the author of The Lotus Wars series, and they both live in Melbourne and are both quite lovely.  Amie and Jay have already agreed to choose a title for #LoveOzYAbookclub for next month.
I've made an arrangement with Boomerang Books (who specialise in Australian books and had all the titles I searched for at excellent prices) so that #LoveOzYAbookclub members can get free shipping.  If you would like to order the book through Boomerang Books, use the code loveoz at the ‘use a promotional code’ step, and you won't have to pay for postage.

So go forth and read!  I hope you enjoy Illuminae, and I’ll look forward to the discussion we’ll have about it at the end (probably early in the last week) of November here on the #LoveOzYAbookclub group.
xxEllie

#LoveOzYAbookclub: Title Suggestions Masterlist and How This All Works

Hi all, this is the introductory post for the #LoveOzYAbookclub – welcome!  If you enjoy reading YA books, and specifically Australian YA, then this is the club for you.  I'm not going to make stupid references to Fight Club, cos that is passe, and the only rule of #LoveOzYAbookclub is talk all you want about bookclub.  Oh, and invite whoever you want - young readers, older readers, readers of all shapes and sizes and persuasions.  The more the merrier. 
I’ll be updating with posts here on the blog, but running the discussion threads on the #LoveOzYAbookclub Facebook group page – feel free to run on over there and join to stay current.
This post is just to say hi, and thanks for coming along, and to show off the list of books from which we’ll likely select the books we’ll be reading.  We'll read a book a month - makes it nice and easy, huh?  I’ve made a big OzYA master list below, which will be added to from time to time, as new titles get suggested and old ones get crossed off.
If we’ve left out your fave, or you’d like to suggest a particular title to be read for #LoveOzYAbookclub, add a comment here or at the FB page, or you can always tweet me (just remember to tag me and #LoveOzYAbookclub).
This will be the process for #LoveOzYAbookclub (title selection and general procedure): I’ll select the first book (because I'm bossy like that), which I’ll announce in early November.  Then I’ll ask the author of that book to choose the next title from the list (for December), and so on down the line (Janurary, February, etc...).  If the author of the current book doesn’t want to choose or is unavailable to do so, I’ll ask someone else to do it or do it myself.  I’ll ask someone who enjoyed the book to review it for the first discussion post, which I'll put up here/on FB in the last half of each month.  Then folks who'd like to comment about how they liked the book of the month can take it from there.  And so on, ad infinitum, until we run out of books, or the internet collapses, or the zombie apocalypse arrives, or whatever.
So, you got that?
*I'll pick the first book, then it will domino from there*I'll make a Title post at the start of each month, letting you know which book we're reading*I'll make a second Discussion post near the end of the month, after we've all had a chance to read*Discussion and comments will be on the relevant thread over at the #LoveOzYAbookclub FB group page.*If the author of the book is amenable, I’ll try to arrange an interview, or a Facebook author chat, during the relevant month.*I’m also in the process of organising a way for those buying the book to get free shipping for online orders.
Masterlist of OzYA Books Suggested So Far (feel free to suggest more!):
InBetweenDays – Vikki WakefieldTheFlywheel – Erin GoughRisk – Fleur FerrisTalk Under Water – Kathryn LomerSidekicks– Will Kostakis (not until March 2016)Razorhurst– Justine LarbalestierGoodOil – Laura BuzoZeroes– Margo Lanagan, Scott Westerfeld, Deborah BiancottiThe Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl – Melissa KeilThe Book of Days – KA BarkerGreenValentine – Lili WilkinsonA Little Wanting Song – Cath CrowleyThe Intern – Gabrielle TozerNotes from the Teenage Underground – Simmone HowellMy Life as an Alphabet – Barry JonsbergHead of the River – Pip HarryAtmospheric– Carole WilkinsonGrace Beside Me – Sue McPhersonSteal My Sunshine – Emily GaleHate is Such A Strong Word – Sarah AyoubHow to be Happy – Dave BurtonUndine– Penni Russon90 Packets of Instant Noodles – Deb FitzpatrickFinding Grace – Alyssa BrugmanClara in Washington – Penni TangeyKilling Darcy – Melissa LucashenkoJasper Jones – Craig SilveyInto the River – Ted DaweGirl Saves Boy – Steph BoweThingsYou Either Hate or Love – Brigid LowryLaurinda_ Alice PungCooper Bartholomew is Dead – Rebecca JamesSpark– Rachael CrawThrive– Mary BorsellinoThe Dead I Know – Scot GardnerThe Protected – Claire ZornHating Alison Ashley – Robin KleinOne True Thing – Nicole Hayes48 Shades of Brown – Nick EarlsTwinmaker: Jump – Sean WilliamsWhisper– Christine KeigheryIlluminae– Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff (not until Nov 2015)Finnikin of the Rock – Melina MarchettaHow to Make A Bird – Martine MurrayRise of the Fallen – Teagan ChilcottA Small Madness _ Dianne TouchellFacing Up – Carolyn GilpinFire in the Sea – Myke BartlettLittle Paradise – Gabrielle WangIntruder– Christine BongersCrashing Down – Kate McCaffreyZac & Mia – AJ BettsCloudwish– Fiona WoodThe Gathering – Isobelle CarmodyFrankie– Shivaun Plozza (not until March 2016)Nona and Me – Clare AtkinsDeadly,Unna? – Phillip GwynnePieces of Sky – Trinity DoyleThe Guy, The Girl, The Artist and His Ex – Gabrielle WilliamsDoes My Head Look Big in this? – Randa Abdel-FattahA Single Stone – Meg McKinleySo Much To Tell You – John MarsdenSummer Skin – Kirsty Eagar (not until Feb 2016)The Cracks in the Kingdom – Jaclyn MoriartySabriel– Garth NixYou’re the Kind of Girl I Write Songs About – Daniel HerbornShadows– Paula WestonThe Vanishing Moment – Margaret WildFooty Dreaming – Michael HydeThis is Shyness – Leanne HallI Am the Messenger – Markus ZusakFrankie and Joely – Nova WeetmanCry Blue Murder – Kim Kane, Marion RobertsCalypso Summer – Jared ThomasFreedom Ride – Sue LawsonThe Interrogation of Ashala Wolf – Ambelin KwaymullinaThe Astrologer’s Daughter – Rebecca LimFive Parts Dead – Tim PeglerEat the Sky, Drink the Ocean – Kirsty Murray, ed.Losing It – Julia LawrinsonFairytales for Wilde Girls – Allyse NearThe Tricksters – Margaret MahyCracked– Clare StrahanRun – Tim SinclairThe Minnow - Diane Sweeney

*Many of the authors have multiple books, so I’ve only put up one book per author.  The decision on which book to include was either suggested, or made by me (because I wanted to read a certain book.  Soz.).  If you’d like to suggest a different book for the same author, that’s fine, but let’s make sure we spread the love around.
*Some books have collaborative authors – once their joint book is read and crossed out, I’m happy to include works they’ve penned as individuals.
*Yes, I’ve included some NZ authors (mainly because I want to read Into the River and Spark, and why not).
*No, I haven’t put my own books on the list, cos I didn’t want to feel like a der.  I’m getting plenty of love by facilitating this bookclub, which is good enough for me (and if you want to go read the Every series, thank you, and the link to Booktopia is on the sidebar at right! #officialplug).
* If you’re a blogger/reviewer and you’d like to have your reviews included in the bookclub, please get in touch.
And that’s it!  Hope you like the list and please feel welcome to join in the reading and discussion by joining the #LoveOzYA bookclub on Facebook.  Keep an eye out for the first book, coming up soon (first week of November) – I’ll post it here and cross-post to the group plus everywhere else.  I can’t wait to start reading!
xxEllie

Every Word overseas release! and making new ideas (is hard)

Every Word, the second book in the Every series, has been released this month in North America and the Philippines through Tundra Books/Penguin Random House – awesome J

I’m pretty happy about that.  Early reviews have been coming in, and that’s been keeping me happy too.  If you’d like to read what people are saying, peruse below…
Angieville @ Bibliocrack ReviewsRead.Sleep.RepeatIt's a Book LifeForever Young AdultAiry ReadsRamblings of a DaydreamerThe Book WarsHiver et CafeYA RomanticsCM Magazine: University of ManitobaReading Bifrost
I’m also rapt to announce that Every Word has won the Best YA fiction award at this year’s Davitt Awards.  WOOT!
The Davitts, organised by Sisters in Crime (the Australian women crime writers association), has been running for 15 years, and this year, 96 books by female crime writers were up for consideration.  It’s a huge honour to be given the award, from a stellar line-up of shortlisted authors, and I’m incredibly grateful.   
What else has been happening?  Well, these last two weeks I’ve been working up ideas for a new book project.  You would think that just ‘coming up with ideas’ is not a very labour-intensive job – it doesn’t sound as difficult or time-consuming as actually sitting down and writing an entire book.  In fact, to some extent, this is true: the me who’s ‘coming up with ideas’ actually bears a strong resemblance to the me who’s ‘washing dishes’ or ‘working in the garden’ or ‘going for a walk’.  But concept-generation is hard work.  I’ve discovered that it’s much harder work than writing.
Creating a new book is always a process.  I get a inspired by lots of things, but not everything I find inspiring is enough to hang a book on. Developing every idea takes mental effort, and involves looking inside yourself for something you can use in the writing.
Certainly looking inside is part of my role, as a writer.  But in the act of writing, only half of my role is in self-examination for some kind of ‘emotional depth charge’ (thank you for that phrase, Cate Kennedy) that resonates, that you know you can use to make readers resonate too.  The other fifty percent of actual writing is usually about regurgitating my observations.  I spend a lot of time observing the way people look and behave, the conversations they have, how their ways of thinking are inscribed on the ways they interact.  Those are the details I borrow from life and cannibalise to make an imaginary person or situation real.
But when you’re thinking up ideas, the process is 100% internal.  You need to examine yourself for something you want to show, something you want to explain.  What is inside you is the Important Thing that informs your original idea.  It is the Something You Want to Say.
I find that kind of self-examination exhausting, but it generates ideas.  Quite often, these ideas are hard won – I have to wrest my idea out of a quagmire of ‘that’s too embarrassing to write about’, or ‘oh, that’s too personal! Too revealing!’, and so on.  And so I am invested in each idea, as it emerges – blinking, uncurling its damp wings – and I think each of them is beautiful. 
I would like to write ALL of them.  But I probably won’t.  Sure, I’d like to think that each of these ideas has promise, potential to be a whole book – like I said, you can make a book out of almost anything.  You can make a book about encyclopedia salesmen, or someone doing their laundry: it’s all in how the characters act, the hidden secrets and trauma inside every person, and where those secrets take them.  But I need to narrow down my options.  I want to write something that resonates both for me and for readers, something that other people will find interesting, something that has some broad appeal (broader than just an audience of one – me – at any rate).
So I think I’ve come up with something, something new and interesting – I mean, I hope it’s interesting – and I’m about to embark on the process of letting the characters take over.  I’ll be thinking, living and breathing the characters and concepts over the next few months, slowly giving in to them as they start to come alive and talk to each other, while I note everything down.  I’ll be filling up exercise books with scribbled research and scraps of dialogue, making boards on Pinterest, tearing out pictures and sticky-taping them up on my study wall, talking to people who might be able to help me out with the character development or the plotlines.
It’s an exciting time!  Also a strangely nervous time, as I wait to see if I can really make the concept come to life.  So…I guess I’m asking you to wish me luck?  And I hope you’re going well.  It’s school holiday time here, blowing in with the spring winds, which I s’pose is as good a time to start something new as any.  If it’s not spring where you are, I hope you’re finding some tiny blooming thing to keep you happy.
xxEllie

#LoveOzYA for authors: Your weakness makes you strong

*I wrote this piece recently for inclusion on the Wheeler Centre website, but we ended up turning it into a more general article to word up the general public on the #LoveOzYA movement.  So I've put this up here: an article on #LoveOzYA just for authors.  Thanks to Simmone Howell for proofing, and for reassuring me that it didn't sound too 'Voice of the People'.

The #LoveOzYA campaign has been a topic of conversation recently.  Much has been made, in the last few years, of the fact that Young Adult Lit is a growth area in the publishing market, and I suppose that may have lulled us into feeling as if we’re all doing okay.  But when the May 2015 Australian Library Information Association lists revealed that of the top ten most-borrowed YA titles in Australian libraries, only two titles were Australian-made, it was (as Emily Gale pointed out) a kick in the pants.  We realised that we needed to have a conversation about this.  That conversation flowered into a realisation that much work is yet to be done in the promotion of Australian YA stories for local teenage readers – and that the responsibility is on us to make it happen.
It’s not the situation that Australian YA books aren’t being read because they’re not good.  They are good – let me qualify that further and say, they’re excellent.  But other market issues are at work.  Blogger and emerging YA writer Danielle Binks has written articles in Kill Your Darlings and Kids Book Review that explain how local YA is ‘being underrated in its own market by global forces’, specifically how local voices in the market are often crowded out by the number of overseas buy-ins and blockbuster titles.  How Every Breath made it onto the ALIA list is still a mystery to me (not that I'm not happy!), but it's noteworthy that it was the only title without a movie tie-in or a big marketing budget.  Without that external big-budget push, more needs to happen to promote homegrown YA literature if we would like to see the industry continue to thrive, and our own work to be read and sold.  Not all that work can be done by already-stretched publishers, or literature organisations that have just been de-funded.  Clearly, we need to shoulder some of this responsibility ourselves.  That’s how the #LoveOzYA campaign came into being.
From an author’s standpoint, I guess I feel like we’re coming from a point of vulnerability.  We pour our hearts out into our work, in ways that leave us feeling shaky and exposed.  We’re often living ‘balancing-act’ lives, juggling day jobs, parenting, writing – and with that often comes financial instability, which can make us feel like we’re on a literal tightrope.  The recent disembowelling of the Australia Council has left us even more vulnerable.  We’re working without a safety net.
But in some ways, I suppose none of that is new.  Justine Larbalestier said it well: “Making a living as an artist of any kind is a long shot”.  But what can we do, as individuals, that can make a difference when we’re already strung so thin?  Well, we can sit back helplessly…or we can act.
The first thing we can do is be visible, and use that visibility talk about #LoveOzYA.  We’re in the middle of Book Week, the mad-busy time for writers all over.  It’s a great reminder of what we already know, as authors: that the time of writing and delivering a manuscript and then retiring quietly to our writing caves has long passed.  It’s necessary to come out into the light in person – to visit at schools and libraries, to attend festivals and speaking events, to communicate with a wider readership and support network online, and to engage with the larger community in general.  If we want to support an effort to promote and profile-raise for Aussie YA books, we need to continue to be visible, and to speak about #LoveOzYA when given the opportunity.
We can also get in touch with organisations.  We’re well-placed to contact organisations like the Australian Society of Authors, the Australasian Children’s Literature Association for Research, SCBWI and writer’s organisations in our own states, and let them know we’re on board with the campaign – and encourage them to get involved.  Other organisations who work in schools to promote Aussie literature, including the Centre for Youth Literature, IBBY, YABBA, the Australian Children’s Laureate Alliance, the CBCA and The Stella Prize, might also like to know we’re pitching in.
As authors, we also have support networks of other kinds – the large community of teachers, librarians and booksellers, who are always keen to be supportive, and the growing community of reviewers, book bloggers and book tubers out there who are actively seeking books to love and promote.  Heck, our publishers might like to know we’re supporting the campaign (which they will surely appreciate).  We also have our networks at home – local bookstores, local and high school libraries.  We can let them know we’re supporting the campaign, and suggest that they come aboard.
The best way to communicate the message is by being positive.  It can be dispiriting when we go into our local library or bookstore and see that they aren’t stocking our titles – or the titles of other Aussie authors.  But librarians, teachers and booksellers really want to help: having a healthy local publishing industry benefits them, too.  We’re all professionals, and our relationships are based on respect and friendship…and we all love books.  In our exchanges with people who work in the wider networks of reading and literature, it’s important to give positive encouragement.
Ultimately, this is an industry based on mutual support.  None of us would make it without a helping hand – we encourage each other, give suggestions and advice, share information, and help spread the buzz about new work at release time.  So the #LoveOzYA campaign is about more than just profile-raising for the industry: it’s about creating a close-knit community.  As individuals, we can do our bit, but united, we’re more than the sum of our parts.
And that’s another key thing we can do: support other authors and create community.  We all read widely in the category to stay up-to-date with what’s happening, and we’ve all read awesome books by other Aussie authors, books we would happily press into someone else’s hand.  Applaud and encourage each other, and talk about other Aussie YA authors when you have the chance – they will undoubtedly love you for it, and return the favour.  You will never hurt your own career by supporting other writers.  Giving other authors a leg-up is really a form of self-help.
But probably the most important thing we should be doing is: our job.  We need to keep writing.  Without the books, there’s nothing to promote – and nothing to nurture the steadily growing interest of readers.  We can find support, where and when we need it: from family, friends, writers’ networks and organisations, and the wider community of OzYA authors.  We can reach out for advice and information, and remember that we’re not struggling alone.

Please keep writing!  We need Australian stories, told in Australian voices, in which Australian kids can see themselves reflected.  We are the people who write those stories.  Keep writing, #LoveOzYA, and don’t lose heart.
xxEllie

Book Week 2015

Hullo again :)

So Book Week 2015 is nearly upon us.  The theme for this year's Book Week is 'Books Light Up Our World', and there is a wheelbarrow-load of stuff happening over the next week (well, ten days or so - Book Week does tend to kind of ooze out over the edges of August).  Here are some of the things I'm going to, if you'd like to come along:

Saturday 22 August
RWA conference
Park Hyatt Melbourne

I'll be presenting at the Romance Writers of Australia conference this year, which is a privilege - I don't think they've had a workshop on YA fiction before - so if you're around from 12-1pm you can catch me at "Going All the Way: Romance (and Sex) in YA"

ARRA Signing Event
Park Hyatt Melbourne

There will be a Massive Mega-signing Event for the RWA conference, as organised by the Australian Romance Reader's Association - come along from 5-6pm and say hulloo :)

Sunday 23 August
MWF
Signal

I'm not speaking on this, but I'm attending WITH BELLS ON - it's a Fanfiction Panel with Danielle Binks, Melissa Keil and Justine Larbalestier, talking fanfic.  There will even be an open mic for fic readings!  Following on from that is the YA Book Swap Event, which will be fantastic...except I don't know if I really want to give any of my YA books away...

Monday 24 August
Billanook College

I will be visiting here, giving talks and workshops on how I do this writery business, and how to write crime

Tuesday 25 August
Kardinia College

...And then the next day I'll be driving all the way to Geelong to say hi to Kardinia students!

Thursday 27 August
Loreto College

After a day at home (probably talking to the builder, because we need to put a room on our house, with all the GIANT BOYS now living here), I'll be dropping by to say hullo to folks at Loreto in Ballarat.

Friday 28 August
Our Lady of Mercy College

...then another exciting school visit at Our Lady of Mercy in Heidelberg!

Saturday 29 August
Davitt Awards
Thornbury Theatre

Now this is the one I'm hanging out for: the night of nights, the big knees-up bash to see who will win the One Ring to Rule Them All...  I mean, which books will win the Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards for the best writing by Australian female crime novelists in 2015, yay! I'm excited because, well, Every Word has been shortlisted for the Best YA category, which is exciting.  Holy crap.  I have asked my partner to come with me and hold my sweaty hand, and barring hiccups with the junior football finals, he should be able to come.  MY FINGERS AND TOES ARE CROSSED.

Now sorry, but that's truly all I have time to write today, because I'm packing for the week I've just outlined to you - yes, it's mega-week.  Wish me luck, and good luck to you for Book Week - may the Book Fairies bring you something wonderful :)

xxEllie

InsideADog links and event catch-up

Hi all!  This is a quick catch-up post, to give you all the InsideADog residence posts!

So here they are, in order of appearance (my introductory first post was included in my last update): 

Hot Characters of YA - in which I talk about, yes, hot characters, and how, when a character makes you love them, you're obliged to follow wherever they lead...

How to Make a Book - which is the post I where get my sillies on, and give a brief bullet-point list explaining the process of bringing a book into being;

How To Lead A Life of Crime - a basic primer on crime fiction and the crime books I love, as well as the kinds of whacky research you have to do to make it all sound real;

Fannish Author Love - is the post where BOB MORLEY TWEETED ME, holy crap, and all the ways there are to express some fan love (legally);

I Open At the Close - and you see what I did there, huh?  Showing off my HP-nerd cred?  Well, I really hope that some of what JK Rowling has will rub off on me, because this is the post where I talk about writing endings and why it's so damn hard;

and the final post in the residency series -

Farewell my lovelies, and #LoveOzYA - which was my grand finale, where I answered all the thorny questions I forgot to answer previously, and talked about how #LoveOzYA is awesome.

And that was it!  I had a wonderful time on InsideADog, and I hope you get a chance to go check the site out sometime, especially in the lead up to the Inky Awards (where ACTUAL TEENAGERS get to vote for the best YA books in the country).

I haven't written a post telling you about all the cool things I got up to at Reading Matters 2015, because that will soon be covered in a post on the Centre for Youth Lit site (I'll let you know when it goes up).  BUT...something else really cool happened since then, and it was this:



IT'S SO SHINY!!
and actually  it's not shiny, more of a matte finish, but you'll understand that by this I mean IT'S BEAUTIFUL, cos it is beautiful.  And I can't believe Every Word will be out in North America so soon! September!  Eep!

I'll also be doing a few things this month of August...well, I'll be doing more than a few things, I'l be doing lots of things, but here's the ones coming up fast:

Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 August - Scotch College Literary festival, I'll be giving crime fiction workshops here for students

Thursday 6 August - Green Valentine by Lili Wilkinson, launching at Readings, Lygon St Carlton at 6pm (I'll defs be there, cos I'm launching the book)

Saturday 8 August - Bendigo Writers Festival, I'll be appearing on a panel with Geraldine Wooller and Peter Timms, and hosted by John Charambalous, where we'll all be talking about plotting.

I'll post up a few more dates and events soon.  August is a busy time for writers in Victoria, because the Melbourne Writers Festival is on (I've already booked two panels!), as well as Book Week (hi schools!), the Davitt Awards (in which Every Word has been awesomely shortlisted), the Inky Awards (who will win??), the Romance Writers of Australia conference (I'm giving a workshop), a bunch of excellent book launches (yaass), and the Ned Kelly Awards shortlist announcement.  If I'm not on top of the blog updates, please forgive me!

Hope you're well, I'll update again next week, and stay wordy!

xxEllie