Bella’s Birthday Parties in Australia

Australian Twilight fans can celebrate Bella’s birthday on Sunday 13 September at bookshops around the country. There will be games, trivia quizes, costume prizes and lots more! For details and bookings contact the shops directly:

NSW EVENT:

When: Sunday 13 September, 7-9pm

Where: Shearer’s On Norton, 99 Norton Street, Leichhardt, NSW 2040

For more info/tickets contact: 02 9572 7766

Tickets only $15. Book early to avoid disappointment.

 ACT EVENT:

When: Sunday 13 September, 4.30-6.30pm

Where: Dymocks, Shop 111A Level 1, Hyperdome Shopping Centre, Anketell Street, Tuggeranong, ACT 2900

For more info/tickets contact: 02 6293 9055

Strictly limited places.

 VIC EVENT:

When: Sunday 13 September, 2pm

Where: Dymocks, 234 Collins Street, Melbourne

For more info/tickets contact: 03 9660 8500

This is a FREE event, but bookings are essential.

 WA EVENT:

When: Saturday 12 September, 8.30am

Where: Dymocks, Shop 33-34, Garden City Shopping Centre, Riseley Street, Booragoon, WA 6154

For more info/tickets contact: 08 9364 7687

 QLD EVENT:

When: Saturday 12 September, 23.45-01.00 (yes, this is a Midnight event)

Where: Avid Reader bookshop, 193 Boundary Street, West End, QLD 4101

For more info/tickets contact:  07 3846 3422

This is a FREE event but guests under 18 must be accompanied by an adult

The Drowning City — Amanda Downum

Symir: The Drowning City. Home to exiles and expatriates, pirates and smugglers. And violent revolutionaries who will stop at nothing to overthrow the corrupt Imperial government.

Amanda Downum’s fantasy adventure debut is out this week in both the US and the UK. Set in the dark alleyways of a port city on the edge of a corrupt empire, Isyllt Iskaldur must find and finance the rumored revolutionaries on behalf of her country. A necromancer and a spy, she must find a way to complete her mission, topple the palaces of Symir, and prove herself to the crown. But in a land where even the dead are plotting, she will be lucky to escape with her own life intact.

“THE DROWNING CITY is a compelling fantasy in a richly imagined setting dripping with visceral detail, building to a conclusion at once unexpected, appropriate and moving.”
— Jacqueline Carey

“If you read only one first novel this year, read this one. I promise it’s good.”
— Elizabeth Bear

“Lush, evocative. Amanda Downum creates a richly realized, refreshingly Eastern world full of charms and spirits, espionage and intrigue and the wars of great powers fought by proxy.”
— Brent Weeks

“Amanda Downum may just be a force to be reckoned with.”
—fantasyliterature.com

“[A] complex and striking debut”
— Publisher’s Weekly

Deals and Deliveries (9!!!)

Sadly, the summer is over, and with it, (hopefully) the rain, the rain, and the rain.  But not to worry, yours truly went to the Caribbean, and got a tan.  So not a total waste.  But on to the exciting news: (more…)

If Only More Contemporary Fiction Were Like It

Transition“Stunning”, “a book that makes you think”, “complex and wildly imaginative” “a corker of a thriller” — not many contemporary novelists get these many quotable lines in a single rave review, but when Iain M. Banks is the novelist in question, and his newest novel TRANSITION the book reviewed — in this case we think it safe to say, this in today’s Independent (UK) will only be the first of many.

Update: Listen in to Banks on BBC Radio 4 talking about Transition.

YOU SUCK!!!

No, we’re not just throwing out random insults at our readers for the hell of it . . . this is actually the title of the new laugh-out-loud vamp-themed book from Christopher Moore, which Publishers Weekly have aptly described as:

‘[A] cheerfully perverse, gut-busting tale’

and Booklist as: 

‘[A] hilarious mockery of the pursuit of the appetites’.

In this rambunctious tale, Tommy, a naïve and eternally lusty 19-year old from Incontinence, Indiana, is rather peeved to find out that his hot vampire girlfriend Jody has turned him into a bloodsucking fiend too.

If he admits it, there are some pretty cool things about being a vampire – like eternal youth, super-strength and enhanced senses, and hey – even his zits have cleared up! It’s just the fact of being dead which is a bit of a bummer, along with the fact that anything except blood makes him projectile vomit, and that he passes out every day at sunrise, making trips to the mall rather difficult.

So Tommy and his girlfriend set out to find a minion to run errands for them and generally be their slave-around-the-house. And who better than the angsty goth teenager they meet at the local drugstore? Meanwhile, Tommy and Jody have other more important things to worry about, like fleeing from Tommy’s former turkey-bowling pals who have turned on him, and the fact that the centuries-old vampire who bit Jody in the first place has decided he wants her back.

If you fancy a nibble too, check out an extract of You Suck (UK/ANZ) here.

Marianne de Pierres’ update: The News From Oz

The news of Trent Jamieson’s sale to Orbit has been on everyone’s lips here. Trent says he’s deep in the draft of Death Works book two, Managing Death, and is discovering all sorts of interesting things concerning the machinations of regional managers, and the truth behind Death Moots. ‘Dreadful things await my characters and I’m rushing towards them, eyes half closed, wishing they didn’t have to happen – I’m such a nasty writer, even when I don’t want to be. Gotye’s Heart’s a Mess and Spoon’s The Ghost of you Lingers were the theme tunes to Book One. This book’s playlist repeats are turning out be Killswitch Engaged’s Reckoning and Amanda Palmer’s Another Year – go figure.’

Karen Miller’s The Prodigal Mage has just been released in hardcover in the US and UK. Its sequel, The Reluctant Mage, comes out next year and she’ll be starting work on that in a couple of weeks. She’s currently doing a down and dirty rewrite on the 3rd Rogue Agent novel, Wizard Squared, before it goes off to copy it. That’s due out next year too.

Pamela Freeman is ecstatic to receive an advance copy of Full Circle. The fans who have started a Castings Trilogy page on Facebook can hardly wait until it hits the bookstores.

Glenda Larke reports that the UK cover of The Last Stormlord by has been finalized, and Book Two, Stormlord Rising, is now with the copy editor. When her main Orbit editor, Samantha, remarked that she was on tenterhooks for Book Three, Glenda checked hurriedly checked the due date for submission… Luckily it seems that Sam just meant that Book Two was such a cracking story she’s finding it hard to wait for the conclusion! You can follow Glenda’s musings over at Tropic Temper.

Meanwhile, Sean Williams has been absolutely accruing stellar reviews for The Grand Conjunction. You can drop over to his LJ to read them in full, but here’s a taster. Terra Incognita says: “This is a tale of unimaginable span. … It doesn’t seem possible that a series of books could do or contain more. The Grand Conjunction concludes a grand achievement. Five stars.” Bookgeek says: “breathless space combat and desperate gambits…a truly jaw-dropping piece of SF extrapolation and large-scale thinking”. Sean’s Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is the first ever computer game tie-in novel to debut at #1 on the New York Times hardback list, and is being reissued in mmpb very soon (through Titan). Sean has also written an article over at Death Ray about the joys of juggling original work against the greatest franchise in the world to promote it. Sean recently launched the South Australian Writers’ Festival and will be off to present an award at the 25th Writers of the Future bash later this month. You can also catch him at the WFC in San Jose later this year. And no, he doesn’t sleep!

Though it’s still winter in Queensland, the days are bright, blue and around 27 degrees Celsius. Hard to stay inside when it’s so glorious, but I’m a disciplined writer on a mission (I am!) to finish Transformation Space. September brings a few (work) outings for me though, including The Brisbane Writers Festival and Gen Con Oz. By the time they’re over, I should have a copy of Mirror Space in my hands.

Talk soon!

MDP