I think we’re having way too much fun with this. Not only have we offered a bunch of free fiction to celebrate our Ditmar shortlistings, but now we’re discounting books!
For the month of May, the ebooks of Ink Black Magic by Tansy Rayner Roberts and The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories by Joanne Anderton are HALF PRICE – that’s less than three dollars each! This special is currently live on Smashwords and Kobo, and Amazon will no doubt follow real soon.
Enjoy!
The annual Ditmar Awards shortlists were announced a few days ago, and we’re absolutely over the moon to have several works feature in various categories, alongside lots of other excellent Australian stuff! To celebrate, we’re offering up some free fiction, including our two shortlisted short stories, samples of Faith Mudge’s wonderful work, and an extract from Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Ink Black Magic. We’ve also linked to Kathleen Jennings’ Illustration Friday posts, as one of her pieces was on the cover of Focus 2012 (and we think she’s awesome…). Click on the highlighted links below to download the samples!
Best Novel
Best Short Story
Best Collected WorkVoting is now open for the Awards, for anyone who is a member of the 2013 Natcon (Conflux) or this year’s Natcon (Continuum X). Thank you so much to everyone who nominated our work!
We’re almost ready to go to print on Guardian, Jo Anderton’s new novel, and we just got the final cover art through last night! I know Jo couldn’t wait to share it (she seems to like it…) and I’ve finally had a chance to pop it here as well!
Don’t forget, you can still pre-order Guardian for a special price and receive exclusive bonus Veiled Worlds content — more details here.
Making books is a very interesting process, and one of those things that can be tricksy are book titles. A couple of years ago we had a working title of Apocalypse Hope for one of our anthologies, but it later became (the much more aptly named) Epilogue, thanks to a Twitter suggestion. Changing a title can be a big decision, especially if promotion for the book has already begun, but, after much deliberation, Jo Anderton and I have decided to change the title of the forthcoming Veiled Worlds novel from Unbound to Guardian! We agreed that the title of Unbound (in addition to being very popular right now!), didn’t really represent the story as well as Guardian. I’m hoping Jo might blog about the way stories change focus over time at some point, so you can find out more about that…
So, Jo’s novel, due out in June, is now titled Guardian, and it is FANTASTIC! We’re just putting to final touches on the layout, and have sent out the first Advance Review Copies. You can still pre-order at the special introductory price for ebook and print copies, and get the bonus ebook, for at least the next few weeks!
Contents:
Story: Grandeur
Interview: Tanyana
*NEW* Story: A Varsnian Name
Interview: Lad
Story: A Memory Trapped in Light
Intervention and group interview with reader questions
The Movoc Under Keeper Tourism Brochure
So if you need a fix of the Veiled Worlds while you eagerly await Guardian, or just love Jo’s work as much as we do, order now!
Photo used on ebook cover courtesy of Flickr user papalars and used under CC BY-ND 2.0
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!
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!
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.
So, I couldn’t resist one last blog post before the end of the month! This was actually the very first idea I had for blogging about Cranky Ladies of History, but with all the things that have been going on, I didn’t get a chance to write it. Until now.
During the month, I wrote about several of Australia’s children’s authors of history, for the CBCA Tasmania blog, but today I want to talk about some female writers of Australian’s rich literary tradition who have left a legacy that can’t be ignored.
Born in 1879, Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin is probably one of Australia’s best known writers, thanks not only to her work, but also to the Miles Franklin Literary Award (first awarded over fifty years ago) and the more recent Stella Prize, established in 2013. Nationalist and feminist both, Franklin published more than a dozen books (some under the pseudonym Brett of Bin Bin), and although none achieved the same level of success as her first, My Brilliant Career, she did receive some critical acclaim for other works. A Franklin travelled extensively during her life, settling for some time in the USA and the UK, and also volunteering for war work during World War I. Her working life included stints as a housemaid, nurse, cook, secretary and journalist. One of the things I like best about Franklin is that she actively supported Australian literature throughout her life, and mentored both young writers and new literary publications. It seems she really lived life on her own terms, never marrying and taking opportunities where she could, and I think it’s completely fitting that we recognise her contribution, and remember her work, with two major literary awards.
Katharine Susannah Pritchard has also left a lasting legacy in Australia, in the form of the KSP Writers’ Centre in Perth, which I had a bit to do with when I lived there, and her story always intrigued me. Born in Fiji in 1883, and living in Launceston, Tasmania, Melbourne and the UK before settling in Western Australia, Pritchard became known as a writer but also as one of the founding members of the Communist Party of Australia! She supported unemployed workers and left-wing women’s groups, visited the Soviet Union and argued with other Communist writers over the correct application of socialist realist doctrine in Australian fiction. Though she encountered hardship and trauma during her life, she wrote prolifically and broadly, and fearlessly and emotionally promoted the cause of peace and social justice.
I’m really not sure how I missed including Patricia Wrightson in my earlier post on Australian children’s writers, but I did, so I’m including her here. Born in 1921 as Patricia Furlonger, Wrightson is arguably one of Australia’s most celebrated authors. Perhaps one of the most important aspects of her work is that she incorporated Aboriginal folklore into her writing, and demonstrated respect for these traditional stories while doing so. Wrightson was the recipient of the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1986, the highest international career recognition available to children’s writers and illustrators, was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1977 and won the Australian Dromkeen Medal in 1984, as well as winning the CBCA Book of the Year Award four times. The NSW Premier’s Literary Awards has a category named in honour of her.
http://thestellaprize.com.au/about-us/about-the-stella-prize/
http://www.milesfranklin.com.au/
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/franklin-stella-maria-sarah-miles-6235
http://kspf.iinet.net.au/thehurricanechild.php
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/may/09/patricia-wrightson-obituary
This post is written as part of the Women’s History Month Cranky Ladies of History blog tour. If you would like to read more about cranky ladies from the past, you might like to support our Pozible campaign, crowd-funding an anthology of short stories about Cranky Ladies of History from all over the world.Well, the crowdfunding ride is nearly over! Just 24 hours left until the Pozible campaign ends, and I’m still blown away by the support we have received, not only in the pledges that saw us reach our goal at just halfway through and smash our first stretch goal, but in the social media signal boosting and the mainstream media as well. It’s been amazing, and Tansy and I are truly grateful for every bit of it. It’s not too late to pledge, and nab exclusive rewards (and a very special surprise we’ve cooked up as well!).
Over the month, I’ve been collecting little tidbits of Cranky Ladies related stuff, and so I’m just going to pop a bunch of them in the one post to see out the campaign.
Via Alex Pierce, this plaque honouring suffragette Emily Wilding Davison was erected illegally by MP Benn in House of Commons a few years ago.
Female military leaders (The Mary Sue)
15 Adorable Kids Pose As Iconic Figures In Women’s History
This whole month, the poem “Phenomenal Woman”, as narrated by the wonderful Maya Angelou, has been on my mind. So I wanted to link it here.
And in the same way, this song has for some reason resonated with me. Neither the poem nor the song are necessarily about Cranky Ladies of History, but the theme is surely there! (and yes, it’s a fairly ridiculous video clip, which I had not seen until I found it to link here! Ignore that, and enjoy the song 🙂 )
A great set of biographies of women from history, collated by A Mighty Girl.
Devotion: stories of Australia’s wartime nurses is a wonderful read, put out last year by the Australian War Memorial. Incredible stories, presented in a beautiful book full of photographs and other primary source material.
Elizabeth Kenny (1880-1952): Australian, entrepreneur, not-quite-qualified nurse, pioneer of effective treatment for symptoms of polio and cerebral palsy (and effectively modern rehabilitation methods), hospital founder, war nurse, designer of an effective transportation stretcher and true cranky lady of her time! (I read about her in one of my school’s library books, Elizabeth Kenny by Jenny Craig, CIS Cardigan Street Publishers, 1995)
And to finish up, don’t forget to take a look at our Cranky Ladies of History blog tour – we have been overwhelmed by the number of people who have contributed, and it’s been marvellous reading about all those fantastic cranky ladies! Thank you to everyone who has taken part!
I’m cranky on behalf of Lise Meitner, a brilliant physicist.
Guest post by Deidre Tronson
Was Lise Meitner cranky?
Although she and her nephew, Otto Robert Frisch, had done the theoretical physics calculations and first proposed that a uranium nucleus had split into smaller pieces (later named nuclear fission), she did not win the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for that discovery. The only recipient was her long-time colleague Otto Hahn, who had performed the chemistry experiments to prove that fission had actually occurred.
I would have been cranky. Very cranky. Continue reading “Cranky Ladies of History guest post: Lise Meitner”
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