Archive for Orbit Australia

In Their Own Words: Terry Brooks on A Princess of Landover

Untitled-2 Terry says:

When you’ve been away from a series as long as I’ve been away from the Landover books, there is a certain amount of trepidation involved when you consider returning. Readers have asked for a new Magic Kingdom book ever since the last one in 1995, but I just didn’t have a good enough idea to justify the writing of one. And, besides, other projects kept interfering. So I dragged my feet on the project and kept hoping something would happen to inspire me.

Eventually, of course, it did. But it came from an unexpected source. The Landover books always have something to do with what happens to me in real life, but things have been going along pretty smoothly for some time and so nothing much occurred to me when thinking of Ben and Willow. Then I remembered that their daughter, Mistaya, would be in her teen years. Some sort of trauma is always happening where teens are involved. Sure enough, I remembered an incident of some years back when one of my kids – one who shall remain nameless – got tossed out of boarding school. Now there’s some trauma. But what to do with it? This resourceful child managed to talk their way back in, but that wouldn’t do for Mistaya.

So I decided to deal with what happens when going back isn’t an option the child cares to consider and growing up is very much at issue. Mistaya, sent away to a world she doesn’t like, suddenly finds herself forced to discover what it is she really wants to do. A journey ensues, and along the way she has to come to terms with what it means when you have set yourself against virtually everyone and don’t have a real plan for how to make things come out right.

When young, we all go through a period of leaving childhood and entering adulthood and finding the effort a big fat pain in the butt. But what if you are a Princess, privileged and beautiful and heir to a magic that surpasses anything anyone else commands? What if who you are and what you are is at the source of the problem, and your flailing about puts the people you love the most at risk? Throw in some nasty opponents, some clueless G’Home Gnomes, a mystery in a haunted library, add your favorite talking dragon, and you’ve got something to work with.

I wouldn’t say that by the end of the book Mistaya’s troubles are over – far from it – but I would say she’s done some growing up. Even more important, she’s come to an understanding with her parents that will help smooth out the road ahead and let her continue her journey to adulthood.

A Princess of Landover [UK| AUZ] is available this month from all good booksellers.

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

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

The Most Awesomely Bad SFF Cover in the Universe!

The votes are in and we have a winner! We’re pleased to present to you the title for your worst cover ever.

(drumroll please)

Across a Trembling Sea the Cyborg Fairies Dance

It was an incredibly tight race, with Rise of the Fallen, Book Seven, The Pre-Antepenultimate Battle in second place, but in the end the Cyborg Faries put down the Fallen.

So there you have it. Our fearless art director is warming up her Photoshop as we speak, but before she can start we need two more key cover elements: the author name and the reading line.

Author names are straightforward enough (if you’re having problems, heed Dr. Ronald Chevalier’s advice).

The reading line is a more delicate matter — for that we need the top-line description of the book that will inform everything. The best reading line will give the reader a hint about what to expect in the book – even if that hint is wholly inaccurate.

Suggestions below.

Karen Miller on Sanity

For the next two weeks Karen Miller will be guest-posting at the Babel Clash blog. She starts her visit with an answer to the age-old question: are writers sane?

Writers – like actors — have a kink in the brain. It’s a kink that means we are at the same time deeply and intimately involved in the process of being human while standing outside that process watching it happen. It means that we can never truly be at one with our own lives because we can’t ever totally lose ourselves in the unconscious moment. A part of us is always conscious, always watching, analysing, pulling the moment apart so we can put it back together again as fiction.

You can join the conversation here.