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Archive for the ‘Dragon Wine’ Category

Some thoughts on the first review of Shatterwing

Posted in Dragon, Dragon fantasy, Dragon Wine, Editing, science fantasy, Shatterwing, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on September 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I’ve been thinking through the notion raised in the first review of Shatterwing that an editor or copy editor made a mistake on  because it contains ‘sexual brutality’, that they somehow overlooked this, or that they failed to warn me in some way or that it should have been removed before publication.

I think there is a confusion here about what an editor and copy editor do. To my mind, editors assist in improving the content, the expression of the ideas but are not censors of content. I believe a commissioning editor exercises that role when they decide to commission a work or not or accept a work with a proviso…say I’ll take this if you change x & Y and or Z. They may do this for a variety of reasons. This was not the case. Shatterwing was acquired as a dark fantasy and it deals with some gritty and less than savoury aspects of the world setting.

The inclusion of any such content is entirely my decision. My name is on the cover after all.

I wrote Shatterwing (and Skywatcher) a long time ago, when some pretty nasty things were going on in the world. To some degree the content is me processing this through the narrative. When I was doing the copy edits I did stop, think and question. Some parts of the narrative are not comfortable to read and I may have deleted a line here or there voluntarily, but I didn’t change anything materially.

I have no issue with people liking or disliking this aspect of the work as that’s entirely a matter of taste. I am grateful that people are willing to review and discuss the books.

 

 

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Release day – Shatterwing

Posted in Book launch, Dark fantasy, Dragon Wine, General excitment, post-apocalyptic, science fantasy, Shatterwing on September 11, 2014| 3 Comments »

I’m still in the UK. Actually I’m in the non-tourist town of Scunthorpe with Matthew visiting his relatives. But that doesn’t mean I can’t celebrate my release day for Shatterwing. Finally it is here.Happy dance!

I know my good news announcement was not that long ago but I have been working on this book for 10 years. I’m working on the proofs of Skywatcher, part two, right now. (There is no rest for a wicked author). So I can claim at little festivity for its release.

Thank you to those who have thanked me on Twitter and Facebook and on the CSFG and Visions email lists. That’s so good of your to share my day with me.

Many thanks to Haylee Nash, Joel, Tara and Patrick at Momentum and to my fabulous copy editor Brianne Collins, who put me through my paces in very good style.

On the link below you will see that Shatterwing is also available in print as well as digital. I believe you can order it from your bookstore.

 

There is a link to a sample from the book.

Shattering cover

Shattering cover

http://momentumbooks.com.au/books/shatterwing-dragon-wine-1/

PS Scunthorpe is Danish. Thorpe meaning village and Scunta after the lord in the area.

 

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Cover reveal: Skywatcher

Posted in Skywatcher, tagged , , , , , , , on September 3, 2014| 1 Comment »

I’m still travelling but the publishing world moves on regardless. I’ve had edits and proofs and PR and other guff going on. It’s fabulous and exciting even though my energies are divided and access to internet haphazard. As we are staying with the lovely Abnett’s in Kent, we are making the most of their great company and internet.

We are about to head out for some sightseeing fun. Canterbury I think, so I’m getting this post ready.

Here is the cover reveal for Skywatcher, Dragonwine book 2. It will be available for pre-order when Shatterwing is available. Skywatcher is due for release on 9 October I think.

Cover of Skywatcher

Cover of Skywatcher

For those of you who know me can understand how exciting this is. I love what they have done with the cover. A consistent image but with a colour theme change. Well done Momentum books and many thanks to Haylee Nash who takes good care of me. The gang there have been fabulous too, Joel, Patrick and Tara.

I hope the book does well so you can read more of the series.

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Cover reveal-Shatterwing

Posted in Book cover, Book launch, Dragon fantasy, Dragon Wine, fantasy, General excitment, Publication news, science fantasy, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 1, 2014| 4 Comments »

Because I’ve been travelling and haven’t had much opportunity to blog, I haven’t blogged the cover of my new book, Shatterwing (Dragonwine book 1). So I’m going to do that now because…the cover of Skywatcher is going to be revealed on Wednesday so it makes sense to do Shatterwing now.

Shatterwing is also up on Netgalley and if there are reviewers out there please let me know because it would be fab to have a book I’ve been working on so long reviewed.

Shatterwing will be available from major e book retailers and will be able to be ordered in print from bookshops. I am planning to have print books available for my book launch at Conflux in Canberra in October. I am also planning some bookshop visits, but more on that when I return to Canberra. And without further ado, Shatterwing-the cover!

Shattering cover

Shattering cover

 

I particularly like the look and feel of this cover. Fantasy covers are hard to convert to ebooks as thumbnails are important. I think this cover does the job and I love what Momentum books, my publisher has done. It stands out and coveys the fantasy genre as it is meant to.

It evokes Game of Thrones, which is kind of cool and there are dragons in it, more particularly dragonwine.

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So it’s all happening–at once

Posted in Book cover, Book launch, Dark fantasy, Dragon Wine, Edits, Romance Writers Australia Conference, Science fiction conventions, tagged , , , , on August 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

So there’s a lot going on. Edits! Getting ready to go away to the UK for 6 weeks. Promoting books. Doing blogs and other stuff. To tell the truth I’m a bit all over the place.

Today I saw the cover concept for Shatterwing today and it was bloody amazing. I love it. I will share when the publishers are happy with it. I must say that Momentum are taking very good care of me. I saw the maps today as well. Awesome!

It’s weird to think that my drawings of Margra are now maps, maps that are going to appear in a book that I’ve been working on for 10 years. Talk about a long time coming. I’m still wanting to pinch myself.

I was interviewed as part of the Aust Spec Fic Snapshot at Tsana’s blog.

I’ve got a couple more coming up. An in-depth one with Ian McHugh and one on Karen Miller’s blog.

I best go and think up another blog post. I’ll be at the RWA conference in Sydney this weekend and at Loncon3 the weekend after. Oh boy. I’m getting around. I’ll also be at British Fantasy Con in York in September before heading back to Canberra and where I’ll be attending Conflux 10. BTW BIG NEWS. I’ll be launching Shatterwing at Conflux and maybe Skywatcher too if it’s ready.

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It’s getting closer

Posted in Book launch, Dark fantasy, Digital Publishing, Dragon Wine, General excitment, Science fiction conventions, tagged , , , , , on July 30, 2014| Leave a Comment »

So after my news, I find that things are moving along very quickly. This week I’m hoping to see the concept art for the cover of Dragon wine  1: Shatterwing. You can’t imagine how excited I am about that. Momentum have been great to work with so I have expectations!

Then it’s just over 5 weeks before the book comes out. I mean how quick is that (I mean 10 years in the making).

I’m heading the UK for Loncon 3 and I’ll also be at British Fantasy con in York in September. It will be fab to catch up with friends and acquaintances and also do some research. I need to trawl through the streets of London for the Ruby Heart sequel Emerald Fire and maybe get into a sewer (but as London’s sewers are closed when I get there I may have to settle for a sewer tour in Brighton). While I’m away I’m expecting the edits to Dragon wine 2: Skywatcher and I don’t know how hard that will be doing those while travelling. The edits of Shatterwing required a bit of effort. Not that I’m complaining. I’m very glad to be put through my paces. I just don’t know how that will mesh with travelling and conventions etc. However, as my partner is a writer I’m sure he’ll be supportive and it will all work out. We even bought a mobile office thing to carry my laptop safely.

Travel is also a time to get inspiration and to research streets, buildings and people for future work. It is also a time when I can relax and my mind can invent new scenes.

I’m going to have print copies available and I will be doing a few launch type things when I get back in October. I’ll keep you posted about that.

Meanwhile, Dragon Wine 1: Shatterwing is turning up in places for pre order in ebook. Here are a few of them.

Amazon

Amazon Australia

Google Books

iBooks

 

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It’s about time I shared my news….

Posted in Dark fantasy, Digital Publishing, Dragon, Dragon fantasy, Dragon Wine, fantasy, General excitment, post-apocalyptic, Sale, science fantasy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on July 4, 2014| 8 Comments »

I have let out hints on Twitter and Facebook about contracts! Yes, plural. I’m so excited and I’ve been dying to tell but a few things happened. One, I hadn’t signed the contracts yet. Two, my laptop fell off my bed and broke. I’m afraid I was traumatised. But it’s now fixed and all is right in my world again.

If you have been following me for a while, you would know about my novel Dragon Wine. It’s the work of the heart, my major work, my first glimpse of writing something good way back when (2005). It was a massive  door stopping beginning to a trilogy, which I started in 2005. It wasn’t quite as good then as it is now. If it wasn’t for the Varuna MS development awards it may not have been written. I was encouraged by being long listed for the first 25 000 words (all I’d written at the time) of this first imaginings of Dragon Wine in 2005. At the time, I had a little vineyard so I did think a lot of it up while I was out there working on the vines, pruning them, caring for them. I wrote more in 2006 and it made the long list again, then I submitted again finally making the shortlist.

I did a quite a lot of posting a while back about how I cut it back after some feedback and also to make it eligible for some slush piles. However, I hadn’t quite got it where I wanted it to go. And those slush piles. Shrug. Publishing is a different place from when I started writing way back when.

I was thinking to do another rewrite of Dragon Wine this year, as you do with a work  you never give up on, when I had a chance to submit it to Haylee Nash at Pan Macmillan Australia. The wonderful thing was she read it straight away and loved it. I was offered a deal with Momentum Books and I took it. All very quick. It felt amazing to have an editor read it and love it. You can’t imagine how it felt. I’ve been working on this book for 9 years.

So Dragon Wine is coming out really soon. It is coming out in two parts. Dragon Wine is the name of the series and the first book is Shatterwing, which is the name of the remains of the shattered moon above Margra, the planet where Dragon Wine is set. The second book is called, Skywatcher, which is the name given to the people who watch the skies and shoot down meteors. Alex Adsett, my literary agent, coined the term-post-apocalyptic dragons when she read it.

You can probably tell that this is a weird sounding fantasy as it seems to have science fiction elements. It does! It’s also a pretty dark fantasy in that the world is not nice and is inhabited by some pretty nasty and desperate people. Of course, my story is about the people who are good and want to change things. Anyway, you will have to wait for the blurb! Then not very long after for the books. I am hoping to launch them at Conflux in October in Canberra.

Meanwhile, I post things as I hear or see (like the covers!). I’ve just got the copy edits for the first part. And I’m going to get the next ones when I’m in the UK in August, eep! There is more to the story of course, but being a commercial world we need to see how these two go before decisions are made about the next installments. But I do have the next two drafted!

And I have good news for Dani K too, but that’s another blog!

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