The lovely people over at Fantasy Hive have hosted me for an Author Spotlight
Even if you don’t want to read about me, go over and take a look at the site. They cover all kinds of good stuff such as Cosplay and Gaming and they also run the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off every year.
A young man is sitting on the station wearing a mask – a paper mask showing the face of a cheerful pug dog with its tongue hanging out. I’d already noticed him waiting through two trains and now he’s put on this mask. Definitely time to ask.
“Are you O.K.?”
He pulls up the mask.
“Yes I’m fine,” he replies cheerfully.
In the face of such cheeriness, I feel a need to explain my officious behavior.
“Sorry, it’s just that when you work at a station you need to look out for people’s um… mental health,”
“Sure. I don’t blame you for asking,” he replies, smiling and putting his mask back.
So that’s that. He seems sane enough. But he’s wearing a pug mask. On an ordinary weekday.
The mystery is solved -sort of – when the next train came in and a young woman gets off and greets him.
She doesn’t acknowledge the mask, but she seems pleased to see him.
Uniformed school kids on the station today.
Just a bunch of slouching, spotty adolescents. Unprepossessing really.
But also –
School kids on a zoo excursion!!!
Such joy!
Just like the good old innocent pre -Covid days.
It’s been so long.
Could it really be over?
This week I’m over at Sue Bursztynski’s site The Great Raven reviewing Fly by Night and Twilight Robbery by the wonderful Frances Hardinge.
And here is the link.
https://suebursztynski.blogspot.com/2020/11/two-books-by-frances-hardinge-guest.html
Today I’m doing a guest interview on the blogsite of World Fantasy award winning writer Angela Slatter.
Check out the link at
Slatter’s new book of microfictions – Red New Day has just come out from Brain Jar Press.
Hugo Award winning Mary Robinette Kowal, author of the Lady Astronaut series has been kind enough to host me on her blog My favorite bit
Here’s the link if you’d like to find out about my debt to Georgette.
Try Amazon if you’d like to know more about Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Calculating Stars
Routley (The Melded Child) unravels a complex web of familial politics in this eccentric fantasy. It’s Blessing time in the Empire of Light, an annual tradition in which the Matriarch of each family ensures fruitful crops for the following year. As always, Shine and her Auntie Eff, both mundanes without magic of their own despite their noble lineage, are expected to host a clan of their condescending, magical relations for the duration of the festival. Shine’s usually monotonous life as a mundane is plunged into chaos as she must put out fires at every turn, from curbing her cousins’ inappropriate seductions to stopping a burgeoning plot to overthrow the Matriarch. To further complicate matters, Shine’s exiled cousin, Bright, asks her to hide Shadow, a foreigner caught in a crystal smuggling scheme that somehow involves their wicked and violent cousin, Illuminus. Though readers will struggle to keep track of Shine’s many relations, even with the help of the family tree Routley provides, Routley’s whimsical tone lends a dark comic quality to this intricate fantasy, and the outlandish characters and captivating worldbuilding make up for occasional confusion. This is a bumpy but entertaining ride. Agent: John Jarrold, John Jarrold Literary. (Aug.)
www.publishersweekly.com/pw/reviews/single/9781781088340?fbclid=IwAR39MKqxZeO3d612h-JdxmKj2_YZEnqQawmrqcV65U6r1RVCP3Od1wyDGDc
Woo Hoo!
The lovely people at Solaris Press have sent me a proof of my new book.
Shine’s life is usually dull: an orphan in a family of powerful mages, she’s left to run the family estate with only an eccentric aunt and a telepathic cat for company.
But when the family descend on the house for the annual Fertility Festival, Shine is plunged into intrigue; stolen letters, a fugitive spy and family drama mix with an unexpected murder, and Shine is forced to decide both her loyalties and her future.
Shadow in the Empire of Light is due out in August
The beautiful Mountain Ash forests on the Black Spur outside Healesville are my favorite place in the world. Their spicy peppery earthy smell is the perfect fragrance, the smell of home. After the grief and collective loss of beautiful places and animals in the New Years bushfires, I decided to visit the Black Spur. These are some of the most flammable forests on earth and they haven’t burnt in a while. We have 2 more months of fire season to go. So I went there last weekend.
Just in case.
I’d love to see recent pictures of you in your favourite place in nature.
One late night meal break about six months ago, a bored Protective Services Officer drew a picture on a piece of paper towel and stuck it on the wall.
Since then many of P.S.O’s who staff Zoo Station on a rotating roster, have added little cartoons/sketches to the wall signing them with their departmental numbers. Such a pleasure to open up and see what popped up last night. Some are quite talented, some seem to be tracings of pop culture figures but if you can’t draw… – well my favourite is one labeled Mick the Stick which is just a line. My least favourite is of a certain American President. Does he have to be everywhere?!! (an no I shall not put him in here.)
