It is a year since I began my newsletter and I do hope you have all been enjoying it. I've had lots of feedback from friends, family and readers and will be changing the format just a little in the coming year, so if you have any suggestions on ways I could make this newsletter even better and brighter, please email me on kate@kateforsyth.com.au.
As always, it's been a busy few months. I've finished proofreading 'The Wildkin's Curse' which is at the printers right now and will be released in May. We'll be having a launch and lots of events and parties, which will be so much fun.
I'm busy writing its sequel, now called 'The Starkin Crown'. I've written over 20,000 words which means I'm about a fifth of the way through. My hero Peregrine has just discovered an old, abandoned road which he hopes will lead him to the lost spear of the Storm King ...
'The Puzzle Ring' has been named as an 'Unsung Hero of 2009' by an international group of bloggers, who chose 12 books which they thought had not reserved the acclaim they deserved.
Sadly, I did not win the 2009 Aurealis Award for Best Teenage Fiction. That honour was awarded to Scott Westerfeld – you can read my interview with him at the end of the newsletter.
However, I had so much fun at the Aurealis Awards! I met up with so many old friends, drank champagne, and talked books all night – heaven!
Here are some photos from Brisbane.
Zoe Walton, Kate & Pamela Freeman
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Pamela Freeman, winner of the Aurealis Award for Children's Short Fiction, with Kate and Kim Wilkins |
Kate with Katrina and Vincent, two of my writing students from Fiji |
Sean Williams, Kate and the Aurealis Award winner Scott Westerfeld |
International Blog Tour
I've also been busy organising an international blog tour which has just begun. Just what is a blog tour, you ask? It's a virtual book tour, in which I move from blog to blog throughout February, answering questions, doing readings, reviewing books and being reviewed ... except I don't leave my own study. There is a whole world of wonderful book blogs out in cyberspace, many thousands of them, and if you join me on my blog tour you'll discover about 30 of them. Every day in February, just click on the hyperlink below and it'll take you to the blogger of the day:
Every single one of those blogs would love you to visit their site, read what they have to say and join in the community by leaving comments. And please let anyone who might be interested know!
Other things coming up for me in the next few months:
I'm also running a five week 'Introduction to Creative Writing' course at the Sydney Writers Centre from 8th April to 6th May. The course runs from 6.30pm-8.30pm every Thursday night. For more info visit the Sydney Writers' Centre.
And of course don't forget the week long writer's retreat in gorgeous Greece in June. I can't wait!
Aurealis Best Teenage Book Award
Now for the 2009 Winner of the Aurealis Best Teenage Book Award, Scott Westerfeld, who won with Leviathan.
This story begins on the same day as World War I: June 28, 1914. Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife are assassinated, triggering a series of events which leads inexorably to war.
However, in the world of this book, this date and event are about the only things which are the same as history as we know it. In Leviathan, the world powers are either Clankers who put their faith in machines, or Darwinists, who have bred all sorts of strange and incredible new creatures. The Austrian-Hungarian Empire are Clankers, and Great Britain are, of course, Darwinists.
The story is told in alternating sets of chapters between Prince Aleksandar, son of the murdered Archduke and his wife, and Deryn, a girl pretending to be a boy so she can serve the British Air Service. Alek flees Austria in a Cyklop Stormwalker, a metal tank which walks on two legs, while Deryn finds herself on the Leviathan, a massive flying whale. Gradually the two paths of our hero and heroine are brought together, with lots of action-packed chase scenes and fight scenes, and just the merest hint of a romance (no doubt to be developed in the next book, which is called Behemoth
and will be released later this year.) I enjoyed it immensely, and so did my boy Ben (who is 11). I particularly liked how well the characters were drawn, and the cleverness and wittiness of the creation of the two opposing philosophies (Brits who don't like the new artificially created species are called Monkey Luddites – I thought that was brilliant!)
Blessed be!
Interview with Scott Westerfeld
Are you a daydreamer too?
Constantly. I think that all novelists have imaginary conversations with their characters (or gun battles, depending on the sort of novel we're talking about).
Have you always wanted to be a writer?
For a long time, yes. My large Texas family was full of wonderful storytellers, so I was raised with a great oral tradition around me. The power of the word, and of Story, was always made clear whenever my family gathered together.
Where do you write?
On an old Chesterfield covered in cracked brown leather, in the highest room in the flat.
What is your favourite part of writing?
The bit about two-thirds of the way through a novel, when I finally figure out how it's going to end. (Part exhilaration, part "Phew, I have escaped again!")
What do you do when you get blocked?
Make a character jump off something, or fall out of something, and get chased. In other words, an action scene.
How do you keep your well of inspiration full?
Try to stay interested in the world outside my writing garret.
Do you have any rituals that help you write?
Eat directly after the morning application of coffee.
Who are your ten favourite authors?
Ten! I refuse.
What do you consider to be good writing?
Hmm. Text that leaves your brain different than before you read it.
What is your advice for somebody dreaming of being a writer too?
The first million words you write will be crap. Why not get them out of the way now?
What are you working on now?
The first few chapters of Goliath, the third book in the Leviathan trilogy. (And copy edits for Behemoth, the second.)
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