Apparently Alisa gets her rant on when it comes to eBooks and publishing – haven’t got there yet – the podcast is a shade under 2 hours.
But for al of those firmly on the “ePublishing is easy” bandwagon tune in.
You can stream it from the player below, but it’s a long podcast (yay!) so the download link is here.
Simon Haynes is an Australian speculative fiction author who’s been labelled the Australian Terry Pratchett. He’s written a series of humorous sci-fi adventure stories – Hal Spacejock for adults and Hal Junior for those ages 9 and up. 
Trailblazing Australian Fantasy author Sara Douglas died today aged 54 from ovarian cancer.
As a reader I have her many books and countless hours of enjoyment to thank her for.
For writers of speculative fiction she is one of a select few that put Australian fantasy writing on the world map.
After much effort I am sure, Twelfth Planet Press with their newly updated web store have on offer Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Love and Romanpunk.
You can purchase the book for $5.95 AUD from this link. It’s all automated, just click and download.
You can also grab the glorious paperback here.
Note: It’s epub only format at this stage. But is available worldwide. There should be kindle versions available in the near future.
My first love in a literary sense was speculative fiction. I can vaguely remember writing a Dr Who story called “Dr Who and the Volcano Men” when I was eight (seriously it was cool, about 4 pages long and illustrated) my mother probably still has it somewhere.
Then it was Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings which I started at age nine and finished about age 13. It was the first time I experienced a strong emotional connection with character. Then it was Weis and Hickman’s Dragonlance Chronicles followed by almost everything written by David Gemmell.
Somewhere between high school and university that love departed, I think reading for study killed the joy that I experienced from reading good fantasy fiction. It was Robin Hobb that brought me back though through her Farseer Trilogy
Rowena Cory Daniells has just interviewed Robin over at her blog. Said interview has rekindled a bit of nostalgia.
Below is a short interview with Robin snipped from the bottom of Rowena’s post. It has two important lessons for writers – that you can’t protect your lead characters from misfortune and that they must have changed or grown by the end of the tale.
Enjoy and go and read Rowena’s interview. I think that Robin’s answer to the last question is the beast I have read yet.
And for those of you interested in my progress on the novel. It’s sitting at around 25,000 words and I have a short horror story that I hope to finish and sell, nearing completion as well.
Buried Secrets is Joseph Finder’s second Nick Heller novel. The first, Vanished was an international best seller.
Like another top flight thriller writer, Barry Eisler, Finder has a past that informs his writing, giving it an air of authenticity. Joe, a graduate of Yale with a Major in Russian Studies was recruited by the CIA.
While his own life story sounds interesting Buried Secrets is what I’m here to talk about.
The Story
Nick Heller is a modern private eye or is that spy. He’s no ordinary gumshoe, and Buried Secrets isn’t hardboiled detective fiction. On paper Heller’s an accountant, in reality he’s a corporate intelligence specialist with fingers on the pulse in regards to corporate crime and government operations.
In Buried Secrets his work gets personal when an old family friend’s daughter is kidnapped. Nick’s the man for the job but when your friend conducts business in the shadows, his enemies are likely to be very nasty people. At first the snatch and grab seems to be aimed at extorting money from one of the counties richest men Nick’s friend. But soon enough Nick realises that they things are far more serious and dangerous than that.
What I liked?
With good thriller writing the prose should really fade into the background and Finder does this. There wasn’t one instance where I felt jolted out of the story. Pacing was near perfect as I was hauled through the text at breakneck speed. There’s no eloquent musing on life’s deep questions, but a girl to be saved, lies to be uncovered and a violent “killing for pleasure” antagonist to be confronted. That’s not to say that the writing is formulaic, or simple. It’s details that impart verisimilitude and help this book standout from the mountain of thriller writing out there. From the mention of de Becker’s Gift of Fear in the first chapter to a hundred little technical details along the way, it’s clear that Finder knows his stuff, or has talked to people who do.
This being my first meeting with Nick Heller I found him to be realistic and believable, he’s not superman and he’s not a master of all trades. Nick’s smart and decisive and knows how to make the best of his contacts.
What I didn’t?
This is top shelf thriller writing, no complaints from me here. My only regret with this book is that it’s my first, I will have to track down his other works to catch up on what I’m missing out on.
Haven’t Heard of Finder?
I kept thinking that the book would make a good movie, so it was perhaps no surprise to find out that finder has had previous works picked up by Hollywood. His book High Crimes was made into a movie of the same name starring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman.
Recommendations
Definitely top shelf thriller writing. I enjoyed it more than the Lee Child books I have read and it’s getting perilously close to my favourite Barry Eisler. You’ll devour this book in a couple of days. I’d even go so far a to suggest it would be a good buy for those relatives who enjoy movies like the Bourne trilogy but are reluctant readers.
This book as provided by the publisher at no cost to myself.
Snowtown is close enough to where I live to be called just around the corner. I have taught in the town and have walked past the bank where the murder victims were stored, on numerous occasions. So I experience the retelling of the story with some added physical experience or sense of place.
(On a tangent it’s not really fair to call them the Snowtown murders, of the 11 people killed, only one was killed in the town and no residents were involved. The town is unfairly stigmatised due to a quirk of attention grabbing media headlines.)
From a crime fiction point of view it’s interesting to note that those who committed the torture and murders were not criminal masterminds like we are used to seeing in crime fiction.
We may laugh at the antics of Dexter and say to ourselves that there’s no way he could get away with what he does in real life. After listening to the facts of this case though I am not convinced that it takes anymore than a couple of factors combined
a)lack of police resources/interest
b)combined with victims and perpetrators being drawn from poorer classes
c)combined with victims lack of faith/trust in law enforcement
The murderers managed to kill one victim while under police surveillance. They were able to loot victims residences in broad daylight. One of the bodies was even left for a time rolled up in a carpet in a house frequented by other people.
Essentially Australia’s worst serial murders were committed by people with average intelligence, who bragged about the murders within a small circle of associates and who seemed to escape detection because they were poor white folk killing other poor white folk.
So does this change things for writers of crime fiction? Do our serial killers have to be masterminds? Do we write about clever killers, because in reality is it so much easier to fall victim out of neglect or disinterest and that doesn’t sit well with the reader?
Well you can now get a Kindle in Woolworths (they are grocery stores here in Australia). Saw an ad on the television last night and noted that you could store up to 3500 books on them.
And it struck me that:
a) that’s a lot books to buy
b) that’s a lot of books to read
I wondered if that really was such a good selling point.
I did some rough calculations. I am a fairly solid reader (obviously, hello - book blogger and reviewer). I would manage a book a week if I am working and anywhere between 3-6 per week when I am not. But lets say on average I would read about 80, 400 page novels a year.
If I filled up a Kindle it would take me 43.75 years to read every book on it. At an average price of $5 per book it would cost me $17, 500. Yes I know you can get free books.
So is quoting a ridiculously high book storage number really a selling point?
The Low Down
John Rain is back. And "the most charismatic assassin since James Bond" (San Francisco Chronicle) is up against his most formidable enemy yet: the nexus of political, military, media, and corporate factions known only as the Oligarchy.
When legendary black ops veteran Colonel Scott "Hort" Horton tracks Rain down in Tokyo, Rain can't resist the offer: a multi-million dollar payday for the "natural causes" demise of three ultra-high-profile targets who are dangerously close to launching a coup in America.
But the opposition on this job is going to be too much for even Rain to pull it off alone. He'll need a detachment of other deniable irregulars: his partner, the former Marine sniper, Dox. Ben Treven, a covert operator with ambivalent motives and conflicted loyalties. And Larison, a man with a hair trigger and a secret he'll kill to protect.
From the shadowy backstreets of Tokyo and Vienna, to the deceptive glitz and glamour of Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and finally to a Washington, D.C. in a permanent state of war, these four lone wolf killers will have to survive presidential hit teams, secret CIA prisons, and a national security state as obsessed with guarding its own secrets as it is with invading the privacy of the populace.
But first, they'll have to survive each other.
An added bonus is that there’s no DRM on the file so, while I had to buy it from Amazon I’m not necessarily restricted to reading it on my 2.8 inch phone screen.
I can safely say that I'd read almost anything Barry’s written, he could write it on toilet paper for all I care. Realistic action,espionage and political intrigue. It also helps that we have similar political leanings.
This is my guilty pleasure for the holidays.
Of course Mondy and Kirstyn just did the Outer Alliance podcast so I have heard them sooner than the usual monthly turnaround.
If your are new to the podcast go back and listen to them all. Brilliant commentary and opinions on all manner of Speculative fiction.
You can stream the latest episode below or go here and download.
The Women of Galactic Suburbia briefly discuss the Hamlet’s Father debacle, after which I am pretty sure I won’t be reading any Orson Scott Card, no matter how good his fiction may be.
He’s been relegated to the same box as Tom Cruise.
They also attempt to get me to buy Blakes 7, well not me specifically, but their continued discussion of it has me wanting to revisit it for nostalgia’s sake.
You can iTune them here or go here and scroll to the bottom and grab the mp3 file.
Songs of the Earth is the first part of the Wild Hunt Trilogy and Elspeth Cooper’s first novel and foray into epic fantasy. It’s been hailed as the “most compelling debut fantasy novel since Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind.” I am not inclined to agree, but we will get to that shortly.Hail, Mother, full of grace, light and life of all the world. Blessed are the meek [snip]..amen.Which, if you are an ex-catholic or a current one you’ll recognize as the Hail Mary of Catholic prayer. Possibly more than recognize - it is probably etched forever into your grey matter.
which is awfully close to,
Hail Mary full of grace, the lord is with thee, Blessed art thou…
Night gathers, and now my watch begins.This small thing was a reasonable hurdle to overcome in my enjoyment of the novel.
It shall not end until my death.
I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children.
I shall wear no crowns and win no glory.
I shall live and die at my post.
I am the sword in the darkness.
I am the watcher on the walls.
I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men.
I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.
The guest list for Brisbane Supanova has been released. Personally these peeps would be enough to get me to go:
But the organisers have also managed to get
Check out this link to see who else they have coming.
Burn Bright was brilliant, a dark, slightly sensual YA debut from Australia’s current queen of Sci-Fi.
To my mind it leaves Twilight and its clones in the dust. Vampirism, mixed with social comment mixed with sci-fi, with a dollop of Dystopia.
Not heard of Marianne de Pierres? Check out the Interview I conducted with her here. She also has a flash new comic.
Marianne’s Minions have already published some reviews – Cecilia at Confessions of a Bookie Monster and Jamie in the video below.
This is the type of young adult fiction that us …err older adults can really enjoy.
These works have all seen the light of day in published pro-zines. This is your chance to check out some quality work from an Australian speculative fiction writer at no cost.
Seriously its a couple of clicks away
[Okay enough already, take me to the downloads]
Seriously this is top quality aussie speculative fiction.
If you’re in the mood for some Australian Urban Fantasy with a dry humoured,self deprecating hero.
On the way to the Port Pirie Art prize today I had the joy of listening to the Outer Alliance Podcast, specifically their Spotlight #90 where Julia interviews the Writer and the Critic’s Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond.
It’s just shy of 2 hours long and true to form Mondy’s open and frank discussion style is prominent(ie this podcast contains rude words and unfettered opinions)
You can stream it below or download it direct here.
And just popping up in my reader as I have returned is the Live and Sassy Podcast Episode 1 – Featuring well known Speculative Fiction Editor Jonathan Strahan and Twelfth Planet Press’ Alisa Krasnostein. In their words :
Once a month we aim to catch up at our favourite (or not) coffee shop, grab a coffee and chat about all things in the SF&F publishing world.
We recorded our first episode a while ago now and in it we talk about the Borders bankruptcy, all things ebooks, the SF Gateway project and make wild predictions about the future of publishing.
So you can stream them below or download direct here.
I am having some severe issues on my wordpress blog, so after 6 months or so I am returning to the free blogger system. I have manually transferred all reviews and interviews here but be aware that there will probably be snarfed links.
Hope to have a new review up and those of you subscribed by a feed might not even notice anything different as I have simply switched the feed to run from this blog.
Sean.
