Hello again 🙂 Thanks for your good wishes over the summer hols, and I hope you had a lovely break. Our annual family camping trip was excellent as always, and while we were away, I think I may have discovered a cure for that endlessly-annoying blight on writers’ lives, lower back pain (ugh, it’s right up there in the List of Most Aggravating Things about Being A Writer, along with carpal tunnel syndrome and Writers Arse). The cure I found is kayaking – which I did every day I was camping, and seemed to help a lot – so I’ve been trying to kayak as often as possible in the local reserve/in neighbours’ dams/at a nearby waterhole.
I’d like to say ‘welcome back’ but…it’s February? How does this always seem to happen? It’s like I look around and suddenly the year has descended upon me like a choir of angels, or a pack of wild and hungry dogs. Anyway, here we are, and we’ve hit the ground running, because I’ve got a book coming out soon, and a launch party to throw, and the best thing about it is that you get a book nice and early at the start of the year, before your TBR pile starts tottering and listing and threatening to crash all over you.
OKAY – enough chatting, so you probably want the info about the launches for White Night, right?
Here they are. Yes, there’s two of them.
***SYDNEY*** – this one’s for you.
It’s a Thursday night, but we will try to make it feel like a Friday night. Will Kostakis and me will probably get up to some kind of mischief (we usually do – case in point here), and it’s at Kinokuniya so that’s nice and central.
And ***MELBOURNE*** – this one’s for you.
Now this really is a Friday night, and Lili Wilkinson and I will most likely talk cults and communes (which we can talk about endlessly) and environmental themes in books, and hopefully we won’t get too side-tracked talking about random things (although that can happen too, after we’ve had a few wines). It’s at Dymocks 234 Melbourne, and there will most definitely be wine, and also cake (thank you, Jess!) but the jury’s still out on whether they’ll let us light sparklers, even though sparklers seem deeply appropriate for this launch.
Please book early to avoid sadness. The links to event booking places are here, remember to click on the right city!
***Sydney –
***Melbourne –
Sorry, Brisbane and Adelaide and Perth and Canberra – I’m not quite big enough to do a national tour or anything like that yet, lol. But Brisbane, I might have some good news to share with you soon about a visit (TBC – I’ll tell you if it happens, don’t worry).
You’ll also be able to catch me at Clunes Book Festival this year in May, and at other events later in the year, which, again, they’re TBC, so I won’t give away all the deets just yet – I can tell you with certainty that I will be attending the Obsidio launch event in Melbourne in March, but that’s it. Rest assured that I will post a list of events and appearances at a later date.
Other things: the writing of the CIRCUS HEARTS series is continuing apace. I’m halfway through Book 3 now, and I’ve been having the absolute best time writing these books – it’s been a great change from writing White Night, which was really intense. I’ve been giving away sneak peeks and early cover hints for CIRCUS HEARTS in my newsletter, which I encourage you to sign up for (the clicky link is on my Home page, my Books page, and my Contact page). Apart from new-work excerpts, the newsletter is generally full of behind-the-scenes info, and cover images, and book recs, and amusing anecdotes, and regular giveaways – I send off a new missive once every month, and try to make it as un-spammy as possible.
What else: I’ve been trying to use Wattpad. Yes, I know – there’s a limit to how many social media balls any one person can juggle. But I kind of like the feel of Wattpad. It reminds me of my fanfiction roots, and it seems like a thriving community. But I’m still not very good at using Wattpad (see Exhibit A: my profile – it’s very bare at the moment), so if anyone has any pointers or suggestions for the sorts of things I should post there, let me know.
That’s it: I can’t think of any other news, but I’ll let you know if anything comes along. I hope you’re all going okay! I hope this year is treating you well so far, and, if you’re from my side of the country, that you survived that hideous heatwave we had a little while ago. Happy New Year! Take care, and I’ll chat again soon!
xxEllie