Other Writers' Next Big Thing

And here is a link to the post written by George Ivanoff, who invited me to do this:

http://georgeivanoff.com.au/2012/12/18/the-next-big-thing/

Richard Harland wrote this:

http://richardharland.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/the-next-big-thing/

You really should check these out. George has done a guest post here already, but he talks about the novel he is working on for Ford Street, and Richard is a writer whose work I personally love for its delicious silliness.

If you like a different kind of writing, check out the post by Sandy Fussell, author of  the Samurai Kids series, who has been interviewed on this blog before:

http://www.sandyfussell.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/the-next-big-thing.html#.UND5GY5R7RU

My offer is still open to anyone who has somehow missed this and would like to do those questions - let me know and I'll send them on to you. If you don't have a blog, or feel silly interviewing yourself, I will be happy to host your post here.

Things To Come - The Next Big Thing And Others

I have been invited by George Ivanoff to take part in the Next Big Thing in which writers talk about what they're doing. I though it was next Wednesday, but George tells me it was supposed to be yesterday, so some time soon, tomorrow if I can, I will answer the questions and post it here.

Meanwhile, I am looking forward to an interview with Marianne De Pierres by Yasmyn and Kaitlyn, which should come soon, and one with Stephanie Campisi, whom I invited to do a Next Big Thing, but who will instead do it as an interview here, as her blog is really dedicated to book reviews and essays about books. I will be sending along the questions, but Stephanie is away for a few days. It's that time of year! :-)

Guest Post By George Ivanoff:Inspired by High School

  I can remember, years ago, working on an issue of SPOCK, the Star Trek club fanzine, typing up one of George Ivanoff's stories in which the word "probe" was used often and I kept mis-spelling it "proble". The friend who was typing up the issue with me agreed that "proble" was an ancient Vulcan rite involving the ritual assassination of Spock's father, Sarek. We wrote a very silly story about it, so you could say that George has inspired my own writing. :-)

Since then, he has sold sixty-five books and I've sold ten. George has done fiction of many, many genres and non-fiction on just about everything under the sun. Some time I would love to invite him back to talk about some of the bizarre experiences he has had in the publishing industry!

George is a fellow Ford Street writer, the author of the two Gamers' novels, which are very popular in my school library. But there was another book, once, which went out of print, as books tend to do, and is now back with a vengeance!

I'll let George tell you about it - welcome to the Great Raven, George!

My very first book, published back in 1999, was a collection of YA short stories called Life, Death and Detention. Out of print for many years, it’s now back — a new edition with a new cover, a new publisher (Morris Publishing Australia) and updated stories. I’ve already written about the journey this new edition took, on my own blog (see here — http://blog.boomerangbooks.com.au/the-long-and-winding-road-to-a-new-edition/2012/08; and here — http://blog.boomerangbooks.com.au/life-death-and-detention/2012/08).

Each of the ten stories in this book is based in some way on my own past experiences. Now, that does not mean that I ever brought a gun to school, or held a teacher hostage, or snogged the school bully — aspects of my life were merely starting points for the stories, rather than the stories themselves.

Sometimes the relationship between story and real life is direct, as in the case of “Remember Me”. I wrote the first draft of this story shortly after my grandmother died. Writing it was a kind of therapy. I then pushed the story further from reality as I re-wrote it. Although the story is now fiction, the emotions that the main character is experiencing are very much my own. It’s probably the most personal story in the collection.

I didn’t need comforting. I needed to be alone. But it had to be done; so I put on my funeral face and dealt with the guests. It was strange—tears had been replaced with a mixture of nostalgic conversations and concerned looks.

With other stories, such as “Ghosts”, the connection is looser. I have never encountered a ghost. With this story the association is one of location rather than experience. When I was in high school, and later university, I used the library as a sanctuary — a place to escape to; to be alone; to reflect on things. And so, in this story, a girl named Melissa uses her school library in a similar way.

Since mid-primary school, I have been an enthusiastic science fiction fan. That interest manifests itself in two stories. “Sugar” is my take on the sci-fi, rampaging monster story. “Beam Me Up”, on the other hand, takes a more personal approach. Rather than being a science fiction story, it’s about a group of science fiction fans — nerdy kids who band together with a common interest. When they are first introduced, they are set up for ridicule (as I had experienced), but I then turn this around as the story progresses, trying to show them for what they really are — ordinary kids.

Natalie surveyed the worried faces. Daniel was sitting on one of the desks, rocking back and forth nervously, while Crystal bit at her nails and Anthony paced. Anton and Marco stood rigidly in place, uncertain glances darting between them.

They’re kids, thought Natalie, just an ordinary bunch of kids. A bit weird, sure. But hey, aren’t most people a bit weird in their own little ways?

This came as quite a revelation to her.

All fiction needs a kernel of truth. It’s this basis in reality that can make the most dramatic and fantastical of situations believable. Feelings, incidents, locations, interests, people, thoughts — all these things from my high school life have come together in the creation of the stories from Life, Death and Detention. They are undoubtedly fiction, but there is also truth in them — my truth, inspired by my time in high school.

Life, Death and Detention is available in bookshops around Australia. It can be purchased from many online bookstores, including Boomerang Books (http://www.boomerangbooks.com.au/Life-Death-and-Detention/George-Ivanoff/book_9780987244499.htm). And it is available in numerous eBook formats from Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/174560

George Ivanoff is an author and stay-at-home dad residing in Melbourne. His books include Gamers’ Quest, Gamers’ Challenge and Life, Death and Detention. He has books on both the Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge and NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge booklists. He is currently working on the third book in the Gamers series. Check out his website:     http://georgeivanoff.com.au

         

Some more favourite reviews - egoboo rules!

About time I gave some publicity to the lovely folk who enjoyed my novel and said so. There are more, for another day, but here are a few.

One of my earliest reviews was right after the book came out in December. It was on the Burnbright web site run by Marianne De Pierres, written by a lady called Belinda Hamilton. The same web site did an interview with me as well, which you'll see in the Big 4 Interviews on the left of the page.

I did an interview on 3RRR with Rob Jan, whom I've known forever and who said he'd been relieved to find the book was better than some of the other stuff he had to read as a radio reviewer. Rob actually created a world with me for our fan fiction and the rather silly shaggy unicorn in the novel comes from that universe. His media spec fic program, Zero-G, has been on for years.

The review on Buzzwords was written by Oliver Phomavanh, who is a very funny man and a delightful children's writer in his own right - several of our Year 7 boys are loving his books.

George Ivanoff, who is a children's writer and the only person I know who actually manages to make a living out of his writing, reviewed my book on the blog Literary Clutter, as well as interviewing me on the same site.

Katherine Peterson reviewed the book on Specusphere, the same wonderful web site fellow blogger Satima writes for.

These are some of my egoboo reviews. There are some that are quite good, but hate this or that sentence. There are others that hate the book for one reason or another, including one that said it was badly-written but he couldn't put it down!

As long as he contributes to my royalties. ;-)

Today I am Going To...

Okay, this entry belongs more in Livejournal than in my literary blog, but Livejournal keeps giving me trouble opening, so here goes.

It's only three days till I head for my adventure in Perth, where I hope to promote my book and have fun.

So today I am going to:

finish the house cleaning after breakfast.

have a go at making some Kosher le Pesach chocolate truffles because my oven is still bung and I can't do my usual contribution of orange and walnut cake or macaroons (I have been doing macaroons the last few years because nobody has any room left for a proper dessert after the seder meal.)

go into town, where I will buy a printer cartridge so I can finish printing out the covers for the CDs I;m taking to the convention. George Ivanoff, who has a much better reading voice than I do, has kindly read a sample from each of our books into Garage Band and I've burned some on to CD. I'm not much good at design, but I really can't ask George to do that as well (needless to say, as a professional web page designer he's better at that too!).

meet a teacher-librarian colleague from another school, Lyndi Chapman, in Lygon Street (better take some Wolfborn and Crime Time bookmarks along for her). It will be nice to have a chat with her; she has a nice new school after her old one treated her badly.

go to my mother's place for the first night of Passover. Only Mum, my sister and brother-in-law tonight, so we'll keep it simple. Tomorrow is the big family night and I've promised my nephew Max a Crime Time mug, as he asked. Have to get it done tomorrow afternoon.

do some planning for the paranormal romance panel at Swancon. Nicole Murphy suggests we keep it light because they've put it on at 10.30 pm!

Big day! Better have brekky and get on with it.

GAMERS’ QUEST By George Ivanoff. Melbourne: Ford Street Publishing, 2009.

In recent years, computer games have gone way beyond the likes of Pacman, Space Invaders and such. These days you can take on an avatar and “live” in Second Life, for example. When I was much younger, you could play Dungeons and Dragons around a table, with other fans. It was very sociable and you collected gold, treasure, skills and weapons at the roll of a pair of dice, going up to higher levels as you went. Now, you can go on-line to do the same thing.

What would happen if the avatars wanted the same thing, only in our world?

Anyone who has read the original short story on which this is based, in the Ford Street anthology Trust Me! will know immediately what’s going on in this novel, so I’m not giving much away. Even if you haven’t read the original, you pick it up fairly speedily.

Teenage thieves Tark and Zyra live in a world in which magic is mixed with technology. You can be using a sword o’light to kill a dragon one moment and battling a cyborg the next. The reasons for this become clear fairly soon. The young thieves use their ill-gotten gains to give them time in Designers’ Paradise, where they can do exotic things such as go to school, then home to do homework and watch television. But they have gotten in trouble with a character known as the Fat Man, who will not give up the chase, even when they are making their way to Designers’ Paradise. And Designers’ Paradise, when they get there, is also in danger…

A good introduction to speculative fiction for younger readers, this one is non-stop action with a light touch. There is a lot of delightful over-the-top silliness – you wouldn’t for example, want to be a mage in this world, where you can end up a toad if your spell bounces back at you. The story is a cross between a computer game and Dungeons and Dragons, with a touch of Westworld. The cover art is by wonderful book illustrator Les Petersen, who did the covers for Simon Haynes’ Hal Spacejock novels and several for Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. The images of Tark and Zyra look like computer game avatars, giving a strong hint of what the novel is about.

The author has set up a web site, http://www.gamersquestbook.com ,for readers who would like more stories about his characters.