Aleesah Darlison Guest Post

Last week I interviewed children's writer Aleesah Darlison, to give you some idea of her background and her writing. Today I will let Aleesah tell you about her books themselves. Take it away, Aleesah!

Hello everyone, my name is Aleesah Darlison and I’m a children’s author.

I’ve been a published author for two and half years now and in that time I’ve had fifteen books released. I’ve been very lucky as I’ve had two series picked up: Unicorn Riders (Walker Books) and Totally Twins (New Frontier). These have been fantastic series to work on, I’m so proud of both of them, but it has also been hard work. You certainly learn the meaning of the words ‘deadline’ and ‘multi-tasking’ when writing a series. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

My latest release is Book 4 in the Totally Twins series. It’s called Birthday Bonanza. The twins in the series, Persephone and Portia Pinchgut, are planning their eleventh birthday. Little do they know, they are going to be in for some HUGE surprises!

Also, I’ve just submitted Books 7 & 8 to my editor at Walker Books for the Unicorn Riders series. I’m very much looking forward to seeing the draft illustrations come through soon. I’m probably not looking forward to tackling the structural edits though! Still, it’s all part of the writing process so I won’t complain. 

Unicorn Riders is a fantasy adventure series for girls aged 8+. The stories feature four strong, empowered female lead characters: Willow, Quinn, Ellabeth and Krystal. These girls protect their kingdom from evil forces and go on important missions for their queen. The stories are fast-paced and action-packed with lots of twists and turns. I’m passionate about this series because it’s all about empowering girls and helping them find their inner strength.

I’m also passionate about my picture books. For me, having a picture book published is one of the joys of being an author. My picture books so far are:

Puggle’s Problem, which is on the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge, and Warambi, which was shortlisted for the 2012 CBCA Eve Pownell Award for Non-Fiction and the 2012 Wilderness Society Award for Children’s Literature.

I also have two more picture books on the way in 2013.

Bearly There is illustrated by Jill Carter-Hansen. It’s a story about two very different teddy bears. Bearly There is a well-loved and loyal teddy. Unfortunately, he’s rather raggedy and old. A well-meaning relative tries to replace Bearly by introducing a brand new teddy called Winston. Winston is naughty and cheeky and causes loads of problems for Bearly. Bearly There is due out in March 2013, so please keep an eye out for it.

My other picture book due out in 2013 is Little Meerkat. I just adore meerkats and I’m absolutely delighted that Wombat Books is publishing this story. I’m also delighted that WA illustrator, Shannon Melville, is illustrating the book. Little Meerkat is about an over-zealous, over-courageous, but terribly cute and mischievous meerkat. It’s due out in October 2013.

Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for taking the time to read this post. Please feel free to post any comments or questions here and I will respond.

If you’d like to find out more info about me you can visit my website at www.aleesahdarlison.com or go into Facebook and ‘LIKE’ my author page: www.facebook.com/AleesahDarlisonFanPage.

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

         

Mary Victoria Interviews The World Tree

In 2010, I was looking forward to the publication of my debut novel, Wolfborn. It was going to be out on time to be launched at the World SF Convention, Aussiecon 4 – and then it wasn’t.  I asked my publishers at  Random House if they would please, please send me something I could take to promote the book and they came through beautifully – posters, bookmarks, sample chapters. I got myself into a signing session and had to flirt with the people in the long queue at the next table. “Free sample? Bookmark?” to get them to wander over while they were waiting for the graphic artist next to me to sign their books. There was a lady at a nearby table, signing like anything – Mary Victoria, who writes this wonderful series set in a giant tree. That’s how we met. When Mythic Resonance came out, although Mary didn’t have a story in it, I thought the theme of a World Tree fitted in perfectly. I’ll let Mary tell you all about it. I’ve just discovered she did some of the animation for Lord of The Rings - wow! A lady of many talents and I’m proud to welcome her to my web site.

The World Tree

  

            I feel like a fraud. When Sue asked me if I’d like to contribute a guest post about the origins of my World Tree in the context of the ‘Mythic Resonance’ release, I knew what I ought to write. What I ought to write, I thought to myself as I sat down at my computer, is a passably intelligent piece about where this idea of a world set in a tree may have come from. I should cite my debt to Norse myth (Yggdrasil, the original world tree, cradling Midguard in its branches,) to Kabbalistic metaphysics (the universe-containing Tree of Life,) and not least to the Japanese film director Hayao Miyazaki, who once put a city in a tree and made it fly, to my great delight. All these sources and many more played their part in forming the idea for the Chronicles of the Tree. If I were a proper thinker and not a total fraud, I would have written that article, made it highly informative and entertaining and included footnotes.

            Alas, I’m not a proper thinker. Or at least, my thinking refuses to come when called, or else comes in silly disguises, doing cartwheels. I was indeed influenced, consciously and subconsciously, by myth, metaphysics and beautiful Japanese animation while writing the Chronicles of the Tree. But I didn’t remember Yggdrasil and say to myself, “hey, that would make a great fantasy setting.” That would be far too logical. I don’t think story ideas come about that way – stories are fickle, promiscuous things. They like to borrow, beg and steal from multiple sources. When you try and make them explain themselves and their antecedents, they refuse to meet your eye. They sidle off, mumbling something about poetic license. They don’t like to be pinned down.

            The truth is, stories, and worlds, often come in the telling. No matter how much meticulous world-building you do in advance, some tales grow organically. Setting influences story, which in turn influences setting. The two are inseparable. Sometimes, the two are one.

            If I had been able to ask my World Tree, back at the start of the writing process, why this story had to happen in a giant tree the size of a mountain range rather than, say, a Medieval-style city state, the conversation would have gone something like this.

AUTHOR: Dear fantasy world, why are you the way you are? Why aren’t you something else?

             TREE: I think I’m quite old enough to be what I am without the likes of you questioning my motives.

            AUTHOR: I’m not questioning your motives. No one is. We just want to know, ‘Why a Tree.’ Couldn’t you be a mountain? You behave a little like a mountain.

            TREE: Well, I’m old…

AUTHOR: (Interrupting) What does that have to do with it? You sound like that poem about Father William. ‘You are old, Father William – ’

            TREE: (offended) All right, I won’t tell you. I won’t say anything at all; I don’t see why I should, if you’re going to be so rude.

            AUTHOR: I’m sorry. I’m sorry: I was being an idiot, the author getting in the way of her idea. Please go on.

TREE: (after a long pause to show how deeply offended she is) As I was saying, I’m old. Centuries – no, millennia old. I’m so old that I’ve grown into a sprawling, continent-sized mass. My trunk is a cliff-face hundreds of miles in circumference. My boughs are gigantic, like mountain ridges. Some of them can support human cities. Except that sometimes, they can’t. I’m so old that I’m growing infirm. My branches are hollow in places. There’s rot, and other problems besides. I’m not immortal: one whole side of me has dried up and died. There’s no more sap flowing there. Do you begin to see how that influences a story?

AUTHOR: Go on.

TREE: My physical condition affects my inhabitants, of course. Everything is made of wood or animal products. Everything depends on me. If I die, those living off my sap and skin will slowly die off too. Add climate change to the mix and you have an ecological disaster in the making. Those living on the dried up east side already have it tough, and it’s getting tougher every day. Perhaps it’s partly their own fault – perhaps it isn’t. But there are haves and have-nots in this world. There are the colonizers and the colonized.

AUTHOR: (retrieving a pen and paper for notes) Now I begin to see. Go on.

TREE: My nature also influences the human cultures that have flourished, and in some cases died out in my branches. People become conditioned by living over a void, high up in the clouds. They develop things like flying hot air balloons pretty quickly. They don’t trust empty space. Some go so far as to outlaw exploration: they become hidebound, or rather bark-bound. They live in rigid theocracies. They’ll destroy anyone who thinks differently. For them, it feels like a matter of survival.

(No answer from the author, who is now scribbling notes furiously.)

TREE:  (softly) But there’s one more thing. You already noticed it, perhaps half-consciously. I’m a woman. I’m worshipped as a feminine deity by these priests. But they’ve forgotten the truth behind all that glib nonsense they keep repeating. God is a tree, and also a woman. God grows, flourishes and eventually dies. Find out the truth behind those symbols. Does your story begin to make sense to you now? Do you see why it had to be a Tree?

AUTHOR: (abject now) I do see. Yes, that makes sense. Perfect sense. Thank you.

TREE: Any time. Now go be a good little author and write.

Mary Victoria was born in 1973 in Turners Falls, Massachusetts. Despite this she managed to live most of her life in other places, including Cyprus, Canada, Sierra Leone, France and the UK. She studied art and film and worked as an animator before turning to full time writing. She now lives in Wellington, New Zealand with her husband and daughter.

If you’d like to read more about the Chronicles of The Tree and what Mary is doing right now, her web site is here.