The Rogue Gadda giveaway winner is...

The winner of the Rogue Gadda giveaway was picked at random by author Nicole Murphy this morning. The winner is:

Sapphired Dragon

Nicole will be in contact with you shortly to organise postal details.

I wish everyone much luck pursuing their Plan A!

The Rouge Gadda giveaway ends in 9 hours!

The giveaway for Rogue Gadda ends at midnight Australian Eastern Standard Time tonight! That is in about 9 hours. It is open internationally, and all you need to do is tell Nicole Murphy and myself what your "Plan A" or dream career is. You can enter {here}. Good luck!

Guest post and competition: Nicole Murphy

One of the themes I've been running with in my life lately recently is change and “fuck plan b”. The fuck plan b phrase comes from something Amanda Palmer (one of my inspirational idols) tweeted at a muso about his music career. I've taken it on as my new motto and my twitter friends and I have had a lot of conversations about fuck plan b, life changes and pursuing dreams. Nicole Murphy, a wonderful writer from Australia, was to write a guest post for Book Bites as part of her blog tour for the release of Rogue Gadda and this is what Nicole had to say about pursuing dreams:

Fuck Plan B

This is one of the scariest things to consider – and one of the most liberating. We’ve all got dreams – something that we wanted to achieve. And for any of you saying “I don’t” – think back to when you were a teenager. What were you passionate about? I bet it still gives you a thrill, right?

So yes, we’ve all got something we WANT to do with our lives. The problem is, society is really good as telling us it’s not possible. You need to have a job. You’ve got to have lots of money. Security. You have to have x by this age, y by this.

I fell into the trap. I knew in high school that I wanted to do something creative. I had some music lessons. I did art up to year ten. I studied drama in year eleven and twelve. I did amateur theatre productions. But the thing I loved most of all was writing.

I made some attempts to live a creative life – I auditioned for the drama course at University of Western Sydney. But I let all the (well-intentioned) folks telling me that I needed a fall-back position to influence me and so when I left year twelve, I went to teacher’s college.

The problem with a fall-back position is that you’ll fall back to it. I did. I dabbled in writing from time to time, but I wasn’t serious about it. I certainly wasn’t acting any more. All my creativity, my passion, went into teaching.

I lasted at teaching for a bit over nine years, until I had a mini-breakdown. When that happened, I’d been lucky enough to meet and marry my husband who wants me to be happy. He asked if I could do anything in the world, what would it be and I had one answer – writing.

So I started to pursue it. Over time, my confidence in myself waned and I found other ways to use the skills I was developing by becoming a journalist, but now that I’d let the dream have some air to breathe it wouldn’t let go of me.

Finally, in 2007, came the crunch time. On the one hand, it had become clear that I was never going to be more than an average journalist – I didn’t have the guts to go for the hard stories – and I wasn’t satisfied with that.

On the other hand, I was struck by a sudden, intense vision. I saw myself on my death bed, thinking to myself “maybe I would have been published if I’d just tried harder…”

It chilled me, in a way few things have, and I swore that if I got to the end of my life and I wasn’t published, it WASN’T going to be because I didn’t try. So with hubby’s support, when I left journalism I got a part-time job at a supermarket so I could focus all my creativity and energy on my writing.

That was February, 2008. History now shows that I sold the Dream of Asarlai trilogy in July 2009 and here we are, two years later, with the third book being released.

Is fucking Plan B and running with the dream an easy thing to do? No. The worthwhile things aren’t easy. People around you won’t understand. You’ll have to go without for a while and make a whole range of sacrifices. But here’s the thing – the happiness you gain from knowing that you’re doing what you want with your life will make up for most of that. And the downs don’t last forever.

Dreams do come true, but not without a whole lotta work and effort. And there’s no reason you can’t start that work today – except for fear.


Giveaway question – To win a copy of Rogue Gadda tell me, what’s your Plan A?

Please provide your email with your answer so Nicole can contact the winner!

Terms of the giveaway:
The winner is decided based solely on the response Nicole chooses.
The winner will be contacted by email.
This giveaway is open internationally.
The give away ends at 12pm on the 5th of July, 2011, Australian EST. 

Note: The giveaway is now officially closed!

Here is a sneak peak of Rogue Gadda.

She took a deep breath and then poured the potion over the amulet, onto her chest. It was jumping into a fire – instantaneous agony that drew a scream of horror from her throat.


She closed her eyes but couldn’t avoid the stench of burning flesh. She’d erred. Despite all her consideration and planning, she’d made the wrong choice. This wasn’t going to save her.


It was going to kill her.

The Dream of Asarlai trilogy by Nicole Murphy:

The Silence

I have some bit things happening in my personal life at the moment, and haven’t had time or attention to focus on reading or blogging. Sorry for the lull. I hope to make up for it with Supanova occurring next weekend.

Don’t forget, Erica Hayes, Tracey O’Hara and Nicole Murphy will have a stall in the artist alley – pop along and say hi! They’ll be representing the urban fantasy authors in Australia!

Aurealis Awards wrapup (finally!), Supanova, Flickr and Facebook

I am sorry I have been so slack with my blogging. I've been under the weather, and had stuff going on in my personal and professional life that have prevented me from writing more than a few garbled sentences at a time. I never finish or refine these drafts and thus they never see light of day.

Aurealis Awards

This wrap up is VERY late in coming, and I do apologise! Rather than give a blow by blow of who won what awards, I’ll list the winners (which I am sure you have seen around the Aussie

book blogging world by now) and then a quick summary of my highlights of the night.

2010 AUREALIS AWARD WINNERS:
CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through words)

• The Keepers, Lian Tanner, Allen & Unwin

CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through pictures)

• The Boy and the Toy, Sonya Hartnett (writer) & Lucia Masciullo (illustrator), Penguin Viking

YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY

• A Thousand Flowers, Margo Lanagan, Zombies and Unicorns, Allen & Unwin

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

• Guardian of the Dead, Karen Healey, Allen & Unwin

ILLUSTRATED BOOK/ GRAPHIC NOVEL

• Changing Ways Book 1, Justin Randall, Gestalt Publishing

COLLECTION

• The Girl With No Hands, Angela Slatter, Ticonderoga Publications

ANTHOLOGY

• Wings of Fire, edited by Jonathan Strahan and Marianne S. Jablon, Night Shade Books

HORROR SHORT STORY

• The Fear, Richard Harland, Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears, Brimstone Press

HORROR NOVEL

• Madigan Mine, Kirstyn McDermott, Pan Macmillan

FANTASY SHORT STORY (joint winners)

• The February Dragon, LL Hannett & Angela Slatter, Scary Kisses, Ticonderoga Publications
• Yowie, Thoraiya Dyer, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press

FANTASY NOVEL

• Power and Majesty, Tansy Rayner Roberts, HarperVoyager (HarperCollins)

SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY

• The Heart of a Mouse, K.J. Bishop, Subterranean Online (Winter 2010)

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

• Transformation Space, Marianne de Pierres, Orbit (Hachette)

KRIS HEMBURY ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD

• Jodi Cleghorn (Go Jodi!)

PETER MCNAMARA CONVENORS’ AWARD

• Helen Merrick

My highlights of the night:

• Tracey O’Hara came to greet me at the door before we had even registered! O.O I was shocked, because despite talking to her on Twitter from time to time, I have only met her two or three times. She not only recognised me but knew me. It is a shock to me when someone I admire remembers me :D I was a bit star struck LOL
• Hanging out with the lovely Nyssa from ASFFA and delightful Mark from Galaxy, with the gorgeous Elle and suave Nick from my writing group (Spiders represent!), and damn, ALLLLLLLLLL my twitter friends, including authors, editors and other book industry people. Unexpectedly I knew more than the four people I walked into the room to greet.
• Because I went to the Aurealis Awards with Nyssa, she introduced me around to some of her “people”, be they friends or industry contacts. I admit to being starstruck at times.
• I was talking to Tracey O’Hara and she introduced me to Nicole Murphy, another author I talk to on twitter quite a bit. You know how you don’t recognise someone, but the second someone points it out you feel like facepalming yourself? Well, it was like that.
• At the after party I sat with Nyssa, Mark, Tracey O’Hara, Nicole Murphy and a few others and drank an overpriced bourbon. We had to catch a midnight train, so I went to find people to say adios to (actually, hello, as I said I would meet them there), and talking to @Rowena_SW realised that I should have spent more time in the other corner, because a lot of other people I enjoy tweeting with were present, including @BothersomeWords and @nickystrickland. After a quick chat and photo, Nyssa and I had to run, but it was lovely to put faces to aliases!

There were other highlights, like seeing authors I have admired for years, and all the pretty clothes (I could have worn my corset! Dammit!), and while it was over a week ago now, I have fond, if fuzzy, memories. I’ll definitely be returning to the next awards. I was not expecting to get much out of the Aurealis Awards aside from some silent fangirl squees, but somehow I found myself fitting in. Maybe it is because the literati type parties I have attended in the past were general fiction, not speculative fiction, but I was expecting to be bored while awed. Instead I found myself fascinated with every conversation I took part in, to the point I wish I had more time for each person I met. I also feel kind of bad because I didn’t drag Elle and Nick around with me so they could meet some complete strangers. Or at least offer too. I think I was high on the atmosphere. And I really wasn’t expecting to know anyone except my friends. I guess I am still kind of in shock. I am not the sort of person people remember. Well, I haven’t been in the past. But it seems the more I tweet, and the more I participate in the community, the more people are becoming to know me as part of that community.

Facebook

That’s right, I have a facebook page now! You can “fan” Book Bites at www.facebook.com/bookbites - I will be microblogging when I am attending events (e.g. the Aurealis Awards last weekend) and sharing links and such. It is also another way to keep up to date with blog posts if you do not check your Feed Reader constantly (I am guilty of that myself!).

Flickr

I've uploaded some more photos to my Flickr page. I found some old photos on my hard drive of signings at Galaxy that were not previously uploaded and I have added some photos from the Aurealis Awards, Sir Terry Pratchett at the Sydney Opera House and various prizes and autographs.

Here are some photos from the Aurealis Awards:



Master of Ceremonies, Garth Nix, hidding in the shadows while Susan Wardle and Nathan Burrage co-convene.


I was able to spend time chatting with some of my favourite ladies, Tracey O'Hara and Nicole Murphy.


Catching up with twitter friends at the Aurealis Awards after party.


One from the guest bag, one prize, a friend's prize, and the last because someone already had a copy.

Supanova

Supanova is on in a few weeks. I am going, my friends are going, even some of my book club ladies are going (let’s face it, they are friends too, we just happened to have met through book club LOL) and Supanova will be AWESOME! I am excited to meet JAMES MARSTERS!!! Seriously, his name belongs in caps. I may swoon. Yes, swoon. I am also meeting Sean Maher (another hottie playing one of my favourite characters, nice!), Moreena Baccarin, and Gareth David-Lloyd. And, the bit that is actually relevant to my readers? Tracey O’Hara, Erica Hayes and Nicole Murphy will all be at Supanova! They aren’t listed as guests, but they will have an Urban Fantasy stall in the Artist’s Alley :D We plan to go glomp! So, if you read urban fantasy and will be at Supanova, you should go say hi! They are all wonderful women who write terrific books! They are totally glomp-worthy! :D So do it. I am using my Jedi mind powers on you and telling you you should glomp them at Supanova. Of course, that would be more effective if I was actually a Jedi. The thing is, I’d probably be a Sith or smuggler like Han and Chewy LOL Anyway, Supanova, FTW, mid June, best geek fest in Australia!