An Echo in the Bone is on bookshelves NOW! My local bookshop is all sold out [sniffle] so I will have to wait for their next order to come in before I can start reading.

Please, please, please let it be as good as the others in the Outlander/Cross Stitch series!

UPDATE: So now I have my very own copy and it's sitting all shiny and new on my bedside table. I'm saving it though; for my trip to Tasmania in 11 days. Will I be able to hold out until then?

Oooh, I really like this site. I found it while following links on Australian author Trudi Canavan's blog and now I'm so very glad that I did.
This site is a mecca for lovers of good fantasy and includes an extensive bibliography of published fantasy authors, author interviews, lots of great reviews, 'Young Adult' and 'Children' sections and my favourite bit of all - the Top 100 Fantasy Books of all time. This list includes cover art, prices (from Amazon), a brief synopsis, full reviews, reader reviews and the opportunity to post your own review. I love it! Next time I'm looking for something to read this is where I'll be heading.

Purely by chance, I came across this lovely interview with Isobelle Carmody on the UK site Fantasy Book Review.
She confirms that the final Obernewtyn book will be out at the beginning of 2010 and that she will soon begin writing The Beforetime Chronicles. This series will be set in the lead up to 'the Great White' and will feature the beforetime woman Cassandra/Cassie/Kasanda who we already know from Obernewtyn. This is really exciting news!
I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that Isobelle began writing Obernewtyn when she was just 14; around the same age that I was when I first read it.

As a keen reader of all things fantasy, I find myself tucking into trilogies, quadrilogies and sometimes seven or eight book series on a regular basis. I love that once you have seen a character live and grow and overcome adversity you can go on to another book, another story and continue the journey. What I don't like is when you read an amazing book and discover that while it's part of a series (yay!), the others aren't written yet (awww, man!).

My favourite series of all time is Isobelle Carmody's The Obernewtyn Chronicles. I read Obernewtyn (book 1) in primary school and have eagerly awaited every book since. The second-to-last book came out last year and I devoured it's 496 pages almost overnight. The seventh and final instalment is due out next year and by the time I've read it I will have re-read the first 6 books countless times. Not that I'm complaining, I love love love them. My complaint is that I have to wait literally years between fixes. And I do mean years. I was 13 when I began reading the Chronicles; I'm now 26.

Oh well, if that's the price I have to pay to read such a great story. But don't you hate it?

It turns out that not everyone on the planet uses Mozilla Firefox as their preferred Internet browser and thus had problems viewing my old blog. So for those who are, as yet, uninitiated to the wonders of Firefox, I have updated my blog template to one that works better in IE. I'm still working out some glitches but hopefully it should all be working okay soon.

It's pretty, don't you think?

I love writing workshops. I really, really do.

Living in an isolated and sparsely populated place like the Northern Territory means that when the opportunity comes along to participate in a literary event or writers workshop of any kind, you jump in and make the most of it.

Tomorrow I'll be attending two workshops ('Writing Historical Fiction' and 'Come to your Senses: The art of sensory writing') presented by internationally published, Australian author, Linda Jaivin and hosted by the NT Writers Centre.

I'm looking forward to these workshops like you wouldn't believe. Spending six hours with like-minded people, learning from an accomplished author and getting to do that thing that I like most (writing that is); what better way to spend a Saturday?

About two months ago I picked up Twilight, the first book in the four book series by Stephenie Meyer. The craze surrounding this series put me off reading it for a long time, besides which I've never been into vampirish or werewolvish books before.
The first book was on sale and I needed something to read on the long drive between Townsville and Darwin. (For anyone who has ever driven the Barkly Highway you will understand my need for a boredom buster.)

I had read about a third of the book before I was finally able to look past what I had first taken for plain language and amateurish style and see what a clever writer Stephenie Meyer really is. It hasn't been that long since I was a teenager and I was impressed with how the author was able to so skilfully recreate the angst and the confusion and the obsession that comes with those years. This book made me feel like I was seventeen again. It was brilliant.

I finished Twilight and the next three books within two weeks.

This got me thinking. Does complexity of language compare to complexity of story and emotion? Does it matter what style a book is written in when it has you turning pages and keeps you up past midnight finishing 'just another chapter'? Isn't that what storytelling is all about? Enthralling your readers and keeping them wanting more? I think so.

I'm not saying that the two are mutually exclusive. Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris had me hooked and was also filled with some of the most beautifully descriptive, emotive language that I have ever read. I've read the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon countless times and never get tired of how well crafted each sentence is, how perfectly each word is placed amongst it's brethren. Superb.

There are so many different stories to tell, in so many different ways. It makes my heart glad to know that I will have an entire lifetime to read as many as humanly possible.

Thank goodness for writers.