Glenda’s blog

Accolades

Glenda’s The Watergivers/Stormlord trilogy won the Sara Douglass Award for best Speculative Fiction series in 2014.

Ditmar Award 2015 and Tin Duck Award 2017.

Her novel The Lascar’s Dagger won the Ditmar Award (Best Novel) in 2015 and the Tin Duck Award (Best WA Professional Long Written Work) in 2017.

Eleven of her novels were Aurealis Awards finalists for the best Australian Fantasy Novel of the Year: The Aware (2003), Tainted (2004), Heart of the Mirage (2006), Song of the Shiver Barrens (2007), The Last Stormlord (2009), Stormlord Rising (2010), Stormlord’s Exile (2011), The Lascar’s Dagger (2014), The Dagger’s Path (2015) and Fall of the Dagger (2016).

IT’S BIGGER THAN I THOUGHT

Posted on by July 19, 2021
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Sometimes the task seems overwhelming. Which is what I am feeling at the moment. I have to do a final edit on the latest book, and while the story is fine, it’s not in the right order. And the trouble is that when you start switching scenes around, it can alter a lot more than you bargained for. All of a sudden character X doesn’t know something because that incident hasn’t happened yet in the storyline. So I have to go back and insert bits and cut other bits out…

Aargh! It’s a nightmare.

Maybe that’s how my grandson felt when he went to learn about falconry — and someone handed him a buzzard instead of a falcon. The wingspan is wider than he is tall!

OVERDUE UPDATING…

Posted on by July 1, 2021
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It has been a long time since I updated my blog…but I am back.

OUR SITUATION:
A lot has happened, not all of it good, much of it related to the health of my husband and me. And of course, Covid has interrupted much of life just by existing. Even now, we are worried about my husband’s family members who are suffering its inroads, and one much loved member is currently in hospital.
My husband and I, however, are about as safe as it is possible to be. Both of us have had two AstraZenica jabs. We live in a place which goes into lock-down whenever the disease pops up. (Unfortunately we also live under a federal government who gave very little attention to obtaining vaccines, which has meant that Australia has one of the world’s worst vaccination rates as a percentage of the population.)

WRITING NEWS:
I have finished a new book, in the sense that there is a beginning, a middle and an end — however, I was not happy with it. I’ve sought the help of wonderful readers and, and as a result I have now embarked on a very thorough re-write, mostly to do with the structure of the novel, rather than the story which I still think is sound.

When and how will it be published? Not sure. Probably self-published…

LOCK-DOWN (West Australian style) : At the moment we are three days into a lock-down where we must wear a mask when we leave the house…which can only be for grocery shopping, medical reasons and an hour’s exercise nearby. Luckily we have lovely wild places just outside our back gate, see below.

WHICH WOULD YOU BUY, JUDGING BY THE COVER?

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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 The difference between Australian, French, German, UK, Russian, US covers of the same book:


The marketing people don’t seem to care that they might be misrepresenting the product (which would, one would think, lead to a dissatisfied customer who is not going to come back to that author again). All they want to do is sell the book. That seems short-sighted. I’d love to know what readers think.

NEWS! NEWS! NEWS

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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NEWS! NEWS! NEWS

my first ever selfie….


I have sent off the manuscript of my so-far-unpublished novel to my London publisher. It will be some time before I have an answer, and as I have no current contract with them for a new work, I may eventually have to offer it elsewhere. But it feels great to have written 150,000 word novel at my age, and be reasonably happy with it.

Titled at the moment (and these things frequently change)

 “The Fugitive Queen”

CoNZealand: MY PROGRAMME

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Yes, I am attending the World Science Fiction Convention which was to be in Wellington New Zealand, but which has gone online for obvious reasons.


I have 3 items on the programme: 
a Reading, a Panel and a Kaffeklatch.
If you are also attending, 
you will find me at these times for the above events:
Reading:

Event description:  
   I shall be reading the first chapter of my new (as yet unpublished) book, 
   THE FUGITIVE QUEEN
Date: Wednesday, 29 July
Time: 16:30-16:55, Please remember this is the time in NZ.
Place: Reading Room 2 (Programming)

 


Panel:

Event description: 
Nevertheless, She Persisted: 
    The Explosion of the Heroine in the past 50 Years 
    Protaganists in SF and fantasy used to be primary male. Heinlein’s
juveniles, for example, although featuring a strong female secondary
character, had male leads. This began to change in the late
1960s, with books like Rite of Passage, and now non-male protagonists
are common. 
    The panel looks at the trend, discusses its implications,
and talks about some of their favorites. 

    Catherine Lundoff  (Moderator), Maiya Ibrahim, Lee Murray , Glenda Larke
Date: Thursday, 30 July

Time: 15:00 – 15:50,  Please remember this is the time in NZ.
Place: Programme Room 3 (Webinar)
 
 

Kaffeklatsch:

Event description:
  A video chat with other fans and me (maximum 9 pax — could be just you if no one else turns up!) Ask me anything you like.
Date: Friday, 31st July

Time: 13:00 – 13:50,  Please remember this is the time in NZ.

Place:  Kaffeklatch and Literary Beer Room (Programming)

 

Walking Away the Writing / Isolation Blues…

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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We here in Western Australia have avoided the worst of Covid-19 thanks to sensible scientific-based decisions of our politicians and public servants. We spent 3 months isolating ourselves. Once restrictions on local travel were eased, we headed north to Kalbarri, where a morning walk of 7 kms yielded up these photos of the Indian Ocean’s most easterly shores along our rugged coast.

And now I shall grapple some more with the final chapters of 
“THE FUGITIVE QUEEN”*, which I am now re-writing, 
as I have never been happy with the conclusion.

As the waves broke, the spray shot up into the air like fountain spray. 
 There’s nothing like the ocean to put bring perspective or 
— in spite of the thundering surf — 
to bring calm…

*Provisional title

UPDATE ON WORK IN PROGRESS…

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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THE FUGITIVE QUEEN 
(title may change!)

The initial draft of this novel has been finished at slightly under 150,000 words, so not quite as long as the Stormlord or Forsaken Lands trilogies, but longer than The Isles of Glory books…

I am now waiting to hear back from my numerous wonderful beta readers with their invaluable comments and criticisms, of which there will doubtless be many.

Watch this space for updates….