Something more cheerful today. Yesterday was SO not good. [The car is costing me $RM1,000 today…]
A photo from my grandson’s 3rd birthday in Virginia, with his parents. And in just under a month, I will be seeing them all again. Yay!
5
Today I drove the car up to K.L. for a project meeting. And I came home sitting in the cab of a tow truck, bouncing along (no seat belt) in the breeze (no windows) in the sun (no sun visors).
And had real trouble getting anywhere in my housing estate because all the mosque and surau-goers regard the streets as one big parking lot at lunchtime on Friday. They would rather triple park and block the road than walk a few metres. Too bad if you have an emergency – or a towtruck towing a car behind it. We couldn’t get anywhere near the workshop where I wanted to leave it. [I am actually quite used to this; they will even block my gateway on occasion.]
And why was this necessary? Because my car screamed every time I went near it.
Something to do with the alarm system or the electricals, I suppose. What is certain, there will be money involved in the repair thereof. Sigh.
More distressing was something in this morning’s paper.
After 50 years of independence, we still throw a kid as young as thirteen in a “boy’s prison” in Kajang for as little as – allegedly – stealing a handphone. We don’t actually know if he did, of course, because there has never been a court case. He won’t get sent to a boy’s home, or freed, until there is a court case, but the courts are too busy hearing cases of folk who have lawyers and money and who jump the queue.
A boy in the boy’s prison won’t go to school. Or get out. The family being too poor to pay the bail, he’ll just rot, spending what should be the best months – years? – of his life behind bars, uneducated… There are 400 boys in this situation under remand. In other words, they have never been found guilty of anything at all! And even if they were, should we be leaving them in a place that relies on good-hearted volunteers to care for their educational, medical and emotional health? Where is responsible government in all this? I don’t blame the prison authorities – they probably do their level best, but they – along with the boys – have been dealt a rotten hand by the system we have given them.
Of course, there are wonderful folk (the paper highlighted an NGO called Shelter Home,) who step in and do their level best to provide some classes and training, dental and medical care and counseling, and will even try to provide bail, legal help and such.
But why should this be necessary?
Shame on you Malaysia! After 50 years of nationhood this is how we treat our wayward youth? What are we trying to do – turn them into resentful, angry adults without the wherewithall to get a decent job as adults?
Next time you get robbed, ask yourself what it was that helped to shape the nature of the thief’s boyhood. Perhaps it was your indifference.
Happy birthday, Malaysia.
Orbit have started promoting Heart of the Mirage here. They have also put up the first chapter here in an easy-to-read type. If you are from the UK, you can now pre-order, or look out for the book in your local bookstore in about two weeks time. If you are from the US, you can order it from Amazon.co.uk, or wait until Amazon.com gets their act together and puts it up.
Here are some extracts of reviews of the Australian edition: Scott Moore, The Adelaide Advertiser: “This skilfully written work may be fantasy, but the issues at its heart – political expediency, cultural imperialism and intolerance – are shamefully real.” He ends the review with: “Bring on part two.”
Donna Hanson, Specusphere:
On the writing: …so vivid and solid that at times it leaves me breathless or just plain green with envy.
On the main character: Ligea is fearless, bloodthirsty, vicious, sexy and determined...This character’s conflict and transformation was entirely convincing and satisfying to read.
On the world: … has aspects of Havenstar’s inventiveness, with an interactive landscape that is highly imaginative and entertaining.
Jason Nahrung, Brisbane Courier-Mail.
Glenda Larke…has again managed to add a thoughtful twist to the fantasy genre.
Larke provided a refreshing approach in her previous Isles of Glory trilogy, and her new release, Heart of the Mirage continues to engage.
At the end of the review he adds this:
Larke presents an examination of the ethics of imperialism and disenfranchisement. It is no accident the story is dedicated to Australia’s Stolen Generation and the Disappeared Ones of Argentina.
Mark Timmony, Galaxy specialist bookstore, Sydney:
Larke has granted the reader a near-perfect escape into a breathtaking adventure. Heart of the Mirage is so real, your pulse will race and your breath catch...
The review ends with this: To my mind, Larke’s self-assurance, insight and guts – much in the tradition of Robin Hobb, Carol Berg and even Elizabeth Moon – firmly places her on the list as one of the very best Australian writers of fantasy fiction.
Lucy Sussex, The Melbourne Age
For those jaded with genre fantasy, Larke provides fare that is fresh, strange and intriguing.
So, what are you waiting for? Go order it! (And don’t forget to tell me what you thought afterwards…)
Right: Dr Mohamed ElBaradei and my husband, question time at the lecture…
My husband was once the Deputy-Director General of the UN International Atomic
Energy Agency (AIEA), and so today he found
himself
introducing one of his former staff at a lecture hosted by the National Academy
of Science here in Kuala Lumpur. That gentleman went on to be the present Director-General of the agency, winning the nobel peace prize (joint-winner with the IAEA), for for their work producing evidence for some very dumb politicians – only to have them disdain to believe what they were told and shown. You know the ones I mean: their popularity ratings have sunk rather low of late. Unfortunately too late for the security of the world and the thousands upon thousands of people who have died and who are still dying.
Dr MohamedElbaradei gave an excellent speech on the dignity of nations and the future for nuclear power. Yes, as an environmentalist, I do support nuclear power.
It’s a lousy photo of my husband giving the introduction…
The last two photos are of a couple of friends talking to Dr ElBaradei – Dato’ Salleh Nor, whom I know very well because he was president of the Malaysian Nature Society for many years, and who is now Secretary of the Academy, and in the last photo, Tan Sri Halim who was the Malaysian Ambassador when we were in Vienna, whose kids were at school with ours, and in whose lovely home (in the 18th Bezirk, if I remember correctly) we had many an enjoyable evening.
Ah, nostalgia. Would I could go back to Wien, for a visit. In winter, walking up Beethovengang behind our house just after a snowfall … magic. Or in the spring when everything comes alive with astonishing suddenness. Or in summer, riding a bicycle along the Donauinsel with the insects rising from the grass like mist in the sun. Or in autumn when the leaves change colour and the fogbound mornings turn cold, and shops stop selling icecream and put out the Krapfen instead …
Wie geht’s, jetz?
Well, that’s the way I feel. Honestly.
Late last night my husband came in from Kota Kinabalu and brought with him the Orbit (UK) edition of Heart of the Mirage, book 1 of The Mirage Makers. It had been sent to our apartment there, but I was already back here in Selangor. So I had to wait until he flew in and I could get my hot little hands on it.
Isn’t it just BEAUTIFUL?
There’s a great quote from Kate Elliott, one of my own favourite authors, on the front. And they have done a really neat thing too – they have put a tiny image of the cover of Book 2 on the back.
In just two or three weeks time, all you folk over there in the UK should be able to buy it in your local bookstores. You can order it right now, in fact. You are the wonderful readers who put Havenstar on the Amazon bestseller list for a couple of weeks back in 1999, so how about giving this one a try too?
Here’s what someone wrote after reading the Australian edition of Heart of the Mirage for the second time:
Anything that is so compelling it keeps me awake until all hours when I ALREADY KNOW WHAT HAPPENS is darn good reading imo!
End of promo.
Just go order the thing, and when you have read it, don’t forget to put me out of my misery and tell me what you thought – good, bad or indifferent, it doesn’t matter. I am a writer who believes in the wisdom of listening to all feedback.
I lived the first 24 years of my life in Australia; Western Australia to be exact. Since then, the longest time I have spent in Oz was about 7 months or so, which I have done a couple of times.
I have lived, all told, about 29 years in Malaysia (18 months of that in Borneo); almost 7 years in Vienna, Austria; and two years in Tunis, Tunisia.
That’s no less than 4 continents and a very large island… So where is home?
Well, I think I found out when the West Australian Science Fiction Foundation (WASFF) invited me to be a guest at the next Swancon 2008 (which in 2008 also happens to be the Australian National Convention for science fiction and fantasy).
Quite frankly, I’m delighted to be invited to be a guest at any sff convention, but the idea that my home town issued the invitation just bowled me over.
It is especially meaningful on a number of levels:
- W.A. is where I grew up. It is “home” in that special way that no other place can ever be.
- They invited me in a year when Swancon is also a national convention.
- Swancon was the first sff con I ever went to, back in 2003. I attended knowing no one, in trepidation, thinking I would be out of place, or lonesome, or something. I was made welcome, met some fantastic people, was made to feel as if I belonged. I realised right then that I was a con junkie. If I had the money I’d go to one every couple of months…
- Because I am from West Australia, the invitation seemed to be an acknowledgment to a local “made good”, a tribute from the home team. [They may not have meant it, but that’s how it feels…don’t disabuse me, will you?]
So you folk from W.A., I am looking forward to being a guest at Swancon. Very much. Thank you for the invite. I can’t wait for Easter March 20-24! Besides, I get to meet Ken Macleod and Paul Cornell.
How cool is that?
Exploring Malaysia on this avitourism project was tremendous fun, even if I did lose pints of blood to leeches and ruin two pairs of trekking shoes and a pair of sandals, not to mention my knees. Trouble is, after the fun bit ends, you have a project paper to write. A huge project paper, sort of along the the lines of a BFF*. Ok, well maybe not that big, but still.
As I am sick of entering birding tour itineraries (for people who have WAAAAY more money than I have) into a database on a Sunday afternoon, I shall proceed to play with that lovely word-counting thingimijig. As this can’t be of interest to anyone but me, you can stop reading now.
This is for Drouthlord, first book of the Random Rain Quartet.
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|
|
147,000 / 180,000
(81.7%) |
Wow, its 81% DONE.
Nah – it lies in its wormy bronze teeth…
As I had not looked at it since 2002, I am going through it rewriting as I go. And if you look at how much I have done of that, the little thingymijig doesn’t look so healthy…
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|
|
13,002 / 180,000
(7.2%) |
Hmmm.
Does anyone but the author concerned really want to know all this?
*Big Fat Fantasy
Over at Pubrants, the site of a very sensible and entertaining literary agent, Kristin from Denver says in part:
Tip of the Day: In the course of your publishing career, know that one or all of these things might happen to you at some time.
1. A Bad cover
2. A low advance
3. A book that doesn’t quite reach its projected sales potential
4. Writer’s block while on a deadline
5. Another author being jealous or spiteful of or to you
6. An editor leaving
7. A contract cancelled
I have been receiving some commiseration about the fact that I have not signed a new contract for a new book, so I think I ought to say this – I am not upset or worried or alarmed. In the publishing world things often happen slowly. I can remember Trudi Canavan mentioning to me at one stage how she was without a new contract … and just a month or two later she was signing a 4-book contract that would make any writer’s bank manager swoon in delight.
Bad things do happen on a regular basis to authors and their books. They are just as often balanced out by the good things, as Kristin points out in her blog post.
I have an excellent series coming up with The Random Rain Quartet. It will sell.
Next month, The Mirage Makers comes out in UK with Orbit Books.
I have The Isles of Glory trilogy coming out in trade paperback in France soon.
Russian readers seem to love my stuff even if the publishers do seem capable of wildly inappropriate covers.
In Australia, the feedback coming in on the Song of the Shiver Barrens seems 100% positive.
I have more than enough positive feedback from all over the world to know that I write good books that readers love.
Hey, with all that, I’m over the moon! Who wouldn’t be happy?
I loved Kristen’s list, though. Let’s take a look at it from the perspective of my personal history…
- Bad cover
Oh, boy, yes… Bad in the sense that it gives the reader the wrong impression about the kind of book they are buying (chicklit swords and sorcery anyone?), or just plain dull (Havenstar cover).
But I’ve had terrific covers too. Just wait till you see the Orbit ones…
- A low advance
Yep, also had that one.
- A book that doesn’t quite reach its projected sales potential
Yep, all the time…but I am patient.
Besides, not every author can say that they have had some of their out-of-print mass market paperbacks selling for over 110 US$ on the US market and more than 92 pounds sterling in UK!!
- Writer’s block while on a deadline
No, I can’t say I’ve ever had writer’s block exactly. But I have had a book that just wouldn’t come out right until way past the deadline.
- Another author being jealous or spiteful of or to you
No, I can’t say I’ve struck this one yet. Maybe because I haven’t been successful enough? Generally, I’ve found other authors to be tremendously helpful and kind and generous and fun. I’ve stayed in their homes (thanks Trudi!) and had numerous invitations to do so that I haven’t yet taken up. I’ve had them publicly praise and/or promote my work for no reason except that they liked my writing (Karen Miller, Russell Kirkpatrick, Kate Forsyth, Jenny Fallon, Alma Alexander, Juliet Marillier, to name a few. Thanks guys!). I’ve had them write blurb for my books with genuine delight (Trudi Canavan, Kate Elliott).
I have heard cases where authors were less than generous to others, regarding them as competitors rather than colleagues, but my experience tells me that is rare, rather than common.
- An editor leaving
Yes. The publisher of Havenstar had a perfect rash of editors leaving.
And an editor’s departure is why my German translation of Isles of Glory is languishing.
- A contract cancelled
Hmmm…not yet. I am wondering what will happen with the German translation, though. Keeping my fingers crossed it will be rejuvenated.
Getting published is a wonderful up and down ride, never dull. I’m not complaining.
As I have said before, I belong to a book reading group that has been around, continuously, for more than 40 years.
The only member who has been there since the beginning doesn’t like fantasy. She has, however, as a special concession to me, been reading [struggling through?] my books. She didn’t much like the first, Havenstar. “I didn’t understand what was going on,” she said after reading it. “What’s with all that magic stuff? It’s not real!” Each successive book has been nibbling away at her resistance.
Nine years further down the line, she has just finished book number seven, Song of the Shiver Barrens. As usual, she approached it with trepidation. She told me that she was still saying to herself, as she sat down to begin, “Oh dear, not another fantasy I’ve got to read…”
Eight pages into the book, she found she was right back into the story and enjoying it. She reached the end, as she described it, “with tears in my eyes. Glenda, with talent like that, I think you could write anything at all.”
One of these days I will get her to admit that she likes fantasy. Another four or five books should do it, I think…