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Shame
This is one reason why there are times when I am ashamed to admit I live here.
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See here for an interview with me as part of the Australian Spec Fic Snapshot. (Try saying those last 3 words fast six times…)
And take a look at the other snapshots of my fellow writers while you’re at it. Interesting bunch they are too.
Thanks to Tansy and all the other bloggers who have been putting the snapshots up. Love y’all!
Some reviews mean more than others. This one does for several reasons.
Firstly the reviewer is a talented writer in his own right. (Folks, he wrote Never the Bride! He writes Dr Who books!)
Secondly he’s understood exactly what I set out to do when I wrote this story.
And thirdly, he has mentioned me and Tigana in the same review. Oh. My. God.
You can read the whole thing here.
Extracts from Paul Magrs‘ review of The Last Stormlord:
I spent almost a week inside the first volume of Glenda Larke’s new Stormlord series and I really feel like I’ve visited an arid and frightening and wholly convincing land… and I’ve loved very minute of it.
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This is a splendid set up. A large cast is assembled: lords and ladies, peasants, painters, warriors and orphans. We move so easily from one to the next and – unlike in so many unwieldy fantasy novels – we’re never in any doubt who we’re with and why. We always know what’s at stake for the characters and there are – even in 600 pages – no long, dull stretches of exposition. This book keeps moving and tumbling from one fantastic set-piece to another.
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I love all the textures and close-up details of this… the vividness of all that red dust, and the deliciousness of the prized drinking water… the evil chittering and buzzing of the deadly insects…
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Go on, read the whole thing. Better still, read the whole book. You know you want to.
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Every published writer battling deadlines and plot problems, late payments and imprints that fold, copy edits and reader mail overflowing the inbox, one star reviews or no reviews at all, will relate to this:
“Speaking to unpublished writers is like speaking to couples pregnant with their first child; it’s very hard to get them to look past the birth scene into the 18 years that follow.”
—Margo Lanagan (see the whole interview here.)
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Some time ago I mentioned that The Last Stormlord has been submitted for the David Gemmell Legend Award for Fantasy (2009).
If you want to vote for it, or some other nominee, go here to sign up. The books proposed are here.
If you want to talk about the book, or comment on its appropriateness for this award or otherwise, then go to this forum page.
If you want to know more about David Gemmell and his writing, then go here. In fact, before voting, you really ought to read this page anyway. This is not just a popularity vote; it is the hope of the organisers that winning books will reflect the aspects of a fantasy novel that David’s writing emphasized.
I am not sure when the voting closes, but probably the end of March.
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…from the birdwatching part of our trip. This taken in the rainforest at Mary Cairncross, north of Brisbane. The animal is a Red-legged Pademelon Thylogale stigmata. A marsupial a bit smaller than a wallaby.
When someone first said, Look out for the Pademelons,” I was confused as I heard it as “paddy melons” – which my mum and dad used to call a species of melon we grew on the farm, mostly as animal feed, although my mother made gorgeous jam from them too.
I just love this one. If you look closely at the gemstone on the scabbard, you will see a scene that those who have read the book will recognise.
This is a book that was voted one of the 10 favourite novels from the first 10 years of publications by Harper Voyager Australia.
Just to keep you entertained while I write – another photo from Qld. Self, Trudi Canavan and Matthew Farrer, photo by Donna Hanson. And what a lovely bookstore. I would have liked to walk out the door with half their stock…