.

• Shadow of Tyr has gone to reprint in UK.
• Having attracted the attention of 2 separate publishers, the Mirage Makers trilogy has had an offer that I am accepting for foreign language rights. Shan’t say any more because I haven’t signed on the dotted line yet. This is the second foreign language for the trilogy (the other was for French rights)
• I heard some nice news from Orbit US about publicity for The Last Stormlord, which I’ll tell you about closer to the date.
• Had some fabulous news from Orbit UK also about The Last Stormlord, which I’ll also tell you about later. Over the moon about this one. *Does little dance.*
• HarperCollins Australia has submitted The Last Stormlord for the David Gemmell Legend Award.
• Have had the first signs of an interest re The Last Stormlord for foreign language rights from two different countries. Nothing may come of these, but it’s never happened so early before.
• And the whiz of a writer Karen Miller booked our room for World Aussicon in September. That’s right – we are room mates again. Yay!!

I have a marked reluctance to read the second book of a trilogy if I haven’t read the first. It’s usually tough going, and sometimes just about impossible to make sense of what is going on.

Back in 2004, books 2 and 3 of my Isles of Glory trilogy were up for consideration for Australia’s Best Fantasy of the Year Aurealis Award. I know at least one of the judges for 2004 did not read book 1 (which had been shortlisted in 2003); perhaps none of them did. I wondered at the time if that was quite fair. It is hard to judge a story when you start a third of the way in…
Be that as it may, Book 3 was shortlisted for 2004. It did not win though.

I have just read a review of The Shadow of Tyr, book 2 of The Mirage Makers, written by a reviewer who has not read book 1, over at The Bookbag. [Spoiler Warning: don’t read the review unless you have read “Heart of the Mirage”!!]

Needless to say, she found it hard going to start with, but I was heartened to see that not only did she finish it, but by the end she could give it 4 out of 5 stars and write:

“I began to see just why Larke elicits the comments she does. Once I’d got embedded into the mindset and began to find my way in this world – which is closer to ancient Rome than the usual “mediaeval” setting chosen for fantasy stories – I did begin to care about the characters. In particular Arrant – the son who appears to be as flawed as Ligea feared he might be – and his interaction with the other that takes over his mind. By the end Larke had my emotional attention. Had I started at the beginning, as one should, I’d have enjoyed the whole much more [….] She can spin a battle-scene with the power of a mirage whirlwind, and capture the stunned silence in the aftermath of a massacre.“

That was a nice Christmas present.

The other day I was in the Borders Bookstore over at the Curve in Bandar Utama, and (as authors tend to do, alas) looked to see if they had any of my books. They didn’t, at least not in the fantasy section, nor in the general novels. So I asked an assistant.

Because there were two down as unsold in the inventory, a delightfully helpful gentleman then went to a great deal of trouble to look for them. He even emailed me afterwards to tell me that even a thorough search had not managed to unearth the missing volumes. So if you go there, you are unlikely to find “Heart of the Mirage” – but I can thoroughly recommend the staff.

And I am left wondering if folk have been stealing my books. (Come on, guys, you are supposed to pay for them, you know.)

And I have just received a box of author copies of “The Shadow of Tyr”, so that title should be in the bookshops here soon. (It is already on sale in the UK and on Amazon.co.uk. ) MPH in MidValley had a stack of “Heart of the Mirage” not so long ago and some should still be there. The store in Subang Parade also had it recently. I haven’t tried Kinokuniya but I imagine it’s there too.

So happy holiday reading everyone – and don’t forget, give books as presents.

In the U.K., the date that The Shadow of Tyr should be available is 6th December. Yep, just in time to give yourself – or someone else – a Christmas present. In fact, I note it is already on sale on Amazon here.

This is the second book in the Mirage Makers, and continues the story of Ligea, although it becomes – by the end – more the tangled tale of her son, Arrant. Themes of betrayal and belonging continue against a background of war and adventure and magic.

About this time every year I say the same thing to everyone: buy books as presents. Fiction, non-fiction, whatever. Especially buy books for children. Read them to the kids. Let’s not allow reading books to die in this digital world.

One of favourite memories was waking up as a child in the sleep-out on a hot summer’s Christmas morning, and finding that Father Christmas (whom I knew had to be Mum, not Dad!) had left a book in the stocking, plus other goodies. Actually, of course, this was Mum’s way of making sure she had a bit of a sleep-in before I padded along the veranda and into the house.

I usually had the book finished before breakfast…Christmas would not have felt right without a few new books.

This post is inspired by Karen Miller’s blog the other day, when she said how she loves getting the flats for a book. (That’s the cover, already printed, without the inner pages.) She put her latest in a frame on the wall…well, I don’t think I’ll be doing that with The Shadow of Tyr.

The other day someone left something on my gate that vaguely resembled a letter. I opened it up and there it was – the flats from Orbit for The Shadow of Tyr, out in December in UK.

And here’s the picture of what it looked like, crumpled and filthy, envelope included. It had obviously been kicking around in a ditch for some time – in fact the envelope looks as if it has had a hole burned in it.

The postal pixies had obviously had a field day – especially as the letter inside was dated August…

Fortunately I had already received (safely) the whole book, so I wasn’t too upset – but one wonders about the Malaysian postal service! I suspect the person who put it on my gate was a kind neighbour who found it somewhere or other after, I suspect, the postman had not bothered to put it into the postbox properly.

Anyway, don’t forget, you UK readers – the book should be hitting your bookstores in a couple of weeks – and the cover looks a whole lot better than the above picture…