THE ISLES OF GLORY TRILOGY
THE AWARE       9780732276508
GILFEATHER     9780732276515
THE TAINTED    9780732276522

THE MIRAGE MAKERS TRILOGY
THE HEART OF THE MIRAGE        9780732281984
THE SHADOW OF TYR                     9780732281991
THE SONG OF THE SHIVER BARRENS  9780732282004


THE WATERGIVERS TRILOGY
THE LAST STORMLORD     9780732289294
STORMLORD RISING          9780732289300
STORMLORD’S EXILE         9780732289317

My last trilogy, THE FORSAKEN LANDS is published in Australia and worldwide by Hachette ORBIT, and if you can’t find it on the shelves in your local bookstore, ask them to get it in for you. (The Lascar’s Dagger, Dagger’s Path and The Fall of the Dagger.)

 
Very, very chuffed to have my latest novel (The Fall of the Dagger)
short-listed for the Aurealis Awards  (Best Fantasy Novel).

That means that every time I have
had a book eligible, I’ve had a short-listing… 10 times it must
be now? 

I love the way the SF community in Australia does so much for
authors, volunteering their time and effort — and perhaps money in lost earnings — just to say, “We love that you folk write, and we love what you write, and we’ll take the time to show you…”

 Many, many thanks to everyone. 

And yes, like every book of the The Stormlord Trilogy which ultimately won the Sara Douglass Series Award, all three of the FORSAKEN LANDS trilogy have been shortlisted for the Aurealis.


Have YOU read it yet?

Congratulations to all the
short-listed authors. And to readers: choose any of them to entertain you. They are all talented Australians.

A review from a book review site:

Ian Tregellis:
 
War looms over New France and the Brasswork Throne in THE RISING, Ian’s newest novel, which is book 2 in the Alchemy Wars trilogy. 
See more here: http://iantregillis.com/

Steven Harper:

BLOOD STORM, a new fantasy novel from Roc. The power of the shape returns, but will it bring peace or war? 
See more here: http://stevenpizikscom.netfirms.com/?page_id=16

Juliet E. McKenna:

Juliet has been putting her backlist up on Wizard’s Tower Press. Take a look!
Juliet’s webpage:  http://www.julietemckenna.com/?p=1827
Wizard Tower: http://wizardstowerpress.com/
 

The second book of THE FORSAKEN LANDS is out today.

If you haven’t read book 1, THE LASCAR’S DAGGER, look here for reviews to see if it might interest you. To my intense pleasure, it made “the best fantasy of the year” for one SFF blogger, and featured on a couple of “best-books-read-in-2014” lists compiled by book bloggers.

So what is Book 2, THE DAGGER’S PATH all about? 

Well, half of it is set on the opposite side of the world, in the spice islands of the story. That’s the Sorrel, Saker, Juster and Ardhi thread.


Back in the Va-cherished Hemisphere, those left behind (Fritillary Reedling, Lady Mathilda, Gerelda) have their own horrors to confront. 

Both sides of the known world are under threat, but the threats are very different … or are they linked? The characters have been pushed by the dagger into confronting these dangers, but how they tackle them, and whether they find solutions — that’s up to them.

 

The world of The Forsaken Lands Trilogy

Below are some photographs of some of things and places that inspired me. 


Much of the background of the story has its roots in South-east Asia where I have lived and worked  for most of my life

A morning in tropical rainforest, Malaysia

Pulau Tiga (the original Survivor island of first show)

Sabah — glorious tropical Islands

Sabah mountains

As part of the book includes the journey of getting from one side of the world to the other, I had to pay attention to sailing ships. I went on board every one I find, but the two which offered the greatest authenticity and were more appropriate to the period were two replicas found in Australia:  Dufken, below, from 1606 and the Endeavour from 1770.

Below: officer cabins on Endeavour

Endeavour replica mess

Interior of the Duyfken replica – 1st European ship to Australia

Main crew mess of Endeavour

THEY FOLLOW WHERE THE DAGGER LEADS

When sailors came to Ardhi’s island home, they plundered not only its riches, but its magic too. Now Ardhi must retrieve what was stolen, but there are ruthless men after this power, men who will do anything to possess it . . .
Sorcerers, lascars, pirates and thieves collide in this thrilling sequel to Glenda Larke’s epic fantasy adventure, THE LASCAR’S DAGGER.

 ‘Outstanding all the way to the last word.’ – Elizabeth Moon on The Lascar’s Dagger

The idea for this trilogy came to me in a flash one day …


Er, no. As for all my books, there’s no one idea, but dozens, some of them larger than others, and they came from all over the place, and not all at once. 


I suppose the main inspiration originated from my desire to write a book that drew on my experiences living in South-east Asia, something evocative of a period and a place not usually touched upon in fantasy epics. And so this trilogy is set in a fantasy world of two hemispheres, east and west, where western countries are setting out to trade with the other side of the world–and their main desire is to procure tropical spices. Think 17th-18th century Europe; think the rivalry between the British and Dutch East India Companies; think the Spice Islands of Indonesia and the impact of this contact between two hemispheres. And then think: but what if...

What if the Spice Islands had magic?

And so, being a fantasy, it’s not just about a clash of cultures, but about a clash in religious/magic systems…The trilogy’s protagonists come from both hemispheres.


“Lascar” is a term that is not very specific in its application. The word is Persian/Arabic in origin, meaning guard, soldier or more generally pertaining to military, but later came to mean a militiaman or seaman from the southern Asian region (i.e. not Chinese/Korean/Japanese). 

“Lascars” came to mean those serving on British naval ships under so-called  “lascar” agreements. The first British East India merchantmen sailing to India had lascar sailors on board. 

Many of these lascars never returned to the countries of their birth after their period of service. They became the first wave of Asian migration to Britain. Intermarriage was common. Most of these British lascar’s were from the Indian sub-continent–whereas the lascar of my book comes from the tropical spice islands of my fantasy world, a place I call Chenderawasi. 

As a sidebar: My husband’s ancestry is, in part, Minangkabau. These people have their origins in western Sumatra, Indonesia. They were often traders and sea-faring folk. It is logical to assume that among my husband’s forebears there may well have been one at least who ended up as a lascar!

Watch this site for the maps to come…