A bunch of us dark writer folk are going to be doing a group book signing there in celebration of all things… well, dark. It’s a great idea and I’m honoured to have been asked. I’ll be sharing the signing table with some truly notable writers. Joining in on the day will be Bob Franklin, Kirstyn McDermott, Jason Nahrung  and Bruce Kaplan (as well as little old me).

You’ll remember Kirstyn McDermott from this post the other day where I was talking about her new book, Madigan Mine.

Jason Nahrung is the author author of The Darkness Within and numerous short stories.

Bruce Kaplan is the author of the YA paranormal novel Jenny’s Dance.

Bob Franklin is primarily recognised as a comedian that you’ll probably know better from TV than from his writing. He’s stared in show’s like the ABC’s The Librarians or guest appearing on Thank God You’re Here. However, he’s also the author of Under Stones, a collection of “tales of unease”.

So as you can see, I’m in some stellar company. It should be a good laugh, so if you’re anywhere near Melbourne come along and join in the fun. Here are the party invite details:

12 noon ’til 1pm on Sunday 31st October

Dymocks Southland
Shop 3067/8, Westfield Southland
1239 Nepean Highway
Cheltenham, VIC 3192

Ph: 03 9584 1245

http://www.dymocks.com.au

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That concept is described on the back of the book thusly:

Humankind carries the past as invisible baggage. Thirteen brilliant writers explore this, looking at Australia’s cultural baggage through new and often disturbing eyes.

Sounds pretty cool, huh? The Table of Contents is:

Vision Splendid — K.J. Bishop
Telescope — Jack Dann
Hive of Glass — Kaaron Warren
Kunmanara – Somebody Somebody — Yaritji Green
Manifest Destiny — Janeen Webb
Albert & Victoria/Slow Dreams — Lucy Sussex
Macreadie v The Love Machine — Jennifer Fallon
A Pearling Tale — Maxine McArthur
Acception — Tessa Kum
An Ear for Home — Laura E. Goodin
Home Turf — Deborah Biancotti
Archives, space, shame, love — Monica Carroll
Welcome, farewell — Simon Brown

As my part of the blog tour, I asked three questions of a cross-section of those contributing authors. The cross-section in question being Kaaron Warren, Deborah Biancotti, Laura E. Goodin and the editor herself, Gillian Polack.

The questions were:

1. The anthology is called Baggage and explores the cultural baggage carried by people, from a specifically Australian perspective. When you first saw/concocted this theme, what was your initial reaction? What do you see as Australia’s baggage?

2. Do you think baggage is essential? Would we be better off without cultural baggage?

3. What actual baggage do you always take when you travel? What’s your essential piece of physical baggage?

Their answers are below.

Kaaron Warren:

The anthology is called “Baggage” and explores the cultural baggage carried by people, from a specifically Australian perspective. When you first saw this theme, what was your initial reaction?

I thought, Rats, so I can’t pull that zombie wishing he was a werewolf married to a vampire story out of my to-be-finished pile and submit that.

I was also struck by how many layers of thought it was going to take to get to the heart of the theme. I liked that; it’s the first time I’ve been asked to write a story based on an almost abstract idea rather than something more specific.

What do you see as Australia’s baggage?

Australia’s baggage is like the really good set you get from your friends for a wedding present if a lot of them get together and are pretty generous. The history people bring with them as well as the shared history. Ditto for culture; the things people bring and the things that have been created here.

We have some shameful baggage and plenty of heart-breaking history. I think it’s the details which hurt. I recently saw the Dunera Boys exhibition at the National Library. One item was a case full of notes and stories written on toilet paper because there was no other paper available.

Do you think baggage is essential?

I think it’s inevitable. You can’t live even the quietest life without gathering some. There will have to be hurts, bad memories, loves, losses.

Would we be better off without cultural baggage?

Of course this is impossible, but I think we are better off keeping our cultural baggage. A lot of it can be negative, with slights going back hundreds of years. Memories of murder, rumours of betrayal, who scored the best position on the boat over. These things are remembered and handed on.

But these are the things which give us substance. They are the things which form our decisions and make us different from each other.

What actual baggage do you always take when you travel?

My big brown handbag. Room for a book, some lollies, travel sickness pills, the travel documents, things for the kids to do and read, phone, diary, note pad, many pens, keys…it really is very useful.

What’s your essential piece of physical baggage?

I usually travel with husband and two kids.

Deborah Biancotti:

The anthology is called “Baggage” and explores the cultural baggage carried by people, from a specifically Australian perspective. When you first saw this theme, what was your initial reaction?

I thought it was brilliant. Australia has such a tapestry of histories I couldn’t wait to see what people had come up with, what cultures we’d find in the book. I thought it was the perfect theme for our country!
For me, though, working to the theme proved to be tough. I’ve never really related to Australia. I’ve never understood ‘what it is to be Australian’. I tell people I didn’t feel at home until I *left* Australia in my twenties. (I came back, of course, but coming back was hard.) And so for me the only way to write a story of the Australian experience – my Australian experience – was to write about homelessness.

What do you see as Australia’s baggage?

Well, we don’t have a great track record on human rights. And we’re embarrassingly good at wars. All up, that seems to suck.

Do you think baggage is essential? Would we be better off without cultural baggage?

Maybe it’s a necessary evil. Baggage can make you wise, and wisdom can stop you from being overwhelmed by all your inevitable baggage.

What actual baggae do you always take when you travel? What’s your essential piece of physical baggage?

Nowdays it’s my phone. Boo-yah for inbuilt GPS and that whole data downloading thing! How else can you find the best Mexican in San Francisco while you’re on the run, eh?

Laura E. Goodin:

The anthology is called “Baggage” and explores the cultural baggage carried by people, from a specifically Australian perspective. When you first saw this theme, what was your initial reaction? What do you see as Australia’s baggage?

When I heard about this project, I thought, “Wow. An anthology for people like me!” I’ve been an expatriate for, oh, about 15 years now [Laura is American - Alan], and I’m acutely conscious of my difference, of my non-belonging to the society in which I live. I’ve been forced to confront a lot of my cultural baggage, just in the course of learning to get through the day and do some meaningful and valuable things while I’m here. I’ve been forced to shed the assumption of rightness, that my people’s way is the way that makes sense, and everyone else’s is second-best. Of course, no thinking person consciously decides that his or her culture is, by the very fact of its existence, the one that any rational person would choose if they had the chance. It’s just that until you’ve lived overseas, you’re not compelled to decide otherwise.

Obviously, it’s not just expats who carry baggage, but host-country people as well. I wouldn’t presume to stand here and wag my finger at Australians about their assumptions and cultural preferences, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have them. This obsession with bringing back Hey Hey It’s Saturday, for example – but no! No, that’s just none of my business. You people do what you think is best. No, really. *makes surreptitious “Oh my God” faces* [In our defence, I don't know ANYONE that thought it was a good idea to bring back that show - Alan]

Do you think baggage is essential? Would we be better off without cultural baggage?

I do think it’s essential, and I find the term “baggage,” with its pejorative overtones, ambiguous at best. Rather, you can consider it “context” or “cognitive framework.” Cultural baggage is how people make sense of what they’re witnessing, thinking, and feeling. Cultures evolve because they meet the needs of a group of people (or some of their needs, anyway). That’s a strength: to have a system of thought that both meets your needs and offers you a way of evaluating what you’re going through. Of course, as my karate teacher told me once, our greatest strengths are our greatest weaknesses, and the same framework that gives us strength to get through the day in a confusing world is the framework that can limit our thinking and make us bigoted, parochial, and paranoid. That’s why being a compassionate, open-hearted traveller is such a wonderful thing to strive for.

What actual baggae do you always take when you travel? What’s your essential piece of physical baggage?

Hm. I always take more warm clothes than I’ll probably need (I have a horror of being cold). I usually take my laptop. I always, always take a notebook, a pen, and a book to read. Perhaps the most unusual thing I never travel without is my radio. It’s an AM/FM/shortwave, which means I can always listen to the cricket (joke). But, in all seriousness, when I’m in another country, or even another city, the way I key into what’s happening and what things are like for the people who live there is to listen to their radio stations. Even if I can’t understand the language, I can hear their music and at least get an inkling of their news. Radios. Radios are cool, and immediate, and random in a way the Internet is not. You take what you get with radio: no picking and choosing, no clicking until you find someone who only reinforces what you thought already. Radio can surprise you. Moreover, the batteries last way longer than a laptop’s.

Gillian Polack (editor):

The anthology is called “Baggage” and explores the cultural baggage carried by people, from a specifically Australian perspective. When you first concocted this theme, what was your initial reaction? What do you see as Australia’s baggage?

I must have seen the theme for the first time, but it feels as if it’s been with me always. Finding a way of expressing it so that other people saw what I saw: that was tricky.

What is Australia’s baggage? See my answer to the next question. It’s shared stuff. Some of that shared stuff is amazing and positive. Some of it is sad. Some of it is quite nasty. We’re not aware of it all – in fact,
we carry most of it around all the time without expressing, explaining or even understanding it.

Do you think baggage is essential? Would we be better off without cultural baggage?

Without cultural baggage we don’t have any tools for communication, for living. How do we know when to wake up in the morning? How to smile at someone we love? How to cut steak? Cook steak? Eat steak? Some cultural baggage is strongly negative, but the vast bulk of it is the stuff we carry with us all the time without even knowing. The shape of your bed; how you get out of bed; what you do when you’re out of bed: cultural baggage.

We have eyes, but it’s our cultural baggage that trains us how to use them. It’s the shared aspects of that cultural baggage that enable us to look at each other and interpret what we see in a way that enables us to live in a shared world.

What actual baggage do you always take when you travel? What’s your essential piece of physical baggage?

I always try to carry a handbag big enough to fit at least one book. If the voyage is going to last more than 3 hours, then my netbook is slipped into my handbag, all powered up, with several books loaded. I also always carry paper and pen – and I always need it, too.

Thanks to everyone above that took the time to talk a bit about their perceptions of this great collection.
Get your copy of Baggage here.

(Incidentally, the awesome cover art shown above is by the very talented Andrew McKiernan.)

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Both Kate and Belinda have a new book to promote – The Wildkin’s Curse by Kate and The Ruby Talisman by Belinda – and they’re touring the interwebz together. I was lucky enough to get them both to answer a few questions about their writing and their lives.

Which of you was published first? Was there competition there?

Kate – I would normally say that I was published first as I had my first novel Dragonclaw published in 1997 which is nine years before Belinda published her first novel, The Quest for the Sun Gem – by the time that came out I had already published 14 or 15 books. But Belinda reminded me today that she actually wrote a book that was published while I was still at university! It just wasn’t a novel. And she’s catching me up fast – I’m now working on my 25th book & Belinda is writing her 10th.

Belinda: There wasn’t so much competition as trepidation. While I had worked as a professional writer for 20 years, both my sister and brother were bestselling authors and so I wrote my first book in deepest secrecy! Kate found out I was writing it by accident and she was so excited. However I was terrified that Kate would hate the manuscript. Luckily she didn’t!!

Is writing something that runs in the family, or is it just you two that are the literary over-achievers?

Belinda: Writing definitely runs in the family! Not only are my brother and sister authors, but there have been writers in our family for about 180 years. Our great-great-great-great-great grandmother Charlotte Waring wrote the first children’s book published in Australia. My grandmother was an English teacher and with our mother, always fostered our love of books, poetry and writing. She used to tell us the most wonderful, romantic stories about history, our family and Scottish folklore full of adventure and brave, feisty heroines. She would talk to us about Shakespeare and Tennyson, Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters.

Kate: Charlotte Waring’s book was called A Mother’s Offering to Her Children by a Lady Long Resident in New South Wales [Surely one of the best titles ever! - Alan] and it was published in 1841. It’s an amazing book – the first time Australian flora and fauna was described in a work of fiction, the first time Aborigines were described, the first recount of Eliza Fraser’s experiences after her shipwreck… it’s really appalling that she is not more celebrated. Then her daughter Louise Atkinson was the first Australian-born woman novelist and the first Australian female journalist… there’s a flower named after her!

What’s your ideal writing space/environment?

Kate: I love my study! It’s painted pale green and is lined along two walls with bookshelves laden with books on history and witchcraft and folklore and literature. The third wall is hung with framed covers of my books and a map of Middle-Earth and a map of Narnia. The fourth wall is a huge picture window that looks out across my garden, through the peach tree to the harbour and the ocean. It’s a lovely place to work. However, I am very used to working anywhere at any time – in bed at 4am, at the airport, on a plane, in the park while my children play, with my notebook on the bench while I cook dinner…

Belinda: I have a beautiful office now, full of books, with a fireplace and a view over the garden. But while I was away travelling with my family for two years, I wrote in many beautiful and wild places – in the Kimberley in far north Western Australia, in the Scottish highlands, on the verandah of a friend’s cattle farm, on outback stations, in Margaret River…

Where do you get your inspiration?

Belinda: Life! My children. Travel. Things that happen all around me, every day…
I was inspired to write The Ruby Talisman because my family and I spent two years travelling and having adventures together, including a wonderful sojourn in France. We explored the gorgeous French countryside on horseback, by foot and on board an old fishing boat. We even crawled down into the dank, dark tunnels under the streets of Paris where the aristocratic bones were tossed of those murdered during the revolution. The French Revolution seemed an ideal period in history for a book of deadly danger and exhilarating adventures!

Kate: I find that ideas come to me all the time – I can reading a magazine (or a jewellery catalogue like I was when I first got the idea for The Puzzle Ring) or staring out a car window or reading a book on Cornish folklore or walking past a creepy old house… and then I’ll begin to wonder… I think the main difference is I see these moments of wondering or imagining as the seed-bed for a story while most people would just be distracted for a moment and then keep on walking.

I think that’s something true of all writers – we see the potential for a story in everything.

Do you help each other out with writer’s block or sticky plot twists?

Kate: We talk about what we’re doing a lot, and often find just by talking it out we come to the solution… or one of us will say something really quite obvious that sparks an idea. I remember with The Wildkin’s Curse I was bothered about my final scene and Belinda said, ‘Well, what can your hero do that no-one else can?’ and at once my brain was off and running, and my sticky problem was fixed!

Belinda: Kate and I tend not to read each other’s manuscripts until they are finished – we find it’s better that way. We do help each other in so many other ways, whether talking through a difficult plot problem that is bothering us, helping to look after each other’s children or giving each other a stern talking-to, when we are doing too much, or getting stressed from juggling the many demands of motherhood, career, family and writing.

Is there still competition between you both?

Belinda: In a sense, we can be quite a competitive family. But we usually celebrate each other’s successes and are very supportive of one another. The keenest competition can be when we discover (yet again) that there is some quirky similarity between the two books we are writing at the same time. For example, with our latest books we discovered we had both called our heroines Tilly, so we had to negotiate a compromise – I won!

Kate: Sometimes we ring each other and say, ‘How many words did you get done today? Ha-ha, I did more!’ But it’s only ever as a joke. And we’d only do it if we knew the other one was writing happily away and not stuck or busy on other things. This week we were teasing each other because our books were the No 1 & No 2 bestsellers at a bookshop – and the bookseller was too scared to tell us which was which in case whoever was No 2 would be upset. But of course were both thrilled – both for ourselves and for each other.

Belinda: Yes – it turned out Kate was the number one bestseller, but I was nipping at her heels! I was only one book sale behind!

Does it help that you’re both writers? Can your success help to influence the other’s success?

Kate: A writer can really only forge their own success. It didn’t matter how many books I’d written or how many millions I’d sold, no publisher would have taken on Belinda just because she was my sister. They took her on because her books were so good! And people buy them because they’ve read her earlier books and loved them. Customer satisfaction and word of mouth is what sells books, not who you’re related to!

Belinda: It can actually be a hindrance – Kate’s agent refused to take me on because she thought it was too incestuous! Actually, in many ways it does help. Kate has definitely been a wonderful mentor to me, and has taught me so much about how the industry works. In other ways it made it harder, because Kate was so successful that I was very naive about how difficult it actually is to get published. I thought all authors sold hundreds of thousands of copies of their books!! But that too was an inspiration because I thought if Kate can do it, so can I!

Tell us a bit about your current release.

Belinda: The Ruby Talisman is an exciting time slip adventure where my modern day heroine, Tilly, falls asleep wearing an old ruby pendant and is magically transported back in time to the glittering and opulent court of Queen Marie-Antoinette and King Louis XVI. Tilly wakes up in Versailles on July 14th, 1789, the day the peasants storm the Bastille, sparking violent uprisings against the aristocrats all over the country. Tilly sets off on a series of terrifying adventures throughout France to help her aristocratic ancestor Amelie-Mathilde escape the dangers and chaos of the French Revolution.

Kate: The Wildkin’s Curse is a tale of true love & high adventure, set in a world of magic & monsters, valiant heroes and wicked villains. It tells the story of two boys and a girl who undertake the impossible task of rescuing a wildkin princess from a crystal tower.

Princess Rozalina has the power to enchant with words – she can conjure up a plague of rats or wish the dead out of their graves, she can woo a cruel king with her stories and, when she casts a curse, it has such power it will change her world forever.

The Wildkin’s Curse is a book about the power of stories to set us free.

Thanks so much to you both for sharing this stuff with us. If any of you out there are interested in learning more about Kate and Belinda you can check out their websites. Belinda’s site is here and Kate’s site is here. You can also watch the book trailer for The Wildkin’s Curse here – one of the best book trailers I’ve seen.

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Q. How can I get Neil Gaiman to make an appearance at my school/convention/event?

A. Contact Lisa Bransdorf at the Greater Talent Network. Tell her you want Neil to appear somewhere. Have her tell you how much it costs. Have her say it again in case you misheard it the first time. Tell her you could get Bill Clinton for that money. Have her tell you that you couldn’t even get ten minutes of Bill Clinton for that money but it’s true, he’s not cheap.

On the other hand, I’m really busy, and I ought to be writing, so pricing appearances somewhere between ridiculously high and obscenely high helps to discourage most of the people who want me to come and talk to them. Which I could make a full time profession, if I didn’t say ‘no’ a lot.

I think it’s important to remember that Gaiman is an author. He writes awesome fiction that has millions of fans around the world. That’s what he’s famous for, that’s what he’s clearly very, very good at and that’s what his fans expect of him. Gaiman is also an incredibly hard working writer when it comes to tours and promotions. I don’t think there’s a harder working writer in the business and his success is at least in part due to this commitment to promote his work. And Gaiman doesn’t always charge his fee – there are things he’ll do for free as part of that commitment.

Any writer will tell you that marketing and promotion are harder work and take more time than the actual writing process. That’s as true for a relative nobody like me as it is for a giant like Gaiman. On his website, Neil has further commented on the issue. The key point of that post for me was this:

The main reason I got a speaking agency, ten years ago, was because too many requests for me to come and speak were coming in. And the speaking requests were, and are, a distraction from what I ought to be doing, which is writing. So rather than say no, we’ve always priced me high. Not Tony Blair high, or Sarah Palin high (last time I read about them, they’re about $400,000 and $150,000 respectively). But I’m at the top end of what it costs to bring an author who should be home writing and does not really want a second career as a public speaker to your event.

So if you want to pay me to come in and talk, it’s expensive.

Cory Doctorow weighed in on the Boing Boing post with an long, interesting comment that ended with this:

Anyone who asks me to leave the continent for a talk gets a friendly, hand-written, personal note explaining that I can only do this for a ridiculous amount of money; that I’ll consider lowering my fee a little if they can’t make it, and that I’ll cheerfully add their institution or group to the list of people to come speak at for free the next time paid work brings me to their neck of the world (I pay someone to keep track of this).

And then, like Neil, I do a ton of free talking: I’ll do sf conventions where I’m guest of honor for free (of course); I don’t charge any of my publishers to tour with my books (of course — but this takes me to 4 or 5 countries a year for a month or two’s worth of travel); I do EFF, ORG, and other civil liberties groups’ events for free (of course). I also attend one or two professional events at my own expense every year and speak for free (of course), such as the WorldCon.

All told, I probably spend a little more time on on the road than I would truly like to, maybe 20-30%. But most of the time I really enjoy seeing people, talking about stuff I care about, raising money for causes I support, etc. It’s a fun deal. That said, I also dearly want to spend more time at my desk and more time with my family. Like everything in life, there’s a trade-off, and I’m thankful every day that I’m lucky enough to have a trade-off between two such pleasurable alternatives.

So before people start railing at Gaiman for being a prima donna or for acting like a superstar, it’s best to get all the facts. The truth is that Gaiman is a superstar and he’s in high demand. He’s also really busy, always touring and appearing and, fundamentally, should be writing. I’d rather get more writing from Gaiman and less touring around, but I’m selfish like that.

It would certainly be amazing to be in a position to not only have Gaiman’s literary success, but also his profile which gives him such clout and allows him to earn enormous sums of money. It’s encouraging to all us starving artists out here. But let’s give Neil the last word on all this and it’ll show what a bollocks storm in a teacup it all really is:

I was asked if I’d come and talk at Stillwater, and be paid $40,000. I said, “That’s an awful lot of money for a little library.”

“It’s not from the library. It’s from the Legacy Fund, a Minnesota tax allocation that allows the library to pay market rates to bring authors to suburban libraries who otherwise wouldn’t be able to bring them in. They have to use the money now as it won’t roll over to next year and expires next month.”

“Ah.”

Well, that seemed fairly simple. They’d already booked a number of other authors. They had the money sitting there and were happy to pay me my rack rate. Either they gave the money to me or it went away – it couldn’t be used for anything else. And, most importantly, the dates worked. Another week and I would have had to say no, as I would have been away writing. But I got in from Chicago that morning. I said yes.

I figure money like that, sort of out-of-the-blue windfall money, is best used for Good Deeds, so I let a couple of small and needy charities (one doing social work, the other library/book based) know that I would be passing the money on to them, after agents had taken their commission, and did not think twice about it.

More power to your elbow, Mr Gaiman. Keep doing what you’re doing.

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AB – Hi Kate. Thanks for dropping by to talk about The Puzzle Ring.

KF – Hi, Alan. Thank you so much for having me!

AB – Firstly, the descriptions of Scotland are very vivid. I’ve spent a lot of time there myself and was utterly convinced by your storytelling. What sort of connection to Scotland do you have, if any?

KF – My grandmother’s grandmother Ellen Mackenzie emigrated to Australia when she was only a young girl. It’s a really sad story. She and her sister lived in a grand house on the Black Isle in the Scottish Highlands with their parents, but her father was drowned in a dreadful storm and her mother died a few days later (we think whilst in child birth, her baby dying with her). Ellen and her sister Jane were sent to Australia by their uncle, who inherited the estate (we always thought he’d done it illegally, but sadly I think girls were not permitted to inherit under the law of the day). Ellen Mackenzie was a grand storyteller who used to tell her children lots of stories about Scotland, which in time came to be told to my sister and me. We knew more about Scotland than we did about Australia! It began a lifelong fascination with all things Scottish, which I was able to draw upon in writing this story. I went to Scotland with my husband and my three children and stayed there for a month, visiting all the places described in the book.

AB – You clearly did a lot of research into faerie mythology for this story. Was that difficult or a labour of love?

KF – Oh, absolutely a labour of love. I really do enjoy researching, I think it helps you make all sorts of serendipitous discoveries (like Mary, Queen of Scots giving her husband Lord Darnley a ring just hours before he was murdered).

AB – Is faerie mythology something you’ve been interested in since you were a girl? Was it exciting or disappointing to learn that faeries are not the nice little sparkly things at the bottom of the garden after all?

KF – I’ve always been interested in fairy lore, and of course it is woven into many of my books in one shape or another. I used to search for fairies in the bottom of my garden when I was a little girl – in fact I wrote them lots of letters begging them to show themselves to me. However, I also used to look for a doorway into Narnia in the back of wardrobes. What was disappointing was never finding that doorway, and never seeing a fairy for myself. I’m still looking.

AB – Yeah, me too! Don’t give up. You also use the actual history of Mary, Queen Of Scots, to great effect. Which came first, the desire to write a story around Mary, or the story of Hannah herself?

KF – The puzzle ring came first. I read about the history of puzzle rings in a jewellery catalogue and thought at once what a wonderful idea it would make for a quest story. I had it in the back of my mind for a long time, wondering to myself ‘but WHO would search for a puzzle ring and WHY?’ Then I discovered ‘The Book of Curses’ (that is its actual title!) in a second-hand book shop. I say down on a stool and opened it, and the pages fell open on a chapter on a famous Scottish curse, called the Seaforth Doom. I read that chapter, sitting there in the gloomy, cobwebby old shop, and at once thought, ‘Yes! A curse … I could write a book about a girl who must search for the lost puzzle ring because it’s the only way to break a curse!’ I at once began to develop the story in my mind. In the story of the Seaforth Doom, a warlock called Kenneth casts the curse on the Mackenzies of Seaforth (my own clan!) which takes another few hundred years to come to pass. He had a magical hag-stone which enables him to see things no-one else can see. That first made me think about setting the story in Scotland, though I did play with other ideas for a while. There are lots of ancient curses in Scotland, though, and the richest fairy lore in the world, and so I ended up deciding to set the story there. It took me a while longer to settle on Mary, Queen of Scots – I played around with the idea of having each loop of the puzzle ring in a different period of Scottish history for a while, but I prefer to write in long sustained narrative, rather than lots of short stories. Gradually I circled in on Queen Mary, and then on a period of six months in her tumultuous life. Once I had my story planned, the writing came very easily to me, it’s almost as if it wrote itself.

AB – This certainly seems like a book targeted at a young adult audience, particularly girls. Was that the intention? What are your thoughts generally on fiction for young folk?

KF – I always know exactly who I’m writing for when I’m writing a book. I tried to write the sort of book I would have loved to have read when I was 11 or 12. That is one of my favourite age groups to write for, because they are old enough to have a sophisticated story told in sophisticated language, but young enough still to willingly suspend disbelief. I remember vividly the books I read at this age, and I believe they helped shape me into the person I am now. I want to write the sort of books that children will carry with them forever after.

AB – I think you’ve certainly achieved that with The Puzzle Ring. Are we likely to see any other stories about Hannah and her friends?

KF – I have an idea for a sequel that I’d like to write one day. I’m working on another story now, though, so it might be awhile.

AB – So what’s next on the agenda from you?

KF – I’m just proofreading a YA fantasy that is due to be published in May. Called ‘The Wildkin’s Curse’ it is the sequel to my earlier YA fantasy, ‘The Starthorn Tree’. And I’m about one-third of the way through writing the third in the series, to be called ‘The Starkin Crown’.

AB – Great, I’m sure there’s a lot of folks out there looking forward to those. Thanks, Kate!

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This interview and my review of The Puzzle Ring are part of Kate’s Blog Book Tour. You can see the previous stop on the tour at The Book Bug and the next stop will be at I Want To Read That tomorrow.

If you’d like to win a copy of The Puzzle Ring, leave a comment on this post with your thoughts about the book, the review, the interview or anything else. We’ll pick a random winner from all the people that comment.

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Like other construction workers, we creators of word worlds own toolboxes filled with necessary implements. We have hooks to hook the reader, glue to glue their attention, a feather or two to tickle their funny bones.
We find nails to nail our points and hammers to hammer them home. We find nuts and bolts to connect our story elements and trowels with which to lay a concrete foundation. And we find pliers for getting the attention of agents and editors, because we all know that task is as difficult and painful as pulling out our own teeth. (Word of caution: Do not use pliers on said agents/editors. They might take offense and refuse to look at your work.)

We need awls and augers (maybe even augurs) to poke holes in our inflated prose, and we need saws to cut away the deadwood. And we definitely need screwdrivers to screw up our courage and we need screwdrivers to drown our sorrows when agents/editors/critics shoot us down again. (A bulletproof vest would also come in handy, but they are too bulky to fit in the box, and besides, they make our clothes fit funny.)

But the most important and versatile tool of all is the chisel. We can use it to knock the chip off our shoulders. Perhaps you’re right and agents/editors are idiots who can’t recognize good prose. But perhaps they are idiots who can recognize good prose, and you’re not writing it yet. (Notice I say you? I, of course, write excellent prose. Agents/editors just don’t recognize my good prose when they see it.)

Chisels will help keep criticism and compliments at more than arm’s length. Too much criticism can kill creativity; too many compliments may keep us from improving. And we can all improve.

A chisel will help pare away verbiage, those superfluous words and elements that blunt the clear lines of our prose. For example, I chiseled away excess from the phrase excess verbiage, since it’s redundant. Verbiage by definition is excess.

And a chisel will help us shape our story into a world so vital and inviting readers won’t be able to tear themselves away.

So, let’s open our toolboxes and get to work.

You first.

Pat Bertram is a native of Colorado and a lifelong resident. When the traditional publishers stopped publishing her favorite type of book — character and story driven novels that can’t easily be slotted into a genre — she decided to write her own. Daughter Am I is Bertram’s third novel to be published by Second Wind Publishing, LLC. Also available are More Deaths Than One and A Spark of Heavenly Fire.

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You can read the article here.

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Thanks Ruth!

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To sum up there were eleven posts overall, but one was a no-show. The tour was scheduled with ten guest spots on ten different blogs, but I was fortunate enough to have Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords.com, interview me about the tour just prior to the start, so we had an early kick-off. The no-show was supposed to be a review of MageSign by Ruthie’s Book Reviews, but Ruthie is having computer problems. Hopefully that review will show up in a week or two. I’ll list all the stops of the tour again at the end, with direct links, so you can catch up on anything you might have missed. The tour was a lot of fun and hopefully generated a lot of interest not only in my books but also for the owners of the blogs that took part.

In terms of stats, I can report a few bits and pieces.

* Around the middle of the tour the sales rank for the print edition of RealmShift on Amazon.com peaked at around the 93,000 mark. For a book that usually floats between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 this is quite a good result.

* More impressive, Kindle sales of RealmShift were up 200% in July compared to the two previous months. MageSign Kindle sales remained much the same as previous months. Hopefully those RealmShift sales will result in people coming back to buy MageSign at a later date.

* As for Smashwords sales of ebooks, these were a little lower than I’d hoped for. With the special $1 offer on I’d hoped to make more sales. However, RealmShift had about a 30% spike in sales and MageSign about 50%. Proof that stats are pretty arbitrary and largely utterly random. Ghost Of The Black, my free novella on Smashwords, doubled its total downloads during the tour.

Of course, it’s impossible to tell how many of these sales were the result of the tour compared to general ongoing web promotion or anything else.

As for web stats, this site saw a 50% increase in visits for the period of the tour and people stayed on the site for nearly twice as long as the previous average. A couple of other participants have told me that they had their highest hits for the month on the day of their book tour post, with the exception of newly released baby pics. What an outrage, publishing new baby pics in the same month as my book tour. Who can compete with that? One participant reported ten times their usual hits for the day they hosted my post, which is excellent news.

So that’s about all the detailed info I can give you about the tour. It was hard work to organise, but definitely worth it. I’ve also learned a lot, so when I tour the next book I’ll hopefully make it even more worthwhile. Here’s a quick rundown of all the posts on the tour. These links are live direct to the relevant article:

Early Opener – Interview about Blog Book Tours at Smashwords

Day One: Guest post: Dark Fantasy – What is it exactly? – at The Creative Penn

Day Two: Interviewed by Leticia Supple – Tues 21st July at Brascoe Books Blog

Day Three: Guest post: Writing a good fight scene – Wed 22nd July at David Wood Online

Day Four: Interviewed by April Hamiltion – Thurs 23rd July at Publetariat

Day Five: Guest post: Demons and where to find them – Friday 24th July at Joan De La Haye’s blog

Day Six: Wily Writers publishing my short story “Stand Off” (featuring Isiah, the protagonist from RealmShift and MageSign) as both text and podcast – Sat 25th July at Wily Writers website

Day Seven: Ruthie reviews MageSign – Sun 26th at Ruthie’s Book Reviews – hopefully this will come up soon.

Day Eight: Pat Bertram interviews Isiah, the protagonist from RealmShift and MageSign – Mon 27th July at Pat Bertram Introduces…

Day Nine: Guest post: Indie authors and the future – Tues 28th July at Musings Of An Aussie Writer

Day Ten: Guest post: The inspiration for RealmShift and MageSign, what they’re about and what’s next – Wed 29th July at The Furnace

These are some really great blogs listed above, so check them out and have a look at what else they have on offer while you’re there. And don’t forget to find out where you can get RealmShift, MageSign and Ghost Of The Black at the Books page.

So, what did you think? Did you enjoy the tour? Any suggestions for things you’d like to have seen but didn’t? Leave me comments if you have any opinions, good, bad or indifferent.

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Sorry for the interruption

I just wanted ot let you all know that I am still here, but due to having my computer down for the next two weeks – I have limited usage and time with a computer until then.

In two weeks, I will be back with Quote of the Days!! and more reviews! So please do not leave me, as I am not leaving you. Stupid computer!!!!

LOL

Anyways, I got a sec to tell everyone this, so please stay tuned. I will be back!

Crikey that’s a lot of exclamation marks. So that would explain the elusive Day 7 of the the tour. Hopefully Ruth will post the MageSign review when her computer woes are past and I’ll be sure to let everyone know when she does.

Meanwhile, on with the last day of the tour. To wrap things up I’ve got a guest post at The Furnace, the very interesting blog of Lord Shaper, where I talk about what inspired the novels RealmShift and MageSign and what’s happening next. (I should also point out that I mention the new book at the end of that article. I can confirm here that I have started writing that new book, I’m very excited about it and there will be the occasional cameo of old friends).

So, let’s wrap this thing up with:

Blog book tour Day 10 – The Inspiration for RealmShift and MageSign at The Furnace.

Don’t forget that for the duration of the tour (until July 29th) you can get ebook editions of both RealmShift and MageSign for just US$1 each. This is an offer exclusive to Smashwords. The beauty of that is that Smashwords offer the books in a variety of formats, including Kindle friendly .mobi editions.

To get your special priced copies all you have to do is enter a discount code at the checkout. This will change the price from the usual US$3.50 to a special price of US$1. Go here for RealmShift and enter code ZR95S at the checkout; go here for MageSign and enter SF97B at the checkout. And don’t forget that you can get my novella Ghost Of The Black: A ‘Verse Full Of Scum from Smashwords for free all the time. Click here to grab your copy of that. Please spread the word about this special offer and hopefully lots of people will take advantage of getting two novels for just two bucks. Can’t say fairer than that.

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