Karly Lane - What's Coming

Karly Lane has written us a fantastic post about the next book that is due in December this year. If you love Australian Fiction, then keep an eye out for it!

It’s been a huge three years for me. In 2011, my first novel, North Star, was released and I thought life couldn’t get much better. Finally my dream of becoming published had been fulfilled and life was great….but then in 2012 I had two books released, Morgan’s Law in May and then Bridie’s Choice in December.

I can’t begin to tell you how much of a thrill it is to see my book babies on the shelves and the support I’ve had from readers and book stores has been beyond amazing. I’m so happy when someone emails me to tell me how much a story has touched them in some way. It makes me smile to think that someone, other than me, now knows my characters and that for a little while, they’ve been important to them.

I’ve been busy writing two more books due for release in 2014 and 2015 so there’s plenty of Karly Lane books on the way. I’m also writing under Karlene Blakemore-Mowle and have been kept busy, releasing four books last year and three more during 2013.

So what’s next? Well, I’m glad you asked! This year I’m releasing what I think is the book that is probably going to be the closest to my heart. At this stage it’s titled Poppy’s Dilemma, but please don’t let the name fool you—despite it sounding like a light hearted

chick lit read—it’s anything but. The backstory in this book is based on a real life event that happened in my town just after WW1 between a returned veteran and a young local girl.

It’s such a bitter sweet story. I was given a newspaper clipping of the event that was quite tragic and as soon as I read it, I knew I had to write a story about it. While researching this book I came across real letters written by the soldier while he was away fighting in France and Egypt and through these letters I was able to make my fictional character so real that I think I may just have developed a bit of a crush on him!

The official blurb hasn’t been written yet, but here’s a brief outline of the book just for you guys.

Poppy Abbott thinks her life is pretty near perfect. She has a great job, no strings and the freedom to pick up and leave whenever life becomes too boring…until the night she makes a big mistake.

Poppy’s been putting off packing up her grandmother’s house but with things becoming unravelled in her professional life, she decides that now may be the perfect time to head out to Warrial and finally face the dreaded chore, once and for all.

When she finds a diary that belonged to Maggie Abbott, a spirited young woman from 1914, in her Gran’s things, Poppy soon becomes captivated by the story which unfolds between its pages before ending abruptly, leaving a mountain of questions unanswered.

While searching for answers about her mysterious relative, Poppy also discovers a few things about herself and finds love in the most unlikely of places.

I’ve loved writing this story and I hope you guys enjoy reading it when it comes out in December.

Karly. 

Karly Lane lives on the beautiful Mid North Coast of NSW in Australia. A certified small town girl, she is most happy in a little town where everyone knows who your grand parents were. She writes women’s fiction – everything from romantic suspense to family sagas and life in rural Australia. She has romantic suspense titles published with The Wild Rose Press and Eternal Press under Karlene Blakemore-Mowle and her latest release, North Star is available now. 
A wife and mother of four children, working part time as a pathology collector by day, she manages to squeeze in her writing whenever and however she can. She is a proud member of the RWA Australia.

Planet Elephant Book Trailer - Tammie Matson

From the jungles of Borneo, to the civil strife of Assam, to the black markets of Vietnam, Dr Tammie Matson continues her quest to help reduce the human-elephant conflict around the world. In this follow-up to her bestselling memoir Elephant Dance, Tammie takes on the black markets of Asia determined to make a difference and break the chains of rhino-horn poaching and the illegal ivory trade. Travelling from her new home in Singapore throughout South-East Asia, she meets presidents and traffickers in palaces and tourist markets, journeying to the dark heart of a dark industry. Returning to her beloved Africa, she finds old friends facing rough times and elephants and rhinos on the brink again. And torn between her passionate commitment to conservation and her precious growing son, Tammie faces her biggest challenge yet, balancing work and family. Thought-provoking, funny and moving, Planet Elephant is the continued story of one woman's courage and conviction.

Author Interview - Aprille Legacy - Soul Fire

We asked author Aprille Legacy to tell us how she got started with Soulfire.

Rose Evermore has lived in Ar Cena her entire life. Despite this, she still feels like an outsider, like a shoe that doesn’t quite fit. Halfway through her eighteenth year, she begins to notice changes around her, such as the fact that she has a stalker who can hold fire in his bare hands, or the dreams that she can turn into reality.

After a series of mishaps, Rose finds herself in an alternate realm, brought there to hone the magical power she was born with. Even here, though, Rose feels set apart. The Academy Masters treat her differently than the others. Her assigned soul mate avoids her when he should be working with her. Despite all this, Rose begins to grow into something no one could’ve seen coming; a hero.

With her, nothing is as it should be, and she decides to find out why. Soon she discovers that not everything about this new world is what it seems.

Least of all her.

Soul Fire began to build itself in my head shortly after I turned sixteen. A year later I couldn’t ignore it anymore, and started writing it out in full. Instead of doing homework in Year Twelve, I would sit on my laptop for hours, writing a story that was just for me and I never intended anyone else to see it. It took me about nine months, but in October 2009, the first 50,000 word draft was completed. I buried it for two years as I kind of gave up on my dream for a while. I was working full time and I just couldn’t see that dream ever becoming a reality so I let it go for a bit.  

About a year later, I posted the first chapter of the Soul Fire draft to a website called Goodreads and the response I got was overwhelming. Within three months of posting it up, Soul Fire was the most liked unpublished work of all time. Encouraged by this, I set to work on larger, better planned out draft which I completed in November 2012 after leaving my job in Victor Harbor and moving to the city. With a completed draft in hand I set about half-heartedly looking at some of the larger publishers, but I couldn’t find one that suited what I wanted to write (adventure, pure and simple). 

So in May 2013, I decided that self-publishing was the way to go, after talking to some of my author friends and investigating the process. It’s been almost two months since I officially released Soul Fire and the journey has been amazing and scary and wonderful. It’s been interesting working out how to go about being a self-published author, but having my book on my bookshelf and readers eagerly anticipating the sequel has made it all worth it.

Aprille Legacy is a twenty something who currently resides in Adelaide, South Australia. She lives with her best friend and has an addiction to fortune cookies; there's something reassuring that comes from boxed wisdom. She was also halfway through a BA until she saw something shiny.

Come and see Aprille on August 10th at 1.15pm for National Bookshop Day at Collins Booksellers Edwardstown! 

Book Review - Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects by Christie Golden

Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects by Christie Golden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am still loving the lore of this world. It is nice to see a side of Thrall that we don't usually get to see. It is also fun reading about the instances where I have played. All in all a very good book and I can't wait to read Jaina's book next.

View all my reviews

Reviews By You - The Summer Gang by Cornelia Funke (Reviewed by Gina)

The Summer Gang by Cornelia Funke

Charlie, Hannah, Izzie and Xa meet up and decide to become a gang, called the C.H.I.X. after the first letters of their names. They soon find another gang called The Piranhas and the rivalry begins. Will the C.H.I.X. and The Piranhas finally make up, or will they keep on fighting?

The main character in The Summer Gang is Charlie, the leader of the C.H.I.X. This summer, her strict grandma, who usually has Charlie doing chores all around the house, is leaving for her sister’s house for a bit. Charlie is being left on her own in the house. But when Charlie invites the C.H.I.X. to her gran’s house, things get much more exciting…

I really liked The Summer Gang because it was very clear and detailed. This helped me understand the story better.

People who like adventure books would love The Summer Gang because this book is nothing but adventure, adventure and adventure!!!

Reviewed by Gina (9 years old)

Reviews By You - What the Raven Saw by Samantha Ellen-Bound (Reviewed by Shine)

What the Raven Saw by Samantha Ellen-Bound

Father Cadman is a very friendly priest. He is a great friend to the raven but a so-called lie made them enemies. This is a book about how the raven comes up with an amazing plan to reconstruct the friendship between the raven and Father Cadman.

I liked the part when the raven helped Todd the ghost make his living sister happy by setting out bottle caps in the shape of a T on his grave. It was a nice thing to do and it really made me wonder how good it would be if dead people could somehow communicate with us.

The raven is the main character in this story and he has the special power to talk, see and communicate with dead people which living people can’t. In the book, the raven uses his intelligence to the greatest of his abilities to help win back the friendship of Father Cadman, the gentle priest who was once the raven’s best friend -using a few friends-dead and alive.

I liked this book because it had a special and unique idea and Samantha-Ellen described the actions and feelings of all the characters in the book with really appropriate words. With well-chosen vocabulary, it had the power to change the way a reader thought about different animals, great and small.

Many people, especially older children will like this book. It describes many of the raven’s encounters with different people and their unique situations and how he resolved them. I highly recommend this book to children of all ages. ‘What the Raven Saw’ is a beautiful story that can touch someone’s heart.

Reviewed by Shine (12 years old)

Reviews By You - Lina's Many Lives by Sally Rippin (Reviewed by Gina)

Lina’s Many Lives by Sally Rippin

Lina is trying to help in the school magazine, but Sarah Buttersworth, a mean girl, makes her life as miserable as can be. Meanwhile, Mary, a good friend of Lina’s, gets completely caught up with her new television, and Lina finds herself in a knot. Added to that, Lina’s mum doesn’t seem very well. Can Lina overcome all these problems, or will her decisions spell trouble?

The main character in Lina’s Many Lives is Lina. She, unlike her family who were born in Italy, was born in Australia. Lina wants to be a writer or a journalist, but she believes her family will not like her to. She believes her father wants her to study medicine or law. However, when her father shares some family secrets with her she finds that everything is not quite as it seems.

I found Lina’s Many Lives quite touching. It is great for children and adults because they learn many things about life in 1956 and if you were Italian, how you would be treated.

I think that people who are passionate about writing or want to be a journalist would like this book. This is because Lina liked writing and wanted to be a writer, so you can share the same dream. Also, if you have had similar experiences to Lina, you would like this book because you would know that other people had been through what you have.

Reviewed by Gina (9 years old) 

Reviews By You - Red Samurai by Tiffiny Hall (Reviewed by Amber)

Red Samurai

This book is Roxy Ran’s second adventure about her sister Electra. Electra has started to develop her powers and Roxy is trying to help her out with going through her Ninja transformation.

In this book I liked the fact that you get to see Electra’s soft side towards Roxy and see her down. It’s not like Book One where Electra is the mean sister who doesn’t want anything to do with Roxy. They’re not actual events in the story but they’re my favourite parts of the book.

The main characters in this book are Roxy and Electra. Roxy is a Gate Two Person and her sister Electra is a Gate One Superstar. Nearly everyone in gate one likes her because she’s “cool.” Roxy is the white Warrior and Electra is the complete opposite to her.

The book is amazing and the only thing I hated about it was that it ends with a cliff-hanger and the final book doesn’t come out until the end of the year. There’s also a surprise about Electra at the end. Tiffiny Hall is a great author and her writing really does make you feel like you’re walking in Roxy’s shoes. There were some parts that made me laugh and others where I didn’t want to put the book down. I’d give the book an eleven out of ten.

People who have time to stop and read for a while will like this book because you won’t want to put it down. I also think people who like ninjas and fights will love this book.

Reviewed by Amber (12 years old)

Author Interview - Jo Spurrier 'Black Sun Light's My Way'

Jo Spurrier was kind enough to answer some interview questions when she came in for a signing.

Tarran - What drives you to write?

Jo - I have always been making stories up in my head and I have been telling them since high school. I wanted to see if I could do more with them.

Tarran - How did you come up with the idea for your novels?

Jo - The three main characters and basic storyline came first then when I was on disability, the overall story came together and I started to write it.

Tarran - Do you have a name for your computer?

Jo - No. All the computers are named after colours. My husband is a software engineer and it was his idea.

Tarran - Who is your favourite character and why?

Jo - Rastin, because he is the villain and by some measure the most interesting to write.

Tarran - Do you read a lot?

Jo - I don't read as much as I would like too. When I do read, I like to read fantasy and non fiction.

Tarran - Who are your favourite authors?

Jo - Katherine Kerr, Robin Hobb and Iain M Banks

Tarran - Do you have any advise for getting started?

Jo - Be persistent as it takes a long time and work. Be prepared for knock backs. Also, don't feel like you have to work on the same novel all the time. If you are having trouble with one, work on another and that may give you the inspiration to make the first one better.

Tarran - Do you have any 'real life' people in your characters?

Jo - No - all are made up.

Tarran - What's next?

Jo - I am working on another series. Think, India/Greece city states with magic as technology. There is a lot of research to be done.