Wednesday, February 06, 2008

A refurbishing

A slight revamp of ol' Monster Blog Tattoo - as you can well see. What might have occasioned this you are probably NOT asking. Well, partly it is because I am a restless soul, but also I thought I might have a little graphical celebration at some good news.

Out of nowhere I recently learnt that MBT Book 1: Foundling has been short-listed for the 2008 Festival Awards for Literature (winner to be announced at Adelaide Writers’ Week in March). Huzzah!

Other titles in the Childrens Literature Shortlist include (from a total of 212 entries):
  • Home by Narelle Oliver (Omnibus Books)
  • Don’t Call Me Ishmael by Michael Gerard Bauer (Omnibus Books)
  • Macbeth and Son by Jackie French (Angus & Robertson)
  • Danny Allen Was Here by Phil Cummings (Pan Macmillan)
  • The Worry Tree by Marianne Musgrove (Random House)

Good news for us all and too for those authors making it in the other categories. It also means that my ANZ publisher Omnibus Books (my original publishers) have three of their authors in the short-list, so huzzah!s all round I reckon.

Also there is a MySpace now for MBT. It has been set up by my US publishers, Putnam. Being a novice to MySpace (dare I admit it) I am not sure yet what we'll do with it all but I hope I'll see you there sometime soon.

So things small and some what larger are afoot.

19 comments:

Meg said...

I sincerely hope you win and offer my heartiest congratulations! I just reviewed Lamplighter for SFReader and am anxiously waiting for Book 3... no pressure or anything :o)

Femina said...

I'm sad to say this layout doesn't seem to work too well in Firefox. The side panel with all the links appears to the side but it's below all the blog posts. If you didn't scroll down through all the posts you wouldn't know it was there.

Hey, is there a Facebook page for MBT? I'm not on MySpace but I'm possibly a little addicted to Facebook...

Anonymous said...

DM,
Pretty wild revamp of the site!
I love the new artwork.
I'm at page 160 of LAMPLIGHTER (been horribly busy with stuff, ergo no time to read) and still enjoying it greatly. I'm sensing a very big reveal coming up.
My wife is now searching our condo for FOUNDLING, as she's become intrigued with the art she's seen in LAMPLIGHTER.
all best,
Drew

Tea Oli said...

I was, in fact, wondering to what we owed the new-and-improved graphics on the page. I wasn't going to ask -- sometimes it's best to just sit back and enjoy -- but since it has been acknowledged... Wahoo!! I think it's lovely!!!

Congrats on being shortlisted.

Tea Oli said...

oh yeah, Drew,

For some reason, I have three (THREE!) Foundling lying around the house.

Just thought I'd point that out.

jamiew1288 said...

I agree with Femina about Facebook. MySpace is slightly passe, but Facebook is MAD addicting.

Also, I have Firefox, and I see Europe just fine (she looks awesome, actually).

Femina said...

I could see Europe fine, it was the side bit I couldn't see, with the polls and links etc. Well, I could see it but I had to scroll through all the blog posts first. However, someone appears to have done something to fix it because it's fine now. Perhaps it was just my crazy computer...

D.M. Cornish said...

Well Drew I sure hope you find that lost volume of Book 1 - it's probably feeling all scared and lonely. It is rather gratifying to have the illustrations actually intrigue someone enough to have them want to read the books. You do things not commonly done because you just love the idea and have a hunch others might too.

As to the fixes on the site, well femina that "someone appears to have done something to fix it..." is actually me. Feeling very proud of my phearsome blog-craphting skilz! ;\

No pressure, Sophrosyne! Now I'll be anxiously awaiting the review (ack!) I am working on Book 3 even now (well not right now... obviously I am doing this), I am wrestling with all the consequences and implications of Book 2.

Even though I have spent so long coming up with ideas of how the Hc works, writing an actual narative in it demands a much deeper figuring. A challenge that at times I hate and more often I love.

How is it Tara that you have 3 copies of Foundling? (Well, I should talk...)

Facebook, hey jamiew1288. Hmm... How badly do you want Book 3 written? I have meddled with my wife's Facebook and burnt up more time than I care to admit. As to being on Myspace, well talk to my US publishers about that - they sprung it on me this week.

D.M. Cornish said...

Oh, and thank you for the compliments jamiew1288: the Branden Rose acknowledges your attention.

Anonymous said...

Hey good luck with the festival awards, DM! I doubt that you'll need much luck though. :)

Awesome picture of Europe by the way. She's quite fearsome indeed. I don't think I'd much like to encounter her in a dark alley! :P

Anonymous said...

Good morning, all!
Found FOUNDLING in about ten seconds last night. My wife never suspected it was beneath an innocent-looking pile of newly acquired mass market paperbacks. (In other words, lurking there, waiting to be... found.)
Kat has been cautioned to be careful with this ARC; she tends to read the daylights out of her books, such that some require mercy killing afterwards. I'd rather buy her her own copy than see this one read to pieces.
Am making good time on LAMPLIGHTER now, hope to have my proto-review as early as next week.
all best!
Drew
PS, Tara... three copies? Yoiks!

Anonymous said...

PPS, Kat's intrigued at the thought of a fantasy that is neither "Tolkienesque" quasi-Middle Ages nor modern/urban. She's very eager to start on FOUNDLING, now that it's been located.

Rowan Dodds said...

Congrats! That's great news. - I like the new look blog too. very pretty, especially the beautiful parchment.

Anonymous said...

well betied you DM
verry nice dm im inpressed the page looks great and ofcorse you made the short list
long time since the last momment from me but school ect has been keeping me awway

D.M. Cornish said...

The Foundling has been found! - just as it was destined to be, with a name like that.

Welcome back, master giantfan long time no see... stinking school always getting in the way. What are they thinking, you've got to learn or something..?

Tea Oli said...

Drew

I swear I started treatment for my book addiction long before Foundling came out. The reason I have 3 copies is simple:

I lent one to my editor's young son, and he "misplaced" it for a very long while (10 months! the kind reads almost as many books a week as I do, and he kept it for 10 MONTHS!), so I bought a new one. Then, an ARC of the paperback edition arrived at the office. Except, I didn't actually look at the cover. I took it home, thinking it was Lamplighter (at last!) and called my boss (she was out that day because the kid was sick) and excitedly told her about it.

The next day, I delivered the sad news that I actually had a copy of the first MBT book and she sadly delivered the news that the kid was returning my first copy because he was convinced the excessive reading, and then waiting (for a sequel), and then rereading, and then waiting, and then more rereading, etc., is what had made him ill.

It's not wise to argue with a sick 10-year-old.

( d.m. Just a note: Young Brandon (nearly 12, now) recently refused to share his thoughts on Lamplighter. "I hate D.M. Cornish," he told me.
I pointed out a few things that might have frustrated the 9-year-old he was when first got his grubby hands on Foundling, and asked if they were what had turned him off. Not so. "It was a great book," he protested. "I just hate D.M. Cornish, now." I guess he still blames you for that tummy bug.)

D.M. Cornish said...

"Hate" is it, tara? Dem's strong words - anything I can do to make it up to Sir Brandon?

Drew said...

Tara-
wild story! I understand it completely... and consider myself immensely lucky to have been sent an ARC (completely out of the blue) by Putnam. Lucky me!
And yes, DM, my wife has FOUNDLING where she can keep an eye on it, until such time as she can begin reading. (She does book reviews too but reads far more slowly than I do.)
Speaking of which...
I'm almost done with LAMPLIGHTER and have LOTS of opinions and speculations (none of which I could post here)... but am eager to get to the review. It should be up on my blog soon (Sunday?) and in SFRevu's April issue.
You'd be right in assuming I am enjoying it tremendously.
all best!
Drew

Tea Oli said...

d.m. You were once a nearly-12-year-old boy. I've never had the pleasure. I find their minds nearly impossible to navigate.

I suspect, however, the dear child will relent the moment there's "nothing to read around here!" "Here" in this case being my editor's house. (Schoolbooks don't count, according Brandon.)