Category Archives: Ramble

Shiny new book covers

14 Saturday Jan 2012

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Is there anything more exciting for an author than seeing their book covers for the first time?  How about seeing those same books get a second lease on life with brand new covers?

I’m in author-blissland gentle readers because my Shadow Through Time trilogy is about to be re-released as eBooks with shiny new covers which I just adore!  Momentum Books have done a sterling job of capturing the heart of the books: romantic fantasy that’s a cross between Alice in Wonderland for grownups and Excalibur.  Can’t wait for the launch next month!

   

Happy New 201Two

31 Saturday Dec 2011

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Last day of the year.  It’s traditionally a time for people to create resolutions for the coming year, but I’d like to suggest something that comes first:

Gratitude

Whether 2011 was a great year or a crappy year for you, I’d like you to take five minutes out to be grateful for what’s going well in your life right now: for what’s beautiful, what’s honest and what’s good.  A rowdy child’s laughter.  The purr of a cat.  The soft colours of sunset.  A beautifully sculpted sentence – yours or someone else’s.  The scent of cut grass.  A hug.  Look at where you are right now, and feel how lucky you are, especially compared to people in other parts of the world.  Food.  A roof over your head.  And so much more.  Don’t sweat the small stuff because the big picture is awesome!

Life is too precious to be wasted on regrets, lost dreams or failed hopes.  Make new dreams!  Take chances, and live.  But never forget to be grateful, for therein lies the road to happiness.

Camp Twitter vs Camp Facebook

18 Tuesday Oct 2011

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No need to read to the end.  I’ll tell you straight up.  I’ve fallen hard for Twitter.

In the brave new world of social networking it’s a bit of a love triangle, with those of us who want to engage with our readers picking our platforms.  And I’ll freely admit I stuck with Facebook far longer than I should have.  We could have parted company while we were still on civil terms.  But I was too “I don’t get Twitter,” to even try it, so I hung around at Facebook with my personal profile and my author page, trying to engage with the tsunami of information (often duplicated) being uploaded by my peeps.  I’d sigh when the feed rolled out, daunted by the distinction between ‘top stories’ and the others, which were clearly ‘not top stories’ although I couldn’t work out why.  I liked these people.  That’s why I’d . . . liked them, so why wasn’t I getting all their stories?  Why was my feed top heavy with “popular” people.  And who decided who was “popular” anyway?

It was like being back at high school!

Anyway, in the end I just needed some time apart.  You know.  Not breaking up.  Just a break.  I had to open a Twitter account sooner or later because all the authors were expected to, but I had no clue that within a fortnight I’d be spellbound.  I mean, it’s so quick!  There’s no picture-heavy feed to wade through, and every single post is short.  Of course, everyone knows that.  140 characters, right?  But it’s not until you start interacting inside the format that you realise how awesomely fabulous that brevity is.  Refreshing doesn’t begin to describe.  I just felt . . . at home.  Really.  I just relaxed right in.  People found me.  I found people.  It was like being at a convention or a conference where you know “your people” are around somewhere, so you just settle at the bar with a scotch and chat to whoever’s there.  They’re sharing pics of their new puppy (and btw, having a new window open for every link is gold), so you can say, “Aw, check those floppy ears,” or if you’re feeling particularly clever you can say “got a bit of a Yoda thing happening there,” or when you want to slap your connections card down you can say “Oh yeah, Tara’s got a puppy like that.  You know, Tara Moss.  We share the same agent.”

Actually, I have no idea what sort of pet Tara has, but I’m just tossing it in there.  Then before you know it someone else comes along, someone you know and then you’re exchanging info on upcoming book launches or who’s had a new cover arrive, or a book deal, and it’s just so relaxed.  So cool.  So understated.  There’s no try-hard thing happening.  Well, not after the first fortnight.  You’re allowed a few “well I thought it was funny” posts as you settle in.  And it’s easy.  The set up is intuitive.  The posts are quick.  The conversations funny.  You get to meet people.  Really meet them, who they are, what they’re interested in.  Not their ‘author’ persona.  Just them.  Eating raw cookie dough.  First swims of summer.  Kids birthday parties.  Crazy hangovers.  Sleepy goodnights.  Boring stuff.  Funny stuff.  Interesting stuff.  Insightful stuff.

Real stuff.

I don’t know all the techno details about Twitter.  Can recommend Alan Baxter’s blog So you don’t understand Twitter? Read it before you get started.  But do.  Get started.  It’s fun.  You’ll love it.  And if you follow me (I’m @Louise_Cusack)and sit at the bar I’ll shout you a drink.

Promise!

P.S.  Just because Twitter gets the girl, doesn’t mean that Facebook is out in the cold.  I’m hanging in there.  I know there are readers who love it.  But don’t forget Goodreads.  It’s AWESOME too.

A significant day

28 Wednesday Sep 2011

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Had one of those days yesterday you wait a decade for.  I signed a three book contract with Pan MacMillan’s digital publishing arm Momentum Books.  Early next year they’re re-releasing my first fantasy trilogy “Shadow Through Time” into a worldwide market.  My first eBooks.  My first time as an International author.

Back in 2001 when those novels were first released as print books into the Australian territories, eBooks were a novelty and I had no idea that a decade later the world would be awash with eReaders, and that you could walk into BigW and buy a Kindle.  Of course I’d dreamt of an International readership.  I think most authors do.  But the print books hadn’t sold overseas, and after a while they went out of print.

Am I allowed to give myself credit for never giving up on them?  For loving those characters and knowing that readers who’d never met them would love them too?  I’m sure you’ll give me permission for that.  In a way this deal is like being a mother and watching your child fulfil their potential, because it’s painful for a writer (or a mother) to give up on people they’ve created, and it usually only happens when it hurts too much to hang on.  Here I can thank my mother for my perseverance.  From a young age I saw her dealing with our out-there family and I realised she simply would not allow herself to give up on a child, no matter how badly they might behave, how they might disappoint her or not live up to her expectations.  I grew up with the example that you love them still, dammit!  And you hope.

So I loved my characters.  And I hoped.  And I dreamed.  I kept dog-eared printouts of fan emails, and when I felt low I’d read them and think, “These guys loved my characters.  It’s not fair to give up on them.”  I shared my despairs and my moments of inspiration and elation with my writing buddies while I wrote more books and tried to get them published, and I weathered the well meaning inquiries of family and friends wondering “Whatever happened to those books?  And when are new ones coming out?”

Well now I can answer that question.  The trilogy that was so well received in Australia is about to step onto the world stage and within six months I’ll be getting fan emails from readers in countries I’ve never even been to.  Exciting doesn’t begin to describe, and the books I’ve written in between are now lined up ready to slot into various publishing markets.  In a weird way it’s like water behind a dam wall.  It just takes one breach to let everything behind it flow out.

So yesterday was significant for me.  Not just because I signed a contract for the first time in a decade, but because it taught me probably the most valuable lesson in my life so far: faith is rewarded.

Just that.

Never give up.

Are all writers stationery sluts?

24 Wednesday Aug 2011

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Or is it just me?

Apologies for the opening crudity, but is there another word that describes so comprehensively the lascivious way writers behave in a stationery shop, let alone if there’s a sale on?  Forget Christmas, we want the Back to School sales.  Fondling journals, cooing over different coloured copying paper and insisting on trying out all the pens for the right feel.  It would be downright obscene if it wasn’t such a guilty pleasure.

The level of excitement it generates is almost sexual, and in fact one writer admitted to me that she’s told her boyfriend a trip to Officeworks counts as foreplay.  I kid you not.

These are the tools of our trade, sure, but is that any reason to get so excited you buy post it notes in bulk packs more suited to a corporate office?  Notepads.  Dear lord.  When they have sales of Spirax I get dizzy. There are so many sizes, thicknesses, and some have pockets at the back.  How can I possibly know which ones I’ll need for which project?  There’s no option but to buy a couple of each type.

Envelopes.  Ahhhhh.  Is there anything more beautiful than those pearlised baby-pink envelopes with the matching A4 paper?  Perfect for composing love letters on.  Assuming you have a love.  One day.  And so here’s a thought, maybe it’s more about the anticipation of using this stationery that makes writers stock so much of it.  Pens!  Every time a new type hits the market I want to try it.  The pens I already have are fine, and really, an ordinary Bic will do when you’ve got a brilliant idea and the need to scratch it down.  But is there anything nicer than curling up in the corner of the airport bar with your Moleskin notepad and a sparkling Swarovski crystal pen to document your journey?  I think not.

Then there are Padawans learners who come to us seeking the arcane knowledge of how to write a stationery list, a highly advanced discipline only used by those writers with the greatest self control.  A dying art to be honest.  A dead art in fact.

So is this is a girl thing, or are male writers equally afflicted?  And do readers have stationery fetishes?  Why do we do it?  Is it all about the writing?  Or is there some couch we should be lying on to talk about our troubled childhood…?

Feedback definitely required.