Guest Post - Hidden: Writing After Cancer

Blog Tour - Hidden

Writing After Cancer
Guest Post by Marianne Curley

  

Writing After Caner

I was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer just weeks after finishing the final revisions for The Key. The doctor put me in hospital immediately for a stem-cell bone marrow transplant. I had only weeks to live.

Thankfully, the transplant was a success, but during my third week in hospital I experienced a fall onto my back, and because the chemotherapy treatment made my bones brittle, the fall was devastating. I lost three vertebrae and quite a few inches in height. I couldn’t concentrate because of the chronic pain, and the medication they gave me to ease the pain made me sleepy.

The first year after the fall and transplant I could do little but recover slowly and build my strength up again. I had to be careful of germs and watch how I moved for fear of the pain that would sear through my back and down my legs with every movement.

Eventually the crushed bones of my vertebrae settled into place and the number of tests I needed for my transplant reduced to once every three weeks, allowing me to make the seven-hour trip home to Coffs Harbour. During this first year at home, combined with the return trips to the hospital every three weeks, I couldn’t hold my concentration long enough to write squat.

But I was grateful to have made it through the transplant, thrilled to be alive and I couldn’t wait to get back into writing. I struggled through my sleepiness to write two manuscripts over four years. Unfortunately, they haven’t made publication, but they showed that I could write. It was a matter of hitting on the right topic, creating the best characters and producing a strong, vibrant story.

So how has my battle with cancer affected my writing? I would have to say it has made me more determined to succeed, and it has given me an insight into life that not everyone gets to experience (thankfully!)  Cancer also helped me feel a whole gambit of emotions, from utter despair and hopelessness to a sense of utopia and nirvana. I now have an insight into some of life’s hardest experiences, fears and deepest emotions, which has created a rich and profound well of memories to draw from.

 

Follow the Hidden blog tour on facebook @
Hidden Facebook page.

Find out more about the book Hidden @
Hidden Bloomsbury Australia page.

 

Google Hangout & Giveaway - Hidden

Blog Post - Hidden

Marianne Curley Google Hangout
& Giveaway

Hidden Google Hangout

Hidden by Marianne Curley is out today and Bloomsbury Australia has put together a Q&A with the author Marianne Curley.
Watch and enjoy!

Hidden Giveaway

For those lucky enough to be in Angel Place in Sydney today, Bloomsbury Australia's own Angels will be giving away copies of Hidden to celebrate its launch.

Follow the Hidden blog tour on facebook @
Hidden Facebook page.

Find out more about the book Hidden @
Hidden Bloomsbury Australia page.

 

Guest Post - Dance Of Shadows: Sisterly Love

Blog Tour - Dance Of Shadows
 
Sisterly Love
Guest Post by Yelena Black

 

Sisterly Love

There is nothing like the relationship between siblings. They can be incredibly close, or completely distant. Your sister or brother can be your best friend, or even your worst enemy. (I’m thinking specifically of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? or even, to a slightly lesser extent, the character of Louise and June in Gypsy.)

The bond between siblings is undeniable. Although I don’t have a sister, I do have an older brother … and often times he is my refuge and companion when my parents are acting crazy and I don’t what to do, or when something bad—or extremely wonderful—happens in my life. We have a special connection, and I wanted to write about a character who also had that kind of connection with her older sister. (I.e. explore a happier sibling dynamic than the ones in the above-mentioned films.)

In Dance of Shadows, Vanessa’s older sister Margaret is also a dancer—and she goes missing from the New York Ballet Academy, the very same school that Vanessa is about to attend. For Vanessa, Margaret was the person she always looked up to: she was a caring, kind sister and a talented dancer. She and Margaret were extraordinarily close, so when Margaret disappeared, it broke Vanessa’s heart.

Vanessa doesn’t want to believe that Margaret is dead, and so finding out what happened to her sister gives Vanessa a drive, and raises the stakes for her—she must find out what happened to Margaret because she cares about like her no one else does in the entire world.

In my own life, I have seen friends come and go, relationships begin and end … but family is always there, for better or for worse. This is true in Vanessa’s case as well, and it is why I wanted to include sisters in my story. Vanessa’s love for Margaret is what drives her passion and her sense of curiosity … and I hope it drives yours as well when you read the book!

 

Dance Of Shadows

 

To uncover the mystery behind Margaret's disappearance
and discover more diary entries visit the
Dance Of Shadows Facebook page.

To find out more about the book Dance Of Shadows
and its author Yelena Black visit the
Dance Of Shadows Bloomsbury Australia page.

  

Guest Post - Dance Of Shadows: Margaret Alder's Diary Entry

Blog Tour - Dance Of Shadows
 
Margaret Alder's Diary Entry
Guest Post by Yelena Black

Where is Margaret Alder?

  

Not too long ago, Vanessa was informed that her sister Margaret had run away from the New York Ballet Academy. The school said Margaret left NYBA because of all the pressure, but Vanessa knows that her sister wouldn't give up on her dreams like that.

After driving down to New York City to look for her, her parents found pages of Margaret's diary in her dorm room. Vanessa is convinced that if she can find more of these entries she will discover something about her sister's disappearance.

  

Margaret's Diary

  

Dear Diary,

Another day, another creepy exchange with Anna and Chloe. They pointedly were doing their warm-up stretches right behind me, talking loudly. (They are about as subtle as bricks, these two.)

Anna:         You know, I’d really love to have some light reading.

Chloe:        You mean like a novel?

Anna:         Maybe. Or, you know, a, like, reality book.

Chloe:        Oh, you mean like a journal!

Anna:         Right. Like a diary! The one I’m thinking of would be covered in, like, orangey leather, and have a tiny little locked clasp.

Chloe:        Locks like those, you just look at them funny and they pop open.

Anna:         Or you drop them on the ground, and oops! The clasp broke!

Chloe:        You may as well post your innermost thoughts on a blog.

Anna:         Or Facebook.

Chloe:        Because really? There’s no such thing as privacy.

There’s only one way they could know about you, Diary. I am going to kill Maddy.

xoxo

Margaret

Dance Of Shadows
  

     

To uncover the mystery behind Margaret's disappearance
and discover more diary entries visit the
Dance Of Shadows Facebook page.

To find out more about the book Dance Of Shadows
and its author Yelena Black visit the
Dance Of Shadows Bloomsbury Australia page.
  
 

Blog Tour - Blood Storm

Blog Tour - Blood Storm

The Blood Storm Cover
Guest Post by Rhiannon Hart

Blood Storm - Cover

  

The cover of Blood Storm features the same cover girl as Blood Song, a young woman from the States called Ana. She takes photographs of herself that she posts free online, for use by digital artists. One such artist created the gorgeous darkened forest scene that you see on Blood Song.

For the Blood Storm cover, I'm not exactly sure who worked on the photo to turn it into Zeraphina with her hair blowing in the wind and that gorgeous detail on the dress, but I think it might have been the designer, Astred. She developed four cover concepts, two in which Zeraphina is standing on the deck of a boat and two where she's standing in a desert. The desert scenes were lovely, one dark blue and the other in the golds and pinks of dawn. But lovely as they were, they didn't go with the "storm" in the title. One of the boat scenes was a possibility, but looked a bit funny. The other was really great, with it's pointy prow and stormy sky with the stars peeping through. Best of all, it was reminiscent of one of the scenes of the book, as the cover of Blood Song is. But it still wasn't perfect.

Astred went through dozens and dozens of pictures of boats, looking for exactly the right one. It was hard, as there aren't a great deal of pictures taken from the perspective of someone standing on the deck of a boat, and one that is also ye olde in appearance. So the boat, much to my disappointment, was scrapped.

When I was finally presented with the cover almost as you see it now, it took a while for me to love it. But the more I looked, the more it grew on me. The crashing waves were very beautiful, and Zeraphina did look like she was standing on the shore, which she never quite did with the boat covers. Then Griffin was added, and I fell in love with it completely. And that's the story of the cover.

Blood Storm Chapter 1

Rhianna Hart - Author

  

Rhiannon Hart remembers writing before she could read, puzzling over the strange squiggles in Jeremiah and the Dark Woods by Janet and Alan Ahlberg and putting her own words in their places. Her first love was Jareth the Goblin King at the tender age of eight. She wrote fan fiction in high school but she'd never admit to it out loud, so don't ask. When she's not reading or writing she is belly dancing, chasing after other people's cats, or putting the pedal to the floor at her sewing machine. She grew up in north-western Australia and currently resides in Melbourne, where she works in marketing. Rhiannon has been published in the Australian Book Review, Magpies and Viewpoint and blogs at http://rhiannon-hart.blogspot.com/.

Thanks to Rhiannon for all your hard work in putting together this blog tour.

For the next stop on the
Blood Storm Blog Tour
tomorrow visit
The Eclectric Reader.

Blog Tour & Giveaway - The Interrogation Of Ashala Wolf

Blog Tour - The Interrogation Of Ashala Wolf

About Ashala Wolf (The Book)
 

"There will come a day when a thousand Illegals descend on your detention centres. Boomers will breach the walls. Skychangers will send lightning to strike you all down from above, and Rumblers will open the earth to swallow you up from below ... And when that day comes, Justin Connor, think of me."

Ashala Wolf has been captured by Chief Administrator Neville Rose. A man who is intent on destroying Ashala s Tribe - the runaway Illegals hiding in the Firstwood. Injured and vulnerable and with her Sleepwalker ability blocked, Ashala is forced to succumb to the machine that will pull secrets from her mind. And right beside her is Justin Connor, her betrayer, watching her every move. Will the Tribe survive the interrogation of Ashala Wolf?


About Ambelin Kwaymullina (The Author)
 

1. Who is your favourite author and why?

Oh, that’s hard – I have so many favourite authors!  But in the world of fantasy, my favourite author is Michelle Sagara West. I read anything she writes, and love everything she writes, for a thousand reasons – the depth and complexity of the worlds she creates, the strength of her characters, and the beauty of her writing. Her books are ones I go back to time and again, and read over and over. Each time I pick them up I discover something new, and find myself reflecting on a different passage, or thinking about a character in a way I hadn’t before. They’re like old friends who never let me down.

2. What are the books/stories that have influenced your writing style and choice of genre?

I’ve always read science fiction and fantasy, and I’ve always loved the way sci fi/fantasy books explore possibilities, both the dreams and the nightmares of what human beings could be. I think the dystopian field attracted me because it captures both my worst fears and my greatest hopes. In a dystopia, the world has ended, in war or environmental cataclysm or nuclear Armageddon. But humanity, somehow, has survived. Life has triumphed, despite humanity’s worst qualities, and at least some of those who remain are trying to make a better world than the one that was lost.

One of my favourite writers is Lois McMaster Bujold, and most especially anything she writes about that manic genius, Miles Vorkosigan. In one of Lois Bujold’s stories, Miles talks about expanding borders to infinity. To me, sci fi and fantasy is the genre that lets us expand our borders – as writers, readers, and human beings, showing us the possibilities we could never imagined if we’d stayed within the boundaries of the world-that-is.

3. From where do you draw your inspiration to write?

From my characters. They are real, to me; they have stories that demand to be told, and I can’t let them down. I have to write about them, to do my best to accurately convey who they are, how they feel, and the world that they live in.

4. Without giving too much away to those who have yet to read The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf, what scene was your favourite part to write about and why?

Huh. That’s hard to pick an absolute favourite! But I think probably anything involving Jaz. Because I always knew, at any given moment, what Jaz thought and felt, and what he would say. That made it a joy to write scenes with him in them, because I didn’t have to spend a lot of time trying to figure him out. He just leapt onto the page, generally taking over any portion of the novel he appeared in, and I could carry on with the story.

 The Interrogation Of Ashala Wolf
Giveaway

Want to read this engrosing tale yourself?
Simply send an email to larissabookgirl(at)gmail(dot)com.
One entrant will be chosen at random to win a copy of this new book.
Be sure to include your name and postage details.
Open to Australia and NewZealand only.

 

Thanks so much to Peta at Walker Books Australia for all your hard work in putting together this blog tour, and thanks to Ambelin Kwaymullina for taking the time to answer my questions.

For the next stop on the The Interrogation Of Ashala Wolf Blog Tour
tomorrow visit
Alishia's Treasured Tales for Young Adults.