Book Plates and other Fun Stuff

Like all needy writers I have a Google alert out on my writing name and King Rolen's Kin, the name of my trilogy. I woke up this morning to an alert letting me know that some nice person has created a KRK facebook page.

Lovely surprise! Last time I looked 6 people liked it. So, if you've read my KRK trilogy and liked it, drop by.

Back to book plates. I don't know if they help sell books. I signed 500 of my KRK book plates and sent them to my publisher. (There was a sale on 1000 book plates for $80, which seemed pretty reasonable to me). I have a background in graphic art and creating a book plate is fun for me. It was only after I had them printed that I realised I'd forgotten to put my name on them. Sigh ...

Then another of my friends had a book come out. Tansy Rayner Roberts' new series is called The Creature Court. It's s daring mix of romanesque festivals and the roaring 20s, set against a dark threat and shape shifting Creature Lords. Tansy is part of my ROR group so I offered to do a book plate for her, too.

As you can see, I remembered to put the author's name on the book plate this time!

Then another of my writing group had the first book of his Death Works series come out. So I offered to do a bookplate for him. Trent Jamieson's series is about an ordinary guy called Steve, who works for corporate death, helping people's souls pass on. It's fun urban fantasy, set in Brisbane. (Trent's name appears in the web site address this time).


And lastly, because I obviously don't have enough to do with my spare time, when Marianne de Pierres' collection of short stories came out, I offered to do a book plate for her. Glitter Rose ( Think surreal, sensual fantasy crossed with SF) was a small paperback limited edition book, so the book plate's dimensions had to suite the book.

In the past I've done book marks. And I've always created my own business cards with my book covers on them.

Does having a book that has a signed book plate in it make the book special for you?

Do you keep book marks? I guess if you have an e-book reader you don't need one.

Aurealis Awards

Jack Dann and myself at the Awards.

Jack had just been given the Peter McNamara award for his contribution to the the speculative fiction genre. That's why he looks a little stunned. Jack can talk under water and this is the first time I've seen him reaching for words.

Brisbane turned on the heat and humidity for the awards so all the people from down south (in Australia that's closer to the Antarctic) were fanning themselves saying How can you bear this?

It was a great evening. The nice thing was that no one was told if they'd won so everyone was genuinely surprised. Richard Harland told me he was 99% sure his book wouldn't win the Picture Book section, but just in case he and Laura Peterson (the illustrator) sent me a speech. I was concentrating on my bit as the presenter of the fantasy awards, when I heard Richard's name. I madly scrambled to find the speech in my bag, in the dark and darted out there to accept the award for them. Honestly, the whole event is so glitzy and professional with the big screen up the back, that if I hadn't grown up with the awards, I'd feel intimidated getting up to speak.


Here's Trent Jamieson and I. His story 'Crack' won the YA short story section. It's a real buzz to see Trent win. This is the second time he's won an Aurealis for a short story. Trent's been part of the VISION writing group almost since it started and part of the ROR writing group. I've read his latest manuscript and it's so inventive, it's sure to sell. So he'll be making the jump from published in short stories to published in novels, soon. My fingers are crossed for Trent.

As you can see, I had my hair straightened for the night, not counting on nearly 100% humidity. It's very hard to be glamorous with blonde ringlets, let alone taken seriously!

Well, the Aurealis Awards are all over for another year. Back to the real world of meeting deadlines and trying to steal time to write in between driving children to school and part time jobs.


Cheers, Rowena