What we call the end is the beginning

This is the first week I’ve had off in a looong time.  The past few months have rocketed along, and the busy-life stuff was a bit wearing, but I am absolutely not complaining – I still can’t believe I get to do this book business as a job.  But yeah – it’s been busy!

First of all, we had the book launch for EVERY MOVE.  Thank you all so much for coming along, or lending support, it really was an amazing night – I don’t think we even had so many people at the launch for EVERY BREATH – and Readings Carlton did a super job.  I got to meet a bunch of bloggers, vloggers and fans!  They are all so gorgeous!  A blogger from North America actually sent her uncle to the launch, to get an early copy of EVERY MOVE (hi, Yash!), which was pretty incredible, and I think I was signing for about an hour and a half, wow.  Adele Walsh was THE BEST – she made a wonderful speech for the launch, which you can find here, and because it was her first launch, she was about as nervous as me!

I didn’t get to say hi to everyone, which is pretty normal, but I always feel bad about it – if I didn’t get to grab you on the night, please know that I would’ve liked to, and I appreciate you took the time to come along.  And if you’d like to relive the glory of the night, it’s right here in two vids – one is from Miranda at Books101, and one is from Rachel and Annette at Tome Travellers (thanks, ladies!):

I also have to announce that the EVERY MOVE book launch giveaway was rolled up by me and my son (he picked the names), and we have winners!  Elizabeth Gordon, @SnugglyOranges, and Alyssa Hamilton, please send me your contacts via DM (or you can email elliemarney[at]gmail[dot]com), and I’ll be sending out your parcels early next week (after Easter is over and the post office is back in business).  If I don’t hear from you by next week, I’ll draw another winner from the hat.

There were also two winners from over 800 entries on the GoodReads giveaway (see right), and I’ll be sending those at the same time.

On Tuesday, straight after the book launch, I jumped on a plane and flew up to the Gold Coast, where I attended Somerset Celebration of Literature, a week-long extravaganza for students, parents, teachers and authors.  What a festival – my god, I had no idea before I arrived that the celebration would be of such an incredible magnitude.  There were fireworks and Dippin’ Dots, a photo booth, a book shop, a Writers Wall, performances, amazing food, students dressed as literary characters, signings, author talks, karaoke, poetry and novella competitions, bus-loads of kids from schools all over the country…  It kind of blew my mind.  The parents and teachers were incredible – so much of it was organised and carried out by people who had taken time off work to support the festival.  And the students were wonderful!  So engaged and diverse, and with such fantastic questions!

As well as all that gorgeousness, there was the company of other authors.  I don’t know if you’ve gathered this already, from my other blog posts, but I live way way out in the country – about two hours away from Melbourne – and while there are quite a few writers up around here, we all come from different areas, and rarely get together and hang out.  So I don’t really get the chance to just sit around and chat with other authors that much, maybe just a couple of times a year.

Somerset, on the other hand, was like a giant sleepover party with just about every cool author I’ve ever wanted to meet.  We saw each other’s talks, bumped into each other at the hotel, joined each other for dinners, went and had drinks together, and gasbagged the whole time.  I felt like I was in Wonderland, honestly.  I had a long chat with Richard Newsome (The Billionaire’s Curse) about writing a book a year (we agreed that it’s hard), discussed writing kissing scenes with Melissa Keil (Life In Outer Space) and Clare Atkins (Nona & Me), talked about feminist writing practice with Melissa and Nova Weetman (The Haunting of Lily Frost) and Sarah Ayoub (Hate Is Such A Strong Word), reunited with Adele Walsh (who had some interesting things to say about fruit…), argued about the best Dr Who episodes with George Ivanoff (Gamers series), and was given excellent social media advice by Alison Tait (The MapMaker Chronicles).  I even talked about pearls with Tara Moss! (The Fictional Woman)  I made a lot of new friends (hi, Christine Bongers – Keith Austin – Rachel Spratt – Michael Gerard Bauer!) and met some of my heroes (Kari Gislason rocks).  Overall, I had an AMAZING time, and even though I missed my family at home and don’t usually love living out of a suitcase, I didn’t really want to leave.  Everyone who would like an annual Australian Kid’s Authors Gossip and Catch-Up Camp, raise your hands now J

I guess I’d better sign off – we have to chop wood for the upcoming winter today, so I’ll be getting out my chainsaw and slinging on my boots.  I’ve had a lovely week-long break now, so I’ve got no excuses not to work!  I’m getting back into writing again (how I’ve longed for some solid writing time!), and the manuscript for NO LIMITS is shaping up pretty well – it needs a lot more done to it, but I’m happy with it so far (and I’m gonna shut up about it now, so I don’t put the moz on it).

Thank you all, for supporting the EVERY series, and for sharing the excitement of launching the final book – I couldn’t have done it without you.  Take care of yourselves, have a happy and peaceful holiday season, if it’s your time to celebrate, and see you next time!

Xx Ellie

That song in your ear - Every Move playlist

Music – do I use it to write?  The answer is yes, when I need some inspiration, or to get back into the groove of something I’m writing.  Then I’ll hit my playlist of songs that bring back the atmosphere of whatever I’m working on (usually while I’m driving).  The answer is also no, because when I’m actually writing I just can’t seem to tolerate lyrics in my ear.  Sometimes when I’m concentrating hard on getting words together, even instrumental music can change the tone in my head.  So I don’t listen while I’m writing.

But I do have a playlist for every book I’ve written – it seems to be a good way of sustaining the mood of a piece, especially over a long period of time (months or years).  Here’s a few of the songs that I used to sustain me for Every Move.  Some are character or scene specific.  Others just seemed to be a good fit for the book.  I’ve listened to all these songs dozens of times, and by the time the book was written, I felt like I’d milked all the goodness out of them and could barely stand to listen to them!  Now, after the book’s release, I can finally add them to my playlist again J

Wolf – Pyramid

Definitely scene specific: it’s the getaway scene, when Rachel and Mycroft and Harris escape to Five Mile.  Mentioned by name on p223.

White Noise – Disclosure

‘A new song by Disclosure comes on over the tinny PA system…’ – yep, it’s the chaos of Harris and Mycroft’s punch-up at the school dance.

Carried Away by a Moonlight Shadow – Mike Oldfield

On p231, Rachel is hearing Harris’s story while ‘Through the car speakers, a woman sings plaintively of being carried away by a moonlight shadow’. This is a really old song, but it’s odd and weird, and a strangely good fit for this scene.

Nanganator – Drunk Mums

You know Mycroft has to have a song for every book, right?  Well, in this book he kind of had two songs – this one for his anarchic moments at the start…

What I Like About You – The Romantics

…and this one, for his lighter, more funny moments with Rachel.

Jessie’s Girl – Rick Springfield

Folks, if you haven’t worked out that this is totally Harris’s song for this book, then…well, I mention it specifically on p251. (NB: This video is from Glee, and I think it's pretty much a perfect version by Cory Monteith - miss you, Cory)

Riptide – Vance Joy

Rachel ‘exercises [her] wooden fingers on a Vance Joy tune’ when she finally starts to recover her mojo after self-defence training.  Actually, this song was everywhere while I was writing Every Move, and I started to think it was the book’s theme song.

Bonfire – Knife Party

In Mai’s room, ‘Some Knife Party song is playing, the electronic effects groaning out like a continuous belch.’  This song has a nice, ominous tone which I liked.

Strong (High Contrast remix) – London Grammar

This is a sad song, but this remix is high energy, and the soaring feeling of it was a good fit for Rachel in her recovery period, and closer to the end of the book.

Hope you like ‘em!

And wow, the launch is next week!  I’m actually not excited yet, more flabbergasted that it’s all happened so quickly.  Right now I’m thinking about food, and drinks, and door prizes, and trying not to say anything too sentimental at the launch (because then I will start getting all weepy – I’m a bit pathetic like that).  If you haven’t RSVPed to Readings Carlton, and you’d like to come along, please do - then the lovely Readings folks will know what they’re in for!  The Every Move launch is on Monday 16 March from 6-8pm, and you can call 9347 6633 to come along (it’s free), or sign up at the event page on Facebook.  If you’re dropping by, please make sure you grab me and say hi – I will be a bit frantic, but I do want to make sure I get to say hello to everybody.  The next day I get on a plane to present workshops and hang out at Somerset Celebration of Literature, so if you're in Queensland, I'll be with you soon.

Thank you to everyone involved in the blog tour – huzzah!  It’s been a great week, and if you’re keen to see what people are saying about the book, go check out some of the reviews:

YA Midnight Reads: has a review and a giveaway happening...

Delicate Eternity: also has a review and a giveaway...

Novels on the Run: had a fun time trying to keep Mycroft 'on task' during a character interview with Rachel (and a great review)...

The Rest is Still Unwritten: has a review and giveaway going as well

Also, Birdee Magazine are running an Instagram competition for Every Move – go here to their post, and enter for a chance of winning $300 worth of books!  I think that’s a prize I could happily live with J

Have a good week, and I’ll update again soon.

Xx Ellie

THE BIG ONE – EVERY MOVE RELEASE GIVEAWAY

Yes, that time is upon us!  That special time, when I start running around in a frenzy like my dog when she’s caught a rabbit (or spots a kangaroo in the distance, or sees…basically anything with wheels.  She’s really into things with wheels.  We don’t know why.  She’s a dog, we’ve never asked her).

Yes, it’s release time! (duh-duh-DUH!!!)

Every Move IS ABOUT TO ARRIVE AT SHOPS, holy crap.  Soon it will be on shelves - in bookstores, at libraries, in schools – and in peoples’ hot little hands.  People will be reading it, my god (I mean, people are reading it now, for review, which is a-mazing, but by the end of the month other people – anybody, in fact – will be reading it.  Eep!)

And I am right in the middle of it all.  I’m prepping packages of be-ewdiful posters and book cover proofs and media release and stickers and badges and swaggy things, to be sent out to schools and libraries and bookstores (I’m sending them this week, if you’ve been waiting).  I’m doing interviews and guest posts and articles for the upcoming blog tour.  I am spending a lot of time on my phone.  And I’m getting really excited about the release, and the Killer Queens gig I’m doing with three other crime authors at Castlemaine Library on 5 March, and the chance to talk to students at Somerset Literature Festival in mid-March, and the party! Omg, yes, the launch party!  (it’s on 16 March – see my prev post.  My thoughts about it are currently running along the lines of What food will I buy?  How much booze will we need?  And – most importantly - which flannie will I wear??)

So right now, even if you can’t make the launch, and you can’t join in the fun elsewhere, you still get a chance to celebrate with me– cos I’m giving stuff away.

I HAVE TWO SIGNED COPIES OF EVERY MOVE AVAILABLE TO WIN ON GOODREADS

Wanna try your luck on Goodreads?  Click the linky-link (see over on the right)

I ALSO HAVE THREE EVERY MOVE GIVEAWAY PACKS TO OFF-LOAD

These are, I have to say, pretty spesh.  Each pack consists of:

*A full set of the Every series: Every Breath, Every Word and Every Move

*A set of three posters (one for each book)

*Three Every Move badges

*Three lovely Every Move postcards

*Six Every Move stickers, for your stickery enjoyment

*All these things come wrapped inside a totally sweet Every Move library bag (or it could be an anything bag.  I say it’s a library bag, cos I use mine at the library, but really – go nuts)

Wanna have a go at winning a giveaway pack?

You can do ONE of these things to enter:

1)    Tweet – gimme a mention on Twitter, using the name of the book, and I will put your name in the hat

2)    Comment – here on the the blog below this post

3)    Facebook – share the link to this post on FB, and let me know in a comment

Remember, you only have to do ONE of these ONCE (but hey, if you wanna tweet/comment /post and generally squee about the launch, please feel free!  I will be doing a lot of squeeing over here, in the corner…)

At the end of March, I will compile all the names from tweets/comments/posts into one big ginormicon-type list, and ask my kids to randomly select a name from the hat (trust me, there will be no cheating.  Those little buggers cheat like crazy at Uno and Scrabble and blackjack, but they take giveaway draws very seriously).

THIS GIVEAWAY IS INTERNATIONAL.  Yes, that’s right.  So you can enter from anywhere in the world.

I am not including Instagram in this giveaway – the main reason for this is cos there will be another giveaway comp via Instagram (I will update you on that very soon), and I don’t want people to get all confused.  But hey, if you’d like to tell people about the giveaway on Instagram, be my guest!

And that’s it!

Oh, before I go, I should say  I had the most incredible time on writing retreat.  Three whole days of just writing – no ‘fitting the writing around other stuff’, just writing.  Pure bloody magic.  When I got home, I discovered that the house had blown up…no, that’s not true.  But my partner got sick, the kids had multitudinous sporting engagements and were all running around like chooks, my parents were visiting, and the dog had (temporarily) gone missing, so I literally hit the ground running.  My partner also helped pull a guy out of a burning car by the side of the road in my absence (!!! And also ??? – yes, really. I’ll tell that story another time).  But hey, we’re all mostly back to normal now!

Anyway, I hope your week is not quite so eventful, and that you’re keeping well.  North American friends – stay warm!  Australian friends – stay cool! (well, you’re always cool, heh)  And see you next time J

Xx Ellie

This is hungry work

That’s a line from a Hozier song (yes, the one everyone has been listening to).  Writing work feeds into itself, to some extent, but the material that nurtures it comes from everywhere.  Writing work is hungry work, always seeking out new morsels.

I’ve started printing out the lyrics to some of my current favourite songs, and tacking them up on the walls of my office (using the term ‘office’ here in its broadest sense), so I can see the way words work in different combinations and contexts.  Poems go up too – although I’ve always thought that lyrics qualify as contemporary poetry – and sentences or phrases from books, photos, scribbled scraps of overheard conversations, pics of artwork, postcards, pamphlets, notes, business cards, newspaper clippings, drawings (usually done by my kids), jokes, Post-its, and other ephemera like feathers, leaves, and on my desk, random stones and mementos, including two conkers from a tree in Hyde Park.

I like the bower bird approach.  I’m not a tidy person by nature – tidiness is something that has instead been drummed into me by over a decade of householding for a large family.  When you have four kids, you maintain organisation or you flounder in a sea of chaos.  So I am tidy, but if you look around my work space, you can see that tidiness is an imposed state of being.

I collect things – knick knacks, oddsy-sodsy things…memories, I guess.  Do they help me work?  I don’t know.  I think so.  They remind me that for all the structured thinking necessary for daily routine - the mental order I apply to keep to diary dates and planned events, the discipline and compartmentalisation required to sort out work and parenting and weekly grocery lists and everything else - the part of me that writes needs randomness, and flow, and a certain looseness.  The mind has to be allowed to roam and wander and free-range if it wants to create.  It’s something I’ve discovered, or rather I’m discovering as I go along, that way of keeping ‘loose’ in my mind during the course of the day.

Lately, amidst all the bustle of book launching, I’ve been feeding myself with music, and with some great books – I just read Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel, and it was beautiful, full of poignant desperation and starlight.  It reminded me strongly of On the Beach by Nevil Shute, not just for its themes (which are similar to Shute’s, although not as grim) but for its evocation of human fallibility and longing and nostalgia.  I was gifted my copy of Station Eleven by Kirsty Eagar – a gorgeous gift, thank you! – and now I’m thinking deeply about a book I’d like to gift to her (we seem to have started our own little book club).  I’m going to be doing a longer post on workspace and working habits for Kirsty’s blog in a few weeks – when it goes up, I’ll let you all know.

First review: I was given a heads-up (thank you, Sera!) about the first review of Every Move, which I’m thrilled to say was glowingly positive, in Kid’s Book Review.  What a relief it was to find out that people are enjoying the book!  After all my nerves and anxiety, I’m starting to relax a little – it’s a great weight off my shoulders.  Thank you to everyone who has tweeted/texted/pinged me to say that you’re loving Every Move!  There’s nothing more satisfying than finding out that the work you’ve put in has been worth it.

Blog tour details: Ahh, okay, now this is still being finalised, but I can reveal some of the blog tour stops now.  More fine-tuning will be reported on soon, but here’s the schedule so far -

1 March: The Unfinished Bookshelf

2 March: Behind the Pages

3 March: Fictional Thoughts

4 March: Speculating on Specfic

5 March: Genie in a Book

6 March: YA Midnight Reads

7 March: Delicate Eternity

8 March: Novels on the Run

9 March: The Rest is Still Unwritten

10 March: The Loony Teen Writer

Please do drop in at the tour stops and say hi (or, y’know, read the articles and reviews) – I know most bloggers enjoy it when people leave a comment or two!  Some of the tour stops will involve giveaways as well, so if you’d like a chance to win a copy of the book, keep a lookout.  I’ll be doing a giveaway of the book here, as well, sometime in the next few weeks.

And you’re coming to the Every Move launch party, right?  I hope you are, if you live in Melbourne (or especially if you’re coming from afar), because me and Adele Walsh would love to see you – remember, it’s at Readings Carlton in Lygon St, on Monday 16 March from 6-8pm.  I’m trying to think up some nice food to give people who have gone to the trouble to come, because I don’t reckon corn chips and strawberries will cut it this year…should I go the kabana and cheese platter?  I know some folks who would like cake too (*cough* Allen and Unwin team *cough*), so I’m gonna aim for variety J

Anyway, I hope you’re having a good week, and if you have any catering suggestions, please leave a comment below!  Take care –

Xx Ellie