Changing the way we read - serialisation of e-books

Original caption on SMH article was "Serial thriller ... Adina West's new novel will be serialised. Photo: Wolter Peeters"

Well, that was another nice little hiatus from the blog, though of course I haven't been on holidays. Nothing nice like that! Just snowed under with lots and lots of things to do, because my structural editing report for Dark Child arrived not too long ago and it was pages and pages long. Lots of hugely useful constructive comments, but it has necessitated lots of rewriting too! Working with an editor has been gruelling but also very rewarding.

Anyway, besides that, in the interests of briefly getting you up to date with where I'm at, I have a tentative release timetable for my novel Dark Child. I may have mentioned it before, but in case I didn't, it's to be released as a serialised novel, meaning in instalments. The first will be released in February 2013, so not long to go now! The serialisation is a great experiment in reader engagement in so many ways, and it got me in the news yesterday, in this Sydney Morning Herald article. I think I may even have scored a mention in the same paragraph as Charles Dickens.
The whole getting-written-up-in-the-news experience was somewhat surreal. I answered questions from the features writer, and then didn't hear anything for a while, so assumed she hadn't gone ahead with the story after all. Then an email arrived asking could I spare time for a photographer to come and photograph me? I sent a polite reply and promptly went into a panic, because with two young children and (most nights) limited sleep I'm not looking very photo-ready on a normal day. So you get the behind the scenes low-down here, 'cos I'm going to confess that I went and got my hair cut and blow-dried on the morning of the day the photographer was coming, not to mention putting on an entire face of makeup, which I normally never do. If anyone is as inexperienced with makeup as I was a couple of weeks ago and wants some tips, I recommend YouTube. There are some great video tutorials there, and it really made things easier.

I love the way the picture turned out, and as it's taken out on my back patio, you can see a curling vine coming down in the background, which is my crazy and flower-laden female kiwi-fruit vine. I'm hoping this year I'll actually get to keep some of the fruit, because last year our (unwelcome) resident possum treated the vine as its personal larder and ate every last one.

So apart from my crash course in makeup application, I've also been working on content for an author website. Stay tuned - it's coming soon, I promise!

Okay, enough exclamation marks from me. I just wanted to reassure you that I'm still out here working hard, and I'll be back with more as soon as I have any news to share.

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