The Next Big Thing

Well, I've been tagged by the lovely and talented Wai Chim (from my writers' group), author of Chook Chook: Mei's Secret Pets, a children's book released 2012 through University of Queensland Press. And of course I'm running late with my post which was supposed to be exactly a week after hers. Thank goodness Blogger lets you backdate posts. No one will ever know, right? ;-)

The Next Big Thing is an authorly chain-post of sorts; where we each share a little about a current work in progress, and then pass the baton on to other writers to do the same a week later. I have several projects at various stages of completion, so for this I'm going to pick one of them at random to talk about. It might be some time before I actually finish it though!

Covers for Dark Child

This day has arrived more quickly than I expected it would...but it's just as exciting as I thought it would be to finally share with you my beautiful covers for Dark Child, Episodes One and Two. There will be five episodes in all, releasing between February and June 2013. Each cover image shows the main character, Kat, sleeping against a stormy, rune-filled backdrop, and reveals a little of the dominant setting for that episode. So episode one features a forest path, episode two features Manhattan, and so on.

Here's my first cover!

Cover for Dark Child Episode One

adinawest.com goes live...and a Dark Child editing update

I love my new website. I wanted it to be a little bit baroque and hint at late nights and guttering candles...and I think the designer has captured that beautifully with the hand drawn aesthetic.

Readers of this blog aren't really the target audience for my author website, as it's targeted at future readers, while many (most?) of you are writers yourselves. But you're very welcome to pop on over and have a look if (like me) you're endlessly curious about how other writers present themselves. It's an odd sort of transition, too, from writing blog posts for a 'journey to publication' blog like this, to writing blog posts for my author website. I really have no idea at this stage what any future readers of my book will be interested in knowing about me, so I think it might be a while before my blog posts over there become as personal as the ones here. If they ever do!

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.

Writer's Repast: Blueberry Streusel Cake (call it Crumble Cake, if you prefer)

Blueberry Streusel Cake

Heaven knows I'm no photographer. That's one of the main reasons I'll never start a food blog. That and the fact that I'm far too lazy and undisciplined.

But I do like to bake.

Blade Runner meets Perdido Street Station? Can do, says debut author Nina D'Aleo.

Nina D'Aleo's been a great confidante in recent months. Her first book, The Last City, has just been released by our mutual publisher, Momentum, and as she's already been through the process I'm shortly to embark on, she's been a wonderful sounding board. That might also have something to do with the fact that in addition to her degree in creative writing, she's a qualified psychologist!

She's agreed to be interviewed by me to tell us a bit about her book, which has been billed as an intoxicating blend of noir crime, science fiction and fantasy. Sounds awesome, right?

Forget perfection. Just write!

I've had a longish break from writing, and it's taken me quite a while to get back into it. Weeks of frittering and time wasting and occasional opening of my document to fiddle with the scene summaries I've jotted down, but not actually do anything else.

I think this was partly because I'm at the beginning of a new book, and the task ahead seems so daunting.

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