Siren's Gate

have book, will travel

Kate — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:01:29 +0000

On second thought my fancy is tickled by the idea that the thinness of (the print) Illumé makes it an ideal travelling companion, perfect for those 2 hour waits in lounges. In that case, better pack lunch, and possibly dinner, too. Definitely pack a drink as it’s a big wordy world between those pretty covers and you need to keep up – no wandering off to consult a dictionary.

This is travel with a cocktail hour, dressing for dinner, and proper luggage.

chance of snow

Kate — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:59:35 +0000

Dad has seen one of my characters, an Illumé escapee. Svelte, husky voiced, very polite (the kind of knife-blade polite that could go either way) and moves like she belongs on a savannah… could indeed be Neige-Larme, my Snow-Tear! I’ll have to stroll down Charles Street with a time-out for cafe latte opposite the park.

Then I can see, too.

taste it

Kate — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:02:50 +0000

What is the tastes of summer? Is it basil? The first tomato from the garden? Watermelon? Raspberries – mmm, raspberries… No, the taste right on the tip of my tongue is dust and not the distilled bookish dust fuzzing up the shelves. This is road dust. From powder to grit, clay-dominant greyishness to quartz-sourced white and all the shades of ochre, it’s a subtle yet very noticable flavour, particularly when it has coated the lipstick you just slicked on as your last step before venturing Beyond The Gate. Of course, it isn’t necessary to drive with the window down… but then how do you hear the crickets and smell the new-cut hay?

So, dust equals summer.

And it tastes even better just before the rain…

different light on Illumé

Kate — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:29:14 +0000

“It’s a lushly written urban fantasy, stand-alone but set within a richly detailed version of Paris that has lots and lots of understated backstory to it. For all its wit and darkness and elaborate language, what truly sold me on this book were the incisive, full-bodied portraits of the female characters: lots of them, all flawed and living their own lives that don’t revolve around the hero, as charming and modest as he is. This is a gem of a book and Winterbourne is proud to present it.”

Wendy, Winterbourne

Awwwww. And ohhhh… of course… but I might need to look in the mirror and congratulate my subconscious because she really knew what she was doing. In tribute to those female characters, and to Wendy, I have to add Emelie Autumn’s cover of Girl’s Just Wanna Have Fun to the Illumé playlist.

ta-dah, c’est moi… or, the birth of Illumé

Kate — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:35:17 +0000

Big day today: my book is out, and when I say ‘book’ I mean a novel in print and by an Australian publisher… Winterbourne. It’s even printed in Australia (on lovely shiny paper by the way). Yes. That’s pretty much the trifecta for me.

Details on where and how to follow. For now, it’s time to bask.

little green frog

Kate — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:07:22 +0000

… “read it” … okay, tail end of an old librarian/frog joke but that’s how I’m finally feeling after a reading splurge yesterday. Not only am I now ahead on my Goodreads challenge, but I’m up to Book 7 of the Morganville Vampires and this morning I had a deliciously gothic accompaniment to my cinnamon porridge with fresh apricot in the shape of Sons of the Wolf – classic Barbara Michaels. Oh, mmm. But I think I’ll save Victoria Holt’s Time of the Hunter’s Moon for tonight. A little time spent weeding the vegie garden should make all that gothicky goodness extra shivery.

Plus, weeding lets the brain wander … hopefully toward Pandora’s Edge where a guy in a Batman suit has turned up to save the day, only no one knows why this particular day needs saving… or how Captain Thorne will react to the latest intruder.

fry it

Kate — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:32:55 +0000

Apprently Illume is “macabre and whimsical” – what a lovely editor! I could feast on the resulting warm glow but I prefer something more substantial than fuzziness for breakfast. But that brings a dilemma. With what does a writer of the macabre and whimsical break their fast? Easy. Fried porridge … accented with frozen raspberries and Hellyer Gorge leatherwood honey though the recipe-suggested bacon and golden syrup probably would have been better.

So when you’ve stayed up all night because you had to finish Illume in one sitting, I recommend fried porridge for breakfast the morning after. Disbelief alone will get you through the day! But really, there’s a bit of extra-crispy crepe goodness going on…

Illume: coming soon from Winterbourne.

okay if i park my spaceship here?

Kate — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:03:01 +0000

That’s really what it felt like, the clash of alien cultures, visiting another world - and I only went as far as the local shop, the commercial establishment at the crossroads not quite in the middle of nowhere but certainly not obviously deserving a postcode. But there I am in my multiple pearls, semi-Gibson Girl ‘do, steampunkish bolero, pinstripes and red boots, pulling up in and parking opposite a tractor… mmm. I quite like tractors. And the blunny boots + shorts look is classic. Butblame it on the weather if you like, today the contrasts were noticable.

And that was before I went in the shop to search for letters gone astray…

Sometimes it is so easy to entertain myself simply by being me.

who needs fiction?

Kate — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:57:48 +0000

I don’t need to make stuff up when I can walk out the back door at 7am, start to shove my feet into shoes only to realise the left croc isn’t there… maybe it got scooted to the other side of the door by some hoppy-skippy thing during the night. Ah, no, but the right gumboot is likewise missing. Now come on, that’s a sort of pair of shoes, but is it really likely someone stole them overnight? No. But where are they? Could this be the work of a neighbour messing with my mind? Would I find the shoes in strange but obvious places? Luckily the critter knew better than to touch the magic red gumboots. I can stomp around searching, getting more paranoid by the minute. But wait, half-way up the drive, is that…? A black gumboot on its side. And as I pivot to scan the rest of the scene, there’s the khaki crock abandoned across the gravel and a bit further up the hill near a very prickly grevillea. It’s almost as if they’d been flung aside by a critter tearing up the drive. According to my mother, the critter might have been a devil – this is Tasmanani, after all. And if so, hurray, as devils are so rare these days. But would it drag off one rubber toy, then come back for another? And do I have devil spit in my croc now?

kids today

Kate — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 06:40:34 +0000

Blonde kidlet: why do you have pink hair?

Moi (smiling kindly): because I’m a intergalactic pirate queen stranded here until my ship is repaired and/or I rescue my true love from imprisonment on an island beset by mini-pterodactyls… which I’m sure I’ll get around to any day now.

Blonde kidlet: what?

Moi (it must be a smile as you can count my teeth): because I’m special.

Blond kidlet: oh.