I've been grappling with the problems created by the RedGroup's collapse for the last few weeks, but the lead up to that collapse was, for Eneit Press, the most disasterous. You see, last year Borders hosted the launch for Baggage, and at their prompting I bought the biggest print run for any anthology I'd yet done.

The launch, just prior to Aussicon 4 was a huge success, and the store took half the print run, keeping some boxes of books on consignment for selling at this year's Supanova. I duly invoiced them for the books they sold at Worldcon. And re-sent 8 weeks later. When I still didn't hear anything I rang, and was told the manager, to whom I'd sent the invoices, no longer worked for the company. I spoke to the new manager, explained the situation, and he asked me to re-send the invoices. Which I did, twice more.

I rang again in January, to profuse apologies, I was told they'd been busy with Christmas sales. He assured me they were definitely doing Supanova this year, and they wanted the books for then, and that he'd chase up the payment for me.
 
Then my mother died, so I didn't get back to Eneit Press stuff til February. The manager and the accounts person I needed were both on annual leave. I spoke to the duty manager, who asked me to re-send to him. On the 10th of February I recieved a confirmation of reciept email, and assured payment in the next week or so. I was just about to ring again when the news of them entering voluntary adminstration broke.

Nothing short of a miracle can save Eneit Press now, so the very last Eneit Press book will be the Conflux Banquet cookbook. And given my beliefs that in a small industry we need to help each other as best we can, perhaps a fundraiser for my favourite Con is the very most appropiate way for me to bow out of publishing.

But from working on EP, I have learnt a great deal more about the craft of writing, and I have done some things of which I am extraordinarily proud: I fell in love with, and got to edit Kaaron Warren's story Cooling the Crows, which was nominated to the Bram Stoker ballot by an American reviewer; the first anthology made honourable mentions in Ellen Datlow's Years Best Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror; I got to put my belief that a story about magic happening to a very ordinary older woman would strike a chord with a lot of fantasy readers, and was overwhelmed at how both male and female reviewers enjoyed Life Through Cellophane. Even more gratifying was that LtC was reader-nominated for both the James Tiptree award, and the Ditmars. In fact, Eneit Press was the only small press short listed for the Best Novel Ditmar at last year's Worldcon; Baggage is special for a whole bunch of reasons, not the least that the ToC contained some of the best Australian spec fic authors.

From those who have helped with the background work on Eneit Press, particularly web warrior and wordsmith extraordinaire, Andrew J. McKiernan; Gillian Polack, whose abilities to step in and help sort things when life got out of whack remain unparalleled; and Elizabeth, who helped with promotion, sub editing and gentle humour from her corner; to the authors who have given me such wonderful stories to work with, I have been blessed. This is not the end, yet, that post will occur later this year. But it is coming, and for now I am left with just one thing to say. 

Thank you.

With less than 48 hours now until the launch of Baggage we are coming to the end of the blog tour. I've got a few last stops to share with you.

 Matthew Farrer concludes his two-part series with Kaaron Warren. The pair take a close look at the creation and structuring of Kaaron's story "Hive of Glass".

Tessa Kum has done a lovely guest post for Deborah Kalin on differences between Australian and Tibetan landscapes and the effect that had on her. Gorgeous photos abound. 

 Lastly, Andrew McKiernan joins me today in Elizabeth's Corner for a brief discussion on the gorgeous cover he created for Baggage.

 Welcome, Andrew! Thank you for stopping by. Let me get to the most crucial question first--do you prefer tea or coffee?

I'm not sure I prefer one over the other, although I'm mainly a tea drinker (about three or four cups a day, mainly at night while writing) and limit myself to one cup of coffee a day... but it has to be good coffee. I can't see much point in drinking crappy instant coffee or decaf.

I understand what you mean--loose leaf tea all the way for me! Can you tell me a bit about the initial concept of the cover for Baggage? What sort of baggage was it informed by?

The initial concept for Baggage was much more complicated than the final. It was all based on the idea of cultural baggage being the thing that pigeon-holes us all, and that leads us to pigeon-hole others into neat compartments that best fit our perceptions. I was going to have all these odd shaped boxes on the cover, like an old-fashioned baggage claim area at a train station, and each box was going to contain an object or scene from one of the stories in miniature. (see the images for the initial thumbnail pencil sketch that Sharyn and Gillian approved, as well as one of the completed - but as yet empty - pigeon-hole boxes).

The more I worked on the concept, the more I realised that I was bringing my own baggage as an Illustrator into the equation when I should have been thinking more as a Designer. I still think that what I'd proposed would make a great final illustration, but it was too complicated for the book and trying to speak too much of the stories when I should be letting the stories speak for themselves. What this book needed was good 'design' and not necessarily a good 'illustration'.

That's when I went back, re-read all the stories, and tried to reassess what the book was really about and what I wanted to cover to say to people. I took off my illustrator's hat and starting looking at things purely from a design perspective.
 

 Where did you get the inspiration for the current cover?

 The anthology isn't just about cultural baggage, but also about how we explore that baggage. I realised I wanted to give that impression - of the stories within as being like the great unexplored continent of Australia; something you'd approach with both awe and caution, like the 'Here there be dragons' warnings on old maps. That's when what I was thinking became a strong image in my mind of how the cover should look and I set off to search the Australian National Library for old maps that I could use to convey that.

I was very lucky to find one that almost perfectly matched the image I had in my mind. The map is from an 1863 'pamphlet' by Cassell, Petter & Galpin, La Belle Sauvage Yard, Ludgate Hill, entitled "Cassell's Emigrant's Map of Australia". I'd already decided that this was the right map the instant I saw it, but the title - 'Emigrant's map of Australia' - just seemed so neat and perfect for what the stories in the anthology are essentially trying to reveal about us and about the authors.

What sort of cultural baggage do you feel Australian illustrators and designers have to deal with?

 That's a hard one to answer for me because I don't think too much about that sort of stuff. I try not to think at all most of the time and just let things happen, be intuitive and all that rubbish. I'm not a very introspective person, because when I am I tend to get morose and broody.

Most of the illustration and design world is lead by those trends (both old and new) from Europe, and from New York as the hub of American design - I think many Australian illustrators and designers outside of the art-world tend to follow those trends a little too closely. It would be nice to break away from that and explore our own territory a little more. Sean Tan is definitely an inspiration in being very successful in doing this. His work is very strongly infused with the idea of cultural baggage and I'd love to be more like him.

I've really only just starting to think about an Australian identity to my work. I've been fortunate enough to have illustrated a couple of stories for author Jason Fischer, and I'm finally getting an opportunity to more closely examine the Australian landscape. Jason's stories speak very much of an Australia way of life that is unique to the rest of the world and illustrating those stories has forced me to address the issue a little more. I've still got a long way to go, but it's a start.

Well, thank you for taking the time to chat with me Andrew. It has been a pleasure.

That's all from me here at Elizabeth's Corner for now. I look forward to seeing you all at the launch!