Sharyn's Archives

It's been a while, I find myself unable to comprehend the things that have run the full gamut of incredibly right, to yes - this is challenging, and down to oh-my-gosh wrong since I last updated the site.

 Amongst the incredibly right was the launch, finally, of In Bad Dreams Volume Two, and Life Through Cellophane, a novel by Gillian Polack. Finally! It was a tough two years getting IBD2 off the starters blocks, but it's doing nicely, and Gillian's novel is getting some truly wonderful reviews.

Challenging include the continued health issues, and the steep learning curve that came with the diagnosis of high functioning autism for two of my children. While oh-my-gosh bad included the loss of the house I owned in the recent bushfires.

But we are back, and soon I'll be introducing you to some of the behind the scenes workers, and pictures from the double launch, as well as some juicy details about Baggage. So if you've just happened by, or have been checking every now and then to see what I'm up to, then stay tuned. *g* 

It's not often you get authors protesting. In the general manner, writing is a solitary occupation, and we rarely even get to socialise, let alone get het up over political machinations. Not so this week.

 This week saw some very concerned authors protesting outside Dymocks in the center of Brisbane. Why Dymocks, and not Angus and Robertsons? Because Dymocks has become the public face of the Coalition for Cheaper Books, who have lobbied the government to end restrictions on parallel importations. Among other things Dymocks emailed all their book lovers loyalty customers asking them to sign an online petition to to Productivity Commission, stating that they want the restrictions lifted. What they hadn't thought about was among their customers are authors, because we actually read too. And some of us were on that email list.

And this angered us in many ways. because absolutely everyone agrees that lifting these parallel importation restrictions will damage the Australian publishing indutry, as our market is flooded with cheap books from overseas. Effectively Dymocks and their ilk, are pushing for something they know will mean Australian authors will not be able to get published, unless they are already known, because there will be little to no publishing in Australia any more. They are actively campaigning for the loss of jobs in the printing, and publishing industries, at a time of global financial crisis.

What they aren't prepared to do, however, is come clean to the Australian public is how much of a percentage of the books that they sell stay with the company. In this regard book sellers are not like petrol retailers, who make the least from the product they sell, and GST can't be blamed, because it's only ten percent, and both the US and UK have their own sales taxes too. Someone is earning a lot from Australian books, and it's not the authors, illiustrators, editors, copy editors, cover designers, or printers.

But it has got us talking, Sheryl Gwyther, one of the authors at the Brisbane protest, has blogged about it here Jennifer Fallon blogged about it last November, and mentioned the interesting fact that Bob Carr, former Premier of NSW is on the Productivity Commision and the Board of Dymocks. Hmm. The Australian Society of Authors put in a joint submission to the Commission. We've been talking to each other about it on email lists, author sites, and through writing groups. Because what this means is far fewer of us will ever get the chance to be published.

If you happen to agree, and don't want to see the end of Australian authors in print, then please let the Productivity Commission know your thoughts.

For many months now, I have been working on the behind the scenes committee of Flycon 2009. The core committee, Sherwood Smith, Gillian Polack, and myself, indulged in time travel as we met each week, Sherwood, living in the US was 14 hours behind us, our Sunday morning meetings, were Saturday afternoons for her.

Who needs a Tardis?

 But we pulled together an incredible list of volunteers, and guests. I am amazed at how people were keen to embrace tjis idea. The most common remark was "I've never done this before, but sure, I'd love to."

I've made new friends in various parts of the world, I've been involved in some amazing discussions, anf the Con is still going. In the background to all this IIn Bad Dreams Volume Two is almost at the printers, Dead?Dave is well into edits, and soon begin the edits for Life Through Cellophane

Life is good  

Owing to family commitments we could only make it to Conflux 5 for one day, the Sunday, but for Eneit Press, Sunday had the most news. 

Gillian Polack announced, during her Guest of Honour speech, that her novel, Life Through Cellophane, will be released by Eneit Press late 2009. A wry, and dark look at the choices faced by middle aged women, and one very special mirror. 

Then, after the excellent readings from Andrew Mckiernan, and Gillian Polack, I announced, not only the release of In Bad Dreams Volume Two in January, but also the upcoming release of RJ Barker's new novel, Dead Dave.

2009 is looking to be a very interesting year, with still more news to come.

I recieved an email today, it opened with, Not sure if you've seen this yet, and included a link to the Australian Small Press blogspot

Well I hadn't seen it, and I feel absolutely thrilled to have had one of my stories, plus several stories choosen, edited and published by Eneit Press, recieve Honourable Mentions for the Years Best Fantasy & Horror list.

 Our list of Honourable Mentions are:

RJ Barker, "The Dry Heat, The Dust, The Martinis, and the Insects", IN BAD DREAMS

Stephanie Campisi, "The ringing sounds of death on the water tank", IN BAD DREAMS

Robert Hood, "Monstrous Bright Tomorrows", IN BAD DREAMS

Sharyn Lilley, "Winter Solstice", IN BAD DREAMS

Kaaron Warren, "Cooling the crows", IN BAD DREAMS

Eneit Press has a new host, organised by our wonderful web warrior, and I can't speak highly enough of the courteous, attentive, and understanding staff. I'm very impressed.

 I've posted a query about courses in the forums, yes, I want to pick your brains, and the most interesting, workable, suggestion will get a prize.

Welcome to the new shape of Eneit Press. There has been a lot of work behind the scenes here. I hope you will all enjoy the changes as much as I enjoyed bringing these new dreams into being.

The first of the changes are our very short online courses. In September Eneit Press is proud to welcome back Dr Gillian Polack to our tutoring staff, and welcome freelance editor, Barbara Holten to our team. These two new courses, though very different, will both teach aspects of the writing craft.

The second of the new changes relates to In Bad Dreams Volume Two ` Where Death Stalks. Check out our news page for details, and can I say how very pleased I am with how this anthology is shaping up.

The editing work has begun for In Bad Dreams Two - Where Death Stalks and I recieved validation, from a bookseller who's judgement I value,. She said In Bad Dreams One was one of the best anthologies she'd ever seen, but she didn't like reading it on her own.

And all I could think was 'Wait til she reads In Bad Dreams Two!'

Our authors have done a magnificent job of creating the supernatural and terrifyingly real world we asked for. They scared me, and there are definitely some cities around the world I may never, ever visit after this!

As 2007 ends I've been looking at all we've accomplished so far, and looking forward to what 2008 may hold.

It's been a big year; from the final selection of the stories for In Bad Dreams, to the excitement of finally opening the boxes fresh from the printers. The launch at Conflux 4 was an incredible experience, and now the work begins again for In Bad Dreams Volume 2 and our other projects.

I hope the visitors to our site have a happy and safe New Years Eve and a terrific 2008.