LIAN TANNER

A week and a day till the competition closes!

June 8th, 2013

I’m getting a bit worried about the lack of entries. Mind you, I always get worried about the lack of entries at this stage, and they always start coming in just before the close of the competition. (Hint hint!)

Don’t forget the closing date is midnight on Sunday 16th June. Which is NOT FAR AWAY! So if you haven’t started your design yet, you’d better get cracking. Here are the rules.

This has been an odd and interesting week. The worst thing that happened was that Random House in the US decided that they wouldn’t buy ‘Ice Breaker’. I can kind of understand it, because the Keepers did okay in the US but not brilliantly, and they wanted it to do brilliantly. It’s a cutthroat business these days, publishing, and although they really liked the manuscript of ‘Ice Breaker’, they didn’t buy it.

Luckily I have a wonderful American agent, who loves the books and is going to submit it to other publishing houses. ‘Don’t feel defeated!’ she said. ‘This is an excellent chance for other publishers to read your work!’

So I’ve been writing a synopsis for the trilogy – yes, ‘Ice Breaker’ started off as a stand-alone novel but has become a trilogy. This tends to happen with my books, mainly because I get caught up in the world I’ve created and want to write more stories about it. And at the same time I’ve been having discussions with my Australian publisher Allen & Unwin about what to call this new series.

We came up with lots of possibilities, but none of them seemed right. Until this one popped up …

‘The Hidden’ series.

The Hidden Bk 1: Ice Breaker
The Hidden Bk 2: Claw
The Hidden Bk 3: Fetcher

What do you think? Does it intrigue you? Does it start your imagination working? Does it make you want to read the books?

 

20 thoughts on “A week and a day till the competition closes!

  1. Karen Purves says:

    Hi Lian,

    Was wonderful to meet you at the launch of Song For A Scarlet Runner!

    Can’t wait for the next series xx

    1. Lian says:

      Good to meet you too, Karen. Thanks for dropping in to the blog!

  2. Jordyn says:

    I really want to read The Hidden trilogy right now!!!!!!! I’ll try and make an entry for the competition sometime this week πŸ™‚ sorry if i can’t

    1. Lian says:

      And I just got your entry this morning, Jordyn. You were very quick off the mark – thanks so much for entering!

  3. Caitlin Jackson says:

    Hi Lian,
    My name is Caitlin Jackson, I am 12 and I have just started reading your blog. I got your book Museum of Thieves from a garage sale for $2 because I was looking for a new book to read. As soon as I started reading I fell in love with the book and everything in it. It was so exiting and I never knew what was going to happen next! When I found out that there were 3 of them in the series I told Mum that I had to have them! I got the second and the third one for my birthday this year and have nearly finished the second one. I let my teacher borrow the first one and she fell in love with it as well. We are now reading it in our 5/6 class as our class novel. My teacher and I have put the trilogy on our library’s shopping list! I can’t wait till the hidden series comes out!

    1. Lian says:

      Hi Caitlin, I was very pleased to hear the story of how you discovered the Keepers! Aren’t garage sales wonderful for finding unexpected things? I’m very glad that you fell in love with Museum of Thieves, and that your teacher did too. It’s word of mouth like this that really helps me get my books read, so thank you. I hope you love City of Lies and Path of Beasts just as much as you did Museum!

  4. Jordyn says:

    no probs-anything for my favourite author πŸ™‚

  5. Io says:

    They liked it but didn’t buy it?!?! We LOVED it!(even though we haven’t read it. But who cares. It’s still unfair!) They have to buy it! πŸ™

    1. Lian says:

      πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ The problem was, Io, they didn’t like it ENOUGH. Or at least, they weren’t sure that the American public would like it enough. (It’s all to do with money, of course – they are a business, after all.) However this isn’t all bad. My agent is going to show it to other publishers next week, so hopefully it will still come out in the US.

      And although you haven’t read it yet, I am quite sure you WILL love it. I certainly do!

      1. Io says:

        Oh. Ok. Good Luck then! πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

  6. Io says:

    It makes my imagination work in the most odd ways! Especially ‘Claw’. Very simple but it stands out. You know what I mean?

    1. Lian says:

      I do know what you mean, Io, and I’m really pleased that it affects your imagination like that. That’s the mark of a good title, and even better, it affects MY imagination like that as well. Which in turn helps make the world of the book richer and more interesting.

  7. Io says:

    Well, it is a VERY good title.

  8. Lilli says:

    Dear Lian ,

    If only Ice-breaker was out now … because we are doing Antarctica as our H.S.I.E subject this term !

    And we also have to create and Ice-breaker !

    Once I have finished ,I PROMISE that I will send you a picture !

    From your fan Lilli!

    1. Lian says:

      Dear Lilli, oh dear, what a pity the book isn’t out already! Never mind, by the time it is published you will know a LOT about Antarctica. Isn’t it a fascinating place? Can’t wait to see your picture of an ice breaker.

  9. mellarkrus says:

    Hi Lian!!!

    Your Awesome!!!
    I love Your books!!!
    I love this blog!!!
    But most of all I love Mellark!!!!

    1. Lian says:

      Hi Mellarkrus – I had to look it up to see who Mellark was. Didn’t realise that was Peeta’s surname. πŸ™‚

  10. Io says:

    Peeta… as in Peeta from The Hunger Games? The Hunger Games were pretty good. Except the 2nd and 3rd book. The 1st was waaaay out of the 2nd and 3rds league. They weren’t that good beside the 1st.
    πŸ™

    1. Lian says:

      I agree, Io. I heard (and I can’t remember who told me this, so I don’t know if it’s true or not) that the author wrote the first book as a stand-alone, but when the publishers bought it they wanted a trilogy. So she wrote another couple. I think most people like the first one best. BTW, she (Suzanne Collins) also has another terrific series called ‘The Underland Chronicles’. It’s for younger readers than ‘The Hunger Games’, but it’s still very good.

  11. Io says:

    Okay. I’ll ask Mrs. Roch (librarian at school) to see if she’s got them.

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