Lian Tanner

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Aurealis Award

May 13th, 2012 | Category: Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
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Sometimes the nicest things happen – and they are totally unexpected. City of Lies was shortlisted for the 2011 Aurealis Award (Best Children’s Fiction), which is the Australian prize for fantasy and science fiction. This is the prize that Museum of Thieves won last year (which was the 2010 award), so while I was really pleased to be shortlisted, I didn’t think I had a chance of taking it out twice in a row. Especially given that the competition this year was so strong. In fact, I’ve been telling everyone that I definitely wouldn’t win this year.

But I won! [insert loud cries of disbelief, astonishment and joy.] And I am now going to have two of those beautiful awards sitting on my mantlepiece. What an exceptionally nice thing to happen on a cold, rainy Sunday morning. You can see all the winners below, copied from Mark Webb’s website.

CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through words)

• City of Lies by Lian Tanner (Allen & Unwin)

CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through pictures)

• Sounds Spooky by Christopher Cheng (author) and Sarah Davis (illustrator) (Random House Australia)

YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY

• “Nation of the Night” by Sue Isle (Nightsiders, Twelfth Planet Press)

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

• Only Ever Always by Penni Russon (Allen & Unwin)

ILLUSTRATED BOOK / GRAPHIC NOVEL

COLLECTION

• Bluegrass Symphony by Lisa Hannett (Ticonderoga Publications)

ANTHOLOGY

• Ghosts by Gaslight edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers (HarperVoyager)

HORROR SHORT STORY

• “The Past is a Bridge Best Left Burnt” by Paul Haines (The Last Days of Kali Yuga, Brimstone Press)
• “The Short Go: a Future in Eight Seconds” by Lisa L. Hannett (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)

HORROR NOVEL

• No shortlisted or winning novel

FANTASY SHORT STORY

• “Fruit of the Pipal Tree” by Thoraiya Dyer (After the Rain, FableCroft Publishing)

FANTASY NOVEL

• Ember and Ash by Pamela Freeman (Hachette)

SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY

• “Rains of la Strange” by Robert N Stephenson (Anywhere but Earth, Coeur de Lion)

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

• The Courier’s New Bicycle by Kim Westwood (HarperVoyager)

Peter McNamara Convenors’ Award

• Galactic Suburbia podcast (Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts)

Kris Hembury Encouragement Award for Emerging Artists

National Year of Reading Ambassador

May 8th, 2012 | Category: Uncategorized | 7 Comments »
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I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that 2012 is Australia’s National Year of Reading, and that I’m one of the Tasmanian Ambassadors. Well, this week I’m one of the FEATURED Ambassadors. Have a look at the NYR website here, for my interview and photos (including one of me at age 11 with my horse Chief!).

The story of Mouse

April 26th, 2012 | Category: Uncategorized | 18 Comments »
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Every now and then a character comes along who you just can’t forget, even when you can’t find the right story for them. For me, a small boy called Mouse was one of those characters.

Mouse first appeared in my head twelve years ago when I was trying to write a screenplay about a flying horse. He was the seven-year-old brother of the main character, and I could see that there was something very sweet about him. Unfortunately the screenplay wasn’t very good, and after a while I put it away in a drawer and forgot about it.

But Mouse stayed tucked away in the back of my mind. I wanted to use him, but couldn’t find the right story. While I was waiting, I named my cat, Miss Mouse, after him. And then I started working on City of Lies, Book 2 in the Keepers trilogy.

Now one of the things I do when I’m playing around with ideas for a book is cut pictures out of magazines and stick them in a scrap book. I don’t always know why I’ve chosen a particular picture – it just speaks to me in some way. But as soon as I saw this picture, I said to myself, ‘It’s Mouse!’ I can’t remember where I found the photo or who took it – all I know is that it was taken in the UK some time in the 1940s or 1950s.

So there I was with a small boy, Mouse, and a pram. And that’s when I remembered something that happened to me in Istanbul in 1986.

I was travelling through Turkey with a friend, and we were visiting the Istanbul spice market, where the air is full of wonderful smells and the honey-sellers encourage you to stick your finger in the honey and try it before you buy. There was a man telling fortunes with white doves, and he told mine. I can’t remember the fortune now, but I remember the doves very clearly, how they picked up bits of paper in their beaks, and the man read them out, with a bystander translating them into English, because my friend and I didn’t speak Turkish.

I don’t think the fortune came true. But that small event stayed with me for years and years, until I needed it.

Small boy + pram + fortune-telling = Mouse!

Path of Beasts – the ARC!

April 14th, 2012 | Category: Uncategorized | 24 Comments »
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I received a very exciting parcel in the post the other day – half a dozen copies of the US edition of Path of Beasts. These weren’t the final book, of course, but Advance Readers Copies, or ARCs. And they look terrific!

Here’s a sneak peek of the cover.

Isn’t Jon Foster an extraordinary artist? I think this is so beautiful, and yes, that’s Goldie in the middle, wielding a sword. A far cry from the girl who didn’t even know how to run.

The ARCs go out to various reviewers three months before the book is published, which means in early July. And seeing I’ve got six of them, I thought I might do a giveaway on Goodreads. And maybe one here as well. So some lucky readers will find out what finally happens to Goldie and Toadspit three months early.

Keep your eyes on this website or on my facebook page, and I’ll let you know when the giveaway is about to start.

(I’m very excited!)

 

How people find my website

April 4th, 2012 | Category: Uncategorized | 10 Comments »
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One of the interesting things about having a website is looking at the admin pages behind what everyone else sees.

These pages tell me how many hits there have been, and what people have looked at – though they don’t tell me who you are. One of the things I like to check is the search engine terms that people have used to find me. It’s usually something obvious like ‘lian tanner’ or ‘when will path of beasts be published’ or ‘the keepers trilogy’.

But sometimes it’s a bit strange. Like yesterday. Someone searched for ‘bedroom smells like a corpse’. And whose website did they find, at the top of the search list? Mine! (Try it and see.) All because of this post about finding a dead mouse in the spare room.

I can’t help wondering why that person was searching, though …

‘Read This’ Competition

April 2nd, 2012 | Category: Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
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Got a favourite book? How would you go about convincing your friends to read it?

The National Year of Reading, the State Library of Victoria and Good Reading Magazine are having a competition for residents of Australia aged between 12 and 18 years. Here’s the link – you can get the competition details and see some of the entries that people have already sent in. Note that you have to enter online.

There are prizes in each state as well as a national prize, and you can enter as yourself or as part of a team. I’m one of the Tasmanian judges (but don’t send your entries to me!), and I know from the quignog competition I held a while back that there are a lot of very creative people out there, so I’m looking forward to it.

I can’t enter of course (waaaaay too old ) but I’ve been thinking about which book I would do if I could enter, and whether I would write a story or paint a picture or what. Haven’t decided yet. How about you?

Free stuff, extras and downloads from the Keepers

March 27th, 2012 | Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
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How old was Toadspit when he learned to pick locks? What does Blessed Guardian Hope dream about in her room at night? Why do the trees in Princess Frisia’s orchards grow so astonishingly well?

No, you won’t find the answers in Museum of Thieves or City of Lies. But you will find them on the series websites, along with a whole lot of other interesting information, including a recipe for rat stew, a lesson in fingertalk, and a letter from me explaining how the books came about.

To make these things nice and easy to find, I’ve added some links to the Free Stuff page. Have a look, download some wallpaper, order a bookplate or find out more about your favourite characters!

Path of Beasts coming in October

March 23rd, 2012 | Category: Uncategorized | 19 Comments »
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Only six months to go until the Keepers Book 3, Path of Beasts, is published. And we’re counting down! Here are a couple of very nice comments from people who have read the manuscript.

This is from the Alien Onion blog, which is the children’s book blog for my Australian publisher, Allen & Unwin. ‘October will see the third and final volume in the Keepers series by Lian Tanner. Path of Beasts. It is, quite simply, a triumphant conclusion. If the series had to end (and quite frankly I would have been happy reading about Goldie and Toadspit until the crack of doom), then it had to end like this.’

And here’s a comment from the Australian proofreader, Sonja. ‘I enjoyed every minute of it. When X* turned up I swear I had goosebumps! Ditto for the final showdown – an absolutely perfect ending. *sigh of happiness*’

* I had to X out the name or it would have given away a very important bit of the plot.

2011 Aurealis Award shortlist

March 20th, 2012 | Category: Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
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Excellent news – City of Lies has been shortlisted for the 2011 Aurealis Awards (fantasy and science fiction). This is the one that Museum of Thieves won last year, so it’s very exciting to be shortlisted again. But the competition is tough! Here’s the whole children’s novel shortlist. You’ll notice that my Australian publishers, Allen & Unwin, have four out of the five books – which is just as it should be, because they are such brilliant publishers to work with.

CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through words)

The Outcasts by John Flanagan (Random House Australia)
The Paradise Trap by Catherine Jinks (Allen & Unwin)
“It Began with a Tingle” by Thalia Kalkapsakis (Headspinners, Allen & Unwin)
The Coming of the Whirlpool by Andrew McGahan (Allen & Unwin)
City of Lies by Lian Tanner (Allen & Unwin)

The winner will be announced on Saturday 12th May.

 

First draft of ‘Frozen’

March 16th, 2012 | Category: Uncategorized | 15 Comments »
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I’m feeling very pleased with myself, having just this minute finished the first draft of the new book. No, this is not Path of Beasts – that is already well on the way to publication. This is a new story entirely. It’s for children still, and a fantasy. It’s called Frozen and it’s set on an ancient icebreaker that has been sailing around the southern icecap for the last three hundred years.

That’s all I can tell you right now. I don’t have a contract for it yet, and this is a very rough first draft – full of loose ends and contradictions, and stories that stop in the middle, or come out of nowhere. So it’ll take me a while to beat it into shape. But at least I now have something to work with – once you’ve got a first draft it’s easier. And here’s the photo that’s been sitting on my desktop for the last few months to inspire me. It was taken by Georges Nijs.

Want to see more gorgeous Antarctic photos? Have a look here.

So now I’m going to put the manuscript away for a couple of weeks and do other stuff, before coming back and reading it through. But first – tomorrow is my birthday and I’m going to the theatre after lunch to see Miriam Margolyes do Dickens’ Women. Then I’m going out for afternoon tea to eat cake and champagne. So I shall raise a glass to myself and the first draft. And then I shall do my best to put the story out of my mind, so that it can cook quietly in the background.