Well things might have seemed a bit quiet at Hague Publishing but we've been working hard behind the scenes to get Leonie's new eBook ready for its launch in October, and have been struggling with the intricacies of getting our first Print On Demand (POD) out the door. The result, however, has been well worth it, and we include an interview with Barry Dean, the author of our first POD in this newsletter.
The Scouts of Frontier were charged with expanding their societies' knowledge of the hostile planet their ancestors had crashlanded on 300 years before. Dreaming of a time when they would be rediscovered by the Federation of Races.
For Shanna, joining the Scout Corps had been a dream come true. But as the youngest in her class, Shanna struggles to find acceptance and respect amongst her older peers - a task made more difficult by the fact that she has not just one, but two of the colonists' huge feline companions, their starcats.
On a routine patrol, she and the other cadets are swept up in the greatest challenge yet to be faced by the settlers of Frontier. Now they find themselves on the very frontline of a war they knew nothing about, and possibly the Federation of Race's last chance against the hostile Garsal. Suddenly their world has changed, and in ways never dreamed of by Shanna and her fellow scouts.
Available mid October - Purchase - Read Sample
It's an unusually cold winter, but 15 year old Jake is more concerned with the ice forming in his dad's new relationship, the fact that the girl he likes is dating his best friend, and his elderly neighbour is acting even weirder than usual. Could things get any more confusing? And then on a night of frost and ice, the beautiful ice-girl Cari falls from the sky, cast out of her world and into ours, and Jake finds that things will never be the same again.
Sally Odgers gave The City of Silver Light five stars on Amazon.com. Writing - "Magical yet grounded. I love the title of this story, and its delicious mix of genres; allegory, family story, fantasy, science fiction. In tone, it reminds me of Margaret Mahy's YA books and Maggie Pearson's Owl Light. This is a story of consequences, some alarmingly long term, and of doing what is right. I heartily recommend this book at any reader who enjoys something a bit out of the general line."
Now available for Purchase - Read Sample
Hague Publishing has just released our first paperback - Barry Dean's The Garden of Emily Washburn. The book is available from our website for $20 (with free p&p in Australia), or direct from Amazon.com. Autographed copies are also available direct from the author barrydean3@hotmail.com.
The book has received a number of nice reviews on goodreads.com.
"The story is written in a unique style with some great characterisations and an interesting storyline. There is plenty of action and mystery and I enjoyed the read" Janice
" ... an incisive wit that often had me laughing out loud " John Andrews - goodreads.com
We have included an interview in Barry in this newletter, and of course the eBook is still available.
Available with free p&p in Australia - Purchase - Read Sample
Hague Publishing has pleasure in announcing the recent signing of new Australian author Janis Hill. Janis' book is a quirky Science Fantasy in the vein of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time (now celebrating its 50th anniversary). However, Janis' heroine is very much a woman of this century, with a distinctly Australian view on life.
To be kept informed of progress regarding Janis' book follow us on facebook.
Although submissions for 2012 have now closed submissions for 2013 are now open. Please refer to our guidelines for more information.
Barry describes himself as the fossilised remnant of a young boy born in 1949 in Lithgow. He has worked as a musician, electrician, construction inspector and engineer. When not writing he is an engineering consultant with a love of travel and old ruins. He lives at Lake Macquarie with his wife Theresa.
We spoke to Barry about how he came to write his first book - "The Garden of Emily Washburn".
"That's actually quite a difficult question as I didn't actually set out to write a book. I know most people do. They slave over it, nurture it and some claim to suffer for it. I didn't do any of those because Emily Washburn was small at birth. She began life as a short story called "The Rose," which was written as part of a writers group exercise containing many stores of little black dresses. My idea for the story came from watching the Cannes film festival and seeing a beautiful woman on the arm of a man who had the head of a robber's dog. Their pairing was so incongruous that I considered, paid escort aside, that the woman must be other than human. From this, the character of Jacqueline du Pre was born. The name, of course came from a wonderful cellist who just happened to have a beautiful white rose named after her. To balance the beauty of the rose, I looked at the other end of the spectrum and found an obese frump. This character became Emily Washburn.
The eclectic mix of little black dress stories was sent to a publisher with strings of hope attached. Alas, the strings were returned broken but there was a comment in the rejection letter indicating that "The Rose" had the potential to be the basis of a novel.
I had not considered turning the short story into a novel so, for some considerable time afterward, Emily languished in the forgotten spaces of a computer file. I didn't even look at it again until I started getting feedback on stories that I was sending to friends from France and Italy when I was on a year-long sojourn. Each month I'd send an e-mail with three sections, namely, the good the bad and the quirky. It was the quirky that generated the feedback. The stories were about people, places and strange sightings.
When I returned to Australia I was encouraged by friends to try to turn my adventures into something publishable. For some reason I looked at writing a non-fiction narrative about the quirky and try to have them published in magazines as short stories After all, once you realise that a stale baguette attains the consistency of granite or that, in the middle of summer, a man can be seen strolling the street of Nice wearing an army greatcoat and leading his cat on a leash or that some people dress dogs up in bonnets and pinafores and wheel them around in prams, you will find that there is fertile ground for tales of the slightly odd.
I tried to write the events as short stories but they weren't as amusing as I would have hoped so I looked at turning the stories into fiction and creating a narrative around the events. At that stage I wasn't connecting the stories to the "The Rose" but seeing them as a combination of loosely linked separate events.
I returned to France and during this trip, in the town of Mazamet, I saw a woman who fitted my image of Emily. She was with a beautiful young woman and was berating a young man who had the hang dog expression of someone who would rather be elsewhere. From this chance sighting, the character of Scott Mawson was formed and I began to see the characters that I had written as Emily's flowers and the narrative took shape. From that time I saw the novel and knew that it had to be completed. "
Readers of the novel will find that "The Rose" still exists. It now forms the last chapter of the novel.
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