In Which I Acquire Two Shiny New Things

Last week, I acquired two shiny new things. The first was a shiny new camera. I’ve never owned a camera before (no, not even one in a mobile phone, because I’ve never owned a mobile phone, either), so this has been a very exciting and time-consuming experience for me (hence the lack of blogging). Oh, the wonders of modern technology. This camera can do anything – it even has a MAGIC shooting mode. Unfortunately, I am a Muggle, so most of the magic has eluded me. This is particularly disappointing because one of the MAGIC modes can cause objects to sparkle. This immediately made me want to go around taking pictures of people, then showing them the photos and saying, ‘LOOK! You’re a sparkly vampire!’, but so far, the only thing I’ve managed to turn into sparkles is a picture frame. However, I will persist. I actually bought the camera so I could take photos of the setting of my next book (which is set in Sydney, where I live), so those photos may appear on this blog in the near future. Or not, depending on how my photography skills develop.

The other shiny new thing I acquired was the Uncorrected Bound Proof (or ARC, if you’re American) of my new book, The FitzOsbornes at War, which looks like this:

'The FitzOsbornes at War' Australian ARC cover
Click on the image to see the cover more clearly

Pretty, huh? I tried to make it sparkle, but all that happened was that a red splodge with an uncanny resemblance to a lobster claw appeared on Sophie’s frock. (Oh, camera, sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.) Here’s a photo of the spines of all three Montmaray books, so you can see how enormous the third book is:

'The Montmaray Journals' Australian covers
Click on the image to see the covers more clearly

Actually, it doesn’t look much bigger than the second book, but it really is – it’s more than five hundred pages. Massive. My next book’s going to be a lot shorter.

Here, have a photo of a rainbow lorikeet:

Rainbow lorikeet

18 thoughts on “In Which I Acquire Two Shiny New Things”

  1. You’ve just ratcheted up my excitement for FaW to astronomical levels 🙂

    Have fun shedding your muggle-wonder and embracing shiny new picture taking awesomeness.

    1. The book’s very pretty, isn’t it? And it will be out in a mere TEN WEEKS!

      I think my photography skills are deteriorating, actually. I took that rainbow lorikeet photo the day I bought the camera, and all the bird photos since have been blurry, with weird colours. Stop moving, birds! Sit still!

  2. 1. Shiny! Also, I’ve gone on this anti-long-books kick, to the point where I wish I was in charge of the picture books at the library instead of the YA; but somehow having over 500 pages of Montmaray to look forward to is making me very happy, instead.

    2. I just wanted to take this opportunity to apologize that this email address got hacked the other day and sent spam to a luckily short list of recipients since this is my posting-on-blogs email address and I normally don’t SEND email from this address, but apparently you were on that short list of recipients anyway. Which was very embarrassing to me, because I like you quite a lot and you sent me a book and I would not want to send you spam email in return. Probably you just deleted it without noticing, anyway, but I still have to say “Sorry” just to make me feel better. 🙁

    1. 1. Yes, long books can sometimes be a chore to read. I struggled to finish some very boring long books during the holidays, but I’m now halfway through Mal Peet’s Life: An Exploded Diagram and really enjoying it, so perhaps this is A Sign that more long, interesting YA books are coming my way. (And hopefully, readers will enjoy Montmaray Three, even though it is The Longest Book in the World.)

      2. No worries, mate. (This is Australian for: ‘Do not be concerned, my friend. I receive many articles of spam which are deleted immediately, without causing me undue stress.’)

    1. I know, it’s very unfair for you poor North Americans.

      For those who absolutely CAN’T wait, I’ll put up a post in April about where you can buy the Australian edition on-line.

  3. Oooh! I am so excited to see that The FitzOsbornes at War is so big! One can never have enough Montmaray.

    The Australian covers are so pretty. I’d love all three in hard cover some day. Can’t wait to read ‘At War!’

    1. The three books look very nice sitting on my shelf! Australian publishers don’t tend to do hardcovers, do they – at least, not for local fiction authors. I have the very pretty hardcover Australian editions of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, but they’re both by overseas authors. Maybe I just need to write a novel with a really, really long title . . .

  4. How exciting! It’s pleasing that the books line up quite nicely and all color coordinated in that one photo.

    The picture of the bird is great! I just got a new camera too but haven’t learned much more than how to press the button and change the scene mode to take pictures of food… or my cat. I’m thinking a book on digital camera basics from the library could be helpful.

    1. My photography skills have not progressed much since then. I did borrow a book on camera basics from the library, but it started talking about things like inserting a ‘floppy disc’ in your camera (which looked the size of a shoebox in the illustration) – and then I saw the book was published in 2001. I think digital cameras have moved on somewhat since then . . . I will struggle on.

      And yes, the books look very nice all lined up. I love the photos on the spines (and the front covers), which were all taken by Nikoline Rasmussen, a very talented teenage photographer.

  5. I read A Brief History Of Montmaray over the summer and loved it, I’m so happy to find out that there are two more books to read!!!!

    Unfortunately I have to wait until October, but it gives me plenty time to read The FitzOsbornes in Exile.

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