More Scary Kisses now available for Kindle

More Scary Kisses

More Scary Kisses, the paranormal romance anthology edited by Liz Gryzb and published by Ticonderoga is now available in a Kindle edition. For only US$4.99! It contains a short story of mine called “Frostbitten” — which is definitely more scary than kissy — among a stellar line up of new work by Australian authors, including Felicity Dowker, Nicole R. Murphy and Martin Livings.

Vampires and fairies, werwolves and wizards, oh my!

So if you don’t already have the very pretty paperback — or if you also like to grab a handy e-book edition — head on over to Amazon now.

17 July 2011
Categories: Writing & Publishing . Tags: , , , . Author: Kirstyn McDermott . Comments: 1 Comment

The Writer and the Critic: Episode 9

The latest episode of our podcast is now available for direct download and streaming from our brand new Podbean website or via subscription from iTunes. Here are the show notes:

This month on The Writer and the Critic, your hosts Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond navigate their way to the cosy, cat-populated abode of their special guest, Melbourne author Cameron Rogers. They talk about the troublesome life of Cam’s (second) debut novel, The Music of Razors, and what he’s been doing with himself since its publication, and move on to discuss a variety of topics ranging from from karma collectives to the reasons why sometimes you really do need to turn down a three-book contract. There is also wine and gingerbread men. Angry gingerbread men.

Cameron Rogers, Ian Mond & Kirstyn McDermott

Cam has recommended World War Z by Max Brooks for his book this month which results in a lively debate about zombies, cultural authenticity and gender disparity. Kirstyn made a spreadsheet — no, really, it’s far more engaging than it sounds! For those wanting to skip ahead and avoid spoilers, discussion about World War Z begins at 30:50 and ends around 56:00.

World War Z / Cameron Rogers

Attention is then turned to the official podcast books: Eclipse 4 edited by Jonathan Strahan — selected by Ian — and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins — Kirstyn’s choice. (For those playing at home, the actress who has been cast as Katniss Everdeen in the film adaptation of The Hunger Games is Jennifer Lawrence; Kirstyn regrets her mental blank during recording and hopes this saves you all from yelling Jennifer’s name at your iPods or iPod-like devices when it comes up.) There are many, many plot spoilers so if you want to skip ahead, discussion of Eclipse begins at 56:00, while Hunger Games starts around 1:30:10.

Eclipse 4 / The Hunger Games

Check back in at the 01:47:50 for some possibly amusing final remarks and apologies to Cat Sparks for failing to respond to her feedback yet again. Next episode, Cat, that’s a promise!

Next month’s Writer and the Critic is a Hugo Awards special. The awards will be announced on 20 August at Renovation, so Ian and Kirstyn will be reading and discussing two books from the final ballot: Dervish House by Ian McDonald and The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin. Two other nominated works have been previously discussed on this podcast: Feed by Mira Grant in Episode 2 and Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis in Episode 7. (The fifth Hugo nominated book is Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold, but Ian and Kirstyn have decided not to discuss this as it is part of the Vorkosigan saga with which they have not been keeping up. Listener feedback and opinions from those who have read Cryoburn, however, will be most welcome!)

Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!

15 July 2011
Categories: Books & Reading . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Kirstyn McDermott . Comments: 2 Comments

Dreams and Fulfillment with Nicole Murphy

The Secret Ones by Nicole Murphy

I totally forgot to even mention this!

The wonderful Nicole Murphy, author of the Dream of Asarlai urban fantasy trilogy, has been hosting series of posts from guest authors on the theme of “Dreams and Fulfillment” over at her blog. My post lives here but it’s definitely worth your time to read through what everyone else has written on the subject. Personally, I loved what Tansy Rayner Roberts has to say about the Dream of Getting Published (and what comes next), as well as Justina Robson’s thoughts on the importance of dreams for ensuring a fulfilled life in general.  Many thanks to Nicole for having us all over to her place. Hope we didn’t leave too many crumbs on the carpet or wine stains on the tablecloth.

Meantime, Rabbit Hole both worked and didn’t work. I didn’t reach my hoped-for word count, but I did force myself to sit and think through problems until I fixed them instead of wandering off to do something else. The novel is progressing well again and I’m actually feeling excited about where it’s heading. :-)

14 July 2011
Categories: Writing & Publishing . Tags: , , , . Author: Kirstyn McDermott . Comments: Leave a Comment

My ‘Meet the Writer’ Interview at Read Horror

It’s been quiet around here lately, mainly because I’ve been a) wrestling with a new computer, and b) wrestling with my novel. More of the former this past week, unfortunately! But I am getting the words down and I expect a massive boost from Rabbit Hole this weekend. I’m not insane enough to set myself the 30,000 words target, but I am trying for 10,000 over three days — which is near warp speed for me considering my obsessive, stitch-in-time, edit-as-I-g0 process. I’ll report back next week on how I did. See, accountability!

In the meantime, here’s an interview I did for Michael Wilson for Read Horror. I enjoyed answering the questions, even though I did find the one asking why people should read my work to be a particular challenge. Obviously, I need to get better at the whole self-promotion thing. You know, being able to publicly acknowledge that my writing is actually good and that people might actually enjoy reading it. I’m pretty crap at that. Of course, “enjoy” is such a relative term . . .

Right, back to the words.

6 July 2011
Categories: Writing & Publishing . Tags: , , , , , , , , . Author: Kirstyn McDermott . Comments: Leave a Comment

The Writer and the Critic: Episode 8

Writer and Critic at Podbean

The latest episode of our podcast is now available for direct download and streaming from our brand new Podbean website or via subscription from iTunes.

Due to ongoing technical problems at Posterous, we decided to move over to Podbean which is designed for exactly the sort of thing we do. We will leave the old Posterous site online for archiving purposes — especially as we haven’t as yet been able to import our lovely listener comments into the Podbean site — but if you’ve subscribed to our RSS feed there, it will no longer be updated. All iTunes subscriptions should continue without interruption, although you might find duplicate listings of Episodes 1-7 on your subscription. No need to download them again — the audio files haven’t changed.

Feedback on the new site or the podcast itself is most welcome!

And now, without further ado, here are the show notes for Episode 8:

This month The Writer and the Critic comes to you as a LIVE record from Continuum 7 — Melbourne’s own speculative fiction and pop culture convention — with the incomparable Catherynne M. Valente as special guest podcaster. Ian, Kirstyn and Cat discuss the problems and politics involved when writers review the work of friends and the need for honesty in online opinion. Cat talks about the popular and critical response to her own work, why sad pandas make everyone else sad as well, and why she is currently taking a break from writing negative reviews on her blog. Rose Fox’s recent article about the necessity for candour in reviews is also briefly mentioned.

continuum7.jpg

(photo: Art Bébé Promotions)

The first two books up for discussion are Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King (recommended by Kirstyn) and Among Others by Jo Walton (Ian’s pick). This review of Among Others is pointed as being one Jo Walton herself particularly likes, whereas these two became the subject of reader vitriol over at her LiveJournal — an incident which Cat, Ian and Kirstyn talk about at length in regards to the writing of memoir and authorial responses to critics. For those wishing to avoid spoilers and skip ahead, discussion of Full Dark, No Stars begins at 19:00, while Among Others starts around 40:50.

king_walton_covers.jpg

The trio then turn their attention to the newly released Embassytown by China Mieville — selected by Cat — which Ian and Kirstyn possibly manage to make sound a little more boring than it actually is. You don’t need a degree in linguistic theory, honest! (China himself has provided a far better summary of the book.) The discussion of Embassytown, including a rather heated debate between Ian and Kirstyn about post-colonialism, begins at 1:07:40.

mieville_valente_covers.jpg

Check back in at the 1:35:00 mark for some (very brief) final remarks.

Next month The Writer and the Critic will feature Melbourne author Cameron Rogers, who has chosen World War Z by Max Brooks for Ian and Kirstyn to read.

Ian’s recommended book will be a short story collection, Eclipse 4 edited by Jonathan Strahan, while Kirstyn’s pick is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!

22 June 2011
Categories: Books & Reading . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: Kirstyn McDermott . Comments: 1 Comment

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