Events

It's a fairly quiet week as far as events in Australia are concerned, although there is the launch of a debut novel to check out in Sydney.

The launch of Fivefold by Nathan Burrage will be held on Thursday, 17 January at the Galaxy Bookshop in Sydney from 6pm onwards. Margo Lanagan, winner of the World Fantasy Award and author of short story collections, will be doing the honours for the night. There's an open invitiation out for the night so anyone prowling through the streets of Sydney doing some late night shopping are welcome to make their way over to the Galaxy Bookshop (143 York St) to check things out. Plenty of details can be found on Nathan's website.

Heading across to LA, for the Matthew Reilly devotees out there, the Six Sacred Stones road show has started and you can check out Matt on Tuesday, 15 January at Barnes & Noble, Huntington Beach from 7:00pm. He then moves on to the heart of town on Wednesday, 16 January when he will be appearing at Metropolis Books, also from 7:00 pm to read, sign and discuss his second Jack West Jr thrill-ride. To round out the busy week he will be stopping off at M Is for Mystery at San Mateo to wow the hordes and sign some product.

Summer Read Author Appearances

The State Library of Victoria's Summer Read program runs from 20 November to 1 February with participating authors contributing to the SLV's blog. Additional features of the program are a series of author appearances at various libraries around Melbourne. So pull out your diaries and mark the following dates down

Garry Disher will be visiting the Hastings Library on the Mornington Peninsula on Tuesday, January 15th at 6:30pm. An appropriate location given the setting of his Challis and Destry books, the latest of which is Chain of Evidence. Booking details here.

Dorothy Porter, author of the verse novel El Dorado will be at the Caulfield Library on Thursday, January 17 from 7:00 - 9:00pm. To make a booking you can visit this website.

Adrian Hyland, author of Diamond Dove, will be speaking at Sam Merrifield Library on Thursday, January 17th at 7pm. This is a free event but places must be booked beforehand. Details available here.

A week later, Adrian will be out at the Gisborne Library from 7:30 - 8:30pm. The date to remember for this one is Thursday, 24th January. Details here.

You can meet James Phelan, author of Patriot Act at Geelong City Library on Thursday, January 24th at 6:30pm. All the details can be found here.

An important decision will have to be made because Michelle de Kretser, author of The Lost Dog will be at the City Library, also on Thursday, January 24th at 6:30pm. To book to meet Michelle just visit the website.

Now, if it's a riotous night you're after then you can't go past a chat with Max Barry, author of The Company. He will be at the Brighton Library on Thursday, 31 January at 6:30pm. Booking details here.

That's a pretty good start to the year for the Victorian crime readers among us. Get along and support the local authors. I've picked a selection of crime/thriller authors from the list (I use the term crime/mystery rather loosely for some of the authors listed above), but there are many more appearances on the program. If you'd like to attend an author appearance check out the full list here.

Meet Katherine Howell and Leah Giarratano in Sydney

This Sunday, 11 November Leah Giarratano (Vodka Doesn't Freeze) and Katherine Howell (Frantic) will be appearing at the Newtown Festival talking about crime fiction. Katherine and Leah will be taking the stage in The Writers Tent from 11:30. All the details can be found at the Newtown Festival website. The event is put on by the Better Read Than Dead Bookshop and should prove to be a fascinating day for book lovers.

Also appearing at the festival will be Thomas Keneally, Hugh Mackay, Anita Heiss, Traci Harding, Karen Miller, Ian Irvine and The Chaser team.

Tony Park Pushes Safari With Great Results

Thanks to the pressures of work my leisure time has been rudely invaded and I have missed reporting on a recent event or two. (For shame).

One such event was the launch last night of Tony Park’s latest novel, Safari. (Tony was generous enough to send me an invitation but alas, the whole time thingie – thanks anyway Tony).

As with his other books (Far Horizon, Zambezi, African Sky), Safari is set in Africa - Zambezi this time - and continues his trend of writing riveting adventure / thrillers set against the harshly beautiful backdrop of Africa.

But I have another reason for mentioning the release and that is to urge you to hop over to Tony’s blog to read his hilarious account of his recent exploits in a Sydney bookstore as he stalked a “prospective royalty contributor”.

Geoff McGeachin and Matt Rubinstein Have Book Launches Coming Up

There are a couple of book launches about to take place in the Sydney area if people are around.

The first is the launch of Sensitive New Age Spy by Geoff McGeachin which will be held on Monday June 4th at the Australian Centre for Photography in Paddington from 6.30-9.00pm. Finally, I've managed to secure a leave pass and will be gracing the place with my presence and, who knows, I may even be able to report all the fun at the fair, so to speak.

Then on Tuesday, June 5th at Gleebooks (49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe) Delia Falconer will be hosting the launch of Matt Rubinstein's A Little Rain on Thursday. This too is a 6:30 start and you can get all the details to book at the Gleebooks website.

Matthew Reilly Is Off to Hollywood

The Arts and Entertainment blog of the ABC – Articulate – has published a recent interview with Matthew Reilly where he talks candidly about a range of exciting projects coming up. Not the least of these is his relocation to Hollywood to work on the TV pilot of his creation, Literary Superstars. On top of that is the slowly developing film adaptation for Hover Car Racer.

For the readers out there he also talks about the forthcoming Jack West novel titled The Six Sacred Stones. As Reilly explains, Jack West is pure Indiana Jones territory which pretty aptly describes the first Jack West book Seven Ancient Wonders. Be warned, though, he also talks about trying to make a point of not giving the readers what they expect, already hinting that maybe there will be a momentous twist or two in the new book.


Check out the full interview.

Don’t forget Matthew will be appearing at the Sydney Writer’s Festival on the following dates:

Tuesday, May 29, 6.30pm: at Blacktown Library
Thursday, May 31, 3pm: , “Crossing Over Genres”.
Friday, June 1, 10.30am: ”Being a Professional Writer”.

Shane Maloney is in Sydney

For those of you in the Sydney area, you have the opportunity to attend what promises to be a very entertaining evening at Gleebooks on Wednesday, 23 May when the bookstore will be hosting Shane Maloney in discussion with Wendy Harmer.



The prospect of the sharply biting wit of Maloney chatting with one of Australia’s funniest comedians about Sucked In should be tantalising enough to ensure a full house. You can book by calling Gleebooks (9660 2333), tickets cost $10 / $7 concession and the night gets underway at 6:30 for 7:00pm.

Book Launch of Dorothy Porter's El Dorado

The book launch of Dorothy Porter’s new verse novel El Dorado will take place at the Arts Metro Building in Brisbane on Wednesday, 23 May. The evening will start at 6:00pm and will end around 8:30pm and there is a small entry charge. The event has been organised by the Brisbane’s Better Bookshops people and tickets can be arranged by visiting the website.

Now, I know there's a clash with the first State of Origin match at Suncorp Stadium but I'd imagine it will be sold out that night, so what better alternative than pop over and check out the book launch (It’ll be all bad for the Maroons anyway…)

The verse novel is not something that I am overly familiar with, but by all accounts El Dorado is an intense psychological thriller. Lovers of dark subject matter will be able to immerse themselves in the story of a serial killer whose victims are children. A wonderful review of the book can be found at M/C Reviews, I recommend having a read.

Katherine Howell Appearance

Tweed Heads locals can get out to visit Katherine Howell at the Angus And Robertson bookstore on Saturday, 12 May at 10:00am. She will be signing copies of her recently released debut thriller, Frantic. The store is located at the Tweed City Shooping Centre at South Tweed Heads and I'm sure Katherine would love to see as many there as possible.

Sucked In Launch - See Shane Maloney

Just a quickie about the launch of Sucked In by Shane Maloney which will be taking place tonight. Shane has invited everyone who can make it along with the following little description of what you're in for:

"The official launch of Sucked In will be celebrated with witty speeches and cask wine at Paddy's Bar, upstairs at the Victorian Trades Hall, Lygon Street, Carlton at 6pm on Thursday 10 May 2007. All Welcome. Limit of 3 party pies per person. Drinks at bar prices once the free grog runs out. Books for sale. Author signing. Check guns at door."

The witty speech will be conducted by comedian and actor Mick Molloy, who played Angelo Agnelli MP in the highly acclaimed telemovies of Shane's first two novels.

Festivities start at 6:30pm and the bods from Text would like a bell to let them know you're coming. You can call Kirsty at Text on 03 8610 4510, or an email could do the trick too. kirsty.wilson@textpublishing.com.au

The chance to hear Mick Molloy crap on should be worth taking the time. Pity I'm not in Melbourne.

I finished Sucked In this evening and it simply drips in political satire that sparkles with Maloney wit. Six long years we've been waiting for this episode in the Murray Whelan journey and it's well worth the wait.

Oh yeah...and the launch tour doesn't end with one appearance, oh no. Shane's hitting the road over the next few months with fleeting visits to Brisbane and Sydney on the agenda. Details on his website here.

Richard Flanagan's US Tour

Well the US book tour of Richard Flanagan rolls on as he continues to promote The Unknown Terrorist to great success as this LA Times article attests. The article provides some pretty good reading with numerous comparisons made of his work to William Faulkner's which he sounds a little awed about, not to mention a touch apprehensive.

Asked about the research he undertook for The Unknown Terrorist he quipped "Well, let's see: I spent a fair amount of time in Sydney, hanging out and drinking with cops and talking to junkies, I knew that somewhere in all that there was a story."

At the time of the article Flanagan was a panellist at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

Appearance by P.D. Martin

P.D. Martin is on the appearance trail here in Australia with the recent release of her second book, The Murderer's Club. Like the first book, it features her Australian FBI profiler Sophie Anderson.

Martin will be at another launch night (the first official launch was back in early November) on December 8 at Leo's Spaghetti Bar in St Kilda where she will be signing books answering questions and generally charming all.

I've recently received a review copy of the new book and am feverishly reading the backlog to get to it.