It’s a good day for speculative fiction at Booked Out! The shortlist for the 2012 Aurealis Awards has been released, marking the best Australian science-fiction, fantasy and horror writing of the year. Booked Outers Jack Heath, Isobelle Carmody, Mark Wilson and Justin D’Ath are all nominated, as well as Booked Out’s very own Jack Nicholls!

The awards will be announced on May 18th, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed for all our nominees. As most of them are facing off together in the Young Adult category, we hope that whatever happens the office will be celebrating!

Our sensei of all things Skype, Tristan Bancks, is offering a free online visit (Skype or Google Hangout) to the school who makes the best themed display based on his book Galactic Adventures: First Kids in Space. The book is a perfect match for the Book Week theme ‘Read Across the Universe’ for 2013.

Check out Tristan’s blog post about the comp here.

If you haven’t already checked out the short list for the inaugural Stella Prize, today is the perfect day to do so! Booked Outers Romy Ash, Cate Kennedy and Amy Espeseth have all been shortlisted and of course the prize was spearheaded by Sophie Cunningham.

The prize is announced on Tuesday, 16th of April.

One hundred women for one weekend in the middle of one point eight million acres of gibber in one aircraft hanger on Durham Downs. When Simon at Booked Out first phoned me he wasn’t quite sure what it was, where it was, and who these people really were, but he had the feeling that this gig was actually going to happen and I might be the author they were looking for.

My hand shot up. Thank you, Simon. This was Love Like Watercountry, the country of my childhood. Bigger, bolder and another eight hours drive beyond the sheep and cattle property where I grew up in Queensland, I could smell the dust, see the straight gravel road stretching into an enormous sky, and hear the voices of women a long time on their own.

Kristy is the young governess originally from Sydney who works on Durham Downs. She is also the National Student Representative of Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health (SARRAH) and the Co-Senior Allied Health Portfolio Holder, National Rural Health Students Network (NRHSN). Kristy makes things happen. Four hours drive from the nearest town, she walks tall with a long stride. ‘It’ll happen.’ A week before, with fights still being booked, stopovers in the ‘nearby’ schools of Cunnamulla and Thargomindah yet to be confirmed, I had no doubt: ‘it’ll happen’. The generosity of the Bulloo Shire assigned Melinda from Thargomindah to drive me from one place to the next, hundreds of kilometres. With Melinda at the wheel, pulling wide as road trains barrelled through in a thunder of dust, I was in good hands. Melinda oozes love of the land. My notebook was ready between the bumps, catching the next bush remedy, wise saying, or story of the particular breed of people that live here.

We arrived at Durham on dusk in a storm that blew down the marque, the first rain in one hundred days. It’s all in hundreds out here. ‘It’ll happen.’ Women had driven up to seven hundred k’s that day. From a ninety year old down to a couple of young children and all ages in between, swags were rolled out on the back of utes, across verandas, in the kitchen, down the creek, wherever. Seasoned bushies, newcomers, flying doctors and nurses, governesses, property owners – rural women. And a handful of men – the manager, head stockman, and three jackaroos, one from the neighbouring property who hadn’t been west of the divide for long – were on hand to mix cocktails, serve food, restock the ice, crank up the fans, be at the ready in a crisis, all with good cheer.

My job was to inspire these rural women to value their stories. Kristy was sure I could talk through my own writing experience and have all one hundred women up sharing their stories within the space of an hour. I was glad of Kristy’s confidence. ‘It’ll happen.’ Follow-up tips could be workshopped after lunch. Lunch was a white tablecloth and wine affair. I had quietly mentioned that I didn’t eat meat. ‘You’re coming to one of the biggest cattle properties in Australia and you don’t eat meat?’ I nodded…over the phone. ‘Not a problem. We’ve got a great chef coming. She’ll knock up something tasty that’ll keep you alive.’

There were a number of presenters including a renowned photographer, a leading artist, a tarot reader and masseuse, a social networker, a hairdresser, singers, clothing designers, and…a pleasure consultant. Yes, the pleasure consultant from Mullumbimby came with graphs, suitcases of toys for sale, and a dance routine choreographed by the leading lady of Durham Downs whose lucky husband was standing in the wings laughing along with the rest of us.

From the cocktail party Friday night through a Saturday full of workshops, lunch, dinner, dancing and a recovery brunch Sunday morning, this was a celebration. Of boundless creativity. Of hardship, joy and love. Of women-power in all its wonder and possibility. Of free spirits and open space under a firmament of stars. Of stepping out – high-heeled, riding booted or barefoot – beyond the limits. The weekend filled me up. There were a hundred others that could say the same.

Meme McDonald December 2012

One of our more intrepid authors, John Danalis has just come back from a tour of the Middle East taking in Oman and the United Arab Emirates. In Muscat, Oman he worked with students and teachers at two international schools and by the sound of the feedback below made a lot of friends.

John Danalis was our writer-in-residence for 5 days and during that time he interacted with every student from Kindergarten (our Kindergarten starts at age 3!) to Grade 12 as well as conducting an in-service session for Elementary teachers. He touched everyone with his gentle humanity and humility. The English teachers liked his focus on the art of storytelling and the way he incorporates drawing into his writing. He is an advocate for libraries, librarians and research (I liked that!) and he emphasises the link between research and the creative process to the students. The possum-skin cloak is a powerful and unique article that draws students to John and to story. It is a part of Australian culture that few white Australians know about and it is an especially significant item to demonstrate to people from other cultural backgrounds… He is generous with his time and advice and he is a good listener. Luckily he is also flexible, adaptable and able to change the focus of his workshops at a moment’s notice! It was an absolute pleasure to host John at our international school and he is welcome here any time. In his own words, he arrived in Oman as a visiting author and left as a friend.

Kimbra Weeks, Secondary Teacher Librarian

On the road…

John rode hundreds of kilometres (somewhere between 800-1000) through the desert from Muscat to Abu Dhabi, stopping at little towns and engaging with the many curious locals along the way.

“Riding for up to 12 hours a day in 45 deg heat does wonderful things to the imagination” according to John who became adept at balancing his journal on his handlebar bag and managed to get quite a bit of writing done while riding.

What: Professional development events for primary and junior secondary teachers

Where: Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and more TBC

When: June 2013

Visit the events page to register your interest and you’ll be one of the first to receive the full details.

From the 15th – 18th of November, several of our authors will be appearing at the Stonnington Literary Festival. The event will be launched by Shane Maloney on the 15th, Sofie Laguna, Gabrielle Williams and Paddy O’Reilly will share some of their stories in a special storytime for adults, and Toni Jordan and Fiona Wood will join Meme McDonald in a lively discussion on the inspirations and personal stories behind their work.

Lisa Hill, a local blogger who will be hosting the session, recentlyreviewed Love Like Water, giving it a solid dose of blog love.

*The dialogue is sharp and realistic, as conversations bounce around in witty exchanges full of slang and references to popular culture. But there are also vivid word-pictures of the town and the outback to contrast the lives of the haves and the have-nots in this arid landscape.

Love Like Water is a terrific book. It was shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year for Older Readers in 2008, (definitely YA, there are sensual love scenes) and was Highly Commended for the Christina Stead Award in 2007.*

Hill’s review is one of many out there, all posted by readers who love Meme’s sharp, thoughtful narrative and who can see not only the literary importance of the book, but who know a good book when they see one.

To find out how you can see one of these fantastic speakers in action, check out the festival program here.

Craig Smith has opened up a bookstore section on his site, and many of his classics both new and old can be purchased there. Click here to check out his site.

At the moment, Craig has available for sale Doctor Frankenstein’s Other Monster (author: Nigel Gray) which is a key resource Craig draws on (pardon the pun) for his drawing workshops. Billy The Punk(author: Jessica Carroll), Heather Fell in The Water (author: Doug MacLeod), Cat (author: Mike Dumbleton) and Sister Madge’s Book of Nuns (author: Doug MacLeod) are also available.

Some of these favourites have not been available outside school and local libraries for some time, and now is a chance for fans out there to not only have a copy for themselves, but a signed one, too. Craig will continue taking many drawing workshops for us through 2013. Download a detailed outline of Craig’s workshops here.

The Ros Bower award is a $50 000 prize given to artists to respect a lifelong contribution to community arts and cultural development. Booked Out is incredibly proud of Meme McDonald, who has been awarded this honour.

The image at right was taken from the Saturday Age (29/9/12), from Jason Steger’s Booknotes column.

Short and sweet this week from one of our roving reporters who attended the launch of Gus Gordon’s new book, the very charmingHerman and Rosie last weekend and The Little Bookroom.

At this picture book launch with a difference, adults were just as keen as children to get their copy of this whimsical new book signed by the author.

Gus has written a very quirky, soulful picture book set in summertime New York. It features subways, hotdogs, jazz clubs and singing on rooftops!

Children will love the two apartment dwellers Herman and Rosie who live a few blocks apart and are both into music. The parent/grandparent readers will love the maps, sketches, jazz references and the hum of Manhattan.

Gus hails from Sydney, but we’re thrilled to say that he will be visiting Melbourne schools in Book Week 2013.