Today there is a very amusing guest blog up at my Burn Bright YA site by Belinda Hamilton, entitled When Cool Loses its Cool. Meanwhile, over at the Marianne Delacourt site you can grab some Tara Sharp wallpaper or badges for your blog.

Here, things are quiet on the surface but underneath this calm exterior I’m plotting my next MDP adult project. What will it be? Though I’m still nursing a hankering for my cowpunk series, it will have to wait until someone loves the idea as much as me. Soooo… I’m thinking strip clubs, demons and a protagonist that can use her voice as a weapon.

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Occasionally reviews still pop up for the Parrish Plessis series. I always admire anyone who has been able to read this series out of order. I know it would make no sense to me at all, if I’d tried to do that. Anyway, this particular reviewer makes a comment about the fact that the girl on the cover doesn’t accurately reflect Parrish and her disfigured face. Here’s a snip from it:

Once I did bond with the character and catch up with what was going on, I really enjoyed myself. I applaud de Pierres for giving her heroine a major facial injury. Unlike one or two other female protagonists sporting such trophies, I could fully believe that Parrish wouldn’t bother to get any sort of cosmetic surgery done to repair the damage. In these days with increasing pressure on girls to look ‘hot’, it was a shame, I felt, that the girl on the cover didn’t display her crooked nose and caved-in cheekbone. However, I’m not going to hold that against the author. It’s a pity that Orbit didn’t reflect more accurately what was going on between the covers when designing the jacket.

Meantime, I’m definitely going to get hold of the other major series de Pierres has written, Sentients of Orion. This time, though, I’ll take care to start with the first book. Code Noir by Marianne de Pierres - reviewed by S. J. Higbee @ SF Reader

I’ve thought about this a lot over the years, even more so when the whole debacle over Justine Larbalastier’s US book cover for Liarwas going on. Part of me would liked to have seen Parrish in her true grunge glory on the cover. That’s why I’m quite attached to this piece of fan art by Neyour. It’s kind of more realistic.

OTO – I love Larry Rostant covers.

I’d like to hear what everyone else thinks. Do you want an accurate representation of the character in the book? Or do you see the cover as a separate text?

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Tara Sharp and Sci-fi craziness!

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I’ve welcomed three new reviewers over at my YA site, Burn Bright, and today is Belinda’s debut review of Kiss Me Deadly edited by Trisha Telep. Check it out. Once the BB site is revamped in September by Austin Designworks, we’ll be firing on all cylinders. There’ll be interviews and reviews galores, plus the odd profile of interesting persons. ATM you can catch a quickie interview with Kelley Armstrong, and read any previous interviews with legends like Garth Nix and Isobelle Carmody right here.

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Writing Panel – Simple Ways to Promote Your Book

Saturday 28th August 11.00-12.30pm

These fantastic Sci-Fi & Fantasy authors Marianne de Pierres/Delacourt, Rowena Cory Daniells, Trent Jamieson, Kylie Chan and Louise Cusack will speak about their experiences as their own publicists.

Bookings essential

Call 3412 4140 or book online

Click the link below to download the full month long program

Logan SciFi Month Program

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Absolutely love this poster that Orbit used in their July promotion in Australia. When I see things like this, I get excited all over again that I’m writing science fiction. Vive l’Orbit.

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I love it when Planet Fantastic blog their ‘best of’ lists. It’s always an interesting blend of local and international authors. Their latest Bestselling Titles Ever includes Nylon Angel at #13 and Dark Space at #33.

On a sadder note, Gen Con Oz has announced the 2010 event has been cancelled. My concerns and best wishes go out to the organisers. Hope this is only a temporary thing.

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I’ll be doing a drive by interview at Angela Slatter’s blog as a lead up to World Con, and another interview over at Strange Candy Reviews. Interviews and reviews must be in the air because over at my young adult website Bec, Belinda, Jamie and Amy will be reviewing YA on a regular basis. Bec is still running the Big 4 interviews with upcoming interviews from Ann Aguirre and Kelley Armstrong and LM Fuge.

And while you’re adding books on Bookreads, add me as well:

http://www.goodreads.com/mariannedepierres

Meanwhile stay tuned for my next guest blogger …

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Smurched from ScFi Wire.

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Well, I’m going to put the whole Sentients of Orion thing behind me as of now.

Below is the TOC from Fablecroft Publishing’s upcoming anthology Australis Imaginarium. I’m sure you’ll agree this will be a great read:

“Once a Month, on a Sunday” by Ian McHugh

“Night Heron’s Curse” by Thoraiya Dyer

“Hunter of Darkness, Hunter of Light” by Michael Pryor

“A Pig’s Whisper” by Margo Lanagan

“Stealing Free” by Deborah Biancotti

“Suffer the Little Children” by  Rowena Cory Daniells

“Virgin Jackson” by Marianne de Pierres

“The Claws of Native Ghosts” by Lee Battersby

“The Jacaranda Wife” by Angela Slatter

“The Dark Under the Skin” by Dirk Strasser

“Red Ochre” by Lucy Sussex

“Passing the Bone” by Sean Williams

And … the IO9 newsletter brought a lovely article on Sparticles today (Super Symmetry Particles). That name alone is worthy of a short story. Love it! Here is a snip from it:

The more exciting possibility is that an as yet undiscovered, undetected particle is messing with the interaction between the muon and the proton, skewing the result. These mystery particles might be wonderfully named “sparticles”, hypothetical particles predicted by the quantum theory of supersymmetry. Sparticles (short for supersymmetry particles) are partners of the various known subatomic particles that are thought to be 1,000 times more massive than their known counterparts and existed for only trillionths of a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang.

So much great stuff to think about!

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