I’ve recently taken part in Fablecroft’s series on Indie Press and you can find my thoughts here. Also upcoming is an article in Geek Speak about the Peacemaker Comic and my Bibliobuffet In Conversation with Gillian Polack and Justina Robson. Will post those links soon.
Tara Sharp 3 is surging along on a tide of Tara-like investigations and nonsense. Always such fun to be in her head. I’ll be taking her with me to SheKilda and hope I can step out of Tara-land at the convention and be me!
Brigitte has done some character sketches for the new characters in issue 2 of Peacemaker and will be starting on the sequencing soon. YAY!
Angel Arias is in stores in about ten days and Yunyu’s wonderful new song Bluebeard will be made available free for everyone to enjoy with the book. The song really fits the tempo of Angel Arias which is quite a fast-paced survival tale. There is also a pirate in the book which connects well with the title (even though my pirate is called Ruzalia).
There’ve been some wonderful reviews for Burn Bright over the last few months but this is definitely one of the best I’ve read. The reviewer really understood the themes of the book.
Lastly, I’m always happy to see people are still discovering Parrish Plessis and this review just popped up for Nylon Angel. “Guts and Personal Demons” is certainly an apt description of Parrish!
I’m still recovering from my latest hard drive fail and am slowly loading necessary software and data. What a colossal pain!
In amongst that and my Tara Sharp deadline, I written a few blog posts. One is for Tehani Wessely on Indie Publishing, and an interview with Readings books about Angel Arias, and a blog about Peacemaker for Geek Speak magazine. All these are upcoming and I’ll post the links soon.
Brigitte now has the manuscript for issue 2 of Peacemaker and is sketching some new characters for me to peruse. This issue will introduce Caro Jenae (journalist) and Indira Chance (detective) and abounds with action. So excited to see the sequences!
Other than that, it’s business as usual in the MDP office. My interview with the talented Tom Taylor Made is coming up soon as well. And following that I’ll be talking to the the comic legend, Marv Wolfman. I hope you’ve been enjoying meeting the varied creative types that have been visiting the MDP site over the past twelve months or so.
Next weekend, I’ll be part of the Gold Coast Writers Literary luncheon and am looking forward to meeting a bunch of new peeps. And not long after that is SheKilda and Supanova. I thoroughly enjoyed the Bris Writers Festival last week but did find the commuting into the city quite tiring. Glad I’m not doing a billion Xmas bookstore signings this year like in 2010.
Angel Arias is out in about ten days, so look for it in your bookstores (if you still have one near you!!). As of Ocotber 3rd you’ll be able to use the QRTag in the back of the book to download, Bluebeard, the song that Yunyu has made available as a complement to the book. I’m sure you’ll find them brilliantly suited to each other. For those that don’t have QR readers on their phones, we’ll be providing an url as well.
Hi everyone! As part of MDWeb’s mission to support great emerging Australia creative talent, here is an interview conducted by Cels Jansink with up and coming Aussie game developer Garth Pendergrast from Stirfire Studios.
CJ: Hi Garth, thanks for taking the time out to talk to us about your new exciting venture, Stirfire Studios. Can you tell us a bit about the concept behind Stirfire Studios and what has led you into this field?
GP: Stirfire Studios was born out of a need to give a platform for talented, independent game production in Perth and Australia. There’s a lot of talent in this country that gets ignored because simply they don’t have the voice that a larger company can provide. Our other aim is to give resources to game developers that might have a great idea, but cannot execute it as they lack the financial or skills base required.
CJ: The first game you have coming out is Orbeats. So just what is Orbeats about?
GP: Orbeats was developed by the supreme-beat-guru, Jason Wong. It’s a music-rhythm game based on making you excited to use a touch-screen device and with a retro feel to it.
CJ: So what kind of “Rhythms” can we expect to pop up during the game? Are they tunes we will recognise or brand new music developed for the game?
GP: You’ll see some of our own in-house tunes, but we are working on bringing you recognisable artists that you’re likely to see at music festivals or performing at your favourite venue. We are currently in talks with several major acts and we love our independent artists as well.
CJ: Are there any plans to develop it onto Android systems for those that don’t have an iPhone?
GP: Sure are. We would love to migrate it to Android and WP7, but we need to have some success on Apple iOS first to make this a reality.
CJ: Games designed for smart phones certainly seem to be a booming business. Not only are some games becoming water cooler conversations and totally addictive, but some like Angry Birds even have a merchandise range. Is this something you’re aiming for?
GP: Yes, we can’t wait to see the T-shirts! We have created a culture with Orbeats as much as a game. As we aim to grow the game and add sequels, we will be aiming for it to become its own ecosystem of titles. Unlike Angry Birds, the game itself grows via downloadable content, but we can’t wait to hit with our own take of music genres or artists. This really gives us a chance to play with the art and feel of the game.
CJ: You’re based in Perth and it’s fantastic to see another Aussie enter the industry. Do you think it’s harder for non-American based companies to gain notice?
GP: Not at all. This is a global industry and you find hotspots all over. Eve Online comes out of Iceland and Korea is the Starcraft capital of the universe, which proves anyone, anywhere can make it successful, provided you have something that is just a little cooler than normal.
CJ: Can you give us a little sneak peek at what else you have coming up?
GP: Hahaha! We will be dipping into a little bit of post-apocalyptic weirdness and also into some post-punk-feminist-burlesque action soon. We are very much looking at the social network space as our next platforms to focus on.
CJ: And I guess the most important question. When and how can we get our hands on Orbeats?
CJ: Well it certainly sounds like something new and no doubt a lot of addictive fun!. Thanks so much for stopping by Garth, and all the best with Orbeats release.
You can see Garth interviewed below (begins at 3min 13 secs).
In a near-future where privatised health care has sent the cost of over-the-counter medicine soaring, terrorists execute a well-planned attack on the world’s pharmaceutical companies.
Ella West is an ex-pat Australian living in New York City when the coup begins and is mistakenly imprisoned for suspected terrorist activity.
On her release she finds her partner, Joah, has passed away because of lack of treatment due to the malfunctioning health care system. As the city descends into chaos, she plans to leave, but is is asked a favour by a friend — to transport his teenage daughter to safety in South Carolina. Ella heads south, planning to honour her friend’s wish and then find a way back across the Mexican border and home to Australia. But in the turmoil that unfolds, her life changes forever.
