As many of you will know, I write across genres and age groups. But publishing a picture book has always been a secret wish. Thanks to Adrianne Fitzpatrick and Books To Treasure Publishing, that dream has finally been realised. I’m delighted to share with you the full cover of my picture book entitled, SERIOUS SAS AND MESSY MAGDA. Below that are some of the internal ullustrations. Rachel Brigden has created such fun pictures for the book!

You can buy the book online through the usual outlets; including FISHPOND, BOOK DEPOSITORY, AMAZON UK, AMAZON, and the publisher themselves. It’s a perfect gift for any young family.

click to enlarge both

It’s. About. To. Go. Down. ~ Pitbull

With 39 million views on YouTube, Timber has well and truly gone down! This song is an irresistible dance track which brings some serious energy with it.

For the video though, they clearly couldn’t get Kesha and Pitbull in the same place to film. The outcome is an odd, mashed-together dance sequence. Kesha, posing in and around a saloon in her boots and best fingernails, supported by a cast of female dancers whose shorts got ravaged by werewolves.

And Pitbull, channelling Fred Astaire with a beautiful, adoring woman on an impossibly idyllic coral atoll, interspersed with dives into the water to swim among sharks.

Was that meant to be a sign of his daring and bravery, or did I miss some symbolism? (Oh, and there’s that random pig swimming by! What’s up with that?)

The whole thing is weirdly disjointed for sure, but I tell you what … the clip beats the hell out of Kayne’s catastrophic disaster, Bound 2 (which leaves me speechless) – aha, honey!

Despite it being only semi-original, I say thumbs up to the remix/reinvention of Timber, and the boot scooting. And thumbs down to the girls dressed in microdots, and the fact that the two singers couldn’t be arsed getting together to make a cohesive clip.

Wiki says: The song was produced by Dr. LukeCirkut, and Sermstyle, with additional production by Nick Seeley. The song interpolates “San Francisco Bay” (1979) by Danish harmonica player Lee Oskar, which was written by Lee Oskar, Keri Oskar, and Greg Errico. “Timber” features harmonica player Paul Harrington of RockwallTexas, who plays through the entire song.

And yes, I downloaded it!

Here’s the original harmonica by Lee Oskar that Pitbull had Harrington emulate in his song.

2014 is lining up to be a helluva a year!

I’ve enrolled to do a creative PHD at Curtin University. Though I have been accepted in, I’m waiting on the scholarship news. So more on that when I hear from them. Suffice to say the topic is SF and Feminism :)

In the meantime, here are some of the places you will find me during the year:

I’m really excited to be doing Year of the Novel for the QWC, and am hoping that some of you will join me for it. Also really looking forward to my regional tour with the QWC which will include Townsville, Carins and Charters Towers.

– A coffee morning at Logan West Library in March 2014. Link to come.

– Presenting my new picture book to a school group at the Redlands Library Library in March. Link to come. (Maybe also some adult fiction critiquing workshops for Redlands Library but haven’t had them confirmed as yet)

– A trip to Sydney for research on my new crime novel.

– And hopefully there will be a Supanova in there as well!

–  I also have the privilege of structurally editing a wonderful SF YA novel for a great publisher I’m working with (secret project). This book is going to rock!

–  And of course, I will be writing DEALBREAKER (Peacemaker #2) for an October delivery. 

Think I better get some rest over the hols. It’s going to be HUGE!

What do you all have planned???? Leave comments below.

Awards

davitt-award  aurealis-award   logo-curtin-university

Peacemaker - Aurealis Award
Best Science Fiction Novel 2014

Curtin University Distinguished Alumni Award 2014

Transformation Space - Aurealis Award
 Best Science Fiction Novel 2010

Sharp Shooter - Davitt Award
Best Crime Novel 2009 (Sisters in Crime Australia) 

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