The Land of the Independent Publisher

is a bit like Noddy land I think...lots of colourful houses and interesting characters but lost in the backwaters of bookstore interest.

It seems, how surprising, that a book's interest to a bookshop has little to do with interest in the book and more to do with money spent by the publisher which means the little publisher is almost as unwanted as the nightly possum nesting in the bookstore's roof.

It is worse in Australia, a small market but a country of grand dreams. We all want to do something in this land of sweeping artists but the audience is a mole hill we artists try to make ragged mountains of (hows that for stretch - not to mention that sentence ending of...yuk).

It seems the small independent publishers are basically not wanted. Now I have no business acumen, I freely admit it. I gather wealth to me about as well as the desert gathers water. Still I would have thought it might be in a book store's interest to support the independent publisher. Do they really want to thrust all their eggs into the basket of the major publishing houses? Is profit only to be made by holding the large hands of the big corporations? Would it not make sense to  keep the independents alive and well, helping to foster them and thus the new writings these companies support? Isn't variety (and difference if no one else is supporting them) a good idea in business?

I would have thought so.

But no.

Very few bookstores across Australia give a rotten squished fig about the independent publisher or the new authors they support.

And in Australia, an American book, an English book, a book written anywhere but here by anyone but an Australian, must be better than what we Aussies write.

So next time you visit your local bookstore, do me a favour, ask to have a look at their independent books, especially their Australian, independently published books. You never know, they might listen to their customers...Though the din from the major book publishers can be a bit deafening, and guess what you might just discover the book, or the writer that you were searching for .

the artist draws us to their vision

I was watching a doco on Sydney Nolan, very enjoyable - have always loved his Kelly paintings

at one point the curator who was in charge of the 2007 Nolan exhibition (one I missed unfortunately)
was talking about a particular painting

The thing he said that struck me was that he thought it strange that this painting of Nolan's was at first seen as repulsive or undesirable (or something like that) was not seen as a alluring and very collectable.

What struck me about this statement was that I thought that was the point of art.

The artist has a vision outside (often) the realm of an audience's expectations but through her/his artist 'genius' the artist brings the audience to the point where her/his vision shifts from 'shocking' or 'repulsive' to the norm, to acceptable or 'collectable' or for a writer - readable.

Isn't that the point of art and why art can be inspired by what has gone before but should jot simply seek to mimic or copy it, but to use it to show the new artist's unique vision.

Art changes before the audience's expectations change, it then influences those expectations, changes them and we await the arrival of the next step.

It is why there is always a difference between the artist and the marketplace.
there are those right now seeking to scribble out the next fifty shades of grey or paint whatever is seen as the in thing at the moment - simply mimicking hat has already occurred for the cash. They may make money  but unless they take that form and somehow affect it to become thier unique insight, all they are doing is cashing in on another's work and often (usually I would think) their success is short lived and meaningless (although perhaps not in dollar terms).

Back to it.

So summer is still here but I think its time to get back on the blogging bike!

Catalina's release went well - Thanks to Dymock's Camberwell for a fantastic evening. It's out there in the paperback universe now,  either in finished form on some bookshop's shelves, sitting, waiting, whispering, 'Read me... read me...' or else in the digital potential of being, whispering, 'Create me...create me...'

I have even received my first set of royalties - need less to say, I'm keeping my day job!

Link to new Catalina review on goodreads

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/433785649

The Pirates of Aireon

This review is from: The Airmen (Part One: The Pirates of Aireon) (Kindle Edition)

When reading the new novel by R.J.Ashby and the first in a series called The Airmen (this first book is titled The Pirates of Aireon) I was quickly reminded of a series of Sci Fi books from my youth called The Lensmen series by the famous E.E. Doc Smith. Like that series, in this book we are quickly thrown into a world where men are men and women are even more dangerous. This is real swashbuckler reading where the action starts on the very first page and does not stop until the last page. The author throws everything he can think of at his young hero called Jardan and as the body count rises we find ourselves drawn further and further into the world of this young airman as he strives to stay alive on the wild water planet while battling monsters (both human and alien) all while being hunted by one of the most evil characters I have come across for a long time, the unforgettable Jatta.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to the second in the series published by Dragonfall Press. It has a real old fashioned feel to it (and I mean that in a good way). This is not a book about the niceties of life, not a book that wants you to take a deep breath and sink into some fantasy creation of gentle creatures and romantic settings. This is a kick-arse adventure book where action is piled on top of action, the whole story weaving precariously back and forth, doomed to collapse any moment under the weight of chaotic action - except it does not collapse. Instead it just makes the Reader's heart beat faster and faster as you wonder how the young hero will manage to escape this time, and then this time and again.

When I finished this book I just held it for a moment and tried to catch my breath and then I looked at the last page and read the title of book 2 in the series - The Kraken Hunters. That is as good a sign as you can get for a book. Having finished the first I immediately wanted to start the second. To R.J. Ashby I can only say,'Hurry Up!'

Hi all,

if anyone is interested I would happily send a paperback (signed) copy of either Catalina or the Tree Singer in return for a review posted on both Amazon and Goodreads.

Danny.

I have just finished the first write of Catalina's sequel

it is called Catalina's choice.

Where Catalina was for young readers and up

this is a more adult fantasy. It stands at just over 88,500 words.

Now begins the task of editing....